Photo shoots

This is going to be a long post since I haven't posted in a while.  I've done a couple of practice photo shoots recently of friends' families and my own kids.  I have some that I LOVE, and some that I was pretty disappointed with, but, overall, I think these have been great learning experiences.  My first photo shoot was of "M. Family".  Really, it was mostly for the kids.  I did the photo shoot and after getting home and looking at the pictures, I was kinda disappointed in myself for making some rather obvious mistakes, but again, these are things that I just have to get used to noticing.  My main problems here were 1. I was still having problems with my exposure, 2. I didn't pay close enough attention to the backgrounds, 3. Started the shoot too early.   Overall, the family was happy with what they got and I was happy with the practice and experience.  Here are a few shots from their family:

After doing "M. Family", I was so pleased with a one main pose, that I just had to try it on my own kids!  I went to a different location and tried it there, I was more pleased with my results because I tried to be more aware of my surroundings.  Though I did make a few mistakes, they weren't as big as before.  Here's the result:

Next was more recently, I had a shoot with the "D. Family".  This one I had the most success with, but again, made a few small mistakes.  But I felt much happier with the results.  Some of my mistakes were, my aperture wasn't opened wide enough, shutter speed was too slow, as the sun got lower, I cranked up my ISO too much (at the end, it was at 800) and made my photos too grainy.  But overall, I believe I did better with this family and, again, the family was happy with what they got.  Here's a few of those:

Kids portraits

I took the kiddos to the local park to try to get a good portrait of them.  My youngest never lets me get a good one.  Mainly because she won't look at me while outdoors.  If she does look at me, it's only for a second and she won't smile.  She loves outdoors, but she's too interested in other stuff while out there.  So I didn't get a good one of her (that I'm happy with).  I might just end up settling with an indoor portrait of her. 

So I did get one that I like with my two other kiddos, though.  My son (who normally blinks when I click the picture) did really well and I got a couple of good shots of him.  My daughter did great as well, but was sweaty, so I did another portrait the next day in our own yard.  I think they turned out well, though.

Not much to report

I haven't done much photography this week.  I'm hoping to get more going soon.  I did do a couple of shots of my little ones, though.  So here's one of them.

I'm hoping to get a good one of each kid separately soon, hopefully this week!  Will post when I do that.

Lights, Camera, Action!

I started really enjoying photography when my first child was born.  I wasn't able to do much at the time, so I took pictures of my daughter.  After each child was born, my desire to do more grew.  Now I believe is my time to shine!  Recently I got a Sony a230 DSLR with a 55mm 2.7 lens to help me in my growing knowledge and use of photography.
My next step is to start a more professional portfolio.  I created a portfolio of portraits that I have taken in the past and will continue adding to it as I do more photo shoots.  Other than that, I'm just working my way up to the top...hopefully.
Well, on to the pictures, I hope you enjoy the ride!  Here's a few of my past portraits to get this blog started.