Tripod Tricks

Why Hello Stranger,

Tripods are the bomb diggity! They help keep you camera balanced and timers are always super useful as well. If your like me, you most likely can't afford a tripod. I totally feel ya. In my case my thoughtful uncle gave me one of his old ones. But you may not have such an awesome uncle. Here's what ya do. Check out your local thrift stores, goodwill, yard sales, craigslist, eBay, ect. You might just find yourself a deal. Now I've gotta tell you, be careful with a tripod. Make sure the legs are stable and even. We don't want any shattered camera lenses now do we? No doubt you wont use it as much as you think. Or maybe you will? All I know is that I don't use it regularly for one reason, and one reason only, I do not belong in front of the camera. You'll most likely find me behind the camera. Now with that thought, these next few picture, were not so easy for me to attach to this nonsense of advice you are currently reading. So, here it goes...

Yes that is me acting like the weirdo I am! Just be yourself! Unless you could be Batman... Then be Batman...

My backdrop that I chose were my simple closet doors! Seriously guys, you can use anything as your backdrop, just look around, set up, and act like a maniac! That's what I did!

If you like this kind of thing, keep on the look out for a tripod. If not, no stress, I will not be offended. Have fun, be yourself,(unless you could be batman), and most important, smile!

Yours Truly,

Miss Rose

Victory Dance, Right Here

Hey Stranger,
So like I said yesterday, Paula and I had went on a little photo shoot. But my gorgeous model, Alyssum, had broken her wrist and elbow a few weeks ago, which mean she has a bright blue cast on. In that note, we improvised. And by improvise, I mean we seriously took advantage of angles. These are just a few shots of her and her brother, Levi. I love the way the turned out, these two are just the cutest siblings in the world! One trick that Paula was helping me with a trick was something I've never done before. What she did was she had them close there eyes and relax their muscles. Then on the count of three ( or the magic word, Howdidodey. Is that how you spell It?) they open their eyes and smile. I cannot tell you how amazing these pictures looked compared when we began. Please try this, it is just so natural. Usually when you have models, they are super unnatural, high strung, and uncomfortable. Like this picture for instance....

(Howdidodee?)

This really helped them relax. Take a look!

 Hey, Look Can You See The Cast Now, Yup It Was There All Along!!!

After the session, we were driving down Grand Avenue and saw the most beautiful sunset. The clouds were like cotton candy and the contrast was incredible. We sped down to the beach on West Grand Avenue, parked, and ran with our cameras to get the shot before it disappeared! That is what I love about photography. You always going, going, going. But when you get there, and you succeed in  your mission, you break out in your happy dance! It was just amazing! To edit, boost the contrast and save.

(Before)

(Edited)

 I also got this awesome shot of Pismo Pier!!But notice that I deleted that guy out of there, Lessons will be talked about on how to remove unwanted items, people, or just little flaws. All I did to edit this one was bump up the contrast, and remove all those people.
(Before)

(After)

After that we were driving home and we saw the moon. It was ginormous!!!! We literally ran across the busy street at 7 pm just to stand in the middle of damp soil to get a better look.This was my attempt at the super moon on the "No Flash Setting!" As you can see my shutter can not react fast enough in the dark. So instead I tried all setting and found somethings I didn't even think would work.

                                         (No Flash)

                                          (Auto Setting)

                                          (Manual)

Honestly and truly I love that I actually learned something last night! I had so much fun & we got some awesome pics as well. Every single picture I took last night told a story and brought back a crystal clear memory. I really hope you guys try the unthinkable and learn something new!! You'll never stop learning as you go, and that's the best feeling!

 Yours Truly, 

Miss Rose

Blurry Photos & Editing Tips

Welcome Back,
Got Your List? Good, get it out,  its time for some work. Yes I said work. Grab your camera, be it an IPhone, Canon, Nixon, old flip phone, anything with a lens, and wander. (Please do not wander into the busy streets). The awesome thing about photography is, wait for it… IT’S FREE. {Yes I said it is absolutely F*R*E*E} Doesn’t that just make you smile that something is actually cost free! “But Wait!” you might say, “I Suck At Taking Pictures!” Shut the front door, who told you that? How ‘bout I tell you a story.

Once upon a time a man took a picture of a cloud. the cloud loved the attention so much it stayed there forever. It thought it had a model status. everyone and there mother, took the same picture of this little puffed up cloud. But here is the scary part, all the photos looked EXACTLY THE SAME. (horror music plays!) The End.

My point, no cloud in the history of mankind has had a “model status.” Every single cloud is different, so in my defense, you could take billions of unique pictures of clouds! (If that’s what you’re into…) But here’s the clincher, not one of those billions of picture will look identical. Case closed.

 Honestly my favorite mistake, (yes I have a favorite mistake,) is the blurry picture. You might whisper to the chap next to you, "She's lost her marbles!" And yes, I  have lost my marbles, so if you find any, there mine! As I was saying, blurry pictures cannot ever be taken again. A blurry picture is a unique hick-up. Work with it! You can't hurt it any worse, I mean seriously it's already blurry. Here's my personal favorite blurry picture, take a look.(below) I call it, "The Innocence of a Boxer." I don't buy it one bit!

My trick for an unexpected blurry photograph, is to look outside of the box. If you focused on the wrong thing, make the on looker think you did that on purpose! for insistence, I didn't mean to make this picture look all blurry on the sides, but I didn't hint that to you, (until now...) Expectations lead to disappointment. Don't expect a perfect masterpiece right when you take the picture. This is when my favorite part takes place. EDITING!!!!! Just the word gives me chills down my spine! That feeling comes from pure joy in what I do, call me crazy, but I'm loving this nonsense! Okay, here is the run down on simple editing- I personally use nothing fancy at all. I use Windows editing program that comes on the computer. If you just want to have fun with this I suggest a simple program, don't make it complicated. If you want to get "Fancy," you can always buy a download editor. For me I very rarely use smart photo editor. Both work great, I've had no problems with neither.

Say you take a picture and you have a really bad shadow. yikes!! I seriously despise shadows. They are either with you, or against you. For me if I want the shadow to be more intense, I boost up the contrast to darken lines, shadows, creases, ect. If your picture is too dark, please don't boost the brightness up, it makes everything look pale and washed out. What I do is boost the highlights, this automatically goes to only the dark spots and lightens them, but highlights literally takes everything and sucks the life out of it!  Take a look below, this is what happens when I crank up the highlights, and slightly turn the brightness up as well. As you can see My beautiful Sister's completion doens't look like a ghost. Now you try, just try everything and find what works for you!

Today I'm going on a photo shoot with the one and only talented Paula! Tomorrow pictures will be posted, mostly likely I'll be taking pictures of Paula taking pictures of her model. Yeah... It a little confusing but you'll see, stick around. <3

                                                                 Yours Truly 

                                                                Miss Rose

Why Hello, I Didn't See You Come In

Dear Stranger,

If your reading this, you most likely want to learn the secrets of photography. Okay here's the secret- There is no secret! I am here to help you find your inner photographer. Almost every post will be an adventure, a mishaps, a hick-up, an oops, and in the end my victories of taking a picture. I am here for you to learn form my mistakes, and hopefully make a few of your own. This is my story...

My brother had just been born and my mother really wanted a few newborn picture of him, so she calls her friend who was a professional photographer. As a nine-year-old girl I had no idea what kind of career I wanted, until that day. When I saw how she took the photos, how tedious it was with a squirmy newborn, I knew that I was going to start taking photography... more serious. Later on, when I got older, my mother bought a canon camera. It was glorious, and I couldn't even breath on it! But of course, my older sister took a photography class, my dream! As my sister grew up (which means like a month later) she dropped out of her class and wasn’t into it anymore. As soon as I could, I picked up where she left off. My challenges: 1- The classes were to for teenagers only. 2- I was too young and overlooked immensely. My goal: To show everyone what I could do. 

I started teaching myself little things, learning the setting which is not as easy as it sounds. Starting out, I usually left it on auto, But I soon realized flash is NOT a friend, it is an opponent whom always wins when it comes to shadows. So I went on, and by on I mean, I went to the “No Flash” setting instead, and left it untouched. I had no idea what the other ones were, so I stuck with what I knew. Soon my uncle, who is a professional photographer with a successful business, came into town and helped  me with some settings. Lessons on my favorite will be talked about later.

After fiddling with the settings I started to take pictures of  practically everything. I took pictures of water, flowers, my cousins face, license plate (which is probably illegal and not a good idea), animals, my wild brother, who was mentioned earlier, and so on. Honestly, I almost always had and still have my camera hanging from my neck (which explains why I have such bad neck problems). Anyway lets not talk about me, what about you? Let me ask you this. Do you have camera? I’m sure you do, now with technology it's probably in your back pocket as you read this, Or maybe your holding it in your hands. Now, next is, what peaks your interest? Do you like nature, strange looking people, the sky, that dog running towards you, that tree, that homeless man sitting on the curb (I’m sure he won’t mind if you snap a quick pic). Think about it. Make a list, then keep reading this insanity.

                                                                                                                   Yours Truly 

                                                                                                                     Miss Rose