Goals

At the beginning of the year I set a few goals for myself and my business.  Of course there were the usuals-eat less candy, read more books, finally start cooking on a normal basis (more for my husband’s sake than my own).  But I also thought out the things that I wasn’t 100% satisfied yet with my business and how I could improve on those for this upcoming wedding season.  One of the things I loathe is flash photography. Give me natural, glowy sunlight any day and I’m a happy lady. I find myself dreading that last little peak of sun going down during receptions,  stealing away my warm, soft lighting, replacing it with harsh, bright flashes. This is not to say that flash photography is in any way unattractive.  My loathing for it comes from my lack of mastery on the subject and nothing more. Insert resolution number 1 (in big, bold, underlined a thousand times font): Master flash and off camera lighting.  In my best attempt to actually follow through with a resolution this year, I did lots of research and found my new favorite tool, the good old trusty softbox.  I forced myself to pick one out and, one step further, to actual practice with it.  And I must say, I’m starting to lose a little of my fear of dark rooms.  Here’s a few of my test images so far using both on camera and off camera lighting.  These are all straight-out-of-camera (another goal, work on toning my skills in order to minimize post processing editing time) to give real insight to the affects of the lighting alone without fidgeting around with anything afterwards.  Sorry for the boring still life, my normal models (aka my husband and my dog) were preoccupied…and by preoccupied I mean in hiding.  Times like these I could really use another lady around the house

This hand-me-down helped inspire me to purchase my first DSLR, and that sturdy little manual 50mm actually got me through my first year. Also another goal on my every expanding list for the year, start experimenting in film photography.