Life from this Lens {September}

October 14, 2018

A Day in the Life

I thought this month’s theme would be fairly easy, so I sort of put it off. Days passed, and all of a sudden the month was basically over, and while I had take a few “daily life” photos, I’d not spent an entire day with my camera at hand. Our life is so strange because each day looks so drastically different from the next depending on if I work or not.

But … I decided to try and salvage the month’s project and shoot a full day. It was simultaneously way harder and way more fun than I anticipated.

On one hand, time goes by REALLY fast when you are trying to photograph it. On the other hand, a lot of normal, mundane things are actually really beautiful if you take the time to compose them.

Here is my “Day in the life of the Little Jordan Family in Fall ‘18.”

It could have looked way different had I chosen a different day … but that is the beautiful complexity of this project. Full disclosure that this is very “Hadley Heavy” because she was the one with me while the boys were in school.

I actually pictured more of these photos being in B&W. Much of our life is not pretty, and B&W helps with that, so I did convert a few, but for the most part, I decided to show us as we are. So … let’s get to it, but when you are done seeing my day, make sure you head over to see what Tracy filled her day with for her project.

05:00

Good Morning!!

I typically get up between 4 and 5 am. This is my time to have my coffee, prep last minute details for the day, and either workout or get some housework done. I try to also start off the day with a few minutes of time listening to a sermon podcast or praying with intention.

I struggle because I really enjoy my time alone in the morning, but when a kiddo wakes up early, I feel compelled to pour into them instead … I think this is the endless plight of motherhood. This particular morning, Hadley woke up first, which means she was the kid who had to put cold toes into the garage to feed the cat (Mr. Peabody).

At least there is coffee, which brings me to the next photo-op. Our single-pod coffee maker broke last spring. We decided to install an instant hot water dispenser so that we could easily make a pour-over cup of coffee.

06:00

By 6 AM, the day starts. Hadley is up and ready for living her best day. Our cat Mr. Peabody is not sure if he’s thrilled that a small person is awake, but he accepts the attention anyhow.

The boys are much less enthusiastic about their wake-up at 6:40 am.

7:00

If we can go to bed with backpacks by the door and lunches made, it’s a win. The kids typically work on weekly homework at breakfast (especially spelling).

07:30

Chompers

I had so much fun snapping some shots of these goofballs “doing Chompers” … aka brushing their teeth … aka messing around.

08:00

Off to School

I really enjoy driving the boys to school. We always start the drive off with each person saying a prayer for our day, and I like being able to model the practice of starting your day by thanking God. They always start with, “Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for …” and then they list a few things they are grateful for followed by praying for some things coming up in their days or weeks, which helps me know what’s on their mind. We also pray for others who are hurting or struggling. It’s a quick practice, but I love that it is woven into our routine.

08:15

After we drop “the boys-es” off, I get to spend some time with this little ray of sunshine. Three days a week she heads to preschool at 9:00, but this was not a preschool day. We were meeting a friend for a class at the gym, so we decided to go surprise daddy at work.

09:30

Hitting the gym

I am so grateful for our athletic club. It is pricey, but it includes so many services that we really love. I had fun bringing my camera there for my “day in the life” project. I walk by this stuff every day, but it brought some new perspective when I was looking for interesting compositions. They ended up being some of my favorite shots from the day.

12:00

#lunchdate

After the gym, we needed to run a couple of errands, as did my friend and her daughter. We decided to join forces for some lunch at Whole Foods. I don’t shop there that often because it is definitely pricey, but boy do they make you want to buy vegetables! Seriously, the art of their product display is so enticing! They are super smart in their marketing, and it definitely helps make them some money.

PS Hadley’s friend P has some major fashion sense … this was her “Christmas Unicorn Ballerina Kitten” outfit (my apologies to P if I worded that incorrectly).

13:00

After lunch and grabbing some groceries, we needed to pick up a new sleeping bag for Gavin for Father/Son Adventure Camp. The zipper broke on his old one, and so after lunch, we headed to REI. Hadley was a great help … hahaha. I only lost her in the sleeping bags a few times.

14:00

Impromptu Park Stop

On the way home from our errands, we stopped at this tiny park right by our house. It’s barely a park … it’s just a little patch of land that the city laid some bark on and put in 2 swings and a climbing structure. I think it was for the purpose of fulfilling a park-per-person square foot quota, but we were very happy none-the-less when they installed it a couple of years ago.

14:30

Change in gears {and outifts}

Hadley had spilled quite a bit of lunch on her clothes (pretty much a daily occurrence). So, we did a quick change of clothes. She played for a few minutes while I unloaded our groceries and the sleeping bag, but soon after we got back in the car to go pick up the boys.

15:15

Sometimes Hadley falls asleep picking the boys up. If she doesn't and if it’s not pouring down rain, we park at a lot adjacent to school and walk up instead of waiting in carpool line. I love doing this because we get to chat with friends, say hello to teachers, and give hugs to some favorite “big kids” that we know.

15:30

Gymnastics

At least one of the boys have gymnastics every day right after school. We spend a lot of time in this driveway dropping off and picking up kids. On this actual day, Tyler didn’t have practice so he stayed at school for Ultimate Frisbee club (so fun). He hadn’t come outside yet so I wasn’t able to get a picture of him. This snapshot of him is just a phone pic from this summer, but I thought the sign alone was boring, and I thought my post needed a little more Tyler.

One fun thing about this project was that I took more time to pause and observe the beauty or interest around me. Normally, I’m racing to and from places without a lot of margin to stop off at the park or play in the leaves.

16:00

Craft Store

It’s that time of year where you need to run to the craft store multiple times for finishing touches on costumes. There is a Michael’s right by gymnastics, so often times we go in there to just wander when the weather is bad and we have a few minutes to wait for a drop off or pick up.

To be continued … I will finish this post after I finish my work shifts. I did my best and got some photos up before bed for now, and I’ll get some thing else up in the next day or so.

Life from this Lens {August}

September 10, 2018

Long Lens: 85mm+

From a distance

Back in June, I talked about the importance of zooming out. It was so fitting for the end of the school year when the details were so overwhelming that all I could do was take a step back and find some perspective. Fast forward 3 months, and we have already entered September. It has been truly an EPIC summer.

We have done so much! A lot of it entailed gymnastics for the boys (Tyler was every weekday 9-12:30 and Gavin was 4 weekdays from 3:30-6). At first, I was dreading the summer practice schedule, but it actually forced us to stay close to home and not over-plan our days. We ended up spending many summer days just home playing games, doing chores, playing with neighbors, etc. It was actually lovely.

Here was our annual outdoor movie night. We watched the Greatest Showman. Such a fun tradition.

We travelled as a family. Florida was incredible. I'm still sorting through those photos, but I posted several back in July. Our Black Butte trip was ever faithful (it's our favorite place) ... but also we got to put a new spin on our trip and pour some sweat equity into the home we love there.

I got to travel with my girlfriends ... we OWNED Vegas! This isn't photography related ... but seriously, so fun:

On a personal level, I have pushed my body in really intimidating yet fun ways as I've delved into an intense workout regimen with friends.

My oldest Tyler took this photo for me because I needed something for the social media share of my podcast ... ugh I so hate being the subject haha, but he did a great job for his first time using my camera.

As I mentioned last month, this summer on a professional level, I did things I NEVER thought I would get a chance to do. After my trip to DC, I was so honored to be featured on a the weekly OHSU Podcast. It's just been a wild past few months, and my camera has sat in the bag more than some summers.

I did pull it out a few times, so I can share a handful of favorites. I am welcoming Fall and all of it's routine, beautiful PNW weather, and festive decor. Happy Fall Y'all!

Zoom

I don't own a macro lens. I'd wanted to borrow or rent one for this blog, but I never did. Still, with a long lens, you can often capture really beautiful details even from quite a distance. My favorite two things about this shot are the eye lashes and also the sunrise in the reflection of the horse's eye.

Outside In

Hands down, my very favorite thing about a long lens is that it lets you into sacred moments without being intrusive. You've likely never thought about it, but when you've glanced at a sports photo zoomed way in from our normal "fan viewpoint" and seen an olympian pushing their body to the utmost, you have actually been let into a private moment. In reality, the athlete is often alone in the frame. There may be people in the background, but usually the subject of the photo is a single athlete with a grimace that speaks grit and power.

I love this shot below of one of the judges for USGA Men's Region 2 Gymnastics, not from a photography mindset, but just because it captures such a genuine moment. I've never met her personally, but when she watches the boys compete, you can feel the genuine joy emote from her when she sees them succeed. Her face just lights up. I was probably 25 feet away but with my trusty 70-200 was still able to sneak a shot of her beaming as Tyler held his lever.

My 70-200 sits in the camera bag a lot now that I am not doing any professional photo sessions. I used it a ton for client work. Now, I use it at every gymnastics event for sure, but otherwise, it's just so heavy and cumbersome that it takes special circumstance to motivate me to haul it out. When I do though, it is fun to see what real moments I can capture when people don't have a camera up in their face.

I wish I had more time to chat about the ins and outs of long lens shooting, but instead, I’ll just share my favorites from the month. I have some very cute subjects this month!

Thanks for following along! This month I get to lead you over to Tracy’s beautiful site to see what she did with her long lens. I think she has an 85mm which I’ve only tried a couple of times but really loved using.

Life from this Lens {July}

August 1, 2018

Capturing Motion

Funny Story

Ok ... so ... funny story ...

Spoiler alert: I shot the wrong theme. #oops

July was absolutely INSANE. We flew back from Florida just barely in time to celebratethe 4th (our neighborhood does an amazing dinner in the street and this year it included a bike parade, which the photo above is from). In the following days, I went to work and then flew back across the country to Washington D.C. to participate in a super cool experience ... that is a whole other conversation in itself! Needless to say, I've been busy helping influence national policy in regards to early childhood health, education, and wellness. SO COOL!

I flew back home late on my son Gavin's 8th birthday, so we did a lot of celebrating to make up for my absence. Thankfully, I had taken his annual 7-11 photo (because his birthday is July 11 ... 7/11) before I left for my trip, so we didn't have to miss that tradition.

Once home, I worked a fair amount so that I could play catch up from being gone, and then we left again for our favorite week of the year in Central Oregon. This year is a little different though because we decided to make it a work-cation. We devoted some time to a few maintenance projects around the cabin where we always stay (it belongs to some long time family friends, and we are so blessed to use it often, so we wanted to do some upkeep). We've stripped and stained the deck, trimmed a ton of trees, and created a new rock pathway around the cabin. It's been a ton of work, but it looks fantastic!

And so, it's been such a great week! This place is just our favorite, and it's been really fun to pour into it. All of that being said, my photography project has really fallen to the wayside this month.

Here comes the funny part ... all month I thought that I was supposed to be shooting with a long lens. LOL, turns out that I was supposed to be capturing motion. OOOOOOPS!!! HAHAHAHA #thatmonthyoushotthewrongtheme

WELL, thankfully my kids are usually moving pretty fast, so I can fill in a few motion photos.

HAHA! Here are a few motion {ish} shots that I just happened to take. They aren't amazing. Oh well. I'll do better with our theme in August.

To look to a photographer who DID know this month's theme, check out Kelly's post.

Kids are always moving

I mean, if you are a parent to young children, you know that they just always move. It was the thing that first caused me to buy a DSLR when Tyler was 3 weeks old. My point & shoot just couldn't capture his cuteness in time.

Phone cameras are amazing these days. However, if you have children, you won't regret buying a DSLR camera that will give you the shutter speed that an average phone camera can't yet compete with. With some basic knowledge, you will be able to capture some priceless, real-life expressions that you'd likely miss with a phone alone.

Or, step back and capture the beauty of their surroundings. Forget perfect and just capture them moving!

Shutter Speed

Let's touch on a few photography basics. Common sense would say that if you increase your shutter speed (so that it snaps photos faster), you will automatically be able to capture motion pictures. That is a great idea ... if you take into account LIGHT. Speed is only as good as the light that backs it. You can snap that shutter as fast as it will move, but if there is not enough of a light source to illuminate your subject, your photo will be underexposed. For this face painting shot, I could shoot at 1/400 shutter speed as long as I widened my aperture to f/2.8. I had to compromise focal depth a little bit, but the subject in motion (her hand and paintbrush) are in focus because they are in one plane and my shutter snapped faster than they were moving.

The slower that you shoot, the longer the sensor is exposed to light. While more light can enter your lens, you need to make sure that you have enough light in the area to take your photo. If a subject is moving, you need to have a fast enough shutter speed to keep up with it while also allowing in enough light to illuminate your image.

It becomes a tricky game. The image below was shot at extremely low light. I wanted to capture the motion of the firework, but I knew I had to sacrifice something in order to expose the photo correctly. Aperture had to give, so I had to let the blur speak for itself and use a slower shutter speed to capture our neighbor Henry in focus while he watched the show.

Play

It's tempting to holler at them to look and smile. Believe me, I do it ALL THE TIME. But my favorite photos are often the ones where I resisted the temptation and just let them move and play freely.

Motion Doesn't Have to be Fast

We tend to think of motion as quick moving subjects. However, sometimes the best way to shoot motion is to capture the moment right before the actual movement. The viewer still knows that movement was about to occur. There is still a feeling of motion even though the subject is temporarily still enough to take the photo.

Throw back

Since we are talking about motion, I can't help but toss in one sports shot. The sport we do in our family is Gymnastics. I love this one from February at a meet. If the motion theme would have been during the winter months, you would have seen this type of photo throughout my entire post!

In the spirit of PLAY, I'm cutting this post very short because we are busy playing with friends. Happy Summer everybody!

Life from this Lens {June}

July 7, 2018

Wide Angle

Perspective: Take a step Back

As I shared a bit in my May post, I was desperately needing to pull back from the busyness of life a little bit. Details and "to do's" had started to overtake my sanity. "Jazzy June" was everything I needed it to be. We breezed through some things that could have been stressful, but I didn't allow them to be.

I have found that when it feels like the walls are closing in, pausing to seeing the big picture provides very much needed context. It can be a game changer. When I am feeling the push and pull of everyday life, often I mistakenly allow minor inconveniences more mental space than they actually deserve. This results in stress, exhaustion, and frustration. We were not meant to be slaves to deadlines, ideals, and achievements. When those falsities begin to overstep their bounds, stepping back to re-allign priorities becomes crucial for navigating a balanced life.

What I LOVE about photography is that the same is true ... when you step back and provide context, it gives your audience some breathing room. They can experience all that you did when you took the picture. Sometimes that includes some imperfections, and that is ok! Those are part of the story.

Of note, we are living in the technology age where Photoshop can be our friend to remove some of those distractions if they genuinely detract from the quality of the composition. But that is for another post ;).

It took me a while in my photography journey to realize the value of stepping back and showing a wider view. Now, it is one of my favorite things.

Wide open vs wide angle

I just wanted to take a brief moment to clarify some terminology. If you have been following along, you know that I love to shoot super wide open. In case you have forgotten, that means that you set your camera at a shallow depth of focus to allow in extra light. See my blog post from January. As you know from that post, photography is all about manipulating how much light enters the camera. One way to manage this is by adjusting your depth of focus.

Another way to capture more light as you shoot is to widen the area that you are framing. The best analogy is to think about a window. A window measuring 1'x1' lets only a small amount of light to a room. A window that is 5-foot-square lets significantly more light. Photographers typically refer to 35mm and under as "wide angle."

Here is an example of an image where I used a wide angle but with a very shallow depth (f/2.8). The background is that beautiful blurred bokeh, you can still clearly see that that the context was a beautiful Pacific NW field on a cloudy day. Shout out to Unger Farms which is our favorite Strawberry picking spot.

Wide does not mean far

Typically when I think of wide angle, I think of everything I have mentioned above in regards to showing more of the frame. For me, that is the fun of a wide lens. Our eyes are incredibly wide and can capture more than most photography lenses, so it is fun when you put a wide lens to work to try and rival our own eyes' perspective.

However, I can't do a wide angle post without mentioning that when it comes down to it, the main thing that really determines what in the frame is YOU. Even with a wide lens, if you step super close to your subject, your image will appear close up.

This quick snapshot of the boys on the last day of school was shot at 24 mm. It looks more like a 50 mm shot because I got super close up to them. Similarly, the images below were also at 24 mm but just taken close up which proves a fun perspective.

Fisheye

I have been SO excited to talk about this lens! When I went to ClickAway in 2016, several photographers talked about how owning a very wide angle (Fish Eye) lens changed their photography. A couple recommended the relatively inexpensive Sigma 15 mm. I found one on E-Bay for $400. They weren't kidding! It added a really fun spice to my toolkit. I'll not say that I've mastered it, but I have played with it a fair amount and have learned that I get the best results when I am shooting very close up to my subject.

Of note, when you are shooting in bright sun and want to capture a sun flare, hike your aperture WAY on up to 9+. That is where you will find your flares.

I also want to mention that if you use Lightroom presets and you are working on a lens shot with a Fish Eye, some of the presets will automatically go in and make a lens correction to flatten and stretch your image. I actually almost always prefer the photo from original 15 mm perspective. Here is the same image but with the lens profile correction enabled. I HANDS DOWN prefer the uncorrected version, so I always go in and uncheck that box if my preset has selected it.

However, for the shot below, I actually liked the stretched effect provided by the lens correction, so it's always worth taking a look at both options.

challenging or Uneven Light

As in the photo above, wide angles can be really beneficial in bright sun because they forgive the shadows and uneven light patches that would otherwise detract from a closer up shot.

In contrast, uneven light can actually augment your wide angle photos when you can isolate or frame your light source properly. This shot of my niece is a perfect example. I was prepping a meal in our rented vacation home when I saw my adorable little niece (seriously you guys, she is the sweetest) sitting in her high chair with the window light illuminating her face. The rest of the dining room was relatively dark given the time of day. My camera happened to be on the counter with my 24-70 mm on it. I opened it up to 24 mm and stopped it down to f/2.8. She was sitting still, mesmerized by her crazy cousins playing right outside, so I could shoot at 1/160 and still have plenty of focus. I had to set my ISO at 2500 because the rest of the room was so dark.

I absolutely love the result. The dark decor is softened by her blonde locks and illuminated baby skin ... it just pulls me in.

In the next image, the white balance was extremely tricky. However, because the background is so interesting, your eye doesn't care as much about perfect skin tones or color management.

ROCK-N-Rollympics

My boys' gymnastics gym has a big showcase every June. This year's theme was Rock-N-Rollympics. I was wandering around doing some photos and at first was shooting these flowers up close. I was trying to angle myself so as not get the receptionist in the background. However, the shot I ended up liking the best was one with her in it. It felt the most real ... it was a very busy afternoon and the gym was buzzing with staff and volunteers working hard to be ready for the showcase. I ended up using it a collage that I made for the OMEGA Facebook page.

Below is the second collage I made. As I have mentioned in prior posts, sometimes the best way to show your images is to group them. I like the variety of angles. It is fun to pair some close up shots with some wider ones. It definitely helps tell the story.

Tell your story

I really wish I had more time to devote to this subject, but since I don't I will just encourage you to pull back just a bit and let your surroundings tell more of the story you are trying to capture. Don't be afraid of the less "pretty" elements in your frame ... let them help you set your scene. I think it will surprise you how much life it brings to your photos.

And I'll leave you with a fun one below :).

So yes, thanks for visiting! Now head on over and see what Kelly worked on with her wide lenses this month. I am sure her work is stunning as always!

Life from this Lens {May}

June 1, 2018

Get in the Frame {Self-Portraits}

Woaaaaaah NELLY! I'll take any challenging photography theme and will raise you one HARDEST theme ever. Next, I'll frost it with the busiest month I think I've ever had {EVER}. I'm not even kidding ... actually April and May both were just insane. My fitbit tracker can prove that I slept very little over the past weeks. My sanity/soul can attest that I can't maintain that level of pressure, responsibility, and busy-ness.

I won't elaborate on the laundry list of tasks that culminated in a miserable month. I will, however, assure you that June is NOT going to be so crazy. I won't allow it!

In fact, I am self-proclaiming June to be "Jazzy June." The Jordan family is taking a hiatus from racing 90 mph. We are going to cruz into and out of June. Certain things can (must be) let go of ... or my grip on them needs to be loosened.

Unfortunately, the first thing on the trimming block is my June 1 blog post. I'm still showing up, but you are getting a much more compact version of my norm.

This month's theme of "getting in the frame" required [and/or]:

A tripod (cumbersome)
A remote (harder than it sounds)
A stand-in photographer (which is just not the same me behind the glass)
A self-confidence willing to pose on the opposite side of the lens.

It was rough.

I am showing up, but I'm pretty worn out and barely making it.

I am not alone ... I know several of our LFTL gals just had to set this one aside given the craziness of the end of the school year. Amidst the chaos, Loren was able to put together absolutely inspiring post. Please go read it ... her vulnerability, honesty, and grit stopped me in my tracks and was just what I needed today. Loren, you are simply stunning.

Make it look easy {PS this is my favorite}

I wish that I could be in a hundred photos a month with my kids that looked this easy. I feel like the ones that actually turn out are always happenstance. Right before Hadley's birthday party, I'd wanted a shot of just her looking all FOUR and adorable. I got my settings set up in terms of light and exposure, but she was just grumpy. I handed my camera to Matt and said, "try to get one of her after I tickle her ... oh and one photo of us would be nice too." He took MANY.

The image above of Hadley and I was hands down my favorite. It was so happy that he got it!

The classic mirror shot

Nothing special to share here. Take your photo in a mirror. Hey, I got in the frame, so it is not creative, but it counts, LOL.

Better together

When in doubt, make a little collage. It almost always makes mediocre photos look better, especially if you can group them in a pleasing way. These photos are super boring, but as a grouping, they actually tell a story (even if it's a boring one of a nerdy photographer trying to take pictures of herself).

I use BlogStomp, but I am sure there are dozens of collage program or app options.

Faces are over-rated

I'm pretty sure this right here is just me telling myself something kind to make me feel better about not getting my face in focus in my trial shots . I'm validating myself though ... because when I attended the Click Away conference, there was a lot of chatter about how being off-centered or having an odd crop could be beautiful.

See, I'm just being beautiful in an non-traditional way. Right?!? Ha!

Speaking of faceless ... here is my hair looking awesome for 1 day out of the year ...

My hair stylist took this photo of my hair after she styled it. I got to feel like a model for like 15-seconds, so that was fun!

failure is part of learning

LOL, I was trying SO hard to take an actual self-portrait using my tripod, but for the life of me I could not get myself in focus. I kept trying to put a chair in the spot that I was going to stand, focus on that, then move the chair and stand in that spot and snap my remote.

I ended up with all these blurry photos. It was a verging on ridiculous HAHA. Clearly, I need some practice on self-portraits, which I doubt I will invest much (if any) time in in the near future. Selfies have never really been my thing, and I'd always prefer to be behind the camera and not in front of it.

In desperation to figure it out, I snapped a bunch of me just walking away in hopes that I'd land focus. While this one is still totally blurry, I liked the feel of it.

This one is blurry too, LOL, but at least I'm far enough away that you can't tell. I also learned that you if I was facing away from the camera, the lack of focus was a tad less noticeable? Basically this one is LESS TERRIBLE than the others. HAHAHA this was basically a waisted hour of my life, but at least I learned quite a bit about how NOT to take self-portraits.

I finally nailed focus but cut my face off halfway through it. These are just cracking me up. Oh well, I tried, which is half the battle.

Get Creative

Just when I was feeling at a serious loss for inspiration, a friend of mine sent me a photo with this cool crystal sphere. I hopped on Amazon and bought one. Similar to my fish eye, it's just a cool way to spice things up from time to time.

This next one isn't of me, but I just wanted to give another example using the ball.

recruit help

My family has been incredibly supportive of my photography ventures. It's a time consuming interest, especially when I am working on a theme. This month, I recruited my husband Matt to actually TAKE the pictures. I got it all ready, and he just had to click.

This is once again why I have loved pushing myself to complete this Life from this Lens project. I now have some fun photos of Tyler and I that I would have NEVER otherwise had. He'd just finished gymnastics practice and was heading in for dinner and homework. We took like 3 minutes to snap a few photos simply because it was almost June 1, and I had very little material to post about. They are fun memories ... good job Matt :).

Phone Pics

Like most moms, mainly the only photos I ever have of myself are on my phone, but that's ok too. At least I have them. I really liked this one from Hadley's birthday party. Plus, seriously, these little girls were truly the cutest.

Framily

OK PHEW! This month has been a huge challenge for me, and I'm super relieved that I am finished. But before I go, I have one last picture to share.

I really can't even with this one. I met Matt in 1996. He came with a whole clan of friends. Thankfully, I'm one to take in friends quickly, but I had no idea that these 7 adults would become my forever people. Here we were as babies in the first few years of marriage ...

We have done so much life together, and it just keeps getting better. Fast forward from a bunch of 18-year-olds to now ... here we are FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME EVER in one place: 8 adults and 11 (ELEVEN) sought after, prayed over, beautiful children.

I have many irreplaceable friends in my life. But ... there is always something so cool about traveling through decades with a tribe. Some of these people knew me when I was 16-years-old. They are the reason that I know and love Jesus. They are the reason tha Matt and I are still in a loving and healthy marriage.

Even though we are separated by distance and life is busy, we prioritize connecting almost daily in some small way. It fills my cup.

I love studying personality, and I was listening the a podcast (Typology) this week about the Enneagram. The host mentioned a 70-year study conducted at Harvard that was all about human joy, life satisfaction, and purpose. Their conclusion was that the number one factor in lifelong joy was human connection and relationships. I definitely could not have made it through the past 2 decades and emerged as the woman I am today without the support of these best friends. We challenge, support, and genuinely love each other. Seeing this photo makes my heart soar in ways that I really can't describe.

Find your people. Love them hard.

PS Bring on next month ... anything other than "get in the frame" hahahaha

Life from this Lens {April}

May 1, 2018

Color Pops

I have a never ending love of all things color. My eyes see bright colors, and my edits reflect that for sure. I always admire rich, dark, emotive post-processing edits that some photographers create. Yet while I love to see these images flowing through my Instagram feed, I rarely try to emulate them because they are just not "me." I love bright color almost as much as I love light, and the combination of the two is amazeballs to my heart (see above).

Color Theory

There is SOOOO much I could cover on this subject. Color theory is an endless study. However, this post is due up in 12 hours, and I'd like to sleep tonight, so I won't really have time to go into much about color itself.

I know that Kelly has studied some color theory, and I can't wait to see what she photographed when she visited Eastern Oregon this month. Check out her post.

Briefly to just touch on color in general ...

Do you like teal and orange paired together? How about purple and yellow? Pink and green like the tulip photo above? It's not just you! It's actually a thing.

Do you remember learning about the color wheel back in grade school art class? The colors across from each other compliment each other. You can use that concept to add interest to your photography. Again, there is so much more science behind color, but here are a couple of quick examples.

Art over theory

Sometimes all of the theories of photography can be so intimidating. What I hope to communicate is that while these theories exist and can augment your work, they are definitely not necessary to create emotional, meaningful, beautiful images even if you are using the camera on your phone.

Thankfully for those of us who don't have hours to spend on understanding theory, rules were made to be broken. Color is God's gift to us of an absolutely endless palate of creativity. Also, just like in language, there are so many ways to communicate. So find your voice and use it.

Composition

My mantra for every single photographer is that composition is the absolute most important thing. You can have the most adorable, original subject, but if you compose the photo poorly, you will be let down by your result. This is so much harder than anyone who does't do photography can appreciate. Just as athletes or musicians make their skills look easy, if you see a photo that you like, you can probably be sure that it took a few tries to get it right.

This next one is one of my all time favorite color pop photos. It plays on color theory, leading lines, the rue of thirds, and more. I remember what a pain it was last June to haul my camera out to the strawberry fields, but it's shots like these that make it totally worth it. I'll cherish this memory forever. Shout out to Unger Farms which is gorgeous and a wonderful family owned place to pick berries in a few short weeks!

It took me several attempts to frame this photo exactly the way I wanted it. If I was too close, it was just a vase of flowers (vs providing context). If I was too far back, the flowers weren't enough of a strong subject and the photo looked busy. There are a lot of lines in this scene, both horizontal and vertical, so it was tricky to frame and align everything in a way most pleasing to the eye. I could go on and on unpacking the composition of this shot, but just know that even the simplest image can take a ton of trial and error before you tell the story you wanted to tell when you thought to take the picture. Here, I wanted to convey that someone got a nice bouquet of flowers to brighten up otherwise mundane kitchen sink work.

I'm lucky enough to have beautiful Oregon trees outside of my kitchen window, but you absolutely don't need a beautiful landscape to give your photos a clean composition. You can even use color to be your backdrop.

As long as the composition is pretty, you don't need anything fancy. You can even have a busy or messy background and still create a cool pop of color photo. The shot below is just from a street complete with cars, fences, and distractions. But I love that the center of the photo is this grouping of red and black and grey. It just works as a color pop photo even though the photo itself contains all the colors.

Whatever your background, put it to work for you. Either use it to frame, to isolate, or to augment.

OR, crop it out! Check out this pretty patch of flowers at the base of a tree. The actual landscape had a chain link fence, but a crop that is heavy in the base looks cool and you'd never know that it wasn't in some beautiful suburban sprawling landscape.

Composition is important, but so are moments. It's often really hard to do both well. But at the end of the day, fun memories are more important than the perfect image. Just take the picture. You'll be happy to have those shots.

Click Away

This theme had me thinking of the Click Away photography conference I went to in Seattle 2 years ago for a couple of reasons. The first is because it is where I met Loren, a talented photographer from California. We got to chatting, and I have loved following her work ever since. This month, she has joined our Life from this Lens project, and I'm so thrilled!!! Click through the links (via Kelly's page at the bottom of the post) to find her work. Yay!

Second, I remember playing with color pops a lot during that conference. Here are some of my favorites from that weekend.

don't be afraid of the dark

Night photography can be AWESOME when you are looking for pops of color.

This next one is very similar to the above, but you can see a little more of the texture of the building which I liked. I like the top one because the dark is so dark that it's almost hard to tell what it is, and it looks more like a super modern painting or graphic design than a photograph.

This was just in a storefront window, and I liked the glowing color.

Yes, I live on the coolest street ever, and we do an annual glow in the dark easter egg hunt. It is as amazing as it looks. One of my very favorite traditions!

Look Down & Get Down

I can't give this advice enough when photographing little people. Look down! Get down ... way down! Lay on the ground if you have to but you will catch some of the sweetest details. Or just point your lens down and shoot from above.

Some of these are new, but I am also going to pull a few from the past to show what I mean. Some of these aren't really as much about the color pop but just to demonstrate that often the ground can provide a nice neutral background to help you isolate or frame your subject.

I know this is very similar to the photo above, but I loved the position of her feet so wanted to include this one too.

I know this shoe photos is very similar to the one above, but I loved the position of her feet and the texture of the road, so wanted to include this one too.

There would have been a time that I would have not posted this photo because Obi (the dog)'s tail is cut off ... but WHO CARES.  It is still an adorable photo, and I like how the floor creates a neutral texture to help Obi POP in the middle of … — There would have been a time that I would have not posted this photo because Obi (the dog)'s tail is cut off ... but WHO CARES. It is still an adorable photo, and I like how the floor creates a neutral texture to help Obi POP in the middle of the frame.

and just look around.

This month I really had a ton of fun composing pictures in my head even when I didn't have a camera around. I'd be driving or walking and see some perfect pop of color and think about how I would photograph it. Here are a few that I actually did have my camera on me.

Thanks for joining me in exploring color this month. Now go take pictures. And once again, don't forget to circle through and see how this fantastic group of photographers handled this theme. I can't wait! Start out on Kelly's page and circle through. Happy Spring! :) ~ Jessica

Life from this Lens {March}

April 2, 2018

Black & White

I was actually really excited to take on this month's topic of Black and White photography. Then, life hit (kinda hard). Matt's car died and we had a couple of other big financial hits so my month became mostly about picking up overtime shifts. I worked so much that I had hardly any time to devote to photography. I didn't really meet my goal of learning the technical aspect of B/W photography. However, I did grab my camera and try a few new things, so I'm just having grace for myself as a super busy working mama.

I really need to give a quick shout out to my amazing husband Matt who is giving me the afternoon to get this done. As of 3 PM on Easter, I had ZERO blog started and had edited 5 photos for the post. We both work tomorrow and the boys head back to school after Spring Break so the house is in need of some serious week-prep. He graciously said, "I'll take care of it. Go work on your blog." Such a gift. Anything to follow is because of his selflessness. Thank you so much Matt!

Some people love B&W photography. It definitely has a timeless value to it, and some folks are AMAZING at creating stunning colorless images. I am not one of those folks. My eye almost always prefers color photos. The only time I take things into B&W in post-processing is when I either need to match photos that wouldn't otherwise match or I don't like the colors in the image so the easy fix is to remove the color.

I was excited to try and shoot with the purpose of B/W rather than it being an afterthought. It's a totally different mindset. I got shots that I liked, but I don't feel like I learned anything worth sharing in terms of technical knowledge. Maybe my super smart friend Kelly with have some further insight over on her post. I know from chatting with her that she struggled with finding time this month as well, but she's always so full of knowledge and inspiration even when she says she's not ;).

Monochrome

"Black and White" photography is actually a misnomer in my opinion. I've not seen 50 Shades of Grey, but I'm PRETTY sure it's not about photography LOL. Still, it's actually the better term to describe the art of shooting images without a full color palate. A technical term for this is called monochrome. You can set your DSLR to monochrome mode so that you can view your images on your camera screen in B/W.. The cool part is that the color data is all still saved, so you always have the option of returning the image to full color in post-processing. However, as my friend Tracy mentioned in a social media post this month, once you shoot an image in monochrome, it just doesn't look right in color. I totally agree with her and had thought that myself multiple times during this project. If you have a DSLR, try it! It will absolutely change your mindset as you look for light and compose your images. You will become much more aware of contrast and worry less about even light and tones. Hard light and hard edges can be super challenging in color but actually add texture and emotion beautifully in monochrome, as I will touch on below.

Timelessness & Emotion

I think we can all agree that there is a timeless feeling to B/W photography simply because color styles don't give away hints as to the age of the photo. Somehow, there is emotion captured in the dark and light. I wish I understood the technical reasons for this a little more, but I have to admit, I'm sort of "shooting in the dark" (sorry for the pun). Anyhow, I don't think I'm alone in feeling like a well composed B/W photo tends to illicit emotion more than the same image might in color. Not always, but often.

hard light/contrast

As I mentioned above, when you are shooting in color, the harshness of contrasting light can be a challenge. In monochrome mode, it's actually what I found myself seeking out to create interest.

I really liked this one I took of the fireplace when we spent a night at our favorite cabin in Central Oregon this week during Spring Break. I was mesmerized by how beautiful the dancing flames were in monochrome. I bumped up the clarity and contrast in Lightroom. So beautiful!

Below are a couple others that I liked in B/W that were too shadow-y or stark in color for my taste.

I'm intrigued by the one of the girls in the tent. It was one of the only images I managed to achieve this month that was primarily white with darker subjects. Other times that I tried for this look, the background was either blown out or super grey and dull. I'm glad I got one success, but I wish I could take credit for knowing how I did it, ha!

Texture

I'd absolutely hoped to explore this more this month. One thing that B&W photography does best is highlight texture. You can increase the clarity and contrast (via your editing program or app) to completely transform a "boring" photo into a stunning result. Check out this before and after. I'm in love with the after and would have probably never even noticed this photo on import if I was not doing this project.

I just LOVE the thickness of the after. It's so real and you feel like you can reach out and touch her wet curly locks. It's an experiential photo (aka you can imagine being there to experience the scene). When you successfully invoke texture as a photographer, you draw in the sense of touch and break through the one-dimensional experience of the viewer who expects to only be looking with their eyes. They are taken off guard to be experiencing another sense, and it makes them enjoy your photo more even though they don't know why. So cool!

Get Creative with your edits

I exaggerated the contrast in that last one, but I think it looks interesting. That's the fun thing about B/W ... you can get really creative. Speaking of, check out this fun image. It's actually a photo of the boys from the fall, but made it a Tiny Planet image, and it's awesome.

Shadow

Similar to hard light, shadows are actually made easier by B/W conversion. A portrait that would be tossed because of a shadow halfway across the face often looks just fine in the absence of color. Somehow, emotion takes over and our eyes forgive stark shadows when we are viewing a monochrome image.

Admit it. You also get this excited when it's Mac-N-Cheese for lunch.

Documentary

Black & White is a fantastic way to capture documentary style photos (which tend to have clutter that can distract from your composition). Of course, it also is a great fix for awful indoor light. The last few in this series are from our night away in Black Butte. I'm so glad I have these photos because this cozy cabin is our family's favorite place to visit, but the lighting was SOOOO yellow and dark. They are definitely ones I would have put into B&W even before this month's theme.

Selfies

I'm trying to be better about getting in the frame. B&W is a little more forgiving for the mama who almost never wears make-up, haha. It also helps you out a lot to salvage a photo when your clothes completely clash with your kids' outfits. Pop the image into B&W and no one knows you didn't coordinate in the slightest.

A few more

Here are a handful more images that I liked from this month for various reasons. Hadley is the subject frequently because she is home with me the most. Mr. Peabody snuck into a couple too. Thanks so much for following along. If you have any favorite tips or resources for improving B/W photography, I'm all ears. I'd love to try this challenge again sometime. It definitely took me out of my normal routine and got me thinking about photos in a whole new way.

In Closing

This is the #1 reason I love B&W photography even though it's not really "my thing." At the end of the day, if it's almost completely dark out but the big bro is carrying home the little sis (who fell down and is crying), you know that no matter how terrible and grainy the light is, the picture will capture all the feels. And it does. FTW.

I'm putting this entry to bed, but I have a feeling my interest in B/W is just starting to kindle. Happy April everyone! ~ Jessica

Life from this Lens {February}

March 1, 2018

Hard Light

I seriously groaned when I saw February's theme. Hard light is basically bright light that creates harsh shadows. I cringed for two reasons:

Hard light can be ugly. For portrait photography, noon on a summer day can be your nemesis. The overhead sun casts dark shadows on faces. Unless it's handled very well, it's just not flattering. Softer daylight is just easier to shoot in.
It's February. In Portland. GREY. GREY. GREIGE. GREY. I wasn't sure how in the world I was going to find any natural hard light. Thankfully, the weather decided to throw me a bone and the sun came out for a few days.

I truly struggled with this one. Even when the sun came out, I still was really frustrated when I was out shooting. I just have SO much to learn about how to shoot in hard light. I knew a couple of tricks, and this challenge helped me learn a couple more, but I also CAN'T WAIT to see how my photographer friends tackled this month so that I can hopefully learn a bunch from them. I'm super excited to send you on over to my BFF Kelly's blog to see her amazing vacation photos. Her photography is gorgeous and always inspiring!

I'd say that 90% of the photos I took in true hard light this month, I trashed. It's hard enough to compose an interesting or beautiful photo (especially when shooting fast moving subjects) and then throw in ever changing light (because as the kids move, the angle of the sun shifts, and more or less light enters the lens). So many of my photos were way over or under exposed.

However ...

I am just SO proud of myself for picking up my camera anyhow, heading out and about in the sun, and capturing some beautiful photos. I would never have had these pictures if I wasn't participating in the Life from this Lens group. I'm thrilled for the inspiration and camaraderie. I hope you enjoy seeing some of my results and learning as I share a bit of my process this month.

This post is REALLY long ... but it's because I wanted to share so much since I think even the grandparent with an i-phone can benefit from learning a bit about hard light and photo taking.

Basics

In my post, I'm going to focus on a couple of different ways of approaching hard light (positioning, utilizing reflection, and getting creative). Folks who are just starting out exploring photography always have the same question: what were your settings? I shoot in manual mode so am constantly changing my settings. For direct sun though, I usually take advantage of my lowest ISO of 100.

For beginners: ISO Speed is how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. As you increase your ISO, you double the sensor's sensitivity to light. You also increase potential for noise (speckled/grainy look) that may occur in your image.

In general, I try to keep my ISO as low as my light allows. If I find that I'm having to drop my shutter speed below 1/125, I typically up my ISO, which allows more light in. You could also try widening your aperture, but even in bright light, I often am already pretty wide open because that's how I tend to shoot.

#Fails

The above image was a total win! I found a large snow patch to bounce light up on her face, the hard over-head sun was filtered beautifully through the trees ... the composition is pleasing. BUT, for every good image in hard light, I seriously had a dozed fails.

Once I found hard light to shoot in during this dreary month, the main things I struggled with were:

Exposing correctly because the light was so bright, and I was constantly recomposing for the best angle to deal with it.
Missing focus because of the same reason as above
Random harsh shadows that detracted from my composition.

Here are some "misses" as examples. The top one actually shows examples of #1 & #3. The middle one is hard to tell, but the focus is on her jacket. It's still cute, but it's not the focus I was going for.

Positioning

The position of your subject (or YOURSELF) is critical in hard light (of note, backlight falls under the umbrella of positioning, but it's just one aspect of a much larger concept). My son Gavin was getting ready to compete in his gymnastics meet at the Evergreen Space Museum, and the sunset was blinding. The glare off the white floors and the shadows were intense. I took so many shots and most of them were overexposed or had way too many sun spots or too much haze. I finally tucked myself behind a pole to shield my camera from the intense light. It gave me the perfect shaded filter, and I seriously love the resulting image. The rim light around Gavin's head and the sun streaming behind his jacket is so pretty. The light even reflected from the surroundings to light up the top back part of his head, which I thought was really cool.

Below is a good example of how simply turning your subject really helps deal with harsh light. The sun was pouring in through the small windows creating interesting light and shadows. On the top photo, my daughter's face is distractingly dark. By instead having her turn to face the light, the photo becomes much more pleasing to the eye. I also recomposed ever so slightly to face my lens toward the window at the foot of the bed in order to get more of the light both from the window itself and the white sheets that the window light was reflecting up. Overall, just a couple little position tweaks really improve the overall composition of the photo.

And another fun one from that day ... nothing too special about it photographically, but it's a good reminder to me of my "why" for this project ... because if I weren't doing it, I'd probably not have photos of my kids jumping on the bed that lazy Saturday. Some day, I'll forget how messy the bed was after it was a trampoline for an hour, and I'll just be happy I have the memory.

I'm hoping that my explanations can help even the doting parent with an iPhone who wants better photos of their kid. Check this out ... after Tyler's TOP GUN meet (great job boys, 1st place again!), we were trying to get a group photo. One parent suggested that we do it in front of the banner. I didn't want to squelch their idea, so we took the photo. But I also knew that the light was AWFUL in that spot, so I grabbed the boys and moved them 90 degrees. The result was drastic in terms of the pleasing portraiture light of the photo. This was shot with my camera, but even for phone pics, this is an easy change that will improve your shadowy photos. Try it!

The above example is a perfect visual response to the comment of "wow, you have a nice camera" (which by the way is inevitable if you invest in some gear and share your photos). Yes, I have a professional camera, but light is light, and it's up to the photographer to use it well.

That being said, sometimes, you have one chance to take a photo, and you can't do anything about the light. If that is the case, just take the shot, offensive hard light and all. At least you've captured the memories, and you can throw the not so great ones into the mix in a collage with the great ones, and together they will paint a cohesive picture. PS ... our gym OMEGA is rad, and hosted the coolest meet EVER at the Evergreen Space Museum. Plus look at Gavin holding my niece ... I mean so cute, who even cares about the light :).

Reflective Light

As I mentioned, February is not what I normally think of when I'm shooting in hard light. Typically, hard light makes me think of noon on a Summer day. However, as I began to study the hard light that February has to offer, I noticed a couple of things. They were not necessarily new to my knowledge bank, but I'd not really been considering them when I was taking on the dreaded "hard light" task.

Winter sun is lower in the sky. It's a gift to the photographer. While the average eye may equate a July sunny day to a February one, the PNW photographer who studies light angles will know that the midday winter sun is actually lower in the sky. While the sun is still out, it means that positioning it to provide artistic backlight is always easier at noon in Feb vs noon in July.
Guess what we {might} have in February that we never have in July? SNOW! One of the best things to help a photographer combat hard light is a foreground reflective surface to bounce light back onto the subject. What is the most reflective color? WHITE! It was awesome to get some much anticipated snow to help me illustrate this point.

The portrait of Claire below illustrates both of these points ... plus she is in her Super Hero attire (Classic Claire), which makes the result even better. I didn't set out to photograph her. I was actually messing around with my phone trying to install a new camera app before we went out sledding. But out of the corner of my eye I saw Claire immersed in sunlight, and I had to grab my camera.

Also, the group photo of our neighborhood kids out sledding was taken at 11:30 AM. The sun was almost as harsh as it can be on a Winter day, but the snow provided a perfect reflector to bounce light back onto the kids' faces.

Step Back

In bright sun, stepping way back from your subject is one of the best ways to offset hard light.

It can add negative space in your photos (areas of solid color on an absence of any texture or busy-ness) and let your eyes focus on your intended subject.
The harsh shadows resulting from the sun will be less noticeable or offensive.

Canon 70-200 mm {f/2.8, 1/1250, ISO 100}

Wide Angle

Similar to the concept of stepping back, using a wide angle lens is ideal in hard light. The more landscape you have occupying your image, the less people may notice harsh shadows or light spots.

My Sigma fish-eye (15mm) lens is one of my very favorites for hard light situations. It handles them so well. It takes in such a large scene that the little lighting imperfections like splotchy shadows are inconsequential. It makes such a dramatic statement, that the viewer doesn't care that it's not actually a perfectly lit photo.

For this one below, the sun glare on the gymnasts' faces during their high bar routine was intense. It was so bright that after Shaggy finished this routine, the judges actually moved their table to the other side of the high bar so that their backs would be facing the sun. But, because the image has such a large scale, you don't even notice that the athlete's face is totally blown out. Lighting aside, I really love the composition of this photo. The white beams and the high bar follow a nice rule-of-thirds set up, and the flag and gymnast/coach all offset and compliment each other so well. Love me some fish-eye in the right moment!

Composition first

When in doubt in hard light, use your gut and compose an image using the photography properties you know to be true. Use line, color, negative space, motion, emotion, light and dark ... if you can compose a beautiful or thought/emotion provoking image, the viewer's brain is less likely to focus on the hard light that may otherwise have detracted from the photo.

For some samples, I went back through some beach photos I took in September when we were in California with our cousins. It was noon under cloudless skies. But I knew we wouldn't be back to a warm coast in about a year, so I brought my camera anyhow. They aren't beautiful, soft light portraits, but they show that we had fun, and they preserved the kids as they were.

Above, the surf provides leading lines that draw your eye to the subject (Gavin), who is also nicely off-set by the palm trees. Because it's a well composed photo, the dark shadows on his face don't detract from the scene. His shadow actually lends interest to the composition.

Here, the surf provides leading lines that draw your eye to the subject (Gavin), who is also nicely off-set by the palm trees. Because it's a well composed photo, the dark shadows on his face don't detract from the scene. His shadow actually lends interest to the composition.

Sunlight portrait hack: you can still achieve a beautiful portrait in the hardest of mid-day sun. Rely on the rule of thirds to draw your focus to an interesting surface that both absorbs and bounces light (hair is perfect), and turn your subject's face to the side so that there are no angles to cast shadows.

The photo below contains both leading lines and color that draw your eye in. It's very hard light, but it works because of how it was composed.

This next one is just a cute photo, plus the light coming in from the window adds interest. Again, it just works even though her face is pretty shaded.

Lastly, pops of color are a fun way to compose brightly lit photos, and snow is the perfect backdrop for that.

Put shadows to work

Speaking of shadows from the above beach photo, I'd hoped to have more new material to provide examples for using shadows as an actual subject, but I just ran out of time. Below, the first two photos are from my portfolio, but they demonstrate how shadows provide the main subject matter of the image. The bottom two photos are from this month, and while they are less obvious, they still show how shadows can create compositional lines and elements that augment an image.

Backlight

Most photographers LOVE to play with backlight.

For Beginners, backlight is as it sounds, when your main light source is behind your subject, creating a glow (which can be harsh or very soft).

Here is a stark example of hard backlight. As is the case with hard light, you are often battling haze. I like how the right side of the photo is more sharp/contrasting though (because it was farther from the direct light source).

Since it is February, the sun in Oregon is lower in the sky even mid-day. You can use that to your advantage to play with backlight. Shooting in RAW really helps with this because in a backlit, hard lighting situation, you may want to pull up your exposure on the foreground of your subject (which I did for the photo of Hadley below). When you shoot in RAW (vs JPG), your camera stores so much more data to help you accomplish this. The files are annoyingly big, but if you are serious about artistic photography, it's really worth the extra memory space. For the photo of our neighbor Isaac, I decided to make it more of a warm silhouette and didn't lighten up the foreground. In my opinion, they both work, so there is no hard-set rule ... just go with your instincts when shooting or editing each photo.

Details

Sometimes the big picture light is really challenging, but if you narrow your focus, you can still achieve an interesting image. Maybe the light is catching one particular feature just right, or maybe you can stand over your subject to block the harsh light. When I'm feeling overwhelmed composing a portrait, sometimes I take a details shot to at least make me feel like I got something worth keeping.

Manual exposure

A big thing to remember when shooting in hard light is that you control your exposure. Now, this can be a really frustrating thing when you miss exposure by a landslide even though you were trying to take your spot meter into account. It's not just you! Nailing exposure in hard light is HARD. The light is almost always very bright and ever changing (especially if your subject is moving).

And sometimes, when you expose perfectly for the overall scene, it's actually really boring. Play with it. I think this bottom image, which is actually very underexposed for the surrounding, is actually the more interesting result. I was just sitting at my computer editing photos for this project when I noticed the way the light was harshly hitting my desk decor. I grabbed my camera and played with some angles and exposures. These aren't photos I'd normally ever share, but I thought they'd be helpful to show just how much you can change the feel of an image by manually exposing in a dramatic way.

Canon 50 mm 1.2 {f/1.8, 1/1250, ISO 4000}

For this one, I positioned myself close to the light source, exposed only for her tutu, and let the background fade into the darkness of underexposure.

Find a filter

Sometimes the risky shot is the right move. You want a stunning sun flare or to capture a gorgeous blue sky. Other times, you just need to get a portrait and you want a softer light, but it's noon and the sun is right overhead. All you need to do is find a way to filter the sun. It can be ANYTHING ... a tree, a building ... in this case I literally lifted up the hatch of my car and had Hadley stand underneath it. I was still getting a light source through the glass, but it was shaded and diffuse. Guess what, it was my favorite shot of the day.

Grow & Create

When it's the greyest of grey in February in Portland, OR, sometimes you need to just find or make your own light. It's like self-tanner for your camera, haha (I crack myself up). When a car headlamp or a RARE sun stream through a window {onto a fake plant you look at a hundred times a day in uninspiring plain light} suddenly inspires you, grab that camera and find beauty. So often it is hiding there somewhere.

One thing I have learned over the past year or so, is that whether you embrace the harsh light or find a way to manipulate it, don't be afraid to bring your camera out no matter what time of day it is. Grab your camera, brave the sun or shadows, and let the magic ensue!