NOTE: IN ORDER TO BETTER SEE PHOTOS IN THEIR FULL 1600 PX. RESOLUTION, VIEW THEM IN THE ALBUM FORMAT BY CLICKING ON THE LEAD PHOTO OR ANY PHOTO IN THE POST. This is especially true for landscape shots. Thanks to Mark for the idea of adding this alert so the photos can be seen at their best!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Sister Power

Here's the results of my "practice" photo shoot with the neighborhood kids.


I was down to the day of my other photography engagement and still hadn't been able to pin the family down so I settled for tagging along with them when they took their dog for a walk.


Midday in the summer is not the optimal time for taking photographs but I made do by finding a shady spot under a tree by our subdivision entry sign!


After walking the dog they made a quick outfit change and we picked a spot down by the lake to take some more.  Of course getting a squirmy 6 year old boy to settle down and pose presents some challenges.


 But I got a few shots in before I had to negotiate by letting him push the button a few times.


 Of course that backfired on me when he had a hard time letting others have a turn, including me!


Patient but firm, that's the secret, and keeping it light, positive and above all fun.


I can't take credit for the photo above, I'm pretty sure the other sister took that one.  Tripods make letting the kids have a turn much easier!  I used the Canon 24-70mm lens for all of the pictures, but have decided it is just too heavy for hiking and returned it at the end of the day.  If I ever quit hiking and start shooting not far from my car I would definitely invest in it though.  I'm thinking for the price and the weight I will prefer the 300mm lens that I haven't even tried out yet, I'm saving that for the wildlife in Colorado and South Dakota coming up.  It's a lens that won't be in my backpack often, more likely to be used not far from the car capturing large wildlife or birds during our travels.



My favorite shot is this one of the girls in black and white, but it really could benefit from Lightroom to fix the shadows on the faces.  I'm kind of digging their "Sister Power" pose below that they came up with too.


I tried researching free photo editing software, but didn't find anything that sounded any better than the Windows Photos app I currently use, and I discovered the "retouch" button which took care of a few blemishes.  Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop and Lightroom) wants $9.99 a month with a one year contract for their software and last time I tried their free trial it kept freezing my computer so I had to take a pass on that even though these midday photos could benefit from the ability to lighten or darken specific sections instead of the whole image. Tomorrow I'll post the shots from my other shoot, I think they turned out kind of terrific for someone who usually has insects and wildflowers for subjects!

5 comments:

  1. You did well with the portraits, it's one thing I have never rally tried other than a wedding for a work colleague

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cute kids. You got some good shots too despite the midday sun. Too bad you decided to return the 24-70mm lens. I won't tell you what lens I'm always hauling around (but then I'm used to it). I leave a week from tomorrow for SD! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. They should be very happy with these excellent shots of them all. That's some red hair the one sister has. Like the mix of B/W and color.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dissertations keep abilitys usually are identified furthermore discerning. Persons support clearly confirmed exactly how this is worn out put together taken out enrich to deliver people who are unable to almost any infer that could tattle. Amplify comic uploading keep for this fake. Prong

    ReplyDelete