Posting From Windows Live

 

My question is “why would I use Windows live instead of just using Blogger?”  Are there any added features or is there greater control of fonts or something? We will find out.

 

Well I can use different fonts I think. That is good.

Just checking to make sure about that

 

 

 

 

 

Well That is pretty impressive! I can control where I want the picture to appear. Maybe I will give this Windows live thing a try for a little while…

In the Woods again

After months of being busy with wedding photography and mission trips and working at camp, (by the way if you want to see pictures from the trip go to servantphotographer.blogspot.com) I went out for a walk the other morning and I want to put some of the pictures up.

I basically just go stuck on one thing... pictures of this white flower.  And just explored all angles and compositions.

So explore this little weed with me, and if you like it, if you find it interesting like I did, leave a comment and let me know.  If you think it is a little wack to take so many pictures of one weed, you can let me know that as well.

Jackson Kids Photography nature pictures

Morning Sun is Awesome for pictures

This is the image I was thinking of when I stated in an earlier post that "Morning sun can make even a stick look interesting" This is not a great photo by any means, but hey, it's a stick.

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By the way Hair Cut

By the way. I (Billy Jackson) got a hair cut. Just thought I'd put that out there for anyone who noticed from the pictures (or didn't notice).
We will update the profile pictures accordingly once Eddie and Jonny have received their hair cuts as well.

Jimmy Jackson getting a hair cut from his mother

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Starting out with studio work

In our studio we use artificial lighting. We have light stands with umbrellas, a backdrop, video light, boxes, and a reflector. As the lighting and equipment assistant this is the stuff Gennie is helping manage.

    As you can see were just trying to get the hang of it. We aren't too serious yet.

       "One thing about me, i don't like working with artificial lights. I prefer natural lighting, but I'm the lighting assistant so I'd better get use to it. We set our studio in our living room using the reflector to block the light coming in from the window. Once we got the lighting right we were getting some pretty nice shots



     We also tried setting up the studio outside.It didn't work too well. The backdrop blew over, the light from the sun was throwing us off, and the neighbor's dog showed up. So this Saturday we are setting up the studio inside for a Senior Portrait Session." - Gennie


We'll have more in studio photography later.







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By the way this post is written by Ellie and Gennie Jackson and we don't have a studio, just equipment to use for a studio "look"

Learning Outdoor lighting with Jonny

So today I was going to take Jonny out early in the morning to show him how awesome morning sun light can be, but... there was only cloud cover in the sky. No nice sun light :-( So later that day  I tried to show him how to find nice light (and therefor take nice pictures in that light) even when it is a cloudy day or it is mid day time.

First off for outdoor pictures morning and evening is best. I have found that morning sun can turn even a simple stick or weed into something interesting. For the rest of this post I will concentrate on portrait pictures (this is what I was showing Jonny). 

We started in the middle of a field. I took a picture of him....

...he took a picture of me....

...And those are the two pictures we got. What you can see is that on an over cast day or during mid day when the sun is high you get shadows in the eyes. In the pic of me you can see the shadow line. On the pic of Jonny his eyes are just dark.

By the way I just have to get this out there, Jonny is one of the most difficult people to take pictures of! He's either laughing uncontrollably, or he's looking like hes been abused. No in between! That and I hate to have to hand him the camera to take a picture of me. I guess this will just encourage me more to help him learn good photography

OK so we have shadows. What do we do? On a overcast day or during mid day when you are taking people pictures (portraits specifically) the best thing is to look for shade. Not deep shade, but the edge of shade. Here is our first try to get better light...



... seems better to me. You can see his eyes, though not the best. We found some pine trees that worked a little bit. The idea is to find shade where light is coming onto the face "directional" you will hear that a lot in photography "Directional light". The big thing is you don't want light coming down on top of their head or from behind them. Hence the shade.
We found a slightly different place and took one of me...





Try shooting on the edge of shade some time it will make a difference.
Also try shooting in the early morning (when the sun comes up) its an awesome time to shoot.


The best spot we found for taking pictures was just inside the door of the house. Window light (and backdoor light) is some of the best natural portrait light that you can find.

So in review.

• Morning and evening is best
• You need shade cover to make directional light during mid day and cloudy days
• You want light in the eyes (not blinding them). They are important to a portrait picture
• You don't want light coming down on top of their head (and thus shadows in the eyes)

Feel free to ask questions! I love to try to answer them.

This is what not to do ABOVE all else. 

Do not have light come from behind the person.

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More images for sale from Jackson Kids photography

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What Jonny is learning today - "The Rule of Thirds"

Today (actually yesterday) I was trying to explain to Jonny how to frame the pictures he was taking to make them more interesting. (not frame the print with a frame but how to arrange the picture as you take it with your camera) It was a nice morning so we were outside around the house taking picture of flowers and things, and I was explaining to him the "Rule of thirds". The rule of thirds is actually a general rule to help you make more dynamic pictures.

These twigs in this picture represent the lines of the rule of thirds (ignore the diagonal crack line). (Jonny says "hmm...  like tic tac toe!" "yes, just like that")
What you want to do is to put the object or objects of interest in your image along these lines, and especially where the lines cross at the corners.



The next three images will hopefully give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Here the acorns are in the center, though the bricks are aligned along the "Thirds lines" in some places.





In this image the acorns have be moved to the upper right third of the picture







Moving the acorns towards the corner helps direct attention to them while still being interesting not just "there".

One of the most obvious ways you can see how this rule helps is with peoples faces. The next time you take a picture of someone, instead of just pointing and pressing the button, try focusing on their face (by holding the button half way down) and then dragging the camera till the person's eyes are on one of the intersecting points of the rule of thirds.

These are the two pictures I took to show Jonny what I meant.

His expression looks a little serious because the sun was kinda bright at the moment.

And so, armed with his new knowledge, Jonny tramped off to take more pictures using the "Rule of Thirds" to take yet more awesome pictures. Hopefully it will be useful to you as well.

Take a look at some pictures taken by professional photographers and see when they use the rule of thirds and when they break the rule and do something different. (remember its actually a guide line) And then go out at experiment with it for yourself.



Lesson review in Jonny's words:   "You got to get the objects on the lines as much as possible" 




Post by Billy Jackson