{A&A}

Have I mentioned I love taking pictures of couples? It's so much fun! There are so many unique things you can do and I love uploading the pictures on the computer and seeing the how often I catch them looking at each other. These two were no exception, obnoxiously cute and a pleasure to photograph! I hope you like them -sincerely Mary-Blair- (Inside joke with A)

{C}

Holy Moly I can't believe that I haven't done picures in almost 3 months! So much for me taking some photography classes this summer, I cannot believe how quickly it got busy!! I really enjoyed getting out to do these today though. I haven't seen this friend in forever! She lives far away from school during the year so we don't see a lot of each other so it was extra fun being able to do these before she left the city again!

These pictures were mostly taken at the park surrounding the space and science center and a little park by her house. They are a quick edit to get them to her before she leaves.

{S}

Well I finally did it, I bought Photoshop. Some nice real photo editing software. Now if I only I could learn how to use it. I am very quickly becoming one those people I despise...you know the ones....the "YouTube educated" (it's almost as bad as the Wikepedia educated!). However YouTube is teaching me lots so I really shouldn't complain.

I am definitely experiencing growing pains with the new software. Its taking me substantially longer to get pictures even semi-edited but I am really loving how freeing it is. If I notice something about the photograph I don't love I am able to actually deal with it rather than say "Crap! How did I not notice that on the camera?"

These photos are still VERY rough. These things take practice unfortunately. But I am happy with the results so far.

V & J

I'm really enjoying this journey into photography for a few reasons, the obvious is of course how exciting it is to learn about the camera and through that learning how to take photos as opposed to snapshots. The other is getting to see friends I haven't seen in forever as was the case today. I haven't seen these 2 in four years so it was extra special for me to be able to do these pictures for them.

I was so proud of myself today, I learnt from the last session about forming the pose around the lighting rather than just taking pictures because it was a great pose. The river valley provided a lot of great lighting and backdrop however and I look forward to the next opportunity I have to shoot there. I had a few issues with shutter speed today, I had a hard time figuring out the correct speed for the lighting as it was later in the day than I usually do, however with it being later I got a couple great pictures of the sun flaring in the corner. I still have so much to learn!!

The "M's"

Today I attempted my first family shoot. It was soo much fun taking these pictures, they are such a high energy family. They were determined not to just get the typical overly-posed pictures and wanted something that actually captured their family.  Unfortunately "T" had a bit of a spill and I'm sure he will have a nice goose egg by now (although seeing the picture of him mid-fall seemed to make him smile!).

I'm still trying to learn to shoot in manual so the clouds were a big obstacle for me today. I would just get the light set and then a cloud would move and everything would change. I kept trying to change my iso then remembered that that would make my pictures grainy (thank you Melissa!). It was a fantastic learning experience.

Keisha

As part of the day of learning with Melissa I also took some of her sister Keisha.I love the vibrance of her pink sweater against the backdrop Melissa chose!

Dania

After the couple pics we went to ghetto downtown to take advantage of some of the older buildings, just us ladies. Again Melissa was amazingly helpful, showing me how to readjust settings to deal with changes in lighting etc. It was here that she let me try her lens and I fell in love with it pretty instantly. One day when I can charge for this I will have to go buy one!