Dyar Family Photography

Beyond photographing kids, particularly my own, probably my favorite thing to capture is flowers.  (Maybe because I like getting them?)  My husband brought home these lovely Iris flowers and I couldn’t help but capture a couple images of them.   Eventually maybe I’ll get a macro lens to get really close shots, but I still liked how these turned out.  They happen to go nicely with our paint color behind them.  Thanks to my wonderful husband for brightening my day with these!

Here are some fun photos that I took over the weekend that didn’t make the final 10, mostly because they didn’t fit the theme quite right … I also played with painting with light.  Enjoy!

First the painting with light photo – you can tell its a heart right? Thanks to hubby for playing along.

These were going to be in the theme somehow as playing with friends…

And just some other random ones from the weekend. Amelia loves puzzles, swings and Mickey Mouse, as well as playing pretend (diapering her teddy). Note – some of these are the zoom burst technique – harder on a toddler than a flower.

I really liked this one:

I almost used this one in the final 10 for Learning because I like how you can see hubby standing behind her helping out and how she is concentrating.

Wow I made it to week 6 of my photography class!  I wasn’t quite sure considering I have only about two weeks left until I give birth, at the latest.  The last class is more of a summary when each student brings in a portfolio of 10 pictures taken over the last 6 weeks – ideally with a theme of some sort.  Hmmm… my teacher’s suggestion for me was ‘day in the life of a toddler’ and I thought that would work, so I followed poor Amelia around with a camera all weekend.

Adding the theme definitely made it more difficult.   I have some great pictures – but to capture the whole theme I needed a variety of pictures, not just posed smiles.  I’m not 100% happy with all of them… but I do like the overall look & feel of the portfolio.  These did have some slight editing (mostly white balance since I shot in RAW) and the occasional crop to help with composition (though some still weren’t quite right but I can’t go back now).  I think I’ve learned a lot over the last few weeks, and I hope you enjoy these 10 pictures – Life of A Toddler.

Life of a Toddler
1. Brushing

2. Growing

3. Contemplating (I need a new name for this one)

4. Exploring

5. Napping

6. Laughing

7. Learning

8. Loving

9. Splashing

10. Resting

Well I am 2/3rds of the way through my photography class!  Actually more than that since the 6th week is just a show off your best photos and snack class.

The assignment this week was broad – if you could, try painting with light.  Try taking portraits by window light.  Try ghosting.  Also work towards taking photos for week 6 & your portfolio.   I never stayed up late enough to really try painting with light, but I did try my hand at the others, as well as taking some photos of fireworks and the Atlanta Braves game the other night.

First the window portraits – there are two here – one where I’m by the window and the other is a side shot. I think I did some slight editing on the side shot to lighten it up a bit, it was darker than I expected.

Next up, Braves. I really like the overall shot showing the sky getting darker and the lights. On the shot of Chipper – I just wish I had the shutter speed even faster to try and ’stop action’ the baseball but otherwise I like it. (Unfortunately this ended up being a walk, so I didn’t get another good try during this at bat – and it seemed like all the other players were batting lefty!)

Then my favorite part of Friday night games – Friday night fireworks! I took a ton of photos but really only got 3 or 4 I thought were good. Here were my favorite two. (And I didn’t have a tripod with me which would’ve been useful)

Finally, ghosting. While its not something I would really do on a regular basis – its a fun concept to learn! Enjoy the ghost of myself and the flowers… (I didn’t realize until I looked at the pictures on the computer that a box was in the corner of my ghost – woops!)

There you go! Now I need to start working on a portfolio!

Its Thursday which means its time to post my homework for everyone.  This week’s assignment was a couple of silhouettes and a couple of night time shots.  I have to give great kuddos to my husband to helping me find subjects to shoot – he even drove his car around the block for the fun night time shot.  I appreciate his support as I take this class!

First the silhouettes.  I started just practicing technique and here is one I took of our townhome row. I tried it at a few settings and I liked this one best, where you can still see some detail but the homes are dark. Still not the best subject for this type of photo.

Then my husband suggested I try with some flowers and the window in our dining room. I really like how this one turned out. I probably could’ve framed it in the window a bit better but I still really like it.

Next my husband and daughter graciously agreed to pose for me – being 35 weeks pregnant I’m not very mobile to get down to the ground for good shots upward, so they used the table to get taller than me… I love the eskimo kiss and hubby throwing toddler into the air. The camera had some trouble focusing for some reason, and so I didn’t quite capture the composition I would like, but the effect came out great.

Next up, night time shots – this was right at dusk. First I just wanted to get the moon, but we couldn’t find our tripod. I got this one shot that turned out okay but just wasn’t what I wanted to try and capture.

Then my husband had the wonderful idea to go setup on our front porch and try and capture cars coming around the corner. Even helped me setup a support to hold the camera still. And then when no cars appeared, he got in our car and drove for me. I love keeping the shutter open for long enough you lose the car and just get the lights. These are just fun. You can kind of see the car as it goes around the corner, I’m guessing because he slowed down for the turn – but its more of a phantom car.

Not sure what’s on tap to learn tonight, but I enjoyed playing with these. Maybe one of these days I’ll take homework pictures somewhere that is not my home.