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Depth of Field and Apertures

11.30.2007 | Photography

I finished a very good lesson yesterday on apertures, it took pretty much the whole day, but I think I was able to successfully take a difficult concept and present it in a quick efficient way.

Aperture refers to the opening of the lens iris. It is important for many reasons, one of the most important is it’s Depth of Field, or the plane which is in focus. Wide apertures have thin DOFs, smaller ones have larger DOFs. You can actually meausre them by taking pictures of rulers which I did for the video.

Do you notice how it get’s blurry with wider apertures? This usually looks very nice for portraits.

The apertures used are f2.8, f5.0. and f22.

Amy and Family!

11.29.2007 | Photography

I had my very first snow shoot yesterday right after Maria and Braxton’s shoot. It was different for me as a photographer because of all the light bouncing up from the ground. It was such a fun shoot though because Amy, Jeff, BJ, Oryan, Mekele, and Kilynne were all ready to play. (Sorry if I misspelled your names!)

I have been experimenting with jumping and running pictures- I love how even Kilynne, the youngest was jumping- Cool!I loved this dog- Ally- She was SO adorable, This is next one is one of my favorites of the shoot. We decided to have a race and I gave the little man a head start. You can see the excitment in his smile because he knows he is going to win. 🙂Let’s not forget Tipper! (Yes….two dogs, Ally and Tipper)One of my favorite jumping shots of the day. Thank you Amy and Family for such a fun shoot! I love it when everyone comes ready to play!

I will be in Utah for a few more days. Two more shoots scheduled, if anyone else would like them, now would be the time to book. 🙂

Maria and Braxton

11.27.2007 | Photography

Had such an amazing shoot today with one of our favorite blog regulars Maria, and her son Braxton. I have known Maria for about 8 years now. She had a great idea to try the Brigham City train station, and even though the shoot took less than a half hour, we had some great shots. Braxton was a fabulous model- so handsome, calm and patient!! Thank you Maria for the gift basket! I loved the gift card for Papa Johns! Yummy! 🙂

Zion’s National Park

11.27.2007 | Photography

I had a truly bizarre experience Sunday and Monday. I tenatively had three shoots scheduled in St. George, Utah. One rescheduled for today in Brigham City, the other cancelled and the last was still on for a shoot on monday. I confirmed the appointment as I usually do with this particular individual Sunday, who by the way, offered to cover my hotel expenses in return for my driving down, everything was set and ready to go. I would drive down Sunday, do the shoot monday afternoon, and come back Tuesday- not a big deal or unusual thing in the life of Michael Andrew.

So I drive down from Brigham City after Tammy’s shoot, about a 6 hour drive. I arrive in St George and discover the directions I was given were not accurate at all. I eventually find the hotel where my “reservations” had been made, and was told they were “cancelled” . Hmmmm. In any case I had been driving all day and needed a place to crash.

Monday morning, no call from the “client”, nor were any of my calls returned. I get the vibe that this was a wasted trip, and two hours into my drive home I get a voice mail from this “client” that they couldnt make it, to go to Zions and enjoy my time there.

Im about to head out for two shoots- so i will write more on this later. I think I may be a little or a lot naive- if I tell someone I am going to do something, I do it. It doesnt always go the other way. This is something I really dont want to change, I like giving clients and even complete strangers the benefit of the doubt. I still believe I would rather be trusting and naive than cunning and deceitful, unfortunately it means getting burned occasionally. I felt good because I knew it wasnt going to effect me in a negative way, so I went to Zion’s (not the Arches Park) and spent a few hours looking around. It was great!I love to see textures in nature! 🙂

Tammy and Family

11.26.2007 | Photography

Yesterday I met with Teri and Tammy, a friend of hers, along with her two children- for a fun shoot out near Brigham City. We drove a few miles west to this interesting place called Marble Park, were someone had built all these children’s playground toys from ranching materials. It was pretty interesting place…. a little cold- but a lot fun!This one required quite the climb and balancing act….