Photography 101

So I've always been interested in photography. It started at a young age, assisting for my Aunt while I was in high school. My aunt is a professional photographer, so she would take me along with her and I would have so much fun helping with poses, meeting new people, and going on location to Laguna Beach for the perfect sunset shot. After I went to college I took a Photography 101 class, this was before digital cameras, while at least before they were mass marketed to the general consumer. I learned to develop pictures in a lab, just the basics of photography. I was also the photography editor for my college newspaper. I would get all the images "photo ready" for print. So much has changed since my college days, now with the digital boom, a whole new world in photography is born. A world I'm unfamiliar to.

These last couple weeks I have been inspired by many of my friends and their blogs to get interested in learning more about photography. I have a Nikon D40 and it takes great pictures. All I have to do is set it to automatic and fire away, but it really isn't enough to get really great shots just keeping the camera in the 'auto' setting'. So it is my goal to learn more and get caught up with technology.

This last weekend , I took the camera in the backyard and used my dog Koda as my test dummy. Surprisingly, he in less of a moving target than Garrett, hence why I choose the family dog. I switched around aperture, and the shutter speeds. All to find out who little I really know about all the above mentioned things.

So, I called my friend Kiwi, who has been studying the art for a couple years now and had gotten really good. She coached me through it. I realized this is going to be a long learning process. So, I downloaded the latest version of Photoshop and it all came back to me with in minutes...good news!

Then I got a call on Friday from a friend of mine, who heard I had a fancy camera, and wanted me to take pictures of her sons wedding reception the next day. First I thought, "I'm not really ready for such an important event, like a wedding reception, I don't even know what an aperture is!", then I assured myself, "you got to start somewhere, right?". So, needless to say I took a crash coarse in photography Friday afternoon, studying photography websites, practicing on the dog, and calling Kiwi with all my frustrations (thanks again!). I finally figured out what the heck the aperture is and where the function is on my camera, honed in on my Photoshop skills and viola I was ready for the photo shoot.

I will share with you the Photograpghy tips that I learn as I'm studying the art, I say art, beacuse literally it is a skill that takes years to master. I'm not one who is good with instructions, I prefer the 'learn by doing' philosophy, so I'm sure to have quite a bit of trial and error.

Here are some shots of the wedding reception of Z and J, they were such a cute couple. I had a great time taking the pictures of this sweet couple.