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I am a God-loving, husband-adoring, mybabyboys-hugging, mind-reeling, photo-taking, life-documenting, yummyfood-cooking, garden-planting, country-living girl. Writing about life, with boys, in the sticks...
this is life... with boys... in the country...
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Catching the Light…

My photography class ended recently and I’m still trying to wrap my head around all the info I took in over the last 10 weeks. I have all this photography ‘stuff’ whirling around in my pea-sized brain that is cluttered with the noise of children, and I’m trying to just make it stick.  I have a long way to go before it just comes naturally to apply all that knowledge when taking pictures.  Because in the end, my goal is to not have to take 250 pictures in order to get 2 keepers.  :) 

Like these two of Gager…

To get the white balance, exposure, composition all right is very difficult for me, but seeing my sweet boy’s face like this, captured forever in a photograph that I took, makes the never-ending practice worth it…

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These ones are great examples of utilizing one of my favorite lessons during the course… LIGHT.  I look at light in a whole new way now. How it illuminates, casts shadows, causes eyes to look sunken in, washes things out.  I feel like I’m constantly evaluating the quantity and quality of light even when I’m not holding my camera.  And most specifically, I am always looking at what light DOES to a person’s eyes.  And when you are able to ‘catch that light’ in your subject’s eyes, you’re showing LIFE.  I love that… and it isn’t an effect of photography.  If you watch for these (appropriately named) catch-lights, you’ll see them often.  They are the reflection of light into a person’s eyes either through a window (like these with Gage) or off of a natural reflector like a light colored wall of the house, bright patch of grass, the sky, cement sidewalk, etc...

And I find catch-lights mesmerizing.   

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At the risk of revealing just how not-impressive my photos really are, you should check out Erin Cobb’s blog to see some AMAZING work with natural light and her ability to really ‘catch the light’. She’s my photography hero… I wanna be her when I grow up… (I can say that because she just turned 30!)

3 comments:

Dianne said...

Another great way to catch the light is to attach a flash that you point away from your subject...such as on an opposing white wall. I haven't done this yet (mainly because I don't have an external flash) but I can see why it would work better than a flash directly at the subject. You're learning so much! Have you discovered your exposure compensation button?

Mom said...

My heart just melts into those eyes!

XOXOXO from Grammie to Gager.

lacey said...

Yup, I have the external flash (speedlite) and it can create this same catchlights. I've been trying to learn without it, but will I'm sure find uses for it. And yes, Exposure compensation was mentioned A LOT throughout the class. :) I saw PW just discovered it, which I can't believe! Using manual, though, I usually just directly adjust my shutter speed.

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