When I was first learning photography....

I thought I would share some pictures from when I was first trying to learn about photography. I think it all started when we were frustrated with our little point and shoot film camera, then a really great film camera went on clearance at Circuit City. It had a nice big lens and I started to get some great shots from it. I started to realize the connection between the size of the glass and the quality of the image.

This shot is from my first try at portraiture for my boys. I went to the store and bought some C-41 processing black and white film. I took an old wrinkled cream colored tablecloth and draped it over the swingset as a backdrop. (I was going for the white background effect) Then I startet shooting. The results for Josiah were beautiful, I was so proud of that shot. The say the light hits his face.... I still love it. I was beginners luck, but I learned a lot. Gabriel's weren't as nice...I didn't get any catchlights in the eyes, the eyes are too shadowed, there's a hot spot on his forehead, but it still wasn't bad for a first try. The other thing that was odd was that my pictures didn't come back black and white, they came back more blue and white. When I posted them on 2peas, everyone asked how I got that bluish tint to them with film....I was a little sad that they didn't look like true black and whites, but now those effects are common and on purpose, so it's okay.

This next group of pictures is hilarous! It shows a progression of what happened. Isn't it funny? I still crack up at what he did. I have a whole layout devoted to this grouping of pictures in my scrapbook for that year. It's called the "tale of a dandelion", I also included little captions with it of what he must have been thinking as it happened. For the last picture I wrote, "It's okay! I'm okay! It's not that bad!" Or something like that. Of these 4 images, the best is #4. 1 and 2 are underexposed, three is pretty good, but the lighting is better on 4. We even almost have a catchlight on 4. :)

Some people may have thought it odd that I would take my children's portraits with their shirt off...but since I was going for just the tops of the shoulders, Dan didn't have a problem with it. Plus they were 3 and a half years old and under one. Oh well, everyone has to draw their own lines in that area. In my mind it was also different because they were little boys, I can honestly say I wouldn't have done it at all for a little girl. But that's just me. :) Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of these "first shots".