Thomas and Dana's Seattle Wedding

Last year, (while 6 months pregnant!) I had the privilege of photographing the wedding of Dana and her hubby to be, Thomas.  One of my very wonderful friends referred me to them.  My friend and Dana are also very good friends, so I figured that it would be a fun time.  I met up with Dana to discuss details, and I liked her right away, she was indeed a very fun gal.  And it was the first time I was photographing a larger wedding.  Luckily, Dana and Thomas were extremely laid back and easy going and I felt very comfortable working with them.  Since their wedding was in March, we were all unsure what the weather would have in store for us.  Dana wanted to take some photos outside, so we were all crossing our fingers for the day to be free of rain.  Amazingly, the day of their wedding turned out to be a beautiful, sunny and warm day!  We were able to get some wonderful shots in front of the court house in downtown Seattle and had so much fun shooting at Pike Place Market.  Initially, when we met up to discuss the details, Dana voiced concern about being nervous in front of the camera.  But on their wedding day, both Dana and Thomas were amazing and it was so cool to see them blossom into these wedding day super models!  Their ceremony was super sweet and the reception was fun even for me and my second photographer.  We had a blast!  I'm so glad to have been a part of their wedding day, and I will always appreciate the fact that they trusted me.  Take a look at some of my favorite shots from the day:

Seriously, how gorgeous is this couple?!  Thanks Dana and Thomas for letting me be a part of such a wonderful event!

How-To Mini-Tutorial: The Basics- Shutter Speed

So, my first post Mini-Tutorial post was about ISO and this one is closely related, shutter speed.  Really basic first, you probably already know, but the shutter is the round thing over the lens that closes and opens when you push down on the button to take the picture.  The purpose of a shutter is to allow light in to expose the picture.  Then, the shutter speed is the time that the shutter is open.  Pretty simple, huh?  It does get more complicated, but I'm going to try to keep it simple and just to the bits that you need to know for basic photography.  Next, the amount of light that hits the sensor is proportional to the exposure time.  Shutter speed is measured in seconds and written as a fraction, such as 1/250 s, 1/125 s, 1/60 s, etc. with each increment doubling the amount of light when the shutter speed is longer and halving the amount of light when the speed is shorter.   Now remember, this is a fraction, so the bigger the number is on the bottom, the shorter the shutter speed is, or the faster the shutter closes.  This means that less light will reach the sensor.  The larger the number on the bottom of the fraction is, the longer the shutter speed, which means the sensor will stay open for longer and let more light reach the sensor.  Most DSLR cameras also have an option for whole seconds rather than fractions of a second, for example, 1 second, 3 seconds, and you may also have an option to shoot in bulb mode (B) which allows you to keep the shutter open as long as you'd like manually, using the camera button, or time (T) which keeps the shutter open for as long as you click the button once to start and then click the button to end.  OK, so that's the general idea.  Now, what does this all mean practically?  A good rule of thumb for taking photos in general is to set the shutter speed to the number closest to your lens focal length (50 mm, for example, is a focal length of a lens).  If you are shooting with a 50 mm lens, then you would use 1/60 as your shutter speed.  Make sense?  OK, now onto something a little more...Shutter speed not only affects the amount of light allowed to reach the sensor, but also can cause an image to be blurry or sharp.  If the shutter speed is fast, like 1/250, and there is a good amount of light around, then your image will be sharp and crisp.  But if you are using a slow shutter speed like 1/4, you will likely end up with a blurry picture unless you are using a tripod.  This is because of camera shake.  When you hold a camera and press the button to take the picture, no matter how steady you are, you will shake the camera even the tiniest bit and that will show up in the picture.  You probably want to use a faster shutter speed most of the time, 1/60 and above given the light situation, to avoid a blurry picture.  Now, there are times when you want to shake it up a little bit and have some texture and movement to your pictures, and you can do this by manipulating the shutter speed (along with ISO and aperture, but that's for another time).  If you want a shot that is crisp and sharp and freezes movement, then you will use a fast shutter speed (1/250, 1/500, etc depending on the light situation).

                     
The image on the left was shot using a fast shutter speed, to freeze the motion.  The image on the right was shot using a slow shutter speed, dragging out the motion.
source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_speed

If you want to show movement, like the water moving over a waterfall or river for example, then you would use a slower shutter speed (1/4 or slower).  Keep in mind, you will likely have to adjust ISO and aperture so that you don't overexpose your picture.   Oh, and you will probably need a tripod or something sturdy to set your camera on to avoid camera shake, or else your entire picture will be blurry, not the idea we're going for.

source: http://www.beckimpressionsphotography.com/photography-101-shutter-speed-motion-tutorial/

 I'll go over more detail of adjusting your ISO, aperture and shutter speed after we cover all the basics.  But that is it for now, for shutter speed.  I encourage you to go out and practice using different shutter speeds, do some experimenting and look at the differences.

Thanks for reading, and next time I'll cover aperture.  My favorite!

Jerome, Kali and Caydence

Awhile back I had the pleasure to photograph Jerome, Kali and Caydence.  We met up down in the Georgetown neighborhood of South Seattle.  I like that area for some interesting backgrounds, it's urban and has lots of cool older brick buildings.  After shooting there for a little bit we decided to head over to Kubota Gardens, which is absolutely beautiful.  It was so fun hanging out with these three, and seeing how much Kali and Jerome just love and adore their little girl.  At this point, she was just barely starting to walk with assistance, so they were cheering her on while she was taking her little steps.  It was great.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the session:

Oh, and one of my favorite things is that Caydence kept sticking out her tongue, especially when she was concentrating on walking.  Adorable!