One year of Pictures Long multiple posts, many pictures

Aayria · Jun 8, 2011

Hey TPF!

I've been away for a while..popping in mostly to lurk here and there. Are there still others around? I'd say I'm an "oldie" but having joined a year or so ago doesn't make me nearly as old as some of you reallyyyy old people :lol:

It's been a little over one year now since starting photography with my first DSLR...and it seemed like a good time to jump back in and try out TPF again.
I've been going through old pictures, putting together sort of an "anniversary" post.
I thought maybe in some way, sharing my story, might inspire somebody else. =) I know I still have so far to go with photography, and I love the saying that you never will "arrive." I understand now that it isn't about arriving at all..it's about learning and enjoying every step along the way.

I'll preface my story by mentioning that I never intended to fall in love with photography. I was very conetent with our little cannon powershot until the day we dropped it in a puddle, on the concrete driveway just before Christmas. After its death, I just snapped pictures on my little cell phone camera. Finally, after the birth of our fourth baby, Maria...I decided the cell phone wasn't filling my deep desire to have multiple millions of pictures of every waking moment of her newborn cuteness. The pictures were tiny, blurry, and "staticy" as I called it lol. So, DH and I decided to invest in a good camera. We studied and researched all we could..he was convinced all we needed was another point and shoot, but I wanted a DSLR because I had heard they could take the best pictures indoors with low light. (Because the camera does it all for you, right? hehe).
I remember opening that black and gold Nikon box with soooo much excitement! After half a year of blurry cell phone pictures, I'd suddenly have amazing pictures of my children, hooray!
The first week with my camera I snapped these beauties.

This one made my desktop wall paper for a while, because unnaturally colored nuclear babies on wrinkled blankets are just sooo artsy, right?

I still love this one though..not for technical reasons hehe:

I thought it was sooo cool (pun intended) that I could get something BLURRY behind Marcus on this one woohoo!

I started editing my pictures with "Windows Live Viewer." It would boost contrast, add warmth or saturation..brighten etc... And of course I thought the more the better!

Another one I loved at the time...nuclear grass is awesome! And the back/side of my daughters head running out of the frame..more artistic composition of course. I watched the little Nikon DvD my camera came with about 10 times...And one thing they talked about was the rule of thirds. So I of course took that to the extreme, just like my editing

Maria's 3 month pictures. I picked up some black velvet and fuzzy fabric from Jo-anne's. I didn't understand much about lighting, except that natural light was better than lamp light for some reason, and still editing in Live View. After this little photo shoot I was starting to feel like maybe I wanted to do more than just snap family pictures...

Close friends of ours were expecting they're fifth baby soon, and I asked if I could practice some maternity pictures with her. I had really started believing that if you like taking pictures, your goal should be to do things like maternity/engagement/wedding/newborn/portrait sessions for other people. Otherwise you weren't really "doing" anything with your photography/talent. This is a mindset that has taken me the full duration of this year to understand and step outside of for myself.
Here were a few from her awesome maternity shoot. She of course loved them all, and I edited them right there in her living room in 15 minutes with live view haha.

This was the beginning of me "squeeze people into the frame with terrible in camera cropping" phase started. I thought this was "artsy." The blown out grass is blurry, that means it's artistic!

Oh man..and I also got this idea that the lens filters at Best Buy were just the coolest thing ever. I found one that would MAKE my pictures blurry just by putting it on! Because out of focus blurry, glowing people are coooool.
My son Aaron riding horses at his friend's house. The horse really does have a head...I just didn't think he needed it

*continued*

Aayria · Jun 8, 2011

I grew more and more obsessed with taking pictures as often as I possibly could. My mother in law thought I was crazy when she came over with my niece/nephew for lunch..and I pulled out a ladder to stand above them while they ate some mac'n cheese. This was a good phase, though..I learned to understand focal lengths and how they effect distance, distortion, viewing range etc... Started to play with the wide range on my kit lens.

I joined The Photo Forum at this point..and just wanted to absorb as much information as I possibly could! I started posting my awesome pictures for CC, and thankfully people were very honest. I started thinking about lighting, and realized that my kit lens was holding me back. (among other things..but I totally thought it was just the lens at the time LOL.) Purchased my 50mm 1.4. The day it arrived I snapped these...BLURRY STUFF YESSSSSS!

Then my friend had her baby....and I had my first newborn shoot! I watched hundreds of you-tube videos about newborn posing, lighting, you name it! I only retained about 5% of it all..but I felt really prepared for this. I even hand knit a little wool cocoon for the baby for this shot:

I still love the mood of this one so much, even though I understand the technical flaws better. This was also when my crop sensor started bothering me, turning my 50mm into more of a 75mm. The hands in this look bigger proportionately than the would with a true 50mm focal length, but I still loved it.

Oh man I'm embarassed for this one... I was trying to get "the pose" allllll the baby photographers on youtube had. I actually have an edit saved somewhere, where I tried to clone the polka dot pattern back all over the baby's blown hat, but it was seriously terrible lol. I had downloaded Gimp to help my editing at this point.. But I had no idea how to use layers or anything. Just blur, clone, and heal.
Skin tones....well suffice to say they were nowhere close to being on my mind yet LOL.

A family from church was celebrating their daughter's Quincenera (spanish sweet 16), and asked if I could take some pictures for them to remember the event. I learned that I LOVED photographing events as they unfold, and on the spot. I put on my nifty 50, and set the camera to "vivid" mode JPEG...because we all love over saturated vivid pictures, they're artsy!

This was also where I learned that focussing wide open on my 50 1.4 was reallyyy tricky. But so what if a picture is out of focus, just saturate it to death and put some BLURRY stuff in haha

I started thinking about getting light in the eyes...An icky yellow tungsten lamp outside with indoor flourescent light white balance works, right?

Then I practiced on another friend's little boy. This was the beginning of my alien eye phase...Learning how to sharpen/brighten brush in Gimp. Lighting was still my enemy.

Blurry orange glowing baby eating a guitar! Totally cute, right?

Ok now this one... I am SOOO embarassed to post, but since this post is to share my growth I'm going to put it out there. I had started thinking the "key" to getting creamy, nice skin, was just to overexpose. And as long as you had strong light somewhere, you were golden! I am sooooo sorry to this little boy for creating this scary picture. I actually thought at the time, that it was amazing ><

Aayria · Jun 8, 2011

Practiced some more on my brother and his wife, as an anniversary gift for them. We set up a shoot during sunset in the park where they had been married. I didn't understand back lighting or lighting at all really, but according to my handy dandy Nikon DvD, "Golden hour" was the BEST time to take pictures.

And then these arrived. Yes..I actually photographed the occasion LOL

At this point, I was convinced that I needed to think about going into buisiness. I had a list a mile long of photograph equipment I *had* to save money for, and I was inspired by all the amazing photographers online. I could do that...I was determined to do what they did. I loved the feeling of creating pictures for people and seeing their faces light up at them. As a naturally introverted person, the camera gave me a sense of liberation. I was more comfortable being with people when I was doing something I love for them.
So I started a basic website. It was really bad...like really really bad lol. There was a blogspot blog, and a flash website that was confusing to navigate, slow to load etc.. I called our insurance company to begin setting up insurance for a buisiness. Contacted an accountant, researched about taxes, liscensing etc... And had everything in place.
And I started portfolio building. This was with a family I met through the friend I did the baby pictures for.
The theme of the shoot could be titled:

"What do you mean there's a weed in my face???"

I joined another photography forum that was closed to only a handful of members. The criticism there was honest and brutal, but wonderful. Unfortunately, being such a small forum, people were unable to post very often, and eventually life caught up with us all and the posting became pretty non existant. But man I made an "impression" introducing myself with these beauties

Aayria · Jun 8, 2011

I didn't understand why people didn't instantly LOVE them! But I trudged along with PB'ing..

Something started to click on this session:

I realized I needed to start working on CONNECTING with my subjects. This was a shot from a random family get together...I call this the ULTIMATE "don't look at the camera!!!" shot LOL

Joined another large photo forum, with harsh criticism..went back and forth between it and TPF. And my sister in law (the other one) was expecting her third baby =) I posted these here, and was super happy that other people really seemed to like them!

Then I took the plunge. I had everything in place and my portfolio was coming along nicely. I took on my very first paid senior session. This girl was SO much fun to work with, and I learned more from this shoot than any other up to that point.

Her friends and family LOVED these so much that I book my second paid session the same night I posted her preview on facebook! I was on cloud nine! =)

Aayria · Jun 8, 2011

Those two session back to back were a wake up point for me. I did not like shooting for strangers. I loved the initial excitement of meeting new people and sharing the final pictures with them..But I hated taking their money. And I hated that after they ordered prints, that was it. I might never hear from them again. I put something very personal into every image I take, and I disliked not sharing anything personal with my subjects. I was starting to feel like maybe business wasn't right for me now, but I still didn't understand how else I could use my new love for photography in a meaningful way unless I was offering it to anyone who wanted it, professionally. I also struggled with very strong self criticism...No matter how much people "liked" my pictures..I was never happy with them, and wondered if I really was any good, or just another MWAC.

During this period, I took on a few more sessions.

Took a few here and there of my kids as I found time...

My sister in law had her baby!

And then she had a small, intimate, candle light wedding. She asked if I'd bring my camera...So I brought the family and took these:

Finally I made a difficult decision. I stopped taking pictures for strangers, or friends of friends of friends etc... I stopped scheduling shoots for every weekend and sometimes twice a week. I decided to make my photography personal again. Somewhere in the middle of everything, I had lost the original reason I got into it. The pictures of other people's children on my computer were far outweighing the pictures of my own children. And when I did find time to photograph my own kids, the results were nowhere near what I could accomplish during my "me" time away from the family, concentrating on others.

Aayria · Jun 8, 2011

I made it my goal..to capture beautiful memories of my OWN children, or for close friends/family...in a way that I could be proud to share, and in a way that allowed me to continue growing as a photographer and mother. In a way that didn't take away from the limited, precious time I've been given to share with my family, but added to it.

This is still one of my favorite shots ever.

And I fell in love with black and white photography.

My in-laws from Easter:

Did a few pictures last month for a close friend's baby...and after this I knew for sure I had made the right decision to step away from buisiness. Taking pictures here and there for friends and family while I focus on my own children is such a better fit, and so much more fulfilling right now. I was able to take these without any pressure, while my kids played with the baby's mom a few feet away.

And that pretty much brings us to the present! =) Here are three from this week:

If you actually made it through all of that, thank you!

I'm so honored to be a part of this group! My goal for my second year and beyond is to make a serious effort to post more often for CC! I don't ever want to reach the point where I feel like my photography is "good enough.." I hope that maybe one day I'll be able to take pictures that inspire others the way so many have inspired me. This post has helped me, personally..because I can see the progression I've actually made, and it's a humbling feeling! I often feel like I'm "stuck" or that I haven't made any progress...but looking back I really do feel like I've learned so much this year.
Still shooting with my D5000 and 50mm 1.4... But maybe one day I'll move up to that full frame I dream about with pretty lenses like the 135 2.0 or 70-200....or something fun like a nice wide angle. But I've really learned as far as camera equipment goes that you *CAN* push what you have to do amazing things no matter what your gear.

Have fun shooting!
~*Ashley

subscuck · Jun 8, 2011

Very nice, but long, post! Being able to see your progression like this should serve as inspiration for newbies. Glad to see you're back.

thebutler4 · Jun 8, 2011

Its funny .. as I read your post, I though about 3 days ago when I went threw my old stuff that I too thought was just out of this world ... and like you I see great progression in my photography skills as well .. its great that we went threw so many similar times .. lol I think that most newbies do ..

Awesome Thank you for sharing

Aayria · Jun 8, 2011

Thanks, both! It's a huge help for me..just going back and seeing all of these posted together...I can see exactly which areas I've grown in, and which areas I have struggled with/still struggle with from the beginning. But I have loved every step of the way. =)

Eventer · Jun 8, 2011

Wow i really enjoyed that! you canr eally see how much you imporved throughout! thanks for this post - Found it pretty imspirational

mybelle · Jun 8, 2011

Thanks for sharing! I'm a noob--just figuring out the "Wow! I can blur the background!?" sort of thing--and am so inspired by this post!

Derrel · Jun 8, 2011

That's quite a progression. As the post goes on, more and more creativity and compositional nuance shows. You're hitting on all cylinders now! Thanks for showing us so much of your work.

Dao · Jun 8, 2011

2 THUMBS UP

Butter Jeweler · Jun 8, 2011

I like whole thing with the horse, nice picture and your caption is very funny too ;D

Aayria · Jun 9, 2011

Eventer said:
Wow i really enjoyed that! you canr eally see how much you imporved throughout! thanks for this post - Found it pretty imspirational

Thank you!

mybelle said:
Thanks for sharing! I'm a noob--just figuring out the "Wow! I can blur the background!?" sort of thing--and am so inspired by this post!

Thank you, I'm so happy to hear it has helped people! =) It's a bit embarassing to put some of my earlier shots out there for the world to see....but I am proud of what I've learned so far, even though I still have so far to go! Starting out on TPF was a great choice, I met so many great photographers who were more than willing to offer solid advice =)

Derrel said:
That's quite a progression. As the post goes on, more and more creativity and compositional nuance shows. You're hitting on all cylinders now! Thanks for showing us so much of your work.

Thanks, Derrel!! Great to hear from you again =)