Ring Dance Photoshoot

Through a lucky turn of events, I was contacted by a fellow Aggie in reference to taking pictures of her and her boyfriend before ring dance. They were referred to me from another photographer Lauren Thompson with LMT Photography . After a little thought about where to take pictures and a few requests by the couple, I had a pretty good idea about some good shots to take. One of the main ones they wanted was something that looked like Benjamin Knox's "Aggieland Kiss". Recreating shots is alwaysa  challenge and in this case was not entirely possible as I think the scale of his portrait is different than full scale. The shot I got is close to the origional but not the same (right). I had a lot of fun with this couple and they really enjoyed the shoot.

Ring Day

          Although I was not to get my ring this spring, I still went to the Alumni Center to hang out and chat with friends. I brought along my camera because I decided it was the perfect place to practice taking pictures, and practice makes percet. I posted up around the fountain across from the center where I took the pictures of the ladies in the previous post  (two posts ago) since it was familiar to me. I had a few people asking me to take pictures for them and decided I could ask if they'd like me to take pictures with my camera and send them a link to them via email (for free). Low and behold, there are some generous Aggies out there who love having good pictures and it turns out I ended up getting enough tips to cover entry fees to a race as well as park entry fees for both days. Lesson learned, people like their picture taken so I should get better at it so I can take advantage of this desire. Below are some shots I took today.

Priceless

Background about the background

The most impressive thing about photography to me is that you can capture something stunning just about anywhere if you know how to look. This point is proven by the background picture to my blog, which was taken in the front yard of my new house for the fall 2011-spring 2012 school year. I was just standing around waiting for the realtor to show up and show me the house and decided to take out my camera to take a few shots of the place. I got the front, side, wide and close up shots of the house and figured myself done until the realtor got there but as I was standing under the tree in the front yard I decided to point the camera up toward the sun. After adjusting the aperture and shudder speed (ISO100) I was able to get a good shot after 2 or 3 different tries. It was not till I loaded the image onto my computer that I saw the result, a beautiful shot that captured the sun along with the crisp leaves from the tree, I love it. So lessen learned, that one shot you are looking for can come anywhere, anytime, so be ready to take it when it does.

Portrait photo practice made easy

Fountain with the alumni center in the background

This past Monday I got the opportunity to try out my portrait photography skills, which until then had not existed. I had no idea what I was doing so just like anything else I do, I googled it. After spending quite some time on how-to sites and forums, I felt I had a pretty good grasp of the proper lighting and settings to take some decent photos in. I wanted to take the pictures after 5:30pm because the sunset lighting provided a softer and more colorful image than mid-day sun. Due to some scheduling issues however we met at 4:30 and started to take some pictures around a fountain on campus.

The beautiful ladies

I'd like to give the majority of the credit for the photos to the beautiful ladies who volunteered their time to me, they were terrific sports and we egger to get some good shots. With my aperture set high at 20, shutter speed 1/60s and ISO set on 400, I shot the photo seen to the left. I would also like to give credit to Picasa, which helped me nearly eliminate the stitches in the eyebrow of the girl on the right along with some other touch-ups here and there, I did not however alter the color of the photos or apply a theme.


Every day I find myself scoping out every opportunity for a picture on my way to class, it seems so easy to find places to take some awesome photos but a little harder to convince someone to be photographed in them. Hopefully after a few more experiments I will have a more friends interested in getting their picture taken.

Taking these pictures was incredibly fun and a huge learning experience, I look forward to taking pictures of whomever volunteers next, all pictures are free at the moment as I value the experience over the money and it also doesn't pressure me to have to get that perfect shot (although I'm looking for it anyways).