We were honored to be invited to the Wedding Row Open House.  Lisa Foster asked if we would like to be a part of the event and take some pictures of it.  If you have not stopped by “Wedding Row” on Bearden Hill, you really should!  What a great location for brides.  You can stop and smell the flowers at Lisa Foster Floral Design, look for the perfect wedding dress at Wedding Wonderland, and shop for linens from White Table.  All in one stop!  All of these ladies do great work and have awesome products!  You can see for yourself below.  The Wedding Row Open House was such a great idea.  It allowed brides to visit these three shops, as well as many other local vendors.

Lisa Foster’s beautiful spring entryway

…and bouquets

Hello again, time for another mini lesson on your DSLR camera. So…….do you even know what “DSLR” stands for? It’s Digital Single Lens Reflex. Not that that actually means much….but there ya go. =)  Light travels through the lens and a mirror is used to reflect a portion of that light through the view finder. Enough technical jargon, let’s have a quick lesson.

Your camera has 3 main tools to consider before taking a photo in Manual mode: ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Aperture: this is your “F” stop. It will range anywhere from f1.4 (very wide open shutter, letting lots of light in) on up to f22 (very small opening, letting very little light in).

Shutter: this will range from a very SLOW shutter speed (1/8 of a second or slower) to a very FAST shutter speed (1/4000 of a second).

ISO: Usually ranges from about 200 up to 6400.

Time to take a picture.

First, I set my ISO. ISO controls the light sensitivity of your camera. The higher you crank it up, the brighter the image will be. But, the higher you crank it up, the more grain and less crisp detail you will see in the image. So, it’s a love-hate thing. Let’s say I’m outside during the day at the park and it’s fairly bright out. I don’t need that extra light sensitivity, so I turn my ISO all the way down, which is around 200 on my camera.

Next, I want to set my aperture. What am I taking a picture of? Let’s say my son looking up at me from a piece of playground equipment. I would use anywhere from f1.8 to f5 for a single subject. Aperture controls “Depth-of-field,” which is a tough concept that took me a WHILE to totally figure out. I won’t, I can’t, go into it right now, but when you see a picture of something fairly close up in good, crisp focus and the background is blurry, that is a shallow depth-of-field, which usually requires a larger aperture, such as f1.8, f2.8, f3.2 and sometimes even f4. Notice I said “larger” aperture. Yes, the smaller the number, the larger the aperture. So confusing! So anyway, let’s say I pick f3.2.

Lastly, I need to set my shutter. If I already have my aperture decided on, all I need to do is start changing my shutter, looking at the meter inside my viewfinder until the little black tick mark moves to “Zero” like in the image below. When it moves to Zero, that is your camera telling you you have picked the right shutter number to match the aperture you have picked to make correct exposure. Camera is not always right, but this is a great starting point to learn. If you end up with a shutter speed that is below 1/100….then that is probably too slow and will probably be a little blurry, ESPECIALLY if you are shooting a moving object. If you end up with one that is too slow, you can turn your ISO up a notch or two and see if you can get a faster shutter.

Once you’re at zero, snap your pic! However, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when your kid moves into different light, you will have to re-meter, and possibly move your shutter again to get back to zero.

Clear as mud?

We would love to help you! Feel free to ask some questions. Happy Valentines Day!

I feel like we’ve been waiting on sweet Molly for a while now.  I did maternity pictures for Sarah at Norris back in the fall and it seemed so long until her due date.  There was still Thanksgiving, Christmas, and so much more before her due date.  I’m sure for Sarah the time went by much slower.  I know how anxious she was and those last months seem to drag by.  I was also so lucky to be at the hospital to take pictures during Molly’s birth.  It was an amazing experience!  You can see a slideshow of the pictures here.  You might need a Kleenex or two!

I love newborn photos, that is when the baby is as easy as Molly was.  You never know with newborns.  They basically get to call the shots and you have to work around their schedule.  Molly was 12 days old yesterday and couldn’t have done much better.  She took a few snack breaks and bathroom breaks…one that Daddy was lucky enough to catch.  We kept her nice and warm, while Sarah and I sweated, but it was worth it.  She managed to sleep when we needed her to.  Her brother, Kayle, did great too!  I think he loves being a brother.  I couldn’t narrow the pictures down to one favorite of them together, so I added a few.

Sarah had so many cute blankets and clothes, that we couldn’t get to them all.  We did manage to get some really cute shots!  Molly is so sweet!  I even caught a sweet smile for her Gigi.  I think she loves her new hat and sweater that her Gigi made her.  One thing I have to say is that Sarah has some very talented people in her family!  I saw so many cute hats, blankets, paintings, etc. that her family made.  They should start their own Etsy store!  Thanks again Sarah and Wheat for letting me do newborn photos!  I hope you love them!

~Kristy~

Today I got to do some maternity pictures for one of my oldest friends. Jessica and I go way back to 4th Grade. We have some hilarious memories of Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony, swimming pools and ballparks. She’s due March 2, and they are very excited to meet their little boy, Xavier! I plan to photograph her birth story and I can’t wait to be a part of their special day!
~Amy

Sarah has been a friend of mine since college and I was so excited to be with her and her family for such a special occasion. The birth of her baby!!! It doesn’t get much more real than this. I loved every moment of photographing it! It’s such an exciting time and a great event to have pictures of. On a side note, Sarah was my wedding photographer when I got married. I’ll love those pictures forever! With Sarah’s first son, they somehow managed to snap pictures all day long with no film in the camera. What an awful feeling! So, I am really glad to give her these photos of her second child, to keep forever. Molly Elizabeth was a very cooperative baby and didn’t make us wait too long. I can’t wait to hold her soon!