Never Thought I’d Be Buying Lenses

Well people. I have finally done it. After countless photographers made the recommendation, I have finally gone out and bought a 50 mm 1.8 lens. Let me just say – I love it. For those of you who are new to the photography scene, this specific lens is super duper cool. It allows you to get real close to your subject, and if you adjust the aperture you can blur most of the picture around what you want to focus on. You can always adjust the aperture when using a kit lens too, but those lenses are usually capable of very little aperture-wise, which means you wont have great results if you are trying to blur your background.  With the 50mm 1.8 you can easily blur both foreground and background!! This is a random shot I took last night while playing with the settings. I have done absolutely no editing to this picture. This is straight up raw dreaminess. Notice the lens flare in her skirt.

Anyway here are some other photos I took of our lovely pets yesterday.

A little cuteness never hurt anyone!

This little puppy’s name is Kostos. He is the size of a pony.

And this is Koshka (Russian for kitty) but we call him Koshi.

And this is Rajah Bear.

If you’re interested in learning to take better photos check out  this site. 

So helpful.

Practicing Backlighting

So I've subscribed to some photography tutorial videos. The first thing I really wanted to learn was how to take one of those awesome backlit photos, like the one above. So last night I watched some instructional videos about it and planned a photo shoot for this morning. Heidi and I got up at 7 and drove to a golf course nearby. The whole course was covered in dew so the grass reflected a ton of light which made for a very glowy picture. I kind of love it. I'm having so much fun practicing my photography. I'm so happy we decided to get a DSLR. It is so worth the money for memories like these!

The shot above was pretty much the only usable image I got. Trying a new technique on a living, breathing, toddler is not easy work. She really didn't want to sit in her fancy new chairs that I just bought. Instead, she preferred carrying them around. When I sat her down in them anyway, she just screamed. Hard work indeed. I still kinda like these photos anyway, even if aren't optimal portraits.