Photography: What the heck is aperture?

And day two…

The day two topic for this little blog challenge that Jennie’s got going is: Educate us on something you know a lot about or are good at. Take any approach you'd like (serious and educational or funny and sarcastic)

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other then knowing how to really annoy my hubs, I’m really good at photography

here are a few tips from me to you

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The base foundation of photography is light. Without light, and understanding how a camera captures light you’ll never truly know how and while some pictures come out looking great and others don’t. There are three main components to how a camera captures light and forms an image… aperture | shutter speed | ISO

We’re just going to talk about aperture today. Aperture!!

Aperture is the size of the lens opening, and controls how much light is let into the camera. A large aperture means lots of light is being let in and a small aperture means very little light is being let in. Think of blinds on a window, when the blinds are wide open lots of light gets in, when you start shutting the blinds less and less light is let in. Same idea here.

Now the catch is … the smaller your aperture (f) stop is the wider your blinds are open. So an aperture of f1.4 is very large while an f10 is very small. More light is let in at an aperture of f1.4 and less is let in at f10.

Look on the photo above, f/1.4 is a really wide opened, the blinds are fully pulled back/  That means you'll get a LOT of light coming in there, because the blinds are opened as big as they can be (even though it's a small number, 1.4) it's a wide opening.

In contrast, f/16 is a small opening- the blinds are practically closed and light is peeking through a small opening, so very little light gets in there.

Make sense?!

Here is the cool part, aperture is what is used to control your depth of field. So when you get the photos where the object is in focus but everything is blurry it’s that aperture that is being changed.

In the image above, the aperture is switched from wide open to closed from left to right. 2.8 is wide open for a good number of fast lenses out there. You can see how the background comes into focus as the aperture is closed, and less light is allowed in.

 

Hope you all learned something new today!

Story of my life

I’ve been out of it a while but I really do miss blogging and I think this little challenge is the perfect thing to get me blogging again. I feel like I missed a whole year of our life cause it’s not documented on the internet for me to come back to and read.

The day one topic for this little blog challenge that Jennie’s got going is: The story of your life in 250 words or less (or one paragraph... no one will be counting your words... probably)

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so here’s the story of my life

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I was born in Europe and grew up in Colorado and now live in Arizona. I’m not a fan of the desert but the people here make it kind of fun. After spending a lot of time and money going to school and getting degrees, I finally realized what I’m truly passionate about. I’m a photographer of women. A photographer of strong and glamorous women. My life is dedicated to making our dreams come true. I’ve learned to wake up and find something I’m excited about rather then whine about things I can’t change and the mistakes of yesterdays. Today is the only thing that matters, yesterday is a stain and tomorrow is a ghost.

oh and I’m married to the man of my dreams, and have this little doggy that has stolen my heart…

Friday Letters

Another Friday down. What the heck is going on? I can’t believe it’s practically Halloween. It seems that the year just flew by, and I SWEAR it was just yesterday that I was buying Christmas Presents for 2011… I am not ready to do it all over again.

Dear Cleaning Lady thank you from the bottom of my heart for my sparkling house! It has not been this clean since the day we closed on it, and it was brand new. My stainless steal appliances are sparkling, my floors are spotless, my bathrooms are high end hotel quality and my shower stall looks like its been replaced. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You rock! AND it’s literally the best money I have every spent. Dear Lilly, thank you for sleeping through the night, and not getting me up at 3 am so you can go potty and growl at the wind. Dear Tina, thank you for listening and being so awesome. You make Arizona much nicer. Dear Dad congrats on the promotion and the raise, you totally deserve it. Dear Mom, I’m sorry I don’t call and Skype you every single day, it’s been really busy on this end. I still love you. LOTS. Oh and I’m sorry I got snappy with you yesterday. Dear Colorado, I MISS YOU. LOTS. Maybe, I think we should set up a date to meet soon. Dear husband, thank you for cleaning out the garage last week. Since today is your day off, can you work on the backyard and maybe clean up the patio? Yes? That would be fantastic. Thankya. Dear blog, I’m sorry I’ve kind of abandoned you. Seems like I’ve been a little busier then I thought. Don’t worry, I am not armed with a planner, todo lists, ShootQ and some other awesome organization tools. We’ll find time to be together. PROMISE. Dear March, I’m kind of very excited to meet with you this year. It’s going to be awesome. 

It’s Okay Thursday

 

It’s been a while since I’ve linked up with Neely for It’s Okay Thursday. So here I am, on this beautiful Thursday afternoon. Sitting in my unorganized office, while someone else cleans my house, writing about what I think is OKAY.

It’s completely and totally OKAY…

… that I am paying someone else to clean my floors, and bathrooms, and appliances and counters and so on. It’s totally worth me spending the money for someone else to make my house look pretty, so that I can spend more time doing things I love, and being productive.

… to crave a latte every morning, and totally okay to give into buying a latte every morning. That $4.00 a day is not going to make me rich.

… to have just ordered several items from Lulu and not feel guilty about it. Good quality and cute workout clothes are a must. And it’s also okay to justify the high price tag by the fact that these items will last me several years.

… to want to photograph women all day long, and to want to make them feel beautiful.

… that I have to get fully dressed, down to my shoes and put on make-up and do my hair to be productive. Even though I work from home.

… that I have 10 pairs of boots, and still want more. A girl can never have too many boots.

… to plan a girls trip to Country Jam.

… that I love country music and husband doesn’t, even though he’s from Texas and I’m not

… to travel alone. I plan on taking 48 hours every year, and going to a new city that I’ve never been to before, and just wondering around photographing all day long. Honestly, traveling alone is maybe one of the best medications anyone could take

… to choose to be happy, no matter what’s going on in our lives.

On Finding Passion

 

I finally found something I’m passionate about, and it makes all the difference in the world. When selecting a career path at the age of 17 and applying to colleges, having very limited experience in the world, I thought that psychology would be my calling, and not only would I love my job, but I would make lots of money. It turns out, psychology was not my calling. In fact, I hated it. I hated it so much that it didn’t matter how much money I could make.

So after $60k, two years of working for free and an awful lot of biology and chemistry, oh and a piece of paper that states I have a BS in Psychology. I decided that it really wasn’t for me. Instead I picked up a camera, and honestly it wasn’t love at first sight and I never thought I’d want to make a career of it.

Through the years, my camera became my best friend, and I grew to love the beauty that I could capture. I realized that when I look through a lens I see a different world, and I like it. However, I did not realize my passion for photography until I encountered Sue Bryce and feel completely in love with her beautiful images.

People are my passion. Specifically women.

While I love capturing the smile of a newborn, the glow of an expecting mother, the happiness of a family. What I love above and beyond this, with undying passion, is making women look and feel beautiful.

 

Every woman, no matter their age, size, and personal opinion about themselves, is beautiful. AND they DESERVE to have beautiful portraits of themselves. Not simply to feel beautiful for one day, but as a reminder that we are all absolutely perfect the way we are.

Finding your passion should be the first thing you do, before settling for a career. Without passion the days are just long and the weekends not long enough. I’ve found that since, I came to my revelation and discovered what I really love to do, my days have been much more exciting and productive. Not only while I work on my personal photography but also in my 9 to 5 job, my home, relationship and life in general.

Believing in and loving what we do is the only way to live. I find that while I’d like to make lots more money, and could find a job that would pay me twice as much as I currently make between Chimpsy and photography, I love where I am in life and wouldn’t trade it.