Sprinkle, Sparkle, and Glow

A run in the garden sprinklers is always blast for my littles as we move into warmer days. It has been a while since we let them, so a couple of them got caught a little bit off guard!

The Unexpected

When shooting for Looking 4 Eleven, or other really fast moving occasions, I will often shoot in continuous mode, taking at least 3 shots of each framing. Usually everything goes as planned, and I end up with 3 similar shots.  Sometimes you get hit in the face by a laser...

What an interesting though unplanned capture! Hubby swears he sees a skull in the center of the laser...what do you think?

This was the shot I had originally been trying to get. :)

Looking for the shot...

My most frequent outings involve photographing my husband's band Looking 4 Eleven. The live concert situation presents many problems and hurdles that portrait, lifestyle, and nature photography do not, and which I struggled for a long time to surmount. My technical knowledge was sound, I understood the factors that went into a good photo, and how to manipulate them...but my equipment was not completely up to the task. I was using a Canon PowerShot sx130is, and pushing that little baby just as far as I possibly could, which worked pretty well for most other situations, but was growing increasingly frustrated with the results of shots from smaller clubs. They weren't BAD pictures. In fact a lot of people really liked them...but I wasn't satisfied. I knew I could do better.

 At long last I was able to upgrade (to a Rebel T3 since I got a too-good-to-pass-up deal that actually allowed this mama of 7 to hold a dream in the palm of her hand.) Once I was fully comfortable with the camera (which didn't take long...I'd borrowed one from the high school yearbook via my daughter a few times) I added my new favorite lens (50mm f/1.8), and finally...finally I am starting to be able to get what I see live into the shots! Hallelujah!! I'm still learning the ins and outs of the new lens, but I am LOVING them SO much!! Here are some of the most recent images with Looking 4 Eleven at King's Tavern, Paradise, CA:

A Lifelong Love

I have been fascinated by photography since I got my first hand-me-down Kodak Instamatic from my Gramps when I was 7 years old. Oh, how I treasured that little camera!! I saved my pennies for film cartridges and flash cubes. I took pictures of absolutely everything. For years that little camera, and later models, went everywhere with me. (I was so thrilled when a few years later Gramps gave me another Instamatic with an actual flash...I was a kid, flash cubes weren't free...and they kinda scared me! LOL) I have owned many cameras since those early days (some better than others)...but that thrill of capturing images has never waned...