Facebook - *LIKE*

If you have a Facebook, I am certain that you know what the *LIKE* feature is and how to use it (hopefully :P).  I would appreciate any support you could give and ask you to go like the new Sandra Kendall Photography Facebook page.   I will use this page to post the pictures I do and even offer some good deals for your family, friends, and anyone you know.

You can find the link here: Sandra Kendall Photography - Facebook

Thank you for all of the love and support!

Hummingbirds

My husband, kiddo, and I went out to a friend's house in Corydon and spent the evening hanging around outside.  I enjoyed this opportunity because it gave me a chance to just sit down and play with some of the settings on my camera and to see how these settings affected the picture.  One of the things that I was able to get several pictures of was some hummingbirds that were coming to a feeder in the backyard.  First, let me say that hummingbirds move so fast that it was an accomplishment for me just to get them into a photo.  As soon as I would get the photo lined up the bird would be gone.  It was an experience for sure!

Below are several hummingbird pictures that I was able to take.  The pictures were all taken with different settings.  The most important camera setting for these photos was the shutter speed.  With slower shutter speeds (around 1/100 or 1/125) the wings look blurred because the shutter is open too long.  With the faster shutter speeds (around 1/1000 or 1/1250) I was able to avoid the blur of the wings but with the consequence of my photos turning out darker.

The balance between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO is a constant struggle and something that I work with every time I use the camera.  The aperture greatly affects the amount of light that enters the camera; therefore, changes in this will have a huge impact on how bright or dark your photo is.  Aperture (which is indicated with an F# as seen below) is probably the most confusing thing to me (and probably many other beginning photographers) because it works opposite from what you would think.  A higher aperture lets in less light.  A lower aperture lets in more light.  Shutter speeds are mostly concerned with movement, but also influence the amount of light entering the camera (as noted in one of the pictures below).  ISO deals with the sensitivity to light and is something that I am still learning to balance.  A higher ISO is typically used when it is darker so that you can gather more light, but also results in a very grainy picture (noted below).  Keep in mind that I am definitely far from an expert on any of this, so if you happen to know more than I do and can explain it better.. please do.  I want to learn as much as I can about these settings and how to use them.

If you did not fall asleep in the technical info, let's take a look at those photos.  I will list the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO used in each photo for reference.

1/100s, f7.1, 400 ISO

As you can see, the wings are very blurry but the picture has beautiful color and is bright.  1/100s is too slow when trying to stop movement in a photo and did not stop the motion of the wings.  400 ISO was probably too high since I was outside, but it was getting dark outside.

1/125s, f5.6, 400 ISO  

1/125s shutter speed is not much faster than the previous 1/100s so the blur of the wings is expected.

 1/320s, f5.6, 800 ISO

Once you get to 800 ISO or higher the photos start to look grainy.  This photo actually turned out really well. I was able to blur out the background and prevent some of the blur in the wings.  The photo is a little darker, but not too bad.

1/1000s, f5.6, 800 ISO

 There is very little (if any) blur on these wings.  The shutter speed was set to 1/1000s, which in English means very fast.  1/1000 of a second.  I can't even imagine the speed on that.  I knew this picture would be darker so I bumped up the ISO to 800.  You can start to see that grainy look in the photo.

1/1250s, f5.6, 1600 ISO

The shutter speed on this was slightly faster than the last photo and I bumped the ISO up to 1600.  Because of the faster shutter speed the photo was much darker than some of the previous ones.  It was also getting later in the evening when this photo was taken so the sunlight was starting to fade.  

Signature

I decided to spend a little bit of time on the signature that is attached to my pictures.  After going back to look at the photos, I think that "Sandra Kendall Photography" is quite a bit of text to attach to a photo without drawing attention away from the focus of the picture.  Instead, I think I will use "SK" as my signature.  If/when I start an actual photography business, I think I will still call the business Sandra Kendall Photography, but will use the SK as a way to represent the business.  I think that the font on this is something I may change based on the types of pictures, my mood, or maybe even the season.. haha!  Here is a look at the Top 6 that I have worked with and what I think of them.  Feel free to put in your two cents in the comments at the bottom! I'd love to hear what you have to say.

FYI: I chose my favorite picture from the last weekend at the park to play with the signatures.  So, just a warning that you will have to look at my daughter's face 6 more times today.  :)

I like this one.  It's clear that it is an S & K and it gives an interesting look to the signature.  I like how the letters look like they are painted on.

 This one is a little more formal, but interesting.  I do not think this is one of my absolute favorites though.

 This is way too plain for me.  A signature should represent you as an artist and I just do not feel any connection to these letters.

 This is probably my 2nd favorite signature of the six listed here.  It's not too formal, but it has enough playfulness that I feel like it is a part of me.

 This is my least favorite.  You can barely tell that these are an S & K.  Nope.  *Shakes head* Nope!

This is definitely the one I think I will use the most.  The letters are a bit fancy and I just like the overall feel of the signature.  

Enough about the signature.  I am sure it's definitely not the most exciting topic to most of you. I just did not have any new pictures and felt like working on them for a bit.  If you don't like it... oh well.  I will return with more photos and new experiences in the next few days. 

Another Afternoon at the Park

First, let me say that I am looking forward to Fall.  I want to get out more to explore some photography, but it is so hot outside that I have almost no desire.  And.. Fall is my favorite season.  I look forward to the leaves changing colors, the pumpkins, costumes, and well just everything about the Fall season.  Until then I guess I'll just suffer through the summer heat :)

My husband and I decided to take the munchkin to the park today.  I have taken several photos at this park, but did not want to pass up an opportunity to get a couple shots that I may not have gotten before.  I definitely got a couple cute pictures.  I am quite proud of the fact that I also stayed in manual mode the entire time so all blurred effects and focus issues were done by me and not the camera's preset settings.

 To state the obvious, this is an example of why you should take the cap off before you start taking pictures! (OOPS!)

 Duck!  I love how the water rings surrounded this duck.

 Somehow I managed to get the focus on the grass behind her, but not on Ava.  Hmm.

This one was too cute.  Ava really likes the big slide at the park and this is her climbing up to the top.

This picture was a little blurred and I'm not completely satisfied with it.  But hey.. I can admit when I screw up.. haha!

I attempted this picture the first weekend that I had the camera and managed to focus on the tree, but not on Ava.  I was determined this time to get the picture right.  Guess what?  I got it!

 I love the look on her face.  She is such a beautiful little girl (but I may be a bit biased!).

She had one of her eyes closed while she was looking at something.  Silly kid.

 I like this picture in black and white with the color of her eyes brought through.  

Park Photography

Avalynn (my munchkin) and I decided we wanted to go take a look at a park in Jeffersonville that we had never been to.  We are frequent visitors of the Sam Peden Community Park in New Albany but decided we needed a change in scenery.  I found a park called Perrin Family Park and I think it is our new favorite park.  It is not as big as Sam Peden Community Park, but it is much quieter and very beautiful.  Anyways... this is not a review of the parks so I will not turn it into that.  Onto the photography related stuff!

My goal with the pictures today was to get out of the preset modes completely and depend on my knowledge of photography (the little bit that I have) and go strictly into manual mode.  This is definitely a little tricky, but since I am not taking photos at a wedding it is not a huge issue if the pictures do not turn out.  You cannot replace wedding pictures, but you can definitely take the kiddo to the park again.

I will admit that I came home with about 80 pictures on the camera, but was only completely satisfied with the ones shown below.  I am happy to say that of the 80 pictures I took, very few were not focused correctly and I was able to get the focus on what I wanted in each picture.  That is definitely a mini victory for me!

 As you may notice I have begun to stick my "company" name on some of the pictures.  Photography is something that I am serious about doing, so I might as well start to advertise my work!

 This picture was edited to fade everything but Avalynn to black and white.  I'm really happy with the way that this turned out.

 The one thing that I have learned in the last several weeks is that you want to capture all the small moments as well.  I really like this picture because it is a little playful, but also captures what Avalynn was looking at while swinging.

I did not realize that the park would be set on a ton of small rocks, so she spent most of the afternoon digging the rocks out of her shoes.  I will definitely be sure to bring tennis shoes next time for her!

Wedding Photography - Part 2

Over this past weekend I was given the opportunity to take photos for another wedding.  This time I was a little less nervous because I had the experience of one wedding behind me.  It is always scary experiencing something for the first time.  The second time is still a little scary, but MUCH less than before.

This wedding was interesting because it was at the Culbertson Mansion.  If you are interested (or unfamiliar) with the mansion, you can read a little bit about it here Culbertson Mansion - Wikipedia.  It is considered haunted and definitely interesting!  

From a photographer standpoint, this wedding was a little difficult to shoot because of the lighting.  Most of the rooms were not brightly lit.  This provided a bit of a challenge, but definitely not something I could not work around.  I ended up taking several pictures with different settings to be sure that I got at least one of each important moment that turned out correctly.  I finished the evening with over 600 photos.  After returning home and reviewing the photos, I was able to delete about 200 that did not turn out how I wanted or could not be fixed with a little editing.  Not too bad!

This bride was a pleasure to work with.  She was very excited about the wedding and more than happy to pose for some pictures.  We spent about an hour before the wedding and an hour after the wedding taking photos.  I never realized how exhausting the whole process was until I got home and laid down.  It is definitely a lot of fun and something I hope to continue to do in the future.  

Below you will find some of my favorite pictures from Kayla and Justin's wedding:

 This was one of those moments that was not posed, but provided a beautiful picture.

 This is one of my absolute favorites from the wedding.  Not every picture should be with the faces of the bride and groom.  I believe that this picture easily captured the love these two feel for each other.

 The bride's bouquet is pretty much an essential picture.  This is a decision the bride makes before the wedding that will be in pretty much every picture that day.  It's amazing how such a small choice has such a huge impact on the day!

 Very cute picture.  Again, this was not posed but was a moment that was worth capturing.

 Taking a break on the steps.  The wedding ceremony was getting closer and walking around for pictures can be a little tiring!

 The same picture from above, but cropped and edited a little to give a completely different picture.

 It's not too often that you see the bride taking pictures!

 The bride being given to her husband by her father.

 You can see the love these two share.  

 Looking at the dress before the wedding.  The room was a bit dark and presented some trouble with the picture, but nothing a little minor editing couldn't fix.  I actually really like the way this picture turned out.