 Post production of photos is, and has been, a key part of a photographers work. In the past photographers often spent hours in the dark room developing film, and they often employed techniques that would effect the final image. Today the same holds true, except most photographers use digital post processing software.
Photoshop is a powerful tool and can be used to help create amazing images; however, it can also be overused and caused photos to look unrealistic. Some photographers will take post production of photos to the extreme removing every blemish, recoloring hair, smoothing facial wrinkles, replacing missing, and so much more; it's actually a very unfortunate. These things make us who we are, and while we may not like the wrinkles or graying hair they are part of us.
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 Daily life can span the gamut from the mundane to the absolutely crazy, especially when you have a kid or multiple kids running around. Too often though we forget that within our daily life, no matter how crazy, there are moments and things worth documenting and remembering.
I mean sure, as a parent we're always looking for those big milestones we "need" to document: first steps, birthdays, first time riding a bike without training wheels, and the list goes on. But, how many of the daily activities or shenanigans that go on do we overlook because they happen everyday? You may not have thought about it yet, but how long do you think some of those daily activities or shenanigans are going to keep going? Will the kiddo always be coming into the room without undies on and turning around and yelling "Tushie!!" with a big smile on their face (an almost daily occurrence in my house)? Hopefully not, but it's not a shenanigan I want to forget. What about, that smile my boy has as he stands on the stool admiring himself in the mirror while we brushes his teeth? I certainly don't want to forget that, and there are countless others as well. How do we preserve those memories if we don't photograph them? Memory loss happens with old age, it's a fact we can't dispute, and unless your name is Benjamin Button we aren't going to ever get any younger. 10/10/2017 1 Comment Family Adventures: Pumpkin Picking Fall is most definitely upon us, even here in Southern California. Despite the nearly 30 degree temperature changes every day the weather remains nice, sometimes too nice, but this past Sunday was an absolutely perfect day for a scenic drive, pumpkin picking, and apple pie.
Julian, California is a small town situated about 60 miles to the northeast of San Diego. Julian is best known for the apple orchards and is home to the Julian Pie Company, but this quaint little town has a lot more to offer. Among its other offerings, we think Julian's pumpkin patches are among some of the best in the area, so we packed up the car this past Sunday and headed out to pick some pumpkins. Our destination, a little family owned/operated farm outside of Julian proper across from the Apple Tree Inn on the Julian Highway (State Route 79). This is the second year in a row we've gone up to this farm for pumpkins. Last year, we had originally ventured to Julian to pick apples, but only to find out the apple season was already done. We stopped at the Julian Mining Company to check things out there, pan for some gemstones, and happened upon their pumpkin patch across the street. We loved it so much we had to go back this year. The pumpkin patch is located about 200 yards south of the Julian Mining Company's main site, and has tons of free parking. More than just pumpkin picking the pumpkin patch offers a petting zoo with some very friendly goats, hayrides, apple cider pressing, and the opportunity to throw a tomahawk and shoot a few arrows on their archery range.  Recently we were on vacation and spending time with my parents at their home. During the last morning there my son opened a corner table cabinet and found a bunch of old photo albums. He immediately wanted to look through them, so he sat down next to me and we flipped through page by page. I was pointing to pictures and asking him questions like "do you know who that is" and "did you know daddy did that when he was your age"? We flipped through the whole album. And the whole time he commented on photos and made connections to what he remembers. He'd say things like, "I like the beach too" and "I do that". Each comment and expression meant the world to me at the moment. One of the photos we stopped on was of me at about 3-years old, just a little younger then my son right now, washing the car with my dad - really just spraying water everywhere. I don't remember the moment (I was only like 3 at the time), but the way my son keyed in on the photo made me think, what memories I want to preserve for my son so that he can one day sit down with a photo album and have the same experience I was having with him. Last week, when I decided to wash my car, my son got super excited. He was telling me all about washing mom's car earlier, and how he knew what stuff we needed (soap, bucket, water, etc), and how he needed his step stool to help him reach. He even went as far as collecting half the stuff by himself. Of course, any time I can I like to take pictures of my son, but this time the photos had a little bit more meaning behind them. Especially since this was the first time he really helped wash the car. As I think about it, if my son hadn't pulled out that photo album and if I hadn't taken the time and opportunity to look through those photos with him, would the simple event of washing the car with him meant as much to me? Would the photos I created to document him helping me wash the car mean as much as they do now? If those things hadn't happened, I'd still look fondly on the memory of washing the car with my son. But now, now I have a deeper story to tell him and a fonder memory to share with him. That's the reason for preserving these special moments. So that I can remember and preserve them to share with my son later; so that he can share similar moments with his children. What moments are important for you to preserve? How can I help you preserve those moments?
Whether it's through senior photos, family photos, photographing your child at a sporting event, or something else, I'd love to help you preserve your family's special moments. No matter how mundane or simple, sometimes it's not the event/action itself we are preserving, but the story that goes along with. 9/26/2017 0 Comments My Airshow Photography Adventure & 4 Tips to Help You Get Better Airshow Photographs One of my favorite things to do is go to an airshow. Honking big planes, fast jets, crazy cool stunt bi-planes, helicopters, and so much more make these events tons of fun. And with all that's going on it's a great chance to practice and hone photography skills.
Now it's been years since I've been to an airshow, and now that our son is old enough to appreciate the planes we decided it was worth taking him out to one. With our house near the flight path for Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar we had the benefit of watching the Navy's Blue Angels practice for the airshow, and my son was infatuated with them. To be honest, any big, fast, and loud vehicle fascinates him, but he just couldn't stop talking about the Blue Angels. So, on this past Sunday (September 24th, 2017) we packed up the car and headed over to the MCAS Miramar for the airshow and so our son could see the Blue Angels. Since MCAS Miramar instituted a clear bag policy, and we didn't have any clear bags suitable, I was limited on what I could bring as far as camera gear. So, I decided to travel light with my Canon 5D Mk III, my 70-200 f2.8 and 50mm f1.4 lenses, and 5 memory cards (a 32GB and 4 x 8GB cards). I opted for the 5D Mk III over my crop sensor 7D simply because I wanted the better auto focus. The 7D would have given me a little bit more range putting my 70-200mm at a max of 320mm focal length. |
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