Spent sometime with my niece Lola on friday and saturday..thought it would be fun to try and get some photos of her somewhere other than sat in her bouncy chair and a good excuse to continue that manual practice of mine.
I got a couple of good shots of her on the floor playing with her toys and attempting to crawl...(she didnt get far..she hasnt figured it out yet) but the shot i like the most came out rubbish. I was using my shitty kit lens and i swear to god it takes for ever to focus that one and even longer to change focus. Because she was moving around alot and im shit at manual focus my focus is off on what would of been the best shot..the focus is more on her top than her face and so it is not really usable. It sucks but i still like the shot so i went ahead and processed it anyway..im so disappointed though,i wish id nailed it because i didnt get a second chance.

I hate shooting in my livingroom because the light is so poor..despite having a big floor to celling window the same width as the room..there seems to be no light in there at all and the main light always gives that reddish glow.I was really suprised how well these came out today but i sat with my back to the window so Lola was facing the light and basically hoped for the best..the catch lights..if you can even call them that were rubbish but nevermind.

Abit more manual practice

Ive been in a funk for the last couple of weeks really...with my grandad being so ill ive done nothing but focus on him and finding a job. Im still in a funk and i havent really felt like going out and photographing anything but i thought considering ive been trying to make the effort to get my manual focusing in check..i need to make sure i keep that up and get it perfect.
I spent alittle bit of time in the back garden today and just took a couple of snaps..nothing special and nothing exciting but just alittle bit of practice to keep my skills.

I had abit of fun processing these..just trying something abit different. The flower is actually pink not white but i played around in ACR and applied Marina Millers awesome Code blu setting from her Undergroud Raw Settings and just brought down the expose and brightness to achieve this. The last photo i applied another of Marina's awesome settings..this time Mellow Maitai and just did the same..adjusted brightness,exposure and added abit of black..im not sure whether i like the more bright color version or the mellow maitai..i think i favour mellow maitai abit more though.

Hollydog

My only willing model in the house of late has been my beautiful and lovely dog! Before..after alot of persuasion and general whispering of cat she looked at the camera but recently shes been super helpful and looking at me straight away and for plenty of time..maybe she knows im trying my best to perfect my manual focusing and shes giving me the time to get it right. At least someone is letting me photograph them anyway.





These are my favourite shots...of the literally hundreds i have of her. The first and last were shot in manual...she was a great sport for staying still long enough for me to sort out my focus..in the end i had to reward her with a couple of treats. Shes so lovely...

Manual Practice

Today i went on alittle manual mission to get back into shooting in manual. Recently i have been relying virtually completely on auto and i think that really defeats the object. So i decided to go for a walk and practice my manual focusing..my kit lens is pretty cheap an its takes so much to get from out of focus to in focus..i cant complain though because a proper photographer wouldnt be..but compared to my sigma lens which just takes a slight movement to go from in focus to out of focus..the olympus lens is so difficult.

Either way,i didnt want to go to far as ive not been well for the last few days and just went with my dog for a short walk. I stopped off at a little like field so my dog could run around and i could find some things to shoot.

The light was starting to fade already so i bumped up the iso which has given me some noise but all in all i think i did ok.I think maybe the focus could of been alittle sharper but can i put that down to a crappy lens? or just my crappy skills? I love the dof though especially in regards to the other buttercup but im not sure whether i could of achieved something better.