A Day Trip to Santa Ynez

My sister-in-law turned 30 yesterday. I tried to plan a get away with Carl and I to go with my sister-in-law and her friends to wine taste, but Carl couldn't make it due to sitter problems so I went by myself. A kid-free day is so rare to me lately I just take it where I can get it and don't complain.

I got my camera back from the shop on Friday and thought taking a bunch of pictures on Saturday would give my camera a good test run and give me a chance to see how the repairs went. First thing to note, REMEMBER to double check your camera settings when you get it back from the shop. I guess I take it for granted that my camera is always set how I want it and I don't need to recheck anything except the ISO and exposure settings when I am taking pictures. I manually meter everything so those are the only two features I care about regularly. Well my camera was completely reset and I didn't realize it so all my pictures were taken in JPG yesterday. Nothing too dramatic, but gave me a chance to see how my exposure work when I don't have the leeway of RAW formatting. Also I took a couple of under exposed shots so I could bump up my shutter speed, knowing I could fix it in Lightroom and in RAW. So definitely some learning experiences on this trip. Its harder to fix an underexposed JPG than RAW file.

We started off the trip on a train ride from Burbank to Santa Barbara. I played around with my exposure in the train to see what I could get with the back lit subjects and the indoor setting using all natural light. Here is a picture of my sister-in-law that I got working in that environment.

Then we got off the train, and that is a good opportunity for a group picture. I risked it and only took one frame of the group shot because I think everyone was looking. Probably won't do that again, but we were in a hurry so I made a sacrifice. My brother and I are missing from this photo, but it is all of Annie and her friends.

The last of the people pictures I wanted to share is a portrait of my brother and his wife. It is fun to see how I have evolved as a photographer. About 4.5 years ago we were at this exact same winery and I took a picture of them in the exact same spot. Here is the side-by-side comparisons. When I took the original I was just starting to think in portraits and portrait photography.

March, 2006

October, 2010

The rest of the pictures of people were more for Annie than for my portfolio so I won't share those, but I did take some detail shots to test out some new shooting techniques and just have some fun. This first image is in the wine cave or the cellar at Gainey. 

It is still crush season because it has been a really cool year and the wineries can't harvest the grapes until the weather is very warm. It was raining all last week as an example. So the vines were still full of grapes. I have never seen netting on the grapes before, but this is what it looked like at Roblar. I am assuming they put on the netting because the grapes are right next to the parking and they don't want people sampling.

Then I wanted to see what it would look like photographing wine glasses. These are such reflective surfaces it really is hard to get a good photograph with the light bouncing all over the place and me being unable to control that light. I decided to take some pictures of "the pour" in a shallow depth of field just to experiment.

Cheers to a fun day of wine tasting, lots of fun picture taking opportunities and lots of good wine.

Telling a story

My camera is still in the shop, so here is another one from the archives...

The more I shoot this year the more I realize my style of photography is evolving and I am changing my interests. For the last 5 years I really liked shoot headshot, family type portraiture and it was a great challenge and very full-filling to me. As I start to shoot even more pictures of my children and bring my camera into my everyday life I realize my style is changing.

For years, I told myself I have no interest in being a wedding photographer. Working Saturday nights sounded horrible because it was my night off and I loved going out, but I was in my 20s then. Now in my 30s and with children I realize I do nothing on Saturday night so what do I care anymore? This thought got me thinking, is wedding photography really for me?

So this year I have been experimenting. Although I haven't been asked to any weddings or even asked to photograph brides-to-be, I realized I can still practice through other means. So for a couple months every birthday party I attended I would practice on the kids. Weddings to me are telling the story of that day in a very beautiful way. It goes from capturing the bride to all the little details. In all my photography I really try to do that, capture what that moment in time really means.

So here are a few pictures from some birthday parties I took earlier in the year. These first images are from Emma's 2nd Birthday. She was having a "Blue's Clues" party, and fun celebrating with her friends. It was my first party to experiment and it rained in the middle of the party. Also Elliot was sleeping in my ergo most of the time creating challenges while shooting.

  

   

The next birthday party I photographed was William's 1st Birthday. For this party I had just come home from a week in Ojai with the boys and both were sick the entire time we were there. So when I got to this party I was TIRED, but since this was a good friend I thought I would take some pictures. The settings on my camera were a little off, but I learned a valueable lesson. 

 

These next pictures are of Molly's 3rd Birthday. I think I was finally getting the hang of event photography and photographing children and the details. I feel like this day came together really nicely and I was rested and had Carl watching both kids for a lot of the pictures so I could remain focused.

The last birthday party I photographed was a party for four, three-year-old girls who all turn three two days apart. They celebrate their birthday together every year and I was determined to get at least one shot of all four girls. This was the final effect of all my practice and I feel like I was starting to get the feel of this event photography and really coming into my own. It definitely gave me the confidence to start thinking about going there.

A Eureka Moment

I'm a mom of a three year old so I have bad days. Especially when he is sick and doesn't stop whining. Illness are drawn out longer and are more exhausted with him at 3 than they were at 2. So this morning after a night of Erik crying because he had a cough we couldn't control I decided I needed to go for a walk. Actually I have been feeling the urge to exercise for a week or now so. It is that "moment" I have been waiting for when I am motivated to exercise instead of just thinking I have to exercise. I have been waiting for my Eureka moment ever since Elliot was born.

Well this morning after breaking up a few fights, realizing Erik could go to school, but his mood was too unpredictable if he cough and had to stay home, I really just needed a break. A break with two children is just impossible, there is no alone time, no me time and you are at the mercy of their moods. This is why I have found it so hard to exercise because I don't know how to fit me into this equation. This morning I decided it was time to take matter into my own hands and by 8:30 I loaded everyone into my car and headed to the bike path.

I came prepared with books, cars, trains, anything to keep them entertained so I could power walk for an hour or so. I have tried this in the past, but always with limited success. Erik always wants to walk and will never stay in the stroller, in the old days he would drag his feet on the stroller hindering my progress. So today I put my phone in the stroller in case of emergencies and started walking; then Erik grabbed my phone.

Eureka! That is when I realized I could do this. Erik can play games while I walk and the problem is solved. The games are educational and he is learning how to spell and read so I don't mind him doing this and skipping tv in the morning. Elliot is content to just sit back for the ride and never complains. So today I got to walk for a full hour and even when I let Erik out to burn off energy he kept up and behaved. I really needed a break on the exercise front. So I decided every single day I am going to do this and get into a routine with the boys. We will head to the bike path around 8 and finish up at 9 allowing us to head to preschool or music class or any other activity we have planned in the morning. For me it is a time to clear my head and start my day with endorphins, my favorite way.

Well today towards the end of the walk Erik started taking pictures with my iPhone. As a photographer you can imagine how I encourage him to take pictures. I even had my mom get him a camera for his 3rd birthday so he can take pictures on his own. Anyway since I can't post my own images I thought it would be fun to post Erik's interpretation of our walk this morning. All images come from Erik's perspective.

  

Landscape Photography

When I first started taking pictures I was intimated by people so I started with landscapes. I took many pictures over and over of gorgeous landscapes, but couldn't seem to get very excited or passionate about landscapes. I think to be a really good landscape photographer you have to invest in good wide angle lenses, carry a tripod around everywhere and really be willing to hike and make the extra effort it takes to get that amazing picture. I just didn't seem to have that type of commitment. I HATE bringing a tripod along with me and my landscapes were never what I wanted them to be. Once I started getting brave enough to photograph people my landscapes were long forgotten.

A couple weekends ago I went on a girls trip to Napa and it was crush season. What that means it that the grapes were full on the vines and it was very very green and gorgeous. This landscape photography is more up my alley. I taste wine, look down below and capture an image. It doesn't take much effort. I do have a couple images I took with the idea of doing some HDR images, but I'll save that for a later date. For now I'll stick with the simple stuff.

The challenge with taking landscapes while I am on vacation is that I don't like to travel with a lot of equipment. I just take along my 50mm lens so I can put it in my purse for freedom and just pull it out when I am inspired or see an exceptionally good portrait. These images are what I can pull off with no tripod and a 50mm lens and a little bit of Lightroom magic.

Then there are the "natural" close ups I was a lot more interested in creating. Give me a shallow depth of field and and an interesting subject and I'll know exactly what my vision is and how I will create it.

I did mention that I bring out my camera for really good portraits or when I have an inspiring background and beautiful subjects. This mother/daughter portrait is probably my favorite from the whole trip.

Down, but not forgotten

Today I had a minor setback. While I was photographing the adorable 11 week old, Oliver, my camera just stopped working. This kid was too cute for word. We waited until he was napped and fed to make sure he delivered the goods. Whether it was his temperament or sleep or food, he gave us lots of smiles and looked at me which is not always easy at this age.

Then in the middle of my photographer flow, my camera got a terrible error and stopped working. I switch batteries, lenses, everything, but it just wouldn't work. I had to cut my photo session short which is embarrassing when you are with a client, but she understood. I immediately drove to the camera repair shop. It looks like my motherboard went out. I know I have a digital camera, but I don't exactly think in terms of motherboard for a camera.

So waiting for the repair estimate that will come later today, but it looks like my photography is put on hiatus for the week. I am in a hurry to get it back because I have a mini photo shoot next week with 4 different clients. I might be renting my camera that weekend. So for now my blog will not be forgotten, but will be neglected. I sure I will think of lots of cool posts or look in my photo archives for some other ideas.