Hello Mamas!
Hope you all are having a fantastic summer, and shooting lots of great summer photos of your kids! Read on for updates about our July Meeting & Assignment, and notes from last month’s meeting:
OUR NEXT MEETING
I’m excited to share that we have heard back from Sandra Coan, a local Greenwood area photographer who spoke to our group two years ago. She is thrilled to be sharing her tips and tricks for how she captures classic, beautiful images of babies, twins and kids of all ages! She has generously offered to host our Monday, July 25th meeting at her studio in Greenwood, so mark your calendars for 6:30pm! For those of you who are aspiring pros and have an interest in pursuing maternity photography, Sandra is also launching a two-day maternity workshop in September, see details on her blog!
WORKSHOP UPDATE
..And for those of you who are NOT pros and who are still a perplexed by the settings on your camera, there are still a few spaces left in our August 6th workshop! We would love it if you’d help spread the word! Please email me if you are willing to help out (especially if you are on the Madrona Moms email list , we had a mama who would post the workshops to that list for us but she recently moved to Arizona. Boo.)
Here is some text if you are willing to share the workshop details with friends: (or you can also post the eventbrite link to your Facebook!)
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Mamas With Cameras Workshop: Introduction to Digital Photography!
Are you a mama with a digital SLR camera, but you have no idea how to use it outside of the automatic setting? Does the idea of reading an instruction manual make you nauseous? Are you interested in taking amazing pictures of your kids, but feel a bit intimidated by the technology behind your camera? With an investment of just a few short hours, we’ll get you grounded in the basic definitions and controls on your digital SLR camera so that your photos of your child’s big milestones can be as beautiful and moving as the moments themselves. Come join a hands-on workshop where you can learn, explore and shoot with your camera alongside a bunch of other fellow mamas!
Date: Saturday, August 6th, 1-4:30pm
Workshop space is limited and is on a first come, first serve basis.
About “Mamas With Cameras”: We’re a community of shutter-happy mamas who share a love of photography. Our goal is for all members to develop the ability to take amazing digital photos that document cherished family moments and milestones. We host monthly meetings that are open to all interested mamas. See our blog at
http://mamaswithcameras.wordpress.com!
PHOTO ASSIGNMENT:
Assignment # 1:
Christina Mallet gave the following assignment at our June meeting, and as a plus she is willing to give feedback (and a cute pdf of your image as a polaroid) to anyone who does the assigment:
“Create an image that captures a funny, interesting, beautiful, disgusting, or bizarre juxtapostition. Imagine it’s going to go on a polaroid card. Your image can be of objects, people, people and objects, you, whatever. It should be an image you’re proud of. [Wish I had the image to paste here but the example she showed was an image of a little girl from the waist down, lifting up her white skirt to show off pink rain boots.]
Email your favorite image using the following conventions:
Send to info[at]katrinkas-secret.com
Subject: Your Name, MWC Assignment
jpeg, no larger than 2 MB named as: firstname_lastname_MWC.jpg
What is the title of your image?
Where did you capture this image?
What Camera settings (ISO, Shutter, Fstop) did you use?
What are the light sources in your image?
What drew you to create this image? Why do you like it?
What sort of post-production, if any, did you do?
NOTES FROM JUNE MEETING
Christina talked to us about her boudoir photography and the ways she allows her creativity to shine through in her images.
Creativity- overall, her encompassing banner is not to plan out a session, just go with it.
-Know the rules so you can break them with confidence
-Always climb up on things. Climb a tree, get down on the ground.
-Love your mistakes (remember lens flare used to be a big taboo, now it’s the new hip thing!) Some blurry images that she created were seen as edgy & creative.
-be a ruthless editor of your own work. She waits 24 hours, and then asks herself- is this a good picture? is it captivating?
-Be looking at other people’s work whom you admire. She looks at:
Photo District News, Real Simple Magazine, W, Lucky, Vogue. Rip things out of magazines and try to recreate them.
-Show and don’t tell (eg. in boudoir, having someone do a sexy pose and look right at the camera is too ‘obvious’. )
-Make your edits clean and simple, don’t over saturate the eyes.
-She shoots in Manual Mode and is always rolling the settings up and down to experiment.
-She has a newfound love for blurry images, they don’t always have to be tack sharp.
-In fashion magazines, the cutting edge photos are thought of as weird.
-Flattering angles: shoot from above, avoid overhead light.
-Outdoor spots: she shoots in Pioneer Square, she likes texture and variety. She believes that you can find a great spot to photograph kids if you go deep wherever you are. Look for texture in the background.
-If you are going to invest, invest in lenses. She has a 70-200 L series Canon, 24-70mm and 50mm prime lenses.
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