New Camera!

I think that often when people become parents, they examine their life to see if there's anything they want to do differently now that they are "role models".  Maybe some people don't - we didn't do much of that except that I try (unsuccessfully) not to swear as much.  One thing that struck me in our first weeks as parents was that I was unhappy with the quality of pictures I was taking.  I want every new ability captured for all time in HD quality!!!  Or something like that.  I've never been dissatisfied with the photographs I've taken in the past, but once I had Jamie I found myself wanting to develop some picture-taking skills.

I contacted a family member who was able to give me some very good advice, purchased a camera - a Nikon d90 if you care about such things - two lenses and a flash, and we're off!  I was impatient for the camera to arrive, and in the interim bought "Nikon d90 for Dummies" and read it cover to cover 3 times.

So far I have enjoyed this new hobby in the extreme.  I am a picture taking fool.  I mean, if your baby is throwing a tantrum because he pushed his favorite toy just out of his grasp, why wouldn't you want to capture that in fine detail?

I think one the of things I've come to love about photography, though I am still very much a fledgling,  is the ability to create an interpretation of a moment through the photograph itself and in the way it is edited.  I enjoy taking a photo and manipulating color, etc., to achieve something that I am much more satisfied with than the raw image.  I also like that fact that I can now make it look like I took a good picture to begin with while I am still learning how to use aperture, shutter speed, and iso together to create quality images.

Case in point, I was doing a "Hook Em" series for Jamie's godmother.  I had Jamie in the guest bedroom where we get the best light downstairs, but still struggled to get the picture that I wanted.  Hellllooooo, editing programs.  Here is the original image followed by my edited version.

Aside from my excellent cropping skills, I was able to punch up the color in the orange "H" and "O" so that all the oranges looked to be a similar shade.  I also used  a blur effect on the blanket Jamie was sitting on so that you don't see all the wrinkles etc., and there aren't as many distractions from the main event.

I'm looking forward to continuing to take pictures of my sweet boy and learning more about photography as we go along.  Here are a few of my favorite images so far: