Back in the saddle.

The last few years, I have been doing photography still. (Let's face it -- I never really left.)
My schedule has been very limited -- I haven't done many shoots -- but I still have stayed active behind the camera. (Most of the stuff I've photographed has been second-shooting for Juhl Photography, mostly weddings, but also a few senior shoots as a second camera, too.)

This year has brought me more business than I expected.
I photographed a dear friend's senior portraits in the Spring, as she was getting ready to graduate from Colorado State University in May.

Then I photographed two weddings in July -- one for the aforementioned senior's cousins and one for a coworker.

Krista and I have photographed at least six weddings this year together (including my two) but that's just what I remember -- there are probably several that I'm forgetting -- and there's another one coming up in a few weeks.

Let's see, what else has happened in the last few years photographically....

• I  learned that you need to back-up your back-ups. (Two of my portable back-up drives lost the ability to function. The data is still there but no computer can currently read or write to them.) That little thing cost me every photograph I'd taken from 2009-2015. Oops.
• I've been photographing a shit ton with my phone. (Especially since I got an iPhone 6 a few years ago.) Mostly food and my dog, but hey, it counts. 
• I have two Instagram accounts: one for personal use and one for photography.
• I fell in love with Nikon. I remember posting an update where I borrowed a camera from my community college, and it was a Nikon, but I don't remember if that was on this blog or my personal one. Anyway, to sum up what that post said, I borrowed a Nikon from the school and fell in love with its color abilities. I have shot a few weddings with one of Krista's cameras this year (some of my lenses stopped functioning properly) and she shoots exclusively Nikon. I fell in love with them. I bought a new camera yesterday -- a Nikon D3300. We shot our first wedding together last night since I got it -- and I loved it. The biggest thing to get used to (besides where the buttons are that controls my stuff) is that the lenses come off opposite of Canon. Yikes. I love that we can share equipment now -- that should make things easier.
• I was hoping to get a better camera than that -- it's very similar in range to my Rebel XSi in terms of what's on the market these days -- but that's still something for a future time. (Heck, this thing is already more MP and more fps than my Rebel, so I consider it a step up.)
• I have also enjoyed shooting videos lately. Ok -- really only one. Krista had me come along with her to a quinceneara and I shot video while she did stills. But it was enjoyable. (And it was with her D5100.)
• I spent some time with Creative Suite 6, and am now onto PhotoShop CC. It's wonderful.
• I changed my photography business name. It was Rebbecca.Ella Photography -- a name I adopted because it's my first and middle names and I thought I wouldn't have to change it once I got married -- but I have since changed it to Feathered Penny Photography to align with other endeavors I'm pursuing, want to pursue, or could potentially pursue. (My brain is ever thinking.)
• Most importantly, I have been haunted by photography the last few years. It has ever stayed on my brain as something that I feel like I should (and want to) pursue more -- and that hasn't changed, aside from being further fueled by discontent in other areas of my life.

So what's next?

I plan to reinvigorate this blog. Do more posts. (Especially now that I have a few weddings of my own to blog on here.)

I plan to post regularly about other things -- you know, those things that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog: inspirations, information, photography tips and tricks, etc.

That's it, really.
Not a heck of a lot.

I'll be posting more regularly, so see you soon! 

Before and After

When I edit a non-artistic, non-editorial photograph, I do not try to overwhelm the image, as it is the main source of beauty and information.

I do cropping, tonal corrections, sharpness and clarity increases, and some retouching, but for the most part, what I see in-camera is what comes out on your disc.

Take a look at this example from my recent e-session:

The image on the left is the way that it came out of the camera, and the image on the right is the way it appeared before it was (nearly) done. There is a bit of shadow-lightening work that I still have to do, but, as you can see, the image remains mostly unchanged. There was a bit of color enhancement (notice how much more vibrant her hair appears?)), a bit of retouching (on his jacket) and some sharpening, but what you see is just an enhanced version of what I shot.

Ok, Ok: I Did It

For the longest time, I was editing with Lightroom 2, and using Photoshop Elements 6 for when I wanted to put watermarks on my images.

Well, I finally broke down and installed Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 6. (And deleted the dated Elements.)

Now, I can edit and watermark without leaving a single program.
I still haven't quite gotten skin retouching down yet in CS6, but I am working on it.
The patch tool is quickly becoming my friend! =)

In other news, I am going to be quite busy over the next 46 days.
I have a maternity-cum-family shoot on Sunday. The mama's due in approximately three weeks with her second daughter. So excited. =) I am in the process of making a belly sash for her to wear. It's my first go, so I'm a bit nervous. (And most of it will be hand-sewn, because I am still unfamiliar with a sewing machine!)
I have two engagement shoots over the next month. One of the couples wants to mail out their photos with their invites before Christmas. The other couple is easy-peasy on time, and just wants it done before the end of the year.
Also coming next month is another wedding. Yep, I am second-shooting my fourth wedding next month! I am so excited.

All of this coming work is a blessing, and I welcome it.

Canon vs. Nikon

In my studio class, there exists a pretty even ratio of Nikon-to-Canon users. The other two students in class shoot Sony.

(Seeing all the trouble that the instructor is having getting equipment to work for the Sony shooters, I am very glad that I did not decide to go with a Sony Alpha when I purchased my dSLR.)

There seems to exist a strange divergence in the world between Nikon shooters and Canon users. (Or so it would seem.)
We even tease each other in class about it.

I like to think that I purchased a Canon camera because the definition of "canon" is: "a general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged."
...but, that's not why.

I chose a Canon because the point-and-shoot camera that I used directly before purchasing my dSLR was a Canon PowerShot SX110IS.
It was amazing: macro capabilities, non-Auto settings, manual focus, selective focus... It was beautiful. It was definitely a stepping stone on the way to a dSLR from a full-auto point-and-shoot.
I figured (and was proven correct!) that sticking with the same brand when it came time to purchase a dSLR was beneficial, in that I would already be familiar with the symbols and jargon. Because I owned a Canon previously, it was so much easier to acclimatize myself to a heftier camera.

At a wedding I shot a few years ago, the photographer I was working for handed me the film Nikon she was shooting with and asked for a photograph of her with her brother, the groom. I was a little intimidated, to be honest.
I had only had Betty (my camera) for a few months and was not 100% sure of what she was capable of. (I knew what I was doing, but I definitely did not know as much as I do now!) Then here I was, on the job, being handed a film Nikon. I felt like a stranger in a large city: I had only ever shot my parents' 35mm film camera* before, and it had a fixed-range lens.
Luckily, the lens on the Nikon had an auto-focus feature. I looked through the viewfinder, composed my shot, and pressed the shutter. When I wound the film to take a second frame, it sounded as though more film passed through than what should have, but I snapped a second photograph and then handed the camera back.

That was my grand extent and use of Nikons.

So, when a fellow photographer friend of mine came to me a few months ago, asking for help with her camera --she didn't quite understand white balance among other things and had been shooting full-auto for a while-- I filled in the basics.
Some of what I answered left her confused: she didn't know if her camera could do that or not, or where the button was to do that. We looked up an online manual for her camera, and I showed her a few things from what I had read. Then I encouraged her to go home and read her manual. I remember saying something to the effect of, "What you read may not make sense right now, but when you're out shooting and you want to do something, or you're reading a photo blog and the Nikon-shooting photographer mentions a certain technical aspect that can be done in-camera, it will click, and you will get it."

She's a lot more experienced now, and can navigate her Nikon a lot more expertly.
I don't think I had much to do with it. She has had a lot more time to use it now.
(She admitted to me today that she still hasn't read the manual. Ha.)

...notice I said "was" a few paragraphs ago: That was my grand extent and use of Nikons. 
I shot maybe 50 pictures with her Nikon today, quite breezily.

I was not intimidated this time.
(Dare I say it?) I even liked it...
In fact, I would love to own a D90 or a D7000 one day, yes'm.

Honestly, I don't get the whole debate between Nikon shooters and Canon shooters.
I really don't.
Any photographer knows that the most important piece of photographic equipment that a photographer can have lies just behind the viewfinder.
The second most important piece of equipment lies directly opposite that in the lens.

...but, I will save that discussion for a later blog post.

*I said above that I had only ever shot my parents' 35mm film camera before. That's true, when it comes to the types of cameras that I had shot, in which the film had to be loaded, wound, and then rewound, similar to the Nikon I was speaking about. That old camera was not the only one I had ever shot before digital, however; I used countless numbers of disposable cameras and shot film on at least three others that used film packaged in canisters (meaning: I didn't touch it and the rewinding was done automatically by the push of a button). I did not mention these other cameras in the main part of the blog post because they are not like the Nikon in any way except that they used film.