Upcoming delight!

3 weeks since my last blog post, and besides a few birthday parties, graduations, fathers day, and other celebrations I am failing to mention I have been extraordinarily busy! Alas, I am back, writing, and photo editing, for a short while at least... Husband and I have a glorious trip in our near future, a much needed jaunt away from reality, work, and life. Trips to far away lands revitalize ones soul, provide time for reflection and time with your loved ones, and reignites the creative fire that we all have... and I cant wait! Fortunately for me Husband is the most patient and kind man I have ever known, he patiently waits for me to compose the photo just right and never rushes me through any one attraction no matter the quantity of unruly children or annoying adults invading your personal space. 

The photo topic tonight aside my always interesting life? Cropping. Being a mid level photographer I find this an interesting subject, I have met photographers that despise cropping and have described it as "The Devil Himself" (not kidding). These photographers preach that "you must get it right in the camera", while I agree with getting it right in the camera I also think that getting the shot itself is important. Sometimes in life you cant ask a child to "hold that pose, right there Ace!" because lets face it, Ace is 2 and just like a child life is unexpected! Children move, people get in the way, drivers of vehicles pull right into your frame, and what do you do? Recompose the whole shot? Yes, but only after taking the initial photo and catching the original thought. I try to avoid cropping, really trying to "get it right in camera", but sometimes you just have to crop, crop, crop it!  Here are a few examples of where cropping helped emphasize the subject of the photo (and I think was totally acceptable to crop!)

Now, if I hadn't snapped this shot off right at this very moment I wouldn't have caught the sweet moment between Grandma and Grandson. Sure, there is excess in the photo, but if I had zoomed in and focused the moment would have been gone.  What did I do? I crop, crop, cropped it!!

 Cropping the edges and removing the clutter in the photo makes the subject clearer. And, btw, I just love the orange cup!

Another great time to crop? When someone else takes your photo. Lets be honest, no one will take the time to compose your photo like you would... but to be in a photo you have to either have a tripod or use someone else to take the photo. This is the case in this photo, my wonderfully amazing brother took the photo of me, Husband, and their kiddos but didn't really get in there with the camera or the zoom. What did I do? I cropped it!! 







Removing the excess "stuff" around the edges of the photo enriches the photo and all of its little amazing subject. 








Like I said before, I do really try to get the photo "right" in the camera (and you should too!) but in these moments it was more about the moment and capturing its preciousness before it was gone, or before a child moved, looked away, etc... In summary, its not the end of the world if you have to crop but be mindful when you are shooting of unwanted items in your photos and try to eliminate as many as possible before taking the shot!

Must. Shoot. Soon.

My camera is piling on the dust, though not from simply sitting around not being used but primarily because I live in a gigantic dust bowl and this time of year its gale force dust storm winds are no joke. I'm itching, no dying, to get out there and shoot something! However, I am superbly limited in my photo-op choices in this town, even considering its overly present hill-billyness with tractors and old buildings all over town. Maybe the town is interesting looking through a lens to others? But it seems I'm ever increasingly tired of this backdrop regardless of the possibly unique photo opportunities, I need to figure out how to make the every day ordinary something extraordinary and actually want to capture that thing... good luck right?   Today isn't this day, this week isn't either...

Regular life in an ordinary town is boring, that's why this week I'm visiting a new site for photos and going to take along a few props I hardly shoot with... people. People make the everyday ordinary very interesting and in come cases I'd say extraordinary, these two little people make my day extraordinary for sure. Photos to come, but in the mean time here is a little tid-bit of some of my previous work.

I love this photo, I love what it means to me, the colors, the fading, the napkins with people's mini stories, and the thought that the exact spot in the world where I was standing had been visited by this many people from all over our globe. Its amazing to re-imagine that one little shop hanging this sweet reminder of how small we really are, AH-Mazing.

Barstow Trip Report

Friday, we arrived to our destination in the middle of the Mojave desert with haste. The commute from our little hick town to this off road mecca seemed like the longest drag of our little lives, and impatience with the great state of California's trailer towing speed limit of 55MPH was wearing us all thin. Once we arrived to the main road into Stoddard Wells Recreational Area we turned down a dirt road and began making our way to what looked like a good camping ground... little did we know our trip down the long dirt road would be full of whoops, seems fitting considering the terrain surrounding the area, however, a 17,000 lb truck and trailer battling a 2' deep precipus every 6 feet was interesting. Arriving a little shaken and stirred we planted our jackstands, unloaded, unhooked, and headed off into the night. The trails were lit by the howling moonlight, or, it could have been our HID's either way we were off! Powerline road full speed ahead, a quick right, and after what seemed to be a short trail ride we stopped to top off our thirst.  A lightning speed chase back to camp to prepare for the next day, then the Ruckers hit the sac.

Saturday. Oh Saturday. We wake to a blazing hot sun, skin already beading with sweat, and its only 8am! WOW! Hot day! Registered, fueled up, fed, and loaded we head to the trail head for the Slash X High Desert Charities Poker Run. With 18 miles of unforgiving desert country ahead me and my fellow riders we hit the road, 4 dirt bikes, 4 dudes, 3 UTV's, 3 chicks (gotta love the ratio).  The trail started out a relatively flat trail and a 60 mph blissful ride in the Can-Am ensued, until those damned treacherous whoops grinned their evil grin and slowed my fast happy trail to a more jilted, yet skillful drive. The Maverick was on fire, I beat and beat on that car keeping up with the boys on their bikes and much to my surprise (as well as theirs) I was pretty much always on their heels waiting for the moment they misjudged my relentlessness (or the Can-Am's). The other girls, while not nearly as forceful with their cars or gas petal, were never far behind! The day had a glorious start, the hot wind in our hair, dirt covered grins, and a group of gigantic goofs and good people! What fun!

Saturday afternoon-ish. Oh Saturday afternoon-ish. Evan arrived with Sweet D and the group was pretty ecstatic for another ride so we hurried to unload his car for our run on the second 20 mile loop. Fueled up, fed (yes, again) and loaded we hit the trail head once more, but this time there were no families on the trails with their kids playing poker, no slower traffic to pass, no one really... time to get it on, and we did. 2 bikes for 2 dudes, 4 UTV's carrying 3 gents and 3 chicks. The skill set of the drivers in our particular group is quite fantastical actually, most are very experienced and been riding since childhood, with the exception of a few... but we will come back to that. This trail was epic compared to the previous trail of the day with significantly fewer whoops, longer lines for getting up to speed, an overall better set of terrain to play with, and the views were amazing to boot. The two bikes were leading the way and laying down some distance between the group (again, we will come back around to this). Being the type to resent coming in third the CanAm took yet another hard beating, this car is a restless beast looking to soak up any bump on the trail to keep its passengers comfortable. I am amazed at its capabilities, really truly amazed, there were several times I thought for sure I was going to stuff it into a whoop I took too fast but the shocks grunted down and suspension soaked up every inch of the difficult terrain. Really, props to Can-Am, the car is a beast and takes a beating like Rocky Marciano, you just cant put it down. At one point of the ride the Ham was on the heels of the bikes in front, roaring a sound of ridiculous power itching to pass, I glance down... 70 miles per hour. 70 mind blowing miles an hour.  Either we are insane, or in love with the sport... I say its the latter (or both?). In our gallant battle of bike against UTV we completely forgot, we had others in our group following us... now, no where to be found.  And, now, here's that little tale... 

So you remember me mentioning we have a few inexperienced riders? Well the desert got the best of one of them, Sam, poor thing hit a rut which hooked her tire a way not conducive to staying on all 4 wheels... and after several tumbles of UTV, roll-cage, and tires she emerged unscathed. Thank goodness! Polaris built a very stout product and she walked away without serious injury. In our quest for dominance we completely missed this EPIC wreck, damn it!! The next 3 hours we searched the desert for our lost party members, unaware of the wreck and failing to travel far enough back on the trail to locate our group with the damaged UTV.  Believing they had only taken a wrong turn we headed back to camp, they had two group members who are familiar with the area which made our departure towards camp the smartest thing to do considering we were all running out of fuel. A fast paced trip back to camp welcomes us with a voice mail, several actually, bearing the news of Sammy's tumble.  What seemed like days passed, when it was really only a long hour or two then they arrived, UTV in tow, the Polaris was in bad shape and was completely incapable of being driven. Damaged areas: driver front wheel, spindle, A-arm, shock, passenger back wheel, spindle, shock, trailing arm, rear linkage set, roll cage (all over!), exhaust pipe the list goes on and on... In the midst of the arrival of our broken party I failed to shoot off a photo or two, however, I managed to locate photos for the blog and the RZR is currently at H Town Performance getting a face lift:) Photos to come of the revived machine on the blog soon! 

 

You think that was an interesting enough day? Nope, it seems there is a never ending story being written about our group's adventures and shenanigans. Here is where the night gets real interesting... after the commotion of the day wears off, Sammage licks her wounds (in her case, her sore muscles and raging headache), the other gals in our party proceed to drink adult beverages at a rate faster than the consumption of fuel in our cars... more and more shots poured and inebriation is in the air. I decided to go to bed, Sam followed suit shortly thereafter both of us tired from the work and play of the day. We leave our boys rounding the fire discussing bikes, cars, trucks, etc... all the while the other two ladies were completely outrageously intoxicated and already making bad decisions. Poor Karlee passed out sometime after I hit the sac, and she would likely pay for that in the morning, but Sweet D wasnt done yet... oh no!

 

With the milkmaids, Sam and I, in bed for the evening the boys had decided it was best to head to Slash X for some food. Why cook what you brought when you can eat what someone else makes for you? Its very seldom we camp anywhere near services, which made this a nice change for the boys. Upon arrival back to camp after Slash X I awake to a familiar man's voice, my baby brother, yelling "Evan, someone stole your truck, its GONE!!". BING, eyes open and I'm wide awake! The boys jumped in their UTV's splitting up in search for the brand new Dodge truck and still attached UTV trailer, really people? Who steals a truck and trailer? The search ended after an hour or two of patrol with the culprit of vehicle theft being the very inebriated Sweet D, who managed to get in the truck and drive it to the next camp! LOL!! Crisis averted, the truck was fine, but looking back it sure was a hilarious hour of texts and calls like I was the 911 call center for our camp. 

It seems to never fail we have issues, shenanigans, problems, and crises but regardless of all the troubles there is an underlying fact that none of us can deny: whats a story without some struggle? You don't remember the trips where everything went right, and if you do remember them no one wants to hear about your perfect stupid trip! The trips full of epic failures, shenanigans and debauchery are the ones you will be laughing about when you are 80 years old surrounded by the same friends that helped make the story amazing. The trip where everyone was happy and sings KumBya around the camp fire can suck it when you have a glorious story like this,  now, take that home and chew it... its delicious.

Upcoming excursions

Husband and I like, no let me reword, we love love love to off-road. There is nothing better than the free spirited play on the beaten path, but more so off it. Our motor's thunderous call of sound is created by nothing less than the adjustment of your ankle bringing about the utmost childish behavior in myself and similarly my fellow off-roaders. We continue the childish behavior at every stop with whitty banter between fellow "team mates" because lets face it, its a race every where we go and we are on team Maverick!!! We trace the trails with swiftness and precision, race through the whoops at Ricky Bobby speeds, and when we look into the face of a rocky hillside instead of feeling limited and intimidated we move forward in 4wheel low and deface that rocky pile in our quest for the top. Is it this glorious? Absolutely.

At the end of the day we all meet up at camp having left clean and pretty and arriving as filth mongers dirt stained from tip to toe with a smile! The girls begin dinner, traditionally a buffet style meal serving the masses, and the boys light the camp fire, by light of course I mean with .25 gallon of race gas and a pile of wood that would make an Alaskan jealous. The night continues with music, stories, air guitar (not kidding), great food, and amazing company. For these reasons we love off-roading and our passion for it has been seared into our little oil filled hearts.

This weekend we will be enjoying this crazy addictive sport in Barstow for the High Desert Charities Poker Run sponsored by Slash X Cafe. Between races... er... of course I mean poker runs... I will be taking a slew of photos of members of this race! I'm looking forward to meeting as many of the charity contributing members of our sport I can, and fingers crossed they bring some off-road photo business! Being in the desert I hope to luck out and get some amazing sunset photos, purples and pinks are the best and most memorable sunsets. Photos to come, but in the meantime here is one of my favorite sunsets to tide you over.

Short and Sweet

Juggling life has become more time consuming lately, I have fallen to a once a week posting and this week's blog post will be short and sweet. No tutorials, NO! No advice, NO! Nothing but a photo I'm particularly proud of , and a few words.
Travel should be a paid job,  and I would be rich LOL! I love to travel, who doesn't? The air encompassing the travel spot is always full of sweet smells of new food to try, new adventures to be had, and in this trip's case the pending weather doom and of course cow poo.  In our mad dash to visit all members of the family located within the entire state of Texas (yes, I said Texas!) and southern Oklahoma I got to take some shots of things that aren't traditionally seen in the desert. Feeling more and more confident in my progressive skills I am taking new directions with my photos, and the payout is fulfilling. Maybe one day Ill actually frame one of these:) Its a photographers curse, BARE WALLS! Not kidding.
If you haven't checked it out yet, please make a trip to my site PerformancePixels.net. I am a bonafide motorhead and love the action of all things that rumble and speed to ridiculous digits in the fastest way possible (thanks dad ;)) Born to a family with lead feet I continue the tradition that is Ames. Though, I am not just a action/sports photographer, I have done several weddings and more recently senior photos. I'm always looking to expand my clientele base and would be interested in discussing any work you might need. Next week we are off to the Barstow Slash X Poker Run in the CanAm (and we are gonna KILL IT!), the trip should produce some interesting blog postings and photos, stay tuned!
Keep on walking,
V

Song of the edit: "Heavy" Florence and the Machine

Where does the time go?

Where does the time go? March 23rd I did some senior shots, of course this job happened to be the weekend before our big Texas trip leaving no time to edit before we left, here we are nearly three weeks later and I have finally completed the task. Really? Three weeks? WOW! Thats the expectation of a very slow wedding photographer or one with a gigantic team of editors, but not of a senior photo session (as I type this i'm smacking my own hand saying "bad photog, bad, bad, bad"). Why the sudden influx of items to take up all my time? I pondering this question and when coming up with nothing I realize... there isn't a sudden influx... there is just the same old stuff taking my time and making me unavailable. Sure I work a 40 hour weekly traditional job, a secondary twice a month job, and am taking 6 credits via online and in class school, but that never stopped me before. In considering all my frustrations and deciding how to better manage my time a light bulb enters the brain, learn how to improve your daily tasks, your daily workflow. Yes, of course! I preached to know your photography equipment better in my last blog post, now I just need to be more efficient in the equipment I use on a daily basis! Today's topic, learn your equipment and developing a more effective working process, which can be applied to anything however I will be relating it to photography processes.
  
1. Learn your equipment (again)! this time, learn the things that make you more (or in my case less) effective. In the photographic process this starts with the camera (see previous blog post), and it also includes your computer/workstation. While I feel I am a master with my computer, it has been giving me grief lately! It thinks when it should be processing and doing things, and it loads programs when I should already be up and running. This is unacceptable! Resolution? I installed more RAM memory. Simple, cost effective, and self installed (yea, I'm a little techie!). I went from 5mb RAM to 12mb RAM for $70! This is the equivalent of dropping a V8 into a Corolla, lots of bang for your buck and guess what? Computer efficiency is up 240%. SUCCESS!! This thought and suggestion can be applied towards anything, make yourself more efficient by learning how to better use your equipment, and if its not efficient enough fix it.
    
2. Workflow reorganization. Now, photography workflow can be quite specific a task, however a good workflow is necessary to be effective with any task. I have realized my workflow is all over the place, I start one place, see something shiny and flock to it, lose three hours with said shiny thing, then have to start all over again trying to figure out where I left off. You can imagine my adventures with trying to gain control over my clearly hyperactive brain, I begin to get frustrated in trying to figure out where I left off... the frustration grows into anger... and anger leads me to just throw out all my work and begin again. True story, this happened just last week. Start with your most basic process first, and move your way down to the more specific detailed tasks sticking with the original item/chore/project until you are 100% complete. For us photog's this process should look something like this (and its nearly midnight, I might be forgetting a step):
     1. Uploading photos from the camera, and reformatting card immediately (in camera) after ensuring upload is complete. This eliminates in field stress of "Shoot, have I uploaded these photos yet? Can I use this card or not??" Which also happened to me, during the senior photo shoot and again during our Texas trip. DUH moment!!
     2. Rename the folder holding the photos to reflect the job
     3. Tag the photos with people and subjects for easier future reference and search-ability
     4. Creating a "100% Edited" folder within the project folder
     5. Culling, the process of going through and deleting the hideously wrong photos
     6. RAW processing, if you dont shoot in RAW we need to talk
     7. Begin photo edits, first in folder to last. I promise you, this is something that I had to force myself to   do!! I always want to edit and process my favorites first then I forget which ones I have already edited and then end up editing them all over again jumping all over the place! Oh the hours I have lost!! If you are like me save yourself the trouble and edit in order!!!
     8. Save edited photos to the 100% Edited folder. Yes I'm a victim of an itchy clicker finger... I get excited when a photo is done and my itchy clicker finger clicks "Save" instead of "Save As" and then I proceed to overwrite my "digital negatives" which is never a good thing. UGG!
     9. Once all photos are edited post them online to your site, only do this when they are ALL completed. I learned this the hard way this week, you lose interest in the secondary and third set of uploads which means you lose sales. Make your clients wait til you are 100% done. If you want to give a teaser photo to entice interest that is A-OK, but just one!

Like I said, its nearly midnight and I just finished with an Anthropology paper so I might have missed a few steps in the workflow but you get the idea.

In the last week I have had one photo really grab my attention, its one from the senior photo session mentioned earlier. This girl is gorgeous, which helps my photography look amazing:) Have a great week, and keep on shooting!

How to stand out in the crowd.

     Over the past blog-less week I have spent my time visiting Texas, and was it a busy mini-vacation! In 4 days we put 1100 miles on the rental car, dined at fine roadside bbq joints several times, stopped to smell the roses in six cities while completely ignoring the flowering plants growing in the cow patties of shanty towns we decided not to invade with our ever exuding city slickness (by this I mean having all of our teeth, wearing shoes, and shirts!). We visited with four Austin Ames' (my family), met 30 of my husbands near, distant, and grandfathered in family members, and am pretty sure we were dosed with some of that hillbilly Sasquatch fearing fever during our night "Hide and Go Jeep" game at Uncle Joes! What a efficient and excellent trip!
     During the trip and all the meet and greets I found that two of husbands family members were photographers, one of which has a budding wedding photographic business and the other more of a holly hobbyist. I pondered this thought, 3 in 30 people or 10% of the population is into photography. If this small sample of the population holds true for the larger picture, this would mean an estimated 31 million of the current estimated population (compliments of the US Census Bureau July 2012) is into exactly the same hobby and business as I. Kind of a petrifying thought actually, 1 in 10 people are self proclaimed photographers. This leads to further thought process... how does a new photographer, seasoned photographer, or even senior photographer combat a quickly rising population of photographers? Two words, YOU DONT! I have learned so much these past few years from other photographers, its amazing the things classes and tutorials dont teach you. Real life experience with real life photographers teaches you invaluable things, here are some of the invaluable ideas I have learned:

1. Never underestimate yourself, or anyone else for that matter. You never know how experienced, or inexperienced, one is.  By not assuming I am more experienced that anyone else or know more than another photographer I am eliminating the biases that come with that ignorance. Everyone can learn something from other people, even if it is as small as a change in point of view, or if it is as magnanimous as understanding depth of field.

2. Never assume just because you have taken a class you understand the principles taught in that class and can make them work in a real life situation, I have proven this fact so many times to myself with ruined photos! Nothing beats practice! You can memorize every word in a book but without putting your new found knowledge into action its useless and usually unmemorable.

3. Find what you are good at, what you love, or what you have the "eye" for and be the best you can at that thing. I am an excellent sports photographer, and more recently a landscape photographer. Being good at these types of photography is my specialty, can I do wedding and portrait photography? Sure. Do I want to? Not really. Do I make exceptions to my rule for special people? Sure. Do I turn down work because of lack of experience in that field? Yes. Do I mind turning down the work? Not really. Are other people more experienced than me in these areas? Absolutely.  Knowing your own limitations is not the same as underestimating yourself, learn your difference.

4. Learn your equipment. You cant pull off the shot you want without knowing every single button on your camera. The sun might set quicker than you anticipated, you need to know how to get that same shot with half the light. The shutter you have selected might not be fast enough, you might need to change it in an instant to not miss your opportunity. Or the background might not be appealing, learning how to blow out the background in a split second might be the only way to save the shot. These are some of the real life in-field situations you will be faced with, and if you cant change that setting you cant get that shot.

5. Continue your education. I found a local Meet-Up group of photographers and we go on photo safaris, it might sound completely nerdy but when a man with 40 years of experience gives me a business/photo/camera tip I consider it a free gift from the photo-gods. You hear that? Free. Free experience and expertise from a man who has paid for and earned 40 years of it just because I listened to him talk. Learn from the best and aspire to be your best. Take workshops, there is probably one closer than you imagine, and if there isn't Improve Photography and Digital Photo School have some really great online workshops, articles, and tips for your implementation and absorption.

This is all I have for now, as I battle off the other sports and landscape photographers in my neck of the woods (pun intended) I will continue to blog about things I find pertinent in the photographic world.

Travel with my dslr, or not??

   Hot debate this week, do I take my DSLR on our upcoming trip or not? We will be flying to our destination, and that is daunting for anyone who has ever flown with any type of photo equipment. Cameras, laptops, tablets, all in separate bins, batteries, flash cards, etc... everything out! I end up setting up shop in the security checkpoint disassembling my carefully prepared camera bag, and driving my A-typical personality nuts! How dare they ask me to disassemble this perfectly organized bag? Then the thought of the ever so inconsiderate security staff dropping one of my $700 lenses, AI! I cringe at the thought. So, the question? Do I dare take my second revenue (first being my 9-5 job) generating meal ticket through this, twice?? Then this thought pops in my head, will I actually use it and bear the "You are such a tourist" looks from the locals? Then to consider the physical weight of the DSLR, my 7D with a 70-200mm lens strapped on we are talking a whopping 5 pounds of plastic paradise wrapped around my neck at all times, and when the camera isn't around my neck its in my very carefully designed and padded messenger bag which also weighs a ton. All these thoughts swirling in my head and all the whilst i'm considering if my brand spanking new Advanced point and shoot with very very similar features will appease the A-Typical personality photographer that is me? Will it?
   Just 3 weeks ago I got the go ahead from Husband to order a Nikon CoolPix P7700, item on Amazon.com, based on the reviews and the capabilities I ordered the Coolpix (which is the most ridiculous name for a group of entry level to advanced point and shoot cameras ever, but that's another story). The camera arrives an anxiety filled 5 days later, and I'm more wound up that a child on Christmas with their sights on the presents sparkling under the tree when I see my package. As I tear open the box I was nearly sick with disappointment, the camera didn't have the weight associated with something that packs photog punch, it didn't have a feel I liked, and I was actually kind of sad. The next few days I ignored my inner photog telling me this thing was junk and shot a whole bunch of shots, which to my surprise was a flipping blast! I have complete creative control over aperture, shutter, and there is even a manual mode! I must mention, there is an exposure compensation dial on the top near the shutter, which is super handy when in AV or TV modes. The lens that is bolted to the frame is a fantastically fast F2.0 and ranges to F4.0, which is absolutely amazing! I only have 1 lens that is faster than a f2.0 for my DSLR. Sure the frames per second are lacking, and completely limited if utilizing the raw processor in the camera (however this camera processing RAW in itself is amazing!), but I'm not shooting sports events, I will be shooting a documentary of me and Husbands trip. 
   So, I have 1 day to decide... bring my DSLR and Advanced Point and Shoot? Or just the Advanced Point and Shoot? Will I kick myself and beg my family to overnight the DSLR to me? Or do I just suck it up and take this amazing little photog powerhouse knowing it can do the job?

The photo of the week, a shot from my backyard. Its nothing special except for the sunlight shining through the tiny fibers of the foxtails lively fingers. I love that the nature of these little beauties is "chained" up by society and humanity.

Cameras dont take the photos, you do..

I read this interesting article by a blogger on DPS, entitled "Why your camera isnt a Superhero" (link is below) and thought I would share my opinion of the matter. Falling into the "I need new gear to make better photos" trap is one photographers ranging from amatuer and pro status struggle with, even admittedly myself. Your gear, if an Iphone, point and shoot, or full frame pro DSLR does nothing without your input, you select the subject, angle of photo, composition, choice of shot settings, etc... and these items are what make a photo, your camera only records what you ask it to with the settings you ask the camera to use. What does that say to me?? Learn the gear you already have!! Read the manual, learn what every setting does and play with each of those settings til you are confident you can 100% control that camera. If at any time you outgrow the settings you are familiar with on your camera or have a different need that your current camera isn't providing that's when you pony up the dough and move up, not because the Jones bought a new camera. Shoppers shame before learning what capabilities your camera already has is a large pill to swallow, a usually a large bill to foot.

For years I have struggled with telling people "I'm a photographer" because I felt my gear wasn't up to par with the pros! I didn't have that shiny new Canon 5DMark II (which ironically just became the newest in all outdated Canon cameras with the Canon 5DMark III release this year) when really it doesn't matter! Your average consumer of all things photographic have no idea what type of gear they are looking at, your portfilo and your attitude sells you at that point (or in my case, my lack of confidence limited my abilities). I am amazed at some of the photos that come out of IPhones, and am even more amazed at the amount of literature printed to teach people how to effectively use all the creative tools available for Iphones. Get out there start shooting, read up on your gear, and gain some confidence!! Am I suggesting shooting your best friends wedding with an Iphone, no. Am I suggesting you get out there and take some risks with your skill set and whatever camera you already own, yes. By ridding myself of the stigma that is "The Jones" I can say I am fully confident in my abilities!  I have read my manual, I have studied and continue to study with local photographic adventurers like myself, and I continue to use my camera to its ability. Go on, shoot it people, shoot it!

http://digital-photography-school.com/why-your-camera-isnt-a-superhero

Macro Mission! And my encounter with Germans...

These past few days I have been on a Macro Mission, thats what Im calling it at least. Macro is fantastic, even if you have a point and shoot LEARN IT! Macro is there to show us how amazing small things can be, texture, detail, and size is dramatically changed with this setting. Its a favorite of mine! I highly recommend you figure out how to turn your camera on to Macro focus setting and go take some up close shots! Yes, you must get very close to your subject. Do I recommend you shoot an anthill? Nope.  Yes, even your camera on your cell phone is HIGHLY likely to have a Macro setting. Dont be afraid, get in there and shoot.

My dear sweet husband and I went to Shoshone, CA this week. This particular trip was one of exceptional awesomeness, while visiting the local gas station for our monthly lottery ticket purchase I was interrupted... and not by just anyone but by a German with no shirt, a gigantic beer belly, and a thick as mud accent.
"So you win lottery, ya?" (imagine a really really thick German accent here)
 I glanced up and there was not just one but three of them, all the same with the exception of the new two being fully clothed (for which I thanked my lucky stars, I only had 2 nipples staring me in the face not 6). I responded with
"Big winner, 3 bucks!"
He chuckles and his uncovered belly jiggles.
"So Ill marry you, big winner" 
The word winner with a thick German accent sounded like wiener, which added to the hilarity of the sitch.
I laughed and said
"Too late, I have already snagged me a husband!"
I hurried to finish my lottery ticket purchase and exited the gas station as I was super uncomfortable with all the nipple staring happening inside the store. Outside, I wandered around the area taking random photos in Macro mode while my all-too-late husband just sat quietly and waited for me to finish shooting.

All of these photos post processing was simply cropping and changing to black and white. Personally I associate texture with black and white photos, you might not, and however you see something is how you should shoot it and post process it for print (or for most people to post it online).

This piece is actually some sort of farm equipment, not sure what it does but the gritty texture of the item and the harsh shadows of the afternoon made for very interesting photos. Note, for this photo I was using a F2.0 aperture to lose the focus of the back area of the photo, which was completely unappealing.

Texture is amazing in Macro, would you have passed this tree trunk by without looking twice? The focus point was placed on the hole in the middle of the trunk and a wide open aperture of F/2.0 was used to blow out the focus in the background. Note, if you chose a focus point on an item that is physically closer to the camera  more of the background would be out of focus and fuzzy.

Mid-shoot I was again interrupted by the nipple staring shirtless man...  and again, husband had disappeared. Where was my knight in shining armor? Nowhere!!
"Hey, you want my picture?"
I tried to not laugh at the question, but when I looked up I couldn't help myself. Imagine this... three Germans, one teeny Minnie-Winny camper, and my favorite nipple staring shirtless man doing leg lunges in the parking lot while asking me if I wanted to take his photo. GLORY! This definitely tops my trip off with hilarity!! And if you are wondering, no I didn't take his photo, the memory of him will last I'm my thoughts indefinitely. Back to the photos!

Again, texture! This is actually the underside of a palm tree that needs to be shaved down badly, however, the texture is amazing. When you shoot macro get in close, you will be amazed at what you find!!

An old and rusty park bench with harsh sunlight made for a very interesting photo. I did not shoot this in Macro, but it was taken on our Shoshone adventure and I think its amazing so I added it.

Once I got all these photos shot, and I was fully satisfied I had explored the area my all-too-late husband and I headed back home.

This guy is Bob, hes one of our many very sweet Jack Russel Terriers. He had anxiety with the camera near, though he persevered and I was able to snap this shot of my Bobba. I turned on the Macro focus setting and moved the focus point to the lower part of his snout, then I continued to shoot his pretty face til he couldn't stand still anymore. My entire post processing for this photo was to crop out the sides and turn it into black and white, that's all. The detail in his fur on his nose and whiskers is so dang cute, and the gloss and sheen to his out of focus eyes plays to my heart. Hes a sensitive, sweet, and curious boy and this photo portrays that.

Go on now!! Get out there and take photos! Something most photographers wont tell you they take lots of photos too and some of them don't turn out as expected either. Don't get down on yourself for taking 20 photos to get 1 great shot, that just means you had 19 opportunities for improvement so use those opportunities and improve! Now, these odds are terrible for wedding photographers and I don't suggest you go out and shoot weddings without the correct experience, however, for a beginner-amateur this is acceptable! Just get out there and shoot, that's the only thing that will make you better.

Lastly, when you see something beautiful no matter the size stop and take a few photos. Beauty can live anywhere.

First. Blog. Ever.

The Walking Photog is a blog dedicated to inspiring creativity for myself, and maybe other people one day...  

Too many times I have walked past something interesting and beautiful and while taking a second or even a third look I fail to pull out this fancy all-too-expensive piece of equipment and snap a photo to remember the shiny moment. Most days I feel like Dori from Finding Nemo, ooh something shiny! as I am being drug off by another thought in this cavern of a brain I have. Classic Vannah, yep! Classic Vannah needs to turn into "Shiny Moment Capturing Bad Ass V", long overly glorious name? Yep. Am I making myself a long overly glorious name tag for my photo adventures, YEP!

Thinking about it, not only do photos inspire but they also remind. Yesterday I ran across a sweet photo of my husband and I while we were on one of our very first vacations together (pre-marriage, hell pre-22 years old!) and it reminded me of some of the best times of my life. What are the chances I would have thought of that vacation again? My guess, NEVER. Aw, weren't we so cute? I was skinny with red hair, and he... well shoot, he always looks like that HANDSOME AS EVER! Why do men age well, and women don't? Ugg... there's a topic for a whole separate blog in itself.

The adventure? A twice weekly blog, why only twice weekly you ask? I'm way too non-committal for something as demanding as a daily blog! Why lie, Dori still lurks inside:) The blog will contain photos from my daily adventures, even if they aren't so snazzy and shiny. Ill note that some of the best photos I've created have came from the monotony of daily life. I also plan to add any interesting photo articles, blog posts, or books I have read that are particularly appealing to me in those few days between blog postings. What I'm hoping to do is improve my creativity and see the beauty in life again! Just think about this, you now only have 4 days at the most before your eyes meet my words again! YEEEESSSS! (Imagine Napoleon Dynamite vocals here:)) 

The Walking Photog, OUT!