Never too old to smash a cake!

My husband and I are only a few months apart in age, but he's still older ;P  This weekend was his 40th birthday. 

When he turned 30, I surprised him by organizing a trip with all of his friends and myself to NOLA. It was an amazing trip. 



But, ten years later and two kids don't allow for such an extravagant celebration. So this decade's festivities included a night out to dinner and to see the comedian Nick DiPaola. My husband was thrilled since he has been wanting to see him for about 10 years now. Coincidentally we learned at the show that my hubby and Nick were both birthday boys last night! (It's the little things...)

 Anyway, since our night was sans kids, I decided to plan something fun and indoors (since it is so so cold!) that the kids could join in on. They have been working for two weeks on a multitude of Lego birthday cakes. It all led up to the big day- a cake smash! 

Typically reserved for one year olds, I thought it would be fun for my husband to let go, use his hands and be one with his cake. He chose the colors. I whipped up the hat and banner.

 Then with a ring cake covered in cool whip and sprinkles we had our shoot. My youngest was napping, but it was ok as he would have probably kept photo bombing the smash. My 5 year old was in charge of making his dad smile. He had a blast.  And, I think my husband did too!

OMG! A new camera! (I have no idea how to use it....)

So you Santa brought you a new camera. It's big. It has fancy buttons. It is going to take great portraits of your little darlings. Um....no. It can only take pictures as good as the person who is operating it.  Just as your computer cannot write amazing novels. But, YOU can!

The first thing you should always do is read your manual. Yup. This is going to require some work. You should learn how to use some of these crazy buttons. But, until you learn how to rock your camera, I will give you a few tips to help you get started.

Don't even consider using Manual (M) until you are comfortable with this baby, learn about exposure, metering, toggling focus...oh the list goes on. But, this doesn't mean you need to shoot in Auto either. Think of teaching your child to ride a bicycle. You put training wheels on AND hold the back the seat to help guide your child. (AUTO)  Then you let go, but leave the training wheels on. (Aperture Priority) Finally, the training wheels come off and you're child is on their own. (Manual- whoo hoo!) So let me teach you to ride solo with your training wheels still on...for now.

So what is Aperture Priority? I am a Canon Girl so on Canon it is the Av on your dial. Setting your camera to Av lets you share the control with your camera. So where Auto makes all your decisions for you, Av let's you choose your Aperture while the camera selects the shutter speed. What is Aperture and Shutter Speed???  If you think of your lens as a the pupil of an eye, it may make a little more sense. The pupil is that black circle in the middle of your eye. I remember as a kid we used to flash the flashlight on our eyes to watch the pupil become super small. Then when you took it away, it got bigger. Why? When there is a lot of light the eye only needs to open a little to get the right amount of light in to let you see. But, in the dark, it opens as wide as possible to let more light in.  In the same way, when the Aperture is wide open (f1.2 or whatever the smallest fstop is on your lens)  a lot of light gets in. When is small (f16), just a little bit gets in. (The bigger the number the smaller the hole and vice versa.)

Av will help you to achieve that "blurry" or bokeh effect that so many love. The subject is sharp while the background is blurred. If this is the look you are going for, you must also place your subject a good distance from the background. The more distance your have, the more "blur" you will see, Also, most new camera owners start with their kit lenses which generally have an fstop that starts at 3.5.  But, even some difference in sharpness will improve your photos. Zooming in on your subject will maximize your "blur" too using this lens.  So set the Av (use your manual to figure out exactly how since each camera is different) to the lowest, then one stop higher and one stop higher again. Take note of how it effects your image. Now, that you have decided the "look" you want, the camera will decide your shutter speed or how quickly to open or close the aperture.

Alternatively, for super sharp images - think Ansel Adams where everything is in focus you need a high fstop (f11 or highter). I would probably use this for landscapes only or larger groups.

Remember, we are taking baby steps so be sure for now to set your ISO and White Balance to Auto. Also, your lens should be set to AUTO focus (It's a small switch on your lens).

Finally, unless you own Photoshop or Lightroom, do not shoot in Raw format, choose the highest resolution Jpeg.

Please feel free to comment with any questions. I am happy to help! Again, this is just a Cliffnotes, jump start to using your camera.  There is so much to learn. And, the more you practice, the more you will learn!www.facebook.com/carolyneraophotography

 

Lights. Trees. Action!

I recently upgraded my favorite camera to a full frame. I am so excited for the capabilities in low light situations.  I feel like it opens up a whole new whole for me. So I busted it out of my pretty boring case (hint, hint to hubby: would love a cute camera bag), and rounded up the kids for some dramatic tree shots.
I thought I would share some tricks in case some of you want to try the same at home...

First, plug in your tree and turn out all of the other lights.

Next, plant an exciting ornament on the side of the tree. Maybe one from the top that the kids don't get to see normally.

Then, have the your child stand facing the tree. You need the light of the tree to light up their sweet little faces. (You will be shooting head on so they should be on one side of the tree)

Try to resist the urge to tell them to smile. Let them check out the tree and be themselves. Tell them to look at the ornament you planted. Tell them to touch it. Let them hang one...snap, snap, snap.

Do NOT use a flash!

In the photos here, I actually planted a Flashlight Friend stuffed animal in the tree. This provided more light on their faces. You can use a small flashlight too.

In the photo of my son reading the book in front of the tree, the FL Friend is in the book. I should have hid it better, but I didn't. Oh well. I still like the shot.

For any of you that might wonder, these were edited solely in Lightroom...

Have fun with your tree shots and please share on my page!
www.facebook.com./carolyneraophotography

Meet Mommy (before she was mommy)

Two days ago I was awakened to my sweet son's voice...

Mommy, I made you and Daddy a present.  I made a (bla, bla, bla)  I used  bla, bla, bla and glued your wedding DVD....

WHATTTTTT?????

I jumped out of bed and ran into the living room to find the sole copy of our wedding video glued to a case. I freaked out. It is irreplaceable. After  I calmed down, I was able to wash the wet glue off. I haven't tested the DVD yet because I am not prepared to deal with my emotions if the DVD is permanently damaged,

So it reminded me of the last time I played it. It was my anniversary and my husband Frank was working. I popped it in to watch with my son, thinking he would enjoy seeing his family on TV. I was not prepared for his emotional reaction to it, He was so upset, crying. He was upset that he wasn't there, that we had a party and didn't invite him. He just couldn't understand the idea that he didn't exist yet. 

So I am using this experience to plan a theme for my personal work this year. I will be injecting my kids into my past. There are a few places that are defining. They are those places that when I think back to the moments when I was there, it stirs something up inside. 

So far, I have planned to shoot at Coney Island (summer of fun 2001 - Jenn you get this one), Bay Ridge (my first apartment was here), Seaside Heights (I pay homage every summer and loved it even before it was destroyed), my highschool (I was one of the few that LOVED hs) and NYC (college), Oh, most importantly, the Sapphire Lounge in NYC (where I met Frank).