Mountain Biking

My husband picked up mountain biking about 18 months ago and has been begging me to go out and take photos of him on his favorite trail.

I finally had a chance to go out with him and watch him do his thing.

Audrey starts 1st Grade

My oldest daughter started first grade last week.  To celebrate and mark her growth we went to my favorite photo spot and took some pictures.  Not only do these mark her growth, but marks her change in personality and how much she's growing into such a diva.

Senior Prom Formals

Kymi and her boyfriend has Senior Prom last weekend.  It was a perfect opportunity for me to use my new backdrop and get more practice with my flash.

They were really cooperative.  And another couple came over and let me take photos of them too.

With her baby sisters

With her father

Side view of her hair

"duck lips"

beautiful

Friends Drew and Vanessa

The boys were so cooperative with me.  They really get big gold stars for their good attitudes.

All 4 ready to go have the time of their life.

I had a lot of help with posing and positioning them from Kymi's mom.  She was a natural at knowing how they should stand and could get them in position while I got them focused in the camera.  

What did I learn: RIM LIGHTS!  I really wanted a light background, but it didn't arrive in time.  So I settled for this one.  I knew I was going to have difficulty getting the black suits to stand out from the backdrop.  I don't have enough lights to have a separate rim light.  In hindsight, I should have used a reflector to act as a rim light.  I was able to get some separation in post-processing, and could probably do more if I really wanted to, but it was only an issue in one photo.

I need to do more research beforehand on posing, so I'm not stuck thinking during the shoot.  Many props to Christina for her help.  I half-jokingly said I would hire her for my next portrait shoot just to do the posing.

I had a great time and am grateful to these guys for their cooperation, willingness and positive attitude.

Let's Hear it for the Girls - iheartfaces

Getting my act together and entering an iheartfaces challenge this month.  It's all about girls and I instantly thought of this photo of Kym.

Go check out more girl photos at http://iheartfaces.com.

Facebook Page and Portfolio

In addition to the flickr photos, I post my best work on my portfolio.

christine estelle photography - christineestelle.zenfolio.com

facebook - http://www.facebook.com/christineestellephotography

Fun with Flash

Still needing some significant work on off-camera flash, Kymi and I set up a pseudo studio the bedroom.  One flash set up as a primary through a softbox and a consistent light set up through a shoot through umbrella.  I was going for a moody, angsty, starving musician environment.

Here are the best photos from our time together.

Best Face 2013

Every now and then I get my act together enough to participate in a photo challenge with iheartfaces.com.  The first challenge of 2014 is Best Face of 2014.  I only had a couple photos I debated about and ultimately landed on this one ... it's a photo I took for the church band promo shoot.  I had a lot of fun doing this photo shoot and hope to do more band type shoots in the future.

Go check out more awesome Best Faces of 2013 at iheartfaces.com

Christmas at Church

I know it's January ... but I just realized I haven't posted any of my Christmas photos from the church.  Here are a couple that I snagged on Christmas Eve.

Children's moment

Senior Portraits

I had the pleasure of taking some senior pictures for a very beautiful young lady.  Of course I took these the day before I got a new camera body - I need to take her out again and get some more shots.

I started out inside a barn and trying to use my flash with my shoot through umbrella, but the batteries were dead in my flash (I had JUST replaced them ... guess I put dead batteries in).  All but one or two of the barn photos are sans flash with a much too high ISO.  We then moved outside with some indirect sunlight so I could decrease my ISO.

At any rate ... here are a few of my shots.

I had a lot of fun shooting these photos.  I hope I can get more portrait sessions like this.  I felt comfortable with posing and instruction.  She was very cooperative and a lot of fun to work with.

Winter Solstice Sunset Photo Contest

Rick Sammon, one of the best sunset/sunrise photographers around, ran a contest for a Winter Solstice Sunset photo.  The only rule was the photo had to be taken at sunset on the solstice.

http://ricksammon.com/blog2/2013/11/21/announcing-international-winter-solstice-photography-day

I thought this was an awesome excuse to go out and find the best place to take a sunset photo.  I made a whole day of it.  The winter solstice being just 2 days after my birthday, I thought I would just make a day with the family.  We spent the day in San Francisco, doing cool things at Golden Gate Park.  We ended the day at Treasure Island.  Treasure Island is a small island in the bay about halfway between Oakland and San Francisco.  You get to it via the Bay Bridge.  I think it's technically part of San Francisco.  It used to be a naval base, but was closed many years ago.  It's now very rundown and reminiscent of a ghost town.  We drove around the island checking it out.  There are some wine tasting rooms, a marina, an RV storage, a small residential community, and a couple small parks.  And a lot of rusty old buildings.

it was a little weird being there.  I could only imagine what it must've been like when it was an active base (if you ask my uncle, he could tell you.  Apparently he was there for a month in 1967 when he was in the Navy).

From Treasure Island there is a very awesome view of the San Francisco skyline.  The bay bridge.  On a clear day you can see the Golden Gate Bridge and the Richmond Bridge too.  And Alcatraz looks like a hop, skip and jump from the island.

There's a fantastic sculpture on the island.  From photos it looks to be about 15 ft tall.  But in reality it has to be 4 or 5 stories tall.  This thing is phenomenal.  It's huge.  I was absolutely in awe.

Anyway .... My plan/goal was to get a photo of the skyline with the setting sun.  Hoping for a decent silhouette of the skyline.

I took several (20 or so).  I took lots with a starburst effect due to a closed aperture.  I took some with an open aperture for a softer look.  Ultimately I liked the starburst effect better.

My favorite was one with some rocks from the Treasure Island shore in the foreground and the skyline in the background with a starburst sun behind a couple buildings (was hoping it would be behind Coit Tower, but it didn't happen).

I was really pleased with this photo.  Textbook silhouette landscape photo.  Almost panoramic, but wasn't really.

I am pleased to say that it won second place in the contest.   :D

2013 Goal Recap and 2014 Goals

From this post here (2013 Goals) I set my 2013 photography goals.

Almost immediately into the new year I realized I wasn't going to reach one of my goals (Project 52), and that was OK with me.  I watched a photography webshow that advised against doing a weekly/daily photo project.  I agreed with their reasons and re-thought that goal.  But I did, however continue to shoot photos of food and to try to improve that one area of my photography.  But I didn't do it as a weekly project.  And I think I learned more by not doing the project than if I had stuck it out.

The other 2 goals - "Storytelling, make a book" and "Street Photography" I met to some degree.

My goal with the photobook was to get the photos taken for the book. I still have a few more to get (office scenes and Christmas and a round of classroom photos).  But otherwise I think I have enough to create a book.  I took on new roles in the worship service at the church this year and that's prevented me from taking photos on Sunday mornings.  But I'm still working on this and I consider this a goal achieved.

My goal with street photography was to get out of my box and go do it.  And I did.  I was embarrassed and felt on the spot, but I did it anyway.  I actually did it a few times at a local street fair.  I didn't get into San Francisco for any street photography, but that wasn't part of my goal.  My goal was to just get out and try it.  And I did.  I don't know that I like street photography that much, but I do believe that it has the ability to stretch me and grow me both as a person and as a photographer.

Other photography milestones (for lack of a better word) met this year ...

• bought a flash and started playing around with that
• did a couple portrait sessions to work on portrait work
• took official band photos for the church band
• took photos for the end of the year slideshow for the preschool
• went to an all-day photography class
• signed up for Photoshop Creative Cloud (so I have full photoshop now for only $10/month)

2014 Goals

This is hard because where I currently reside in my photography skillset, I'm not sure where I want to go and what's next and what's reasonable.

• Definitely want to finish the photobook.  
• Take photos for VBS next summer
• Get proficient enough with the flash that I can use it with minimal "guess and check."  This requires LOTS of practice.
• Save up for a buy a new camera.  I feel like I've outgrown mine and want one that does better in low-light.  I'm willing to buy used.  I know what camera I want.  Just gotta save up for it - cause they're expensive.
• Go to another photography seminar/class.  I'd like to hit up Joe McNally's One Flash, Two Flash class if it comes near here.  Other thoughts are a Lightroom or Photoshop class.  But none of those are coming near me yet.  I'll keep an eye out on them.  I'll settle for an online class or two as well.

Santa Cruz

Spent the weekend in Santa Cruz and took my camera with me.  The whole time there I was thinking of Scott Kelby's Shoot Like a Pro tour and thinking of travel photography.  What things are iconic.  What are interesting.  What tells the story.  I don't know how successful I was as a whole, but I think a few moments I was pretty close.  I think I'll take a stab and putting these in a mini photo book.

Here are a few of my better shots.

from our bed and breakfast; tucked away behind a garden and really cute grounds.

a pseudo pano of a church from far away.

I thought this wall was cool with the texture.

Also from the bed and breakfast.  The waterfall was very small.  I got to use slow shutter speed.  Not bad for my first attempt.

from the B&B - the water wheel in the river

RR Tracks to nowhere

I was amused

Saw some OK surfing going on.

It was hazy, so I couldn't get a good shot of the boardwalk.  And when I found a good location, I was done shooting for the day.

Sea lions under the pier on the wharf.  they let you get really close to them (and safely behind a fence)

My seafood tacos for lunch