Star Trails - Guest Post by Sara of More Photos, Less Words

I'm Sara, -a photographer, blogger, quirky home-school senior, traveler, baker, and follower of Christ.  I blog over at More Photos, Less Words, so come on by for a visit and snoop around! You'll learn about my life, photography, get a recipe or two, hear about travel adventures, and learn about the Savior who I love serving.







Hello! I'm Sara, a photographer who loved capturing nature, specifically the night sky.  I'm going to share with you a few things about one of my favorite types of photography, star trail pictures.



What are star trail pictures? I define it as capturing the motion of the night sky. It can help put a new spin (ha!) on an old subject and is ton of fun! Besides, who doesn't love staying up late and listening to night sounds?

There are two ways to take a star trail photo. The first is very simple; all you need is a tripod and shutter release. For the image above, I mounted my camera on the tripod, set the shutter to bulb mode, and locked my shutter open for five minutes. Yes, a five minute exposure. The long shutter gave the full moon enough time time to light up the covered bridge and capture the movement of the stars above. However, you do need to be careful not to leave your shutter open too long. In areas with lots of light pollution (cities, suburbs) the sky will turn light and it'll be difficult to see the stars. That's why we have a second method!

 

The second option is a bit more complex, but can create an image with more defined star trails. Start by mounting your camera on a tripod and plugging in your shutter release. However, this time set your shutter speed to 30 seconds and lock your shutter release. Allow the camera to take pictures for anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, and then combine the images in a program called startrails. This program is free, very simple to use, and if you get lost, you can check out my step-by-step guide.  I really love this type of star-trail image because it lets you have longer star trails.  It creates an image that captures the beauty of the night sky in a new way!

As with all techniques in photography, it's great to have fun and mess around with it. I've tried long & short shutter speeds, "light painting" my subject with a flashlight, and aiming my camera towards the north star to create a circle pattern, just to name a few. The experimentation is half the fun! So grab your flashlight and I'm sure in no time you'll be creating your own star trail images.

Read more...

Sun Falre - Guest Post by Patty of Finding Serendipity

Hi, I'm Patty! I'm a stay-at-home mom to 3 teenagers, married for 20 years :)...I teach fitness classess and am committed to nurturing the self-esteem of girls (you can check out my 31 days series with the tab to the upper left of my blog). 

Follow Me!

instagram: pattyx24

blog: Finding Serendipity

Sun Flare

ISO 400, f32, 1/500, 70mm

ISO 400, f/32, 1/500, 70mm

ISO 125, f/29, 1/100, 60mm

ISO 125, f/29, 1/320, 60mm

I love shooting into the sun... starbursts and sunflare just seem to evoke emotion. It's actually not hard, and it's shown me the value of shooting with a smaller aperture... Typically, I have my lenses wide open because I really like short depths of field. The number of flares you have in your starburst will depend on the number of blades in your lens. Here's how you do it:

• Use the widest angle lens you have.
• Set your aperture to at least f18. You can still get a starburst with a wider aperture, but it won't be as dramatic. As you begin to go much beyond f18, your image may begin to soften due to diffraction.
• Don't point your lens directly into the sun as it could hurt your eyes and your lens. You may even want to wear sunglasses while composing your image.
• Partially block {about 2/3} the sun with a subject if shooting during the day.
• If shooting at night, use a tripod to prevent blur because your shutter speed will be so slow.
• Focus on your subject first to get your settings right before moving your lens toward the sun or light source. You can also use your hand to partially shield your lens from the sun.
• You can achieve more dramatic bursts when the sun is low in the sky, sunrise and sunset.

ISO 125, f/25, 1/160, 60mm

ISO 125, f/25, 1/160, 60mm

Try it! You can use the sun, streetlights, reflections as possible light sources.

ISO 125, f/22, 1/20, 60mm

If you are using your cell phone, same idea applies, but you can often also create sunflare or starbursts by changing the angle the light is hitting your camera lens {tilting it!}. And I've had a friend say that shooting through your windsheild also helps. ;)

Read more...

Tuesday Tips & Pics - Guest Post by Gigi Marie, The Chic Homeschool Mama

Hi there!  I'm Gina, or better known as Gigi Marie the Chic Homeschool Mama.  I am a 30-something work at home, homeschooling mom to 3 fabulous kids who are my whole world.  Like many here in our blogging circle- I have always appreciated beautiful photography & wanted to learn how to document our lives in a beautiful way.  My blog is about my photography journey through our lives.

I am so happy & honored that Jaymi asked me to guest post today & occupy her space for a day.  I decided to use this opportunity to discuss the NUMBER 1 question I get asked on my blog...

How do you get your kids to smile & act so naturally in front of the camera??

If I had $1 for every time I have been asked this question- I could make a full time wage at this blogging gig. Well- the quick answer to that question is that I am lucky most of the time. My kids are generally very cooperative, helpful & courteous & 99% of the time they do what I ask- and they do it with a smile. So- I suppose you all are laughing because when I actually start doing client sessions- I am expecting to have a challenging experience with other people's children.  I'm hoping I can put into play some of my other tricks that I use when one of my 3 is having a less than cooperative day. 

1. Be prepared to take a lot of pictures.  I spent about an hour for this session in the video.  I came home with 141 images.  Out of those- I actually only liked about 25-30 & only processed 19.  During a client session- I will probably make it a goal to double those numbers.

2. You will see in many of these shots that I did mostly individuals.  I start there & use the other kids to crack jokes & make the one in front of the camera laugh & be genuine.  They know each other best & so I really use that.

3. I do try to get the group shots out of the way early in case one starts losing interest- that way I can resort to suggestion #2 later on & I am not the only one trying to coax all 3 for very long.  I try to make those my best ones & if everyone is still jovial towards the end, I will get them altogether again for some more.  With kids- I have learned to roll with it. 

4. If they start getting moody- I will distract them with something.  Either by turning off the camera & doing something different for a while or by enlisting their help with the props or the reflector.  This usually changes their mood because they are no longer focused on whatever it was that was bugging them. 

This video is of all my shots- start to finish from that session- no processing.  I figured it would help you see how the session flows & what we did in that hour.  As you can see from the video- there were plenty of shots where one was looking off or had a undesirable expression.  When I get a face that isn't great- I usually make a joke about it to them, which prompts them to laugh & when they do- I am ready with the camera to capture that genuine expression. I just sort through them all in the end & pick the favs & laugh off the rest.

Here are some of the final edits from this day.

This one has got to be an all time fav. Love those freckles. 

So that's it. Now you know & my secrets are out  :)

It's been a pleasure sharing with you all today.  Have a great week! 

Read more...

Quick and Easy Edit Process - Guest Post by Desirae R of Sommerfugl Design

Desirae R's Quick and Easy Edit Process

My name is Desirae, a mother of two (almost three) little rug-rats and a work at home mom. Most know me from my mom blog the not so ugly ducklings, but you can also come see me at Sommerfugl Design, my blog design website where I also blog about photography and design related topics. 

I am so excited to be guest posting today on Jaymi's blog. She takes awesome pictures and her Tips on Tuesdays series has been such a learning experience for me.

I don't know about you, but I really enjoying seeing other peoples photo editing processes. I like to see the technique they use and the order they do things. I can not tell you how many little things I have picked up from these kinds of posts. Since I have never done a post about my quick editing process on either of my blogs I thought I would share it with you here. So here it goes. Here is the original photo:

My very first step with any photo is to check the levels. With this particular photo they were not off too much, however I still felt that the photo felt washed out a bit so I played around with the level sliders until I got this:

I could have stopped here, but it still did not feel right (I go a lot of how the picture is feeling to me). So I duplicated the layer and set the layer on soft light at 100%. This is a great way to give your photos just that tiny bit extra. I found with this picture, it gave that richness in color I was looking for.

Again, I probably could have stopped here, but I didn't. This is one issue I personally have, I love to keep editing! Anyways... I just wanted to add a bit of warmth to the photo. I did this by adding a orange color fill, setting the layer on soft light and bringing it down to 50% opacity. Once I did that I cropped the photo retaining the same photo ratio's just to highlight the bridge and two boats.

And that is it. This is my main go to, quick and easy edit. And just because we all like a side by side, here is the before and after:

I just wanted to say a big thank you again to Jaymi for allowing me to do a guest post here! As a thank you, I would like to offer all of Jaymi's readers a 50% discount on any of my services over at Sommerfugl Design. Just make sure to let me know you found me through Live, Love, Travel.

Read more...

The Monson Family Portrait Session

Last weekend I posted a few preview shots of this lovely family that I took during my first portrait workshop with Tonya Joy Photography.  Just wanted to share a few more!

I leave Saturday for my trip to Peru and I couldn't be more excited! I have some AWESOME guest posts lined up for you guys while I'm gone, so please come by and leave them some comment love!  And I apologize if I get a little behind on blog commenting next week.  I'll try and catch up when I get back!



I just love these little girls!
 

Jake is such a flirt with his little lip bite!

 

This whole family was beautiful, but I just couldn't get enough of shooting Chelsea, she just glowed!

If anyone's in Cali and is interested, hair and make-up was done by Kat Kirk of Kitsch by Kat.

I can't wait to share TONS of pictures of my trip to South America when I get back!!

Read more...