My gift to my daughter

My daughter has decided she wants to take up photography. She's 10 years old and has a creative mind that I cannot wait to inspire. I have decided to post my journey with her as I teach her. I will share some of her photos as well and hopefully can create a lesson plan to teach her the tricks of the trade. I also want to remember every bit of it and this is a way to give her my memories as they happen.  Hopefully she will be able to see herself grow in photography. 

This all began on Thanksgiving this year when she decided she wanted to take the camera for a stroll while visiting my mom. I allowed her to take my back-up camera to the pasture. I gave her a few pointers, put the camera in auto mode, and she began snapping away. As she began snapping away I began to slowly teach her the basics of the camera and how to set her shots. 

How to hold the camera - keep your elbows at your side close to you, place one hand with your finger on the shutter and the other with your hand under the lens. I taught her that if she places her hand over the lens, she can sometimes create a shadow on her shot that she will not want. Having her elbows at her side close to her allows her to hold the camera securely and prevents any shaking. 

How to focus - determine what you want to shoot and center the autofocus light inside the camera on the subject. Halfway press the button to lock the focus. After focus is locked then move the camera to frame your subject as you want others to see it. 

Horizontal lines - if you have a photo of a building or the horizon always straighten your shot so those lines are straight in the camera. This way you don't have a tilted perception in the photo but rather a straight pleasing line to the eye. 

Clear shot - keep an eye out for distractions in your shot. This one shot in particular that we focused on was a longhorn but there was a bright red feed bucket in the shot. I had her notice what was distracting in the view and get the angle without the feed bucket. 

Not always at eye level - the most fun I had was having her think outside of the box and move to different angles. Shooting at eye level can get boring I told her. Everyone sees things at eye level. Not everyone sees things from a lower level or from a top level. I had her practice sitting and shooting up at things as well as shooting down on things. This really opened her eyes to the fun she can have. Once I started this the monster was created and she began thinking of ways to take the photos differently. 

Don't center everything - there is such thing as a rule of thirds. I showed her the rule of thirds setting on the camera and to line items up with the points and lines in the rule of thirds rather than centering everything. This one was a tough one because she really wanted to center everything. 

It seemed so easy to teach her these few simple things as she was shooting. To my surprise she was really adapting to them and learning as she went. 

I also taught her a little about editing her photos once she loaded them into the computer. How to boost the flat raw image that comes out of the camera so that she can make a nice JPEG image to share.

Sevan enjoyed her lesson so much that she decided instead of a compound bow for Christmas she wanted her very own DSLR camera to continue learning. She was so excited about learning that she begged me to take her with me on my next paid shoot. Who am I to deny an assistant on a photo session! ;) I made sure the family didn't mind and I brought Sevan with me to my next paid family session. She loved it! She applied what I taught her already and she did a great job. I can't wait to share our next lesson! 

I've made the switch

Sometimes you have to better your gear to better yourself.... Ok so, there are limits to what some of my equipment can do and to better my abilities I have finally converted to Canon. This is all thanks to my big brother for getting me to finally make the switch.
Whaat!??
Yes, I know... not something you would expect me to advertise but believe me when I say you'll see the difference in your next session!

I'll be posting some photos on my Facebook page this weekend. Let's see if you can tell the difference. Feel free to comment if you notice! ;)

(the photo I'm posting with this was posted on my Facebook earlier this week)

Thankful! Oh so Thankful!

I have been looking for my niche in the world for quite sometime! Photography was God's answer to that prayer!

Five years ago if you would have asked me, "Do you think you'll ever be a photographer?" It wasn't even in the game plan although I have always loved to be behind the camera. I was too nervous as a person to get out of my comfort zone! It wasn't until some extreme looking into myself as a person and prayer that I came to figure out that maybe I've been looking at things all wrong! Maybe, I have been trying to force myself into a direction that I'm not supposed to go? It seems that when things are wrong, God puts the resistance there to help guide you in the direction he wants you to go. Keep going against his will and things get harder! I have learned this! Oh how I have learned this!!

Photography on the other hand... This feels like my place in the world. My fit, my niche! It comes so easily to me and every time I'm behind the camera I see things completely different! God has answered my prayers and has given me a path! A path that he lit just for me!

I am so thankful for God, my family for sticking by me, and my friends for being there as well. Many of us are so blessed but we do not see what we have.

Take a moment and realize what you have in your life - right this moment! Be thankful!

I'm so blessed to have met so many different people, to have the family and friends surrounding me, and to have found my niche!

Princeton Fall Festival

The Princeton Fall Festival was a blast! So glad I got to meet a lot of people and I'm blessed I had such a great helper/friend that worked with me to run the booth! For those that attended and had their photo taken at the fall photo booth, as I get to your photo, I'm uploading it to the website. Please check it out. You can print or download and prices are included on the website.

Congrats to Kelsey Womack for winning the 1hour photo session! For those of you who are wanting to know my rates, I am running a special until the end of the year.---75% Off!!!--- Than means for a 1 Hour photo session it's only $50. This includes your edited photos around 30-50 edited photos on a DVD and also will include a customized Christmas card template for you to have printed at your leisure. I'll also include the print release of course!

Book now! Spots are filling fast! Keep in mind, to have your Christmas photos ready in time to send for Christmas, you'll need to give me time to edit your session (around a week turn around) and then give yourself time to have the cards printed and mailed!

Learning experience

As many of you know, I just started my photography business in April and it has already been a journey in just these few months that I've gotten started. I am forever trying to learn new techniques to better myself as a photographer.

During this time, my rates are very cheap - almost a steal for the work that I put into each session! Each 1 hour session could result in 400+ photos (I like to take pictures what can I say!) for these 400 photos I spend time on each photograph determining the right exposure, and tweak it until I am completely satisfied with it. I even photoshop blemishes and light poles and other things. Now I'm not going to tell you that you will get 400 photos in a 1 hour sitting but those who know me know you will get a lot!!! I have a difficult time choosing the best ones and to leave out the rest. Why!!! Why should I omit beautiful pictures that you may prefer over the others! So - I don't. I leave them in there minus any bad ones, i.e. Eyes closed, motion blurs, and other random things.

I have decided to keep my rates the same until the first of the year. You can enjoy a 1 hour sitting full of photos with no limits to outfit changes for $50 +tax! There is a limit of 5 people with any additional person being $5 extra.

My package includes a DVD of your images as well as access to the photos online in my website. There you can share your photos on Facebook but I do request that you include where the photos are from.

Contact me to book your next session! If you would like, I also have gift cards with a 1year expiration date and they will be good for whatever session time you are requesting. Example $50 1 hour session gift card - if my rates go up next year the gift card will still hold value for a 1hour session!

It's a great deal so enjoy!!!

School has started!

Well the kiddos are back to school! My schedule this week has been interesting with my kiddos back in school. I am changing my work schedule to work around theirs since the school system here decided to have Elementary kids go to school later... Still don't understand that! But - the good news is I can have more time with them in the evenings with my work schedule change! :) The other good thing about this schedule change is I will still have time for photo sessions in the evening when the time changes in the fall. Woo whoo!!!

I had a chance to book a wedding for this weekend. I cannot wait for this couple to get married so that I can catch these memories! I ordered a new lens just for the event... Ok not just for the event but it gave me a good excuse to get it! :) Just don't tell my hubby! I'm guessing I get to find out if he really reads my blog now or not. - We'll find out if I get in trouble ;)

I'll post a few photos with their permission after this weekend. Till then, have a great week!

Step by step

A lot has happened since I started my own photography business in April. It has definitely been a work in progress and I am totally happy with my progress! My website is up and running with the ability for my clients to log in and view their photos. I am still working on package details that I will offer. I'm tossing around ideas of whether or not to let my clients have full access to their photos on my site or to just provide a DVD and have purchase abilities only on my site. The options are endless of what I can do and I'm so excited to be able to offer them the website option! This may be the fastest way to get to their photos because it gets updated as I edit the photos.

On another note, my business cards will be in soon and I am beginning to increase awareness of Sevanty Photography! I am really looking forward to growing my business with the local community!

For those who are looking for current rates, I posted in online sites that I am offering a 1-hour session for $50. This is while I have spaces left to book! The first of the year I expect my prices to change so please book now and enjoy this very competitive rate!