Gritty black and whites

In the past couple of weeks, I downloaded a few free "mini" actions for Lightroom. They don't have the "full" utility that the sets you pay for do, but hey, why not try the free ones out? Turns out, for mini presets, they've added a lot to my photos! In particular, I'm LOVING the black and whites that I can now create.

This is why I love my "nifty fifty"

If you enjoy photography, and have not yet purchased a "nifty fifty" lens (50mm fixed focal length), please run out and do so. I obtained my 50mm f/1.8 lens off of amazon.com for about $100, and it was probably the best $100 that I've spent so far on my photography hobby. There are MANY other lenses that I'd like to  purchase, some of them ranging well up over $1,000, but I believe this one will continue to serve me well. The quality of light, depth of field, ability to focus on a very specific part of the photo...all of these contribute to beautiful photography. If you doubt, look at these amazing shots of my beautiful daughter (and these were taken on an afternoon when she had the stomach flu!).

Morning portraits: children

As I mentioned on my Facebook page when I shared this photo earlier this week, I have a lot of photos to share of the kids all dressed up for Foxfield. I had a lot of photos to share from our weekend in Charlottesville about 3 weeks ago, and decided to split up the posts - I posted an album on Facebook devoted to mostly our friends (the adults), a post on my family blog devoted mostly to my kids, and thought I'd highlight the more "portrait" shots of the kids here. The kids all looked so lovely, and they were so obliging of my photography efforts!

Baby Geese!

Stratford pond (just behind our house) is home to a lot of wildlife, but the most obvious are the many geese that make a home here. In particular are a mated pair that we knew would be having babies at some point. Two weeks ago we finally spotted the babies, as the family came out of the water to eat not far from our backyard. As I didn't want to provoke the parents, or scare the babies, I used my 75-300mm telephoto lens to shoot these guys through the trees from our backyard.

A different view

One of the things I like to do is photograph something from a new perspective. Yesterday afternoon I was looking at a vase of flowers on my table, and the flowers hanging down next to the vase jumped out at me. I thought I'd try this perspective, and I think it works!

Beauty at Monticello

On the last Friday in April I spent the day at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) with my family. I posted kid/family photos on my other blog, but wanted to highlight the beautiful springtime shots I got here.

This one is currently my cover photo on my Facebook page, and was also my submission for "Signs of Spring" for the Weekly Photo Project two weeks ago. I absolutely love this photo!

Spring in Charlottesville

 Having grown up in central Virginia, I love the area in the springtime. I was fortunate to be able to spend four days in Charlottesville recently, and have the chance to capture some lovely springtime photos.

Setting sun: backlighting

Our new house backs onto a beautiful (man-made) pond, which looks especially lovely as the sun is setting at night. 

The Eiffel Tower during the day

On our second day in Paris, we took the Batobus (riverboat taxi) to the Eiffel Tower. This was taken at our stop.

 Being on the Batobus provided opportunities for beautiful shots of the Eiffel Tower behind this bridge.

WPP: 5 week wrap up

You may have noticed (or not, cause you don't care, but that's ok) that I haven't posted my Weekly Photo Project submission here in a while. That's because I didn't submit one for most of the past month; of the 5 weeks recently, I missed 3 of those due to how crazy our life became there for a while (trip to Paris, moving, work travel, unpacking, etc).