My New Passion

I've always had a passion for photography but never had time to really explore it, and five years ago when I bought a new camera, I thought that was time. I loved my new Canon SLR and I full intentions to buy a better lens and get practicing. Well, work and family life put that on hold and it wasn't until this past December that I finally made the lens purchase. I bought a 50mm 1.4 and it was great...but even then I wasn't brave enough to start shooting in manual.

So while I've been on bed rest I have had plenty of time to read blogs and watch video tutorials to get a better understanding on how to shoot RAW. Now I am addicted - poor Mike. ;-) But, the downfall to bed rest is that I can't get up much to experiment.

Now that I was able to keep Baby D inside for a little longer, I was yearning to do a maternity photo shoot with Wyatt. The problem was I was supposed to be resting so I couldn't really go anywhere and I couldn't take my own photos.

But my mom came through with shining colors. She volunteered to come over and snap some photos - even though she had never shot in Manual Mode...but we decided to gave it a whirl. I started brainstorming on where in the house we could get the best lighting and have a decent backdrop. I then worked to get the best camera settings and angles possible and then turned the camera over to her. We had some hiccups-I forgot to charge my camera battery, Wy-man is 3 and wasn't too interested in taking photos, I was supposed to be laying down or sitting for most of the session, and my mom wasn't familiar with my camera...but she captured some great moments regardless. Then I was able to take some of the images and turn them into something really great during post production.

While some photographers can get amazing images straight out of the camera (SOOC), I am not to that caliber yet so I had to rely on my Photoshop skills to turn these into brilliant images. And since I learned so much from other's blogs, I thought I would show you a couple of the before and afters to help people see the transitions made. I am really pleased with how they turned out!
Wy-man and I had a great time (even though our session required a few bribes), and it is so wonderful to see the anticipation in his eyes for his baby brother to arrive.
Even though most of the session took place either laying down or sitting, we did get an image or two standing. I can't believe we have made it to 35 weeks and still holding on strong!
Thanks for letting me share this journey with all of you. If anyone is interested in letting me photograph you, your children or your family, I would love to get more practice (although it will have to wait until after this baby is born). ;-)