Sisters from a different Mister.....

Crazy how this world works.  Are you one of those people that believe all things happen for a reason?  That by some devine intervention, timing of events and the goings-on in your life are meant to be exactly the way they are?  Whether positive or negative?  I am.  I have had a couple of random connections swirling around me the past few weeks.  So when Erin and I met this morning to create our post I nearly lost my coffee to find that we had taken (essentially) the EXACT same photos for this week!  This may not have been clear before but we do not discuss what we are shooting during these challenges.  We keep that part secret from one another and only discuss the category and parameters around editing.  We like that because it pushes us to be personally creative and makes for great discussion after the fact.  It is now clear to me that we are without a doubt Sisters from another Mister!  Either that or we are becoming incredibly insync with our passion for learning this trade.  Both of which make me smile.  :)  Continue reading and you'll see what I am talking about....



Pictures below from Vicki:

 

I love looking at black and white photography.  It seems to tell such a strong story and show a real sense of emotion.  But I am often torn when I have a photograph full of beautiful colors and try converting it to B/W.  So one of my "goals" this year is to learn more about B/W images.  What makes them so telling and how to properly take an image and convert it over.  All week long I was debating over what I wanted these pictures to look like.  I couldn't really find anything that suited me....until Friday.  Friday was the most dreary, nasty day we have had in a while here in Charlotte.  The kind that makes your hair all crazy and everything slippery for no reason!  As I'm pulling into my driveway that afternoon Tiny Hautop #1 says "Mommy this looks like the misty forest."  One of her fav Backyardagains episodes.   She is so right.  The fog was so thick that it had sucked all of the color out of the trees and sky.  And suddenly my B/W challenge had begun!  Big hair and all I grabbed the camera and decided to start snapping.   The two tree images are from my yard that day.  And are straight out of the camera.  Taken at 1/25, f4.5, and ISO 400.  You know I love trees from previous blogs.  :)  I found the stark contrast of the sky and the trees to be perfect!  After some thought however it seemed like I had cheated on the challenge.  I mean the whole point to was to convert an image.  And I had a great B/W pic but had not technically converted it.  So for good measure I threw in a pic from my trip to the park early Sunday morning.  I met some great friends and their insanely cute 1yr old son for a session.  You'll see them later this week in a post.  During that time I actually found a blooming tree!!  Now these blooms were a soft pink and absolutely gorgeous.  I teared up a bit converting the image but I've always been a rule follower.  So I changed it to B/W and completed my homework assignment.  lol  I actually like it.  I think the change really shows off the details in the petals.  This image was shot at 1/400, f2.8, ISO 400.    That's all for this week.  I will probably revisit this challenge in a few weeks.  Practice makes perfect!

Images below from Erin:

 

This week, I was forced to step out of my comfort zone when my first plan for this challenge did not pan out.  I have learned over this journey that my joy is photographing people, and more than that, photographing people doing things they love.  I have a hard time with posed photography too because it feels so forced and I would rather let people be themselves and stand back to capture their true selves.  I suppose that's why I enjoy sports and playtime family sessions most of all.  So, my original plan had been to take pictures at my son's basketball game.  If you know me at all, you know that I have my camera with me at any and all sporting events that my kids are involved in playing.  On top of that, I am the team photographer for many of their sports.  Sadly, basketball has stopped me dead in my tracks!  Why you ask?  The lighting is absolutely terrible to the point where my only option is to raise my ISO (film speed in the days of film) so high that all the shots are incredibly grainy.  I was so sad because I LOVE the game of basketball and to add to it, Brett (my husband) is coaching and I thought it would be fun to have lots of pictures from the season.  I took the camera to the first game and was so discouraged that I have not taken it with me since.  When Vicki suggested B&W for this week, I immediately thought that maybe switching the pictures to B&W might take some of the focus off of the grain.  Sadly,  life simply got in the way on Saturday and I was not able to take the pictures as planned. So, that left me one day to figure out what would be my new focus!  Luck would have it that I woke up Sunday morning to everything covered in a fairly dense fog.  Looking out my window I thought that maybe the fog and nature would be a fun thing to photograph for the challenge.  So, I forced myself out of bed and into the car to the park in the neighborhood with a cute little pond.  Since I was up early the water was completely calm and made for some great reflections.  Although I felt like a "real" photographer up early with all of my gear and in the "elements" with nothing but me and my camera, I think I will leave this type of photography to someone else and stick with what I love :-)  

 

 

And there you have it folks.  Great minds do think alike!  For next week we both have some fun session images to post.  So our weekly challenge is going to be 2 weeks out.  We will be capturing motion.  Get ready to crank up those shutter speeds!  Send us a shout out if you would like to follow along or submit your fav black and white photo!  We would LOVE to hear from you!

 

Erin and Vicki

hautopblog@gmail.com

The Pursuit of Happyness....

....man that was a good movie.   I love to watch inspirational movies at the beginning of the year.  It's like a personal pep talk that comes with my all time favorite snack, popcorn!  Like many of you, Erin and I have resolutions, goals, dreams (whatever you wanna call it) for 2013.  We won't go into listing them all out here.  That's a whole different type of blog.  :)  But we did decide to take on the most popular topic when it comes to new year resolutions, food!  I read somewhere that instead of writing down everything you eat in a food diary you could also try taking a picture of what you are about to eat.  Then look at the picture and decide what you could do without.  Interesting angle I suppose.  But what in the world would you do with all those pictures??  My iphone is already full with radomness.  However, I thought it was intriguing enough to try with my real (and brand spanking new!) camera and Erin agreed.  So off we went to photograph food this week.  Thrilling, really exciting.  lol 

Here's what we came up with.


Pictures below by Vicki....

 

Food photography is not as easy as it seems.   So the first few pictures I snapped were simply horrible.  Then I decided to take a slightly more serious approach and things started looking up.  Oh and I made myself a cup of coffee in my new favorite coffee cup!  I managed to capture the steamy goodness that came from my coffee maker as it was brewing.  Score!  But I don't think I achieved the same effect from the meal.  I did move closer to the window for this shot and the natural light really brightened things up.  I am moving towards a more natural light/less flash shooting philosophy in general.  Thanks to my trusty side-kick.  And I must say I like the results!  Anyhow, these are my foodie pics.  And in case you are wondering, I did review the image and decide to eat the whole plate.  I'll leave something behind at dinner.....maybe.



Picture below by Erin.....

It’s a happy New Year and time to usher in lots of new fun and energy. There are lots of changes around our house but the biggest one is easily seen in our fridge and pantry. We have finally decided now is the time to figure out what is ailing our poor bodies. So, we have taken on the challenge of an elimination diet! I thought that we were pretty healthy eaters already, but I have to admit that I don’t even recognize our dinner plates right now. No wheat, no dairy, no soy, no peanuts, no alcohol (goodness that was a biggie :), no caffeine, no corn or tomatoes, no shellfish, and very little sugar or sugar substitutes! Just lean (preferably organic) turkey and chicken, certain fish, fresh fruit (except citrus), fresh veggies, non-gluten grains (like brown rice and quinoa), good old fashioned water, and then we decided we would allow ourselves to eat some nuts. My husband, poor thing, had to laugh at what he was eating while trying to watch football. Staring at his plate of fresh veggies, hummus, rice crackers and almond milk all he could say was…”This sucks!” In the end, we are definitely hoping to find out that food is not our problem so that we can continue to enjoy our all our wonderfully unhealthy foods. However, it would be nice to also learn to love some foods that we may have never tried before doing this challenge. Like Kale chips! Believe it or not, they are actually pretty good and really easy to make! So here is to our healthy diet for the month and to the start of a great year!


Here's to your own pursuit of happyness, whatever that might be!  Thanks for spending a few minutes ignoring work and checking out the blog.  Next week's topic is Black and White.  We will be bringing it to you minus all of our special color filters.  Until next time, if anyone out there has a weekly challenge suggestion or wants to submit a photo just send us an email. hautopblog@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!

2012 was oh-so GREAT !!

And that's all because of you!  Erin and I wanted to extend a heart felt Thank You to everyone out there that has supported us in our journey this year.  We have done more than I think either of us expected.  So whether we had the privilege to photograph your family or you have enjoyed reading our blog, we thank you!  We have big plans for 2013;  more workshops, equipment, experiments!  All things you can read about here.  :) 

Now to enjoy my final few pictures of 2012.  Enjoy!

 

 

What I will be enjoying over the next week!  Yum!

 

See you all in the New Year!  xoxo, Erin and Vicki

Love every day

Finishing this week's assignment has been a little challenging, not because we didn't have so many people and things that we love, but because we have been spending so much extra time loving on our little ones lately.  I have absolutely no words to express my sorrow for the loss of so many little, beautiful lives and equally no words to express my gratitude for all my many blessings.  So, instead of taking photographs for this assignment, I chose to spend my time looking through old photographs of all the little ones in my family.  I then decided it would be nice to put together a slide show of past Christmas pictures using one of my all time favorite Christmas songs.  I know that this song is a little obscure but hope that you enjoy it as much as we do.  Enjoy spending lots of time together this holiday season and we are going to take a little holiday break but look for us to resume the weekly photo challenge in January!

Here's a link to the video:

https://vimeo.com/55885664

Erin

Oh Pinterest, you make it look so easy....

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, then you have more than likely heard of a website called Pinterest.  And if not, here's a little intro.  It's a fabulous idea really.  A place where you can share recipes, fashion ideas, decorating ideas, how-to's, jokes, pictures, etc.  The list goes on and on and if you dare to explore you may just find yourself several hours later with a to-do list longer than imaginable.  As for me, I currently have 439 "pins".  Things that I saw online or from others on the site that I deemed worthy of saving.  Saving with the intention of trying.  I wouldn't necesarrily classify myself as a crafty person.  But my online profile certainly makes me appear that way.  So of these 439 pins I have probably tried a dozen or so.  Don't tell my husband this......he is under the impression that the mindless hours of web surfing are put in to use almost immediately.  :)  I'll get to most of them I'm sure, just not today.  lol 

So this week's challenge came from Pinterest.  If you've searched for anything holiday related chances are you have come across the "how-to photograph in front of your tree" pins.  There are several different versions and all claim to make your holidays photos POP!  So we've decided to put them to the test and see how these ideas work.  Here's how things turned out.....

 

Above Images by Erin

 

 

This is Happy Birthday season for my family so Christmas trees have not really been the focus of the majority of my attention. My husband and I decided when we got married that we would make sure to avoid December babies since both of us have December birthdays. Life has a sense of humor and two kids later, we all celebrate our birthdays during holiday season. My daughter was the only one who managed to swing a November birthday, but being the 29th it might as well be December! My son and I share a birthday and then my husband is just a few days before Christmas, whew!! Adding to that my niece was born a day before my son and I, and her father is a few days afterward (My head is spinning again just writing it all down :-). So we have been in full party mode around here and I realized on Saturday during my beautiful niece's birthday party that I had not taken the pictures for this post. Luckily for me, there happened to be a Christmas tree at the house so I took a couple of pictures that included the tree. Everyone just happened to put the gifts in the room with the tree so I grabbed the chance to photograph them. The other picture is of a precious little one at the party who kept climbing up and down these steps with the tree in the background...too cute!

 

Now, I know I was supposed to read up on how to photograph in front of the Christmas tree and I will be perfectly honest that I read nothing..epic fail on my part!! What I did for both of these pictures was simple put some space between my subject and the Christmas tree, set my camera on the lowest aperture (my lens was 2.8), back up on my subject and then use my lens to zoom in on my subject, then focus on my subject and click!

 

 

 

 

 

Above Images by Vicki 

So here is my take on this little experiment.  I tried it with and without flash.  My intentions were to get that glowing tree look.  No overhead lighting, just the warmth of the tree.  I knew this would be particularly tricky since that would require my subjects (a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old) to remain still.  Nearly impossible.  According to Pinterest I needed to have my ISO as high as possible, which for my camera is 3200.   Aperture at it's lowest, using my Tamron lens that is 2.8 and then shutter speed adjusted accordingly.  Keeping my camera set to Aperture priority, the shutter speed determined by my camera ended up at 1/5 a second.  Sounds fast, right?  Not nearly fast enough to stop a moving 2 year old.  So what resulted in my first 2 pictures is a little bit of grain and some slight blurring.  After about 50 shots, these first 2 are the only resulting usable images.  The last picture of the tiniest Hautop actually turned out quite sharp.  I asked him to pretend as if he were sleeping like Daddy.  Something he loves to imitate.  If this had been video imaging you would hear his funny impression of snoring.  But it kept him still long enough for me to snap one photo.  Looking at the pictures side-by-side you can tell what a difference a still subject makes. 

My final thoughts on this Pinterest project.  Sure, it can be done.  With the right equipment, and some understanding of the functions on your camera, you too can take amazing holiday photographs.  But don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen on the first try.  As with most things, it's not quite as easy as it looks!

Our assignment for next week is to photograph someone or something that we love this holiday season.  Should be fun! As always, let us know what you think!! We would love to hear your comments. Or send us you own holiday lights photos.   Email us at hautopblog@gmail.com! 

Please, don't say "Cheese"

You may have noticed that Take Two has taken two weeks off.   Our family beach trip produced (as you can image) hundreds of photos.  The Grandmothers just love having two camera-loving crazies in the family.  :)  And we are happy to oblige.  However, for us that means burning the candle at both ends to try and edit all of these lovely photos in time for their Christmas cards.  Not to mention the countless other sessions we are working on this holiday season.  Oh and don't forget our own cards....yeah! 

So you are probably wondering what has happened to our weekly creative posts.   Well, don't you worry they are still here!  This week after reflecting back on the trip we decided that our topic would be a product of our experience rather than a task.  Picture this, 8 children under the age of 7 yrs old and 14 adults tired of hearing the "1,2,3 smile!" routine.  How did we sustain photographing 5 days of a family vacation?  By capturing the anti-cheese moment.  And with that I give you this week's topic. 

We've all heard it entirely too many times. 
        "Say Cheese" 
        "look at the camera"
        " I'll give you a ___Insert your favorite snack___ if you smile!" 

This holiday season as we are gathered with family and friends we are taking a new approach!  Capture the fun and excitement, the laughter and details all as they happen.  Whether your subject is looking at you or not.  It's actually quite the challenge.  Here's a few snapshots from our first try at the "Anti-cheese movement"!

 

   

                  

It's back to business this week.  Our topic is one you've all probably seen on Pinterest.  How to take those pictures in front of your Christmas tree!  We are looking for that beautiful, out of focus, sparkle in the background.  What the pros call bokeh.  It's time to put those how-to's to test and see if these techniques really work!  Check back in next Monday to see how things turn out. 

Happy Holidays!

Finally :-)

I have been trying to take pictures for my friend and her family for at least 2 months and weather kept getting in the way!  We finally managed to find the perfect day and had a great time playing at the rose garden.  Her kiddos are so much fun, and absolutely adorable!
Erin