Toot Toot

Ok I'm going to toot my own horn a little here. Over the past month I feel I have grown sooo very much in the way of photography.

1st ~ I have read 20+ online articles that have helped to add fuel to my "foto-fire". I say 20+ because I have gotten thru half of some and also continued clicking related links on others that I honestly have no idea exactly how many articles I've read, but I've bookmarked over 20 as read and still have 8 online articles in the folder I had to create called "finish reading" haha! And I say "add fuel" because my new-found passion for photography hasn't been extinguished by any means, I am just normal and have life events/happenings that come up and take precedence, but these articles (that I can enjoy from the comfort of my own comfy couch in my comfy sweats) have helped build the fire back up.

2nd ~ I made the leap to shooting in full Manual Mode! I know eek! I was super nervous that it was going to be waaay over my head but after practicing in Shutter Priority and Aperture modes since last summer I feel like I had 2/3 of the basic concepts pretty much figured out and it truly was not as hard as I was building it up to be (that's a little push for anyone who reads this to just try it out), I still wasn't (and am not) a genius at this but I also...

3rd ~ FINALLY completed Level 3 photo class at National Camera! So happy I did this! The instructor (who is amazing and taught my Level 1 & 2 classes) confirmed what I thought I was doing correctly WAS correct (yeah me!), clarified concepts that I just wasn't getting, reminded me of concepts that I had forgotten to implement from the other levels (hello forgotten gray card) and taught new concepts that I was captivated by. Sooo wishing there was a Level 4, not sure what would be taught, but I would go (and yes, I wrote that on the comment card).

4th ~ after talking to a dear foto-friend who is also in love with photography but year(s) ahead of me in figuring out this whole Manual Mode thing I was also pushed to move from only shooting in JPEG to shooting in RAW+JPEG and actually using the software (I already have) to process and correct the RAW photos. BIG EEK! I think I was more nervous for this than I was for moving to M-mode. But I thought to myself "just go for it, it's not like you're a professional and will mess up pics for someone else" or so I thought....

5th (and final, I promise) ~ I got together this week with Matt's aunt (Shannon) at her store...to take product photos! I felt the need to remind her multiple times that I am by no means a professional and that this is technically my first photo shoot (outside of my kitchen). Shannon and her business partner didn't seem to mind or be worried about how the pics would turn out...but being the Type-A Perfectionist that I naturally am I took my "job" very seriously and really truly did try to put to use all the knowledge I have learned to get some good photos for them. So yep, I not only shot in full M-mode, but also RAW+JPEG, used a top-mounted flash with a diffuser, created my own "stage" area, totally used by tripod, AAAAAND processed the RAW pics! I can not believe how some of them turned out, yes there are some that are still not that great and some (that I forwarded on to my dear foto-friend for honest critique) that I am still surprised with when I see and can't help but think "wow Laura, MAJOR improvements!"

So there we go, a little toot-toot for myself! I say go ahead toot your own horn, because sometimes no one else knows you need a little tooting ;)

And to show some examples of what I did last Wednesday:

My foto-friend and I also talked about labeling our pics with our names (hence the "by Laura Shaleen") and I am putting together a different area/site to host all my pictures like these as I want to keep this blog a personal-blog and a separate site as reference for my pics. It's not finished but when it is, I'll link it up here so anyone can check it out.

(remember everyone loves comments...especially this toot-happy lady)