Lens love challenge #mamarazzi #photography101#CountryKids

I am very very lucky to have a few lenses which i really really love but i don’t use that often. I have my work horses that pretty much do just that, they are functional, do the job and i have three lenses which are never far from my camera bag. They are the 50mm 1.4 ( this is the mid-range) 24-105 f4.0 ( my go to studio lens and its pretty good for days out as it has a bit of a zoom) and the daddy 70-200mm F2.8 ( this is a killer lens in both quality and size) Out of the three it is the one i use least for personal use but when im shooting for a client..it is pretty much the front runner. every.single.time.

I know there will be people out there thinking ‘well why dont you use it for personal use if its that good?’

One reason…

well five..actually 😉

It is a very heavy and valuable lens and when we are on days out and have all the kids, their stuff, the packed lunch, the dog, uncle tom cobbly and all along with me..adding the stress of a large lens bouncing around on my hip and threatening to give a small toddler a head injury..its just not going to happen. You have to be sensible about lenses when you are talking capturing your own family memories. A large, monster of a lens that might be fabulous but gives you chronic back pain is going to be left at home in favour of your iphone.

Go..on..you know im right. 😉

Getting something that works for you is the key.

Anyway there is a point somewhere.

So one of my lenses that i am lucky enough to have on a borrow from my dad is the 15mm Fisheye.

It is beautiful even down to its perfectly styled non-plastic camera cap. Really..its metal. I dropped it on the floor at the Olympic games (the cap not the lens!!) and the lady in front thought id drop a flask or a mug of coffee!  Its small but mighty and i love it. One of the things that i regularly do with the lenses that i dont use that often is challenge myself to only shoot with that lens for a day, a week or a couple of days…some time..so that i get used to using the lens and also a new way of looking at my composition and imagery.

This is SO worth doing. It really stretches you and takes you out of your comfort zone, you might even find that you fall in love with a new type of lens and way of shooting your subject. I know its more money and camera equipment is super expensive as it is BUT it will give you experience of getting an idea of just how different these lenses are and what they can do to an image. I get asked all the time..’So what is actually the difference between these lenses then?’ I went a bit more in depth about that here 

Here is your chance to find out!

I know not everyone has access to more than one lens BUT there are companies that hire out these lenses for a few days and they are not that scary prices either. I would totally recommend shopping around and grabbing something that maybe you are toying with the idea of owning or maybe even you just want to see what they would be like for the hell of it.

Its playtime 🙂

Some companies worth thinking about are: lensesforhire lenspimp lensfettish

Thats just a few, there are loads out there!

So.. here is what i got up to. It was an awful day today and it rained…a lot..so we went for a quick bike ride and fed the ducks. The thing about the rain is it makes the greens take on an luminosity that is so attractive..which is probably the only good thing about rain…well you know apart from that we need water to live ‘n all 😉

This post is linking up with the Country Kids too…so welcome all linky followers!

Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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Cook on a campfire #countrykids #50things #nationaltrust #springcarnival

Its not every day you just have to step outside your back door to do some outdoor fun right outside your back door. My OH was really keen to try out his new outdoor toy and so before bed the kids de-camped in their jammies and dressing gowns to see the new ‘Kelly Kettle’ in action.

The Kelly Kettle is a system whereby you can boil water in a safe and easy to use system which basically has a little fire in a bowl underneath and actually heats the water, it works pretty quickly once the fire gets going and it can also be used on a conventional stove.

It was a little bit of playing with fire thrown in, which lets face it all kids love, they all had a go at the fire-starter thing which they all think is a great little thing to play with!!…

But the most important part all together was the hot chocolate that was promised a the end.

It was all over and done with in about 20 minutes and then it was time to head inside and tuck the kids in the beds but they had that lovely smell about them as we were saying goodnight of woodsmoke. Which just gives you such a feeling of the outdoors it was really lovely. They felt like they had, had a mini adventure in the outdoors and they smelt like it too!

 

setting up the hot chocolate tray – a very important job!

 

Family Farm Holidays CornwallSpring Carnival

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Composition #dadarazzi #photography101

This week instead of covering another technical aspect of your camera I though i would focus on a more artistic look at how we can make our pictures look desirable to the human eye.

Just before i start actually though, thanks so much for all your lovely feedback about these posts. The biggest thrill i get is that people say they are going to go and have a go with their camera. That is my aim. Not to come across as a big know it all camera person. Because I am so not. But just to encourage parents to get out there and capture life as it happens in their families. Like the Fool did last week, experimenting with shutter. This week im re-naming my mamarazzi as dadrazzi in his honour 🙂

Anyway..so this week its all about composition. What is it that makes you look at an image and go WOW.

As photographer we can control what the viewer sees in our image. That can be by using things like shutter/aperture and manipulating the light..but also how we present the image is important. Where is the eye drawn to in an image? How is it all coming together.

Here are a few basic ‘rules’ you can follow.

Leading Lines

This principle is based on leading your viewers eye to what you want them to focus on by the use of lines in an image. They don’t need to be straight, just needs to be something that ‘lures’ the eye to the object of interest.

Here are some examples..

you can use so many different things as leading lines..here are some train tracks…

or something simple like a path

doesnt have to be just for kids either..you can use leading lines for anything you want to draw attention to.

fences are really good for leading lines, especially for portraits. get your subject to lean in to wall and then you do the same and shoot 😉

can even be something like a shadow

Frame it up

Im not talking about putting your picture in a frame on your mantel. Although we ALL probably need to do more of that and give our crippled hard drives a break from storing all those images that never get seen! But no what im talking about is using an element in your scence to provide a natural border that draws attention where you want it. You can use anything from the outline of a door or window to a row of trees of cluster of bushes. Basically anything that surrounds your subject will pack a punch.

Look for negative

Not as in, think negatively, but as in think about the power of negative space in your image…nothingness. It really can pack a huge punch. It means an area of your image that has no visual content in it. Intentionally leaving some empty space around your subject can make a huge impact. Works well when following the rule of thirds…

and lastly – for now…

Get off Kilter

So you think that you always have to have your subjects standing up straight and all your horizons level. Well sometimes its good to mix it up a bit and shoot on an angle. A tilted photo can add visual interest to your scene. The thing is to make your slant obviously intentional and not so awkward that your subject seems to be sliding out of the frame. Similarly, incorporating diagonal lines to your photo can aid the eye in moving across the image, giving your image energy.

Here are some examples..

So there are a few pointers, see what you think and if you fancy giving it a go, do let me know how you get on.

 

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Skimming Stones #Countrykids #SpringCarnival.

Working through the national trust 50 things list which has enthused the kids and us with more of a desire to get outside. Also the OH has been reading this book by Rob Cowen and i think that has really given him a spur on to do more of the stuff that he has always wanted to do. He is planning a den overnight stay in the forest and already has spent his birthday money on a Kelly Kettle so that cooking and a fire when out and about are sorted.

So with that in mind we had a little impromtu lesson in skimming stones, which is mentioned in both the 50 things and the book. Always good when you have LOTS of pebbles to choose from!

 

Sometimes you need to take a little moment to pose

choosing your weapon of choice

then changing your mind and trying harder to find the perfect skimming stone!

and apparently this stance really helps!

then its a whole lot of throwing things in and staring at the sea…oh and mummy playing with exposure!

 

Spring CarnivalFamily Farm Holidays Cornwall

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Which lens should i choose? #mamarazzi #photography101

The question i probably get asked the most..apart from how do i get my kids to sit still for a photo 😉 is ‘what lens should i go for?’

A lot of people have no got dslr’s and the fabulous thing about these cameras is that you can choose from an army of possible lenses that do all sorts of different things. So where do you start?

Let talk a little bit about what the lenses actually ‘do’  Generally speaking you can choose between zoom or prime lenses. A zoom lens…er….zooms and a prime lens doesnt. Easy peasy

The focal length is a measurement that is usually measured in millimeters and very simply put will effect how close or far your subject appears from you when you are looking through the viewfinder.

The merits of prime.

Personally some of my favourite lenses are prime lenses. The benefits of prime lenses are that often they are sharper and can bust out some pretty wide apertures ,meaning that you can create more of those dreamy blurry backgrounds that we all love and the added benefit of shooting at a wide open fstop is that you are letting more light into your camera. Hands up who takes a lot of pictures inside?

Well if you don’t live on a house that light pipes funnelled into the ceiling or an entire wall of glass open to light then this factor really helps! Canon and Nikon both have a relatively cheap 50mm prime lens..fondly referred to as the nifty fifty 😉

The merits of zoom. 

What zoom lenses might lack in crispness they make up for in flexibility and function. A zoom lens allows you to use multiple focal lengths. Which is good for those of us who want to stand over the other side of school playing field on sports day and zoom in on little Johnny doing the sack race.

But try to remember that no zoom lens works at its best at its most maximum output. So you might think you’ve snapped him clearly coming across the finish line in first but ultimately it may be exceptionally blurry. Another thing that a cheaper zoom will do is change the aperture as you punch out the zoom. This is something that lots of people get stumped by. You have a nice shot all lined up, perfect lighting and everything…you think to yourself ill just zoom in a bit then you snap the shot and it is dark. The reason for this, is variable aperture. These lenses cannot maintain a wide open aperture when they are changing their focal length.

Make sense? no? well what it means is that it will allow less light in because it will automatically change the aperture whilst you are using the zoom. So you just need to think about your light.

There are zoom lenses that can maintain the aperture throughout…but they are pretty pricey. Not that there is much that isnt in photography to be honest 😉

Focal length

There are so many different options when it comes to focal length.

Wide angle: as suggested, it has a wide angle, great for when you want to get as much in your picture as possible, they can distort the view though..so if you have a person right at the edge of your frame they might take on an interesting bend! A bit like the funfair! But i think they can make for some very dramatic shots although you have to be careful as they can be a little unflattering on faces. less than 20mm – extreme wide angle (fish eye)  20-35mm – wide angle

Standard and portrait lenses take images that are much more flattering to the human eye. Standard focal length (50mm)  is what the human eye ‘sees’ naturally. Apparently it is the lens that a forensic photographer would use as it most truthfully depicts a scene! 35-70mm (standard angle)  70-105mm (portrait) 

Telephoto: magnify a given object, making them seem closer – anything 105mm and up!

I could go on and on about lenses. Most pro photographers will always say ‘its all about the glass!’ That meaning its all about the quality and ability of your lens rather than your camera. Might be food for thought eh?

Here are some examples…

 

beautiful 50mm lens with its wide aperture, you can create lovely depth of field and you can pick out those lovely details

60mm macro lens. I really loved this lens then had to say goodbye when i moved to a different camera body that it wouldnt fit onto. 60mm f2.8

35mm medium wide lens and you can get some detail and show more of a scene. The very beautiful Miss Violet 🙂

190mm f3.5 Using a telephoto lens can get you up close and personal to your subject, so you can capture those little moments without being in their faces! 

one of my favourites again, the 50mm. True to the eye and perfect for capturing those details…especially inside!! This was in quite a dark living room.

35mm again capturing more of the scene…

A true portrait lens of 70mm. This was taken with my 70-200mm lens. 

This is what i was talking about with regards to extreme wide angle. This is 17mm. You can see the bending effect. I think it works quite nicely with this image though.

 105mm portrait. Good thing about telephoto lenses is they can give you that lovely blur or ‘bokeh’ behind your subject

15mm fish eye – extreme wide angle but i think the quirkyness of this image works really well as it has strong lines made by the railway lines. Love this little lens. Its fun!!

I am by no means a total expert but if none of this makes sense shoot me a comment on twitter @apartyofseven and ill do my best to help.

Happy shopping 🙂

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