Quantity Eventually Gets Quality

I wish I had some insight into how I get photos like these....I love these 2 shots of Chloe's face. There are a few things in my favor, a- she's a gorgeous photogenic subject, b-I have a pretty sweet camera and c- she's used to posing for me. But I'm not sure just what it is that pops out these spot on shots. Everyone makes fun of me for how many photos I take....but I'm beginning to think that may be one of the secrets! If you take 1000 shots instead of a 100 you're a lot more likely to get some good ones! When I was in high school, I babysat for family whose dad was a photographer for Nat'l Geographic (now he's the editor in chief!)....and I remember him saying something about quantity as well. He said that for one article which may have 2 dozen shots published in it, there were probably about 900 rolls of film taken. So I don't come anywhere CLOSE to that much quantity!! SO basically what I'm saying is, I will continue to ignore the "paparazzi" comments thrown at me and keep shooting if it means I can get shots like these! I recommend you try the same! Who cares what people think of ya?!






Lately I've been trying to hold my camera down at Chloe's level more...makes for some interesting shots. It means that I shoot blind (I'm not looking through the viewfinder) so sometimes I chop things off unintentionally....but I'm getting a bit better with lots of practice (see my above comments about quantity!). And sometimes it gets me a shot like this.... I know it's cropped funny, but I like it! Makes me wonder what she's thinking....what the other half of her face looks like to create this look.....? And I love the bokeh it creates with the trees behind her!!


Here's another example of a photo with some pretty sweet bokeh...

Some of my latest.....

Here are some of my latest "artsy" shots.....

Candy photo contest

So I was trying to get a shot for this contest and these are the four I narrowed it down to. I finally submitted the bottom one. Anyone agree/disagree with my choice? The candy is runts by the way.

Photoshop actions

So I took this photo to try and show some of the different filters/effects you can apply in Photoshop (I have elements 6) to a photo to change how it looks. I like this one for the project because it's a bright color, close-up, and has good detail so you can see how the different filters affect details in the photos! Hope maybe it's helpful to anyone overwhelmed by the different options in Photoshop elements- And this isn't even half of them probably!




This is the straight out of camera (SOOC) shot with a tweak of saturation and light.





This is the crystallize effect....it's a pixellation effect so it takes away a lot of the edge definition in the photo.

This is cutout. I think it gives it a retro/record cover feel?

This is the frosted glass effect- makes it look like you're looking through glass at the item.

This one I edited with the gradient scale. It allows you change the colors for different gradient levels. It was fun to tweak and see how it changed the photo colors!

horizontal grain- There's a list of different grain types. Makes it look like a retro photocopy? I like how it gives an illusion of movement with this particular photo.

Mosaic tyles- you can adjust the size of the tiles and how thick/thin & dark/light the grout is

Paint daubs- blurs the edges- makes it look more like a painting

palette knife- (I'm not an art expert...) but makes me think someone used a sharp edged knife with the paint colors instead of soft brush edges

Patchwork- looks sort of tapestry-ish? Gives it a "gridded" look

Plastic wrap- duct tape version of your photo? Reminds me of a vacuum sealed plastic effect

Poster- changes the colors and lines slightly to make it look more posterish- somewhat self-explanatory

Solarize- changes the colors based on temp? Looks funky on this shot anyway!

Spatter- gives it a blurry/fuzzy slightly out of focus look- blurs the edges just enough

Spherize- can be used on some shots to make it look like you used a fish-eye lens

(I've tried it on some other photos but it only works just right on certain shots)

Sponge- you can adjust the distribution of the sponge marks- think the sponging you might do on wall paint with a slightly darker color over the lighter one?

Stained glass- pixellates it into a stained glass look- You can adjust the size of the glass pieces and the brightness of the light shining through the glass (I have the light down to zero on this shot)

Sumi-e adjusts the contrast and colors to give it an asian(i think) feel This works well with brightly variably colored photos

Watercolor- rather self-explanatory- Makes it look like a watercolor painting- I think this one works better with lighter colored shots without such drastic contrast between colors

Water paper- Similar to water color but makes me think more of colored pencils blurred on thick vellum paper