Domestic Photographic

Black and White backlighting:

I can't believe it's June already! One month and 15 days until Moses turns one. Eek!

This is my new favourite of Moses. I love his face.

As I mentioned in other posts, I've been working on my black and white converstions. I think I've come up with a "recipe" that I like, at least for certain photos.

It's fix-it Friday over at i heart faces. I have never participated in this editing challenge before, but I thought I'd give it a try. As you know, I've been working on my black and white conversions, so I thought I'd b/w this one. Feel free to let me know if you think it's muddy.

Original:

Love.

Today was my beautiful Mother's birthday. Happy birthday mom. I love you!

I've been working on black and white conversions a LOT this week. It's become a not-so-mild obsession. I have been trying to figure out how to make them have "true black" and "true white" and not be "muddy"--unfortunately I only have a vague idea of what any of that means, lol. Anyway.

I got this idea from the book How To Photograph Your Baby. It has tons of simple tips on getting better baby photos and different projects and ways to display them. It's a pretty basic book, but it's good for someone who is JUST starting out.

Taking these photos was also a challenge because Moses was sleeping in my lap while I took most of them. Then when he woke up I got the one of his eyes. This would have definitely not have been possible without my new wide-angle lens adapter. Usually trying to take photos of Moses while he sleeps on my lap is a total lost cause, but I think these worked out pretty well.

Please let me know what you think about the black and white conversions, and any suggestions you might have to improve. My husband is a little tired of having to tell me "Yes, it's still muddy" lol, and I think he has started telling me that everything's great in order to not have to make him look at a new edit every 2 minutes.

Calin, after doing the early morning shift. I know it's "hot" and blown out, but it captures the mood.

We're all sick today. I lacked the energy to do anything creative, and Moses lacked the energy to smile for me. This is how we're all feeling in our house:

I'm not feeling well today, so I didn't have the energy to take a ton of pictures and experiment with a lot of different shots. Calin just went to the store to get me some stuff for my throat, and I thought I'd get a picture from the upstairs window of him walking to the car. Unforunately, I started taking pictures of this dad walking his little girl inside, and totally didn't notice that Calin was downstairs until he was in the car and backing out of the parking lot. I wasn't sure whether or not to use this picture since I didn't ask permission, but I know I don't have to get permission to take the picture as long as I'm not selling it, and since you can't see their faces or any identifying information, I think I'll go ahead and post it.

The sun was streaming through the big picture window into the living room today, so I thought I'd do something with that. I think it gives kind of an angelic halo effect.  Disclaimer: A few of them aren't as sharp as they could be, but it's hard when you're shooting in manual focus with a moving baby. I also think I may have cut off a little too much of his head in the third one, but live and learn!