We had the Sue’s family come in at the end of November to have family pictures done! The weather has been nice here in Texas, so the fall colors outside were perfect for outdoor pictures! This family was great to work with! We loved the colors they picked out for there pictures! We did the oldest daughter Kayla’s senior pictures and she will be an upcoming model for a shoot that we will be doing soon (using nothing but my Iphone:)!! We look forward to doing many more pictures for this family in the future!

Well yes we really are on a map, if you look hard enough and zoom in a whole lot, but I am thinking a bit more figuratively.  A few months ago I was working with Graphic Authority in Plano at a Clay Blackmore conference.  It was over blending photo and video into a seamless product (on a side note, I am of the belief that they will always remain separate but that is beside the point).  While we were there we shot a commercial for Graphic Authority.  Feel free to check it out.  One of your photos may be in the commercial if you look hard enough:)

Meet the Anderson’s, were the girls definitely out number the boys in this family!! The andersons came  in December to have some family pictures done for Christmas, and they turned out great! This family has a fun spirit (as you can see by their leaves fight!) Kelsey, their oldest daughter is one of my 2011 Senior models!! We hope to do more pictures of the Anderson Clan in the future!!!They were a lot of fun to work with!

Reagan and Keith Skates came in with Baby Easton when he was just 5 weeks old to have some pictures taken of him! Luckily since here in Texas we have bipolar weather, we didnt have to stay inside the studio! We had Beautiful fall weather, so we were able to take Baby Easton outside to get some family pictures done! The scenery turned out awesome with the fall colors! We hope to see them again soon!!

Baby Aubry came in with Mom and Dad when she was just a week old!  She was a little trooper during her photo shoot! We had the studio nice and toasty for her to sleep right through all the pictures! We got some great pictures of her, and hope to have her back for more pictures with Mom and Dad in the future!!

Back in August, we did a shoot with Heather and Jerrod for Heather’s Maternity pix!Heather was only 7 months pregnant at the time… Fastforward 4 months and Heather and Jerrod welcomed Drake October 14th, 2010 after 28hrs of labor! Less than a week later Drake was in the studio getting his pictures done and has had his pictures done 2 other times since that 1 wk session! Heather now works for me, so Drake is up at the studio all the time!! There will be lots more to come from this family!!!

Check out the post we did back in October of them! http://doyoudaydream.net/?p=108

First a complaint- As with any brand new camera, there is not much out right now that supports it (I am now patiently waiting for an Adobe Lightroom update so that I can continue to shoot RAW). So for now I am a Jpeg man until the updates.

Now on to bigger and better things, just some highlights until I can get some real shoots under its belt. Without even turning on the camera you can tell that this camera is trying to separate itself from the D90 family and lower (soccer moms with an extra $1500 that want this camera because you hear it is great better sign up for one of my classes because this camera is way out of your league, no offense.) At a quick glance there is only one auto feature, auto. There is not runner man for sports or face icon for portraits. These options are there, but not in a quick auto mode, you have to dig into the menus to find them. Your choices are A,S,M,P, and auto… glorious simplification like the D300 and higher Nikons have.

There are 2 SD card slots. If you are a pro or just need tons of storage without buying a 32gb card this is a big deal. You can set these cards to back up mode or once one fills ups it goes to another. I have never had a card fail on me (knock on wood), but mine will always be on backup mode, I may sleep better tonight because of this feature alone:) If you are Nikon user now, then you will be able to find your way around the menus incredibly easy. I really like how they have kept this consistent (look and feel wise).

Now for the two things that have just blown me away with as little as I have used this camera… High ISO noise reduction and the sharpness of the auto-focus. First the high ISO noise reduction. Before I start just a mention of what ISO is (if you know you can skip this part:). ISO is how sensitive your cameras sensor or film (yes I said the “f” word) is to light. The higher the number the more sensitive which allows you to shoot at faster shutter speeds and/or higher f/stops. The tradeoff has always been the higher the ISO number the more noise you have in your pictures, until now that is… within reason. With the couple of test shots I have taken, I have shot at 100 ISO and 1000 ISO. On other cameras that I have used 400 was still considered very good in most cases but quickly fell into the unacceptable category, other than being the only way to get a shot i.e. at a low lit wedding without a flash, 640 and higher was never OK. I have to say that first impressions are that 1000 ISO is still in the good/very good category of acceptable noise (I will still shoot as low as I can, but now if needed I do not feel bad going that high and maybe higher!!! I will be able to tell for sure tonight at an outside Xmas party).

The next is the sharpness of the auto focus. The ironic thing about professional lenses are that typically when you get to 2.8 on your zooms or 1.4 on your primes (which is why we pay the big bucks for that extra light), the focus gets soft, very very soft. So far I have never seen as sharp of pictures come out of my Nikon 50 1.4d or my Sigma 24-70 2.8 HSM, and very snappy. I was honestly considering getting rid of my 50mm because it was so soft at 2.8 and below, but now it deserves another chance:) I am sure there will be more to come after tonight’s shoot which will be a mixture of formals and candid’s with a mix of flash and ambient lighting, so check back often if you are curious. Check out the sample pictures posted below. Remember that I have this shot is here in the office at the studio with crappy window light. The first two are the same untouched jpeg (one VERY zoomed in) and the next is after using some NIK filters on it. The camera settings are at f/2.8 @ 1/100 @ 1000 ISO.

Please feel free to leave your comments and questions, I am a camera nerd.

Origional

Way Cropped

NIK Filters Applied

You know they are there, but when was the last time you stopped to look at them… I mean really look at them???  A few years ago we moved from Abilene to Mansfield and basically went from tons of stars to more planes in the sky than stars.   There are so many stars they are breath taking when you take the time to consider how beautiful they are.  At the same time one could argue that that make you seem small and insignificant.  I beg to differ though.  The same God that put the stars in the sky and knows each by name cares even more for me.  Take a minute and read Psalm 147.

¹ Praise the LORD.

   How good it is to sing praises to our God,
   how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

 ² The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
   he gathers the exiles of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted
   and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars
   and calls them each by name.
⁵ Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
   his understanding has no limit.
⁶ The LORD sustains the humble
   but casts the wicked to the ground.

 ⁷ Sing to the LORD with grateful praise;
   make music to our God on the harp.

 ⁸ He covers the sky with clouds;
   he supplies the earth with rain
   and makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He provides food for the cattle
   and for the young ravens when they call.

 ¹⁰ His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
   nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him,
   who put their hope in his unfailing love.

 ¹² Extol the LORD, Jerusalem;
   praise your God, Zion.

 ¹³ He strengthens the bars of your gates
   and blesses your people within you.
¹⁴ He grants peace to your borders
   and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

 ¹⁵ He sends his command to the earth;
   his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶ He spreads the snow like wool
   and scatters the frost like ashes.
¹⁷ He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
   Who can withstand his icy blast?
¹⁸ He sends his word and melts them;
   he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

 ¹⁹ He has revealed his word to Jacob,
   his laws and decrees to Israel.
²⁰ He has done this for no other nation;
   they do not know his laws.

   Praise the LORD.

Thanks to everyone for their support and coming out to the FREE costume shoot last Friday.  We raised a ton of food that supported the Church on Rush Creek Food Pantry.  Check out th eslide show and feel free to make it full screen, it will look great:)

This is the Williamson family, well mainly Zane, but mom and dad are there as well.  Zane had the very first picture taken at the studio when moved in last September.  So it was only fitting that he was the first to use my new outside couch and “treeish” background.  Time flys.  I also thought I put up a reminder from his first shoot which if I remember right he was about 1 month old and now he is just over 1 year:)