Picture Practice {R & L October 2015}

Yesterday I dished the dirt on another escapade I had with my dear friend Anna. At the end of my post I mentioned taking some pretty fantastic pictures of my parents later that week. I was planning to share them soon, but a second look at my blog planner confirmed that soon better be now.

My parents have been married for almost 36 years and the last time they had photos taken of just the two of them was 20+ years ago. I was so happy and honored when my mama asked me to take some. I told her not to get her hopes up, I didn't really know what I was doing and we would be lucky if I captured one frame worthy shot.

Here are the results...

I still need to work on some lighting technicalities. That manual mode really is a booger. That said, I don't think they turned out too bad either.
Maybe I can figure this camera thing out after all!

Picture Practice {A&B October 2015}

So there was that one time...
Anna and I got together and took "senior" photos of each other.

I'm only halfway kidding.
 There are a couple things about taking photos that you can't possibly tell from the subject side of the lens. 

1) It's hard. Like really, really hard to capture the perfect shot.

2) Manual mode requires a lot of practice.

3) You have to act FAST, photos where lighting is ideal (sunrise or sunset) also mean things are changing constantly adjust, adjust, adjust and adjust again.

4) Practicing on your kids is not the best way to practice (they only tolerate so much before they check out).

So what are a couple of moms with DSLR's  wanting to improve their skills supposed to do?
Practice on each other I suppose.

We got all dolled up to go take some "glamour shots" of each other and today I am sharing the photos with you ... but only if you promise not to laugh.

We even managed to snap a couple of photos together thanks to my handy dandy timer and finally getting the settings right.

This one is iconically me #goober.

 Overall with a really challenging lighting situation I think we did pretty well.
More importantly I felt like I learned quite a bit.

I was able to take that knowledge and capture some pretty fantastic photos of my parents a few days later. I'm sure I'll share some of those another day. Anna and I already have made plans to practice again before it gets too cold and I might try to take my girls out too. The more I practice the better I'll get, I'm hoping.

I was already thinking I want to work on my photography skills in 2016.
I think I'm just getting started a bit earlier than expected.

Do you have any questions, advice or tips on photography?