Picture Friday

For those that don't know, I'm currently taking Karen Russell's 8 week online photography class, "Snapshots of a Good Life". It is an amazing class, and I'm learning SOOOOO much!

For last week's assignment we had to do a little "outing" and take shots that followed rules of composition. Here are a few of my favorite shots...

Leading Lines - the bars of the bridge lead your eye up the photo to the subject -Sammie. Also a good use of balance, and I filled the frame with the story (playing at the park) vs. just the subject.

Framing - I framed my subject with the big toy beams. Also a good example of the rule-of-thirds - Samantha's eyes are in the upper left intersection (If you were to separate the photo into thirds vertically and horizontally, the point where those lines meet are called intersections. A photo with good use of the rule-of-thirds will have the focal point -the subject's eyes, or other key element - at an intersection.)

My Favorite shot of the day...

This uses active space well. Sam and Dave were looking off to the right at birds, and there is space in the photo for their eyes to move. It is also a good example of off-center orientation which in photograpy is typically more visually pleasing than perfectly centered photos.

All in all - I'm *loving* this class. We are learning about ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed this week, and what I've discovered is that I need a new lens if I want to start getting the artistic shots I see in my head. My lens' maximum Aperture is 3.5 and my ideal is more like 1.2-1.8. So I'm going to try and scrape together some CTMH money and go lens shopping this weekend.

If you want to help me out - place on order on my website for some cool scrapbooking stuff! Don't forget that June is buy 2, get 1 free on all stamp sets!