You may not like me when I say it, but there is no way around it.  One of the main ingredients to a Successful Business is Exercise!

Have you made a New Year’s Resolution to be in better shape?  It’s never to late!  I’m not talking about Barbie Doll shape or those Size 6’s that are really the new Size 10’s—ugh!  I’m talking about feeling good about your body/fitness and raising your CONFIDENCE (there’s that word again!).

When we started shooting weddings more consistently, I would wake up Sunday morning and be WORTHLESS for the rest of the day.  It was insane!  I’d nap on the couch and feel like a train hit me.  This was not okay for my family.

Shooting weddings is such an endurance based activity, standing on your feet for up to 12 hours.  I knew I needed to get in shape for the job.  So I started swimming to build up my back muscles and endurance level.  Eventually, I met this scary guy, Troy Nesby.

He’s not that scary.   But he is a darn good trainer.  AND guess what ladies, he is putting Cross Fit and Cardio exercises/workouts on his new blog.  It’s called the Homework Fitness blog, and it’s pretty great.

I LOVE it because one of my biggest battles is keeping consistency in a life that is made up of consistent travel.  I feel like I do so good with exercise at home, but then we hit the road and my diet and exercise routine struggle.  But if my dad can do it, I sure as heck can.

My dad has travelled abroad for almost forty years.  He is sometimes out of the country two or three times a month.  And guess what, when he flies from Seattle to Korea, he checks himself in at the hotel (in KOREA) and does cardio after a THIRTEEN hour flight!  He’s in his late sixties and has no body fat!  He made a decision on his 40th birthday to stay in shape, regardless of how crazy his schedule was, and he has done it.  If I think my schedule gets crazy, I don’t have anything on him.

So last year I bought resistance bands that I can take anywhere.  If you don’t have a gym membership, you totally need these bands.  They cost maybe $15 at Target.  And when I’m on the road, I pull up Troy’s blog and find a workout that I can do from anywhere in the world.

What do you say ladies?  What about setting some fitness goals.  My goal is to exercise 5-6 times a week.  I do pretty good with 3 times, but I’d like to bump it up because honestly, I just feel better on the days I workout.  What’s a realistic goal that you can set for yourself?  If you do any of Troy’s workouts from his blog, post a comment on how it went.  I’ve started doing it, and for some reason it helps me feel more accountable.

Why is exercise a main ingredient for a successful business?  There are many things in the life of your business that you can’t control or predict.  Choosing to get up in the morning and hit the gym before the kids wake up is something you can control.  And it’s amazing how this keeps you grounded while building your business.  Jeff Jochum and I talk about this off and on.  Give it a try.  You’ll see what I mean!

CLICK HERE for Troy’s Homework Fitness Blog!  And leave a comment after you do a workout!  I won’t feel so alone! 

xoxo,

Me Ra

There are all kinds of scientific explanations around Depth of Field, but if you know me, you know I don’t enjoy the scientific route as much. Instead I like to use my pointer finger! Here we go! It’s a kinesthetic exercise in Depth of Field. Ready!

1. Hold your pointer finger in front of your nose so that it’s close to your nose but you’re not going cross eyed.

2. As you look at your pointer, notice how all your vision around your pointer naturally blurs. Your eyes have focused on the pointer and that’s the only thing that’s in sharp focus.

3. Now slowly move your pointer finger away from you, and you’ll notice how your surrounding vision starts to become less and less blurred. e

This is Depth of Field!

Our eyes are constantly readjusting our Depth of Field based on how close an object is to us. Our cameras simulate the same practice. When we take our 50mm lens and get super close to our subject, like a baby’s eyes, our lens often makes one eye sharp and the other one soft. This will never work for a client. But why is this happening? Isn’t that the purpose of having a low fstop lens?

Has anyone ever had this happen?

The answer to the problem is that you’re too close to the subject. The more you back up, the more you can put into focus. Just like your finger, the farther you move your finger from your eyes, the more in focus you have surrounding your finger.

The closer you get to your subject with a low fstop, the less depth of field you have to work with. Think of the word depth. Closer you get, less depth. The farther you are from your subject, the more depth you have. It’s like the depth stretches–widens. And this is why I can shoot Shachar and Jason walking toward me, both in focus, at a low 1.4 fstop.

If you love the close up images, and you can’t frame your image tight enough to get both eyes in focus, you may want to consider investing in a Macro Lens. Photographers often use Macro Lenses for filling the frame with baby feet, hands, eyes, etc.

Some of you asked if I cropped the image in Post Process. We NEVER crop anything. I learned early on that cropping after a shoot was killing way to much time. With thousands of images from a wedding, I didn’t have time to crop half of them. So Brian and I work extra hard to frame an image the way we want it. Frame it, crop it, in the moment of shooting it.

I hope this helps Depth of Field seem a little more accessible and less scientific. Bottom line, when using a low fstop, the closer you get to your subject the less you can have in focus. The farther you get, the more you can have in focus.

Tell me your thoughts. Questions? Is it making sense? Is this helpful? Let me know b/c I want you to see that you CAN DO THIS!

xoxo, Me Ra

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Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series are now AWARD WINNING! Read the press release HERE ! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box , and our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography , click on the titles of your choice!

This weekend I had a wonderful reminder in how much joy the unexpected image can bring.

It started with flying to a place I’ve never been, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Anne, one of our beautiful brides, wanted to do her engagement photo shoot at her old horse farm. I totally understand why. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL, pastoral romance oozing everywhere, especially with the fall foliage.

The weather was crazy cold, but the rain never came (yeah!). And when the shoot and dinner were all said and done, Anne and Preston collapsed with their dog, Tennyson, on the couch at 11pm.

This unexpected image has to be one of my favorites from the whole day.

For all my Photo Recipe lovers, I shot this with my 85mm lens. The ISO was 800. My aperture was all the way down to a 1.7. And because of the fantastic image stabilizer built inside the Sony camera bodies, I was able to be at 1/50th of a second for my Shutter Speed and still have a great, sharp image. Why is Tennyson in such great focus with an aperture as low as 1.7? I know many of you have the 50mm lens for the low aperture, but you feel like the lens will focus on the eyebrow and blur the rest of the face out. Tennyson’s whole face is sharp because I backed up which gave me a wider space for sharpness. If I scooted closer to Tennyson, the low fstop would have focused only on his nose or the eye closest to me. But because I was sitting 5-6 ft. away, I could make his whole face sharp. Does that make sense? If not, ask away in the comments.

Anne, thanks for inviting me to stay at your adorable home! I’m so glad I did because this shot would have never happened. I got to the airport just fine the next morning with time to take the kids pumpkin shopping when I got home. And Preston, your history on Thomas Jefferson and the Dave Matthews Band was awesome!

To our blog readers, Great ideas on the new Photo Contest theme. We’ll let you know the final word soon! If you have an idea that you haven’t shared for the new Photo Contest theme, post it in Friday’s comments!

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What about putting CONFIDENCE on your Christmas Wish List this year!!! We are down to TWO spots in the January 2010 Seattle CONFIDENCE Workshop! The November Seattle CONFIDENCE Workshop is sold out! CLICK HERE to get one of the last spots!

Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series are now AWARD WINNING! Read the press release HERE ! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box , and our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!

This is obviously the AFTER image (after I’m done processing the image in Adobe Lightroom).

This is the BEFORE image. This is the image straight out of the camera.

What do I do in Lightroom? What are the Six Time Saving Steps to my Post Process? If you’ve attended one of our CONFIDENCE workshops, you know that I don’t like fussing over images–takes to much time away.

First, I make sure the color balance is good (her skin looks good, the pinks look true, etc). Then I step back from the image (in my mind’s eye) and decide what the story is for this image. The image of Chloe is about Chloe’s confident eyes. She’s looking right into the camera, unafraid and totally engaged. This tells me she is bold and spirited. Even the pucker in her lips confirms it. This is the story that I want to draw out in the image. So I adjust toning in Lightroom to draw out her eyes. I want the viewer to be struck by her eyes more than anything else. Thus, I need to tone down anything that could distract us from her eyes. For example, the pink shirt and yellow mat below her.

All I did was lower the saturation. This means I removed some of the color so that it’s not a full black and white but has more of a vintage color. A full black and white would be a little to serious for me with this image. Then I raised the level of Contrast for an added sharpness to her eyes. I raised the Blacks a tad to add a little more impact to the Contrast. And last, I added a Vignette so the edges of the image would fade into a blacker type color. And that is it.

If you counted with me, that is SIX. Six is it. I put in a few pink arrows below so you know where to locate these steps in Lightroom.

1. Color Balance (or Temperature) looks good out of the camera

2. Identify the Story of the Image

3. Lowered the Saturation

4. Add Contrast

5. Up the Blacks a little

6. Add a Vignette (to add a Vignette, scroll down farther in Lightroom and you’ll see the Vignette scale)

Sometimes I don’t even lower the saturation. I just up the brightness, up the contrast and add a vignette. The post process tends to be within six time saving steps, or even less!

Why am I sharing this? I want you to fall more in love with photography! I want you to continue to fall in love with the stories of your kids that are unfolding around you on a daily level. I want you to know that you don’t have to own and understand Photoshop to be an amazing photographer with amazing images. Photoshop is not what makes an image amazing. You are what makes an image amazing b/c you spotted the moment and captured it.

We have two enemies when it comes to our photography. One is our own critic within. We talk about shutting that guy up a lot around here in the Personal Reflections category. The second enemy is Post Process. Instead of finding ways to grow our passion for photography, we grow our hours behind the computer doing post process.

Let me set the stage for what my life used to look like. I used to be big into Photoshop and Actions that change your image in a trillion different ways. But this is what happened. After a full day, bedtime prayers were finally said. It was almost 9:30pm, and I was exhausted. I got on my computer to start working on images, and somehow I got stuck for the next FIVE maybe SIX hours. And more than not, I had been stuck on ONE, TWO, maybe THREE FREAKING images. Tweaking it here. Tweaking it there. Trying this Action out. Trying that Action out. Hyper focused on a single image, bent over my computer at 1am, and pity the Brian who tries to have a conversation with me. The result was traumatizing to Brian.

Does that picture ring a bell with anyone? Seriously ladies, I have two active kids, we homeschool, I have a demanding business, dinners to make, groceries to buy and a dog to run, I don’t have time to deal with TWEAKING IMAGES a little here and a little there–especially when I’m the only one who will ever notice that I raised the Contrast by two more points! Can I get an AMEN!

Enter Adobe Lightroom. It walked into my life a couple years ago. I ignored it (in a snooty way) at first because Photoshop was “much more” familiar (as anything would be after that many late nights). But then I finally gave Lightroom a try and couldn’t believe how much easier and faster my post process could go! I could make my images without having to mess with Actions, Flattening an Image, Layering, Gaussian Blurs, etc. etc. (I’m getting dizzy!).

Nope. None of that anymore. Me Ra is now in bed around 10:30 or 11pm so she can get up to write her morning pages or blog, then heads to the gym by 6:45am. Me Ra is much, much happier.

So all that to say, don’t let the second enemy kill your passion for photography. Add a little contrast to make the colors pop a tad more. Add a Vignette to bring more focus to your story. Maybe lower the saturation for a vintage look, but then LOVE the moment of what you caught and walk away. Walk away from the post process trap and head to bed so you have more to give to your kiddos, husband, clients, and most importantly, yourself.

I would love to know if this post was helpful; seeing the BEFORE and AFTER and showing you what I changed in Lightroom. Would it be helpful to see more of these in the future?

p.s. If you are a wedding or portrait photographer and buried in post process, try out Shoot Dot Edit. They now handle the post process for our weddings, and they have been great. Worth looking into if you’re buried. If nothing else, their website cartoon is hilarious b/c of how true it is!

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The Minneapolis CONFIDENCE Workshop deadline for the Early Bird Registration price has been EXTENDED!! HOORAY!!! You now have until this Friday to get in on the deal! FYI, I don’t think we’ll be able to make it to the East until next Fall, so if you are near Minneapolis or on the East Coast , come join us! To find out more details and get yourself a spot, CLICK HERE!

Want to learn more about Framing, Composition, Blurry Backgrounds and Lighting? Check out our Award Winning DVDs, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), or discover our popular 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!

Here’s the deal. I had my first painting class last night. I got on my blue Townie bike with my bubble gum pink fenders and white basket, and went up the road to the local art studio. Having no experience in painting, I sat myself down and decided to try something new.

A few years ago, I was talking with the father of the groom at a wedding we were shooting. He was a well known surgeon. He told me that everywhere he teaches himself a new form of art. That year, he was learning how to create oil paintings–the year before he was taking watercolor classes. He said that taking the time to learn a new discipline, a creative discipline, kept his mind alive in the operating room. Art played into his work much more than his colleagues would ever knowledge. And instead of his job becoming mundane with surgery after surgery, he was inspired from within his creative spirit. I never forgot this conversation.

At our last CONFIDENCE workshop in Seattle, I was telling the women to not think of themselves as just photographers but to think of themselves as artists. My reasoning was that as a photographer, you limit your modes of inspiration. In fact, let me ask you this. When you go looking for inspiration to your photography, do you unknowingly limit your search to photography websites, images and blogs? Or do you inspire your photographic self by way of doing things that don’t even involve holding a camera?

If you see yourself as an artist, everything is available to you for inspiration. If you only see yourself as a photographer, or only a writer, a painter, or even a surgeon, the world of inspiration starts to close in. Well Seattle Sistas, I took my own advice and signed myself up for a painting class.

If I only depend on my camera to inspire me, I feel pressure to perfect my photography and then that makes me tired. But what if painting could inspire my photography? What if working with the color wheel and taking in the various shade of green–what if those simple acts of focus ended up giving new inspiration to what I see through my camera?

I learned about the Alphabet of Drawing last night: the circle, line, curve and angle. I learned about timing myself as I draw something. Giving myself 60 seconds to complete a drawing b/c that forces the left side of my brain to give up. The left side of my brain tends to doubts my abilities–it’s so practical. But the right side of my brain believes I can draw any thing. Sixty seconds for a drawing isn’t enough oxygen for the left side of my brain. I was AMAZED at what came out of me.

When I rode home last night, everything around me had shifted. Instead of houses, I recognized circles, lines, curves and angles everywhere. I can’t wait to find out how this will affect my photography. That’s the great part about nurturing the artist within, when you feed one part of your creative self it spills over into every other part.

Now it’s your turn! Here is where the post gets even more fun! If your reading this today, take a moment and post ONE thing you could do to inspire your creative self and thus inspire your photography.

I’ll get the juices going with a handful, but please share your ideas! I need your help getting out of my box too! If 100 people posted their ideas, think of the resource we’d have here! Don’t be shy!

Here’s some of my ideas to help get you going.

Take Salsa Lessons

Scuba Diving Lessons

Knitting

Water Skiing

Cooking Class

Learning to Play the Guitar

a Writing Workshop

a Dance Workshop

Voice Lessons

…okay, now tell me what’s popping into your mind! Don’t edit, just tell me!

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Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series is continuing to grow, faster than we know what to do with! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice

Except for the reserved Running on Empty spot, our CONFIDENCE DC Photography Workshop for Women is SOLD OUT! YEAH!!! We’ll announce the next city soon! Stay tuned!

Alex Steele!!

Alex was the 33rd entry out of almost 10K entries! Isn’t that crazy! It also looks like Alex entered by way of our blog! Pays off to read our blog!

Congratulations to Alex!! Alex, if you read this blog today, you MUST post us a comment and let us know you are out there! Also, look for an email from me or Genie. We’ll be sending you a couple questions so we can ship your camera to you! And I’m hoping we can get all three of our winners to send us some photos from their new Sony Alpha DSLR Cameras!

And a HUGE thanks to Sony and Women’s World magazine for partnering with Me Ra Koh Photography on such a FANTASTIC contest! It was awesome to have Women’s World bring such huge exposure to the blog. And for Sony to offer THREE of their Alpha DSLR’s…Sony is the BEST! Check out Sony’s Digital Darkroom for Photo Tips and Exercises!

Have you taken your kids to see Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs yet? It’s one way to escape the Northwest heat wave! Yes, 103 degrees in my home that doesn’t have air conditioning! Sleeping with ice packs has been our best solution.

Since the movie is 3D, all four of us got our glasses. I wish we had our camera to get a shot of us watching the movie. Too cute. But when we got home Brian insisted that he get a picture of me and the kids. He said we looked “too cool” not to capture the moment. We weren’t allowed to smile for the picture. He wanted us to be as chill as possible. The kids crack me up! They were right there with their chill character.

Brian did some out of the box stuff with his flash to get this shot. He wanted there to be a bit of glare in our sunglasses, and he didn’t want there to be a bright wall behind us. So he pointed the flash down and off to the side. Isn’t that crazy? Basically, he threw the flash light against the bottom half of the couch causing it to bounce up at angle–which created the glare in mine and Pascaline’s glasses but also toned the light down behind us.

The other trick he used was turning his flash power down. If you look at your camera, you’ll see a small lighting bolt with a plus and minus sign next to it. The lighting bolt arrow stands for your flash. Put your external flash on (not using the pop up flash). And then hit that little lighting bolt button. You should be given the option to move a marker up the scale toward the positive sign or down the scale toward the negative sign.

If you move your marker up, the flash gets brighter. If you move the marker down, the flash power goes down. Brian toned the flash down so it wouldn’t be too bright on us.

All this to say, experiment with what direction you aim your flash. What happens if you aim the flash behind you? What happens if you aim the flash straight up at the ceiling? What happens if you aim the flash at the side wall and tilt the flash head up a little? Get a familiarity with the different outcomes of throwing light. You’ll find a whole new freedom when available light isn’t available anymore.

This is one of my favorite “flash” photos. I love Blaze’s expression and the graininess in the image. Can anyone tell me where we pointed the flash for this image? And if you want to keep playing…what do you think the aperture/fstop, ISO and Shutter Speed were?

I’ll post the answers later today in the comments. It’s kind of a trick question, so be sure you look at the image carefully.

Happy Monday friends! So much good stuff to share this week, including some of the great Bubble images you emailed me and the Five Finalists for the Vacation Aperture Photo Contest!!

xoxoxo, Me Ra

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We are down to ONE spot left for the CONFIDENCE DC Photography Workshop for Women! CLICK HERE to read ALL the details, see the schedule and get your spot!

Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series is continuing to grow, faster than we know what to do with! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!

Bubble blowing brings the kid out in all of us. It is one of those activities that creates wonder and enchantment every time. And whether your baby is 9 months old or great grandma is playing too, wonder fills our eyes when that big bubble floats within our reach.

Here is a fun photo exercise to try with your kids or clients! All you need is a 99cent bottle of bubbles. Depending on how old your kids are you can either have them create the bubbles, or you can have a friend stand off to the side and blow them for you.

So many great variables for picture taking come into place when bubble blowing! Babies lift up their gaze, sometimes their hands, trying to touch the bubbles. Therefore you get this great light that fills their eyes. And for those of us who have older kids who are a little on the…well let’s call it…high energy, enthusiastic, don’t want to sit still side of life…bubble blowing/creating magically gets them to stand still. It’s amazing. The kids become so focused on creating the perfect bubble, you can finally catch a picture of them face on instead of their back end running away.

There are so many fun things to discuss with this image, and I get so excited, it’s hard to know where to start!

Let’s start with the choice of Shutter Speed. Sometimes the action, the movement of what’s happening, is the story I’m trying to tell. Freezing the action of kids playing with bubbles, babies learning to walk, your daughter running down a soccer field..these are all stories of movement. Having a faster shutter speed helps freeze the movement.

For the image above, my Shutter Speed was at 320th of a second. So that’s not super fast like 1000th of a second, but it’s fast enough to freeze the action. If you want to experiment with Shutter Speed try turning your dial to the Running Man icon. This setting is all about freezing a moment of action. Take a couple shots in different lighting situations like; the beach (your camera will probably shoot a really fast Shutter Speed b/c if it let’s too much light in, the image will be overexposed), the late afternoon (shutter speed will probably be slower than at the beach), and then sunset like the image above. Building an awareness of why your camera is picking the Shutter Speed that it is helps you understand what you want from an image.

Let’s talk about composition! As many of you know, I love, love, love the buttery blurred backgrounds. But sometimes a blurry background doesn’t enhance the story. If a blurry background isn’t enhancing my story, I consider giving the background more detail. Blurred backgrounds or detailed backgrounds have a little to do with aperture/fstops and also composition.

The yellow sunset over the water at my parent’s house was an irresistible background. I wanted to compose a shot where Pascaline and her bubbles were the focus of the story but the yellow sunset accentuated the story (along with her yellow dress). You would think that we had pre-planned this! But I promise we didn’t.

I was thinking about the thirds principle when I composed these shots. What third of my frame should the sunset be? What third should Pascaline be? What third should the bubbles fall into? There isn’t a right answer. It’s all about experimenting with different ways to compose and frame an image, and how the composition you choose shifts the story. Even choosing to make your image vertical shifts the story.

To have the detailed trees, island and water in the background, I bumped my aperture/fstop to a 6.3.

Pop quiz! Can anyone tell me what could have happened to the background if I brought my aperture/fstop way down to a 2.0?

I especially like this next one because Blaze came running through the background. You have to love it when life gives you those free bonuses!

The above shot also reveals another trick I used for these images. When I decided to make the sunset a part of the story for these pictures, I realized I needed Pascaline to be taller. So I had here stand on top of the plastic slide in grammie’s backyard. Getting some added height on her helped me position her body where I wanted it with the water and setting sun. It also got her above the tree line below. Remember, don’t be afraid to set yourself up for success if you have an idea that might make the shot even better. It’s about being creative, getting out of the box, having fun and trying all kinds of different things (before the kids catch on–of course ).

I especially love this one. I like how the composition turned out with Pascaline in the left third of the frame, her smile, her poise, and the sunset in the right third. Even the choice to clip the tree branches so that they poke in from the upper right hand corner makes the whole image more circular–pointing me back to her joy.

But this last one is my FAVORITE! Remember how we talked about the sense of wonder that lights up their face? Oh my goodness, this is the shot I was looking for.

I love the wonder and enchantment on her face.

Summary of the Photo Recipes are the following;

Aperture was up higher than I normally have it. My f/stop was a 6.3 for all of these shots.

Shutter Speed was 320th of a second. Not super fast, but fast enough to freeze the moment and make it crisp.

ISO was at 200. I tried to go as low as 100 (b/c the lower my ISO the better my color saturation) but I didn’t have enough light at sunset to be that low. So I bumped it up just a hair, and I had enough light.

Equipment: The camera body was the Sony A900 (my Lulu–remember, I like to name my cameras ). The lens was my workhorse lens–the 24-70mm, 2.8, Carl Zeiss.

Suggestions for taking Great Bubble Shots…

1. If your child is old enough have them blow/create the bubbles. If they aren’t old enough have someone blow bubbles behind your camera while you take the pictures.

2. Think about composition of not just the child’s face but the bubbles too. Where do you want every piece placed in your image? Don’t stress, but have fun with different angles or ideas.

3. For the sunset shots, you can do a couple different things. Most cameras have an automatic setting for shooting images at night. You could try putting your camera in that setting. Or you could try putting your camera in Shutter Speed mode and pick a Shutter Speed–anyone you want. If the child is too blurry from their movement, speed up your shutter speed. Remember, playing with it is the best way to learn. Try not to think of the Shutter Speed as numbers or fractions but instead crisp detail vs. blurred detail. If you want to jump the plank, you can try putting your camera in Manuel mode. We took these photos around 8pm. You could set your camera on the same settings I had and see what you come up with. Again, if your image is to dark/underexposed, slow down your Shutter Speed to let more light in. If your image is to bright, speed up your Shutter Speed to let less light in. It’s all about adding light and taking away light.

Here’s a random thought that might help Shutter Speed make more sense. You know how you tuck your kids in at night, and then you crack the door so a little bit of the hallway light comes in to their bedroom. Let’s make the bedroom door your Shutter Curtain. Depending on how fast you open the door to their bedroom changes how much light comes in. You can open and close the door fast and only a little light comes in. They may not even notice really and keep sleeping. Or you can slowly open their bedroom door (like Brian often does), let a whole lot of light in their room that wakes them up. That would be a slow Shutter Speed. Did that help anyone or am I on a tangent all alone?

I think Brian does the BEST job of explaining Shutter Speed as the nutty professor in our Beyond the Green Box DVD. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Okay, you better send me your results from this Bubble exercise! Email them to mera@merakoh.com!

p.s. I have to thank Brian for the first photo of that bubble with the blue sky. I was taking pictures of the kids, and he wanted the camera b/c an idea came to mind. And I gave him such a hard time b/c he was taking a picture of ONE BUBBLE?! Whatever! But then I see his shot, and I’m in love. How does he ever put up with me?

Not only does he take a great blue sky/bubble shot, but he reminds me that wonder can be captured without seeing their facial expression. He is the master at these types of shots.

Great shot babe! It’s a detail shot that captures it all.

xoxo, Me Ra

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We are down to TWO spots left for the CONFIDENCE DC Photography Workshop for Women! CLICK HERE to read ALL the details, see the schedule and get your spot!

DEADLINE for the Vacation: Depth of Field Photo Contest is THIS FRIDAY!! July 31st! To enter your Vacation: Depth of Field image, read all the details by CLICKING HERE ! We’re excited to see what you enter! We’ve got some fun images coming in! If you’ve already read about this contest and know what type of picture to submit, go ahead and CLICK HERE so you ENTER TODAY!!!

Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series is continuing to grow, faster than we know what to do with! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!

When they had their first baby, I went to LA to photograph him. And now, they have baby number two. Boy, baby Lucas stole my heart!

Whenever I go to a client’s house, I like to do a few things before we even start the shoot. One of these things is getting a casual tour of the home. I like to look at all the rooms, the overall layout of the house, and find the best available light. You never know where the best light is going to be. Sometimes it’s in the bathroom! And yes, if that is where the best light is, that’s where I’ll do a majority of the shoot.

For Tony and Stacey, the best available light was in their kitchen.

I’m not sure they pictured me doing their portrait session in the kitchen. But they trusted me, and I LOVED the light in that part of the house. Since I did most of the images at a low fstop–to get that buttery, blurry background–it didn’t matter that we were in the kitchen. Yep, the stove was black. But in the end I knew I was going to blur the stove anyways, and a black blur didn’t distract from the image at all. At some points it even added more depth to the image!

But it wasn’t just the window light I loved. I also loved the cream colored kitchen counter tops. The counter top was a great surface to have baby Lucas stand or sit on. The light hit the counter top and casted this wonderful glow to mom’s face and baby’s eyes. Little did they know how PERFECT their kitchen was for photos!

This image is one of my FAVORITES!

When was the last time you took a casual tour through your home and found the BEST available light? Do you know how the light changes in your home from sunrise to sunset? Have you ever been asked to take pictures of someone’s kids and started by looking for the light? Just taking a couple moments to get acquainted with your location and the positioning of your available light can make all the difference.

For our home, the best available “morning/early afternoon” light is in the play room by the sliding glass door. As we get closer to sunset, the best light is our master bedroom. My kitchen often requires a higher ISO or a flash b/c the windows faces north. I can always pop a flash, but available light is so much more flattering.

I promise to show you more images from this shoot. Right now, I have to cut it off here because of how crazy busy our day and week is. But I wanted to take a moment to encourage all of you to walk through your house and look at the available light in every room and living space.

Watch how the available light changes throughout the day from sunrise to sunset. Find the BEST spot for taking photos, and then go for it and see what happens. With a blurred background (low fstop), you can make buttery, blurred magic happen in any setting. Hey, you don’t even have to have your dishes done! In fact, I love that Stacey had a handful of bottles sitting on the counter next to the sink, a pan that was used for breakfast, and a teapot on the stove. She didn’t have to move a thing b/c I was going to frame tight and blur the background. Can you imagine feeling that relaxed during a photo shoot-not feeling like you have to make your home spotless? Can you imagine how free our kids would feel in front of the camera if we weren’t changing the room around to take the “perfect” photo?

As a parent/photographer, my biggest challenge is capturing my kids in such a way that doesn’t feel fabricated to them or me. A big piece to being able to do this is knowing the light in my house and how it changes throughout the day. Take a walk around your place and tell me what you discover!

p.s. Glad you liked the family portraits of us from Monday. I know they were super silly, but I had to share! I have to tell you, your titles have made us crack up! We’ve been on the go the last few days, but we get your blog comments emailed to us, and they have been so fun to read! We’ll post the five finalists on Friday!

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We are down to TWO spots left for the CONFIDENCE DC Photography Workshop for Women! CLICK HERE to read ALL the details, see the schedule and get your spot! FYI, the Early Bird Registration fee of $799 ends this Friday, July 24th!

DEADLINE for the Vacation: Depth of Field Photo Contest is July 31st! To enter your Vacation: Depth of Field image, read all the details by CLICKING HERE ! We’re excited to see what you enter! We’ve got some fun images coming in! If you’ve already read about this contest and know what type of picture to submit, go ahead and CLICK HERE so you ENTER TODAY!!!

Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series is continuing to grow, faster than we know what to do with! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!

Back in early May, Brian and I were at the Sagamore in NY shooting Shachar and Jason’s wedding. One morning I woke up with a crazy Brown Recluse Spider bite. Over the next two weeks, the bite got worse and worse. (sorry Jeramy, not showing any photos of this one!) I was running a fever and having crazy night sweats. Blazey was asking me to try shooting webs every night (believing that my transformation to Spider Woman was just around the corner ). But I have to tell you, I was a little stressed about shooting Virginia and David’s wedding. Their wedding event was four days long, and I knew we needed to give them every thing we promised AND MORE! I didn’t want it any other way–spider bite or no spider bite.

So I called our friend Gene Higa in San Francisco. I was wondering if he knew any photographers who could second shoot for us on the wedding day. Without skipping a beat, he said “Yeah. I know someone. I will be there!” Okay, Gene Higa is an AMAZING wedding photographer. He was just given the incredible honor of being one of the Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World. For him to volunteer his time…it was hard to accept. But Gene insisted. He wouldn’t have it any other way–I wanted to cry. I was so moved. And on the day of Virginia’s wedding, Gene was there and ready to assist us in anyway possible. Gene assisting us? Wow, what a gift he was and is. I’m telling you, Brian and I were BLESSED.

Have you met Gene Higa? He’s the real thing!

If you haven’t heard of Gene, get ready to feast your eyes on his beautiful work! He’s also got a cool blog too! And, I also hear he’s teaching a workshop with the awesome Kenny Kim in Italy!

Gene doesn’t know this, but this is one of my FAVORITE Gene Higa images! Don’t you love it! I could stare at this image for hours!

Community makes all the difference in this world. Life can feel so lonely at times. I don’t know what we’d do without a community that cares. Brian and I met Gene through WPPI one year, and then we continued to get to know each other through Pictage events. I have to say we owe Pictage A LOT for most of the photography friends we’ve made in the industry. Pictage does an incredible job of bringing the best photographers together (not only best artists, but the best people). If your looking to plug into your local community of photographers, check to see if their is a Pictage User Group (PUG) in your area. And be sure to mark your calendar for the upcoming Pictage Conference in New Orleans this November. Check out the Pictage website for details. BTW, after having a FIVE hour meeting (yes, FIVE ) last week with their new CEO, Jim Collins–Pictage has an even BRIGHTER future ahead of them. Brian and I are so excited about Jim being the new CEO.

But seriously, an incredible community makes all the difference in this life.

Gene, Gene, Gene…Brian and I are in your debt and more thankful than we could ever express. You are the best. You were there without question or hesitation. It was such a HUGE gesture of support and kindness to us. You have no idea. Thank you so much for giving us so much! And Ann!…thank you for coming with Gene!! What a gift to have you there too! You two are AWESOME!

Okay Washington DC ladies!! Ready to build community together in DC?! Registration opens this week! We’ve been working out the venue numbers to keep the registration at our normal price. Hopefully we’ll be able to release Registration in the next 24-48 hours. We’ll keep you posted HERE!

p.s. Today we start our “Top Secret Sony Project” in a small, secret southern CA town. I’m a little nervous. Say a prayer for me. Brian will try to show you some “behind the scenes” photos on the blog this week. Should be fun!

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Want to learn more about Aperture and Shutter Speed? Check out our DVD series! The Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series are now AWARD WINNING! Read the press release HERE ! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box , and our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!

But today it starts with Pictage headquarters.

Pictage is the online, pro lab we use for all our prints. The company has a new CEO, Jim Collins, and the word on the street is that he is awesome.

He took his new position when we were in Thailand, and so some of you have probably already met him. If you have, what did you think?

Jim has set aside two hours to sit and meet with me and Brian, AND the Pictage crew finally gets to meet our kids face to face. I’m excited to hear what Jim is planning with the company. We owe a lot to Pictage and the former VP, Jeff Jochum. Those two forces combined helped get us on the map in the wedding world of speaking and tradeshow conferences. If anything Pictage is about community. If you’ve never been to a Partner Con (Pictage conference), you MUST go! I think the next one is going to happen in New Orleans this November! If 10,000 photographers at WPPI stresses you out, Partnercon is the next best thing. Smaller classes, lots of one on one connections with the speakers, great networking–Partnercon rocks.

You can also check out Pictage’s blog by CLICKING HERE! They have fun and informative podcast interviews with industry photographers. They also have a new service called Pictage Lite. If your photography business is in the beginning stages, and you don’t need something as robust as all the Pictage services, you can try Pictage Lite. (And our 2009 workshop attendees will get the first year free as a gift from Pictage!)

Tonight we’re going to head over to Disneyland to see the fireworks! Kids have never been to Disneyland. We’re excited about that. You should hear Blaze talk a million miles an hour regarding the “happiest place on earth”!

We also have meetings this week with entertainment agents, product licensing companies and more! Then we head to the big Sony project. (oooh, the anticipation of being able to tell you all the news is killing me!)

But in the midst of it all, we haven’t forgot about Virginia’s slideshow! Stay tuned, it’s ALMOST DONE!! YEAH!!! And I know I keep saying it, but the DC workshop details are almost there! The kids are so excited to see the White House! And we’re so excited to meet all of you!

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Want to learn more about Aperture and Shutter Speed? Check out our DVD series! The Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series are now AWARD WINNING! Read the press release HERE ! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box , and our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!