Practicing for my portrait class

For the first half of this semester (until the beginning of October) I am taking a portrait photography class. I've been doing a lot of shoots over the past week. Our first assignment is documentary and natural light portraits. I've been having a lot of fun doing it and am getting a lot more comfortable taking people shots and directing my models. I'm going to share a few of my favorites.

Documentary portraits were described to us as capturing the persons facial features so they can be shared with future generations. The background should be simple and the person should not have a facial expression. I converted most of these to black and white so they look more like an old fashioned portrait

My friend Brandi in front of a sculpture outside of the library -- almost felt like a senior portrait but I love the black and white

took this in color first and I love how it turned out ....

but it looks so much more documentary in black and white

and then horizontal -- she looks so intense in this one -- I love it 

my friend Sam in front of a brick wall -- I love the colors but the red takes away from him a little ...

so here it is in black and white

this is a little close for documentary but I love it except for the fact that he is squinting a bit 

loved the intensity in this one 

NATURAL LIGHT : our second assignment is to take natural light/ open air portraits. So we actually get to pose people and can use whatever setting we want as long as we use the natural/ existing light.  

My friend same again -- this was around 5:30 pm -- love the lines and the sunglasses just made it fun.

I loved the way the light dappled through the trees on this one and his expression is just priceless

I had him lean in the Adirondack chair ad love the way the light just tipped the edge of his hair and he looks pretty relaxed in this one  love it.  

we tried a lot of different places -- this is leaning against a huge sun dial -- loved all the different colors

this one was at about 7:30 as the sun was starting to set. I loved how the light was highlighting the water and pretty nice the way it fell on Sam too 

this was one of the last shots we took and was totally for fun but I absolutely love it and how the light just touches his shoulders 

My friends Jeff, Elli and Fiona -- I was planning on this being documentary but they had such nice smiles on their faces and the lighting was pretty sweet so it became natural light 

We wanted to show Elli's pregnancy -- the light on these trees behind her was just so beautiful

looking through the window in the covered bridge -- love it 

this is my one of my absolute favs -- they were walking through the bridge and I was behind them and just snapped at the right moment

across the stream. I loved how the highlight in Fiona's hair

One of the last pictures I took -- love the expressions on their faces and the dappling in the leaves 

I will be doing many more portraits over the next few weeks and will share some more of my favorites. Comments are always appreciated. Thanks for sharing with me

Out and about

Its been a while since my last post due to some health issues. I've been itching to take the camera out and do some shooting and finally did yesterday afternoon. As usual these shots are of the great out doors.

this was on the sidewalk and I had been looking at them for a couple of days -- it looks like a horseshoe and I loved how the blue came out in the stone

more of the horseshoe leaves 

this was the moon at Tussey Mountain a few weeks ago. I love how it came out reflected in the clouds

Same night at Tussey Mountain, I overexposed it a bit and it made the sky bluer -- love it

loved the texture of the clouds in this one

took this yesterday between the rain showers. The sun coming through the clouds made interesting highlights on the tree. 

love how this one is shaped like a bell and its orange so of course I was drawn to it

another view of the bells

water lily -- I loved the color of this one and the clearness of the water around it 

in the same pond -- loved the yellow

loved this one -- think it might be a lotus flower 

there were lots of fish in the pond -- this is one of the best shots I got

loved the shapes and textures of these 

this one is all about the color and they almost look like they are spreading raising their heads to the sun 

fell like this butterfly posed just for me 

loved the banana leaves and then the purple flowers just seemed to compliment them well 

loved the shapes and the texture of these blooms 

this was too beautiful to pass by 

loved the blend of colors and the way the light hit these

and then I saw the bee ...

again loving the banana leaves -- very nice landscaping which caught my eye

Thanks for sharing my latest photos with me. I hope to be posting more regularly  over the next few months 

Professional website and some other photos

Last week I took the leap and created a professional website using SmugMug.com. They make it really easy to create a site that looks good and will allow me to showcase and sell some of my photography. I am starting slowly but feel I have come a long way even in the 7 months that I have been doing this blog.

My website can be found at http://amyrmillerphotography.smugmug.com

I plan on placing my best work on that site and using my blog to feature and talk about things that I am learning and trying . Thanks as always for viewing my photos and sharing my journey with me.

Last weekend I was privileged to attend and photograph a Wudang Tai Chi Sword tournament with some of my fellow martial artists. I took lots and lots of photos because I have had much practice with motion photography. I used the shutter priority setting on my camera. Using that let me have control of the shutter speed (so I could make it faster) while the camera compensated for all the other settings. The lighting in the school was ok but I didn't have the time to really meter it or adjust for all the movement of the competitors. It was a great learning experience for me. Here are some of my favorite shots from the tournament

There was some pretty intense competition and all of them were skilled and very athletic. I am happy that I was able to get these shots that show the motion while still letting you see the wooden swords and the concentration on the faces

Angel and Ryan 

Francis and Evan

Jason and Jay

Eric and Matt 

Mike and Ceri

Francis and Angel

Ceri and Eric 

Jason and Francis 

Francis and Ceri

Jason and Ceri

Angel and Francis 

Ryan and Evan 

Angel and Francis

Mike and Ryan 

Evan and Ceri

Jay and Francis 

Angel and Eric 

There were lots of exciting matches and it was a privilege to be part of it. Learning and growing all the time and who knows maybe I will try my hand at sports photography in the future :)