Birthday Pictures? But I'm an amateur!

I wonder when professional photographers first start out, if they get as frustrated as I do...

Our friend Amber asked if I could take pictures at Maysen's 1st Birthday party. For 2 nights in a row (cue to laugh), I had been studying at Pioneer Woman about photography and I was feeling confident in my abilities so I said 'Sure'! I read about aperture, depth of field and shutter speed, I actually thought I understood what I was reading so, I figured I would put into practice what I've learned at Maysen's birthday party.

I took about 800 pictures and when I looked back at them I was a little disappointed. It's possible I'm critiquing my pictures to harshly, especially when I'm comparing my pictures to that of professionals or maybe I need an eye exam because my vision is a little off. I honestly can't tell if it's me or the pictures.

Here are some examples of shots that I wished had turned out better. This shot I felt was to orangish.
I'm also trying to experiment with angled shots because I love them when I see them but I think I'm leaning to far on the angle...
Here's a shot that I really liked of Maysen's hand and her laughing in the background but again, I felt the colors were off...
And then I learned a very important lesson with the next picture. I had taken a series of pictures of the White family with Parents, then Grandparents, Siblings, etc. First thing I noticed with these shots were the shadows on the faces of people wearing hats. Now I know and I won't be making that mistake again!
Not all of my pictures came out bad, I did manage to get some good ones. Here was a shot that I was actually very pleased with because the coloring seems right to me.
I just wish they had all turned out as well. We enjoyed the party though, it was another day we spent outside, in the middle of December, so I chalk it up to a good day! Here's a couple of Greg and I with Nathan...

Hull Family Pictures a BUST for 2008!

I'm disappointed to report that trying to get a decent family picture of my crew this year was a bust. If you don't know it, timing is essential in doing anything with a toddler. If you choose a time after said toddler is well rested and well fed, your good to go. BUT if you choose a window of time where said toddler is tired, which is magically 4-5 hours after getting up, then expect a grumpy and uncooperative toddler. Allow me to illustrate:

At the precise moment we start to snap pictures, Nathan's meltdown begins...
Plan of action, keep smiling at the camera maybe he'll stop crying...
Okay, console the child, maybe then he'll stop crying....
Ok let's switch, maybe he'll stop crying if I hold him...
We're getting closer...just put your hands down boys....
...just look at the camera and smile...
... so close... I guess we'll try again next year....

The Day after Lasik

Greg had Lasik eye surgery on Friday and this is what his eyes look like the day after on Saturday. He says he can already tell a difference in his vision and his eye exam this morning reported 20/20 vision. The Dr. said these red spots on his eyes are normal, I suppose they will go away after a while.

Schnepf Farms

Saturday morning, Greg had a follow up appt with the eye Dr. so Nathan and I drove down the street to Schnepf Farms. A family owned family farm that is open to the public for seasonal activities and entertainment. Nathan needed some play time and I needed practice time on the camera.

Our first stop at the farm was the train, which Nathan has yet to ride. I've been waiting so Greg could be with us. Today, he got to take a closer look at it and he's very intrigued...

Next stop would be the wood train, which I absolutely love. Greg, will you build one just like it in our backyard? :)
Nathan saw me using the self timer on the camera to take this picture of both us...
...and maybe because he saw me move from behind the camera to in front of the camera, he KNEW what the camera was doing and he wanted to pose with me!
The funny part was that he kept leaning in to me...which was so cute! Who trained this kid?
Then we moved on to the hay track where these little tricycles are. A first for Nathan but there were no issues figuring out what to do , it has wheels so clearly you get ON it!
This is the 'Help Me' face because this toy is not 'doing anything'.
I stopped pushing the tricycle momentarily to get a cute picture of Nathan coming through the tractor tire...crying ensued...
If I stopped pushing Nathan on this tricycle he would throw a fit...quick create a diversion...Nathan look! Let's take some more self timer pictures!
Diversion didn't work... let's go to the pond...
"Everybody was kung fu fighting...da da da da da da da"
..."Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Thats all folks!"

October 2003....Looking Back

Yesterday I was preparing dinner and cleaning up when I had a funny memory pass through my mind, does that ever happen to you? After thinking about our first trip to Rocky Point, Mexico I had to go look at the pictures for the sake of nostalgia. Let me tell you the funny story about this trip.

We have a good friend (Josh) whose family had a long-standing tradition spanning over 30 years to go to Rocky Point, Mexico during the month of October. It's a short 4 hour drive from Arizona, by the way! They invited us to go with them in 2003 but the only catch was we would have to find a place to stay because the condo our friends were in was already packed to max capacity with the rest of Josh's family. They were in these nice little condos with all the amenities, full kitchen, patio right on the beach, etc. Here's some pictures so you can visualize it:


Their condo was really nice. Well...little did we know that October is a popular month for Rocky Point and we were late in the game to try and find an affordable place to rent. As usual my hero, Greg, came through! He was able to find a condo online and made a reservation. And from what we could tell by the map it was only a little walk away from where our friends were. We couldn't wait for our first Rocky Point adventure!

A few weeks later, we all drove down to Mexico and here's the sign that awaited us at the 'condo' we reserved.
Hmm...well it is Mexico, what did we expect? NOT THIS! Here was our condo:
It was awful. I remember saying repeatedly, "There must be a mistake, the website said 'Condo', this is a 'Trailer'. Again, it's Mexico and there was no mistake this was our rental for the next four days! Later, after telling Josh and Lynn about it, they had to walk down to see for themselves and I happen to catch this picture of Josh inside the trailer. It's the only one I have because needless to say we spent as little time in this trailer as possible!
Despite the less than par condo, though the trip was a blast and one we would repeat in coming years! Here's a couple more snapshots from the trip.

Let's take a Poll!

Last weekend, I took pictures of our friends Lance, Amber & their little girl Maysen. (Amber watches Nathan for a reference point.) We went to a very scenic spot called Pecan Groves in Queen Creek and surprisingly, the pictures turned out pretty good. Here are a couple of the shots:



The pictures turned out so well that Amber showed them to a friend who then asked if I would like a job, taking pictures of her family! WHAT? WHO ME? I'm no professional photographer! I can barely grasp what aperture and shutter speed means, how could I be responsible for taking someone's Christmas portraits?

So I thought I would take a poll, do you think I should just wing it and take the pictures? Or do you think I should politely decline and explain I'm not a professional. Vote here and let me know what you think!