Progression of a photographer

I read this on some forums the other day and thought it was great and true!

Progression of a photographer

1. You start out with very little knowledge
2. You start doing research and realize it is much more difficult than you imagined.
3. You begin to pick up knowledge, the technical side of things.
4. You begin to use the technical knowledge and it works.
5. You start to feel as if you are mastering the technical
6. You begin to feel you know a LOT.
7. You start posting images that you are proud of.
8. You KNOW your images are better than much of what you see.
9. Family and friends start to oooo and aaaahhh at your images
10. Pro's don't seem to acknowledge you.
11. You think it's jealousy.
12. You reach a valley in your photography. You are starting to notice that your images aren't quite what you thought they would be.
13. You start to notice that, in your images, the models hands, the composition, the depth...isn't quite what you wanted.
14. Even your very favorite photograph isn't as good as you once thought. "I should have . . . "
15. You are now completely dissatisfied with everything you have ever shot.
16. You begin to realize that your photography is NOTHING compared to the masters.
17. You begin to see the differences in your photography compared to what you see published.
18. Now you are beginning to learn.

More light and backdrop play

Oh my sister in law, bless her heart. She's my best model. lol She's very good about letting me take pics of her and she photographs beautifully so it's a perfect combo! I did another shoot last night and here are some pics from it. You can check out more photos on My Flickr Site.

My new backdrop

I found a great thread the other day that talked about making your own portable backdrop using PVC pipe and dying a swatch of muslin for the fabric. So....I didn't mind saving some money and doing this and it turned out great! Here are some pics I took of my son using my new backdrop.

New Lens

Got my new lens today, my 24-70L f/2.8...wow. That's about all I can say! lol Here's a comparison of it to my old lens:

I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, but here's one photo from it, taken inside, natural light from window:

Fun with Fire

If you didn't already figure it out, I LOVE my 50mm 1.8f lens. Last night we had a fire going and I thought I would get some fun candid shots of Luke. So, I set my camera to ISO1600 and had my aperture fully open to 1.8 and was able to get some fun shots at about 1/50-1/90 of him. They aren't the best as far as grain goes, of course, but it was just for fun and to see what that lens could do!

Cute Kids

I was at a meetup with some local moms yesterday and I walked around snapping some shots here and there of some of the kids. Kids are the greatest...It's hard to take a bad photo of one!

Playing with Lights

I've had my new umbrella setup for about a week now and I love it! I've also been using my 50mm f1.8 lens nonstop since I got it a few weeks ago. It's incredible. All these photos were taken with it. My son, sister in law and brother were kind enough to pose for me. Well, my sister and law and brother did, my son just wanted out of the high chair! I even through in one of my crazy and lovable husband!