Blissful baby
This is beautiful Baby A, 9 days new. The day before Christmas we did this session on her parents verandah, to make the most of the beautiful light and the rustic wooden wall and deck. Perhaps it was the fresh air; Baby A slept like an angel.
A bit about Images by Sam
I have loved photography since I was a kid. I got my first camera for my eighth birthday, a little “Brownie” camera that had a disposable flash. I just loved it and I’m pretty sure I drove people nuts with it. When I look back on the photos I took with it, there’s such sentimentality attached to them. The ‘vintage’ clothing certainly helps, and the browny yellowy haze, too!
I bought a film SLR when I was 18 or 19 and did a few short courses at Tafe, which I absolutely loved. I really should have studied it full time back them, but went to uni to study science instead. University, children, more university (and another child!) took up most of my time and the only photography I did for 16 years was of my children.
The arrival of digital cameras didn’t appeal to me intially. A friend bought a digital camera (I think it might have been 1 Mega Pixel 🙂 )but I felt the quality was not as good as my compact 35mm, and nothing near to my SLR so I waited. Eventually I bought a Panasonic Lumix – a kind of hybrid between a compact and an SLR. It had an SLR-like shape, an almighty zoom and the ability to be driven manually or on ‘point and shoot’ mode. It cost quite a bit of money in terms of cameras then (2003) but I LOVED it. I still didn’t have a great deal of time to play with it much but when I did, I loved the photos it produced.
My beloved camera passed away in June of last year, after serving me faithfully for many years. I had a compact as a back up and survived with that, constantly muttering about crap quality and no functionality. My husband must have been listening, or perhaps he just got sick of the muttering, because he bought me a digital SLR for christmas last year. Massive brownie points!! I love it! And him 🙂
Since then the learning curve has been incredibly steep. Going back to an SLR and shooting manually has produced some spectacular fails! But it’s all fun. I love what I’ve learnt this year, and I think it shows in my photos. I also love taking photos of babies and kids of all sizes. Kids have such joy in them, over the simplest of things, and capturing a smile that shows that is such a reward.
I’ve learnt lots about editing software this year, too. It absolutely facinates me. Probably too much, if you ask my husband’s opinion. He said something the other day about being a bit obsessed…I don’t know, I wasn’t really listening…
So, this is what I want to do for a living. I can’t think of anything better to do forever, than something I love. Most of all, I love the expression on a parent’s face when you present them with an image of their beautiful child, a moment captured forever. Like this one…
2010 Worldwide Photowalk
On Saturday I participated in the Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk in Perth. I was really looking forward to this; mixing with other people with the same interest, perhaps some tips or instruction from the leader, and hopefully some nice photos at the end of the day. There must have been over 100 people there, who were split into two groups and went in opposite directions to end up back at the starting spot in two hours.
I was a little disappointed that I didnt see our leader after the first couple of minutes, and there certainly wasn’t any instruction. I had imaged our leader gathering us around an interesting feature and saying , “now, if you were to photograph this, these are the things you’d want to consider…” Oh well, not to be. But it was very interesting to see the things other people were photographing. We all see the world so differently, and photography highlights this very well.
We were fortunate to not only be allowed inside St Mary’s Cathedral, but also to take photos in there. Glad I bought my tripod 🙂 I had never been inside St Mary’s Cathedral, though had read about the renovation. Quite simply, it is breathtakingly beautiful. The renovation has blended old with new, and created a light, open, magical space. As we walked in, the organist was playing; in the organ ‘loft’ there were a group of people gathered around. The resonance throughout the building was incredible. At one stage the volume went up, and the chords became deliberate and almost menacing. My previous mood of awe shifted to wariness – amazing how music can do that! It felt like an old fashioned vampire / horror movie – or perhaps God’s displeasure at a group of photo nerds wandering around happily clicking away? Who knows, but what a beautiful buildng.
Anyhoo…some photos. I really like the windows shot – I added some old fashioned ‘grain’ in photoshop, to bring out the age of the building. There some beautiful old buildings in Perth, I’ll be back in there soon to take more photos.
Jesus sculptue in St Mary’s
Inside the Cathedral
RPH Windows
Well hello!
So I’m probably the last person to get one of these. Well, not the last, as I did have a family one, but I haven’t updated it in twelve months. But this one is new. Hopefully I won’t forget about it, too. Hopefully I’ll figure out how it all works, too, because right now, I’m terribly confused!
The purpose of this thing, I guess, is to share my photos. I love taking photos. I want to learn to take better photos. And eventually I want to be doing this for a living. One day.
Bare with me, I’ll get this up and running as soon as I can.
Sam
imagesbysam.wordpress.com 