Family Fun Day at The Waters

The 17th was a big day at The Waters. There was the Kids One Charity Bike Ride, the Footprints Ministry Family Fun Day, and an Antique Car Show. Lots of fun was had by all and I was hired for the day to grab some shots. Here are a few of all the fun.

A Fabulous Dance Recital

In the post of the prom pictures I mentioned how great it is to get jobs that are out of the ordinary because they really keep me on my toes and are a great learning experience. Last week I had one of the best learning experiences of my photography career . . . I photographed a dance recital for a couple of girls that I love to pieces. They are absolutely beautiful dancers and I was amazed by their sheer talent, grace and poise. I hope that I was able to capture at least a small glimpse of that. It was by far one of the hardest jobs I've ever tackled, but was unbelievably rewarding because of how it stretched me. I probably took close to 500 pictures and I only have 73 that I'm willing to let them look at. The ones posted below are my most proud moments of the night. These are straight out of the camera (except for three of them that were cropped) and I couldn't be happier with them.

I had someone point out to me that pictures of dance that have any kind of blur just really shouldn't be considered great, but I tend to disagree. Look at those in the middle that are "blurry". To me, it shows the movement of the dance and I think it's fabulous! In my opinion, great photography captures emotion. What is more emotional than the movement of a dance? And, while the main reason I only have 73 photos for these girls to look at is because they are blurry, there's definitely a time and a place for the "blur" . . . when it's on purpose and captures the emotion is when it's truly fabulous.

Prom Never Looked So Good

Saturday night, I had the awesome opportunity to photograph some teens who were off to their prom. This photo shoot was so fun for so many reasons . . . 1) It's not a typical job I get and out of the ordinary is always good for a photographer. 2) The time for the photo shoot was at my favorite time of day to take pictures because of the pretty light a setting sun gives. 3) These teens were just really fun to be around. It just doesn't get much better than this. And if you're into photography and still contemplating about whether or not you should get a polarizer for your lenses, take a look below and see what awesome things it can do for you. I know I've bragged on my polarizer before, and I'm sure it won't be the last time. When you can pull pictures like this straight out of the camera, it's a piece of equipment worth bragging about! And so you can tell the difference with and without a polarizer, the group shot in front of the fence was taken at an angel that is ineffective for the polarizer and therefore, it had to have it's color bumped up in photoshop to still be pretty. Interesting, huh?

On to the pictures . . . I had to burn my prom pictures because they were so hideous. I hope these don't meet the same fate some day! Ha!

Her One Year Old Pictures . . .

Just in time for Mother's Day. I may shed a couple of tears myself.