Photography bug

My best friend just got engaged, and she asked if I would take some engagement photos for her. Of course I said yes, but with the caveat that portrait photography is not my favorite thing. With that in mind, I figured I should get some practice first. Against my better judgment, I brought Diana and Simon out to the "waterfront" one street over. I say against my better judgment because it was about 2:30, with harsh sun. So many over-exposed frames! I wanted to wait until the "golden hour," when the sun was solidly behind our row of houses but still casting a warm glow about, but my darling wife had to be off to work.

I snapped off 120 or so shots, and predictably, the sun made exposure difficult. The only "safe" place for them was in the shadow of a tree with the water or horizon in the background, and even that tended to be a little rough. But whatever, that's why I wanted to do some shooting. It's not that I don't remember my rules or experience, I just tend to disregard them because I don't consistently get in the right mindset. (Notably, I have the same issue shooting video.)

Having a beautiful wife and a cute kid fortunately makes it a little easier to overlook the technical mess, but we'll definitely get out and do it again some time soon. Diana recently had some color added to her hair, and I did want to get it while it was still fresh (those saturated colors tend to fade quickly). Simon has been growing like a weed, and I feel like I'm going to miss something if I don't get more snaps of him.

I love candid photography, shot in more of a journalistic style, because you capture more genuine moments, I think. That's why I asked my friend Tyler to shoot our wedding, and the results were fantastic. He actually had portrait experience, and experimented quite a bit at home with excellent results, and combined with a run-and-gun scenario, he did an amazing job.

I actually shot one of my best friend's charity events for the Community Food & Outreach Center, their Quack Attack 5K, and had a lot of fun doing that. Plenty to see capture there! I was pretty disappointed with a bunch of under-exposure on that one, so I suppose it all balances out.

Still, I'm really hard on myself on technical quality. Composition has always come easy to me, but exposure problems, soft focus, etc., bothers me to no end because I know how to avoid it. Fortunately, I live my subjects, and I can do it again soon.