Photo Shoot of Andrea and Travis

How fun!!!!

This is one of my favorites :)

Tricky lighting makes neat photos.

Photography has always been a hobby of mine. I took classes in high school. That was back in the good old days of 35 mm film. I even learned how to process and develop my own film. That was many, many, years ago. Now photography has moved into the digital age and the art has changed quit a bit. There are ways to create images and change existing images that just wasn't around back then. The basics of good pictures is still the same, but the technology has changed a great deal.

Now I'm beginning to take it what I've learned in the good old days to another level. Since moving to Williamston, I have purchased a DSLR camera, a Rebel XT. I love this camera, and the many things I can do with it.

I have also found the encouragement of a fellow pastor's wife, Andrea. Andrea has a natural eye for things of beauty and has taught me a lot about the technical side of photography. She has also taught me to think outside of the box when it comes to backgrounds. It's what I like to call "ugly pretty." (I totally stole that from Trya Banks, from the Next Top Model)

For instance, my favorite photo from above was taken in the ugly overgrown field across the street from our house. But the backdrop looks beautiful. Andrea's editing is also a key to making these photos look so good. She has a talent for editing as well. That is another thing I need to learn. The other pictures are from a church member's barn. The barn has lots of neat features, but it also has a pig and goat stalls that you have to watch out for.

Larry asked me how I thought things went. I said it was nerve wracking and fun. Andrea pushes me to learn how to use my camera. Most of these were taken in manual mode and I purposely underexposed them because the light was so harsh. They turn out great. I probably wouldn't have tried that if it wasn't for Andrea's encouragement. I would have left the camera on one of it's auto settings and been done with it. The pictures wouldn't have looked so good, and I wouldn't have learned anything new. So we both got something out of this shoot. She loves the pictures and I learned to try new things and some of the technical aspects of my camera.

The other difficult thing is that I'm 37 weeks pregnant and feeling HUGE!!! I teased Andrea and Travis about going into labor with all the squatting and awkward positions I was getting into. I said it might trigger my water to break. I was litterly laying in the street in to get the Black and White photo above. But I loved every minute of it :)

You can see more of the pictures we took on Andrea's flicker account here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/finadrea/

or her blog here:

http://dreawd.blogspot.com/

Andrea, I'm glad you liked them. Thanks for teaching me more technical stuff and giving me a great opportunity to think outside of the box. :)