Just answering a few questions...

First, thanks SO much for your continued visits to my blog. I know my blogging has been pretty sporadic and less than frequent. Sorry about that... This is SUCH a busy time of the year for me. Every year, too, after my busy-ness has passed, I tell myself I will NOT let myself get that busy next year. But, here I am in the big ol' middle of it again. Sheesh. I'll learn my lesson one of these days, I guess... Either that, or you all could remind me in, say, August that I'm about to get busy and how much I loathe it. Okay? ;-)

Anyway, again, thank you for visiting, and thank you TONS for all the nice comments you leave. They really encourage me, and I'm always so taken aback by your enthusiasm for my photography. The least I could do for you guys is to answer the questions you leave for me, right!?!

So, first question came from Heather. She asked what lens I used for these photos. Well, Heather, I used my Canon 85mm f/1.8. It's my favorite lens of all time (that I own,) and I find that I'm using it almost exclusively right now for outdoor portraits. In fact, I took some pictures for my sassy-but-best-friend Jenny tonight, and I used my 85 for her family of FOUR! I really should have switched, but I just love that lens. It's always good to me...

The next question came from one of my long time visitors, Ariana. (Thanks so much for all the wonderful encouragement you're always giving me, by the way! I really appreciate it!) She asked if I'd started using Portraiture or some other skin softening technique lately. And, well, the answer to that is no on both counts. :-) I haven't started doing anything differently than my typical post processing, so I'm not really sure where the difference is aside from me just feeling better about my work the last two shoots. One single little girl... I think that's my specialty. Haha! Seriously. But, she has to be at least three years old but not old enough to think she's too cool for school. :-) Typically, though, Ariana, I don't soften children's skin. It seems flawless already, you know? The only thing I'll touch up with children is rashes, cuts, bruises, boogers (haha)... but that's it. And, even then, it's not all the time. Like, with my Maya, she had a cut on her forehead for a while, and I never cloned it out. Same with the cut on her chin that she got shortly after the forehead healed. It's just part of her childhood at that time. Sweet, clumsy little thing...

Jess asked what lens I used (see above) and what kind of shutter speeds I used. When I'm using my 85, I like to keep my shutter speed above 1/250 at the minimum. Most of these, though, were shot at 1/320. The first one was shot at 1/500, and the last three were shot at 1/250 because we were losing light. My ISO was around 200 or below for most of these shots, though I had to bump up to ISO 500 for the last three shots. My aperture was f/1.8 for most of the shoot. I hope those settings help you out some. :-)

I also had a question from Tori this week on one of my old posts. It was this post about my Blurb book. Just visit www.blurb.com. It's super easy to create, although it doesn't offer tons of customization. It does to an extent, but to those of you that are into layout & design... this might not be the book for you. (They do have nice designs, just to make it clear. It's just that you can't come up with your OWN designs.) Also, while I do love my book, I don't know that it's right for clients. I think there are probably nicer options out there to offer them. It's GREAT for my personal family books... Also, a super fun thing that Blurb offers is that they'll turn your blog into a coffee table book. I want to do this for both of my girls SOOO bad! One of these days. Maybe for my blog's one year anniversary? I hope that answers your question, Tori. :-)

And, I had a couple questions on my last blog entry, too. :-) Sorry if I'm boring any of you. I just don't know how to go about answering these questions that I get asked, and I don't want to ignore. :-)

So, for last entry, Meg from New Zealand asked what camera, lens & f/stop I used for the photos of Maya. I shoot with the Canon 30D, and for this shoot I used the Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens again. LOVE it! Most of these were shot wide open at f/1.8, but I'm sure I didn't go higher than f/2.2 on any of these except the swinging one where I went to f/2.8 to give myself a little wiggle room with the focus. :-)

Monique(Moki) asked what presets or actions I use. Well, Monique, I actually don't use presets or actions in the bulk of my post processing. I use a sharpening action, and I use actions when I convert to B&W. But, as far as my color photos go... no actions or presets. :-) Just the trusty ol' soft light layer... it's easy peasy, and adds so much to the photo. I do some burning around the edges, of course, and other touch-ups as needed. I used to sponge the background some, but I quit doing that a while back. So, it's something I have done in the past to punch up the color, but it's not something I'm currently doing. For my B&W conversion here, I believe I used Nicole Van's B&W conversion from an edited color photo.

Okay... so... I think that's all of them. :-) If I missed your question, I'm sorry! Ask again because I just overlooked it in my haste! Take care!