Becky and I are always looking for tools that will help us work better, faster, and get amazing photos.  A few weeks ago, we found out about these cool little video lights.  We ordered them, and have been having a great time testing them out and using them the last few weeks.  We’re completely convinced on the greatness of these and are going to be using them a lot in the future!

Here are a few ways we’re using them and why we like them.

1. They are easy to use and set up.  You just turn them on, adjust the light up or down, and you can immediately see what you’re getting.
2. They use AA batteries, which we use for our flashes, so we don’t have to buy extra batteries.
3. They are light, and small.  I like finding things like that to  aren’t heavy to carry around. :)
4. They are great when you only have a few minutes to shoot.  Flashes do take more time to set up, so if we’re shooting 1 or 2 people, and need an extra little bit of light – out come the video lights!
5. They can also add a pop of light to detail shots which is just fun and makes the photos pretty incredible. :)

Here are a few examples of how we whipped out our handy-dandy little video light and used them on an engagement shoot last week at Mt. St Mary’s University!

-Susie

We went up to Harper’s Ferry again this past Saturday, and did some hiking with some friends.  It was a gorgeous day, and I’m sure you’ll see more of those photos later.  If you’re in the DC, Maryland, NOVA area, I’d definitely recommend going up there and hiking to Maryland Heights!  You get a gorgeous view of the small town of Harper’s Ferry, and it’s a nice hike.

I love shooting people.  I’ve done my fair share of traveling, and travel photography, but I always come back to wanting to take photos of people.  However, my new camera may be helping me to enjoy landscape and travel photography as well as loving wedding photography and portrait shoots. :)   One cool feature in the 5D Mark III is the ability to shoot HDR right in camera.  For those of you who aren’t sure what HDR is, I’ll try to explain it, but if you still don’t understand, feel free to google it!

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range.  Basically, what the camera does, is take three photos, one at what the camera says the correct exposure should be, one over exposed, and one under exposed, and then merges the three together.  The beauty of doing this is that in a normal photography, when you have light spots and dark spots in a photography, your camera meters for something in between [or for whatever you tell it the subject is] and makes sure the right amount of light is on that subject, and doesn’t care about the rest of the photo.  If you look at the photo below [this is straight out of my camera], you’ll notice that there is light on the cart, but the window and the light on the wall is completely blown out.  If I was to expose to see the trees through the window, the cart would be so dark it would be hard to see.

What my camera did, when I told it I wanted to do an HDR photo, is took 3 photos, exposed one so I could see the trees outside, exposed one for the cart, and exposed one so there wouldn’t be dark spots in the room.  When it merged them all together, I got this lovely photo below.  [This is also straight out of the camera - just how it merged them.]  Pretty cool, eh?  Now I’ll just have to do more traveling around to find the perfect spots to use HDR.

Happy Monday!

-Susie

I’ve mentioned several times how badly I’ve wanted a Macro Lens – in fact, I even faked my way to one by taping my 50mm lens on backwards.  We finally felt like it was time for our business to invest in a professional macro lens (ring shots! food shots! detail shots!).  Of course, I want it because I love flowers and gardening.  The macro lens’ incredibly close focusing ability means that it can capture beauty that I couldn’t even see with my own eyes.  Spring is a great time to get a macro lens and this afternoon, I locked the lens into my camera body and wrapped my camera strap around my wrist something like three times to make TRIPLE sure I wouldn’t drop that thing. I only had about 20 minutes… but I love what I got. My favorite:

Truly an amazing lens that produces incredibly sharp pictures. I forsee us using it in a zillion situations, not just those that need super-close focusing. SO THANKFUL for our new macro lens!!!!!