Just thought I'd post some recent shots of the family. Just added a Golden Retriever mix puppy to the family, so got some shots of her. Comments always welcome.
Very nice mate. .. They look real happy.
4 is great, you caught a great moment.
2 is great.
Lampshade is crooked in 5 lol. I have a lot of similar shots lol. .. everyone on their electronic device and me snapping pics.
Ron,
I like the captures of 3 and 4 a lot, one for the wall. May I suggest a recrop of 8? If you want the sense of action crop off left two girls, if you want one more for your family, crop off everthning to the left of of your daughter's raised cleat and adjust height to your liking.
@bbourizk -- thanks, Bud! You crack me up with the crooked lampshade comment. Book on the floor with a pink brush on top of it, DVD case open with DVDs stacked haphazardly, bunch of papers stacked messy-like behind the lampshade -- and my wife would simply point out her black socks. These shots are totally focused on being real, and I know you were amused with the crooked lampshade. The whole scene amuses me.
@gschlact -- thanks! Totally get what you're saying on 8, but that is the first time and only time my little girl (not exactly a soccer stud) dribbled through two defenders successfully. Normally she just stands there and stares at the ball until the defender takes it and dribbles away.
@Dentx -- thanks! Love Goldens! And yes, she totally gets immersed in those Cat Warrior books. I just love that she enjoys reading so much.
Nice family shots, Ron! Really like 2, 3 & 4. Congrats on the new addition. You are going to be busy! We have a 12 1/2 year old Golden. They are a great family dog. Doug
Thanks, loosh, Doug and boxman! loosh, delighted -- and I think surprised, too! You can see the girls trying to stop from going in the wrong direction, probably having thought this would be an easy steal.
Doug, thanks! I love how Stormy is looking right at the camera like she's supposed to. Had to make some really weird noises to get her attention.
boxman, that's what I was going for! Thanks for that!
Very nice, Ron. Love #2, great environment. Did you add a little big of light on her? She seems to stand out a bit more than I would expect for ambient and it's pretty much perfect from my perspective. I also think you did a very nice job with your light on 3 and 4. 5, I've just spent waay to much time analyzing. It's actually not one of my favorite pictures from you, however there are several things that I'm particularly impressed with. The WB looks like a *really* tough situation, between the indoor lighting to our right, what I'm assuming is window light to our left and screen light on their faces - all of those different colors. But yet the photo feels pretty neutral. The other thing is that I'm guessing is that it wasn't super bright in there, considering how much screen light is on their face compared to ambient, yet you have a lot of DOF and not any discernible noise or motion shake. All of those make this a better picture than my first glance. That's probably way to much analyzing, but I'm a weirdo like that sometimes. ;-)
Thanks, David, I appreciate the detailed comments! I shot No. 2 (as well as 1, just a few minutes later) at sunset with no direct fading sunlight hitting her. I put her in front of that dark green pine tree to help make her stand out a bit in terms of the lighting. 3 and 4 were fun. Tried to do it with indirect window light, but needed a faster shutter speed to freeze their reactions -- they are kids. So I used an Einstein and a 24x60 softbox literally just above the camera, and most of the softbox to the right. Another Einstein and more of a thin strip softbox above them for hairlight. Getting the dog's attention (strange noises/whistling) and cracking a joke simultaneously was the tough part.
I really appreciate your comments on 5. Early morning, sunlight coming up on the opposite side of the house so it wasn't exactly bright, as you surmised. I was going to put my settings up on these shots, esp this one, then somehow didn't do it. Shutter was around 1/2 sec to 1 sec, f/18 or so, not sure what the ISO was but as low as possible given those other two settings. Tripod, obviously. I actually missed my focus due to a technical oversight but fortunately didn't miss by much and the f/18 was very forgiving. But I was wanting to get as much in focus as possible from my wife to my last girl. It was fun setting this up. Light is all ambient, and yes, that's the laptop's screen lighting up my daughter's face. I actually toned that down a bit in pp.
These shots are totally focused on being real, and I know you were amused with the crooked lampshade. The whole scene amuses me. 