Molly - It's all in the eyes

Today I spent some serious quality time rolling around on the floor with Molly, one of my furry little girls. Molly was a teeny little butterball when we got her in 2009 - about four weeks - and has grown into a big goofball. She's always climbing, tumbling, and mugging for the camera, and loves the sound of the shutter. There is something about her that photographs with so much personality.

All pets tell their stories with their eyes. It's something about the smooth, almost liquid surface of their eyes against the texture of the fur that makes for an incredibly interesting photograph. And the color range! One of my favorite things about taking photos of animals is the expression on their faces that you can catch with just the right timing (Molly makes a million different hilarious faces, but that's another post for another day). With the right light, any pet can show off beautiful peepers. But Molly's huge yellow eyes are definitely something special.

I love that little face!

Top ten reasons I love my new DSLR

In celebration of Motography's new, exciting, expensive, and wonderful upgrade, I have gathered my top ten reasons that I love my new Canon Rebel EOS T2i, with photographic proof.

If this inspires any of you to schedule a shoot - great! Leave a comment, shoot me an email, send a carrier pigeon...whatever works!

1. The images are sharper and clearer. This probably goes without saying, considering my camera trade was a clear upgrade. But even when I decided to buy, I had no idea just how much improvement I would be seeing in my photos. Just check out this close up of Mo's face. You can practically count his whiskers.

Compare that to the image that you see on the top of the page, and you'll see what I mean. You'll also see that I might need to upgrade my logo now...

2. It takes incredible photos in almost all light conditions. Low light, back light, natural and artificial light. Here's an example of back light, with my mom's beautiful (but very snooty) cat, Mitzy.

3. It's sports settings and better flash (in relation to my G11) make action shots easier to catch, without washing everything out. Now, I don't exactly have your typical "action shot" to show here, so bear with me. When I'm not standing behind my camera, and not earning a billion college degrees, I am a nanny to three little boys aged 5, 7, and 9 months. The youngest fella is a mover and a shaker, to say the least.

That being said, he didn't say, "I'd like to take a break from my oatmeal and pose for you, please." Nope. When you're shooting kids, you basically point the lens and pray whenever they're looking in your direction. And the Rebel's speed, which has got to be at least 4x that of my G11, makes that infinitely easier.

4. Changable lenses. The obvious reason to upgrade to a DSLR. Because I am just starting out and working with a relatively small kit, for me this mostly means two words: telephoto lens. Emma, our newest addition, is camera shy. More like camera spaz, actually - whenever she sees a lens, she immediately stops being cute and gets even more erratic and spazzy than usual (which is saying a lot considering she's an energetic 3-legged kitten). This is where the genius of the telephoto lens comes in. Emma snoozes, happily unawares of me snapping away from across the room.

5. The option of manual focus. Not everyone is into fuzzy, artsy pictures. But still, the option to focus more or less on a specific part of the frame isn't a luxury I've ever gotten to play with before. So I'm like a kid in a candy store taking weird, fuzzy shots that no one but me will ever understand or enjoy looking at.

6. It makes a really pleasing clicky sound when I shoot that makes me sound like a professional. I guess this one isn't so important, but I think it's fantastic. And it made this little guy laugh and laugh.

7. Manual zoom, which also makes me feel like a professional. It also saves time, saves battery, and makes way less noise. In this case, my old G11 was like an old, rusty car missing a muffler. The zoom was painfully slow and so loud that it was a miracle if it didn't scare whatever I was shooting away. Controlling the zoom with my hand makes even more of a difference than I expected. It also gives me somewhere to put my left hand, which I love, as a lefty. In studying the falling snow the other day, Emma found her own reflection in the window and was completely entranced. My old dinosaur zoom would have loudly caught her attention and torn her from the window, which would have completely ruined this super cool shot.

8. It takes video in HD. The only video I have taken so far is of my mother dancing in her pajamas with her cat to Kanye West's 'Golddigger', and I think I would get disowned if I posted that, so we'll skip straight to number nine here.

9. I can shoot Large or even Raw images, making the editing options in Photoshop endless. It also allows for the images to be blown up as big as you want, which means I can get myself a life-size cardboard cut out of Mo sitting like a human being in a sweater, as such:

And who wouldn't want that?

10. Incredible speed. The camera turns on quickly and quietly, and is ready to shoot as soon as I am. There is no wait time between pictures, and I can shoot multiple frames in rapid succession even when I'm not in Sport mode. The only issue I've had so far is when I tried to take a series of pictures with the flash and it had to stop and reload the flash charge. But you can hardly blame the camera for that.

If not for its speed, I never would have caught the following act of sneakyness:

While Molly distracts me by pretending to try and steal my dinner in the kitchen...

Mo sticks his entire head into a jar of cheese dip.

Delighted with themselves, they share the spoils.

And that, my friends, is photography.

Nancy - and a new camera!

Motography has been slacking a bit in the blog updates recently, but it's for good reason. Now that all of the technicalities are taken care of I can officially announce an important addition to Motography....

...the Canon Rebel EOS T2i!

My G11 was a wonderful camera, but it wasn't giving me the picture clarity and options that I really wanted. And, most importantly when shooting with animals and children, the slowness was killing me - it took too long to turn on, to switch modes, to reload between shots. By the time it had recorded my last shot and prepared for my next, my subject was already on the other side of the room licking something (that pertains to both the children and the pets).

So I sold my G11 to a dear friend (I couldn't trust her to just anyone!) and scrounged up the difference from my savings. I've spent the week exploring the T2i, and falling head over heels in love with it. The clarity, the options, and the speed are like a dream.

Here are some of my very first photos with my new toy. The subject is my beautiful mother, Nancy; I've seen pictures of her at twenty, and let me tell you, she's just as beautiful now, if not more. This woman is the definition of aging gracefully. Go ahead, try to guess how old she is. I bet you can't. Needless to say, I am very happy to have her genes.

This last one is my favorite.  Thanks for being my guinea pig, mom!

New editing software

I finally took the plunge and invested in some quality photo editing software. Enjoy the results!

Alan - Headshots

Everybody has an inner rockstar. Some people let it out in front of the mirror with a hairbrush, some by singing in the car, others head out to shows as often as they can to rock out. And then there are people like Alan. Alan is 100% rock star, inside and out.

First, there's his rockstar pad, and his enthusiastic, loyal rockstar groupies.

And then there's that rockstar hair. More of that later.

Alan needed some new headshots, so he set up his drumset and went to town while I circled around, snapping away. This was my first time shooting such quick and precise action, and it was awesome! Plus, it's more fun to shoot to sweet tunes.

I love his face in this trio of photos. It doesn't get much better than that.

Then we headed outside for some macho, rugged, very manly professional shots. What's more manly and professional than a chainsaw?

What a goof. In a good way.

Thanks for shooting with me, Alan! When you strike it rich, kick a couple mill my way.

Kayla - Senior Portraits

In all of my experience with pets, babies, and couples, I've never shot just one subject old enough to stand on their own (that wasn't covered in fur). So I was excited and nervous when I was asked to shoot Kayla's senior portraits, and even more pumped when we woke up to an unseasonably warm New Years Eve to spend shooting in the park.

My nerves were soothed right away, because Kayla photographs like a dream. She's got killer blue eyes that naturally draw in light, and brighten the picture no matter what's in the background.

See what I mean about those baby blues??

Kayla's boyfriend, Uvaldo, was mouthing off in the background here, so he's getting the evil eye. Don't get in this girl's way!

Speaking of the boyfriend, since he came along for moral support, we obviously had to put him in a shot or two. Getting him to take his hat off was the hardest part.

We found this great outdoor stage in the corner of the park. Turns out, Kayla used to have her band concerts there! It was wet, but still a pretty cool spot. I love how tiny she looks in the giant band shell.

Kayla is a huge Notre Dame fan, and she HAD to get a shot in her jersey. I told her to make a funny face for me, and this is what I got.

Next, we headed to pick up our special guests...

This is Zip. His brother, Smoke, was a bit too excited about all of the company to sit still for a solo shot.

It started raining like crazy just as we got to the poochies, so we had to shoot inside. That's easier said than done - these two brothers are HEFTY dogs! Just to put this into perspective, here they are sitting next to Kayla on the floor.

Luckily, these fellas love Kayla like crazy, and will do just about anything to get a "good boy" from her!

Thanks for shooting with me, Kayla! You're going to love college.