The Big 5

Happy 5th Birthday to my Princess Chrisiana. We made minion cupcakes for her classmates today and they loved them. These cupcakes are too cute & we cant wait to make them again.

Little Miss Abi

I'm excited to announce that I have added new equipment to my business just for babies. I currently have girl and boy backdrops with a variety of rugs. These sessions are only for newborn babies to 18 months. These prices are separate from my original session fees. During the session I will set up at your house where your child feels right at home and it will last approximately anywhere from 2 to 3 hours depending on the age of your child. My fee is $150 and you will receive 20 plus pictures. My goal is to provide you with the highest quality of proffesionalism when handling your baby & providing you with images that will last a lifetime. Here is little Miss Abi modeling a few of my new props. Enjoy!

Help-Portrait 2011

It's almost that time of year again. Time for the season of giving. For the past 2 years I have been part of giving back to the community through Help-Portrait. There are genuine people who volunteer because it's what they love to do. The feeling you get by making someone else smile is an indescribable feeling.
So please take time this year to give back during the holiday season.
With that being said,
it's hard to imagine that there are people who have never had a family picture or even a self-portrait. That is what  Help-Portrait  is about. Giving people a photo that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. If you would like to help out, please contact me or head over to their website for more info. Read more about the events I was apart of here. Help-Portrait 2010 & Help-Portrait 2009

I love to volunteer. I love to help people when I can. I want to be the example to my girls by showing them that helping other people is a great thing to do because you never know when one day you will need that help. My 4 year old says she now wants to volunteer in the church and it gives me a such a rewarding feeling.

Grandparents Day!

It's almost grandparent's day. This year grandparent's day falls on September 11th. Have you thought about a gift yet? How about some quality pictures of their grandbabies. Im sure they will be a hit. What grandparent doesn't love to show off their grandkids. My girls are very lucky to have such active granparents in their lives and even luckier to have a great grandma & great grandpa.

Here is a 5x7 greeting card I made. Let me make you one for that special grandparent in your life.

Sneak Peak Session

Sneak peak photos of two gorgeous girls relaxing by the beach.

Winner

Congratulations to Danielle B. The winner of Yuma Mom! Please contact me by Thursday night to book your photo shoot. I look forward to working with you and your family.

Facebook

Chriseldas Images is now on facebook. WoooHooo!  If you have friends who are ready to shoot manuel, refer them here.  I will post lots of helpful tips & techniques on how to use your SLR camera to the fullest.  I will also explain the basics of photoshop.  Once I reach 300 fans I will be doing a giveaway.  Here are just some of the things that I will be giving away:

-your own custom watermark

-custom banner for your website 

-templates for photoshop such as a storyboard

The Exsposure Triangle, What's that?

Want to learn what aperture, shutter speed and iso mean? Well in order to get a "correct" exposure, they must all work together. Go grab your camera and maybe some popcorn while I explain.

Here we go.........

Aperture is the size of the opening in your lens when the picture is taken. (the f #) You measure the size of the opening in f stops.The bigger the opening, the more light that enters the camera. The smaller the opening the less light that enters the camera.
The larger the aperture (bigger hole), the smaller the f-stop number. Ex. f/2.8
The smaller the aperture (smaller hole), the larger the f-stop number. Ex. f/22
Are you confused yet? I know I was at the beginning.

Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open, (1/# of a second). The shutter speed is the key in preventing your subject from being blurred in pictures.

iso is the measure of the camera's sensor sensitivity to light. The best thing to know about iso is that the lower the # the better, for example an 

iso of 100 = less digital noise (but just make sure to have lots of surrounding light around you)

iso of 1600 = more digital noise

*If you're indoors and don't have enough light, then you will have to have a higher iso, but remember the more noise you will have in your image.

To best explain how they all come together, I will use a metaphor to help you understand.

Imagine a water faucet, if light were water, a sensor would be like an 8oz glass. "Correct" exposure would be filling the glass. Not enough water means the glass can't be full (under exposed), too much water means the glass will overflow (over exposed).

Now to fill the glass properly and achieve the "correct" exposure you have the options of changing the opening in the faucet (aperture) and leaving the glass under the faucet for a necessary amount of time (shutter speed).

If your faucet is wide open, then you need less time to fill the glass, which means if you have a large aperture, therefore you need a faster shutter speed.

If your faucet is turned down, so water comes to a trickle, you will need more time to fill the glass. It means you have a small aperture, therefore, you need a slower shutter speed.

Now the iso would be the size of the glass. Rather than an 8 oz glass, we could use a 4 oz glass, which would require less water for it to be full. Remember, the higher you go, the more "noise" you will have in your picture.

By looking at this metaphor, it's clear that if you change one part of the exposure triangle, you have to change one or two of the other parts in the exposure triangle in order to have the same "correct" exposure.

 There are many examples to explain how the exposure triangle works. This is the best explanation I can use, because it is how it was explained to me, where I could easily understand it. I hope you have found this helpful. Remember each photographer has their own preference, so play around till you find yours.