A fresh start . . .

Hi Everyone,

You may be wondering if I have disappeared and well you are not wrong! I haven't posted in a long long time but with good reason! My little baby girl was born a month ago and she has been keeping me very busy! We had to have an emergency c section and recovery has been slow but we are on the mend and enjoying every moment!!

So I always find it difficult to be stuck at home for any length of time! Not because I don't love home cause I do but it just makes me feel very lazy so I needed a project that I could do while sitting on my bum watching the little lady snooze! 

So I have created a new fresh completely different website!! So my blog posts from now on will be posted here: www.imagesbycassandra.com/blog/

I would love for you to pop over and have a look and tell me what you think!!!

I will also soon be posting a whole load of photographs of the new little lady! She is ever so cute and so far has been an absolute angel!! I couldn't be happier!!

So I am very sorry that I haven't been around and will try my best to make up for it and also come over and leave some blog love!!

Thanks everyone and I hope to see you soon over at 

www.imagesbycassandra.com

Studying Light

One of my photography goals for this year is to really study, understand and utilise light!! I want to be able to not only read a situation but to also be able to create a situation using light. Light is an amazing thing if you pay attention to it! It is also probably the most important photography tool to understand! So I'm going for it full steam ahead I am determined to fully understand and use light!!


So first of all I have started yet another workshop - yeah serious addict here!! I love them and they really help to concentrate your focus and get you trying new things! This time the workshop is all about light. Its NL201 from clickinmoms. I thought this would be a great way to start and I am thoroughly enjoying it!! 


So I though I would share a few of the images so far!! I have just been through my coursework for this week and am eager to get on with it too!! It is definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing, but can at times be scary!!! 


I chose two very different subjects for variety!! (and also for my sanity as its impossible to get my toddler to pose). It has been a great week and I have already learnt loads!!!

This is one of my favourites from this week but then I am very fond of lashes shots :)

Every kids favourite toy!

Now for something completely different!! All the black and white just made me want a strong splash of colour!! We have had amazing weather here too and so many gorgeous flowers are in bloom that I feel like I need to take advantage of it!!! I also wanted to use two completely different types of lighting.

This was my other favourite shot from this week :)

I have now bought yellow tulips this week so I am bound to have a load of photos of them to share at the end of the week :) I couldn't help myself they are just so gorgeous!

Before and After

I plan to show more before and after images this year! It really helps others I think to see that not every photograph is perfect when it comes out of the camera. As the old English saying puts it - "there is more than one way to skin a cat" - a fairly gruesome saying but its meaning is evident!!


Now if I can get a photograph perfect straight out of camera (SOOC) then thats great!! There is nothing better than getting that right!! This is what I strive for every time I shoot but there are times that this isn't the case. Sometimes you have to rely on your vision, you can see the possibilities and yet they are not going to happen SOOC. This is where editing can help you realise that vision.  Its important to learn every tool you can to help you, photography is an art form like any other art form and without vision, creativity and knowledge you will almost always be disappointed with what your photographs turn out like. 


Anyway before I ramble (too much) here is an example of what I mean. I took this photograph the other day at the zoo and although the colour of flamingoes is just gorgeous I was more attracted by the way they were standing in the light. There seemed to be a very rich contrast of colours and light. So here is the SOOC:

Pretty boring photograph hey!!! There wasn't a lot of space to move around and there were a lot of trees around the pond so I had to make do with what was available to me. I loved the reflection of the bird in the water and knew that I wanted that, the bird and a bit of the darker background in the shot and then I could work with it from there.

This is the edited version of the same shot. Big difference hey! 

I obviously cropped the image to take away the other distracting elements in the shot. I cropped it to a vertical shot over a horizontal one in order to emphasis the reflection more. I converted it to black and white in order to show the light contrasts without the distraction of the colour. And then the rest was like painting, using the cloning tool, healing brush and dodge and burn in Photoshop. 

I hope that you enjoyed this before and after!! I really want to start 2012 off on a positive note and I hope this also makes you see that the possibilities are endless!! Whatever you want to achieve there is always a way ;)