Graves Family

Better late than never. I went home for Thanksgiving and was lucky enough to be able to shoot pictures of my family. This is my brother and his beautiful family.


The kids were lots of fun to capture.




Thanks guys, I had lots of fun!

One Hot Little Lens

I shoot with a Nikon d40x. I love my camera. It's not considered a "professional" camera, but it is pretty darn close. This camera takes great pictures. Some people think I should upgrade to a "real" camera, but I don't think so. There are a couple reasons, one I believe that the camera is just one aspect of good photography. Taking great photos really depends on seeing the world in a special way and being able to capture it. Spending a ton of money on camera equipment doesn't make you a better photographer. Practicing, learning and growing make you a better photographer.

Second, this camera is very light. I'm right handed and have arthritis in my wrist and fingers and I really couldn't shoot as long with a heavier camera. So I plan on sticking with this nice little camera for quite a while.

That being said, there are times when getting new equipment can help you capture better images. One of those is my new 35mm Nikon 1.8f G DX AF-S lens I just got. I got this lens for portrait photography. I wanted something with a shallow depth of field and this is the one I chose that fit my budget. For under $200 this is a great investment.

And because posts are always better with pictures, here are a few I shot while walking around my neighborhood with my Gizmo this morning.


This is a Halloween decoration in our front yard. See how the background is nice and blurry, allowing the Scarecrow to stand out? This is from shooting with my Aperture wide open, I shot this at 1.8f.

Here's another great example of using depth-of-field to get an interesting shot. Here I focused on a point midway in the composition allowing the foreground and background to blur. This is a good way to add interest.
This one I focused on the flower and allowed the rest to blur out. I had a fun time walking around with this lens and I really look forward to using it for portraits next weekend.