Letters To Our Daughters - July

Each month I join up with a sweet and talented group of ladies, as we share a letter to our daughters.  This month I'm linking to the wonderful Kelly Smith of Real Life Photography in Tampa, make sure you check her out as well.

"Dearest One,

You are becoming such a lovely young woman, and I'm enjoying observing your metamorphisis, yet at the same time I want to stop time and keep you young forever.  I know my job as your mother is to raise you up and set you free to go out into this world and transform it with your grace and beauty.  

You've had some struggles lately as you realize how much drama is associated with growing up, but I treasure the opportunities they have given us to talk through things and grow closer as friends.  You've gathered a few jewels as friends along the way and I pray you will continue to nurture those friendships and bask in the warm, fertile soil they provide to grow and be you. 

I know as a family we are faced with some upcoming changes that you are not happy about.  None of us are.  I appreciate you trying to be strong and face them with resilience.  I've told you many times over the past few days to embrace the change and the new opportunities it afford.  I am praying for all of us to adjust quickly and for God to fill each and every need in a very specific manner.  I know how hard it is to trust that He knows best, but time and again He has proved His faithfulness to us and I have no doubt that He will do it once again.

Through all the changes of growing up and moving cross country I am here for you.  Your mother who loves you dearly and fiercely.  I will do what I can to keep you from pain and soften the blow as much as possible.

I love you  dearest one and treasure you and every moment I have with you."

Love,

Mama

Little Things - Finding The Joy in The Rain.

It's been a rather, gloomy, dreary, rainy holiday week, which means no fireworks to capture, but plenty of low light, rain drops, puddle jumping, and umbrella carrying kiddos who find joy no matter the weather.  Hope you all find joy this weekend as we celebrate the freedom we enjoy!

Linking up this week with my good friend Kim over at

July - Depth of Field

Time for our July blog circle, with a great group of photography friends.  This month we are sharing on Depth of Field.  Depth of field is controlled by the aperture of your lens and allows you to isolate your subject in a plane of focus.  That sound's a bit technical but this is one of my favorite photography techniques! The aperture ring controls how much light is allowed in your camera.  By opening it up you get more light and also a shallow depth of field, which means only a sliver of focus.  By closing the aperture down you get less light but a larger area of focus and can also create some great starbursts when photographing the sun!  Without further mumble jumble on the subject, here are my favorite photos from June, that show a very shallow depth of field.

1. Do you see the sliver of focus on the nose and finger and car?  Here I drew attention to that part of the story by intentionally using a very shallow depth of field, allowing only those things to be in focus. 

ISO 500 50mm f1.6 1/320s

2.  In this image I kept it soft and peaceful, as well as drew attention to his sweet features by keeping the focus plane shallow and only focusing on the plane which has the light falling across it, thus using light and focus to draw attention to his features.  ISO 6400 85mm f2.0 1/100s

 3.  Here I wanted to draw attention to his profile and gaze, so I kept my field shallow, effectively making him stand out against the blurry background. ISO 6400 50mm f2.0 1/40s

 4.  The next few photos is a series of progression.  My focus plane was the basket on the table.  You can see the ball move into the focus plane through the progression.  Settings: ISO 400 50 mm f 2.0 1/320s

5.  This photo is an example of shallow depth of field not working!   I love everything about this photo except that his hand is not in focus.  I was focusing on his eyes, with a shallow depth of field when he pointed, thus his hand is blurry.  Had I closed my aperture down a bit, I would have enlarged my area of focus and gotten his hand in focus as well.  ISO100 50mm f2.0 1/1250s

6.  Lastly is this example of the fun you can have by closing your aperture all the way down, thus getting a wide range of focus and creating some fun starbursts while you are at it. ISO800 28mm f16 1/400s

I hope you've enjoyed this little mini tutorial on Depth of Field and are expired to grab you camera and experiment!  You can see more examples of this technique by continuing through our circle.  Next up is Kristen , go check out what she is sharing today!!!