The power of a black and white photo

Over the holidays I was asked to photograph a baptism. I was super excited because it was my first "event". The family is super nice and sweet. And the little baby girl... she's something.

She was actually my first "newborn" to photograph, although she was a month old at the time. She's sooo cute! Cute chubby cheeks and little pouty lips :) I swear, this little girl is always very aware of me. She knows I'm there to take photos of her. :) At the time of the baptism, it was my third time seeing her. The look in her eyes when she saw me... it was like "I know why you're here. I'm ready for my close up!" :)

Anyhow, that day was her day. She looked so cute in her baptism dress. Like a teeny tiny version of a wedding or prom dress :) AND she had a little tiara to top it off. Soooo adorable :)

The baptism took place in St. Anthony's Church in Manteca (I believe..). This baptism was special and a bit different to me. I was expecting more babies and families to be there being baptized also. However, at this church, the day baptisms usually take place are on Sundays. This family requested a Saturday baptism. Very cool!

I was very nervous when it came to photographing the ceremony. I know each church has rules about photographing inside the church. Plus, at the other baptisms I've been to, the priest always asks people to not photograph during the ceremony. I was afraid this priest was going to request that. Luckily, he said it was okay with him. Click, click, click I went :)

One of my most favorite images I captured during the ceremony is the one below. In color, this photo is still a great photo. But making it in black and white... it brought a whole new feeling to it. In my opinion, making a photo black and white doesn't work for all images. I mean, it may look nice, but one should use it when there is a powerful picture. (So sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings...)

The photo below... I think it's powerful in black and white because there is no color to distract you from the look in the lady's face while she's smiling at her niece. She looks so happy, so proud and so in the moment :) Not posed, not staged, just in the moment. I also love how the flames in the candles showed up. :)

Hope you have a great night! :)

Studio V: Shining on Charmaine

This Studio V post is shining on Charmaine. She's one of my many cousins and she's the best! She came out to the shoot all ready in her first outfit, then busted out with a suitcase of clothes, accessories, and shoes. Girl was ready to rock. Oh! And she still uses a caboodle, like the ones from back in the day. You know, the plastic pink ones? LOL!!! Oh Charmaine, I'm not making fun of you. I LOVE that you still use it! :)

Oh, and I MUST mention that she just recently graduated from Sac State with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. Congrats...again! Love you! Hope you enjoy these photos :)

Introducing a new session...

Finally, I am very excited to introduce a new line to the Veronica Hudley Designs family. A little session I like to call Studio V.

Studio V is a fashion type session where only you are being photographed. The spotlight will shine on you and only you. :)

Studio V offers a Simple Session as well as a Glamorous Session. More details (along with packages) will be posted on the website (will be up tonight) :)

Any questions or comments can be emailed to info@veronicahudleydesigns.com

Thank you all :)

Full moon = wonderful things?

Wherever you may live, did you happen to notice the moon last night, as well as tonight? Last night's moon had a nice yellow-orangeish glow around it.

It's these times when I wish I had my camera with me...with a really nice zoom lens (*hint hint). Luckily, I had my phone with me and took the above photo. It's not the best photo, but at least you can see the glow. Very nice :) Sometimes I want to just sit on the sidewalk and look up at the moon and stars. Maybe when summer comes...

As for tonight's moon, WOW!!! I was on the way home from work, passing the first exit to go home and BAM! I saw the moon. The big rig next to me was kind of blocking it, but I saw it. It was humongous! It was orangeish and low in the sky. I sooo wanted to pull over to take a picture. Actually, I wanted to take a photo while I was driving...but I know better. Plus it would've came out blurry. Ha! :)

Anyhow... by the time I got to take the photo, the moon moved high up in the sky and turned white.

Love when the moon is full. Looks like a giant cookie in the night sky. :)

So what does the full moon bring? For me, it's bringing me loads of emails, texts and Facebook messages. Looks like the year is starting out nicely for me. I found several people to do some modeling for me (for something new), getting excited for the weddings that I have booked, and I found an old friend who's also in the business. As many other women who applied for the SOAR! Scholarship found out, we don't really need to win the scholarship to succeed. To my fellow applicants, I hope and know you will find success. If it hasn't happened yet, give it a little time. It'll fall in your lap as it did with me two nights ago.

As for me, I hope things pull through. You'll all be there to see if it's a success, or if I need to go back to the drawing board.

Good night all! Enjoy the night skies :)

My first meeting, feeling hurt and some wishful thinking

Today is my very first meeting with some clients...for my first wedding :) I'm a little nervous, but its okay because the clients are my cousin and his fiancee. :)

I believe I have everything ready. Sample shot list, package details, sample albums... even have some wedding mags ready. This meeting should be fine :)

Feeling hurt.... my last post I wrote about entering a photography scholarship. Well, results haven't been announced yet (tomorrow), but I can't help but feel hurt. The reason is because MeRa Koh posted a blog the other day. She mentioned that because of what happened last year, she decided to inform the winners beforehand so that the other applicants can have some time to recoup before the results are announced. Well...I never got a call or email. :( Sounds like I didn't make it this year. Yes, I'm hurting. I'm disappointed in myself because I feel like my video wasn't good enough, or that I didn't offer more information about myself. I can't help but feel horrible. (Btw...I'm not mad at MeRa and her team. In fact, I am greatful for the opportunity and the experience. I don't even know her and she's already helped me by allowing me to take a risk and step out of my comfort zone. So thank you MeRa and everyone on your team.)

However, I am happy for the three women who did get the call. I'm excited that I will be able to follow them on their journey and learn from what they're doing. It sucks that I won't get the free camera gear and everything else that came along with it, but I'm happy that I can still "tag along" in their journey and still be a part of the SOAR community.

My "feeling hurt" leads to my wishful thinking. Just because I didn't get the call or email doesn't necessarily mean I didn't win. Why? Because in a portion of the application, it asks for my spouse's cell phone number. Why would she want our spouse's cell phone number? So my wishful thinking leads to...what if she called my husband to let him know I won??? I hardly doubt that, but it could happen. I don't think he's capable of holding some exciting information like that, but I'm sure if he really had to he would. So what if I did actually win? I would be the most happy and thankful girl in the world. And if I didn't really win....well, at least I tried my hardest!

Enjoy your Sunday!

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(Im)patiently Waiting....

Why I've never blogged about this....is because I'm scared. Scared of what people may think and/or say. But why should I be scared? I took a risk. A BIG RISK. I don't believe I've ever done anything like this before. Well... not like this at least. Here's the story:

Last month, I found out about a photography scholarship through another photographer's Facebook page. It sounded really interesting... mainly because of the prizes (not gonna lie...I really did get excited about the prizes before I heard all the other info).

Anyhow... the scholarship is called SOAR! Scholarship through MeRa Koh. I've got to be honest, I've never heard of her before. But after reading about her, she sounds like an awesome person with a big heart.

I read more about the scholarship and slowly backed away. The submission was to be a 90 second video of yourself telling everyone why you should win. Doesn't really sound hard, right? It does when you're not comfortable in front of the camera. Then I heard about the assignments. Video blogs every month, teleconferences every month, etc. That doesn't sound like me. I'm perfectly comfortable in my shell.

Well...I thought about it, and thought about it. I wanted a change. I wanted to take a risk. What's the worse that could happen, right? Well... after maaaannnnyyyy attempts and a some tears, I entered the scholarship. Giant load off my shoulder.

Well, the giant load on my shoulder is gone, but the pain in my stomach isn't. Why? Well three winners will be chosen in mid January. Today is January 12. I'd say it's in the mid range. :)

Everyday I go to her website http://www.soarwithmera.com/ to see if she says anything about a date of when the winners will be chosen. Nothing yet. (Pain growing more..)

Even if I am not one of the winners, I will know that I have succeeded in taking a giant step towards my dream. I even plan on doing some of the assignments that the winners will be doing. (I guess they'll be posting the assignment themes for everyone to try.) I AM proud of myself for doing this. And actually, I encourage women (men can do this too) to do this. It made me step out of my comfort zone. To see what I want and work at reaching it. I feel like I'm growing into the person that I want to be.

Good luck to this year's SOAR! applicants and to future applicants. I'll see you in the SOAR! community/forum. :)

Veronica

Gotta do what I gotta do with what I have

Okay, so a couple of blogs back I mentioned that I would do a post about my gear. I thought I would do that today (since I'm sitting here waiting to get my nails done :) )


My gear is far from fancy. I think it was 2008 when I asked for a DSLR from my husband for my birthday. If anyone has shopped around for a DSLR you know how much those bad boys cost.


Now, at the time my intentions for getting a camera were not for getting into the business. I have taken photography classes in high school and college and had always used a 35mm film camera. Since the digital era was here and screaming my name, I felt like it was time to get a digital SLR.


Next was choosing the brand. Canon or Nikon? Actually, this wasn't too much of a hard decision because I also had my heart set on getting a Nikon. I heard great things about it and it was only right to get it. Well...off to Best Buy we go!


I couldn't go too expensive (even though I had a coupon...THANK GOODNESS FOR THOSE COUPONS! ) And I didn't want to get the cheapest camera (which was the D40). So which did I end up getting? The D60 ( ha ha... just the next step up from the D40). It was the best we could buy. The next step up was $800 (don't remember what model that was) and we couldn't afford that one. So we bought me the D60 with the 18-55mm vr kit lens.


I was sooo excited! I wanted to play with it right away. BUT...I couldn't because it was my birthday present, and it wasn't my birthday yet ;( My insides we aching everyday up until my birthday.


Like I said before, when I got this camera, I wasn't getting it to jump into a photography business. I mean, eventually yeah, but not right away. So for about a year and a half my camera was on auto, shooting on jpegs. (Ha ha...)


Long story short, I purchase a 50mm lens on ebay. Good price and works well. Only thing is, its a manual focus. Doesn't bother me much in the beginning because I had to manually focus with film cameras. The lens was working well up until I think September last year. Used it for a shoot that was really beautiful, but when a photo was printed from that session, it came out not tack sharp (when it looked like it on my computer). I vowed never to use that lens again, so the next day I went to Best Buy to purchase a 35mm lens that DOES autofocus :) The reason I bought the 35mm instead of the 50mm is because the 35mm was cheaper.


Other than that, I have a Vivitar flash that I also got on ebay. It's one where I can attach it to the camera. Not the best flash, but it works. I also have a UV filter and now a Polarizer filter (thanks to my in-laws. THANKS!)


That's about it. Sometimes I struggle and wish that I had a pro camera because the one I have doesn't feel like it's up to par, but I have to remember that it's not really about the gear, its what I can produce with what I have. Besides, I still have time to get a real pro camera. :)


Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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Testing, testing... 1..2..3..

Hello...

This is not what I really wanted to blog about today, but I wanted to see if I can blog from my phone. :) Hopefully it works so that I can blog on the go! :)

It'd be nice to get a comment out of this... *hint hint ;)

Well, until next time. Stay warm!

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Happy New Year!!!

Okay, okay... so I'm 4 days late. It's still the new year. :)

I actually wanted to do a new post on the last day of 2010, and the first day of 2011, but....um....I was too busy partying.... ha ha ha. Just kidding. It's still difficult trying to think of something to blog about, and I'm always wanting to add a photo with my posts. Well, there is no photo to accompany this post. Sorry! I promise the next one will. :)

I hope everyone had a great, wonderful, outstanding, fun new year's eve. :) It was pretty quiet on our end. Just stayed home. I'll have to include a photo of the kids playing Just Dance on the Wii in my next post. They had a great time dancing to "Who Let the Dogs Out..." My boys were actually getting down. LOL!

I'm so excited for this new year. A fresh start.... I have some new ideas, so watch out for those. I'm also excited to shoot a few weddings this year. It'll be my first time. :) Can't wait!!! I'll keep you guys posted!

Til then, good night!