I’ve enjoyed taking photos of our little family, since I got my first DSLR, a Nikon D40x, a year ago. When I met Danette, who did Rhino’s newborn photos, I was inspired by her talent and thought she had the perfect job. I thought maybe, many years into practicing with my new camera, I’d someday be able to do what she does! I feel I still have a long way to go to reach her skill, but things might be happening sooner than I had expected!

Our church has a small private school, Faith Baptist Academy, and they were in need of school photos. I am known to usually have my camera with me at church events, so the yearbook coordinator and my friend, Elicia, asked if I would take the student portraits. I thought that this would be a great learning experience for me and if it didn’t work out, there are plenty of other photographers on base!

1/320 sec at f / 4.5, 90 mm, ISO 200

We went to Shibusawa Park and they were hoping for some cherry blossom photos. Unfortunately, they were few and far between and pretty tall with no low-hanging branches. I just didn’t see how we would get any blossoms without a very wide shot with tiny heads at the bottom of the frame and probably cars in the background. The best we could do is get a couple in for the group shot. I used my Nikon 18-200mm with my D40x.

1/320 sec at f / 5, 75 mm, ISO 200

I thought everything went pretty well. There were a lot of little gnats out, biting at the girls’ and ladies’ legs. Some people were in a big hurry to get it over with and tend to other matters, so we didn’t walk around the park and take a couple different shots like we had planned. There was no flexibility on the time and we had to do it at 1:30, when the sun casts harsh shadows. I picked the closest open space with a parking area, even though there was a horse stable, road, cars, muddy grass, etc. It turns out that they weren’t very happy with the shots and the dead grass and really were hoping for cherry blossoms. So we’re reshooting next week and hoping for blossoms. I’m not sure they’ll last that long, though!

So even though the client wasn’t as pleased with my first shoot, I still think a lot of them turned out looking pretty good and I am pleased! There are a handful of things I’d like to do differently and I want to improve on my post processing, but I’ll have that opportunity at the reshoot!

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