Photo Contest

I've entered five of my photos into a photography contest for New Mexico Tourism and I would really  like it if you voted for one of my photos. This contest runs until June 27th 11:59 PM. The way it works is viewers vote for the photo that they like best. The five photos with the most votes each week move into the final round and are judged by a panel. The winner receives $10,000! So vote for me!!!
Here are the links to my five photos:

The Chair, The Hot Air Balloon, Levi, The Window, The Steeple

Choose one of these photos and cast your vote. You can only vote once, to my knowledge and you  need to enter your email address as well. You can also go to www.dayofenchantment.com and search for "Perspectography" to find my photos. On each of my photos there is a Share button that allows you to also post my photos to Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. Please feel free to share these with you friends and family and ask them to vote for me as well! I really appreciate it!

Thanks!!

Starting Out.

Over the past several years, I've had many people ask me how to get started in photography. When I first started pursuing photography seriously, I found a great series of lessons online from a website called, Digital SLR Guide, and went through them. I always recommend these photography lessons from this site. The Digital SLR Guide has two different sets of lessons - Beginning and Intermediate Lessons, and both sets have five different lessons within the set. The Beginner series talks about how to operate a Digital SLR and the Intermediate set discusses Lighting. The writer is terrific at explaining the different concepts and gives great assignments at the end of each lesson that reinforce that concepts that were taught in the lesson. The one drawback about the lessons is that they are not accredited, but I hardly consider this an in issue, because the knowledge you gain from these lessons have far greater value than a couple of college credits. One of the absolute best perks from these lessons is the price - each set of lessons only cost $14.95!!! So if you go through both the Beginner and the Lighting lessons, you only spend $29.90!!! Seriously!!! $29.90 for a wealth of valuable information. So if you are looking to start out in photography, take better pictures, or whatever, I highly recommend these lessons. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

Practice

Just like with any other skill, photography takes practice. Lots of it. When I became a mom, I realized how difficult it was to find that time to practice my photography skills. My son isn't the type of child you can tote around from place to place and still manage to keep him a happy camper. Even grocery shopping was a challenge! But just like any other mom, I take TONS of photos of my son. So I've learned to optimize my situation and use my son as my practice subject. In fact, he's gotten so used to being photographed by me, that many times he anticipates the flash, and squints his eyes, which is displayed in the photo, along with the silly face. I've learned several things from using my son as my practice subject - things that would have taken me much longer to learn otherwise. I've realized that regardless of the situation that I am in, finding time to practice and hone my skills needs to remain near the top of my priority list. Otherwise I no longer improve and become stagnant. Life is full of distractions, but it's important to make the most out of each situation. You never know what you may be able to learn from it. Practice, practice, practice! It's something to remember regardless of the skills you are trying to sharpen. :o)

Photography Lessons

So here's my new venture -not writing a blog, but writing a photography blog. My plan for this blog is to write about all things photography - my experiences, thoughts, photos, etc.

And here's my thought for today.

I have a confession. It's slightly embarrassing, but I've had way worse embarrassing moments, and this particular confession hardly holds a candle to those particular moments. About a year and half ago, I signed up to take a photography course from New York Institute of Photography. (For those of you who are looking to take your photography skills to the next level, I highly recommend this course) It was great, I started reading through the lessons, and completing the work. And then life caught up to me - I was pregnant. And this pregnancy wasn't easy. Suddenly doing something as simple as working through a bunch of photography lessons became a difficult task. My studying came to a halt. Sad. After my son was born, my life became even more hectic. The idea of getting any studying done was a joke. Such a disappointing feeling. I felt like I let myself down. I had a wealth a knowledge, sitting there on the book shelf, but I had neither the time, nor the energy to put any effort into it. But life is easier now, and my son is older. So you know what? I'm working through those lessons again. This time I'm determined to finish. Even if it kills me!

Stay tuned for more photography blogs. (Does that sound cheesy?) Ok, nevermind. Just come back often.