Archive for the ‘iHeartFaces’ Category

I’m not comfortable taking photos of people in the street, candid. Which explains why my photos from Scott Kelby’s Third Annual Worldwide Photowalk which I joined in Kissimmee were a bit…. meh. I was ridiculously self-conscious despite being part of a huge crowd of photowalkers. Our photowalk leader Mark Pino even furnished us all with badges to circumvent any awkward questions.

No it did not help to know that 33,496 other people around the world were doing it too.

I’m what they call backward in coming forward if you know what I mean!

But it was fun, and plans are afoot… I will be running a photowalk in Edinburgh very soon. Watch this space. Actually go watch iHeartFaces for some photojournalism piccies…. see? it’s all connected

My niece – she likes the camera.

And her shades.

Sometimes I’ll be happily dumping gigabytes of RAW files onto the first hard drive I can find with a smidgen of space and I’ll come across a photo that makes me go “Huh?” as in “Huh? Who took that?”.

All three of my children have a habit of sneaking my camera away when I’m not watching. Actually my daughter, now 15, started these shenanigans when she was a pre-schooler back in the days of film. More than once I’ve parted with hard earned cash in return for a whole reel of photos of stuffed furry things posed in a row.

This is Kathryn’s latest surprise shot caught when I was otherwise engaged.

I like surprises.

The next couple of weeks over at iHeartFaces are focussing on teens, be they models, photographers or guest judges, it’s make way for the young uns!

I took Kathryn, 15, out for a session last night since there’s finally some SUN here. We went back to the same location I’d had a go at last week with Paul and I managed to get a lot of pretty decently exposed, sharp, well posed photos….. but for some reason I’m drawn to this totally overexposed, badly sited effort.

On the whole I think I got better shots in the middle of the day bright sunshine than I did in the evening with the sun setting on us. You live and learn! Or is it practice and learn? One of them.

I’m pretty sure as the parent I am the one supposed to be climbing the walls…

This week’s iHeartFaces is all about play!

In January 2009 I stumbled on a newly launched site, just before their first competition, and wondered to myself …. we’ve got one of those DSLRs do-dahs, maybe I could have a go using it?

Since then Angie and Amy at iHeartFaces have built a well respected community of photographers of all abilities focussed on… you guessed it – faces! From choosing a camera to digital post processing they cover the lot in plain-speak tutorials written by a variety of professionals and hobbyists. The weekly competitions and photo editing challenges have been a priceless resource in my journey from this sort of stuff…

(oh dear – so shaming!)

to this

Without iHeartFaces I would never have picked up our Nikon, let alone taken it off Auto.  Rachel Durik taught me how to use my camera, Andrea Riley taught me how to save photos gone a bit wrong and countless fellow participants offered kind words and encouragement: Dana, Kelly, K8, Catherine, Niecey, Buckeroomama, Tiff, and loads more, thank you.

Occasionally people ask me for photography tips (I always find this really embarrassing!),  I have only two,  iHeartFaces (which is all those people above and more) and practice, experiment, practice (Phototuts is also very useful). Without these I sure as Sherlock wouldn’t be a finalist in the 2010 MADS Awards Photography category sponsored by Photobox – eeek!

Yeah you wondered when I was going to mention that elephant in the room!

I’m in amazing company: Jay@ Mocha Bean Mummy,Tara@ Sticky Fingers, Deb@ Carrots and Kids and Nataliya@ Suburban Mummy. Getting this far with these wonderful ladies is chuffing brilliant if you ask me. The added bonus of a night out glamming it up at main sponsor’s of the MADS Butlins with them and the other 45 or so finalists is just icing on the proverbial cake. I consider myself a winner already so thank you to all the people who nominated and got me this far. For the next four weeks we will be slogging it out head-to-head over at The MADS. Every vote counts. This is the first and last time I’m going to mention it – I’m pimping me once!

I’m already getting to do the air-kissing so I’m happy. But if you want to really embarrass me and make me speak in front of people… you know what to do.

You don’t have to vote in all the categories but you get one shot at it so take some time to browse some fab blogs, for starters can I recommend some of my favourites…

Notes From Lapland, The MadHouse, Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy?, English Mum, Violet Posy, Eggs Cream and Honey, Battling On, Bringing Up Charlie and If I Could Escape – these are the ones I know best but have a trawl through all the finalists before voting – you know you want to

Whenever I point the camera at Paul and tell him to smile this is what I get.

Muppet boy.

This week at iHeartFaces it’s “smile please!”