The first few shots were taken in the baby's bedroom. The crib was right near a window so I opted to open up the blinds and shoot right near the window. I put myself in between the window light and the child without casting a shadow on her. Here's the scene:

and here's the shot:

The next set up was in the master bedroom. The trick in there was that we needed to open up the drapes and let as much light in as possible. When you shoot inside you have to find the light and maximize it as much as you can! This is what the scene looked like:

And the shots:

Next up we shot in the living room, which was the brightest room of all. They had these huge windows! The first two rooms were normal rooms with regular sized windows. In the first two rooms I just found the brightest place in the room, maximized the light by opening up all the window coverings and placed my sweet little subject there. In the living room, I did the same thing but, because there was so much light in there, I had a much larger area to work in. These kind of windows are a photographer's dream!

In this scenario, I put my back to the windows and my gorgeous little subject in front of me facing the windows. Here are the shots from this set up:

Now it's your turn! Look for the brightest spot in your house and find a way to make it even brighter. Try opening up the front or back door and using that area. What about right next to one of your windows? Use the tricks from last week's lesson too.

I would love to see what you come up with! Please post your images to my Monday Lesson Flickr Pool. Please don't be shy. Your images don't have to be perfect. We're all most interested in your willingness to experiment and try something new.

("Goodnight Sarlat" was taken in Sarlat France and is available in my Etsy shop here!)

I've been busy! I've been pushing myself and attacking my list of goals. I've been staying up way too late too.

I stumbled through photographing my collages last week until I finally decided to take them all to someone who is a pro at that sort of thing. I gathered up my finished pieces and took them to a fine art scanner. I'm not 100% sure how they are doing it but it involves a large 4x5 camera, a special room and multiple exposures to create the look of depth. To be honest, I'm just grateful that someone else is doing it. I want to offer prints in my Etsy shop of some of my collages but the prints need to be as close to the real thing as possible and that required professional help. I have to say, it felt really weird to hand over all my work to a stranger and drive away.

I am making progress on my book project too. I reworked the table of contents and created a list of photographs that need to be taken. Writing is so challenging for me. The project just feels huge and daunting and I get flustered. It's very easy for me to get off track and then get irritated at myself. Sometimes I think I need to just go check in to a hotel for a week (with no internet access) and make myself finish it all one swoop. Perhaps the people scanning my art could just take care of finishing the book too?

The amazing news here is that I am doing it. I am taking control over my schedule and blocking out time to work rather than wait for the time to become available. I'm even saying no to a few things just to be sure I have the energy to see this all through. My decision to follow everyone on Twitter that follows me (@farrahbraniff) has been great too. I thought it would be overwhelming but, Instead, it has made it much more interesting.

I keep repeating this mantra in my head when my to-do list starts to freak me out...

baby steps, one little piece at a time.

When I teach my intro to digital photography workshops, one of the primary issues people have is not being able to take good indoor photographs. Truth be told, indoor photography can be very, very challenging. Generally speaking, the quality of most indoor light is bad. It's a funky color (images look yellow, green, or even blue) and there's usually not enough of it to begin with. It's also flat looking. Don't fret though! You can improve the quality of your indoor photography and be less frustrated by following a few key tips...

1. You absolutely HAVE to take the time to know how to adjust your ISO. This is critical. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you might consider taking my class and/or look up my previous blog post about ISO.

Your ISO controls how sensitive your camera is to light. Higher number ISO's (800, 1600, 3200 or 6400) make your sensor more sensitive to light allowing you to do more with what little light that you have available to you. Low numbers (100, 200) work in reverse. They desensitize the sensor allowing you to capture shots in very bright conditions. The image above was shot at ISO 1250, f-stop 3.5, 24-70mm lens at 42mm and a shutter speed of 1/125. I did not use a flash at all.

2. You need to turn off your flash. If your camera automatically pops up the flash when the light is low, you need to find the part in your manual about overriding the auto flash.

3. You need to shoot with a lens that has a wide aperture opening or f-stop. The wider you can get, the better. Wait, I do have one caveat, the difference between an F1.8 lens and an F1.4 lens is not such a big deal that a normal, non pro needs to spend the big bucks to get that one stop. However, the difference between most F3.5-5.6 kit lenses (the ones that ship with your camera) and an F1.8 lens is HUGE!

When you have a lens with a wider f-stop opening, you are able to let more light into your camera, which allows you to shoot with less light! You may also be interested in my post about f-stops here and here.

(Above shot: ISO 5000, 24-70 mm lens at 46 mm, F3.5, 1/125)

(Above shot: ISO 4000, 24-70 mm lens at 55mm, F3.5, 1/60)

While raising your ISO lets you shoot in lower light, it does have some drawbacks. The downside is that your images might be noisy or have grain. For those of you that don't know what I mean by noise, it looks like this. This is a photo from my iphone taken in super low light.

Each camera handles noise differently. Cameras have gotten much better at handling noise but you will have to find out how far you can push your camera and still get use-able images from it. Do some ISO experiments by taking images at very high ISO's and see how your camera handles it. Mentally note where things start to really fall apart so you know what your gear is capable of. I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and it does a pretty good job at high ISO's.

One last thing about noise...A little noise isn't such a terrible thing. If I was planning to blow something up to 30x40 then noise would be an issue. If I am printing off 4x6's and such for scrapbooks and relatives then a little noise is often not even visible.

4. You need to watch your camera's shutter speed! If you go below 1/60 of a second, you will likely get a blurry shot. This is one of the most common mistakes new shooters make. The bottom line is that your camera needs light to make an image. It is going to try and get it any way it can and, in the auto modes, it usually slows down the shutter speed and you end up with a blurry picture. You can try shooting at speeds like 1/30 or 1/40 but you will need to be very still. That means stand like a tripod, take a breath before you click, lean you or your camera against a wall or ledge, etc.

(Above shot: ISO 1250, 24-70 mm lens at 70 mm, F2.8, 1/160)

The other thing about learning how to turn off your flash and adjust your ISO is that it allows you to take pictures and see the natural light. Flash blows out the pretty light, darkens the background, kills skin tone and flattens everything. There are a lot of situations where you will want the natural, existing light even if it is minimal. If you used a flash in the shot below, you would see the flash's reflection the glass.

(Above shot: ISO 3200, 24-70mm lens, F5, 1/80)

When I travel and chase my kids around the park or wherever, I want to carry minimal gear. I've never liked a point and shoot camera so I do haul my big DSLR everywhere but I usually take one lens (as you can see in all of these images) and NO FLASH. Yep, I rarely ever use one. That does mean that sometimes I just can't get my shot but most of the time I can. If you practice these tips, you will be able to as well!

You may want to check out these blog posts too:

Modifying your flash
Lenses- here or here or here

Happy Monday friends!

(me and my friend, Julia, circa 1993-94)

The older I get, the foggier it seems to get. Sometimes the true essence of me seems to get blurrier. It's all diluted and obscured by children, work, marriage and the stresses of everyday life. I don't feel like the same girl that's in those pictures...not even the ones from a mere 10 years ago. I know that I am the same in a lot of ways but something's different. Tonight when Wendy left, I cried. We always do that when she leaves to go back to Europe. Part of it is just missing a dear friend and knowing it will be summer (at least) before I see her again. The other part is the part of me that feels so much more like myself when she is here. It's just easy. I don't edit what I have to say. There's no posturing because we can see through that stuff anyway so why bother. She's seen so many of my awkward moments and my various growing pains that playing anything off is just silly. It's liberating to be in that space with someone and it's really sad to see it go.

(Wendy and I, circa 1986)

I think we all try and hide our darkest parts from each other out of fear of being judged. The thing is, I love Wendy and Kristen's darkness. Their deepest, darkest moments are part of what makes me love them so. What's even better is that, around them, I love my darkness too.

(I love this image b/c it has 4 of my other longtime friends in it. Top left: Indy & David Bottom: Carlos and Gwen) 

(Wendy, circa 1987)

(A photograph of me, taken by my longtime friend Anissa, circa 1993)

I've alway loved this picture of me. That says quite a bit because I don't normally like pictures of myself. I love the heart shaped shadow over my eye. I love how it's resting in the windowsill of my post college Austin house next to a pile of snake skins and a weird plastic religious statue and, what, a geode maybe? I remember the leather jacket that I'm wearing. It was my favorite and it had velvet cuffs. I like how I'm looking straight into the camera.

This year, I made the resolution to put more of myself out there. I feel like I am unearthing something...my art and maybe even the girl in that picture. I'm doing my very best to let myself be seen. I said, "goodbye", to Wendy today but I am going to try and hold on to the feeling of being seen and known. It's so much nicer than the alternative.