Wow! Over A Year Since I Last Posted!

It's been over a year since I last posted and I can't believe it! I've been super busy with school and the kids and life and such. I have a few more images I can show you of my work.

Though they're not exactly Headshot/Profile images, these images were done for one of my photography classes for my final and was voted, by my peers, as the best series. It is definitely out of my comfort zone so I was pleased that my attempt was recognized so highly. Definitely makes me more open to getting out of my comfort zone now, so it was a good thing in the end.





This final image below was one that I am particularly pleased with. It is part of the series, obviously, but it can stand alone and still conveys the message from the series.



I used watered down Hershey's syrup blown through a straw to get the splatter effect. It worked very well, as you can see.

For another class I did an HDR panorama, which I am pleased with. It led me to do the one under it as well.






For now, that is really all that I have done of note. There are, of course, images from my portfolio on my website which you can view to your heart's content. I will have many more images in the next few months, though, I am pleased to say. So stay tuned.

Been a long time

Hi everyone! I've been busy with school and some photography gigs on the side. I know, I know, story of my life, right? Well, I'm loving it!

My website is finally up and running. Though it's not the best looking site (yet), I at least wanted to replace the "Under Construction" image I had there for about a month! Check it out at www.discerningphotography.com!

So much as happened since my last post. As you can see, my website has changed. I'm now the owner of Discerning Photography. Where did I get that name? Well, God, of course! Most photographers use their name as part of their business, so some variation of Jennifer Giuffre Photography would be the expected name of my business. However, I don't usually do what's expected. The gift of seeing beauty in everything and capturing it with the camera was given to me by God. He gave me the gift of discernment. He told me I'd see through to the truth of a person. And because of this, I've named my business Discerning Photography.

I'm just getting started as a business, taking clients photos instead of just taking photos just because, so pardon the small gallery image inventory. As I expand, so will my gallery.

Here are a couple of images I took for a couple of Headshot clients. These clients were awesome. I enjoyed working with them!





I've also done a maternity shoot, which was fun and a great learning experience, as all photography shoots are. Remember, we never stop learning! I discovered that I do enjoy documenting pregnancies (as long as they aren't my own)! Below is the first maternity shoot I've done.









Well, that's about it for now. I have to read up more on how to create a website from scratch, with all the special features, on my own!

Harbor Seal Pup

My oh my! It's been a while since my last post! I've been super busy with school and life in general. It's so hard to remember my blogs! But I've got a treat for you!

I went to Alki Beach yesterday (January 18th) with Christian and the girls and saw this harbor seal pup hauled up on the beach, resting in the sun and waiting for its mother to come back from fishing. I wasn't allowed to get too close, being told so by a Seal Sitter volunteer (they help protect both humans and seals by keeping us at a safe distance). I'm glad I had my zoom lens, as I was out taking photos for future class projects. Though my lens got close, I wish I had a 300mm or 400mm lens. (Will have to rectify that SOON!)


Apparently this harbor seal pup had an infection because it had a lot of green discharge coming from its ear. The Seal Sitter volunteers nicknamed this pup "Ozzie." You can check out the Seal Sitter blog at http://blubberblog.org.

I sent this photo in, unaltered, to the West Seattle Blog and they published it later that night, with information about the pup. You can check out that blog post here: http://westseattleblog.com/2010/01/seal-pup-seasons-not-over-on-west-seattle-beaches.

You know I was happy to have my photo published with credit. Pretty cool, I think!

I'll be back to post more photos at a later date... Hopefully I'll remember!

Jennifer

Lighting In Photography

So everyone knows that lighting can really make or break a photo. So I wanted to understand lighting a bit more. So I did what I always do. I Googled it. I found a few great sites. Here's one:

http://www.picturecorrect.com/photographytips/Light.htm - this site has an awesome technique at the end of it. I have GOT to try it! Pretty cool.

and another:

http://www.photographytips.com/page.cfm/157 - this site has a wealth of information concerning lighting: what it is, how it behaves, light and atmosphere, light and film, and light and photography.

and one more:

http://photo.net/making-photographs/light - this site has a lot of illustrations/examples. And seems to explain light very well! Another great site.

Of course there are many more sites on the web for you to go through, providing lots of information. But I think this is good for starters! Now I'm go read what I've found!

Take care until next time!!!

Some News

CS4 For Photographer's Seminar with Ben Willmore

Ok. So I went to this seminar on Friday. I just have to say. What a fantastic wealth of information! I mean, I really learned a lot. And I love it. There were some interesting things with Photoshop that I just didn't know was possible. The retouching portion was my favorite. Here are the course topics given during the seminar:

Shooting For Photoshop (didn't attend)
High Dynamic Range Imaging (started attendance here)
Adjustment Essentials
Controlling the Viewer's Experience
Start to Finish

I had no idea what high dynamic range was. But now I have more than enough knowledge to understand what it is, and want to increase my knowledge on it. Fantastic information. The Adjustment Essentials portion and the Controlling the Viewer's Experience were awesome as well. I learned some things about some of the Photoshop tools I didn't realize I could do. Some keyboard shortcuts and icon definitions I didn't know about. And the Start to Finish pretty much walked us through the beginning of an image, after it's been taken off the camera, to the end product. Pretty cool. I was very impressed and satisfied with the seminar and will attend another one if they have it local again. It was THAT GOOD!!!

I'm reading over the workbook we received, which essentially covers everything the seminar covered. I only wish the workbooks had the images in color so you could see what you saw live any time. But I guess there are copyright issues involved which prevents such a thing. Oh well.

National Association of Photoshop Professionals (Click on title to go to site)

Oh my goodness! I love my membership!!!! The wealth of information alone is enough to pay for itself! I was like, WOW! I paid for a year of membership, which is normally $99, but since I'm a student I got it for $10 off. No big deal....unless you're a student! Then, on top of that, I got the current issue of Photoshop User Magazine and some other little bits of information. I get this subscription for the length of my membership. This is standard to the membership. Then there's the free gift I got. I got to pick any one of a dozen training DVD's to have for FREE!!! Wow! I was happy about that. For a 2 year subscription, you got to pick out a DVD and a book. I didn't have the dineros for that. Anyway. So I chose the Lightroom 2 In Depth DVD that sells for $150. FREE!!!! That's freakin' awesome! Since I have Lightroom, it'd be a great learning tool for me.

So if you haven't checked out NAPP, go check it out already! It's a MUST HAVE. And sometimes it's best to register for membershig AT AN EVENT/SEMINAR as you get the additional options that you don't get when you registar online, such as choosing from a dozen different books or training DVD's.

I WANT IT!!!

I saw a Nikon D5000 that I'm just DYING to own. Really. I should write up my equipment wish list one day. LOL. But this is just one cool camera. Click on Nikon D5000 to read more about it.

Eventually, I want to get a D3 or D300, but those are just a bit out of my price range. LOL. Maybe one day.


So that's all I have for now. Will post some photos with my newly acquired knowledge soon! Talk to you all later!

More Photos

All of these are of my daughter, Rayah. I've applied a variety of different effects to each. Which one is your favorite?

Lomography

Here are some of my first Lomographs! I really like the effect Lomography gives photos. Lomography is producing effects like light leaks, vignette framing and deep saturated colours with a lomography camera. Here are mine.
















I hope you enjoy my first photos!