Helen

Hi new friends! I have only recently become interested in photography. Last year I injured my shoulder and after surgery couldn't play sports for 6 months, so I decided it was time to learn a bit more what my camera could do. We have a canon rebel xsi that had never been taken off of the automatic setting. I had no idea what all the buttons were. So, I started by reading my users manual and experimenting with shooting in manual. Then, I read the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It was such a great help for someone new to photography! Then, I paid a little money for a one day workshop held by a friend of mine, Mandi Nuttall. I knew she would be nice to me even though I was totally green. After the workshop, I invested in my only nice lens, a 1.4 50 mm. I love it! I hope to add a nice zoom lens and a wide angle to my collection sometime. Any recommendations?

My passion is children's photography, especially of my own. But, I am most proud of this photo that I took of my niece, Ruby. I wish I had edited it, but I had my friend Mandi do it. She added more grass in front and did some sort of faded action. I love it! I work in Photoshop Elements, and I shoot in RAW. I do very limited editing, and when I have a nice photo worth printing, I just pay Mandi to do it for me.

Thanks for letting me join the club! I am excited to learn from you!

Oh, and my favorite photography blogs to stalk are Peekaboo Photos, Heather Gibb Photography, Nuttall Photography, and Meredith Carlson Photography. Mandi and Meredith are friends of mine and I think Katie and Heather just rock at photography.