Digital Photography Tips, Recipes, Technology and Photographs from The Mansurovs
Here are some of my favorite images from the last shoot with Isadora. The first image was taken in a shady area and I had to use off-camera flash (umbrella with a single strobe) as fill-flash to brighten up her face and get rid of raccoon eyes (shadows under eyes). The flash was positioned a little higher at approximately 30 degrees, to my left:
This image was shot with natural light, early in the morning in the beginning of the session:
Malika is the daughter of our dear friends Becky and Andrew. I love their daughter very much! Since they decided to relocate somewhere special, they asked me if I could take pictures of Malika before they left. She is growing fast, alright! Last year at this very moment I was taking her picture, talking her into being a princess of a yellow castle. This year she outsmarted me almost in everything!
Malika, I will miss you dearly and I can’t wait to take your pictures when you come back to Colorado!
My sister and I woke up pretty early this morning for a portrait shoot which I scheduled yesterday. Believe me, if I was not sure of this beautiful little lady’s talent to pose in front of the camera and of her artistic abilities, I wouldn’t have made such a quick decision. I have taken pictures of Jade, Isadora’s sister before and I knew that we would have no less than fabulous photo shoot this time around!
This particular picture was shot with the Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D @ 1/3200, ISO 200 at f/1.8, almost wide open. I really love the bokeh and contrast the 85mm f/1.4D produces and it really is one heck of a lens for portraits! Along with the 50mm f/1.4G, this is my top used lens for what I do. I took this picture early in the morning using natural light, so no reflectors or off-camera flash were used.
Stay tuned for more tips from this photo shoot and for more amazing pictures of Isadora!
Everybody has a story on why they got into photography and what event contributed to purchasing their first film or digital SLR camera. In my case, the decision was based solely on one picture that my wife sent me via Google Talk while I was at work – the picture of Omar in a cradle swing. When Omar was a few months old, Lola decided to take a picture of Omar on a very old Sony point and shoot camera that I had back from 2002. As with any other point and shoot that I had before then, I never knew anything about taking good pictures – I just pointed at a subject and took a picture without worrying about camera settings, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and other photography lingo that I had no clue about.
Here is the picture that started my journey into photography:
I remember the day when I received it. Lola said that Omar started to smile and it was her attempt to capture the moment. It drove me nuts that such a beautiful picture turned out to be so blurry and we both agreed that we desperately needed a professional camera to capture those kinds of moments. Little did we know back then that it was the light and our technique, not the camera, that caused the above image to be blurry :)
Long story short, I came home and after a couple of hours of research, bought our first DSLR – Nikon D80 kit with an 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.
So, what is your story and what got you started in photography?
My favorite little buddies Uma and her little brother Maslin visited us today for a short photo shoot. We initially planned to have it outside but the cold and shortage of time didn’t make it a flexible choice for us. So, Laura and I decided to have a photo shoot indoors.
Before I go on to write about the photo shoot I just want to tell all of you how delighted I am to know Laura, mommy of Uma and Maslin. She is so sincere and absolutely lovely! Laura, if you are reading this, I want you to know that I am glad that I met you and I am looking forward to many, many photo shoots and play dates with you and your adorable children.
A couple of days ago, we thought about taking pictures of people on Halloween. We first decided to go to Denver downtown, but then changed our mind and decided to check out the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder instead. I’m glad that we picked Boulder, because people were awesome, their costumes were very creative and funny and above all – we had a lot of fun!!!
Click “Continue Reading” to see lots of cool photos of vampires, zombies and other cool characters!
We started out by taking pictures of families with kids:
Uma and Maz are a sister and a brother. I am delighted to have the chance to photograph such adorable children. I know that their mother is fantabulous! So, no wonder we had so much fun with Uma and Maz. I hope that I will see them soon enough to get more pictures done. We had a good time blowing bubbles, throwing leaves, jumping, laughing and running. I love their energy and their willingness to pose in front of the camera. I love, love, love, Uma and Maz!!!
Here Uma is in process of demonstrating her bubble blowing skills to her brother Maz.
Recently my husband posted some pictures from our trip to Crested Butte. I decided to follow his footsteps and document my perspective of a couple of days that we spent on the road.
My handsome boy by his favorite balloons!
When I first met Malika, she was only 4 months old. Omar was only a couple of weeks old when Malika and her dad came over to see him. It was love from the first sight! Yes, I fell in love with this little bundle of big joy. She had the biggest brown eyes one could imagine. Her curly blond hair and joyful laugh made me want to get pregnant all over again just to have a little girl :D Well, it all happened, but I ended up with another boy, LOL! Every time I see Malika, I still ask my husband if we should give it another try. As much as he adores baby girls, he thinks we’ve had enough, at least for now!
Malika is smart, happy, bubbly, energetic and super fantastic to work with. I could take her pictures for hours and have fun at the same time! Even her name is very majestic. Malika means “Queen” in Uzbek language.
We had a very hard time choosing photographs for this entry and these are the ones we chose for now.
One of my favorite shots of the day:
Captured in La Jolla, CA:
Niko D300 and Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S lens.
