Today I am going to show you a couple of simple tips. This past weekend we went out to the Houston Arboretum with the kids and some friends. As I was photographing, I could hear my own lessons and see some of them at play. We were at the arboretum right at midday, which is generally not the best time to photograph outdoors because the sun is high and bright. In the arboretum this meant a lot of dappled shade everywhere. Dappled shade can be a real nuisance because it creates a bunch of distracting blotches. In this scenario, you have to be crafty about the way you get your shot and try and guide your subject into a larger patch of shade, like this. It can be as simple as turning someone's head or just scooting them over a little bit.

One of the lessons I have put a lot of focus on is getting close. You can go back and see posts about getting closer here and here and here. In this next series of images I started wide and got closer and closer as I kept shooting. The first image shows the whole scene. The kids get lost in the image. I always talk about how your image should tell a story and this image is telling a story about how the ropes are tied up and what the bridge thing is and does. It's not so much about the kids.

I got a little closer for this next one but there are still a lot of distracting background elements, shadows, etc. I'm also far enough away where we can't really capture a great expression.

Now, as we get even closer it starts to get a lot better! You can see the faces and the background softens up and goes out of focus a little better. By the way, on that note, I did step BACK and zoom IN, which helps the background be less in focus. I was also using a wide open (or low number f-stop).

and even closer...

The last thing I was going to share with you today was a little trick that you can use when trying to include sun flare in your images. Purposely shooting towards the sun can look very cool. You can shoot it in such a way that you get a soft edged sun flare or a defined edge with "rays" and even nice round sun spots. It's just a simple matter of which f-stop you use. Here's an  example:

For the above shots, I just the aperture priority mode on my camera and selected a low number f-stop for the first one and a high number for the second one.

That'a ll for this Monday! As always, I would LOVE to see what you come up with as your work on your own shots. You can include links to your Flickr stream, blog posts or images in the comments section below. It would also make me very happy if you submitted some of your images into the Monday Lesson Flickr Pool.

I'm torn about what shot is my favorite for the week. It's a toss up today but it's one of these two. I have also decided that I want freckles just like him. Oh, and I want red hair to go with my freckles. I told him this while I was taking his picture and he looked at me kinda funny and said, "but I don't have red hair". He's so much fun to photograph and so sweet...even when he tried to talk to me completely in burps. It was especially hilarious when a guy came out of the door that was right next to us and said, "Um, we're doing a presentation in here and we can hear you". Awesome!

So, do you want know what it looks like when a 7 year old is over you and your camera? It's pretty much like this.

Happy Friday everyone! Make sure and link to your favorite images in the comments below or submit them to our Favorite Shot Friday Flickr Pool!

In the two days I was there, I made an awesome new business deal, hung out with lots of friends, saw my line of frames debut and was the guest at the impromptu wedding of some friends in a Vegas chapel. It was busy! I brought my new favorite photo toy, my Fuji Instax. If you don't have one, get one. It's a fun little camera.

While you're hanging out at PhotoJoJo, you can check out a few of my favorite fun photo items like the seat belt cam strap, Diana lens, and the bad-ass bowler bag!

Many Thanks to Dale & Julie Klaasmeyer for the awesome nuptials and to Tana and Ashlie from Wild Sorbet for letting me stay with them!

I'm calling out, looking for well wishes, good vibes...can everyone just collectively think positive thoughts about me today? The main thought needs to be, Farrah will not fall into the Houston Bayou and wash away while doing her first training run on her new bike.

I am going to officially start training for a mini triathlon today by taking my first long ride on my new street bike. I am not a biker by the way. The bike that I have (and occasionally ride to the zoo with the kids) has three speeds, a basket and pinstripes. The new bike is so light it might blow away in a hard wind, has curvy handle bars, lots of gears and scary pedals that my shoes clip in to. It does also happen to be white with purple and silver pinstripe-like details on it. It's scary and cute at the same time.

So, why am I doing it? Because it scares me a little and because when I'm done I'll feel like a bad ass. I would never classify myself as athletic and I doubt my close friends would either. I'm a little clumsy, sunburn easily, bruise easily and for most of my young life was really, really skinny. I went to an art high school. We didn't have P.E. or sports. My newfound athleticism has been hard earned. It started as a way of getting the baby weight off after my second son and just sort of stuck. One day, out of the blue, I announced to my husband that I was going to train for and run the Houston half marathon. I had never run before and my husband looked at me like I had lost my mind. Finnian was only a few months old but I started training and finished it. It was awesome.

So, here I am...excited and little scared. Wish me luck friends! Wish the rain away so we don't get rained out. Imagine me triumphant, graceful and without any new bruises, bumps or scratches. I'll let you know how it goes.