I'm very excited to share today's lesson with you guys! Today we have a guest photographer named Corey. I found Corey while browsing galleries on Flickr. I had wanted to include an image of hers for the last lesson on getting close. The more I looked through her images on Flickr, the more that I felt like she had a lot of great images to choose from and, in particular, a lot of close up images that really illustrate the point of the lesson. So, today I'm going to share some of Corey's images with you and address a few questions that I received after posting the last lesson. Corey has also answered a few interview questions for you guys.

The first image that I want to share is the one that originally caught me eye. I love how you can look at this image and know exactly what that nose feels like! I always talk about the idea of telling a story with your images. The story doesn't need to be long or complex and can be as simple as a soft, fuzzy nose.

I love, love, LOVE this little series. This is a great example of how getting close can add impact, draw your eyes right to your subject and remove distracting background elements. I also love how she framed these up a little crooked (for lack of a better term). I think it adds some energy to an already spirited series.

I asked Corey a few questions about getting close:

You have a real knack for getting up close and personal with your images, do you have any advice for new photographers on training yourself to get closer?

Thank you! One of the first things I discovered early on in my personal photography journey is to GET CLOSER. GET A LOT CLOSER. I find that most people stand a good distance from their subject, lift the camera to their face and start snapping. In my opinion, these photos capture the scene, but fail to really capture the moment. I like to move in close, get down at their level, and step right into their world. It's up to you whether you want to move with your feet, or with your zoom, but just move in closer. Fill your frame with the subject of your desire. 

When I was starting out, I'd snap a few shots the way I normally would, then I'd walk my feet closer. A whole lot closer....and then snap a few from that distance. It took some time, but as soon as I started to notice that the ones I had taken up close were my favorites it became easier and easier to  remember to move in close.

Do you use any special equipment for your close up images? 

Nope. Which ever lens I have on my camera at the time works just fine for the close up. I either zoom with my feet or the lens. Really doesn't matter how I do it...I just do. I do have a 100mm macro lens I like to use, but I don't tend to use it anymore than the others for my close up shots.

What kind of camera do you shoot and what is your favorite lens?

From June 2007- January 2010 I used my Canon XTi. Just recently, I purchased the Canon T1i, because I have worn my poor little Xti out. :) 

As for lenses, I love love love prime lenses. My favorite would be a toss up between the Canon 100mm 2.8 macro, and the Canon 50mm 1.4. They both give me the sharp focus in low light that I really enjoy.

Do you have any tips and tricks regarding keeping your focus sharp when you get up close?

First, I always select my focal point, rather than leave it up to the camera to decide which part of the photo I want in focus. This is very important. I typically set my focus on one of the subjects eyes. Also be careful of your Aperture setting when you move in close. You have to practice a lot with apertures to understand what you can get away with regarding the different sized focal plains. 

Corey brings up some really key points. Here's my hit list for things you need to know when getting close:

1. One of the first things to keep in mind and determine is how close up your particular lens can focus. To test this out, just grab an object (anything will do) and see how close up you can get while maintaining focus.

2. In Corey's last response, she talks about knowing how to set your focus point. This is HUGE. Take a moment and figure out how your camera is set to auto focus. Most cameras take readings from multiple places within your frame and make a decision about the focus. If you are having a hard time getting your camera to focus on what you want you may look into manually setting the auto focus point. To find the setting for this, grab your manual and look up AF points or AF area mode.

3. If you are having trouble getting up close and being in focus, you might also try backing up and then zooming in on your subject. Zooming in has the added benefit of helping blur out your background a little. Like Corey said, you can come in closer with your feet or your zoom lens.

4. In Corey's last answer she talks about experimenting with your f-stop or aperture to know how much of your image will be in focus. This concept is called depth of field. This is a definite photography fundamental but it can be confusing at first.

Many thanks to Corey for sharing herr images and your insights! To see more of Corey's work, you can visit her Flickr page or her blog.

As always, I would love to see your experiments! Please post links in the comments section or in the new Monday Lesson Flickr pool. Now, go have fun and GET CLOSE!

Today we're going to talk about a few simple, non technical ways to make a huge improvement in your photos. The famous photojournalist and war photographer, Robert Capa, once said "if your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough". So,with that as your new mantra, one of the easiest ways that you can improve your photographs is to just get closer to your subject. I want you to fill your frame with your subject. This does a couple of things that will improve your images. First, it gives the viewer a simple, easy to define subject that has big impact. Secondly, it helps remove distracting elements from the background and foreground that take away from your subject.

The other nice thing that happens when you get closer is that your background walls more out of focus, which helps add further emphasis. If you really want to create an out of focus background you need to study up controlling depth-of-field. If you don't feel ready to bite off the technical lesson on depth-of-field, just get closer and you'll see that your backgrounds get softer.

This amazing and simple image is by Julie Lackey. I found Julie's work when she contributed an image for the Favorite Shot Friday flickr pool. Isn't she amazing? I love the simplicity of the first image. If you have a small child, I imagine that you have marveled at their little hands and feet. This is the shot that would remind you, 20 years later, exactly how small they really were.

and I just love this simple composition...

Here are a few of mine from our trip to Carmel last summer.

The image of my feet in the sand brings me to our next tip. I want you to start playing with different angles and more creative cropping. I always like to say that your image is telling a story. Often times when snap a photo, we include more information than we need to really tell the story. This next image is by a friend of mine, Brene Brown. I think it tells the "soccer girl" story perfectly without a single face being shown. So you guys know, Brene was one of my main inspirations for doing these Monday Lessons in the first place. I helped her out with a few tips and tricks and she suggested I do the same for others on my blog. So, here we are! Thanks Brene!

The next time you go to take the picture, look up, down, sideways and tilt your camera in a new way. You may be surprised to find the shot looks even better from a whole new angle. Here's a shot of mine from Cabo San Lucas. It's on a fishing boat looking up a fishing rod towards the sky.

My friend, Danny Clark, sent me this one to show how looking up can be great too. Danny has this signature way of shooting some of his images that's kind of tilted and crooked and looks great!

Here's a couple more by Julie Lackey that show how getting low and close up can lend so much impact to an image. Maybe it's because I have 2 little boys but this image just reminds me how little boys play with their cars - lining them up and creating elaborate scenarios with them.

And who hasn't found their child looking up at them with a proud smile and saying, "Look Mom, I put on my own shoes!".

And I personally just think little baby feet are one of the best things in the world! How they turn into regular, not so cute, grown up feet I'll just never know. This next shot is mine ut in the same spirit as Julie's image. One of Finnian's favorite things to do is play in the yard with a hose and a watering can. I just love how his little toes look and how the water droplets are partially frozen in their fall.

and one more image from Julie that will hopefully inspire you to not worry about cutting off parts or pieces of your image. Getting creative with your cropping might just lead to some of your most interesting pictures. I like to think about it this way, sometimes the heart of the story lies within the things that you choose to leave out. When you do this, you also allow the viewer to fill in the blanks with some of their own personal imagination, which allows them a place of their own inside the story.

OK, now it's your turn, go get close! I'd love to see what you come up with. Post links to your images in the comments section below or post them to our Monday Lesson Flickr Pool.

Today's Monday Lesson isn't about taking pictures but, instead, about a fun project that you can do with your old frames. Fairly often I hear from my clients that they have older frames that just aren't their style or decor anymore. Framing can be expensive so today I am going to show you something fun that you can do with some of your older frames that will give them a new life. For this project, I found 4 frames at a junk shop here in Houston. They cost me $8 each.

I recently changed my living room from darker tones to lighter ones. My whole theme in the living room is beach. The wall in my living room is full of black frames already and I want to switch them all to shades of white and light blue. So, when I saw these frames at the junk shop I thought I'd show you guys how a little bit of craftiness can save you a good chunk of change. Tomorrow I will post a picture from my studio where I did a similar thing to a bunch of older frames but in a completely different style.

The frames that I found were a little beat up but sturdy. I don't care about the wear and tear because the finish I am going to do will go perfectly with it. Here are the frames before I started.

Here's what they looked like after I was done. They were still drying when I took this so that's why they are all up on boxes outside.

This is called a crackle finish. The frames weren't bad looking to start out with but I wanted them to be lighter and I thought the crackle would work great with my new design theme. Crackle is a really simple and fun painting technique that you can use on anything that you can paint. I did this same technique on a little set of Ikea chairs that I bought for the playroom a while back.

For this project you will need the following:

a place to spread out and paint

a drop cloth

a medium size paintbrush (2 inches or so)

water-based paint for your top color (I used an off- white and a light blue)

water-based paint for your base color (unless you can use the frames as they are like I did)

crackle medium (available at most paint retailers and craft stores, I got mine at Sherwin Williams)

water based clear coat

You may also need:

sandpaper, sanding sponge (medium grit) or coarse steel wool

spray primer like Kilz

TIP! This will not work on metal frames!  Also, if you are painting over frames that have a shiny finish on them or are newer, you may need to rough them up a little with sandpaper and then use spray primer (like Kilz) on them before you paint to make sure the paint sticks to them. If your frame has a lot of raised texture or detail, you may try steel wool instead of sandpaper as it will allow you to get into the detailed areas better. The frames that I used were old and the finish was pretty worn down already so I avoided that step.

Basics: Crackle works like this...the first color that you paint or, in the case of these frames, the color of the frame before you paint will be the color of the cracks. Typically, I like a darker color for this layer because it shows off the cracks better.

Prep: If your frame is newer / shiny, sand it a little bit all over, which will rough it up and give the paint something to stick to. Then spray a coat of Kilz primer all over and allow to dry. If you find frames like mine and you like the color that they are, just clean them off and sand a little if they look shiny.

Step 1: Paint your frame the color that you want the cracks to be. In my case, I just went with what was there already. I used my clean paintbrush to dust off the frames and I was good to go.

Step 2: Apply the crackle medium to the frame in an irregular and uneven way. The thicker you apply the glaze, the bigger the cracks will be. I like to leave some areas unpainted so there will be places where it does not crackle. Here is a detail of two of my frames. The shiny areas are where the crackle medium was applied.

Step 3: Allow the crackle medium to dry. The thickness of the medium and the amount of time that you allow it to dry will affect the size of the cracks. It will not dry completely like paint does but, instead, stay a little tacky. You can see how I used a varying amount of medium. I let my frames dry for about 30-40 minutes.

Step 4: This is a fast step so you need to ready. Get your top coat color ready, get a generous amount of paint on your brush and, starting at one corner of the frame, begin painting the top coat on. You need to have a good amount of paint on your brush because you have to paint quickly and you want to try and avoid going back over the spots you already painted. It will pull and make blobs where the medium and the paint combine. The good news about this technique is that it is supposed to look imperfect, old and worn so mistakes don't ruin it. Just slap the paint on there and don't try and be too neat.

Step 5: Step back and watch as the cracks magically appear! The paint will generally start cracking almost instantly. As you can see (in the image below) I applied my paint fairly thick.

Step 6: Allow your masterpiece to dry completely.

Step 7: If you want an even more distressed look, take some sandpaper to the corner and rough them up some.

Step 8: To protect the finish or make it shine, you may consider applying a clear coat but it is not mandatory.

Step 10: Once you have your finished frames, all you need is a piece of glass, a mat and your favorite image. If you are in Houston and need a mat or glass cut for your new frame, try the nice folks over at Davis Hardware in the heights. They are also a great place to find new frames too. We would also be happy to cut the glass and mat for you (yes, even if you are using your own picture).

Here are some close up shots of my finished frames. You can see the different colors of the crackle showing through.

Don't forget, if you decide to try this out, make sure and post a picture in the comments section! Have fun!

oh, and on a side note, check out an interview with your truly on a cool new blog called Moms with Cameras.

Last weekend I had one of my digital photography classes at the studio and it was a big hit! I love teaching the class and seeing little light bulbs go off for people. It's like, "AHA! I can do this!". I have 3 more classes scheduled for this year.  The next one is in March and will also be a beginner's class. You can sign up here through EventBrite. 

For those of you who have taken the first class and want to go even further and learn more, I have an intermediate class on May 22, 2010. We'll be sending an EventBrite invite out through our email list. However, if you would like to go ahead and sign up now, please feel free to call the studio at (713) 255-2882.

Here's a little info about our beginner's class:

Looking for something new and fun? I have the perfect thing for you fellow shutterbugs. It's called the Fuji Instax. It's like a polaroid camera but the prints are a bit smaller. My sweet husband got it for me for Christmas. If you like what you see and want one of your own, you can buy it (and a slew of other groovy photo stuff) here.

As you might have noticed in the pics above, Finnian likes the Instax more than Sayer. Finnian has even started carrying it around and taking his own pictures. The Instax is also loads of fun when you go out at night! I stuck it into my purse recently and took it to a dinner party.

Now, go grab yourself one and have a little fun! When you're at photojojo, check out the cool seat belt camera straps too!