I loved watching how Saxon would run toward her older sister, hold her hand. And how gently Suri was with her. I think that they will be very good friends as they get older. And they’re cute as can be!! Mom did a great job picking out their beautiful white dresses and shoes. They completely fit in with the beautiful decor of Dunvegan Keep where we had their Austin portrait session.

Thank you for a lovely time girls!

Last night as I crawled into bed, the side table light was on and Ryenne was passed out on my pillow. The lamp cast the perfect amount of light across Ryenne’s face.

Though she has her own room, she sneaks into my bed nightly. I really don’t mind. I have a great, big California King bed all to myself since Peter and I sleep at opposite times. I love the snuggles she gives me.

I love this little girl. I don’t give her nearly enough credit and praise for how wonderful she is. I love how she believes whole heartedly in magic. When there’s morning dew on the grass she is excited that fairies visited. She thinks that bird houses are fairy houses. She believes without any doubt that there is a Santa Claus and an Easter Bunny. Magic is alive within her – she is pure magic. I have no doubts she was dreaming of magic last night. My beautiful girl.

While it was wonderful seeing everyone, this day was also about raising funds for the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas and Austin Pets Alive – thank you to the families that donated generously! We raised over $160! This money will do a lot of good in our community – thank you again.

XOXO,

Mariah

Cruz took four steps today. I can’t believe it!

We were playing after the mini-sessions today and he stood up and stepped. I adore how proud he is of himself. I also adore how proud Peter is. Their faces are priceless!

Mark your calendars! January 29th I’m doing Valentine’s mini-sessions!

The fine print: These sessions are for children only and will take place in the afternoon at the Happy Cow Farm in South Austin (off of Brodie, south of Slaughter). You will receive a link to view your four proofs on January 31st. To receive your free set of wallets (eight of the same pose), and to receive discounts on print products, all orders must be placed by February 6, 2011. Orders placed after that time will be subject to shipping charges and billed at the regular rate. All photographic prints (excluding Canvas) are on sale for 50% off (for this event only). Press printed valentines cards are on sale for $50 per set of 25 (regularly $75). I have adorable V-Day designs to choose from that I will share in your viewing gallery. I am suggesting a $10 cash donation, however, leave it to your discretion. 100% of the donations from this event will be split between my two favorite charities: Austin Pets Alive and the Capital Area Food Bank.

To reserve your session, please E-MAIL me mariah@mariahmilan.com and note that you want availability for the Valentine’s Special on the 29th.

And the other big news???? My new logo is up…. but that’s not all…

The Dagupion ‘Ohana is heading home to MAUI

Join me on Maui for some awesome beach photography! We’ll be there July 27 to August 17th – no travel fees are added and I’ll be creating some very special session pricing for while we’re there.

Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are the three main players in getting a correct exposure. Many people think there is only one correct exposure setting, but this is far from the truth. Shutter speed is easy to understand – slower allows in more light and faster allows in less and freezes movement. Aperture works hand in hand with the shutter. Aperture affects the depth of field in a photograph. It is often noted as an “F Stop”. a 1.5 aperture is displayed as f/1.4. The smaller the number, the more wide open the lens opening is allowing in more light. Think of your pupil dilating to allow in more light. It brings a certain area into focus while everything else is blurred. The larger the number, the smaller the lens opening, allowing in less light, but creating a broader plain of focus. On a sunny day, squint your eyes and note how everything is in focus.

With portrait work, photographers love to work at lower apertures. Among my favorite lens to use is my 50mm 1.4 lens which gives me beautiful bokeh (blurred background). With landscape photography, it is desired to have everything in the image crisp and in focus – so photographers use a higher aperture number.

When you want to change your depth of field, you will also be changing your shutter speed to accommodate the lens opening. I took Kai outside today to show you how aperture affects the background of an image. This first image is just to show you that you can do a portrait session in the most random of places. In this case we were by the side of my house by the A/C unit. It was about 11am and we were in the shade of the big Oak Tree in the back field.

** Please note that these images are SOOC – STRAIGHT OUT OF CAMERA – there is no editing done whatsoever, aside from resizing for the web **

I really wanted to illustrate here how a higher aperture number keeps everything in focus, but as you can see at f/9 I was already down to a 1/60th shutter speed. If I went lower, I would get shaky. I believe that the kodak instant film cameras shoot at f/9 – so this is very much a “snap-shot” type look to images. Why is the shutter moving so slowly? Because at f/9 aperture, it’s like the camera is squinting – the shutter needs to stay open long enough to allow enough light on the sensor to get the correct exposure.

In this next image I moved my aperture to f/5. Because the lens opening is a bit larger, I could then adjust the shutter speed. At f/5, the background becomes a little more blurred in comparison to f/9.

In this last example of Kai, I opened my lens up as far as it allows, f/1.4. Please note that different lenses can only go so far. Most consumer kit lenses only go to about f/4 – that’s ok! If you do want to invest in a great lens, I highly recommend the 50mm 1.4. Canon has since come out with a 50mm 1.2, which I hear is amazing. But the 1.4 is my workhorse and does the job great. Notice how when I open it up to 1.4, my shutter speed needs to be REALLY fast. Otherwise, this image would be completely overexposed.

Aperture is an amazing thing to experiment with. Please note that when you’re working with your lens “wide open” (shooting with low aperture numbers), your depth of field can also work against you. In this next example, I am photographing Kai at close range at f/1.4 and n1/3200 shutter speed. Because the planes of his face are at different lengths away from the camera, one part of his face is in focus while the rest is out of focus.

(pardon the drool and boogies here! Unedited!!)

If you are photographing a grouping of people, I recommend never going below f/5. I usually try to stay in the f/8 range if my lighting allows.

I would love to hear your questions and comments!! I am  hoping to make these tutorials a monthly thing on the blog – so please ask away as to what you’d like to learn. My next tutorial will be about finding creative lighting in your home. This post will be updated with questions and answers as I receive them.

Post Updates:

I have been asked how to change the aperture settings on the camera. I shoot with a Canon 5D as well as a Canon 20D. All camera bodies vary slightly, so if your camera is set up differently than mine you’ll need to check your camera manual.

The camera pictures above are stock images and show that the camera is shooting a large  Jpeg. I shoot in RAW format, but Jpeg shooting is just fine. I also shoot in manual mode, which leads to the next question… how do you know what is the correct exposure?

Most cameras come with a built in light meter. The light meter can sometimes be off slightly, but I’ve found that it is such a life saver. In the picture above, please note that there are a series of lines and dots at the bottom of the display. On the left it says -2…1…large dot…1…2

This is your light meter. When you are in P mode or M mode and you point the camera at something and half click to focus there will be a line that appears somewhere in this range. If it’s in the middle, you are close to your desired exposure range. If the line is to the left you are underexposed and if you’re to the right you’re overexposed. This is a great general tool to use. You can run your shutter wheel and aperture wheel various directions and watch how the light meter changes. It’s important to know that the light meter is a center focused meter. If you point it at something black it will have a different reading than if you point it at something white. Once you get it “in range”, it is your job as photographer to tweak it to the exposure that you want.

On my personal Facebook page and my personal blog I have had many friends and clients ask me how to make their Christmas tree look magical in the background of their photos. I’m happy to share a tutorial with you today.

The effect is called bokeh. To do this effect you’ll need an slr camera. My living room is not super well lit, but I do have some overhead can lights. I turned those on.

Set your camera to manual mode, and put your shutter to about 1/100 of a second (depending how dark the room is, you may adjust to 1/80 or even 1/60, but keep in mind the slower you go, the more steady you need to be!)

Set your aperture wide open. I was using my 50mm 1.4 prime lens, but I set it to 2.0.

Depending again on how dark your room is, set your ISO. Mine was at 800.

(does all this jargon sound crazy to you? email me and I’ll be happy to help you!)

Put your subject far away from your tree. Focus, and take the picture. If you’re finding that it’s still too dark, I would adjust your ISO first and then your shutter speed if necessary. The further away your subject is from the tree, the larger the round lights will appear.

They even look awesome in black and white!

(thank you to my sweet Kai Boy for putting up with me and the camera in his face today)

And if that wasn’t enough of a lesson, I have a recipe coming at’cha! We made homemade apple sauce today. This is a great project to get the kids involved – they have so much fun!

You’ll need:

Apples

Cinnamon

Agave or Maple Syrup

Crock Pot

(descriptions are corresponding with image #’s)

1) make sure you sniff the cinnamon (Ry got cinnamon on the tip of her nose. It was so cute!)

2) Don’t do this – Kai decided he wanted to lick the apples before I peeled them.

3) Have each child choose their apples

4) Peel the apple (mom or dad need to do this part)

5) chop apples coarsely (another job for mom and dad)

6) Have the Littles put their apples into the crock pot

7) #7 is strangely missing (maybe you could put on music for this step!)

Don’t forget to eat some apples

9) And double check to make sure they’re tasty

10) Don’t put your peels down the disposal (I have learned this the hard way in the past!)

11) Have each Little sprinkle cinnamon

12) Add some maple or agave syrup (not too much… just a little bit)

13) turn your crock pot on low and enjoy the beautiful smell in your home! Cook down to your preferred consistency and serve by itself, with yogurt, on toast, on pancakes, ect.

We used old toothbrushes to apply the glue. Then we rolled in glitter. The kids thought it was funnier to put the glitter on the toothbrush.

We have a Charlie Brown tree on the dining room table holding it’s lone ornament. See me?

I really tried to line the table with paper, but I am still finding glitter in the little crevices (we have a shabby chic table with lots of wear). But I think it just adds to the charm!