I needed this blog in my life!

 I haven't blogged in what feels like an age so I thought I would get this out of my system to stop the withdrawal symptoms! I have spent the last week or so trying to sort things for the new job and moving time in a week but also been taking advice from people and trying to enjoy what little free time I have before I start. So your asking what this has to do with the blog and my photography?.... well a lot of my free time has been spent with family and I've been very camera happy getting some great shots particularly of my lovely niece Isla!

Now when the family are here I will always make the effort to get as many pictures as possible especially as recently my mum has made me very aware of how important it is to capture every moment. It just so happens that family is the subject of the task I set myself recently.

One of the best things I found when looking online was a website called Digital Photography School with an awesome forum which could be used by any photographers with ease no matter how good or not you are. They have a great forum in which they publish a new task or 'assignment every once in a while and allow people to post their attempts at each task for everyone else to see. Not only is this a great way of sharing great new photos but gives new things to focus on and more importantly try and get used to the settings on your camera.

With my little niece nearly 1, she is still at the stage where she is exploring the world around her and is always on the move. I got some great pictures of her roaming the house which gave me a great chance to try different shots and edit some photos to make the most of some cool angles.

Take a look at these two photos the 1st is a picture of her adventure up our stairs. Taken from this angle I wanted it to show or represent her journey or development as a baby almost seeing the top of the stairs (or in her case me) as her goal! Also for those of you who are just reading this for the pics, she also looks very sweet!


The next photo shows my attempt to zoom in in edit mode on my digital camera on her expression which in this particular photo is a great example of the innoncene of childhood. There were many photos taken around this idea were many but very few captured the mixture of these two themes of development and innocence quite like this one.

I am extremely proud of this photo and dare I say it but I think it might be my best yet. I also had a go at trying the different lightning for shots and you can see the subtle differences that make all the difference (see below).

This kind of cut into my plans of what of wanted I wanted to do in this blog entry but I will get back to that next time. I will be including a bit on each of these tasks im going to try in future as a regular feature. They will in time help me focus and hopefully get something I am lacking a bit of at the moment which is readers interaction. As the title clearly states this was very much needed but shows a how a simple task and a bit of focus can bring out the best in your photography.

My little niece in colour!