portrait practice

Image captured handheld 1/29/10, 9:47pm • Canon 5D, Canon EF28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM • 64mm, f/5.0, 1/8 sec , ISO 800 • minor adjustments made in Adobe Camera Raw

Meet Rusty. He's Dale & Stephanie's cat. On Friday night, he was as cuddly as could be and very interested in hanging out on the couch with me. I decided it would be perfect to get my camera out for my third photography class assignment. This post marks his entrance to the world of fame.

Aperture is the name of this week's game. The goal was to take a portrait shot of someone or something using a small aperture. That way, we could focus in on the subject while the background drops out of focus. When you look at this shot, because of where the focus lies, you can't help but be drawn right into the green kitty eyes. Wanting to use a small aperture, it was tougher to get a fast enough shutter speed in the low light of their living room, but Rusty was quite intrigued by the sound of my shutter and sat quite still. I like the softness of this shot created by the back lighting of the lamp. It created a nice rim light to outline his head and ears. With those glossy eyes staring at you, don't you want to just pet the screen??

Here's another portrait that I'll print for this week's class assignment. I'd like to call this one "Icy Stare". That would be my loving husband making a faux grimace in the courtyard of our apartment complex. He had been working outside for a couple hours in the cold. When I asked him to pose for a quick portrait, he jokingly flashed this expression at me. Made me giggle more than his true smiling shots (boring). Thanks for the humor, Chad!

Image captured handheld 1/30/10, 12:50pm • Canon 5D, Canon EF28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM • 180mm, f/5.0, 1/80 sec , ISO 50 • minor adjustments made in Adobe Camera Raw