Frustrated, but learning…

I have been working this year on photographing people. My friends and family are kind enough to let me give it a whirl. I am not sure if this will ever be a profession, but I love giving them this gift.

About a week ago I did my first maternity / family portrait session. We went in the morning (not early enough) to a park called Burke Town Hall Park. There is a cute bridge, trees, walking path and some water. We brought the grandparents as reinforcements for their first son, who is almost 2. I had all my gear and a cheat sheet of poses. I was all set…almost.

Last minute I decided to put on a UV filter I had purchased a year or so before, but never tried. That was my BIG mistake! I am a perfectionist and anything less than I know I am capable of drives me crazy. I was raised to give everything 110% with no IF’s, ANDs or BUTs.

So this UV filter was nice enough, i thought…apparently not quite. For a forty some dollar filter I should have saved my money and waited until I could get an exceptional one. This filter made literally ALL of my images soft. These pictures could have been great! GREAT!! Now they are only mediocre…but I have learned.

To make matters worse – I forgot about the filter a couple days later when I was taking some practice dance portraits of my daughter before her dress rehersal. ALL of these images came out soft too. She is cute and I love the memories, but it kills me.

When I finally looked at both sets of images I was crushed. My heart sank and tears ran down my cheeks. I no that it doesn’t really matter; however, it matters to me. I tried so hard and missed the mark. I panicked trying to figure out went wrong. It wasn’t until the next day when I realized the only thing I had done different with both shoots was the filter. I immediately took the filter off and did a few test shots – sharp and crystal clear. This was a relief and frustrating. I just cannot believe I did that.

Here are some of my favorite images.

I love him reaching up to her belly!

These two were the sharpest of the bunch.

Ballet

Hip Hop

Jazz