Week 5

Week 5 is all about custom camera settings (ie custom white balance, picture styles etc). We also had our first critique. Here are some of the pics I submitted:

 And just to illustrate the benefits of a custom white balance, this next photo was taken using the camera's tungsten white balance to compensate for the poor lighting. It doesn't look too bad.

 

However, when you compare it to the next photo that was a custom white balance using a gray card in the poor lighting, you can see how bright white the puppy's fur is. Custom white balances are quite simple to do and make an incredible difference in your photos.

We've been blogged!

My very talented photographer friend Catherine and I did an exchange of services... I designed her photography company logo and collateral and in exchange we received a family photo shoot. You can view the photos at her blog!

She was very patient with our crazy kids who don't really stay still very long and actually got a couple of Craig and I where we don't look dorky. That in itself is no small feat!

Week 4

Focus and Exposure Compensation... I was so excited to find out about focusing points. It makes taking a clear picture so much easier. Here's the image I submitting for the creative focus part of Week 4's assignment.

We also learned about manual focusing (setting the ISO, the aperture and the shutter speed) in order to get a properly exposed photo. Here's my favourite shot of the manual portion of the assignment.

I was able to get the shine on Shay's individual hairs but also have captured the texture on the blanket. I had to take a bunch of test shots to make sure my shutter speed and aperture were set correctly to get the effect I was looking for... no small feat for someone who has never shot in manual before!

We also learned about Exposure Compensation (which you can do while in Aperture Priority mode). We took a picture and compared the photo on the LCD on the back of the camera to the actual subject we were shooting and then lightened/darkened to get the most accurate representation of what we were shooting. The first image is straight out of the camera. You can see Cordelia's fur is a bit blown out and although the light is coming in from behind her, her face is still pretty light. In the second photo, I adjusted the Exposure Compensation to darken the photo 2/3 of a stop which more accurately represented the lighting.

I wish Cordelia had stayed put in the 2nd photo. I like how her ear was spread out on the floor in the first photo. Ah well, these are just being critiqued for Exposure Compensation not composition.

Week 3

Depth of Focus. Those three words have been floating through my head as I tried to wrap my brain around all the information I needed to absorb for the Week 3 lesson.

This was one of the options I submitted. The background nice and soft with a subtle bokeh (and yes, I now know what that means!!) and the foreground soft up the boot but then in focus on the boot. And I love the colours.

Then we were to shoot something creative. This was my submission.

Finally, because I'm a geek, I uploaded this one to the picture of the day gallery because it makes me laugh. My boys love that I used their Star Wars toys. Much learning yet to do have I.

Award Winning...

It's official. MACU, the Marketing Association for Credit Unions, chose our entries to receive 2011 Achievement in Marketing Excellence (AIME) awards in the annual report and newsletter categories. This was a team effort with the whole Marketing department being involved with writing and proofreading. I feel very free here at Mennonite Savings and Credit Union to come up with designs I think will work and have the support of the Marketing department to create these designs. A big shout out to Waterloo Printing who took care of printing these pieces.

The first couple of pics are of our 2010 Annual Report. I added a cool blind emboss with our Value words across the cover (which was a new paper from Mohawk in their Carnival line; the texture is fun!). Inside, full page photos carried over to the next page creating seamless spreads. Most of the images in the annual report were pictures I photographed. One other small detail which made a huge impact on the overall design was the extra flap at the back of the report which allowed me to list all of our board members, council of members and slate of nominees in one location. Seems like a little thing but it made a huge difference.

 

 

SHARE magazine was launched in 2010 to give new members to our credit union an overall view of our organization from it's roots to what we believe in and highlighted throughout the magazine are stories from members sharing their experiences with our credit union. This magazine has become a tool for our staff to have conversations with people interested in our credit union.