focal length: 29 mm
shutter speed: 1/1600
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

I shot this at about 4pm on a sunny day. It’s tough to shoot when there is so much sun but I was grateful that it wasn’t high noon. To combat the squinted eyes, blown out highlights and harsh shadows I found that shooting my subject when she was facing away from the sun helped enormously. Although I didn’t have a reflector or flash to throw more light onto her face, the light bouncing off the sidewalk and grass blades seemed to be sufficient. The problem with shooting with no fill light while your subject is facing away from the sun is that to properly expose your subject, you may end up having an overexposed background. For that, I brought back a bit of the grass in post processing by adjusting the saturation and luminance of the greens using Lightroom. So have your subject facing away from the sun. They, for one, will appreciate not having to stare into that fiery ball of light.

Stacy challenged us this week to show her what we want. The answer for me was simple. I want my family to be happy, healthy and surrounded with love.

focal length: 70 mm
shutter speed: 1/2000
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/50
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 320
flash: none

Life isn’t always picture perfect so why should our photographs be? I mainly shoot at home in the hub of the daily routine, play and everything else. It’s no wonder that out of the hundreds of shots I take weekly, I only share a handful of them. So here is one of those shots I would normally keep within the confines of our home because, you know what? This is real. Real isn’t always pretty. Sometimes it’s pretty funny actually.

Sophie found my socks in the clean laundry and insisted she wear them. Then she found a barrette of mine and and insisted I clip it into her hair. Naturally she has to take it off as soon as it goes on. I don’t get it but I sure love it!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/40
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

Maile reminded us that for others to feel comfortable in front of our lens, we also need to feel comfortable opening up to them. I guess, for me, that means I need to understand how they feel when they have a big, black piece of glass in their face. Honestly, I feel much more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it, which is evident in the handful of photos I have of myself. So I dug deep, figuratively and literally, to find one of me. This was the best I could do. It was snap shot my hubby took while we were in the middle of getting ready to go out.

The background was cluttered and I was still wearing my shorts, thus the crop. If you want to see the original (albeit cropped) click here.  I converted it to black and white first to lessen the business in the photo due to having too many colours.  I cloned out some elements in the background and also the bit of waffle that was protruding out of Sophie’s mouth.  Then I added a bit of texture and painted out parts of it that covered the faces using a layer mask.  Added a touch (2%) of uniform, monochromatic noise and voila!  The result isn’t portrait quality but it’s all I’ve got right now.

I really need to get in front of the camera more and remind myself how it feels to be the “target”.

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

Besides the obvious difference between a wide vs a telephoto lens, that being the focal length, what are some other characteristics of the two that set them apart?  Also, what should we keep in mind when deciding which focal length to use when shooting portraits?

For me, I find that understanding magnification, perspective, vignetting and lens distortion allows me to choose the right focal length for my creative purposes.

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Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 50 mm
shutter speed: 1/250
aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 400
flash: none

There’s something about symmetry that lets you break the rules sometimes. I sort of wish I had centered all the lines perfectly top and bottom as well but this was photo is two years old and the door is thousands of miles away on another continent.  This is what I’m stuck with but I’m okay with that. The bright green colour is striking and a bit magical. The black hardware and lock grounds the image while also leading me to wonder what’s behind those ancient doors.

Do you have any photos where you highlight the symmetry in your subject?

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.