Smiling Faces

So aside from being insanely jealous of Sere, I'm enjoying my weekend with friends and family. This gorgeous girl is Jamison, a friend of mine's daughter. I haven't seen Jamison is ages and she's grown SO much! The good news is that she is still one of the most smiley and joyful kiddos I've ever met. I just want to eat her up! When I asked her if I could take her picture she immediately started posing and giving the best smiles.

Canon 30D
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter 1/60
ISO 1600
Incandescent light

We were at a surprise party for a mutual friend and the lighting was typical of indoor night time lighting. As such, I needed to use 1600 ISO speed, which is something Brandi will do much better than I with her fancy pants new camera. But as is often the case, getting a so so picture is better than not getting a picture at all.

So what are y'all doing this weekend? Make it a good one!

Scott

Friday Faces with Sere

You all received a double-dose of 3C1D yesterday, you lucky people! So today hopefully we will get back on track, but first some 3C1D business to take care of. Our WW winner from last week is BigDan. Congratulations BigDan who is our local city of Chicago photographer. BigDan if you are okay with it we would love for you to post on Sunday. Please send an email to 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com and let us know if that will work.

Now back to my post for the day. I LOVE to photograph animals so our Friday Face for today is a big aquatic cutie! Gotta love dolphins.


Nikon D90
ISO-200
Aperture F/6.3
Shutter 1/800 sec.
18-200mm at 42mm
Natural Lighting

My family and I were able to go and see a dolphin show the other day. My son was able to "wade with the dolphins" for the first time. He thought that was pretty cool. Like mother, like son, I've swam with the dolphins a couple of times in my life.

It actually started to pour down rain while we were there, but we waited it out. The temperature just dropped about twenty degrees, but the shows just kept going on. So this picture was taken after the downpour while the skies were still cloudy. It gave me some nice, natural lighting on the dolphin. I adore dolphins so these shots were a lot of fun for me to take. Exotic animals is my connection to the post from yesterday.

I believe our dude is up for tomorrow to help get us back on schedule.
Sere

Gator Bites

Okay so Brandi's post from yesterday was all about new cool toys. My post is going to be all about new experiences. Things that you have not done before or experienced. So enjoy!



Nikon D90
ISO-200
Aperture F/6.3
Shutter 1/320 sec.
18-200 mm at 150mm
Natural Lighting

I am all about new experiences in life. In fact I get thoroughly bored if I don't get try new experiences in my life. This was one of those experiences. My family and I had taken an airboat tour through the Everglades and this lovely girl (at least our guide said she was a girl) decided to swim on up to us and check us out. Now folks this was not some gator in a zoo or aquarium, this was a real live wild gator. It was AWESOME!!! The adorable older lady who sat in front of us on the airboat thought she was going to jump right in and join us in the boat. Instead she just kind of hung around checking us out. I literally could have reached out and touched her.

Aftewards we all went out to eat and I tried (for the first time mind you) gator bites. They tasted really good, but I felt kind of bad eating them after seeing this beauty out in the wild.

Enjoy your life experiences!

Sere

Anticipated & Long Awaited

Cannon Rebel XT

1/200

f 10.

28.mm

Natural light

ISO 400

YEAH for Brandi ! & yes, I'm insanely Jealous. However, She will rock it way better than I ever will with any camera! Sincere congrats are in order!

Okay, so one looks at two plain unassuming brown boxes (yesterday's post) and realizes it's not the packages that kicks ass, it's the content. Like little children we can't wait to rip them open and PLAY! It's that Christmas morning frenzy welling up in us.

How do I capture some more of that???

Well, I see it every week day. Three little children/puppies at heart, full of unconditional love and absolute gittiness. Just after the shot below the bounding and rejoicing began. They so patiently wait for the right moment to pounce like a surprise welcome home party.

The huge, bright, flashing, beeping, yellow box on wheels is their "Christmas package" delivered to their doorstep.

I wish I could post the whole series of events for you, But I'm getting spanked, I'm sure, for over posting as it is!

Jay'me

Sexy

There is some very exciting news in the 3C1D family. I finally got some new gear.


The much anticipated (by me) Nikon D300s and the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 lens.

I got it delivered today by FedEx but unfortunately I only got 6 pictures taken today and all of them were taken after dark, inside, and at ISO 3200 (because I can!).
I promise you all you'll be seeing some shots with the new gear soon.

I'm not going to even put in the settings for the photo above. It was taken with my Nikon D40 (which can now be sold if anyone is interested) very quickly in the middle of a very trying day. My tie in to Scott's is toys. Scott's dragon is cute and cuddly and so is my new gear. Rest assured folks, it will be sleeping next to me on it's own pillow.

Squeee!
And I'm realizing it's Wednesday. This is not wordless and I am too darn exhausted to change it. Please forgive me. For those of you that know me personally, thanks for your understanding, patience and love.

xoxox,
Brandi

Crystal Ball

Okay, so blogger just ate my entire post and I'm sufficiently pissed that I'm not going to write it all over. Dammit dammit dammit!!!

Okay, that's done. This picture is a figurine from a series that I used to collect. The crystal held in the tail is my connection. I played a bunch with the depth of field and decided I liked the cystal out of focus best. I hope you enjoy! Thanks again Amanda for joining us!

Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8
Aperture f/6.3
Shutter 1/80
ISO 400
Light tent and 1 hot light

Our Latest WW Winner Amanda!

Tonight we are blessed with one of our best followers Amanda. Take it away Amanda:

I have been reflecting recently on how I edit and "my style" in
photography. I have been noticing darker, more dramatic lighting and
feel. Like with my last guest spot here as a good example. I just
thought that was a pretty interesting side note. Onto the photo. As
I was thinking of how I would link to Brandi's photo, I was thinking
about going with the blue, but I saw this photo on my CF card and knew
it would be what I share. The connection is toys. You wouldn't think
of this castle being a toy, but I would spend hours either using the
castles in my imagination play, or trying to physically play with
them. So now you have a piece of my past to look at. Sorry it's not
a beautiful landscape of San Diego, but I hope to share those on my
blog soon! Thanks again!

Canon Rebel

Aperture f/5.6

Exposure 1/80

ISO 800

Thanks as always for joining us Amanda. Have a great time in San Diego! And to all you readers, check out Amanda's blogs here and here. Thank you and good night!

SuperStar!

Happy Sunday folks! I hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of their weekend. Finding time to refresh, recharge and refocus for the week ahead.
Maybe you should take a nice, long, hot, bubble bath.

Nikon D40 kit lens @ 38mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/80
Aperture f/5.0
natural light

This is one of my daughters bath tub toys. Once upon a time he would spit water like a fountain. The batteries have long since died so my dear sweet child refuses to let him in the tub anymore. I feel kind of bad for the little guy so I gave him some tub time before turning the girl child loose.
There isn't anything extravagant about this photos. I will tell you that I intentionally underexposed the shot in camera so that I wouldn't blow the white highlights. I knew I was going to have to brighten things up manually using Photoshop Elements 8. Making decisions on what post processing you're going to do before shooting is always helpful.
I took a few at proper exposure in camera and sure enough, the highlights were all blown. Glad, I thought things through before hand.

My tie to Jay'me's fantastic gumballs is two fold. One the vibrant colors of Mr. Star. Two, the childlike quality that both photos possess.

Enjoy your beautiful Sunday everyone.
Our fantastic repeat guest poster Amanda will be charming us with something fantastic tomorrow.

xoxox,
Brandi