I have been learning a lot of things lately and want to try to get some of it down on here before I lose it.  I recently photographed a family with several young children.  It seems I am always disappointed with my portrait sessions-- there is just an incredible amount that I need to know/learn.  But, for this one, I learned several things.  One huge one is that the dynamic of the person or group is a big factor in the type of shots you end up with.  Certainly, as I grow in my skills in the mechanics of everything I will relax more into interaction with the people and that will help.  But, there were also several things I had in my mind's eye that I was trying to implement and could NOT because it apparently went against the mood or personality of the group.  That is not in my control- but it is bound to happen.  It's good for me to realize that now and know that certain things just won't look the way I had hoped.  That's all vague I think- but I don't know how to clarify it.

Another learning point is my lens aperture.  I did not get a wide open aperture with a blurred background as I would have hoped.  Even with my new lens.. not good.  With 6 faces, some of them will certainly be on a different plane and if I tried to shoot lower than f4- the faces weren't sharp.  In hindsight, I wonder if the answer is to use more zoom.  When you zoom in, everything in view is compressed.  If I had backed up further, switched to my telephoto lens, shooting at f4- I think the image might have been compressed enough that the background would have blurred.  Speaking of background-- that brings me to my next point.  I also learned that I really think plain backgrounds work best for portrait work.  Scenic views can work- like in the super big family portrait I did, with an arch of trees/orchard in the background.  But, otherwise- nah. It is a distraction from the subject and I think that is what I have been fighting in editing these family photos.  They just don't look appealing to me- one is the light, the other is the background.  I mean, they're ok.  I just want it to be awesome.  It's nothing to WOW at.  In the future, if I have the choice, I will choose a location with a simple background.

Editing- I got a new program that is also made by Adobe.  I was able to use my Teacher ID from homeschooling to get a teacher discount on the product- saved a ton.  Of course I am learning the program but some features in it are just a ton easier to do than in photoshop, yet other things HAVE to be done in photoshop.  But, I am looking forward to this program and the tools it gives me in editing.

The last note on editing is just that I am really behind! haha! Imagine if I was doing this for real! It takes me so long to edit because I am learning and because I am dissatisfied with the overall outcome and not ready to turn it loose to the people when MAYBE I will learn something in the future to make it better! :)  I wish I could send a couple images to a professional photographer and tell them to edit it and send it back just to see how far off I am.  In other words, is my learning gap in the editing primarily or in the composition?
Enough boredom for now.. I will stop.

Last note is that in using this blog for the purpose of sharing and also for accountability to try to have something worthy to share- I think I should set some goals.  I have to think about what is reasonable, because so many things need to come before photography as I prioritize my time- but I would like to set out to share a certain amount of images each week or 2 weeks and set some other learning goals that I have to summarize as I work on them?  I don't know.  Seems like a good direction to keep me moving on in progress in this venture.