let the sun shine in...

I love shooting into the sun, it creates such an incredible mood and atmosphere!! It is tricky and I'm still learning. I 2nd shot at a wedding recently and we went to camps bay beach as the sun was setting to do the bride and groom photo's. Cindy and David were fantastic, she had no problems with running in the water and having fun!! they were great to photograph. while shanna was shooting the main photo's I was shooting in the background, getting creative. I got our my favourite lens, canon 70-200 L f4 lens and put my camera on manual and my lens on manual focus and starting playing, pushing and pulling focus, under and over exposing shooting directly into the setting sun. was great fun. These are 3 of the images I got out of it. 

constructive criticism...

I find myself often frustrated with the niceties afforded us photographers by the viewers of our work. I have been looking at many sites and seen many photographers work displayed for all to marvel at, some of it great, some of it poor. I dont believe anyone has a true right to say a photograph is bad!! gosh, how could they??!! We would crall into our darkroom and never emerge!! I do feel however that there is plenty of space to be filled in the area of constructive critisism on photo commentary.

"nice shot", "well captured", "well done", so those looking for the thumbs up on their photography really feel good about themselves and carry on photographing. where is the constructive criticism? we are all learning and learning from each other no matter how experienced or inexperienced we are! I would love to see more comments where people get a little obnoxious! stir the pot a little, throw in your ideas, why dont you like the shot, what would you change? any ideas on how to improve that shot? be real about it, making photograph comments should be less about buttering up the work we see before us and more about commending it and then giving the photographer some direction as to how he or she is able to do it better, or make it more interesting. Even a cliched sunset can look even better and more original and interesting after hearing a few peoples crits and comments. I have found by studying photography and doing a bit of lecturing, a student grows so much faster when people are open and are able to justify why they feel a certain way about their image.

Its tough taking a hit for something you're proud of, but thats how we learn best! if someone smacks your work down just for the sake of it then yeah, stuff them too, but if they justify their comments and after picking your ego off the floor you realise that they may have a point, then good, you have learnt, and your photography will be better off for it. If you want a positive response and the "oh thats nice" comment, then take it to your gran.

the begining of kellandetc blog...dum dum daaa

So, this is the spot where we will post interesting stuff about what we have been up to! road trips, adventures, weddings, photography shoots, etc etc etc....

So for now here are some pictures of us, it was our first anniversary, so Jenna-lea put on her stunnig wedding dress and we got in the car and road tripped and photographed wherever the road took us!!