WPPI is coming soon,
and that means the THIRST RELIEF auctions are here!


Every year, great photographers donate their time (& a LOT of goodies) for "mentoring sessions."
These mentoring sessions are put up for auction, and all of the proceeds go to Thirst Relief.
CHECK OUT THE SITE to see how a little bit of money can make a HUGE difference in the world!

I'm honored (and feel a little out of place) to be part of the mentoring auctions again this year.
So many of my "grown-up heros" are on the list:
Kevin Kubota
La Cour
Nate + Jaclyn Kaiser (The Image is Found)
Brian & Mera
and so so so many more!!

CLICK HERE TO BID!!!

If you'd like to bid on a mentoring session with me, AWESOME!
The winner of my auction will get a 90-minute mentoring session with me
(over a Chipotle lunch, if you're a Chipotle-aholic like me).
We can have lunch in Vegas if you're going to WPPI,
or we can meet here in San Diego.
We can talk about whatever you want...
Portfolio review, shooting techniques, software, marketing, websites, anything!

BUT HERE'S THE BEST PART...
I've rallied my favorite vendors and gotten them to donate GREAT STUFF for the winner!
The winner will also get:

A new small yellow Jill-e bag, just like mine, shipped to you.
That's a $140+ value!



A 24in x 36in gallery wrapped canvas from Mpix, shipping included.
That's a big freakin' canvas!!! Choose any pic you want! That's a $170+ value!



A mounted 24x30 Innova Fine Art Print from Pixel2Canvas, shipping included.
Choose any pic you want! That's a $100+ value!
This paper is velvety soft & your image will look scrumptious!


The generosity of these companies stunned me to silence.
When Thirst Relief asked me if I wanted to join the mentoring auctions,
I sent emails to Mpix, Jill-e, and Pixel2Canvas asking if they wanted to pitch in
any prizes for the winner. I was hoping they'd toss in a few little things,
BUT WOW!! THEY BLEW ME AWAY!! Those prizes are FABULOUS!!

CLICK HERE TO BID!!!

The auctions end on SUNDAY NIGHT!

...a note on sniping...
Sometimes eBayers try to bid during the very last minutes to "snipe" other bidders.
They're outbidding other folks and leaving little or no time for the other folks to bid more.
This is usually done to save money, which I totally understand,
but in this case, let's try to keep the snipers away and just bid what you're willing to pay.
This is for charity, and sniping (trying to keep others from outbidding you)
will mean that Thirst Relief will not benefit as much as they could have.
...ok, I'm hopping off my soapbox now...

Happy Bidding!!

~Carey

Some photographers love cloudy skies.
The light is soft, and there are no shadows.

Other photographers, like me, adore bright clear sunny skies.
It can make shooting a little more tricky because harsh shadows & squinting
can really screw up a potentially great picture.
But I say BRING IT ON!!! (and remind me to put on my sunscreen!)

For some reason, I have a harder time under cloudy skies.
Don't get me wrong, I really like shooting under clouds, too,
but if I got to play God and choose, I'd order up a cloudless sky for a beach session!

I got my wish yesterday in La Jolla, and I had a blast jumping, splashing,
and having a great time with this adorable Canadian family.

Big Bro Ethan was a star pupil during my splashing lessons,
and he quickly went off making his own perfect solo splashes:


We went for an ensemble splash, too, but Ethan still stole the show:


Here's a closer view of Ethan's mad skillz:


Little Bro Riley found his niche, too, WAY UP HIGH!

(I have a new favorite "flying kid" picture now! Check out that belly& smile!)

I really loved this angle & how it shows the daddy/son relastionship
without showing any faces:


And here's the final shot from the session, the "Sandy High Five."
Ethan would coat his hand with sand and give mom a super dooper slappy high five:


Enjoy!
~Carey

Sunday was the first myFUNcamera workshop for 2009.

We spent the first hour or so talking all about camera settings,
working with all of our cameras and leaning how to use those settings
that USED TO BE so intimidating -- not any more!

Two of the topics were f-stop and ISO.
The f-stop (or aperture) is how big or small the lens opens up to take the picture.
When you lower your f-stop #, you let more light in, and you'll also get more background blur.
When you lower your ISO, the camera doesn't suck up as much light.
If you raise your ISO, your camera will suck up more light like a sponge,
which is great for indoor pictures or very cloudy days, but not good for sunny skies
with a low f-stop #.

I had everyone practice with their cameras to see what happens
when you change those settings. Look at what Mandy discovered:

Setting the camera to ISO 100 using f/2.8 worked really well.
(we were working in Av mode, letting the camera choose the shutter speed)


Then Mandy raised the ISO to 1250, keeping the camera at f/2.8.
Raising the ISO was telling the camera to absorb much more light,
but she had that low f#, letting in a TON of light, so the picture gets
really washed out with TOO MUCH light:


To fix that, she could go back to ISO 100 and f/2.8,
but if she doesn't want the blur that comes along with f/2.8,
she could raise that f/# to shrink the lens opening,
letting less light onto her ISO 1250 "light sponge" setting.
Here's what happened when she went up to f/22:


If she had used f/22 at ISO 100, she wouldn't have that ISO 1250 "light sponge" any more,
so the camera would choose a much slower shutter speed to get the light it needs.
That may be OK, but she could end up with motion blur.
Using that ISO 1250 "light sponge" lets her get the light she needs at f/22 with a quick shutter,
even though f/22 lets in very little light.

After our lesson & all that button-pushing, we headed off to the beach
to practice practice practice and learn more about the settings I like to use
when I'm taking pictures at the beach.

The day was GORGEOUS! There were big white puffy clouds,
which gave us the added bonus of being able to take pictures in
FULL SUN and in CLOUDY conditions during the same class.
I couldn't have asked for a better sky for teaching everyone what to do in different situations!

The sun would come out, and we'd work on how to shoot in full sun.
Then a few minutes later, clouds would hide the sun, and POOF -- the light TOTALLY changed.
We could look at what happened with the light and how to adjust
in order to get great pictures under a cloudy sky.

Katie & Aaron brought their adorable son, James, to model for us.


Here's a shot that Mandy got during "tossing" practice:


Here are some shots of Katie & James when we were practicing really looking at the LIGHT.
The sun was hidden behind clouds for these pictures,
so choosing the right shooting angle was really important,
even though you wouldn't think it would make a big difference:



And, of course, we practiced the "sandy feet" picture:


Roxanne brought 3 models, too!
We got to practice with her two kids
and her gorgeous "neice" (her best friend's daughter) Marney:



After exhausting ourselves at the beach,
we headed to Chipotle for a yumee lunch and plenty of fun chit-chat.
The day was really fun! I love these mornings!

If you're on the fence about coming to the February 21st workshop,
there are just a few spots left.
You can get info HERE.

Rock on!!
~Carey

The next myFUNcamera workshop is open for reservations!

Cost: $250 for the workshop & Chipotle lunch

The date will be Saturday, February 21st.
FYI: February can be rainy, so if there's more than a 30% chance of rain on 2/21,
the workshop will be moved to 2/28.

These workshops are a lot of fun for moms & dads who want to learn
how to take better pictures of your kids.

If you've got an SLR camera but can't get up the courage to use anything but "FULL AUTO,"
this workshop is for you.

If you already understand crop factors, ISO, f-stop, shooting in manual, metering modes,
this workshop may be boring for you, or you could consider it a beach-side refresher course!

There are only 6 spots because I like to keep the class size SMALL.

HERE IS THE LINK TO GET A SPOT!

Also, in addition to working on my 2008 Q4 sales tax this week (groan),
I've been working on the MyFUNCamera website!
The community forum was constantly under hacker attack and it got wiped out last year.
I'm working hard on restructuring the whole site to include lots of tips & lessons
with a community feel, too! Stay tuned!

~Carey

Yesterday I promised an Mpix discount code,
and here it is!



THIS CODE IS GOOD THROUGH FRIDAY ONLY.
You can only use it one time.

The code is: Macworld09

Get your order in before the weekend and get your free shipping!