CedarBough's photography and more of my thoughts

In August, my friend CedarBough Saeji was kind enough to come all the way to Uijeongbu to do a photo shoot of Grace. Well, I ended up in more shots that I thought I would due to Grace wanting to jump in the river and climb massive and incredibly dangerous stairs. The pictures turned out fantastic. I couldn't be happier. The only thing I regret is that I look so bad. My hair gets ridiculously frizzy in humid weather and I was suffering from insomnia at the time. I look horrible. Anyway, the focus is on Grace and the she looks so cute. Here are few of my faves. By the way, she's wearing Flora Dress, which I knitted. I think it was perfect for the photos.






She can be reached at cedarbough AT gmail DOT com. I'm not sure if she's into doing more family photos or not, but she can let you know.

I think I mentioned this before, but seeing her do this shoot also inspired me to learn more about photography. She's given me so much valuable advice which I'm thankful for. Also, I've been on flickr nearly every night, poking around in groups and photostreams, finding photos I like and don't like. I'm addicted to looking at the exif info on good photos to see what settings the photographer used. The Seoul Photo Club group has been extremely helpful to me. I've posted questions and received great detailed answers from experienced photographers.

One thing I've seen on flickr that I'm very surprised about is that there are an awful lot of "professional" photographers, like wedding photographers and child portrait photographers that are not very good at all. I've been amazed to see all the poor wedding photos that some photographers post...photos full of shadows, distracting backgrounds, underexposed photos, overexposed photos, etc. I'm definitely not the best critic, but I have to say that if some of those photographers shot my wedding, I'd be pretty upset. It seems to me that some people jump into professional photography too soon, or they get a big head because someone asks them to take photos.

Another thing of great interest to me these days is flash photography. I never thought I would say that. The built-in flash on point-and-shoot cameras is awful, but the on-board flash on DSLRs is much better, and better still are speedlights that can be used on or off camera. I have a cheapie Yongnuo flash right now. I'm looking forward to playing with it and I would eventually like to try to use it off camera. I've been reading strobist.com here and there, and I'm going to try to go to a lighting seminar by the Seoul Photo Club next week. Since I'm such a newbie, I'll probably just watch and take notes. It should be interesting.

It's so exciting to start a new hobby, especially one that will give you long lasting memories like great photos. My camera is still not here. It will arrive tomorrow. As of now I have a lens, a flash, a bag, and other random things, but no body!