About Naomi Figueroa Photography

Traveling. Farmer‘s markets. Changing of seasons. Latin America. Cooking. The color blue (definitely not pink). Maine. Fresh fruits and veggies. Photography. Big dogs (if you‘re going to be a dog, be a DOG). Writing. The smell of pine trees. Jesus. Teenagers. Speaking Spanish (or trying, at least). Learning. Fair trade coffee. Dancing salsa with my husband. Nature. Family.

Just a few snippets of my life, but it all comes out in my photography because it is part of who I am. The why of everything I do is to bring glory to God. He is the ultimate Creative and the reason that we have this wonderful gift of being able to create, whether our medium is art or language or technology or music.

I‘m so glad you stopped by my blogsite. I hope you‘ll enjoy exploring a bit. Leave some love in the comments, or send me a note on the contact page! :D

Archive: ‘Photo Tips--Challenges’



Favorites

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

As a little random post, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite blogs and websites for learning. I love the photogs out there who are willing to teach and share so that others can learn, and so I thought I’d pass a few of them along to you. I’m always an open book as well and willing to teach with whatever knowledge I’ve gleaned thus far in my learning journey. :)

Jasmine Star–What can I say about Jasmine? She has the biggest heart and loves to share and teach whatever she can. She’s kind of a big deal in the wedding industry, yet she takes time to answer questions from readers, meet and greet after a speaking engagement, and continually give back to other photographers.

Melissa Jill–I just recently came across Melissa’s blog, and the other day I was just poring over her posts for photographers. Lots of great stuff! She has a whole series on flash (in the context of wedding photography), so I’ve been learning a ton.

RGBeki–Beki is a photographer friend of mine who started this wonderful blog solely dedicated to teaching on different photography topics. She doesn’t claim to know it all, but she willingly shares all that she does. [But I'll vouch that she knows a whole lot!] She has quite a variety of topics and resources, so I definitely recommend checking it out.

Digital Photography School–DPS has quite a lot of different articles and topics, as well as an active forum. This is a great site if you’re just starting out with photography, or even if you’ve been going at it for some time. The forum is extensive, and I’ve enjoyed getting feedback, advice, and sharing thoughts with other photographers.

Jamie Delaine–Oh, I just love reading Jamie’s blog. Her writing is fresh and from her heart, and I just totally dig her style. She has a beautiful spirit, and her words are encouraging, uplifting, and inspiring.

In Focus–One of my deep loves is travel photography and photojournalism. This site is where it’s at. It completely captivated me with its coverage of the earthquakes and aftermath in Japan. I was drawn into the stories and the lives of the people of Japan through these heartbreaking and breathtaking photographs. Photos that tell stories of humans around the world are the ones that just leave me speechless with their beauty.

Strobist–If you’re wanting to dig into the topic of flash photography, this is where it’s at. Anywhere and everywhere you go, you’ll see people recommending this blog. You can start with Lighting 101 and Lighting 102…those sections are quite hefty and ones I still need to get all the way through.

SLR Lounge–This is quite a wonderful site on a variety of things, but particularly if you’re looking to learn anything and everything about Lightroom. They have dozens of fantastic tutorial videos on working in LR, and I’m still working my way through them. Definitely a useful resource!

I hope you found at least 1 site that you’ll find useful or enjoyable! Happy Weekend!

Photo Challenge: Shooting Manually 2

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

So…these aren’t the most amazing, intriguing, stunning shots I’ve ever taken. BUT, they meet the requirements of my challenge to myself to take shots in manual mode in an effort to learn about light. What I’ve learned so far is that the images don’t look as bright once I get them onto my computer. I find myself bumping the exposure up on almost all of them, maybe about a half a stop. A little tidbit to keep in my back pocket.

I promise, dear internet readers, to have some photos of actual PEOPLE up very soon! I do consider photos of animals to be portraits, too…but there’s something a little more satisfying about calling photos “portraits” when they are actually of human beings.

The exposure was f/5.6 and 1/50, ISO 200. Shot around 4:00 PM in the winter (sunset time 5:00). The sun was beginning to dip below the tree line. In the edit, I bumped the exposure up a little over half a stop, warmed the white balance up slightly, and bumped the contrast and clarity up.

The exposure was f/3.2 and 1/250, ISO 200. Same time as above. I couldn’t help myself on this edit! It was just calling out for more contrast in B&W! I didn’t change it to grayscale, but I took the vibrance all the way down, then I played with the highlights, darks, and shadows. I also bumped up the exposure, contrast, and clarity.

Exposure was f/8 and 1/80, ISO 200. And this one is straight out of camera, aside from a small boost in clarity! Love it!

Photo Challenge: Shooting Manually 1

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

In my last post I reflected on 2009 and told you about some of my goals for 2010. One of those goals is a challenge for myself to understand light and exposure more by intentionally shooting a subject each week–in manual mode.

Ahh, the elusive M on my camera dial. I’m diving in head first, and today I took some shots of our cat Quincy. I’m quite sure you’ll see many more photos of him, as well as our dog, as they are always cute and always willing! So today I took 23 photos of Quincy, which I narrowed down to about 5 and chose two of my favorites to show you. Both shots were slightly underexposed, so I have the before and after here. My goal is to get to a point where I don’t have to play with the exposure in editing, but here’s what I’ve got for now!

3Quincy-016The exposure was f/2.8 and 1/640, ISO 400, window light at around 3:30 PM in the winter. I bumped the exposure up a little over 1/2 stop.

3Quincy-003This exposure was originally f/2.0 and 1/50, ISO 400, inside about 6-8 feet from window light, around 3:30 PM on a winter afternoon. I also bumped this exposure up a little over 1/2 stop.

That’s all for now! Stop back again soon for some of my Christmas vacation shots!

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