Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

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Welcome Them Home

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Welcome Them Home

Welcome Them Home

I’m so excited to be on the blog today you guys! Julie offered to let me use her platform to share with you about my non-profit because we both believe that you guys would totally be into it because THIS IS FOR YOU! Here goes…

My name is Bethany Cox and I am the founder of the non-profit Welcome Them Home. I wrote a little about it on our website but I thought I ould share that here with you as well.

Welcome Them Home is simple.

Welcome Them Home

It is a network of photographers who donate their time and skills to service members and their families as a thank you for the sacrifices that are being made for our country. Each photographer in the network has agreed to photograph your service member’s homecoming, free of charge.

We want to thank YOU for your sacrifices, be it on the home-front or abroad. Our goal is to become a household name for military families so that they know they have the option to have their Homecoming moment photographed, free of charge.

The story behind the non-profit is this: I was riding in the car with my husband and his brother. We were talking about wanting to do more with our lives than just pursue money and happiness, (which are pretty normal and perfectly fine pursuits). We wanted to serve others but in a creative way. I mentioned that it was on my heart to photograph military homecomings for free.

They encouraged me and said that I should do that… but I should do it on a large scale! Yes… I could photograph them, but only in a small area of the country. There are a lot of bases out there and a WHOLE lot of homecomings happening all over. Why not spread the net wide? I came up with the idea to create a network of photographers that would all agree to photograph homecomings for free.

Welcome Them Home

I like the idea of simplicity and I also liked the idea of this thing being able to run itself without me having to have my hands in every single aspect of it. I decided to take myself out of the equation almost completely by simply creating a website where families (you guys!!) can connect with photographers with no middle man, (ie: me). You simply find a photographer that you like in the area where your homecoming will happen and voila!

This was way back in 2012! Since then the network grew so much that I wasn’t able to keep things updated. Recently, I decided to start a fundraiser to help me create a website that would function a lot better for everyone.

Photographers would create accounts and be able to update their locations and details so that you guys could easily find them through a search function. Right now we are on a small break while we raise the money to rebuild the site, but once it’s done, we will be open again for you to use us!!

Welcome Them HomePlease do keep us in mind for your next Family Readiness Group or even for your own homecoming moment. I know that the photographer in the non-profit LOVE being able to do this for you guys, and many of them are military spouses or service members themselves.

If you can donate, please do, but the most important thing that will help us the most is for you to spread the word about what “Welcome Them Home” offers. Hopefully one day, everyone who wants this moment photographed, will know exactly where to look for a photographer.

Welcome Home Website: http://welcomethemhome.org/
Welcome Home Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/WelcomeThemHome/

Simple Guide to Bokeh Photos and Changing Your Depth of Field

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Simple Guide to Bokeh Photos

Simple Guide to Bokeh Photos and Changing Your Depth of Field

One of my most favorite type of photos to take is a bokeh shot.  I love the light, the bokeh circles and how much fun you can have with those types of photos. How the urge to take these photos get me to look for light and find new subjects to take pictures of.

If you don’t know what bokeh is, it is a Japanese word that means, “the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens.” Or in other words, it’s a photo where you have a subject in focus and a background out of focus with good light in the back ground.

Simple Guide to Bokeh Photos and Changing Your Depth of Field

As you can see in this photo, the strawberry flower and leaf is in focus while the background and even the foreground is out of focus. You can see “bokeh” circles in the areas that are not in focus. This is a very popular thing to do to photos. Even Instagram has a feature where you can make part of your photo in focus while the rest is not. You can also add bokeh circles when you are editing your photos.

The great thing about using a DSLR camera is that you can easily do this just by changing your settings.

You will be playing around with the aperture settings. You will want to change your f-stop based on the type of photo you want to make. Larger apertures mean a smaller f-stop number. The smaller the f-stop, the less of your photo will be in focus. If you are planning on taking a photo of a group of people, you would want to use a smaller aperture. You wouldn’t only want one or two people to be in focus. The same goes for a landscape. When I am taking a landscape photos my f-stop is at least at 5.6 or even higher depending what the photo is of.

The larger the aperture, the more light you are letting in, the shallower the depth of field. The smaller the aperture, the less light you are letting in and the wider the depth of field.

I decided to take some photos of my growing strawberry plants to show you the difference. I used my Canon 50D with my Canon 85mm 1.8 lens. It is one of my favorite lenses.

I put my ISO at 100 because it was pretty sunny out. My lens was on 65mm for each of these shots too.

Simple Guide to Bokeh Photos and Changing Your Depth of Field

This first shot has the shallowest depth of field. I shot this with f/2.8 and shutter speed 1/1000. As you can see most of everything is out of focus except for the strawberry in the front. I also made sure the light was in the right spot so that I could get bokeh circles.

Bokeh CirclesThis photo was done at f/4.0 and shutter speed 1/500.

Bokeh photosThis one was taken at f/5.6 and shutter speed 1/250.

 

IMG_0066This one was at f/8.0 and SS 1/125.

bokeh depth of field

And this one is f/11 and 1/60 which is a little slow but it worked because of the light. As you can see there is more in focus in this photo then in any of the others.

When you are trying to decide what to shoot your photo at, you can play around with the settings. You might not like what the photo looks like when you use the largest aperture. This is why practice is so important.

The best thing to do is take your camera out everyday and take pictures of everything. This can be your children’s toys, your children, your plants, your home, etc. You can go on a photo walk or stay around your house. By taking photos every single day you will start to understand how your camera works and what it means to use different settings.

Photography

Bokeh photos

 

If you still haven’t taken your camera off manual, I encourage you to do so. You can do so much more with it and get pictures looking the way that you want. There are a lot of photography books out there to help get you started. One thing you can do is go to the library or a book store and look through what they have. See if anything jumps out at you.  I would recommend starting with Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. He really breaks everything down in a great way!

So now it is time to get out there and start using your camera. It is way too easy to just stay with your phone cameras but there is a whole world out there that is digital photography that you want to explore.

 

* This post does contain affiliate links! 

 

John Shaw’s Guide to Digital Nature Photography Book Review

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digital photography book

*I received a free copy of this book in hope of a review on my blog! This post includes affiliate links!

 

I was given the chance to review, John Shaw’s Guide to Digital Nature Photography. It is such a pretty book all about one of my favorite topics, taking pictures.

From Amazon… “Photography legend John Shaw returns with his much-anticipated guide to digital nature photography, complete with more than 250 extraordinarily beautiful photographs.

For over four decades, John Shaw’s authentic voice and trusted advice has helped photographers achieve impressive shots in the great outdoors. In his first-ever book on digital photography, Shaw provides in-depth advice on everything from equipment and lenses to thorough coverage of digital topics including how to use the histogram. In addition, he offers inspirational and frank insight that goes far beyond the nuts and bolts of photography, explaining that successful photos come from having a vision, practicing, and then acquiring the equipment needed to accomplish the intention. Easily digestible and useful for every type of photographer, and complete with more than 250 jaw-dropping images, John Shaw’s Guide to Digital Nature Photography is the one book you’ll need to beautifully capture the world around you.”

What I really liked about this photography book was all the photos that were included and all the good information he had. I have found that when you are explaining photography you must have a photo to show the reader what you are talking about. It makes it a lot easier to understand. You can also learn a lot about photography based on reading the information about the phone, which he has included.

I am also so glad he included Chapter Six: The Photographer at Work because it shows the reader what he personally uses and what life is really like working in the field. The other chapters are 1) Gear 2) Getting Started 3) Lenses 4) Composition 5) Close-Ups.

Whether you just bought your very first DSLR or you have had one for a while, you can get a lot out of this book. So check it out, it should help you along your photography journey.

 

 

Why You Should Use A DSLR If You Love Taking Pictures

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Why You Should Use A DSLR If You Love Taking Pictures

 

Cameras. I have had many cameras over the years. I remember when I got my first digital one. It was a point and shoot, 2 megapixels. Yay! It was exciting at the time. After having to always take my film into the local drug store, waiting a week and then getting it back, I could see my photos instantly! It changed everything!

In 2008 I was able to get my first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) after months of trying to play around with my point and shoot to get it to do what I wanted it to do. I wanted more control and I got that with the DSLR. I upgraded to a Canon 50D in 2009 and that is what I still use today.

Point and shoot cameras are great. They are lightweight, fit in your pocket, are not as expensive and are just easier to carry around. I think you can still get amazing pictures with a p&s but upgrading can make things easier.

If you are debating your first DSLR purchase, I am going to tell you to go for it. It will be a good thing and this is why:

canon 50d

  • DSLRs with kids make taking their photo much easier. They are faster cameras. You can catch things you can’t catch on a slower camera. With little kids you might only have a few seconds to capture the moment that you want.
  • DSLRs give you control. I would suggest that if you do invest in a DSLR that you also plan to take it off auto and use it manually. It is so nice to be able to use your camera in this way. Auto can be good for certain situations if you are just starting out but learning about f-stops, shutter speeds and what ISO means will really improve the way you look at photography.
  • DSLRS let you use different lenses. If you are ready to buy I suggest that you just buy the body you want and a 50mm 1.8 which you can get for under $100. You can then add to your collection based on your needs. Some lenses are good for close spaces and others are better if you want a bigger range of distance. If you get more into photography you might need different lenses for the pictures you are taking.
  • DSLRs will give you better photos overall. This doesn’t mean you can’t get fantastic photos with your point and shoot, you can, but it is easier to do so with a DSLR. This is nice for when you travel and want your pictures to come out looking nicer than they have in the past.
  • DSLRs are good for bloggers. Everyone knows that blogs have photos. Therefore, if you are a blogger it is nice to be able to take nice pictures to go along with your posts. A DSLR can help you get better photos and help your blogging as a result.

canon photography

Photography is an art that many people can take part in. You don’t have to be a professional. You don’t have to have a business. You just have to decide you want to take that next step and buy a better tool to take those photos with.

As far as what type of camera you should get? I have always loved Canons, others love Nikons. I don’t know that there is that much of a real difference between the two other than brand loyalty. Sony and Olympus also have some great cameras to choose from. I would take some time at a physical store trying out the cameras in your hands to see what is a good fit.

If you are looking for more information on how to take photos or how to make them better you can check out the Clickin Mom forum as it has been really helpful to me over the years. You can read others posts about photography, ask specific questions and get to know other photographers. They also have a lot of workshops and even a magazine. It’s great!

Do you have your eye on an DSLR? What kind?

 

* This post contains affiliate links!

How To Use Flickr

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If you haven’t ever heard of Flickr…here is the site.  www.flickr.com.  It is a photo sharing community.  There are a lot of people over there and a lot of different uses for Flickr.  Some people just use it to store photos they want to share online.  Others use it just for friends and family.  Some professional photographers use it to show their work.  So why do I use it?  I use it to share my work & meet other photographers.

So basically, this is what I do.  This afternoon I uploaded this photo…

How To Use Flickr

Now I need to fill in information about it.  I added the title, “Little Einstein in Egypt.”  Then I added some tags.  I just put in words that I thought had to do with the picture.   Little Einstein, Egypt, bokeh, depth of field, canon50d, canon, Africa, Pyramids, giza, pyramids of giza,

After that I usually put something in the description.  I try to include the location in either the tags and/or description so people know where it is.  It is frustrating to view a photo of a lake and not even know what country it was taken in.  You can also Geo-tag your photos in Flickr too.

Next, I pick some groups I want to send the photo too.  They have groups on so many different topics.  They probably have a group on any photo you could imagine you wanted to upload.  I sent this picture to 3 groups… Egypt, Bokeh Wednesday & Visit the World- The Travel Guide.  Sometimes I send it to more and sometimes just 1 group.  I also tweet it to my Twitter.

I try to get to some of my contacts photos and maybe a few from my groups every day.  I use Darckr to help me with that.  When you view someone’s photo you can mark it as a favorite, comment and even leave a note on the photo.  It is an easy way to interact with others, make new friends and get some photography inspiration.

On the Flickr home page you will also see a link that says Explore.  This is where you can see the most “Interesting” photos for each day.  It is a fun goal to try to get one of your photos in Explore.  It is based on different things.  How many comments you get, how many favorites you get and how quickly you get them.  I have also heard it depends on who is leaving you the comments, how many groups you send it to and the types of groups you send it too.

In almost 2 years I have had 43 photos make it to Explore.  I don’t really try to have them get there but I do get excited when they make it.  I check if any of my pictures made it by going to http://bighugelabs.com/ and using Scout to see if any photos are in Explore.  Photos go in and out of Explore all the time.  Right now I have 7 that are currently there.

So I think I am going to wrap this up.  Flickr can be a lot of fun!  It is a great way to get your photos out there and let others see and comment on them.  If you have any more questions about Flickr, I would be happy to answer them 🙂  Julie’s Flickr Photostream

 

 

Grandma in her Army Wife Days

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1943???

Army Wife From World War 2

This is my Grandma Ruth.  She was an Army wife too although for a shorter time.  But it wasn’t easy.  My grandparents got married and about 6 weeks later he went off to fight in World War 2. He didn’t get to come home for 3 years.  No R&R, no email, no Yahoo.  I just can’t even imagine what that would have been like.  On the back of this photo, there is a stamp that says “Passed by the Army Examiner”  So I can only guess she mailed him this photo while he was gone.

When I was about 13 years old she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease 🙁  She passed away when I was 24.

When I was a little girl I asked Grandma how long she would live.  She told me she would live long enough to see me get married.  I feel like she kept that promise in a way even though she wasn’t physically at the wedding.  She died about 7 months after my wedding.  She also met my husband which was so important to me.  I have no idea if she even knew what was going on when he met her because by that point she really wasn’t there anymore at all.  A part of me believes she could have known deep down that this was the man that was going to marry her Granddaughter and she just couldn’t show any response because of the disease.

She would be turning 90 this year. There are so many things I want to talk to her about. So many questions about being an Army wife during that war that I will never be able to ask.