I am being featured on GIVE AWAY TODAY:
FRIDAY through SUNDAY
MAY 1-3!

Come check it out! Sometime between Friday May 1st and Sunday May 3rd go to Give Away Today and leave a comment {per their instructions} and ENTER to win a $250 Gift Certificate to
Portraits By Jenn

I am the ONLY photographer being featured from TEXAS.

Jessica

This is Jessica. Jessica works for my friend Rebekah at Beulah's. I REALLY like Jessica and her mom Lynette. We were supposed to shoot this past Sunday, but we got rained out. {Thank you Lord for the rain} So we rescheduled for today, hoping for sunny weather, but if not we would just do "studio" shots. Well we did do some studio, but thankfully it stopped raining long enough for us to take it outside for a bit. We plan on rescheduling our original shoot in Blanco at her grandfather's place just as soon as the weather permits, so you will be seeing more of this girl! My FAVORITE thing about Jessica is that she laughed at all my jokes!! HA HA!! No one ever laughs at me! Thanks for humoring me Jessica {and MOM}.

Hope you enjoy your sneak peeks! See you next week to view the rest.

RAFFLE: Grand Mediterranean Cruise Raffle Tickets ONLY $50 each and only 500 are being sold! 12 day cruise for two in a balcony cabin on the

Buy a RAFFLE TICKET from me
BETWEEN APRIL 28th & MAY 7th
and receive a FREE session and an a set of 4x6 proofs from that session.


Grand Mediterranean Cruise

Raffle Tickets ONLY $50 each and only 500 are being sold!

• 12 day cruise for two in a balcony cabin on the brand new Ruby Princess cruise ship.

• Trip includes: Round-Trip Airfare, transfers from Airport to Ship, and all port charges and taxes.

• This trip has a maximum value of $12,000 (Can be used towards any cruise you want. YOU DO NOT have to go to the Mediterranean) . You do not need to be present to win.

Hill Country Charity Ball – May 9, 2009 at Vista Camps in Ingram.

The Hill Country Charity Ball Association, Inc. was founded in 1985 in honor of baby Charlie Schreiner (January 17, 1980 - January 2, 1981) who died of a congenital heart disorder. Each year, Members of the Board of the HCCBA, Inc. dedicate the proceeds of the annual gala to non-profit organizations seeking to improve the lives of others.

If you are interested in purchasing a raffle ticket(s), please feel free to send me an email or call me on my cell. This trip can be redeemed for a $12,000 travel voucher if you are not able to go on the cruise. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Shooting on Manual and CONTEST #3

For those of you wondering how

This is what I do to get my Manual settings:

1. I think of what I want to accomplish with the picture I am trying to take.

• If I am taking a portrait where I want to isolate my subject from the surroundings, I will pick a low F-stop (1.8 with my 50 mm or 2.8 with my 85mm) that will make my background blurry or out of focus.

• If I am trying to capture a child running, I will choose a fast shutter speed of say 1/400 or 1/500.

• So, first I pick the most important setting to me and build everything else around that. For a portrait I will choose and aperture (F-stop) of about f/2.5 or f/2.8 unless you have more than one subject, then you will go up from there.

2. After that, I will always start with an ISO of 100 because that will give me the greatest clarity and least amount of noise. I will only bump up my ISO if I *HAVE* to.

3. So all I am left with now is my shutter speed.

• I know that with my 50mm lens I can go as low as about 1/125 with a squirming child, but with my 85mm I can't go lower than 1/250 because it is a heavy lens and I will most likely shake the camera. So with either of those lenses I will set my SS to as low as I know I can go.

4. The next step would be to take my meter reading and adjust my settings accordingly, however I am TERRIBLE about doing this. I RARELY take a meter reading....DO NOT THINK this is okay. I would be a much better photographer if I did this EVERY time.

• You can set your camera set to partial metering and meter off a gray card or your subjects skin. Just fill the viewfinder with your subjects skin and you will usually have to overexpose by about a stop unless you are photographing a very dark skinned person. If my meter tells me I am underexposed, I will up my ISO to 200. I can't go lower on my shutter speed because I am already as low as I can go without getting camera shake. I also don't go lower than f/2.5 on my aperture because it takes allot of practice to get both eyes in focus at say f/1.8.

5. Take a test shot and check your histogram for blow outs. For a portrait I like my histogram hill to be far over the the right, but without blowing any highlights.

6. After all that, once I am satisfied with my exposure I will shoot away.

Another thing to remember is you don't have to re-meter for every picture. As long as your subject stays in the same light then ignore your meter jumping around and just snap away. If you move from a sunny area to a shady area or from outside to inside you will need to re-meter and reset your white balance too.

So now I want you to go out and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! It takes a lot of getting used to! There are so many things to think about! You don't have to have any specific lens for this contest. I want you to email me at jennlankford@portraitsbyjenn.com your images.

I will give you until MAY 11, 2009

• Tell me what you are trying to accomplish in your shot {your child running, hitting or catching while playing baseball, a portrait of your child, friend's child, niece or nephew}
• What lens are you using
  
• What ISO did you use
  
• What you set your F-Stop {aperature} at
• What you chose for your shutter speed
• Did you meter?
• Did you take a test shot? If so send me that image and what you did to improve your final shot before you took it

The WINNER of this contest will get a $50 gift card to Target

Trey and Halle

Baby Presley

Give Away Today

I am going to be FEATURED on Give Away Today on MAY 1, 2009!! Thanks to my friend Raimey I have been stalking this blog (See Banner on the side) for a little while now!

Here are the rules for Give Away Today!

1. We will give away a new item each weekday, Monday through Friday. The winner will be chosen using http://www.random.org/.
2. Check back daily to see if you have won the previous day's giveaway (the winner of Friday's product will be announced on Monday morning.)
3. The winner must email giveawaytoday@hotmail.com within 24 hours of being announced the winner or a new winner will be chosen.
4. You must be at least 18 years old to enter to win

They are having a PHOTOGRAPHY DAY and giving away packages for up to $250 from photographers all over. I am the ONLY one from TEXAS so far! Isn't this the COOLEST website EVER!! Anyway I am so excited! I will be on there May 1-3.

You can go to the site EVERY DAY to try and win something! There are some REALLY great products out there!

Inspired by Kelly Moore

So I am a blog stalker! I have been reading Kelly Moore's blog..A LOT.. lately! I just love her! She has challenged everyone to set goals for this summer, so here goes...

1. Read my Bible more
2. Take my kids to Sea World with our season passes
3. Lose about 10-15 lbs
4. Cook dinner most nights and eat as a family
5. Read some more books by Francine Rivers ( I LOVE her)
6. Drink less DR. PEPPER
7. Potty Train Hadleigh and Isaac
8. Eat healthier..more fruits and veggies
9. Take my kids outside EVERY day
10. Go to Colorado to visit Lauren
11. Drink more water
12. Pilates...at least 2 times a week
13. Keep my flowers alive
14. Go dancing at least once a month with my hubby and friends
(we are re-taking our dance class)
15. Keep my house clean so maybe we can sell it
16. Go to bed early
17. Take Isaac and Hadleigh to the park
18. Go swimming
19. Save my pennies so SOMEDAY I can go to a Give Me Moore session :)

VEGAS BABY!!

So last week my hubby took me to Las Vegas for my 30th birthday (which was April 13th)!
I had NEVER been before, and we had a blast! Two of my bestest friends, Lauren and Becky, got to join us along with their hubbies! We stayed at our time share {the wyndham grand desert}, a "country mile" from the strip! One of my favorite things that I got to do was go to the Neon Boneyard where they have all the OLD neon signs that don't work anymore.

I wish I could tell you the history on all of these signs, but to be honest, I didn't even listen. I was too busy taking photos of them and getting some really COOL new textures to use! Hope you enjoy!

This one is for Erik (my husband) who is now addicted to playing Black Jack!

This one above was one of my FAVS. It was actually the old STARDUST sign, but they used the letters to spell out the word TRUST!

This one was actually used on an episode of CSI Las Vegas...which we watch EVERY week! How cool is that?

The funny thing is that Becky and Shane just celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary, so we had to take a pic by this sign.

(Lauren and Jerrod just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary, but they didn't come to the boneyard with us)

Just to preface, I had to sign a waiver saying that I would not "publish" the photos that I took or, you know...sell them Rolling Stone...HAHAHA!!

Senior Boy 2009...Garreth