New post is up at Slice of Lemon!

lets summarize….

do people ask you to photograph things for them?  do you know what to charge them?  (really? are you sure?)

do you feel obligated to photograph things for free?  do you run into awkward situations where you dont know what to charge?

are you wondering how in the world to start up your own photography business (aka… WHAT IN THE WORLD do i charge my friends/clients)?

are you thinking about photographing a wedding without backup equipment? (yi-ikes! i’ll give you the Cliffnotes- DONT DO IT MAN!)

head over to slice and go learn how to VALUE yourself, your work, and your time and family.

Working for Free and Where To Draw The Line

and see all my other photography articles here.

PS- dont forget you can also find me over at www.newlyweds-dish.com where we open up about love, relationships, finances, food/recipes, sex, and what it’s really like being married. I write articles there (non photography related!) and also do video blogs. It’s a great little community of people talking about married life and how to deal with it.

just finished an article about on camera flash, and its up at Slice of Lemon!  if you’re new here, you can also find me at Slice of Lemon every other Tuesday where i’m a contributing editor for photography.  I share quick and easy helpful tips to make your photography so much better, regardless of what level photographer you are.  check it out!

The next article for Slice of Lemon is up!  i’m relaying secrets of how i did the maternity series (advanced photographers, if you’d like detailed description of my settings and post processing, you can email me at lexia@sugarleafphotography.com- but i’m warning it may be a long email…) and how to do your own!

also, tips on how to photograph your own (or someone else’s) pregnancy – even if it’s not in maternity series format!

i’m telling you, this month has been ALL about babies… i dont know what it is!

keep reading here!

So my post is up… the EPIC post on manual settings- over at Slice of Lemon.com seriously you guys, i kind of appologize for the lengthiness of it (6 pages in word!) but it really did need to be said.

I’m so happy to finally have a place that i can send people when they email me those desperate SO-FRUSTRATED-WITH-MY-CAMERA emails hoping for a little bit of help. I was there once as well, and can totally relate. SO, pretty much, if you ever have a question about how to start shooting in manual mode, i’m going to refer you there!  here’s a little taste:

you are SO AWESOME for attempting this, for challenging yourself to be smarter than your camera. Because you ARE smarter, and you CAN make better pictures than it can on automatic.

When you take photographs with your camera in manual mode, what you are essentially doing is balancing three settings on your camera to achieve proper exposure.  That’s it! That’s all you need to do- 3 settings! When we talk about exposure, it is the total amount of light that is allowed to fall on the photographic medium like a negative, a digital sensor, or that old photo paper that we used to dip into chemicals in a dark room.  If there is too much light allowed to fall on that medium, your picture will turn out bright white- we call this overexposed.  If there is not enough light, it will turn out too dark – underexposed.

Making sure your image is properly exposed is the VERY first thing you do before taking a picture. and to make sure it’s exposed, you balance three different settings that give different effects.  Lets talk each one of them first, and then we’ll put them all together to see how they work with each other in different ways.

Here is a little visual that you can refer back to later:

Read the full post over here!

hey guys! dont forget to go check out Slice of Lemon today if you want some helpful photo tips and tricks.  this week’s post is all about indoor lighting FOR FREE!  stellar! i totally love free things- especially when it comes in the form of natural window light!

http://sliceoflemon.com/photos/

And stay tuned… i’m doing a special post next week on manual settings next tuesday for a bonus article.  I usually only post once every two weeks (the next regularly scheduled post would be on tuesday february 8th) but because of some seriously high demand, i’m going to cover manual settings.  This will not be a small post- more of an epic, The Odyssey and the Iliad meets all of Shakespeare’s works type of all inclusive post. I may have to actually insert an intermission. But, I promise to make it understandable to anyone who’s just starting out, or maybe turn the light on for some of you that have been shooting for a while but maybe haven’t actually read your manual (by the way GO READ YOUR MANUAL FIRST! seriously. not joking.)  Then, after that awful,  but totally enlightening post, we’ve got some seriously fun things (can you say… DIY camera bag?) coming up in february!

ps… any ideas on what i should do for hubby for V-day? what are you all getting your man?