New lens

When you get a new lens you have to get some practice time in before you photograph paying subjects.  I love this lens for it's great shallow depth of field.  Let me know what you think!

You can see I can set it to be so shallow that the eye on the right of the photo is in focus and the eye on the left isn't.  

And this was the only photo I got of my son without him being silly and sticking his tongue out at me.  He just rolled over after laying on his face on the ottoman.  I can just hear him saying, 'hm?' as he raised his eyebrow. Gotta be fast with this one.  Although I love how his eyes are so crisp and his skin is soft - love that shallow depth of field (f 1.8)! He's only 3 or 4 feet from the cabinets in the background and you can't even tell what they are - makes him really stand out against the background - which is what you want in a portrait.

Again, she is only 4 feet or so away from the stone wall in the background.

This photo session took less than 3 minutes and I really love how it turned out.  

Simple - my kind of photography - my kind of life.

For those of you interested in posing like this - sit on a step - and I had her lean back on her right arm. She is on the North side of the house on the front porch around 3pm. I almost wish I had her turn and lean on her left arm so that it was a little less broad lighting and more shadow on her face -which is more feminine.

And this lens is great for shooting indoors with low light.

And this is my banister railing with some added fall decor.  I'm trying to use things I have had in storage in new ways.  I wrapped this around the pine cone garland that I left up after Christmas and added orange halloween lights for fun after dark.