Jeff Cable Photography Blog - Changes to email subscriptions

If you are a blog reader who goes to this web site and reads my blog, then nothing is changing for you. But if you subscribed to the blog (getting this sent to you as an email or feed) in the past, then things are changing a bit, and hopefully for the better.

Ever since starting this blog back in 2008, I have used the Google Blogger platform, and all email and RSS subscriptions were done using their FeedBurner service. But as of a couple of weeks ago, Google turned the FeedBurner service off. This is why none of you received notification of my last blog post. So I searched for a replacement service, and one that would be even better for the thousands of you who get this sent to your email inbox. 

I found a service called Follow.it and I have high hopes for this new method of providing the content to you in an easy and safe way. 

If you are getting this email, and previously unsubscribed from my blog, I sincerely apologize. You can easily change your preferences with my new Follow.it page. They have a lot more options for delivery of my blog content.

FeedBurner did have a lot of issues, the most frustrating one being that when I wrote a blog post, sometimes the email would go out to subscribers within minutes, and other times it could take more than 30 hours. I am hoping that with the new service, the delivery times will be faster and more consistent.

As you all know, other than when I am blogging from the Olympics, I try to keep the blog posts to once a week (on average). I want to deliver good content to you without spamming your email inbox.

I hate change, but I hope this new service works well for all of us!

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Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
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If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

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Taking portraits of my granddaughter - portrait tips for all of you

Before I give you some tips on taking portraits of toddlers, let's start with the most important question: Am I old enough to be a grandfather? I sure don't feel like it!

But I love having my granddaughter visit any time and getting the chance to photograph her as she grows up. 

When she was 3 months old, it was tough to get good photos of her, since she could not sit up and did not have a whole lot of expressions. Of course, that did not stop me from photographing her. We would just prop her up in a pseudo-sitting position and I would fire away.

It is amazing how much she changes in such a short period of time. This photo was taken only 6 weeks after the previous image and she was now smiling. I put her down on a white backdrop to try and get a passport photo of her. (This image would not work because they do not want smiling and there was too much shadow and they do not allow that.) But I liked seeing that smile.

Last month was the first time that I took care of her on my own for two days. It was all consuming, and I really did not have time to think about photos. But late in the afternoon on the second day, we were out in my backyard and I thought "this would be a great photo moment". I went and grabbed the Canon R3 with the Canon RF 70-200mm lens and a Canon 600EX-RT flash. I was laying down on the grass in front of her, since it is important to be down at their eye level, and I focused on her eyes. I made sure to include her crazy hair in the shot! I turned the flash power down by 1 1/2 stops so that the photo would not look "flashed" but it would add catch light in her eyes. This photo is framed in my house right now.

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter-in-law was back at my house with her precious little girl. And now she is starting to eat solid food, so I had to document that! I grabbed the Canon R6 with the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 lens and started taking photos. The light was not great in the kitchen so once again I added a Canon 600EX-RT flash with a MagMod MagSphere 2 diffuser so add a little more light on her. I waited for her to grab the spoon and look me and bam, captured this. I love the way that the 85mm f/1.2 lens (shooting wide open at f/1.2) removes all the distractions from the image, so we can focus just on her cute face. No, I am not biased at all. :)

Then it was time to try the same camera and lens (no flash this time) outside.

Just like before, I got down low on the grass so that I could photograph her at eye level. I had Emma (her mom) behind me doing funny things to make her laugh. The great thing about the Canon R cameras is that they lock into the eye so perfectly. Normally when shooting at f/1.2 with previous DSLRs, the "take rate" was about 50%, but with the new cameras it is almost 100% sharp on the eyes. I LOVE that!

Uh oh, was she already giving me attitude? 

When going through the images (using Photo Mechanic). Emma and I both agreed that this was our favorite photo. This one will be printed and framed any day now. And yes...I could remove the drool from her chin, but I decided to leave it alone. She is teething and this tells a story.  

Before putting the camera away, I asked Emma if she would get in the shot with my granddaughter. She happily agreed and I got this image. I made sure that they were both at the same distance from me, and I had to change the aperture from f/1.2 to f/2.5 in order to get them both in focus. I made funny sounds and got both of them to smile for this photo. Another keeper.

As many of you predicted, this little one is going to be a great subject for a long time!

 

__________________________________________________________________________

Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

__________________________________________________________________________