dari and her entourage

my assignment for my photography class this week was to take a portrait of someone i know using only natural light and shooting in manual mode. my beautiful friend and former roomate, dari, was gracious enough to let me use up a couple of hours of her time this morning to take some shots of her and her entourage, including her horse, smoke, and her puppies, strom (great dane) and sloan (doberman).

like i've heard from reading about taking portraits online, it takes a few minutes for both the photographer and the subject to get warmed up.  that was true this morning, but once we got going, i think we got a few good images!  this spot in front of the barn was the 'money spot' of the day!  it was awesome!

since my 30-day lightroom trial has run out and i haven't purchased the full program yet, i tried editing these in photoshop.  then i decided that i was doing more harm than good, so i scrapped that idea and just posted these straight out of camera.  enjoy!

dari rode smoke in the arena for a little bit. i really loved this photo and i thought i'd also give it a whirl in the vintage finish.  like usual, i think i like the vintage better.

and speaking of vintage, here are three glamour shots that i did in a vintage finish...  her outfit was to. die. for.  

that said... yes, i know the light is far too bright!!  as soon as i put all the photos from the shoot up on my computer, i started thinking about all of the things i would have done differently throughout the morning.  i guess that's why they call it 'practice,' right? 

showing smoke a little love... 

when i was looking at this on the camera screen, i commented that smoke looked a bit like a camel here - LOL.  but i actually really like this shot.  

her is dari with her fur baby, strom.  despite what you might think from his massive size, he really is a sweetie!!

here is the whole johnson clan... andrew, dari, sebastian, strom and sloan.