This year lace, cut-out designs, high-low dresses and skirts, and corset tops are in fashion. Here are a few samples of what I have put together for you.  I hope you like them!

I am so excited for my model sessions down in Capitola, Santa Cruz, and Monterey next month. If you want a taste of what it will be like at the 2014 Seniors Ignite Event, here is a video for you to check out. If you are interested in joining us in May for the model shoots, don’t forget to call asap to get your name on the list. 510-495-5429

Hi Everyone, I have entered an image in a competition with Seniors Ignite and would appreciate your vote. Just go to this page and vote for my image. Thanks!!

https://www.tabsite.com/contest_share.php?appid=317355118338012&aid=384801&tid=170075&spid=0&eid=40088

2014 Seniors you can be a NATIONAL Seniors Ignite Model!!

When you have your senior portraits done at Cindy Cerda Photography, one of the exclusive participating Seniors Ignite studios, you can choose to have your images entered into the national Seniors Ignite Model Competition. As a Seniors Ignite model entrant you will be featured on this site, as well as the Seniors Ignite Models website www.seniorsignitemodels.com.

National Seniors Ignite model winners across the US will receive a model portfolio and a trip to model at the 2014 Seniors Ignite event where they will showcase upcoming fashion trends and model for some of the most talented senior portrait photographers in the world at some of the most beautiful locations you can imagine.

Look where the 2014 Seniors Ignite Event will take place. Can’t you just see yourself as one of the winners, enjoying this fabulous resort. You can’t be one of the winners if you don’t enter. The model session is free, so don’t wait. Model sessions will take place in May 2013, so book your session today.

Happy New Year! What better time to start this new blog than at the very beginning of the New Year. Let me begin by saying that I started out in photography as a film photographer. Yes a long time ago. Although an SLR (Single-Lens Reflex) and a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) Camera are similar in some ways in others they are very different, it was like starting over. I am not going to go into the technical difference, you can find that information by searching the internet.

What I will be covering in my blog, will be information on your camera functions, some tips on what to do when you first get a DSLR Camera, what not to do when using your camera, and some of the accessories you may want to pick up as you get more serious about your photography. I will also share some of my photographs along the way.

Let’s begin! First and foremost when you get a new camera, READ THE MANUAL, the whole manual. This will save you a lot of headaches later. If you are like I was when I first got my new camera, starting out, I only looked up the stuff I wanted to know at the moment. If I had a problem, I looked it up, if I didn’t know what something was, I looked it up, if I wanted to take a certain type of photography, I looked it up. I could have saved myself a whole lot of extra work if I would have just started out by taking the time to read my camera manual, instead of trying to take the fast track, which really wasn’t the fast track at all. If you read your manual with your camera close at hand, you can see what the different buttons, functions, etc. are while you read. If you want to put the manual down for a few minutes to test out what you’ve learned, fine, but don’t stop there keep on reading. This is a mistake many people make, including myself. By not reading my manual and trying to jump ahead I actually ended up taking terrible photographs, because I really didn’t know what I was doing or how to operate my camera. So if you take anything away from reading this today, please, please, please, take this tip! READ THE MANUAL!!!!

I made a lot of mistakes when I first started taking photographs, which I will be sharing with you along the way.

The first one is that I took photographs in the Programmed mode or Auto mode, just like you would with a Point and Shoot Camera. By doing this I didn’t have any control over how my photographs turned out, the camera did. It is programmed to adjust for basic settings. Isn’t this the reason I bought a SLR (at the time) instead of a Point and Shoot Camera, because I wanted to experiment and be in control of what my camera could do? However, you can’t take good photographs using any other mode unless you know what you are doing and how all the functions of the camera work and know what all the little buttons are for and how they affect the final image. So having said this, you will need to read your manual first before you can really start using any other mode effectively.

Many photographers prefer to use the Aperture or Shutter Mode when shooting, these are considered semi-automatic modes. In Aperture Mode you control the aperture setting, which is the setting that admits and controls light and depth of field. The camera controls the Shutter Speed when in Aperture Mode. Be familiar with the words Aperture and Shutter Speed, as you will hear them often when speaking to someone about photography. Photographers use the word f/stops which is the Aperture settings. You will see these numbers in the digital display on your camera preceded by an F, such as 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and 16. Some cameras will have numbers higher than 16. Aperture settings were very confusing to me when I started out, because the lower the f/stop number the more exposure, and the higher the f/stop number less exposure. Which also meant that the lower f/stop number had less depth of field and the higher f/stop numbers let you see more background. To me this was confusing because it seemed like the lower f/stop would allow less light and the higher f/stop would allow more light, but this is not how the f/stop works. The smaller f/stop number means a larger lens opening, allowing more light and vice versa. In Shutter Speed Mode, you control the Shutter Speed and the camera controls the Aperture. The Shutter Speed is how long the shutter stays open while taking a photograph. The Shutter Speed controls your exposure and the affect of motion. This is a little less confusing.  Shutter Speeds are measured by seconds. On your camera digital display you will see numbers ranging from minus 50 (anything below 1) up to 8000 or higher. Anything above 1 second is measured 1:1 with the amount of light entering the camera. So if you have your shutter speed at 125, it is actual 1/125. The lower the number the slower the Shutter Speed, which means more light is allowed into the camera. When you have a low or slow shutter speed you will need a tripod for your camera. The higher the number the faster the Shutter Speed, which means less light enters the camera. If you want to get that soft feeling that you see sometimes in photographs of water in a stream, you need to slow down your shutter speed, by using a lower number, this will blur the movement. To stop action so that it is sharp and nothing is blurry, such as an athlete, you would speed up your shutter speed, by using a higher number. Aperture and Shutter Speed need to balance each other so that your photograph comes out perfect. Once I understood this it all seemed to click.

But wait, we can’t stop there without talking about ISO (International Standards Organization), don’t worry about remembering what ISO stands for, just remember ISO. ISO refers to the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the ISO number, such as 100, the less sensitive your camera is to light (bright sunlight) and the grain in the picture is finer. Higher ISO numbers, such as 2000, are used when you are in a dark setting and you need to get a faster shutter speed because of the low lighting (inside a low lit building or a night), with higher ISO the photograph becomes grainy. In low light situations you normally will need to have your camera on a tripod because your Shutter Speed will be low and holding your camera by hand may cause blur.

Okay so we have covered some important information today, but before I sign off let me leave you with one more little piece of advice or a tip if you will. Each time you pick up your camera to use it, check  your settings to make sure they are appropriate for what you plan on photographing. If even one of your settings is off, it will affect the final outcome of your images and sometimes, you don’t get a second chance to take a photograph over again.

So in closing, READ YOUR CAMERA MANUAL, check your camera settings before each use, and practice, practice, practice, your photography.

Have a great week!

Next week I will have some new tips, so check back. Until then, if you have questions or want to share a photograph, please feel free to send me a note.