sarah dobbins | editorial, commercial, and child & baby photographer | nashville, knoxville, memphis tennessee » editorial, commercial, modeling, and child & baby photography across Tennessee

the blog is getting some adjustments over the next few days (or weeks… hopefully more toward the “days” end!) so if things start looking a little wonky, just know it’ll be fixed soon!

I really don’t mind snow that much. I used to live in Indiana… in fact, that’s where I took drivers’ education and learned how to drive. So lots of my very first driving experiences took place in the snow. Ice, however, is another story. Not a big fan of ice.

Luckily, during this winter storm, we were able to huddle down and stay inside and enjoy all the beautiful frigidness from the delicious warmth of our nicely heated home. We did venture out to sled, of course, and I also wanted to document some of the really pretty effects of the freezing rain.

And because it is Monday, it’s time for another installment of Mailbox Monday.

Today’s question comes from a mom wanting to get more out of her DSLR :

How do I get the blurry backgrounds when I take pictures of my kids?

The main thing you need to get a blurred background is an aperture that goes as wide as possible… and a lot of your kit lenses won’t really give you a super wide aperture. Most of them will open up to about f/3.5 at their widest focal length, but if you zoom in you start to lose some of that. So my recommendation is to go to B&H and get yourself a nifty fifty–a 50mm f/1.8 lens that is ultra light, ultra cheap, and so much fun to learn on.

Shooting at wide apertures is tricky business, however. Your depth of field will decrease with wider apertures, but it will also decrease as your distance to your subject decreases. This may give you a razor-thin plane of focus, and you really have to pay attention and practice, practice, practice to nail your focus.

If all this language totally confused you, find out more about aperture and how your camera works here : The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond takes a fantastic look at aperture settings in this article, and it’s broken down really well.

That’s all for today, folks! I am diving back into my job for the day… the most wonderful time of the year… taxes! I should be surfacing soon!

Since I’m still in the midst of my maternity leave, I thought I’d take advantage of some of the downtime to post some images from the past year that I LOVED, but didn’t get to share with you. I also dusted off the old camera the other day (hello, old friend! remember me?) and hopefully will be shooting more and more as I get back into the swing of things around the holidays and after the first of the year.

Speaking of the first of the year, I have a waiting list for private sessions in the Memphis/Germantown area in January or February. If you would like to be added to the list, please contact me!

These are a mix of private clients and magazine work. I’ll keep posting more over the next several weeks, so hang out here every once in awhile to see something new!

Just looooove me some sleeping babies–does she not have the perfect bow mouth?

These two are from justine magazine–some perfectly gorgeous girls in an incredible setting. But when I look at these images, I think HOT! We were just dripping the sweat.

Inside a beautiful historic home in Germantown:

This little guy was so perfect, I loved every tiny part of him:

I am unloading some of my old equipment, and I decided to put together a great no-brainer starter package for anyone who wants to delve into digital photography but doesn’t really know where to start.

Before I list what’s included, let me say that I shot with this camera body professionally a few years ago, and it is in excellent condition–I have also thrown in two books that will also help you get started. Some of the photos in the books may look kind of stodgy and old-school, but I am a big believer in learning the basics, the boring old basics, and branching out from there with your own style and creativity.

So here’s whatcha get.

-Nikon d70s body, with strap and manual. body has a little over 10,000 actuations.
-battery, charger, and cord
-Nikon 28-80mm kit lens
-4 GB CF card
-cleaning kit and mini-tripod
-hard vanguard shell case–holds everything, and is tough enough to stand on!
-3 filters in carrying case : a protective clear UV filter, a fld filter for converting fluorescent light into daylight (gets rid of that ugly fluorescent look), and a polarizing filter (priceless for outdoor shots)
-2 books : see links below :

the best of family portrait photography

professional secrets of natural light portrait photography

here is a shot to show you what a polarizing filter does… without the filter, the sky would have been very light blue to white and probably mostly blown out. The filter gives you that deep blue sky, as well as reduces glare on water.

here are some equipment shots :

and two images I shot *with the d70s* as I was packing it up to go… just to show you what an awesome body it is! These are pretty much straight out of the camera, no editing in photoshop :

The whole set is packed and ready to go, and you can literally begin shooting as soon as you receive it–I even charged the battery!

All this can be yours for $500. First paid, first served–so email me, fill out my contact form, or leave a comment, and happy shooting!