This is me on the cover of the Star Tribune in 1989. I dressed up as Rosa Parks for Black History Month. Today we celebrate the birth of one super awesome man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. Start with the right equipment.
At NYU, when Hubby and I were accepted into a study broad program in Australia we knew we had to upgrade our point and shoot in order to capture great pictures of the outback. We knew we wanted a DSLR camera because of the advanced flexibility that comes with a single lens camera. From shooting in manual and controlling to focal point, to changing the shutter speed and changeable lenses, SLR cameras are pretty much awesome. After much research, Hubby settled on a Nikon D40. We bought it at Best Buy during Black Friday 2008. He purchased two lenses, the standard wide angle 18-55mm and a 55-200mm telephoto lens. You can zoom in really nicely with the 200m, and the 18 to 55 is great for capturing wider fields of view. This past Christmas, Hubby added a fixed length 50mm f1.4 portrait lens to the ensemble, and it’s my favorite one. It’s a light-gathering lens and does extremely well with dimly lit natural settings. It has a great depth of field and can take pictures with the really cool bokeh effect without effort. Next on my wish list is a 10-24mm or 10.5mm fisheye lens to photograph scenery and interior rooms.

2. Use Natural Light
The most beautiful lighting comes straight from the sun. If you can, take pictures outside or use natural light. It makes the world of difference. I try to avoid flash like the plague. This means I have to photograph during the day, but not when the sun is so high it cast shadows. This may require some advance planning, but the result is always worth it.

3. White Balance
Ever notice that sometimes your pictures look blue-ish, or yellow-ish or just off? If your camera has a white balance setting, set it to the appropriate type of lighting, whether sunny, cloudy, fluorescent or incandescent lighting.

4. Know the rules of composition.
I have so many hints on composition I could write an entire post dedicated to composition alone but I’ll just recap the my favorite four composition rules: Rule of Thirds, Depth of Field, Using Geometry and Framing.

Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds says that you should position the most important elements in your photo at the points where the lines shown below intersect. Doing so will add balance and interest to your photo.

Depth of Field
Because photography is two-dimensional, depth of field allows you to convey the sense of depth that was present in the actual scene. You can create depth in a photo by including objects in the foreground and background. Depth of field can isolate a subject from its background and foreground (like the blades of grass shown below) or it can put the same subject in context by revealing it’s surrounding with a larger depth of field.

Using Geometry
We are surrounded by symmetry and patterns, both natural and man-made. Natural lines present in your shot composition, can enhance the sense of depth and perspective tin your picture. By paying attention to these lines, you can use them to your advantage to draw attention to the focal point of the shot. Emphasizing and highlighting these patterns, lines and symmetry has the power to draw the eye to key focal points in a shot and to impact the feelings the picture can invoke.

Framing
Framing is when you use an object to create a border around your subject. The world is full of natural frames, such as trees and archways. By placing these around the edge of the subject, you can isolate it from the rest of the shot. The result is a more focused image which draws your eye naturally to the main point of interest. It could be anything such as bushes, trees, a window, or even a doorway like in the photo of me nine months pregnant below.

5. Use a digital darkroom.
Photoshop is your friend. I use it to retouch, lighten, set contrast, tone down… You get the picture. I took a Photoshop class at a community college in 2005 when I first started dabbling in design and it has paid off wonders. If you are familiar with layers, and vector masks, magic wands, lassos, cloning and level adjustments, those are the basics for photo editing. I’ve learned how to do cool things like whiten teeth and remove showing bra straps. Layersmagazine.com has all types of useful tutorials.

I spent New Year’s Eve crying in the master bedroom closet. On the floor. With the light out. In complete and total shock (I don’t mean to scare you – everyone is just fine). This was not what I envisioned. In fact, I planned to be locking lips with Hubby and toasting to a happy and healthy 2012. Granny had Asti Spumante chilling in the fridge, and my parents, mother-in-law, hubby and my three children were excited to bring in the new year together as a family of eight. We attended watch night service at 8:30 that evening, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The praise team sang Mighty God by Deitrick Haddon, one of my favorite songs right now, and I jammed with the Holy Ghost.

The kids made New Year’s noisemakers, and I was super excited to countdown and cheer with them at midnight. Once at home, we took a few pictures while we were still in our NYE outfits. Baby girl wore her new purple puma tracksuit because she is a diva.

Just as a mom of babies is never off duty, I started straightening up a bit and walked into the laundry room to throw a dirty onesie onto the growing mound of laundry… and I observed something strange. I wasn’t hearing the usual humming rhythm of the deep freezer. The deep freezer that Hubby purchased on Black Friday. The deep freezer that was safely housing the hundreds of ounces of milk that I’d pumped since October. The deep freezer that was no longer humming because THE POWER STRIP HAD RESET. I opened the freezer lid, and the scene was jarring. The freezer bags were totally thawed. The milk had separated the fatty, creamy hind milk from the foremilk. It was gone. None were salvageable. Some bags had burst open and the bottom of the freezer was lined with the spoiled milk that took blood, sweat and tears to pump out. I was devastated. Devastated. I stood there hovering over what might as well have been a murder scene. It was like I had lost someone very dear to me.

I shouted to Hubby to come see the freezer. He saw the scene and ran to the regular fridge to see if I had any milk stashed there. But there was none. I had moved it all to the deep freezer because sometimes Gadget goes into the regular freezer looking for icees and he leaves the door slightly ajar. I followed the power cord trail to the surge protector and flipped the switch. The power came back to life and the usually hum was heard, but my heart was still frozen. I silently headed into the bedroom and enclosed myself in the closet. It was gone. All that milk that I’d pumped each day for my baby girl to enjoy once I returned to work. Gone in a flash. I finished crying and got myself together, and just like David wept over his child and then got over it, I was over it. There was nothing I could do to bring it back, so the next morning I woke up and started pumping to start from scratch.