Gorgeous....

Weekend Photoshoot

Last weekend... fresh snow, blue skies... and a chilly 13 degrees before factoring in the wind chill.

I have been taking shots of my favorite teenager, Kitten... mostly so she can find one she likes as her senior picture, but also just for fun as I promised to capture her in every season.

We've now covered fall and winter.

So here we are on this frosty Sunday afternoon, with me snapping away madly, and this darling girl in short sleeves is happily stomping through the snow in a full-length gown. Being Alaskan tough, she insists she feels just fine, even though I, bundled in a thermal shirt and fleece jacket, am completely freezing. As proof of her statement, the only thing blue on her is her heavenly eyes and her sparkling gown.

Rather than bore you with dozens of shots, I'll just share my absolute favorites from the shoot....hope you enjoy.

As the world burns....

Thank goodness we've had some rain and cooler temperatures these last few days....  anything to help out as this summer has been nothing but wildfire after wildfire.  A couple weeks ago there was smoke literally rolling out of the canyon here in Orem, and the mountains in that direction have been obscured by a smokey haze for what seems like a month now. 

We've had fires to the south, fires across the lake, and on Tuesday I snapped this shot of a fire burning just to the north... Alpine may be on the other side of the mountain, but its not far at all as the crow flies.  The shot was taken just a few blocks from where we live.  Yikes!  A lovely shot, but what a terrifying situation for those whose homes were being threatened at the time.

And this is just what's going on in Utah, and not what is happening in the rest of the country... after all half of Colorado appears to have gone up in flames.

Still, this summer truly feels like an episode from As the World Burns....

Blue Marble 2

NASA has done it again.... this time the gorgeous image before you takes in the Arctic Circle (the geographic location, not the fast food restaurant) as its main focus.  You can find it here if you want to download it for yourselves.

What a difference a word makes...

Its funny, but I never thought I needed a qualifier when I said I was a photographer. For me, photography encompasses a wide range of interpretation. There are the landscape photographers, like myself. There are portrait photographers, sports photographers, etc etc... I never thought that someone thinking I was a photographer meant that I did all forms of photography. After all, there are a range of teachers... special education, physical education, arts, music, drama, math, english.... not to mention those lucky individuals in elementary education that somehow manage to incorporate a wide range of these into their curriculum. But you wouldn't necessarily expect that your P.E. teacher (the one who lectures you on the finer points of dodgeball) would also pick up the reins of your music class and teach you the best way to warm up for your solo...

 But I digress.... again... yes, I know, its a terminal condition with me.

My online "portfolio" shows landscape after landscape... broad vistas, close up shots of wildflowers and interspersed with a healthy sprinkling of farm animals.

Like these handsome beauties

As a gal who is still learning (and has masses more yet to learn!) I can often be found hauling out my camera and trying my hand at new things... a dance competition (hopelessly blurred... see the post on that mishap here) I've hauled my camera out on road trips, trying to capture some of the local "wildlife", but I always seem to click the shutter a split second too late.... catching little moments just after they happen. Oh well, I figured, I'm a nature and wildlife girl so what does it matter?

Turns out it matters a lot.

I was at my friend's house where one of her daughters was excitedly showing off the photos taken from her latest dance... photos of herself and her date that she had paid good money for.   Photos that were, in my untrained opinion, a total rip off. I then did something not entirely uncommon to me: I opened my mouth and inserted my foot so deep I was licking my kneecaps (and, if truth be told, noting that I needed a shave).

"Honestly Kitten" I heard myself say.  "I could do much better than these and I wouldn't even charge you. Let me know when your next dance is and I'll come out and take your pictures."

Wait... did I just offer to do a real photo session of sorts?

Even if it is for a girl I totally adore, what in the world was I thinking? I don't do portraits. I have no idea about proper lighting and composition. That's the great thing about flowers and fields, mountains and trees... you don't have to direct them. With nature you just keep snapping away until something comes out decent. Heck, horses are so naturally graceful that its pretty hard to not get a good shot of them and here I am offering to photograph teenagers? At least it was a darling girl I knew and loved and I told myself how hard can it be, after all, this kid is a bit of a ham in front of the camera anyway.

A few weeks went by and then here it came... the last dance of the school year. Would I please take pictures of not only my adopted teen, but of her friends and their dates as well? Now I had done it. I had to look like I knew what I was doing?

 Oh the things I am willing to do for this kid!

The big day came... I took time to change into a nice shirt and clean jeans (might as well look a bit professional). I was kicking myself for not having gotten around to sewing my new camera strap, but, since there was nothing I could do about it, I headed over with a cloud of anxiety forming around me.

7 couples.

Thankfully they all arrived in dribs and drabs and not all at once. I'd snagged Kitten's younger sister early for a couple preliminary shots in the yard and established 3 good backdrops so I took the first couple out around the yard, keeping up a patter of conversation all the while and trying to act like I knew what I was doing. 

Couples 1 and 2 were unknown to me, and, thankfully, since I was photographing each group separately, I was able to use a lot of the same jokes over.  I loosened a bit when I realized that the kids were more scared of the camera than I was and began to enjoy myself.  I was easier with my jokes and directions and found the courage to start getting the kids to smile more and to look like they were enjoying themselves instead of (at least in the guys' cases) looking like lambs being led to the slaughter.  

Couple 3 was my Kitten and her date, so that was fun, except I had to rein my girl in a time or two as she has a habit of breaking into goofy looks and gestures when she's nervous.  The next two couples were also easy, since I knew the girls (they both not only attended, but also helped out at my wedding). The last two couples were running pretty late and the light was failing fast, but we managed to get some shots before the bunch of them wandered off to a bbq before the dance.  I headed back into my friend's house tired, but very happy it was over. I would say I felt relieved, but that wouldn't happen until I had a chance to review my shots.

The next morning I downloaded my memory card and started going through the pictures. Sure enough, there were lousy shots... especially with the last two couples where we were fighting the light, but I was happy to see that each couple also had shots that looked pretty good. Good enough that I was able to edit an average of 6 pictures per couple.  Some shots were only good in black and white, and for a bunch of free photos done as a favor, they weren't bad, but I still found myself stressing and getting more and more nervous that these didn't look more pro.

When I dropped by my friend's house later that week to give them the photos they were surprised to find I had edited the images.  I thought I had mentioned that to them beforehand, but now it makes sense as to why they were confused that it took me 3 days to get through the files.  But as I explained that it takes time to go through 7 batches of photos and whiten teeth, clean up blemishes, erase random hairs floating in the breeze and, in one case, fix a great shot barely missed by doing a head swap with the image before it, I was greeted with stunned surprise.  My friend reached out and whacked me lightly, "Silly girl," she said.  "No one expected you to do any of that. You do too much."

But that's just who I am... if I am going to offer someone my photographic skills (such as they may be) you'd better be darn sure I am going to put them in their best light, so to speak.  Besides, its what you do when you care about the gal you are doing all of this for.  And anyway, I told them it was also done so I could get more experience in for when I do Kitten's senior pictures this coming fall and spring (another offer, but this one I am now looking forward to as Kitten is incredibly fun to work with).  Seeing their reactions (Kitten, her mom and my "Cowgirl" from the photoshoot all went through the files) was a nice reward as they loved the pictures and were beyond happy with how they turned out.  Guess that will teach me to waste time on worrying....

Nah, worry is a default mode with me.

So do I now consider myself a portrait photographer?  Not in the least.  In fact, this has convinced me that this is not a direction I want to go in.  Figuring out compositions, making adjustments to where you are standing, the look on your face (you'd think teens on a date would want to smile more), and all of the continual banter that goes on during the session is absolutely exhausting.  The bundle of nerves that goes on until you can actually confirm you've taken decent shots and not wasted an afternoon would drive me nuts if I was to do it on a regular basis. 

But then, I did get some really cute shots (by the way, it was a themed "matching hats" dance)...

Kitten and friends in a cute candid moment

Kitten and her date

One of the couples I met that night..love the fedoras

 Love this shot....for not being a "Country Girl" she pulls it off well.

Another couple I met that night.... and I love the candid shots from their photoshoot

These two were cute, but then they were also pretty relaxed around each other which helped a lot

Silhouette

At first it was far too bright to see; peeking at the sun from behind a hand held up to block the light had my eyes tearing up and aching.  I was tempted to look again a few minutes later and had to restrain myself as I had no protective gear to keep myself from burning sensitive retinas.  I found myself frustrated that I was going to miss an event that was taking place right before me.  I snuck another peek and was immediately hit with a deeper ache in the left eye I was using, trying to spare the right by squinting it shut.  Afterimages of blue filled my sight....

I pulled out my camera and aimed it in the sun's direction, hoping for the best, but all I got was a big white blur.

Well darn, I thought, getting ready to bag the whole idea.  I went back in the house and sat at the kitchen table, noting glumly that the evening was quickly growing darker and the air was filling with the sounds of birds roosting for the evening, chirping out their final calls to one another at what they assumed was the closing of their day. The blue tint to my sight slowly faded and provided some solace, but it was with a heavy heart that I sat, knowing I was missing out on a dazzling Heavenly show, though I knew no one was to blame but myself, as I had failed to plan accordingly.  

Then Jason said the neighbors were out back with a homemade reflector that they were willing to let us look through.  We put on our shoes and I grabbed my camera (just in case) and headed for the park behind the house, where the one of the neighbors was looking through the reflector while another was beginning to snap photos, complaining about a covering of clouds that had moved in at the last moment.

What the heck, I thought.  This time I zoomed my lens, glancing at the viewfinder every now and again to be sure I was pointed in the right direction, and started snapping shot after shot.  To my surprise, the eclipse was now being captured, however faintly, as the moon slid into place and the clouds providing an imperfect, but welcome filter.

I admit that I went overboard, snapping away madly as the moon slowly crossed the face of the sun.  It seemed to pass in a matter of moments, and I found my images beginning to blur as the sun came flaring out on the far side once again.  As the evening brightened around us the birds began singing again and a few even took to flight.  I turned off my camera and made my way back inside again, where I pulled out my laptop and, fingers crossed, I downloaded my memory card, hoping that something had turned out.

Images, blurred at first, then growing clearer and clearer filled my computer, and I found myself finally looking at images that, while still blocked by clouds, showed a lovely silhouette of the moon as it performed its heavenly dance with our parent star.... 

You Live and You Learn

Saturday afternoon.  Provo High School Gymnasium.  Crowds filled the bleachers and the floor of the court was filled with teams warming up.

Camera? 
.... check

Tripod?
.... check

Everything was all set up and ready to go for the dance competition.  I snapped random shots of different performances, checking them on my tiny viewscreen and everything looked to be perfect.  Our group's number was called and the music cued up.  I began snapping away, trying to capture spins and twirls and, most of all, the sweet little dancer I was rooting for most.  The number came to a close and the troupe walked to the wings while another group took to the floor.

We stayed for a few performances more and then headed for home, my camera and tripod safely packed away and all waiting to see what images I had captured.

Imagine my horror this morning when I downloaded the images from my camera only to find many of the shots were hopelessly blurry.  With a sinking heart I reached for my camera, already knowing what I would find.

I had left the setting on Automatic, instead of changing it to Sports.  The camera wasn't operating at a high enough speed to capture constant motion, so arms and legs became meaningless streaks and blurs, instead of the graceful lines and movements that had taken place before me.

Since I had never used my camera with the tripod before, I spent too much time making sure it was set up properly and securely, and then trying to set up my remote control (never before used, and not figured out in time for the competition) that I completely overlooked my camera setting.  I was certain I had already changed it and foolishly did not double check before the competition began.

Thankfully the group will probably perform the same number again at next weekend's dedication to the new Springville Town Hall building, so that is where you will find me, valiantly try try trying again.

The most embarrassing part will be explaining this to my friend and her daughter.  Just a few weeks before I had offered to take photos of another daughter and her friends the next time they went to a formal dance, and have also been asked this fall to take this other daughter's senior photos and then I massively screw this up.  Not only is it a blow to the ego, but I feel so stupid about making such an obviously rookie mistake. 

I guess I should seriously spend more time learning the ins and outs of photography... and always double and triple check my settings as I go. 
 
Luckily I was able to salvage some of the shots...

We're only human, right?  Has anyone else made this same, stupid mistake when shooting an event?

So excited..... oh my goodness....

I made my first Etsy sale!

(takes deep breath to steady self)

Oh yeah, I am bouncing off the walls here in the office...I want to go out and celebrate. Who knew how a little bitty $12.60 sale (she used the coupon code) could make me feel so good?

I'll post more about it later but HOORAY!!!!! I FINALLY FEEL LIKE A REAL FREAKING ARTISTAN!

...and a paid artisan at that.... ;D

Fun Foto Freebee

Okay, so I cheated a little on the title...

Teachinfourth is offering a fun giveaway to help you to celebrate Christmas... the first 100 people to blog about his site (pick a post, any post...you can even talk about the photo giveaway) or his photography site is free to then leave a comment on his blog (read the details and post your comments here) and choose a free 5 x 7 of any image that he has taken...

Yes you read correctly... you have the whole wide world of his blog and his photography site to choose from (except for images from photo sessions) but then who wants pictures of a stranger's kids anyway when there is so many gorgeous images to choose from (unless you are one of those parents that have less-than-attractive kids maybe?)

Regardless, other people's family shots are not available to choose from, and neither is the Alphabetography (which you should check out anyway because its fun to play with the alphabet generator) And while you're looking around the blog, check out some of the posts about Joey... they will seriously crack you up!

Other People's Houses

Stumbled across this gallery showing for "Other People's Houses" a photographic essay by a series of photographers about what our homes say about us as individuals....

Here is just a few of the amazing images:


Kate Miss



Victoria Hannan







Kris Atomic



Brian W Ferry










Anabela Carneiro


Hilda Grahnat







Pia Jane Bijkerk


Michelle Gow








Ebony Bizys


Jacinta Moore










What a beautiful idea... and a gorgeous collection of images. It leaves me wanting to do a photo essay of my own... of course this is something that would be added to over the years, but then I think most photographers have those little images lying around that portray their own idea of the world.

I highly recommend you take a stroll through these talented artists' pages.... not all of it may be my style, but there is no denying the talent behind the lens at this site.

Texas Trip - Day Four (Part 1 of 3)

Final day in Texas....(sorry for the delay on this post but I wanted to clean up some photos to upload for this one...)

Day Four, as with every other day, saw me getting up early.

We had a lot to try and tackle today and didn't want to miss a minute of it. As it was, I was awake long after Richard left (hey, I just got engaged... it would have been a complete miracle for me to have fallen asleep quickly!) Found out that Richard had a fairly sleepless night as well.

Richard showed up with a container of raspberries to munch on (I'd been teasing him for awhile since I'd learned he'd never tried raspberries before and how I definitely had to pick some up on this trip to share with him). We shared them while I finished tossing everything into my bags (note... he now likes raspberries). I was wearing the sundress I'd originally planned to wear at dinner with his parents.... so I looked nice. Richard, on the other hand, was sporting a new t-shirt that proudly proclaimed he was a Ghostbuster...complete with VENKMAN name badge.

Men and their taste in clothes....

He offered to wear his dress shirt again since I'd hoped for a picture of the two of us together, and ran back down to the car to fetch it.... a bit rumpled now, but a moment or two with the iron had that taken care of. Wish I would have known at the start of the trip that hotel rooms come with irons and hair dryers... there's two large items I wouldn't have had to haul across state lines with me!

While he was in the bathroom changing, I did a last couple of laps around the room to be sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Once we were both ready he once again lugged my bag down to the car and drove me around front to the manager's office where I checked out of my room for the final time. Its sad to say, but I am going to miss that place....

We decided once again on Cracker Barrel for breakfast and spent a nice hour or so just chatting.... no rush, no itinerary pressing down on us (though we really did have one)... and no mentioning that I would be flying home later that day. Once again I had the thought of how wonderful it would be to see this man sitting across the dinner table from me for the rest of our lives... how wonderful now to know that this thought will soon become reality.

After breakfast we drove downtown and visited the Alamo.

I took a lot of pictures...some of Richard, but mostly of the site. Sadly, I forgot to hand my camera over to some other tourist to get our picture together.

We wandered the grounds, hand-in-hand, as the heat rose and we both began to bake. Richard especially, since he was sporting a very bright sunburn from the drive back north the day before. As we prepared to enter the Alamo itself, a large sign proclaimed the site to still be dedicated as Holy Ground by the Catholic Church and that no pictures within were allowed. An employee of the Alamo told us to turn and smile for the camera before thrusting a card into our hands and ushering us inside.

Not exactly a way to prepare yourself for something so profound... being essentially peddled by the tourist trade on your way in the doors.

Inside the Alamo is a feeling of such great weight.... calm, but you definitely feel a hush come upon you as you walk that small space (the mission is incredibly tiny). The walls are still gouged in spots from gunfire. Picturing the siege and the horror and pain that took place within those walls was humbling. Little kids on some kind of tour were tossing out questions in rapid succession and fellow tourists were laughing and talking... and I just walked reverently from space to space.

We exited to the side and immediately across the way is the gift shop.

No offense to the powers-that-be that use these funds to help support the upkeep of this site, but the center of the room is of interest because it houses various Bowie knives of the era, excavated cannonballs (much smaller than I had imagined them to be), guns and buttons.... it was a historical junkie's heroin. We walked slowly down both sides and just soaked it all in.

The outer edge of the gift shop though... well... total pandemonium. Little boys screaming as they chase each other around the store, wielding toy guns and Calvary swords, and little girls looking over all the local wildlife plushies (armadillos, bison, horses and, for some reason, monkeys). Ashtrays and shot glasses emblazoned with Davy Crockett's famous quote "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas". Replicas of the Alamo itself... you name it, they probably had it. There was a nice book section though where I picked up a book ("Sea of Mud" about the retreat from the Alamo by the Mexican army) but, on the whole the gift shop turned my stomach... especially after just coming from the site itself it seemed rather tasteless (sorry baby!)

I was happy when we finally got out of there and back out onto the grounds, and I quickly put that behind me as I drug poor Richard from place to place to inspect the memorial plaques, cannons, a really neat baptismal font from the original mission, and other such historical fodder that appealed to me. He also patiently waited while I took photo after photo of what must have seemed odd things (doorways, windows, steeples... I went a little overboard probably in order to make up for not really getting any pictures up til this point!)

And speaking of pictures... below is a bit of what I snapped. Oh, and that shot taken before we entered the mission? Turns out on your way out you can buy a copy of the picture they took. I walked up to see what we wound up with but we didn't end up buying it... the gal snapped the picture with Richard tucked back a step or two and that hideous picture killer (perspective) had me looking miles taller and about 4 times as round. Okay, it probably wasn't THAT bad...but that's what I remember.















Next post we take on the Breckenridge Sunken Gardens... where Richard had originally planned to propose to me.

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

...then this is certainly a mouthful. Happy Earth Day everyone...here is a bunch of pictures that I have taken over the last few years. I really love this sweet little planet that we live on...