Going to Prom!

Oh the senior prom… I must confess mine was pretty fun although nothing too fancy. My dress cost about $25 (I was damn proud of that bargain) and I got my hair done at Supercuts. A very pretty up-do with a few curls cascading down… for about 10 minutes until the coastal humidity and heat got to them. Flattened hair aside, it was a fun night with great friends and one I will always remember.

It’s been just over 10 years since my prom (my gawd, really 10 years?!), and I got the chance to relive a little bit of that special day last weekend. Andrew’s folks asked me some weeks ago to photograph his little sister and her friends’ prom pictures. I was so honored and excited to be the one to capture that special day for them, and also totally freaked out – as I tend to get about anything new. lol

Their prom day was definitely a bit fancier than mine. It was an all-day affair, complete with appointments for hair and makeup, a party bus to drive them all around town, photoshoot at the gorgeous Tea Gardens in San Antonio, a fancy dinner and of course a horse-drawn carriage to arrive at the prom in! Now that’s style.

I’m just going to say it – this was just about the most fun thing I could ever imagine being paid to do. All the kids were so excited and having a blast together while we were shooting, which of course made the photos come out so genuine. The locations we shot at were gorgeous too. I was definitely nervous, having never done prom photos and really having very little experience shooting people. A few nights before the shoot, I had my typical “lets blow this up into a thing of monumental proportions and spaz about it for a few hours”, but once I got that out of the way (and was talked back down to reality by Andrew – thanks babe!) I was good to go.

Doing the Uncomfortable Thing
I tend to avoid photographing people honestly – because it can be so awkward. Directing people is so tough, and I have a really hard time trying to create what I want to see. I’d much rather wait for the moment to come on its own and then capture it. So as you can imagine, 14 teenagers and less than an hour to get approximately 10-12 specific shots was definitely out of my comfort zone! Although I really cool thing happened when I was let loose with these kiddos… I realized it was all on me and we didn’t have time to screw around! So there it was. I just took charge and off we went. It was chaotic, it was rushed, and nothing was as perfect as I wanted it to be… but there was something really great about not having the time to be a perfectionist. It also means you don’t have time to second guess yourself. A whole day of doing with my gut instincts… I think we came away with some really great shots.

This is one of my favorites, all the girls scrunched in the horse carriage, shot from up in the driver’s seat.

Another of my favorites, even though the lighting conditions weren’t very good – I think it sort of adds a bit of a celebrity quality to it. As soon as that horse wrapped his head around next to the girls I new we had an awesome shot! Thanks Tiny!

15 Creative, Clever, Inspiring Blogs!

So I just learned there is this wonderful little award floating around the blogosphere (first time I’ve used that word, yep, I feel nerdy)… it’s called The Versatile Blogger award and is a really lovely thing I happen to think. Basically, the rules are; Thank the person who nominated you and share their site, share 7 personal things about yourself, and nominate 15  other bloggers who will then repeat the process. I happen to think it’s a pretty cool way to help get attention for your own blog as well as share and support some great blogs out there that people might otherwise not find… blogs building upon blogs… everybody wins!

I’d Like to Thank…
So first I’d like to give a shout out Munchow and Brenda Stonehouse for nominating me for this award via their blogs. Munchow’s Creative Photo Blog is a great blog about creativity and photography and is – from just the little I have seen – a very talented professional photographer. Brenda has a wonderfully gutsy project called Pencils, Paint and Pixels in which she is doing some form of art every single day for a year! Very inspiring stuff… Thank you both!

15 Creative & Inspiring Blogs!
Here are 15 of my favorite bloggers doing some really awesome creative things!

1. Skeptycal — Random creativity, inspiration, and bits of widsom from my brother’s life! (by Michael Treanor)

2. Middle of Nowhere — Home of Gretel Parker, the creator of ‘Puddletown Tales’, children’s illustrator, needle felter and toymaker living in a tiny cottage in the Cotswolds countryside, England. She was the first to inspire me to take up needle felting – one of my current obsessions!

3. FabFiftyFive — The (Mis)Adventures of a Junior-Senior. Speed skating, rock climbing, circus school… Julie Wise is celebrating turning 55 in a totally fab way!

4. Blissbombed — Living a divinely-inspired, kick-ass life (that rocks the world), Stephanie writes about relationships, love, life, and spirit in a refreshingly balls-out way – (By Stephanie St. Claire)

5. MusicalChairs — Adventures of Katharina Hoehendinger, who recently quit her well-paying job to focus on all the creative things she’s always wanted to do (and moving to China while doing it!)

6. FromSonika – Lovely and genuine poetry, inspiration and tidbits of life from a wonderful writer. (By Sonika)

7. Daily Walks — This is where I go when I want to feel incredibly jealous of someone’s daily walks. Just go there, you will agree. Seriously gorgeous photography. (By Diane Varner)

8. 12 Books in 12 Months — …Need I say more? (By Ali George)

9. Miriam’s Well — Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond (by Miriam Sagan)

10. Talin Orfali – Wonderfully inspiring writer sharing her wisdom, positivity and perspective with the world! (By Talin Orfali)

11. Burrard-Lucas Photography Blog — Two brothers from the UK, doing some incredible wildlife photography, much of which helps to raise awareness for preserving endangered species. I am a big fan. (By Will & Matthew Burrard-Lucas)

12. The Shine Project — A very passionate and vibrant woman with a wonderful mission to spread joy and helps others to find theirs through charity projects, scholarships for children, etc. Wonderful! (By Ashley)

13. Lightstalking — Awesome photo blog & community with tutorials, tips, themed photo collections weekly, and more.

14. The Pioneer Woman — So help me, I can get lost for endless amounts of time on Ree Drummond’s site about a city girl who became a country girl and now blogs voraciously about recipes, photography, country living, homeschooling and more.

15. Looking At The West — Beautiful photography blog exploring the landscape and culture of the American West. (By Andrew McAllister)

7 things about me you didn’t know:

1. I don’t like shoes. And I don’t like winter because I am forced to have to wear shoes. I like my toes to be able to roam free!

2. My favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip. (my favorite anything really is mint + chocolate) I used to eat a bowl with my dad many nights as a little girl while we watched Disney’s Fantasia.

3. I have a skull collection I started back in early college.. sparked by digging up the skull of my childhood cat when we moved out of our old house. Yes… I’m aware this is creepy.

4. My favorite color was once described as “baby poo green” by my design professor in college.

5. Both of my parents have passed on, my mom 20+ years ago, and my dad just a few years ago. Although I’m a pretty together person, I still have those days where I just want to be able to call up my parents and fall apart a bit over it. You never stop missing them.

6. I went hot air ballooning, para-sailing, sky diving, firewalking and met the man in my life in 2009.. yeah it was an adventurous year!

7. “Part of Your World” from the Little Mermaid and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” are my shower songs. They are the only two songs I sing in the shower, and I never sing them outside of the shower.

Read more about the Versatile Blogger Award.

Barn Photo Series: Nash Farm, Grapevine, TX

I was over in Grapevine yesterday doing some rock climbing and decided to stop over at Nash Farm to check it out. I’d found it on the internet this past week while searching for barns to photograph. If you like taking photos of old farms or enjoy seeing some of the area’s heritage and history, I suggest checking it out! It’s open to the public every day from dawn til dusk. Here’s some of my final selections from what I shot:

Here’s some more pictures of things I discovered there!

Beautiful, fully restored farm house. Even the interior was fully restored with gorgeous vintage wallpaper and furniture of the era.

Right near the house was a small vegetable garden – I would love to have one like this someday.

I also met a cow. She was a little shy at first…

…but soon was quite curious!

View of the whole barn

The quintessential farm cat decided to befriend me as I wandered around the farm. He made for some wonderful photos!

I dream of one day having a chicken coop – the sound of them clucking was so peaceful.

Rooster!

Sunset over the old farm house as I was leaving

Waving goodbye!

Wildlife/Nature Photo Challenge

A friend of mine on the We Will Create website recently posted her first entry of her genre-a-month photo project. Her theme was wildlife – and her pictures and stories so inspired me! Since my plans for barn hunting didn’t quite work out as expected yesterday, I took a little detour to shoot some wildlife and nature. Here’s some of the highlights, lowlights and things I learned…

I’m happy to announce I saw my first armadillo close-up on this trip! I also learned that they are fast little devils… and that you shouldn’t assume you can just walk up to one, tap it on the shoulder, and ask it for a photo… Well, you can, but this is all you will get… (forgetting to use my zoom lens did not help either).

For next armadillo sighting I had my zoom lens handy (70-200mm). I managed to get a little closer with the right lens in a moment that he stopped to think to himself “oh my gosh! I think that human is following me!” and then promptly ran off. However our lovely winter background of deadness really doesn’t do much to help things..

After another hour or so I came across yet another armadillo! He was foraging for food on the edge of a tree line which thankfully had a rare patch of green soft grass. I quietly sneaked up to him, a little at a time. I was able to get some decent shots of his butt at least… oh animals and their rudeness!

At the closest I was about 6 feet away from him… which is when I learned how hard it is to get a clean close up shot when you’ve got twigs and branches and brush and tall grass all over the place.. this one below was the best of the bunch. The sun was also really harsh and not helping things. I conclude that nature is very inconsiderate.

Right here is where you would be seeing my really gorgeous macro shot of a beautiful golden butterfly sunning it’s wings… however you will not see it because butterflies are really kind of bitches about having their picture taken. Didn’t get a single shot – just as soon as I was almost close enough, they took off. Such a tease. I decided to work with a spider instead, who was a little more accommodating (although not by much).

Mr. spider was about 3-4cm long. I didn’t quite get the focus right – yet another factor to have to consider on top of the issues of ugly natural backgrounds and horrible harsh sunlight.

Later in the day I found a great little pine forest with plenty of mushrooms and pine cones to practice macro photos on (and way more convenience since they don’t move!) I did a little light study on this mushroom.. moving from more frontal light all the way to backlit. It was fun to see how different each direction made the image feel.

I came across this little finch-like bird who was just flitting about on this dead tree by the lake. Finally an animal that is not camera shy! For about 10 minutes I photographed him while he flirted for my camera.. it was definitely a lot of fun. Still working on trying to get the right settings to get clear shots of birds in action… they usually end up looking like strange alien things hovering in the air…

He unfortunately seemed to share the same animal rudeness of the armadillo in mooning me a lot…

I did manage to get a few really pretty shots of this little guy though – slowly he let me get closer. This one below was one of my favorites.

I also learned that cows are boring… especially on flat ground.

I learned that sometimes just when you are coming up on a cool ominous-looking scene of a beach with ravens on it… some stupid kids come walking by noisely and chase off all your subjects.

I learned that sometimes making a shot better is as simple walking around the subject to see if there is a better angle with less clutter…

This last shot was inspired by a similar shot my friend took (mine on the left, hers on the right).. the diagonal shadows must have stuck in my mind, because as soon as I saw them out on the trail I instantly thought of her image and decided to take a version of my own! Thanks Alyshia for getting me inspired for this trip! It was a great learning experience and a lot of fun!!

Week 1: Getting Nothing Done!

Week 1 in my 12 month photo project… I got NOTHING done! Hoorah! But I learned a little and decided to try a creative way of sharing my brief and uneventful first week… video diary!!! (Thanks Micaela for the inspiration!)

My 12 Months of 2012

I’ve spent the past few weeks thinking about what I’d like to focus on creatively this year. To be honest, I had a really hard time deciding! All I knew for sure was that – at the end of each month last year, I would just be gaining momentum and getting excited about one type of project and then I would have to switch gears totally and drop it. So I think this year, I’m ready for longer projects and timelines…

Quarterly Projects
I’ve decided to focus on 4 different types of projects quarterly throughout the year. This might mean that I do one large project for the quarter, or many small ones… depending on how things unfold and you know, how badly I procrastinate. ;)

The 4 projects I’m thinking for now are:

- Welding/Metal Sculpture
- Illustration/Drawing
- Needle Felting
- Nature/Land Art

Welding is something I’ve never done and always wanted to do. I’m signed up for a class at a local community college to start January 22nd, so this is where we begin! The others were things from this past year that I fell in love with and wanted more time with. The list could possibly change if I find anything else exciting along the way – but for now this is a good start!

12 Month Barn Series
Alongside that, I’ve decided I also want to focus on photography for a monthly project. I have a barn series that I began a year or so ago that I was really fired up about but never really got off the ground. So the goal here is to trespass onto as many abandoned old properties with barns as I can find!… or hopefully more of the time enter with permission so no one comes after me with a shot gun (this is Texas, after all).

By the end of the year I want to have photographed a full series of a dozen barns, each with a ceiling shot similar to the one below, as well as other supporting angles and details. I’d really like to get a wide range from old abandoned barns to fully functioning newer ones… but we’ll see where the journey takes me.

I will be doing some research on how to create good black and white images too – as there are good and bad ways to achieve it and I’m pretty sure I’m not using the best methods right now. I may also throw in some techniques to focus on (landscape, macro, HDR, etc) from time to time to help me practice in areas I haven’t taken the time to really read up on or practice a ton yet. Pretty excited to revive this project! I have been in love with it since the first ceiling shot I took and look forward to having my first full series of photos done by the end of 2012!

 
Yes, We Will Create!
And that’s still not everything! On top of my personal creative projects, I’m spending this year trying to get a creative community called We Will Create off the ground. It’s a place to share any and all sorts of creative projects – big or small, long or short. I’m hoping together we can create a real place of open support for each other in all our creative endeavors… a place for anyone who is looking to add a bit more creativity in their lives and wants some friends to do it with! In the much bigger picture, I dream of this becoming a community that reaches millions… where you can explore or join various groups and have specific communities related to your interests (photography, cooking, living green, painting, charity work, etc) as well as joining other groups for 365 projects, 12 month projects, 30 day projects, etc. It’s definitely far from anything that big (yet), but I believe in it a heck of a lot, so I’m doing all I can to get it going. I figure worst case is that a few more people in the world are inspired by each other, and I learn a lot about how to NOT make a community site.

If you actually made it this far into my novel of a post… please take a moment to check us out at wewillcreate.ning.com and if you like what you see, join us or share with your family and friends!

Inspiration: Aerographs

Thrilled to have discovered the site aerographs.com yesterday while doing some research on vintage aviation. This is the site of photographer John Slemp, who has spent the past 20 or so years pursuing his passion of aviation photography. He has some really stunning work! Below are a few of my favorites.. stop by the website to see more!

 

Illustration Practice: Vintage Camera!

Hi all! Just a little aside from the monthly project… thought I’d take a minute to share an illustration I did for work last week. While my hand-illustrating skills are pretty decent, I have not really taken the time to explore computer illustrating much. Texture and style have always been a bit of a weak point for me in computer illustrations, so I’ve decided to make it a small side project to try and do more of these for my design jobs at work – whenever applicable. So here’s the first, a peppy little vintage polaroid camera for a feature on our website about some of our recent favorite photographers. Not bad if I do say so myself! =)