Thursday, November 22, 2012

isn’t she lovely?

Yesterday was our early thanksgiving. Mom has the whole kit-and-kaboodle food galore at her house. But before heading over to eat my heart out, we did a quick shoot for my amazingly talented and beautiful best friend. She’s in a play next week and needed some head shots. She’s kind of awesome…well beyond awesome at the acting thing. She even welled up a few fake tears for me on cue. Seriously? who can do that? show of hands? I thought so! She is a friend I have been thankful for over and over again throughout the years.

 

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We had a funny conversation about Emily's doppelgänger…I’m thinking she’s a mix of julia roberts and kate winslet Smile

 

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Floor-it

A few weeks ago I pulled the closet doors off our wash area to prep them for painting. The trim in the hall is also getting stripped and sanded for a new coat of white (hence the beige streaky thing going on).  I’m not proud to admit, but usually our washer has a little pile on it like this, but part of me really enjoys how big the hall feels without the sliding doors. The only thing that bothered me was the sudden appearance of baby blue vinyl tiles…they just seemed a little out of place.

Anywho, I passed by these wood vinyl tiles at Lowes the other day and was fairly impressed by how real and like the current wood they looked. They were on clearance for 30 cents a piece. I figured, why not? That way, with doors or not, those little blue vinyl tiles wouldn’t make an appearance. And if it leaked, they wouldn’t get hurt by the water.

 

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this task was really just a , dude, dust behind your washer dryer for goodness sakes. (the blame’s on me. )

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TA-DEERH!  Yep, I pulled those sucker out, gave the area a sound cleaning and laid my little tiles right over the old vinyl. ( I pulled up some torn ones where it would leave lumps). The vinyl wood is ever so slightly lighter but it’s a pretty darn close match! I like it so much I might wait to put the doors back up for a little while longer …until the pile re-appears.

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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A little thought on the guy vs. girl theory


Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to shoot many many many females and not as many males. I’ve fallen into the sin of letting the girl outshine the dude in an engagement session. Sometimes it’s just easier to let a girl flash her baby blues and steal the focal point of the shot. I’ve had people tell me before that my shooting style was very feminine and soft. I few years ago I used to put a horrid pink tint on everything. I find this very humorous because I am not very feminine. I’m drawn to dark earthy colors and whites. I like masculine rooms with wood and grey and raw steel. I’ve made it a personal goal to morph my photography into the pictures than inspire me….I’m moving away from the pink and trying to focus on tone and proper white balance. It’s been a pretty tough thing to learn because low light photos are notoriously some of the worst ones. Working with flash has always daunted me as well.
They say a photographers of different sexes see the world differently. A man’s photography will look different from a woman’s. For years, I looked up to my friend Danny’s photography because it always had that special something that I couldn’t see on my own. His perspective was different simply because he’s a guy. (Not that gender is the sole villain in shaping a persons view). I think photography becomes a way of communication between the sexes since it’s a reflection of how you see the world. That’s my guy-girl theory. Hot stuff right? I realize it’s not rocket science that dudes and dude-etts see things differently…but what are your thoughts on the matter?
ps. Danny taught me how to use a camera, invited me to shoot my first wedding, and shot Charley and I’s wedding/engagement photos. He’s pretty cool.
pss. I took this photo, not danny ( i guess i did not post that clearly the first time). 11/22/12

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homecoming, mills house, tin cans

okay last week…pretty darn full. My days off were spent working the CIU homecoming celebration. I get recruited every year by my mother-in-law. It usually ends up being pretty fun seeing the campus improvements and eating free food but it’s also a lot of socialness and nonstop picture taking. ( I love the older generations, but quick meetings require mostly Smalltalk and smalltalk is hard to pull off for 12 hour days).  It’s basically a lot of fun thrown in with a lot of tiring but I love being able to tag along with my sweet mother in law (and they did have a chocolate fountain,so worth it.)

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We took a quick trip downtown for a tour of the Mills house, riding the same bus I used to ride in high school.

 

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We also had several award dedications and special luncheons throughout the day.

I was continually rounding up class photos as we had more people arriving throughout the weekend.  I think it’s safe to say that the older your class gets, the more important reuniting is with them. 

 

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There were several chapel sessions, most with the alumni of the year, a dedicated scientist, and a very special session with professors who had basically lived their whole lives working at the school and shaped it in great ways.

 

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Desserts with the alumni and a “musical chairs” grouping students and alumni to help people get to know one another:

I think this was my favorite to eavesdrop on conversations and watch the young interact with the wise. They compared life at the college then and now, talked about goals and dating in the olden days. I saw a guy in his 20’s showing a guy in his 70’s how to work his phone. I saw a lady in her 80’s tearing up because she was overwhelmed by a young persons heart and desire to go out into the world. It’s just a great thing to see bridges built between the generations. These guys were doing so because they had all shared the same God.

 

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This man below was so nice to me and is apparently an editor for a nature photography magazine. Since we connected in photo geekery, I felt bold enough to ask him to sit where I saw some dramatic lighting. Actually, I told him I fancied his beard and that he would photograph well. I might should have toned down the awkward statements but he was a photographer and they’re pretty understanding about those things. I always notice little things about people that I want to highlight and every so often I say something. More than once I’ve been in a grocery check out line thinking, “wow, she’s got the coolest ears” or “wow, he’s got fascinating hands”. I’m admitting to being a creepy stalker persona. Hide you wives, hide your kids!

The point is, I think I’ve gotten over my shyness enough to really go for something if I see it.

 

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With homecoming finished at 8:30 pm, I was left with just a few hours to clean for our big party the next day since I was going to have to work all of Saturday. (talk about procrastination).

My sister in law had a brilliant idea to use her can’s for the Halloween party. She had been stockpiling them and filled them with water in the freezer over night. We poked holes in them with a hammer and nail while sipping tea and hanging out. The holes don’t quite line up on our diamonds, but they ended up looking pretty cool. I’m so glad she let me use her cans!

My dad also graciously let me cut down all his flowers in his garden. When I got them home, I think they bred in the car. Mums, mums everywhere. The only thing I could think to put them in were my teacups from an inherited set of dishes (they almost made it to the goodwill pile when we moved but I still hung on to them, and voila, purpose). The little lemon tree that I almost killed has also been living at Dad’s, and seeing that he’s Mr. green thumb, it had quadrupled in size. It’s going to live in the kitchen while the weather is cold out. Since it was so big, we cut the top off to fit it in the car. The raw branches smell SO GOOD. my favorite smell in the world: lemon branch.

 

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