May Showers

So I know the expression is that "April showers bring May flowers", but we actually have had the opposite here.  April was full of blooming trees & beautiful flowers sprouting all over our property.  Since May began, we've been having nearly daily thunderstorms!  But some showers are better than others.  Like baby showers.



Look!  Squiggle dropped last week!  Getting close!!!

We had our baby shower the first weekend of May, & combined it with a housewarming (because it makes more sense to ask only one day of people's busy schedules).  It was a success!  So many people came by to wish us well, see the house, design a onesie, & eat some food.  It was a bit of a whirlwind.  We ran the event over a six hour timespan so people could drop in whenever they had time to (again, it is a crazy busy time of year).  It was a very fun day, but incredibly exhausting, too.  Check out the sugar baby on the cake... a friend of our made it!  She stands by the "it's a mold, not terribly impressive" point of view, while I stand by the "holy cow that sugar baby looks like an actual tiny baby & it's blowing my mind" perspective. 




Yesterday, I celebrated my first Mother's Day!  I got lots of cuddles & breakfast from Bear.  We had lunch with my parents & dinner with his & got to spend some time with both the moms in our lives, which was nice.  In between those meals, we had a maternity shoot at our house with Heather... I cannot wait to see how the photos all turned out!  I am really excited about a few of them!  When I have them, I will post some of my favorites.  Until then, I asked Bear to snap a sneak peek from a different angle, so I had something to post in the interim.  I think these are the images I have always wanted to immortalize my pregnancy.



We are waiting on our delivery of Ruby Moon diaper detergent to wash all our lovely pre-loved cloth diapers!  My cousin brought down her entire stash from New York, so we added a significant amount of fluff to our growing collection!  I am very excited to get the nursery completely organized & efficient.  Bear & I have already brought in some of our childhood favorites to add some nostalgia & personality to the room.  I will have to get pictures of the space to share here when we are done.  I cannot believe that in ONE MONTH our "Squiggle" will finally be here!  I can't wait to introduce him or her to the world.



What new beginnings are sprouting in your Spring season this year?

Earth Day!

Today is the day when we all look at our lifestyle & think, "how can I minimize my carbon footprint?"


Being Earth-conscious is something that is very important to me, & I am forever wearing Bear down with assertions of how we can better live in harmony with the planet.  Hilariously, I am very much a homebody who prefers the indoors, dislikes bugs, easily burns, & has a horrible bottled water habit.  But I am all about making changes to help the planet where I can.

Here are some changes we have already made in our own home:

* plant-based cleaners, rather than chemical ones

* saving, reusing &/or re-purposing glass containers (soda bottles, condiment jars, etc)

* recycling!  This can be traditional blue-bin recycling to crafty re-purposing.

* making plans to grow food, instead of a lawn!

* creating our cloth diaper stash for Squiggle (Bear's brother & sister-in-law cloth diaper our niece L, too!)

* choosing to make holistic remedies rather than purchasing mass-produced chemical options

* opting for more traditional, reusable cleaning instruments, over one-time use products (like Swiffer, which I was a huge fan of for a long time, before realizing how much waste I was creating in the name of dust removal!)

* saving energy by line-drying clothing & blankets when possible

* thrifting new-to-us items, & donating our unwanted items so that they may find a new purpose in another life

* using site such as Freecycle!

(Pictured diapers are pre-loved gDiapers; origami book flowers from our wedding by The Crane Factory)

We can still make further changes to live a greener lifestyle, but we are making small changes every year, working more towards recuperating Mother Earth!

Some other ideas around the internet are:

* these children's companies that are Earth-friendly as well

* botanical jewelry & art with an Earth Day Birthday sale

* a great round-up of garden markers for budding babies

* a whole list of alternatives to plastic wrap (I also really love this idea!)

And Free People are running an Instagram contest to win an amazing, one-of-a-kind Earth quilt!  I would LOVE to get my paws on it for Squiggle's room, which is in a World Travel theme!  Perhaps I will put my recycling sensibilities to good use & make something of our pile of "dead jeans"...




HAPPY EARTH DAY!  What are you doing to celebrate?

xo


Edit: I forgot to mention that another great thing to do for this planet is to sign this petition against Monsanto.  Yes, Monsanto is all science-y & I like science, but I also think it's wrong to genetically mutate seeds so that they are unable to reproduce new plants next season, to completely change the genetic structure of food, to force farmers to forfeit the seeds they have used for generations in favor of Monsanto seeds... there is a long list.  Essentially ceasing the circle of life in the name of insecticide immune plants?  That can't be healthy for Mother Earth...

BAD Photos

Something my brother brought to my attention, because he knows my love of photography & National Geographic.



Remember, most of these images were taken with film!  We are so fortunate to have all this technology these days, & often forget how technology has changed our lives.  Photography is still an art; the digital darkroom requires skill & patience just like the traditional darkroom... but to really limit your exposures, the capture your vision with the correct settings in a few shots that you wouldn't see to verify that you got the image you want until you developed the negatives (& really you never know the true potential until you make a few prints)... that's devotion to your art.  True talent & skill.

What's inspiring you today?

xo

TUTORIAL: Photography for Advertising & Branding

Hello!

I haven't tried making a tutorial before, so I thought I would take a stab at something I have been working on a lot myself: photographing items for ads & branding.



See?

Now, I take a lot of photos for MCAC's Facebook page, promoting events, shows, etc., but I chose a simple project that can be used for any project.  A lot of people wish to photograph handmade jewelry, crafts, vintage items, & various other goods for internet sale sites.  Lots of people use sites like etsy & ebay to sell their wares, so having clean, high quality photos can help give you an edge.  Nothing says professional like a crisp, white background, especially if you are selling items that are rather busy in & of themselves.

How to recreate that cleanly professional lightbox look at home?  If you have a white sheet or sketchbook, a camera & a window... you could be in business!



I used a pad of tracing paper for this, but you may need a larger surface (like a white sheet) for larger items.  If you do use a sheet, clamps may come in handy.  You can simply clamp your sheet to the back of a chair or two to create a suitable "stage".  Note that any sketchbook used should be bound traditionally (no spiral bound notebooks).  This helps create that seamless look in the photographic background.



Open up your sketchbook/set up your sheet where diffused light from a large window evenly illuminates the surface area.  Keep all your items for photographing handy.

Set your camera to a daylight setting (if you are manually setting your white balance, you want 5200-5800 on an average sunny day with window diffusion.  Learn more about degrees Kelvin here!).  You do NOT want to use your flash! If your items are small (like earrings or rings) you may also want to use a macro setting.  For best results, open up your aperture (I shot these images at f/2.8, focal distance of 50mm).  If you can't adjust your aperture manually, macro mode will probably be the best option, as you can focus on your item at close range, throwing the background out of focus (thus aiding in that lightbox illusion).

That's it!  Take your photos & keep an eye on the changing light.  Keep in mind that the images on your camera's LCD screen may look different on your computer screen.  For example, today was rainy, so my images ended up with a bluish cast since I was shooting at 5400 Kelvin & probably should have adjusted to 6000+ Kelvin.  Live & learn!




(The item in the tutorial photos is my eos lip balm in honeysuckle honeydew.)

When your settings in camera are correct, you can get nearly perfect results...




And these are perfect for use in completed advertisement images, such as this one that I made for MCAC using the above photos, my toothpick colorwheel photo, & Adobe Photoshop CS5!



Of course, I always tweak my images in Lightroom & Photoshop before posting them anywhere.  Don't have those tools?  No problem.  iPhoto is handy, as is the standard photo editing software for Windows.  You can also get Picasa for free online.  I recommend Picasa for its ease of use & great features such as the grid/double exposure/mosaic generator.

I hope this helps somebody!  Please let me know if you have any additional questions or just want to add something in the comments.  If you try your hand at this project & post your outcome, I would love if you would post me a link, too!!!

xo  Happy shooting!

Squeebie Smash

So, I am the world's latest gift giver ever.  This year, Patchie got her Christmas gift several weeks late because I failed to notice I ordered her awesome TARDIS iPhone case from Hong Kong.  Fail.  And Squeebie... well, her very later birthday/Christmas gift was finally mailed off yesterday.  I wanted to make a fun little stop motion video of her gift before I sent it, but I was lazy.  So I did a little photo shoot (boring) instead.  I used my new 35mm f/1.8 lens that I scored for a ridiculous small sum to shoot.  I am in love with my slowly growing prime lens collection.  Anyway...



Squeebie sent me a link on Facebook to this video a loooong time ago.  She was all about the Smash Book.  I have to admit, it looked fun.  But I also figured it would be expensive and gimmicky.  And I am wary of gimmicks.  Cut to Christmas at my parent's house, when I opened a gift from my mom which wound up being a red "doodle" Smash book and some accessories.  I flipped through it and looked at the goodies and realized: this is a scrapbook I can take with me on the honeymoon and actually complete AS I am experiencing things!  Gone is the pressure of remembering where I took that picture or why I took the other.  Gone is the memory lapse of remembering that funny incident that happened on the Wednesday of that vacation we took last year.  Awesome!  I went online and found their site... and the albums are actually really affordable.  With all the fun little add ons, you can still get a good set for $30 or less, which is saying a lot for scrapbook type gear.  The scrapbooking trend is on the rise, and so many neat gadgets come out every year.  To make a truly awesome scrapbook, you may invest hundreds in raw materials.  Seriously.




So I went to our local craft supply shop and found (after asking assistance and learning the kiosk was literally two steps in front of me, duh) the Smash Book section.  I chose the "simple" orange Smash Book for Squeebie, as she wore tangerine for the wedding and my girls will forever more be color-coded in my mind.  I picked out a few fun accessories and brought it all home, where I intended to be crafty.  Except I wasn't.  I am so lazy sometimes.  Also, you will note that I linked to the official site's Smash kits for the journals.  If I had paid attention, I would have gotten more bang for my buck by ordering online, and shipping directly to Squeebie.  But then I wouldn't have doodled all over the box I used for shipping (and forgot to photograph).  Doodled packages are the best.



This post was not sponsored, I just wanted Squeebie to see what was on it's way and get her all excited for it to arrive!  According to the tracking I put on the package, it is expected to arrive TOMORROW.  Hooray!  So, why a Smash Book?  Aside from the obvious fact that she's been pining for one for half a year or so, she is also moving back to MD soon!  I thought a Smash Book would be a fun way to document her remaining weeks in KS.  We also tend to be into similar stuff, so I am excited to see how she uses hers and how I will use mine.

Of course, you can make your own Smash Book if you wanted to, with any kind of book.  The journals made by K&Company have lots of colorfully designed cardstock pages which adds to the "this is an easy scrapbook" feel, and include a pen that is a gluestick on the other side.  Convenient, no?  But you CAN buy the pen separately and use any journal you want to.  Art journaling is totally easy to accomplish.  It's just nice that the fancy version is affordable, too, for anyone who feels the task of creating decorative pages from scratch is asking too much.  If you are interested in finding ideas for art journaling and are willing to spend $30 for a year's worth of ideas, check out Elsie's Art Journaling class from Red Velvet.  It does look cute.



Well, that's all for now!

xo

Muse: Meet Joel, Flickr's "Boy_Wonder"

I have been on Flickr for a couple years now, usually posting nothing awesome or artistic, just some every day snapshots and the like.  I really came to admire many other Flickr users, especially those with an artistic background (graphic designers and pen and paper artists) who brought a mystical feel to their imagery.

Enter Joel, Flickr alias "Boy_Wonder".  His work is saturated in whimsy, with fun plays on those Disney classics my generation grew up with.  I love his take on the world surrounding him, the fun and fancy, and sometimes the darkness.  He really inspires me to play with my art, to challenge the world as I can capture it with a simple click of the shutter, and take that image and make it more.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do, and I hope you click through the image to see their original stories; maybe check out the rest of his photo stream.  I promise you, the afternoon you'll lose drooling over the images will pay you back in kind for your time!













Happy magical muse Monday!

xo

EDIT (December 5)- You can find his BLOG HERE! He even has tutorials!  Score!

Engagement Photos

We have had this ridiculous evolving plan for our engagement photos that began when we were engaged last Christmas.  And by "we" I mean "me"...

Originally, I intended to make a 365 project of love photos.  Just pictures of us in our daily lives, and pick the best of the project for announcements and such.  My willpower failed me, and I never took a SINGLE photo of us.  Also, the date was moved WAY up so we will be married almost exactly a year from the proposal date!  Seeing as I didn't start that project yet, though... it's unlikely I can manage 365 casual "daily life" photos in 50 days.

Then we discussed our love of films, and I thought "how cool, movie poster inspired engagement shots!".  This also would have taken time and planning, costuming, wigs, and make-up to pull off.  Which... we never got started on and now it's too late.

So, I was thinking maybe we'd have to settle on typical engagement pictures.  The kind I was really trying to avoid.

Then I saw THIS LINK and now I am on the hunt for a projector and some awesome slides!  I know time is limited, and our schedules don't match up with Patchie's, who was going to take our photos... and it may not work out.  But, my mom has offered to take some images for us...and if all else fails, I have a tripod and a remote.

I seriously love the idea of projecting backgrounds for photos, though... especially with the winter season creeping up so fast!  We can stay toasty and have a series of interesting images, it's like traveling from our spare room!



 

Click on the image to go to it's original page on Flickr!

Pssst... Updates!

I forgot to mention, but you probably already noticed, that the blog has some new tweaks to it!  I also added a new page on the bar above, called My Library.  If you go there, you can see all the books I've read or am currently reading.  Clicking on any of them links you back to where I blogged about them!  Neato!



I got the idea from this page on Food Coma.  I loved it so much, I wanted to see if I could do something similar.  I am not sure if we are going about it the same way, but it works the same way, which makes me super happy!

Why I'm Weird...

Planning a wedding is something that many girls enjoy and have looked forward to a majority of their lives.  I am not one of them.  This makes me a little strange.  It's not that I don't want to get married, because I do.  I love Bear and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!  I'm just not wired to worry about dresses and color schemes and locations and fancy dinners.

Mostly, my excitement in this new phase of my life is the beginning of our little future family.  I have always loved kids.  Kids speak a language I totally understand.  Of course, then they become aliens known as teenagers, which I didn't even comprehend when I was one, but anyway... family.  I am very excited to have my own kids one day and photograph the heck out of them!

my future step-neice-in-law, with the camera pillow I made her last Christmas!

I realize that children are not little offshoots of us and instead are individuals.  They are not toys, dolls, little slaves for housework, or pets.  They are little human beings, full of their own insights, emotions, challenges, talents and life.  They are responsibilities that are reliant upon their parents almost entirely in their early years, and continue to need their parents throughout their lives (at least, I always think of some reason to call my parents!).

But I have to say, I can't wait to have the opportunity to stop time in my future kid's lives through such creative images as the ones I find on Flickr.  I am particularly inspired by the following members:

* gregariouspeach of course!  So full of color!  You can tell how much Georgia loves her kiddos in every shot.

* lauren {elycerose}.  So much emotion and complexity in each frame.  She reminds me of Sally Mann a bit in her compositional choices and the attitudes she captures.

* jwlphotography.  Each image tells a story and is very clever!  I love how involved the kids get!

* poppysmiles.  She's a pro photog in Australia, but she also has some pretty terrific, colorful portraits of her own kids, too!  So creative!

* reelgeek and dustindiaz.  Pro photog hubby and wife team who had their first baby!  They're strobists, so all the lighting is creative and set up, which makes for really dynamic images.  They don't have too many photos of the new edition up yet, but I am sure there will be more!

* This Flickr group, momshots, is super cute!

I am by no means baby-starved, and I don't want to have kids right off the bat, but I am excited for when that time comes!

Does anyone else feel the same way I do?  That somehow you missed out on the "wedding excitement" gene and jumped into "family" and "nesting" modes instead?!?!

I hope some of you check out the Flickr streams of the very talented mamas and papas I linked to!

Happy Thursday!

xo

Muse: Edward Weston

Edward Weston is intriguing to me.  He travelled Yellowstone Park on a grant from the Guggenheim Fellowship, of which he was the first photographer recipient.  He creating a staggering amount of gorgeous prints of subject matter ranging from still life work with peppers to landscapes to intimate portraiture of various lovers.

The last bit is what fascinates me most.  Weston met Charis Wilson, who became his assistant, and later on, lover made wife.  Their relationship is interesting to follow through his intimate portraits of her, from the studio studies to nudes in the sand dunes and beyond.  The Weston and Wilson collaboration, which is really what it was... she was the muse, and he the artist, but the vision was shared... really intrigues me.  To capture so much emotion and personifying a relationship in front of the lens... it's magical.

Weston inspired many of my projects in college for my Fine Art Photography courses.  His use of light and understanding of composition and the human interest in what could be perceived as erotic imagery made him and his work infinitely interesting.





You can see the influence Weston has had on other photographers HERE!

Again, all images in this post were found on and should link through to their original sources on Flickr.

Happy Thursday!

xo

Muse: Leo Fuchs

I have another photographer today to discuss, since I am running on empty in the wedding arena.  But don't think of this as a filler post; if there is one thing I am truly passionate about, it's photography!

Leo Fuchs was in the rare position of being a trusted photographer in Hollywood's hay-day.  Think Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn... you get the idea.  Those static idols of the silver screen, icons of a bygone era.  Fuchs not only managed to photograph publicity shots on set, he befriended the stars and was able to photograph the people behind the famous facade.

Last Christmas, Bear's mom gave me a beautiful book about Leo Fuchs... a huge art tome with humungous gossamer photos of black & white and kodachrome-enhanced stars and starlets gazing at me from their perfect Hollywood galaxy.  Immortalized lounging on recliners poolside, reading screenplays.  Reviewing scenes with directors.  Having conversations with family members.  Vacationing.  Everything they did was recorded and there in front of me.

If there is another thing I am as passionate about as photography, it would be classic films.  I am a sucker for them.  This marriage of the two enthralled me.

I still find myself flipping through the pages, reading about the improbable life of this man who left the glamour behind him to live with his family and raise his son in Paris, France; all from his son's point of view.

Take a moment to view the photos below, and try to look beyond the impressive subject matter and really focus on the art of it all.  Every individual he captured was an icon, but was also a human being.  Fuchs managed to keep his subjects in a positive light, without being artificial.  Their humanity is displayed, but they still get to keep something to themselves.  He didn't photograph stars the way tabloid photogs do today.  He photographed with dignity.

In addition to the above links, if you are interested in learning more about Fuchs, you can go be a part of the Facebook page!

The above images were found via The Helios Gallery's Flickr page, and should click through to their original sources.  Due to technical difficulties, the links may have been broken.

The second set of images were found via Leo Fuchs' Archives Flickr page, and again click through to their original sources.  Again, due to technical difficulties, the links may have been broken.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

xo

Muse: Sally Mann

When I began delving into the world of photography I had no idea what to expect.  I knew I liked how when I had captured a moment on film, and later digitally, I felt like I had preserved the way I saw the world at that moment.  I knew that I liked to photograph people more than anything else.  Try to capture the complexity of their features as well as something about their souls.  It was as if I could reach in their eyes and find their secrets.

Art photography is very different from the kind of family portraiture I do now. Having a business like I do allows me to bring home something to live off of.  I enjoy it all very much, but I truly love artistic portraiture most of all.  I wish I always had access to a darkroom and an enlarger.  I wish I could offer more of the fine art portraiture I love so much.  I fall in love with images that are both enlightening and haunting all at once.

My infatuation with this artistic portraiture began when I discovered Sally Mann and her body of work entitled Immediate Family, which an art friend of mine was using for her advanced thesis paper.  While the images caused many to question if the work was to be considered art or if something more sinister lie beneath the surface, I personally love the intimate moments Mann captured of her family.  Her children evoke both a feeling of youth and sophistication, a toughness as well as a vulnerability.

The documentary about her work, which I found on Ovation TV, further fueled my love of her work.  Using a large format 8x10 glass plate negative bellows camera for her work, each photograph took time to set up and capture.  Most photographers use 35mm, 120 film, or digital media to capture images quickly and easily, allowing a more photojournalistic approach, but Mann's equipment is cumbersome and involves time to set up and capture an image.  Each image captured, therefore, is a labor of love.

Mann also has completed several more series, including one about her husband's battle with muscular dystrophy and another series about death, in which one of their deceased dogs is photographed in various stages of decomposition.  Somehow, she makes it all interesting and beautiful through her lens.

Mann's three children, famous from their portraits, are now grown.  Her eldest, Jessie, is also a photographer and a model, while her other children, Emmett and Virginia, pursued other careers.

I hope you enjoy the magic I see in her work!  Happy Thursday!

 *all images by Sally Mann, found by google image search.