So what's my best of 2011?

I took lots of portraits last year...it was my focus to improve my skills in capturing my subjects in a variety of settings.  I also shot my youngest daughters engagement in Joshua National Park, my newest grandson and my middle daughter's engagement in an old fashioned small town main street.  Since I could never choose between children and grandchildren, I am choosing this maternity session of a friends daughter.

Cameron and Cherelle are young parents to be, but not like the reality television version.  Becoming parents made them reflect on life, they looked forward to welcoming their baby with love for him and each other.  They are eager to learn how to be better parents despite any difficulty in their own childhoods.  I wanted to capture the innocence in them that isn't easily apparent.  I wanted to capture the joy they were feeling as this baby grew unseen in his mama's belly.

  

Rolling up their pants to splash in a pool in the summer heat was initially uncomfortable for them but once they got into the fun of just enjoying each other...being "cool" didn't matter.  This is the last photograph from that day, they were amazed at their image, that they could be "country" and love it so much.

There are so many photographers out there who want to be noticed, some just moms who take pictures for fun.  No matter why they take pictures, they also have favorites entered into Iheartfaces.com best of 2011 challenge.  See them here!

51/52 Lighting Essentials Project 52

I came in late on a 52 week project with the Lighting Essentials group on flickr and wish I had been there for the whole 52.  GOOD NEWS!  It is starting over again in 2012.  This project was started by a photographer who writes books and teaches highly rated lighting workshops, Don Giannatti.  If you want to improve your photography and learn more about the photography business, I suggest you join us!  

You can learn more about this online workshop project at http://project52.org/ and see some of the assignments that were done in 2011 as well as what's upcoming.  The online workshop includes live weekly critiquing.  You will improve your photography, interact with many talented photographers and have lots of fun.  If you need to be talked into it, check this out!  

This final assignment for 2011 is a book cover.  It really is a journal idea for the next year's assignments going forward.  My blog is kind of a journal of my photography efforts.  It's going to be a busy year!   

1/365 Paella

Yeah, finally getting around to doing a 365 project.  I want to see how much I improve over the year.

Now I know what you're thinking...365 days of posting?  365 days of what?

Isn't this supposed to be about photography.  YES!  EXACTLY!  But guess what? My recently married daughter, the last one to leave thereby giving me a new lease on life TOOK MY CARD READER!  So I will be taking photogaphs for a 365 but when they will be posted is a different matter altogether.  I would buy a new one, they are certainly inexpensive enough...but I spent my last money on the meal I photographed for the first image of my 365 project.

$200.00 of beautiful mussels, clams and shrimp on a saffron scented bed of fluffy rice made flavorful with handmade andouille sausage (filling in for spanish chorizo) and garlicky chicken served with a beautiful salad and a fruity, lush sangria for 16.  I spent every last penny of my  last paycheck on this gorgeous meal that you can only imagine until I get my memory card reader back or buy a new one with the next paycheck on friday.  Do you think I can get away with a description only on the recipe blog?

Edited!  Here is the Paella photograph.  I can see some things I could have done to improve the photograph.  There are too many empty glasses in the picture.  I should have moved them out and maybe moved a couple of full glasses of Sangria in as well as a basket of bread.  Food photography is a little harder when you have hungry people waiting to eat it!

So Life Is Just Too Much Fun!

I have been absent from my blog planning my youngest daughter"s wedding and recovering from my middle daughter's wedding three months ago.  I immediately posted the few photographs of Samantha's wedding (which was yesterday) on flickr to share with friends and to post anything other people may have taken.

My three girls love to tease each other and laugh.  All day long they were quoting lines from wedding movies.  I think this photograph shows them laughing over a mean quote from "Bride Wars", you know how sisters can blurt out the same thing at the same time?  It was an unbelievably wonderful day and I don't want to go back to regular workaday life just yet.

If you need a good laugh, join images from other photographers in this weeks Iheartfaces.com challenge called "Bust a Gut" on Monday November 28!  Have Fun!

So it's all about the sun flare...and how we love it!

How we love to photography in the late afternoon/early evening because of the sun and how we love the sun flare!  It adds to the mood of a photograph, giving it a warmth and joy we want in our images.

Once I took some images to be printed by a local processing lab and the owner chastised me in the rudest terms for our amateur images, that sun flare is a poor cover up for good technical skills.  As I looked around at the prints on display, I saw 80's style photography and composition I would consider unappealing.  I know how well my daughter knows her camera and how hard we have both studied to hone our technical skills so that our images need very little editing straight out of the camera.  We have become familiar with all types and styles of photography (because I just happen to have a rather large collection of vintage photography/books/magazines from conducting estate sales) in order to train our photographic eye.  She didn't change my mind about our love of the sun, sure it can be overused and there are lot's of ways to use light in a photograph.  That's the fun of photography and thank goodness for sites like Iheartfaces that embrace the sunflare!

This image is from an engagement shoot that I styled for my photographer daughter's engagement session with a couple of other up and coming photographers in Joshua Tree National Park.  The session was just so much fun and so beautiful.  We had the best weather and a wonderful picnic as well.  I was able to take a few pictures myself despite being the "mexican pack mule", chef and stylist for the shoot.  This is my own unique image with my favorite antique silk parasol.  Our website will have more images from all the photographers the first of October.

You can see more wonderful entries featuring THE SUN here!