Winans Family Pictures

My friend Leslie recently looked to start an interior design business because , well, she's brilliant at it. When I found this out, I asked if she would b willing to help me decorate a front room in our new house and she agreed.  On one condition - that I take family pictures and headshots for her.  That seemed like a more than generous deal to me!

She did a wonderful job on our front room and now we don't ever want to leave. It's perfect.  I've asked her to do our master bedroom now!

Last week, I got the opportunity to do the family photo shoot for them.  It's not easy getting pictures of two little girls.  Getting them to both look at the camera at the same time was near to impossible.  We got a few great pictures though so hopefully they'll have something they'll be able to use for the Christmas cards.

Now I just need to figure out how to do pictures of Adam, Gigi and I so I don't have to pay a photographer!

Playing Dress Up

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to help with pictures of her daughter. She had been on Pinterest and saw photos of a little girl in her mothers wedding dress and wanted to give it a go.

We decided we wanted to try creating the pictures with a dreamy soft feeling so we decided to use her mother-in-law's house which has a larger window in the front room which gets quite a bit of light. 

Leslie is naturally very creative and when I arrived, she had a number of props and jewelry to use in the shoot. That is super helpful for a photographer. If I were to ever decide to do this professionally, I would need to get her help to get the studio setup with really cute props and backgrounds. 

Liv was super excited to get to play dress up in her mom's dress that day. She's a bit of a goofball, but we were able to get some really great shots. Below are some of my favorite. 

Thank you Leslie, Don, and Liv for letting me help make some memories! I can't wait to do it again with Ella!

Little Girl Brooks Turns 2!

One of my favorite little girls turned 2 years old this month!  It seems just like yesterday that we were doing her 1 year old pictures.

Gabby has been going through a phase lately where she doesn't want to have her picture taken.  If you pull out a camera, she makes a face at you and covers her face with her hands.  She really does not like having her picture taken.  So Kim and I were fully prepared for a break down and were trying to find ways to keep her entertained.  Thankfully though, Gabby was a trooper!  Not only did she smile for the camera, she was posing for me.  I'd call out to her and she'd look over her shoulder at me and give me a look.  She could be a little model if she wanted to be!

Below are some of my favorites from the session!

Little Girl Brooks

Last year I did a blog about the Brooks family with some of the pregnant pictures I took of Mommy Brooks. This year, I was lucky enough to be able to take some pictures of their beautiful and smart daughter before her 1 year birthday.

I met Gabby over Christmas last year for the first time.  She was two months old and a very easy baby to like.  I then got to meet her again in April when I came home for a visit.  She was older and more interactive but still very easy to like (except for when she threw up on me!).  Now that I'm home, I get to see her nearly every weekend and she continues to be very easy to be around.

Momma Brooks asked me to do these pictures and I had never really done pictures of a 1 yr old so I was had no idea what to expect.  We setup an area in a park using some of the fall decorations that are going to be used for Gabby's birthday.  We must have looked crazy - fall decorations when it was still 90 degrees outside??

Anyhow, Gabby was a pleasure to work with.  Mama and Dad Brooks kept her entertained so I could focus on the pictures and I think they came out fantastic with the color combination!  What do you think?

Maybe we'll keep this a tradition - new pictures of Gabby every year!

Baby Brooks

On the second half of my trip home, I spent about five days in Phoenix.  I went to check on the house, to get some warmth (Canberra has been freezing), and to attend my friend Kim's baby shower.  Kim found out she was having a baby back at the beginning of the year and she has been so excited.  I think she was even more excited when she found out it was going to be a girl (look out Cooper Tew!).  She's going to be a fantastic mom and Blaine...well, Blaine is going to be in for an interested ride with two Brooks women in the house.

I've been slowly building my portfolio of portrait photography (you know, in case I ever decide to quit my high-paying corporate job that flys me all over the world).  I've done an engagement, a family, a baby, and now, thanks to Kim, I've had the chance to do maternity pictures.

It was around 114 F in Phoenix the day we decided to do pictures and I couldn't talk Dad Brooks into heading out to the park for pictures.  It was just far too hot.  So we settled on their backyard so we could go inside to cool off every now and then.  As it turns out, we got a fantastic sunset and fantastic light.  

I hope you enjoy the pictures!  I think the pictures came out pretty well.  Thank you Kim and Blaine for letting me capture this precious time for you!

Hello Cooper Tew!

During my last trip home, I made a special stopover to North Carolina to visit with my friend Merritt and her husband Morgan.  But the real reason of the trip was to meet the newest member of the Tew family - Cooper.  I missed most of Merritt's pregnancy so when an opportunity arose to get to see her and the new bub, I did what I could to make that happen.


I got to meet Cooper right away - they brought him to the airport to pick me up but it was midnight and he slept through the whole thing - already a good sign.  As it turns out, Baby Tew is one of the most chill babies I've ever had the pleasure of hanging out with.  He hardly ever cried, he let me hold him without being freaked out that I was a new person.  He was the best kind of baby -quiet, chill, and not mine.


If you follow this blog, you know that I've been trying to get into this photography thing.  Lately I've been focusing on food photography b/c I've suddenly become very domestic.  I think it's a need to nest that I can't fulfill b/c I live in a fully furnished apartment where, when I decide to move home, have to fit is a 5x5x6 crate.  But I digress, this blog is about Cooper.


Mert was cool enough to agree to let me photograph her bub as I hadn't done babies before.  Thankfully, the day we decided to do the session was gorgeous and we happened to catch some beautiful light.  I'm not completely happy with them but the colors in them are very pretty and I think we were able to catch just how chilled out the kid really is.

Love the hat!

Self-Portraiture

As part of the Project 52, one of the activities was Self-Portraiture.  I've attempted it twice now and I've learned quite a bit.  Self-Portraiture is much harder than you'd think it would be.  I learned a few things that are applicable to both self-portraits and portraits of other people.


1.  Lighting is key.  This is important for any picture, but after my experience trying to take a picture of myself, I understand even more.
1a.  I've learned my apartment does not have good lighting - especially at night when you have to use the overheads and the flash.
1b.  Overhead lights do nothing to flatter a person in a portrait.  It causes very odd shadows.


2.  You have to figure out your good side.  I always thought this was a figure of speech but, alas, it's true.  You have to be able to understand a person's face to make sure you get them at the right angle.


3.  Backgrounds are important.  In my first series of self-portraits, I just used our wall as the backdrop.  It's a white wall so I thought it would be ok.  Unfortunately, with the lighting, the wall looks gray and gross.  The next time, I used a chair as the background and it turned out better.  You can buy special backgrounds for your studio or use nice fabric.  It's important to look at all your surroundings when out take portraits.

4.  Make-up is important.  No amount of photoshopping will fix an oily face (or maybe it will and I just don't know how to do it).

5.  Be creative.  When you're behind the camera, it's easy to be creative because it's not you in the picture.  You're not putting yourself out there.  With self-portraiture, it's much more personal.  You want to make sure you look good (especially if you'll be sharing on your blog) but sometimes that impedes you from experimenting.  I didn't experiment as much as I could have.  Maybe one day I'll talk HA into taking me out of the apartment so I can experiment in some fun locations.

I've include below a few of the pictures I took.  I'm not happy with any of them but I've learned alot from them that I can hopefully carry forward into some other shots that I might do.

No Make-up, bad background - not good

After some post-processing.  I look like I've been fake baking.

This one is for Mom so she can see I do this even when I'm by myself.

Lesson learned - do NOT lean back.  Chin always up - I'm not 18 anymore.

Looking up and into the camera is always universally flattering.  However, the overhead lights creating shadows under the eyes is not.

Project 52 - Week 7 [Catch Up]

I've decided that I'm going to try and catch up on my missed weeks for Project 52.  It might take me a while but I'll eventually have 52 entries.

One of the reasons I wanted to learn to take nice pictures is that I love to capture candid pictures of my friends and family.  I love the journalistic style of pictures where you capture a person in a very genuine moment.  One thing I've learned is a good candid shot still needs a lot of preparation.  You have to make sure your exposure is correct, the lighting is flattering, and the background/foreground will make a pretty picture.  Alot of the photographers that I follow tend to take alot of these candid type shots.  I love them. 

So when my friend LB asked me to take pictures of her and her family, I had to study up on how I would shoot them.  You may remember that I posted some pictures of her son, Silas, back in January.  LB and family are moving back to the states on Monday so it became imperative that we found some time to take pictures.  Unfortunately, our schedules have never worked out where we're both in Canberra at the same time.  Thankfully, on their last weekend in town, we were able to make it work.

We decided to meet up at around 8am so that we could try and catch some of the morning light.  But when we woke up, it was very foggy and overcast.  I got up a bit early so I could go check out the location Leah had suggested and to see if the weather was going to cooperate.  Thankfully, it was clear enough that I thought we could continue with the shoot.

Silas was very busy during the whole shoot.  I think he liked the shots where he could run around the best though he sometimes didn't like it when I got in his way.  He didn't much like the posed sitting shots but he cooperated for a few of them.

Below are some of my favorites from the session.  Thanks to LB for letting me practice with her and the family and thank you for letting me post them to the blog.



This is probably my favorite one!




I had to include this one.  Silas wanted nothing to do with the wet grass.

Engagement Session

While I was home last week, my sister asked me to take some pictures of her and her financee.  They had had some engagement pictures done right after he proposed but they were the standard studio pictures and JP wanted something a bit different.

I'm taking on this photography stuff and I do quite like it.  Up to this point, I hadn't done much in the way of choregraphing shots.  There were a couple that I did for the Project 52 (which I am totally behind on) but otherwise, I prefer to take candid shots.

To prepare for the "session" with JP and BL, I looked through the websites of photographers that I particularly like.  The website I spent the most time on is a woman that I worked with in Kansas City who has now become a full time photographer.  I absolutely love her work.  Please go check her out - http://www.jamiemillerimages.com/.  I downloaded some of the pictures with poses that I particularly liked so I could use them for reference.

I had hoped to take the pictures in CO Springs so that we could get an urban feel to them.  Unfortunately, JP and BL had to work and so we had very little sunlight between when they got off work and when the sun went down.  Given our time constraints, we decided to just do the "session" at my mom and dad's house.  This meant I had to go back to my research and look for poses that were outdoors and a bit more "country".

When they finally got to the house, we immediately went outside and got started.  We had a bit of trouble in that JP kept laughing...like laughing laughing.  She couldn't just give me a pretty smile.  I set them up in a few poses and got some shots but I was feeling very uncomfortable with the whole process.  I wasn't real sure what to do. 

After about 20 minutes, I had gotten a bunch pictures and headed inside.  We reviewed them with Mom and she decided we needed more pictures.  So we grabbed my laptop, which had my "posing guide" and headed back outside.  I made Mom come with me this time to help we setup up the shots.  We spent a bit more time outside and got a bunch more shots and had a few laughs as well.

I've done a bit of post-processing on some of the pictures and thought I would share them with you.  Hope you enjoy them!

Project 52 - Week 6

The theme for Week 6 was "Words".  I'm going to be honest, I wasn't really feeling the theme last week and, well, I didn't even try to take some pictures. 

However, this past weekend in Canberra, the multi-cultural festival was being held.  This is one of HA's favorite weekends of the year, so on Saturday evening, we headed out.  When I attended the event two years ago, it was fairly busy but not so overly busy that you wanted to shoot people.  Unfortunately, I couldn't say that about this year.  The festival was crammed with people - which is good for Canberra - not so good for someone who hates crowds.

My point is, this festival was very busy and parking in downtown Canberra is at a premium.  On the walk home, HA and I were getting a kick out of how all the Aussie's were parking wherever they could - this includes on sidewalks and grass areas.  Which led me to this picture.  I took it with my iphone so it's not great quality.



Words - that people don't pay attention to

This is definitely an Aussie trait.  They will park anywhere that is available without repercussion of a ticket.  It can get quite funny.

Also while I was out walking the lake this weekend, I came across this:

You can't really tell in this picture, but it's clear that the trolley has been in the lake for some time - it's quite rusted.  How it got pulled out of the water, I'm not real sure.  But it's now sitting in the grass by the lake.  I took this picture with the Hipstamatic app on my iphone.

Project 52 - Week 5

This week's theme for the Project 52 was "Muse".  I'm still experimenting to find my style and to be quite honest, to find the time to practice.  The themes for the Project 52 don't come out in Australia until late on Saturday so that generally leaves me Sunday as a free day to try and take pictures.  Otherwise, I have to take the pictures in the evening after work.  I'm not quick to come up with ideas for the theme.  Quite often HA will provide me with an idea.  Getting good at photography is hard work and if you don't have an eye for the composition, it's very difficult.

This past weekend, I was in Sydney.  Friday night I was at a concert for Grinderman and on Saturday, I saw "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" at the Opera House with my friend LB - which, by the way, I HIGHLY recommend.  The show was fantastic - I would love to see the American version.  While we were in Sydney, we also went to the zoo and Watson's Bay.  Both areas of Sydney have phenomenal views.  Every time I go to Sydney, I am so inspired and wish I knew how to take those breathtaking landscapes pictures that you find in stores.  Sydney is one of the reasons I wanted to learn to take good pictures.  So in that vein, I decided to have the city of Sydney as my Muse.



I'm finding that I like my pictures with a border - I feel like they make the picture pop more.  At the same time, I think I need to keep playing with my style to find what suits me.

What's your muse?

Project 52 - Week 4

This week's theme with the MCP Actions Project 52 was Soothing Repetition.  I wasn't sure if I'd participate with that theme this week but after some thought I decided to try and shoot for the theme.  I spent some time looking through some of the pictures which were already uploaded b/c I didn't want to do something that someone had already done.  There were a number of pictures around food - ice cream, soda, coffee - and there were things like brushing your hair.

I spent some time thinking about what would be repetitious and soothing.  This brought me to running.  I hadn't seen a picture for running uploaded yet and I know quite a few people that would call running soothing (certainly not me!). 

I recruited HA (again!) to be the model.  It was a beautiful day in Canberra again and HA and I went out to the lake to try and get a shot.  I played with a few different perspectives.  As it turns out, the one I liked the best was the very first shot I took.  It's in black and white but I think that it works for the evening sun that's coming in from the side.



Next week's theme hasn't been posted yet!  Stay tuned!

Project 52 - Week 3

The theme for this weeks Project 52 was "Shades of Grey".  I had this vision of finding someone with beautiful thick grey hair and getting an amazing picture.  Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with grey hair.  Or, at least, I don't know them well enough to be like "hey, can I take pictures of your grey hair?"

So I thought all week about what I wanted to do.  I wanted to take a picture that would highlight the many shades of grey but also be something that wouldn't require traveling somewhere or alot of setup time.

On top of that, I didn't have much time this week.  I had things scheduled for every night after work so it also needed to be a picture I could take at home and wouldn't need alot of natural sunlight.

So, Thursday night I took the easy way out and bought some beautiful gerber daisies from the supermarket and headed home to try and do something creative with them.  Unfortunately, the boys called and I ended up getting drinks until late in the evening Thursday.  I had plans to go watch the Australian Open that weekend so Friday rolled around and I was frantically packing so we could catch our plane.  I took a few pics of the flowers, converted them to black and white and uploaded to Flickr so that I could have an entry.  It didn't turn out too badly for a quick 10 minutes of work.  What do you think?



This week's theme is "Soothing Repetition".  I'm not sure how I like this theme. I may go my own way this week.  Stay tuned!

Project 52 - Week 2

This weekend, I got to babysit for my friend Leah.  Her son Silas is one of the cutest and most chilled out kids I know.  He's 13 months old, but while I was babysitting, all I had to do was make sure he didn't put his finger in a socket.  Otherwise, he entertained himself.

While I was babysitting, I thought I might practice taking some pictures.  Photographing HA is easy cause he poses however I tell him to but children are a completely different story.  They move around alot more and they decide when they want to smile.

I had hoped the weather would be nice, but, in true Aussie fashion, it was raining.  I took some pictures of him in the apartment but alot of them had very messy backgrounds so they weren't great.  However, I did get a few cute ones.

The one below is my favorite from the session.  I think he was looking at HA at the time trying to decide if he was ok with him being there or not.  Silas has very expressive eyes.  In nearly all the pictures I got, you can look at it and make up what he's thinking based on his expression.

ISO:800
1/640
f5.3
Focal Length: 165mm
Add Color Pop 2 action by thecoffeeshopblog.com and an additional vignette

I'm also participating in a group Project 52 with MCP Actions.  They'll provide a theme every week and you provide the picture.  This week's theme is "Illustrate a Song". I'm still working out what I can do for this theme.  If I come up with a picture, I'll post it later this week.

New Years Resolution

For 2011, I have two resolutions.  I don't generally do resolutions because no one ever sticks to them.  But I thought I would give it a go.

Resolution 1 - Exercise more so I can feel better about myself
Of course I would love to lose some of the weight I've put on but more importantly, I want to feel better about myself.  Whenever I exercise regularly, I always feel more energetic and confident.  I do better at work and at my relationships.  I think this is important.  I don't want to focus on a number of pounds or inches to lose.  I think that's just a losing battle.  Instead I want to focus on setting a goal for the number of times I should exercise each week.  Prior to the holidays, I was doing pretty well at getting some form of exercise around 3 times a week.  I think that's fairly reasonable.  To help me stick to my resolution, I've come up with a list of actions to take.

How to get there:
1.  Hire a personal trainer.  I had a personal trainer for awhile when I was in AZ.  I found it very motivational to have someone to answer to each week.  Trainers are cheaper here for some reason so that makes this action alot easier to act on.  I've already got a list of three trainers to contact for quotes.
2.  Go to bed earlier.  Right now, I'm in bed anywhere between 11pm and 1am.  This isn't good.  This means that I can't wake up in the morning to exercise and I'm too tired after work.  I'm going to try and be in bed by 11pm at the latest.
3.  Log eating habits and exercise schedule.  Whether or not I blog this info - I haven't decided yet.  In the meantime, I have an app for the phone which will allow me to track all my food, exercise and weight.  I'll start using it more regularly.

I'm hoping that by putting these online, I'll feel more obligation to actually do them since people I know read this and will probably ask on my progress.

Resolution 2 - Practice my photography
I've seen online that alot of photographers do a 365 project - meaning that they take or edit a picture everyday and post it somewhere online.  I'll be honest - I'm not going to do a picture a day.  So knowing that, I'm going to do a 52 project - one picture per week.  I will take or edit at least one picture per week and post it to the blog.  I'll include all the details on it and any actions/edits I might have done. 

Mom - do you want to join me with this project??

So, here is Week 1 Photograph

Christmas Dinner Table

 I thought HA's mom did a fabulous job of decorating the dinner table for christmas and felt it needed to be captured.  My only regret with the picture is the background.  I didn't think through the composition of the picture and captured the TV on the patio - not the best background possible.  Here's the information on the picture:
ISO:  400
1/80 Shutter
f5.6 Aperature
I've applied two actions in PhotoShop Elements - Pioneer Woman Colorized and Pioneer Woman Fresh Color

Thanks Mom for turning me on to Pioneer Woman.  She has a great blog for photography.

What's everyone else's New Year's Resolutions?