Playing Photographer: Couples

After successfully navigating family photos for my sister, I agreed to give couples photos to go for my brother and sister-in-law. Without kids to corral, I was surprised at how much quicker and easier these photos were to get. Of course, one thing that made it much easier was that my SIL had done a lot of research and had collected a bunch of inspiration images that we used to get us started.

These were all taken near my hometown, where they now live. I arrived a day before we took these and, after looking at my SIL inspiration photos I did some location scouting. We ended up shooting in about 5 or 6 different places, but it was worth it to get a good variety.

The sky was dark and dreary all day, so we were worried we wouldn't get any of that golden light, but we lucked out and the sky cleared for us just in time.

It is safe to say I won't be giving up my day job to become a photographer anytime soon, but it is fun to be able to take a few photos for family now and again.

I think these photos deserve a love song, so here is one of my all time favorites, an oldie, but still beautiful.  Ray LaMontagne's Let it Be Me.

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Playing Photographer: Family Photos

I played real photographer for my sister and her family this summer. Mostly it reminded my of all the reason I'd never make it as a pro. Getting everyone to look the same way, smile and open their eyes - not an easy task. Still I had a lot of fun trying.

Instead of posting the "good" ones - i.e. the ones my sister will have printed and hang on walls, I thought I'd post some of my favorites, mostly outtakes - photos that made me smile and brought out personalities.

M and T weren't particularly in the mood to play model, so we moved fast and used frozen white chocolate chips as bribes - it was the only food I could think of that wouldn't result in messy faces and clothes.

We were attempting to copy a pose we'd seen on pinterest in this photo - let's just say it didn't quite go as planned....

My favorite of T - he looks sweetly mischievous, which is correct.

 

We never did get a good one of Miss M that evening, so the next morning I convinced her to give me another try. This ended up being one of my very favorite shots of the entire experience.

I recently downloaded the newest Josh Radin, the entire album is amazing, but his The Greenest Grass seems to be a great match with this photos.



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Little Miss

Sugarland - Little Miss Pin It

Away from the Light

I shared some photos Monday from a recent hike just before sunset. Those photos were taken toward the sun and I was trying to capture the beautiful warm light. This set of photos were taken the same day and from close to the same location, and same time, but were taken away from the sun.

Instead of warm golden light, these photos are full of coolness - and yet you can still see rays of lights shining through the clouds. Both versions of light are equally amazing.

This last shot was taken with my iPhone from a moving car (so forgive the blur.) It was taken near sunset - with the sun setting behind me, the photo is facing east. I was mesmerized by the rays of light crossing the entire sky. My goal is to someday develop my technical skills to the point that I can reliably capture the light as I actually see it, in all it's glory.

I found myself wishing I could head out a bit closer to nature today - since I can't here's the Pavement Ends from Little Big Town, a song is as close as I can get. Pin It

Following the Light

I've found myself paying more and more attention to the various qualities of light lately. It doesn't matter whether I have a camera with me or not, it catches my eye and I find myself wanting to improve my technical skills so I can capture what I'm seeing.  These photos are from a hike in my neighborhood just before sunset.

There was a lot of smoke in the atmosphere the day these were taken, so the light was filtered in an even more beautiful way (and yes, it makes me feel slightly guilty for thinking that - because I'm certain the fire causing the smoke was causing destruction for someone or a lot of someones.)

Do you have any favorite tutorials or classes that have helped you better capture light in your photos? And while I'm asking for tips - I'm struggling to get my photos printed decently. I don't know if it is that I'm not using the best shop or if it is something I'm doing in processing, but my pictures are not showing up in print the way they do on the screen and any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I picked up the new Missy Higgins album and fell in love with the closing track: Sweet Arms of a Tune Pin It

New York

Snow Patrol - New York

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Fall Leaves at the Cabin

On my last weekend in the US, my parents too me, my niece and nephew to their cabin to check out the renovations they've been making. It looks amazing and the trip gave me a chance to grab a last few photos of the fall leaves.

The area was nearly carpeted in yellow aspen leaves. It was so beautiful - and peaceful.

I managed to get the kids to slow down just long enough to get a photo of them sitting on the "king/queen's seat" which they thought was pretty cool.

I haven't been away from home for long, but I'm already missing these two like crazy.

Willy Mason - When the Leaves Have Fallen

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Blurb Books

Several people asked if I was going to show the Blurb books I made from my blog which I talked about in this post so I snapped a few photos on my way out the door last week (which is my excuse for the wrinkled table cloth underneath them.)

I've been blogging for just over 4 years and have now created these books for each year. The books aren't fancy on the outside, they are the soft-cover bare bones version. I invested my time on the inside - working to create custom layouts that maximized the photos in the book.

For those of you who are curious about how Blurb works - you give it your blogs url and password, it then scrapes your content into their application. You can then choose the posts you want in your book and it automatically creates a layout for you. The basic layout has text as the main body and photos in 1 inch square boxes on the edges of each page. Because I wanted my photos larger and closer to the original size I created custom layouts for each of the posts. I'll admit it - this took a while. But you can save each of the layouts you create and make it a template and reuse them, which means I got faster the more I worked on the books.

Creating these books helped me remember why I blog in the first place - to document my life and to build my own personal history. Moving it from the computer to book form makes it seem more real and permanent.

Drew Andrews - I Could Write a Book

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Free

Free - Zac Brown Band Pin It

Sunset

Not long ago I was at a park in my neighborhood just before sunset - a view of the valley and the mountains with the glorious golden light - it was stunning. Photos like this do one of two things - give me comfort when I'm feeling homesick, or remind me why I live here when the travel bug starts biting.

Iron & Wine - Sunset Soon Forgotten Pin It