Feb 17

(7/Dust)

The SP ended up frustrating me today. I've lost my camera attachment to put the thing on the tripod, so I wasted a bit of shooting time digging around the house for it. Sigh.

I'm noticing a trend about my self-portraits. I'm hiding. As much as I can, I hide my eyes, shooting only parts of me, putting things in front of me, using my children as props. It's an interesting psychological thing, I'm sure. I'm so unused to finding myself in front of the camera - I don't know what to do! It's easier to just shoot into the mirror and glare at myself, check my facial expression as I go. Standing in front of the timer, waiting for the shot - that's HARD.

I think it's going to be good for me. And for my clients.

Aaannd here are a few of the rest I shot.

About the flowers: I picked up some leftover V-day flowers at Walmart after B's appointment this morning. I was ostensibly stopping just to pick up juice for P, who threw up her breakfast, but we got sidetracked, so we brought home flowers too.


My silly girl. (no#/overshoot freebie)


"GSOOC" - Gerbera, straight out of the camera... (9/365)

And this is one of my V-day tulips. My husband braved Friday night's snow to pick them up for me, to bring a smile for me on a rough day.


I know, I know - macro lens again. But I was ON today! (no#/overshoot freebie)

(Image © Informal Moments Photography)

Feb 15

3/Dust

It's one of those days. Everything is a bit blurry. My thoughts are scattered. I'm not quite so familiar as I'd like to be with my camera self-timer.

But here are couple of photos from today's ten-minute shoot.


4/Dust


5/Dust


7/365 (Piper's Fwlower)

(Image © Informal Moments Photography)

82/365 - beauty's sweet nearer

And tulips, children love to stretch
Their fingers down, to feel in each
Its beauty's sweet nearer.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A Flower in a Letter

And I am a children today, sleepy in my bathrobe, shooting soft to escape the tired, glad to have a tulip to stretch my fingers down and feel sweet beauty nearer...

78/365 - Some Springtime Flare

Pete brought me these tulips yesterday when he came home from grocery shopping. These tulips and a few other things that will probably get featured this week! I've been playing around with flare this weekend, and I just loved the way it came out for this shot! (This image is almost SOOC. I adjusted only a little for lighting.)

Bonus Shot Friday

It's Bonus Shot Friday, instituted by me to share pictures I really loved from the week that haven't had a chance to shine. Because people don't really care what gets blogged on Friday. They're ready for Saturday and the in-between living we all do on the weekend. So here's my bonus shot, blazing straight out of the camera (SOOC) with fascinating fire.

What about you? Did you get a shot this week that didn't fit anywhere but in your heart? Here's a reason to share, share, share, so we can all get in on the bonus!

Fifty-One - Fascination

This image is SOOC (straight out of the camera). I pulled it up in Photoshop to process, and it didn't need any! I'm very excited about this. It means I'm actually learning how to do my job right as a real photographer - I'm not just shooting what could be there and adding it in Photoshop, I am capturing what I see with my heart. And isn't that what any good photographer does anyway?

Forty-Nine - Freedom that is Wild

This morning, I couldn't find a picture to take - nothing was wild enough, crazy enough. dark enough, intense enough. I was doing insane things with my camera settings and nothing felt like enough risk. So I went to play the piano. And tried to sing. Which usually helps. And it didn't this time.

I was ready to burst into tears and start screaming mindlessly when my husband, who had been out grocery shopping, dived into the house carrying a bouquet of spiky wild orange tulips, just in time to hold me while I fell apart in his arms, blubbering nonsense about how he'd love me even if I wasn't everything I wanted to be, how I needed him, how much I loved him too...

This is my moment for today, the one that said, "I'm alive, and I'm free." There is nothing holding me back but me, and even that is released into love...

4:8 Project - Good Report

My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. (Song of Solomon 2:10-12)

This photo is part of my 4:8 Project, a project/contest in which I plan to honor one photo left in my comments with each new post. Every four weeks, I will choose a submitted photo to win an 8 x 10 print from my photos - winner's choice. To participate, check out the info about commenting/entering and leave me a comment with a link to a photo of your own!

NOTE: To this point, I only have one comment with a photo, a beautiful, peaceful shot from Cheri for the word "Lovely." If you have a photo that fits any of the words in my original post, feel free to leave a permalink in a comment on any of my Project 4:8 posts. Just include with it the word your photo matches! Oh, and you can submit more than one! I'll be reviewing and announcing my first print winner on March 8, 2009.

Forty-Three - Surrounding

I got really sidetracked from my "only one quick shot" this morning. REALLY sidetracked. While photojournalism is my first love, I've not had a lot of people to shoot recently, so I've been experimenting with composition, creating something to photograph for my daily photo ops. This morning, I dropped a tulip into a wine glass of water, set it in the sunlight, and bam. Click, click, clickety. I got 119 shots, and most of them were really good SOOC. I only touched them up for artistic preference.

This shot is the one I kept coming back to for my 365 photo of the day - I love the swirls in the water surrounding the tulip, the hints of light, the deep colors, the bright air trapped between petal and water. The very close second choice was this one.

Only By This Death

black and blue
purpling mingled with drying blood that has been wept
red tears falling - fallen -
unseen
'til reflection remembers
as light reveals.

what was
must still be.

life lingers in her death
and now I breathe.

Twenty-Two - Pieces of Me

Yesterday my little girl Piper received a little history of her great-great grandfather, my grandmother's father, from my Aunt Chris, our family historian and all-around-wonderful aunt. Included with the history were some photos of my grandmother when she was young. This morning, I couldn't get this photo out of my mind, the look in my grandma's eyes, the softness that I knew even when her face was far changed. She was young like me, experienced life as I do now, in a different time.

I composed this image with a tulip Piper snapped off the other day, fallen, dried, bittersweet. The man in the photo, blurred behind the flower, is my great-grandfather, who actually lived in Charleston, SC, until he was nine. How strange to think that, in a way, our move here has brought me home.

I had a couple shots that were a bit photographically better today, but this was the one my heart came back to, the one that revealed a summer memory I never lived, the one that took me back to springs and summers and winters and falls with the woman who taught me so much about living, just by doing it, by having done it, the one that reminded me who I am, who my God made me to be.

You know, I have seen that look in my eyes...

Twenty - Etched in Red

I must note here that it is a good thing that my husband buys me flowers. I'm already uninspired on this photo-a-day project. I knew this would happen, but I hoped it would hold off for a bit longer! As a fellow photographer noted to me last week, "some days are better than others."

I figured out my tripod and my camera's self-timer the other day, so maybe I'll try some more self-portraiture this week. I'm too picky, I think, but I've done so much off-the-cuff shooting, I think taking some time to focus my work will really make a difference in what I get and give me time to improve my eye and discover what can be done. In just two weeks, I've learned a ton!

Sixteen - Spring in the Morning

Fifteen - Red Around the Corner