Chickadees!

I'm not a farmer.  I've never been a part of the whole cage-cleaning, animal feeding crowd.  Not that I wouldn't love to live on a farm, I just don't want to have to be the one collecting the eggs and milking the cows.

My husband decided that we needed to join this new revolution of urban chicken farmers.  "Fine", I said.  "Keep them down at your office yard and bring me the eggs when they're ready."  And that was the plan.  Really.  Right up until the moment that we got them at the Farm & Feed.  Apparently, they need to stay in a 95 degree place while they are growing, and the office warehouse was just not going to cut it.  "And, besides," he tells me, "Don't you think the kids would love it?!".......Alright.  Maybe.....

Project 52 ~ Week 13 {Just For Fun}

I saw a collection of images recently themed as Chasing Mary Poppins.  They were so powerful in the emotions they evoked in me.  Those magical, whimsical, dreamy fantasies of childhood came washing over me like waves in from the sea.  Strong and beautiful and care-free.  I wanted to try and emulate that in my own work this week and possibly create a few of those magical fantasies for my children, as well.

View the entire Project 52 collection

Coastal Horizons

If I could be any kind of photographer in the world, I would be one who takes amazing artistic images that show the drama and intrigue of our lives.  Color.  Black & white.  Sharp lines.  Blurred focus.  All in the details.  A grand study of the big picture.  The exact right amount of processing to really pull out the wonder in enlightenment in every piece.  I would print books of images.  I would create canvases to hang in galleries.  Then I would set about documenting my process for other wanna be photographers to learn from. 

As it is, I am the wanna be.  Still learning the intricacies of this craft that I love so much.  Pouring over the work of others and reading how they went about their process so I can learn more about how to improve upon mine. 

I spent last weeknd going through more of my new photographic bible.  We were at the beach, which provided me with more than enough material to practice on.  Thought I'd share a few more things that I've learned.

Horizon lines do not have to be straight, nor do they have to be even.

Wide angles can bring an interesting distortion to horizon lines.

When in need of something supremely artistic, use a Lensbaby.

Perspective is everything!  

(I kind of already knew this, but it's always good to remind myself.)

 

 Vary the way you approach a subject.  It's about telling the story.

  

Like all others, the rules of photography are meant to be broken.  Don't be afraid to do that.  Sometimes the most interesting images are the ones that don't follow convention.  

For example, throw the Rule of Thirds out the window and put your tiny subject right smack dab in the middle of your shot, emphasizing its smallness by playing up the grand space around it.

And, every now and then, for art's sake, you just need to flip it around

Cherry Tree Sparkle

I never like to post images without some kind of commentary.  I always prefer to fill the space with a lovely little statement about how these images came to be, or whatever.  Something full of magic, religion, wit.  This, however, is not one of those times.  I've been trying to come up with the sparkle, and it's just not there.  No wonderful story to tell.  No quips or anecdotes to preface these with.  Sometimes, the magic of the story lies within the images themselves.  So, without further ado, may I present to you 

Cherry Trees the Magnificents!

Project 52 ~ Week 12 {From The Jewlery Box}

Okay...maybe I'm just being picky.  But...From the Jewelry Box?  Really?  Who's coming up with these?  I'm tempted to start my own weekly themes for this project because these last few have seriously not being doing it for me or my lens.

So, alright...Rant over.  That wasn't too bad, was it?

From the jewelry box.  I have a jewelry box.  Several actually, given to me over the course of the years.  I have a small, piano shaped box that my brother gave to me.  When you open it up it plays Rhapsody on a Theme from Paganini.  I love that song, and he bought it for me from a vendor down by the wharf in San Francisco many years ago.  It's small and I use it to hold all of my single stud earrings.

I also have an antique jewelry box that belonged to my great-grandmother.  It's white, with little pink flowers painted on each of its four drawers.  I've never really used it, but I keep it in my dressing cabinet because I loved it when she used it, and I love that it's now mine.

The last box that I have is actually called a jewelry armoir.  It's about three feet high, with two doors opening up onto several pull-out shelves.  I used to have that one stuffed to the brim with all kind of chunky, colorful and metallic earrings, necklaces and bracelets that were so fashionable about 20 years ago, but are really not all that in the 2011 world of the stay-home mom that I currently inhabit.  Now, the armoir just sits, collecting dust and whatever other junk I need to get out of my hands when I walk by.

See, I don't really use a jewelry box because I don't really wear that much jewelry.  A ring, maybe some CZ studs...maybe.  Not much anymore.  So, the lack of attention that I paid to my jewelry boxes over the past few years really does not make for any kind of interesting element...photographically speaking.  I was kind of thinking that I might just skip this one this week and do something else instead.  We had a beautiful spring morning, just full of blue sky and sunshine.  I was wanting to get out and start working on some spring portraits for my kids.  I told my daughter to "go put on something bright and fun" and I would meet her in the front yard.

She came out dressed all in hot pink with two wrists full of Silly Bandz.  Silly Bandz, by the way, that she keeps in her jewelery box....see where I'm going with this.....

We got down on the grass and started working.  Lovely color and light sparking off her hair and her skin, but it was when she turned her head away from me, too concerned about the bumblebee that was buzzing around us to pose for a picture, that I got to see how much fun From The Jewelry Box can be...or, you know...Bee....buzzzzzzzzz.......

View the entire Project 52 collection

Processing the Playground

Have I ever told you how much I love taking pictures?  No, I mean really....I love it.  LOVE it.  So much that I wish I could do it all the time.  Just walk around my life, camera in hand, grabbing those moments in my viewfinder and keeping them forever in my grand artistic plan.  And just when I feel like I actually have a grasp on what I'm doing with it, I see something that someone else has done and I go all the way back to the drawing board again.  Not that I'm holding myself up to someone else's standards or trying to adhere by rules other than my own, I just feel like I'm in a constant state of learning and developing and trying to figure out how this whole thing works.  Sometimes, I can see an image in my head, but no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to make it come out of my camera like that.  I work this angle, that approach.  Change perspective.  Look for the details.  Adjust the composition, and then I process the heck out of it trying to create the look the lens couldn't find. 

I picked up a really great book the other day that's helping me through this process.  I've been pouring over it, looking at subjects I would never think to put in front of my camera and going How do you do it?  One of the chapters in this new bible of mine is on photographing children.  Since I happen to have a few of those on hand, I put some of these new ideas to work while we at the park the other day. 

Capturing a relationship without actually seeing their faces....

Choosing a viewpoint...also known as perspective.

Warm tones....I'm still working on this one.  Sometimes I love it, sometimes I think it's really unnatural....

Emphasizing movement...

Using props to add depth.  

I actually started this with the shoes on her feet, but it was really flat.  So, I asked her to take them off instead.  It made all the difference.

Perspective...

Oh...and did I mention, perspective?

(this could also be called, "Hey, where are you guys?....Over here, Mom.")

It's a work in progress for me.  Creating art always is.  Fortunately, I love the work and the process,

Blossom Beauties

Yeah! 

The first blooms are popping out on the trees in my front yard!  I love that.  

It's such a sign that spring is on its way.  I've been watching for these little bursts of pink to appear.  I first started seeing them a couple of days ago, but it was so rainy and windy that I couldn't get out there to shoot them.  This morning, though, the light was on them, the rain stopped for just a moment, and the wind was being somewhat cooperative.  I grabbed my step-ladder, propped it up just off the curb and set my focus on those orange beauties right in the center. 

Wowza!  B-E-A-U-tiful! 

And if you know me at all, you know that I usually spend thousands of pixels each March on these buds.  Photographing until I'm sick of them.   

No!  No more petals.  No more half-open blooms.  

No more moss-covered branches blurring out in the background.  

Move on!! 

 And then we spend our summer months engulfed in rain, and our fall months engulfed in rain, and most of our winter months engulfed in rain.  Unless, of course, we're waiting for snow which usually starts falling and then turns to rain.  So that by the time we reach spring again, I'm so starved for any other color than gray, that I'll once more spend all of my pixels on these little babies.

 So, just a warning...

There will be LOTs more like this coming in the near future.  I'm just sure of it. 

I {heart} you, pink!

I {heart} you, petals and flowers!

I {heart} you, moss covered branches blurring out into the background!

I {heart} you, Spring!

Project 52 ~ Week 11 {Darks & Lights}

I love the colors of fall.  And nothing is more exciting than the first really good snowfall of the season, but right about this time is when I start feeling the Spring.  Seeing those beginning colors starting to push their way out of the darkness of winter and into the light of spring is so life affirming.  Those first blooms in the early rains, uncurling their petals, and standing tall among the  still hibernating soil.  Shouting their colors to the world.  We can survive through the darkness and come out stronger into the light once more.

View the entire Project 52 collection

Brandy & Marc....MARRIED! {A Few More Favorites}

A few more of my favorites from Brandy & Marc's wedding.