Angles, Angels, and S'more

Last weekend was a blast. Katie and I met in downtown Newark, where there were practically no people but plenty of gorgeous bronze statues and wonderful murals to take their place. I fell in love with this little ghost town, especially once I came across their example of "vandalism".

249/365; Sept. 17; Yes, those are marshmallows.

The next day was just as great, if not better. Katie and I made some fun jewelry for our Indian-inspired shoot, and my car was stuffed with things for all the models to work with. Unfortunately, all but one had to cancel on us, so it just ended up being a 2-hour shoot with an absolutely breathtaking young girl named Katilyn. I'm actually thankful that it just ended up being her, as she was so pretty and sweet that I couldn't stop taking pics of her.

Three edits of one of my favorite shots. BTW, I made the bracelet and hair accessory!

Since she had a time constraint, we weren't going to have time to curl her hair up for the second half of the shoot. Luckily, I happened to have my trusty brown wig with. It matched her hair perfectly! We just blended her hair with the wig and got started. Here's my favorite of that set.

250/365; Sept. 18; Lens flares added for fun. Otherwise, just played with variations and called it a day.

The next three days were spent in Columbus, so here goes.

251/365; Sept. 19; Church windows. I felt like playing with HDR, but then also wanted a film look, so here's the combo.

252/365; Sept. 20; El Jefe, the epitome of man... and his favorite purse?

I couldn't resist capturing this shot of my grandfather. He is so wonderfully comfortable with himself that he can sit there looking all intimidating whilst holding his wife's purse and shopping bag. Better still, his shirt reads "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

253/365; Sept. 21; More playing with HDR.

The 21st was supposed to be my first day of attending Ohio State University, but instead it ended up being the day I withdrew from all my classes :( In any case, I was on campus. The next day (and still today), however, I didn't feel very much like leaving the house, so the next two shots were taken in my living room.

254/365; Sept. 22; Zoom-panned wall decoration.

Can you believe that one's almost completely unedited? AND it was my first shot?! I was taken off guard when I saw that I actually got the shot I wanted right away. It was taken in Monochrome with a yellow filter since the wall's yellow and the sun is a warm green. The apparent vignette was caused by the darkness of the surrounding room and the highlights and shadows were from my flash. All I did to this was use a subtle Unsharp Mask on the face. O.O  For once, I'm finally believing I'm getting better. :)

Finally, we get to today. My grandfather rearranged all the furniture in our living room, and now I sit much further from the lamp I photographed on September 9th. I'm ridiculously exhausted today, so I've barely left the couch. :( Took this while lying down.

255/365; Sept. 23; The Golden Hour Came Late

In other news, Kaytlin and I are planning a bigger, more public shoot for the weekend of October 22nd, so be looking out for those details. Also, I have a job interview for WalMart's PictureMe studio on Tuesday. Hoping for the best. I could use some good luck on the professional side.

Catching Dreams

I spent almost the entire day editing photos from fun outings that I never got to. It was a nice way to distract myself from being so upset about my lack of sufficient financial aid (and the very real possibility that I will, yet again, have to consider taking a year off to earn enough money for college).

One of the photos I edited was from my Indiana visit in March, when some friends and I joined Sandra's husband at the City Methodist church to celebrate him acing the EMT test. Which version do you like better? If neither, what did I do wrong?

Here are a few of my favorite black and white shots of each girl from the past couple weeks (that I've edited in the past 24 hours, anyway).

My ex-classmate and now partner in crime (literally, if you ask J. Imes), Katie, in action.

My fellow brown girl and new model, Abby. I so want to steal her hair. Watch out, guuurl!

The super-adorable and equally sweet Becca, who I hope to work with more. I love meeting people like her!

The ridiculously gorgeous Emily. No one will ever be able to rock that hair accessory the way that she did. 

The awesome and adventurous girl I can't believe I didn't meet years ago, Ellen. Do you believe in soul-pals? LOL

And, of course, today's photo. It's just a snapshot of part of our newest dreamcatcher, which I'll be using during this weekend's fun Native-American-inspired photoshoot with, of course, the fabulous Katie Dawes!

I cannot wait for this weekend. Hanging out with my friends has seriously been so much more beneficial to me than they could imagine. I'm going to hate when we all become too busy to have these weekends anymore.

Anyway, time for bed! Goodnight, y'all. :)

Needs Advice by Sunday

There is a girl from Indiana who really likes my work and is looking for a photographer for her sister's wedding. I'm definitely interested in shooting this wedding (which will be Sept. 8 of 2012), but because I know by then I will still have little or no wedding experience, I told her I wasn't comfortable doing it alone. Of course, I recommended Sandra right off the bat. I also told her I don't know what I would charge, so I would research during the week and let her know by Sunday. She's such a sweet girl, and besides, I am supposed to shoot a cousin's wedding around the same time anyway, so why not?

Well, I've searched my behind off for answers, and as you can imagine, I've gotten nowhere. Thus far, all I can think of as a compromise is to find her a photographer that wouldn't mind having me as a second-shooter or whose work would be similar enough to mine to satisfy her. Do you have any ideas/advice? Should I just throw out something like a $75-per-hour price and find my own second-shooter to give some of the money to?


Anyhow, yesterday I was supposed to post pics from orientation and, since august 5th's photos are to be lumped with a different day's photos, I would skip to the 6th's. So here are those, barely and carelessly edited because I need to get to bed. Sorry!

Waiting patiently for our first advising session at Ohio State.

Pride.

Evidently it rained a little on the 6th. I had to giggle when I saw this because I'm pretty sure I've already taken a photo very similar... Guess I just really like that, um, porch ornament?

Today, I give you the 7th's photo and two almost completely untouched photos from this evening's photo "adventure". (vignetted and shrunken. oh, the editing. lol)

It may have rained on the 6th, but the 7th was sunny and warm!

Speaking of sunny and warm.

I'm still trying to figure out how he got out there. And how he's dry.

Lastly, I wanted to post that one unedited dandelion pic. This is what happens when you crank up the saturation and contrast settings on your Shooting Mode (in my case, Landscape mode is my chosen "default").

Are your eyes shriveling yet?

Time to hit the hay! I have less than 6 hours to sleep before I head out with my friend Katie to see the Ohio State Reformatory (site of the Shawshank Redemption and numerous other famous films). They don't allow "professional" cameras, so my pics will be lower quality than usual. Still, I CAN'T WAIT! AAAAAAH!!!!!

Goodnight. :)

P.S. Happy birthday, Aunty Julie! I love you more than the sun, the moon, and the chicken wings I always beg you to make.

Step On It!

Okay, I'm in a strange mood today and no longer feel like making yet another stupid photo, so I stylized it. Eventually I'll edit the original photo correctly, but until then, this is what you can ponder over if you'd like. And here are a couple of "traditional" photos, if you're not a fan of today's freak of nature.

Guess Who's Back (back back...)

That's right! The Niiiizz. And this was the product of a crappily executed Flash test. I really love that floating hand though, and creeping her out with her own eyes is a nice bonus. ;) Speaking of creepy...

More poor execution on my part. "Ello, dahling" is her title for it.

I may be posting more than a day late every night this coming week because tis the time to go to Indiana for my many shoots! Wish me skill. I'll definitely be needing it. :D

The Ides

Tuesday, the Ides of March: The day I officially became an Arts major rather than a Business Administration major. A DAY TO REMEMBER!

The Key

Literally. Keys were another of the items my friend Liz needs photos of for her project. :)

I spent the entire day writing an essay, and then when I was finally finished with that, I had to get to class to take a final I hadn't yet studied for, so needless to say I've been pretty stressed today. My own fault, I know, but on the plus side, having all the information I studied in the car fresh in my mind helped me get what I'm pretty sure is an A on that final! Whew! Procrastination wins again. Now I desperately need sleep. Goodnight.

Comfort

My personal theme for the day: The comfort of home

It was a great weekend. Hope yours was as good.

A Rose On the Grey

We've got another one SOOC! I'm kind of liking this non-editing thing. Especially when I've got a houseful of loved ones. :D Mom, my brother, my aunt, and my best friend are here for the weekend, so I spent the day grocery shopping and cleaning my ridiculous hoarder-haven of a room. This is the result. Hope you like it!

Ye of Little Faith

Did you really think I'd forget you guys?! :) I just spent a long 7 hours trying to uncover the items I've been hoarding for most of my life, dragging them from house to house in innumerable containers as if losing just one thing would mean death.

Or something slightly less dramatic.

Thought I'd just confuse the mess out of you all before I finally hit the hay. Today, I felt like trying some more abstraction, so here it is. Hope you get a kick out of it! It kind of looks like a bunch of floating boxes to me. Or maybe that's what they are. HMMmmm.

Meh, goodnight!

Stone Cold

That's pretty much me today. Even my photographs were coming out cold and lifeless, so I gave up. These are the best I could muster today. Back to that statue at my school.

Maybe tomorrow?

On a lighter note, today marks the end of my first month of my daily photo challenge. :D

What a Day

Today was definitely one to remember. We let our dog out to play in the snow and what did she find? Well, first the neighbor's dog. Then the neighbor's twin toddlers. Thanks to her, I had the good fortune of photographing their very first time playing in the snow.

As if that wasn't great enough, I also had a photoshoot with my grandpa's friend's toddlers today at a McDonald's playplace. There were a ton of adorable children there just begging (literally) to have their picture taken as I waited for the "clients".

This one actually directed me in taking this photo. Model in the making?

When at last the clients arrived, I got to photograph their GORGEOUS little boys (who, funnily enough, were black and white, much like my color choice today). They were a blast to work with. I definitely needed a nap once I got home! LOL

I couldn't have asked for a better day. Now to go get some sleep!

Generic

That's right. The generic laptop photo.

Today's challenge was high contrast. I apparently couldn't decide whether I wanted to stick with that or do the exact opposite, so my camera decided to give me both. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go pass out on my couch.

Why So Serious?

How was your day? Mine was great. My friend Renee is visiting for the week! I decided to photograph her today. The challenge was to illustrate coldness, but I didn't exactly go for that. On the other hand, it actually sort of works despite the warming filter I used. What do you think?

On another note, Sandra has requested that I revisit my cruddy image from a couple of days ago, so I used all her suggestions about it and this is what I came out with:

I do like the edit better-- the texture is a metal one I downloaded years ago-- but I'm still none too thrilled with this photo. I guess I'll have to try again someday!

I Feel Pretty

Today's challenge was supposed to be to emphasize the horizon, but... well, I just plain don't go outside during acceptable hours, SO instead I decided to photograph some shoes and my adorable new dress. :D I hope this is acceptable.