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.

Pup Pup Pweez Come Home

My darling dog is back on her feet and wanted to enjoy the fresh air, so we gave her a long overdue bath and let her hang out on the back porch.

SOOC

The poor dear. She kept going out on that porch anyway because that's where she and our neighbors' dog Roxy like to play. Rather, liked to play. The neighbors moved away the day Ursa hurt her foot. She just doesn't understand why Roxy won't come play with her. She'd keep looking for Roxy and crying.

SOOC again, different lens. I thought the flare was interesting.
She's still looking for Roxy. :(

The weather today was wonderful. We spent the day riding around and sitting on the back porch.

SOOC yet again. It's almost that time of year!!!

While we were out, we went to Best Buy, where my grandparents decided to buy me the best photo printer in the place. It's made specifically for photography, and I am in love with it. It's wonderful!!! So of course I printed like crazy today. On the other hand, I haven't been on the computer much. These are a couple of the photos I managed to edit. Hope you like them!

It IS Alive!

Hey guys... I promise I'm still alive. It's been a strange week. I haven't been able to stay awake! Every time I wasn't in class, I was passed out on my couch. Heck, I even went to bed before 9 o'clock last night. Crazy for this night owl, I know!

Anyhow, I have been taking my photos of course. Tuesday's is of some new additions to our kitchen.

Wednesday's accidentally got deleted.  :'( I had taken a photo of my very first chalk drawing for my Drawing class, but when I went to open it, my sleepy self deleted it permanently. I'll retake the photo once I get to school on Tuesday since I left it in the cabinets there (so it won't get ruined. I'm good at ruining things if you can't tell.) In place of it for now, I'll show you some more photos from the Senior shoot. :)

Yesterday's photo is SOOC, lens vignette and all. I don't feel like editing more than I already have to.

And finally, we reach today's photo: a fly on a... something. Can you find the fly? I didn't until I opened this in Photoshop. LOL

Also, I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the template I'll be making a tutorial on. The tut is already most of the way finished, but I was half asleep writing it, so I want to make sure I didn't skip a bunch of stuff.

Again, I apologize for disappearing all week. I also apologize for taking so long on posting this tutorial. I hope it'll be worth the wait once it finally IS posted! If not, well, Sandra can just ask me for clarification since she's the one who suggested this tut anyway! lol :)

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!

Not My Day

Today's uninspired, unedited, uncool photo.

Honestly, today was such a crappy day that I didn't even care enough to take a real photo. There was an odd sort of spotlight look on my blinds, so I said "To Hell with it," and shot. I've had a migraine since I woke up, slept the day away, missed school, and am now going to fail a test tomorrow because I slept away my study hours and felt so defeated that I gave up trying when I could have studied. Aaaand I still have a massive headache, so I'm going to bed. Sorry for the angry rant and 5-year-old quality photo. Maybe tomorrow?

-sigh-

Ziggy, Ley's Guitar

Processed using PhotoTools' "Dirty Money" preset.

Meet Ziggy, my brand new baby. When I woke up this morning, it was the first thing I looked at and for some reason the song Ziggy Stardust immediately got stuck in my head, hence the guitar's new name.

In other news, my Photography teacher has told me that my 5 "midterm" prints are excellent and I have an A thus far. Since only two of us got A's in the entire class, I am really happy. Yay!

Last but definitely not least, a friend from my old digital photography class is on the committee for a women's art appreciation group, and she asked me to be one of the 9 featured artists at the group's Celebrate Women art show and conference, where Justice Yvette McGee Brown will be the keynote speaker. I am so excited!!! It's been a great week.

Now, for good measure, I will share with you a SOOC texture I photographed today in the middle of shooting my guitar. Feel free to use it (and any of my other textures) whenever and however you want. Goodnight!

SOotC

That's right. Today's photo is coming to you straight out of the camera [finally]. Not the slightest bit of editing with the exception of making it smaller and adding my stamp. I'm rather proud of it, but only BECAUSE I haven't edited it... even if editing is kind of my favorite part. lol

Challenge: Make a photo of the most beautiful thing you see today. Subject: My mother's ring.

What do you think? Should I have edited it, or is it better off the way it is? I'd love to hear your opinions, especially since I'm considering trying to recreate this photo on my Minolta for class. :-)