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.

Random Photo Catch-up Post 1

I had a plan for how I wanted to give these photos to you, but now that it's been well over a month, I don't even care anymore. So these are some of the challenge photos I haven't posted yet. Sorry for the odd array. lol

204/365; Aug 3, 2011; Crystal in Columbus

206/365; Aug 5, 2011; Child playing on a cloudy day in Columbus

209/365; Aug 8, 2011; People-friendly deer in my front yard

210/365; Aug 9, 2011; Photo-crasher in my back yard

211/365; Aug 10, 2011; Child not playing on a sunny day in Columbus

212/365; Aug 11, 2011; Jesus in my basement

213/365; Aug 12, 2011; Interesting plant on a photo drive

214/365; Aug 13, 2011; Power washing the back porch

215/265; Aug 14, 2011; Knick-knack in Grandma's craft room

216/365; Aug 15, 2011; Statuette in my basement

217/365; Aug 16, 2011 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIL BRO!); Statue found while out and about

218/365; Aug 17, 2011; Vintage weeds and bee during photo drive.

As you can probably tell, I'm starting to enjoy being able to drive around now. :-) More soon! These were all edited in the past 24 hours, so we'll see how it goes. <3

Cool and Warm

Like the weather lately, my photos for today and yesterday change temperatures.

Yesterday:
I decided to take a quick shot of a bush I was practically getting swallowed by while waiting to take my driver's exam. Guess what? GOT MY LICENSE! Whew.

Today:
Didn't really get a moment with my camera to take a decent photo, so while we waited at a stoplight on the way to class, I snapped this. One day, I'll get back into the swing of this photography thing.

Sleep tight, guys!

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 :)

The Latest Addition

Meet Suzie, the latest addition to our bathroom's "Some Like it Haute" theme. I found her at Hobby Lobby and my grandma and I couldn't leave her.

Anyhow, I spent the day editing what is now over 100 photos, so I'm worn. See you tomorrow! And don't forget to suggest a tutorial. If there's anything you want, I'll give it a go! For Sandra, there will be a Template tutorial within the next few days. :D

Finding the Time

It's been a crazy week! An amazing week. It couldn't have gone better. :D I have to thank Renee for bringing me and putting up with my constant in-and-out behavior. She was a doll.

I had at least one photoshoot pretty much every day while I was in Indiana. Between those and all the running around I was doing, there wasn't time to check my e-mails every day, let alone edit and post photos, so now that I'm home, I've spent the day working on a few. Here are my favorites for each day of the week, and then yesterday's quick "thank goodness I'm home" snapshot. I'll post today's shot later tonight. :)

Sunday:

Mr. J hamming it up

Monday:

Ms. M and Mr. P's little bundle of joy

Tuesday:

Little Mr. J sleeping in a basket

Wednesday:

Ms. R enjoying my flower

Thursday:

The ever-gorgeous Khalila making me jealous with her beauty.

aaand Friday's snapshot:

Mmmm, Chinese food awaited us when we got home!!! Thank you, Grandma.

An Issue of Pride

First and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best mentor I could ever ask for! I hope you had a wonderful day, Sandra!

Now, today's photos. Yaaay... *sarcasm sign*

You know, with the exception of the smoke stream photos, I haven't been proud of my work in almost 2 weeks. This is a problem I hope to fix over the weekend with my Nikon FM. Things are going great for me, but it's all with older digital photos, not recent work.

I need to step up my game, anyway. I just found out some terrifying news today: My film photography portfolio is due NEXT WEEK instead of finals week now! AAAARGH! I'm nowhere near ready. The professor chose a few of my prints that he wants in the portfolio, but otherwise, I still need like 9 more. I've decided that my portfolio theme will be Lines. He wants us to have a specific theme, and it seems that all my film prints heavily emphasize lines, so there we go. I'm spending pretty much the whole day Tuesday doing what I can. Wish me skill!

C'est Chic

P.S. Photographer's Forum has finally posted the winners of the contest I was a finalist in. You can find them all here.

Antiquity

After a long day of studying nothing but the Gothic period and the High Renaissance, I came home thinking about sfumato and chiaroscuro, Leonardo and Michelangelo, pointed arches and sensuous folds. Eventually, I gave in and decided to just take a picture that sort of mimics what I've been seeing all day long. Enjoy. (Please. lol)

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!

Makeup

Hey guys! I didn't forget you yesterday. It was my birthday, so I had kind of a busy day, and then by the time I got to take my picture, I was way too tired to edit it. Heck, I was too tired to really try taking a decent photo as it were. I experimented with a few things, but nothing was working out. It would be awesome from where I stood, but missing something in the frame. This is the best I could do.

On the plus side, I finally realized how to make my photos save with the colors they are in Photoshop. I've been so frustrated since I first started shooting in RAW because my photos are missing a lot of the vibrancy they have in my Photoshop.

In other news, I have a new acoustic electric guitar!!! It's a beauty, and its body is slimmer than the average acoustic, which is great for me because I have such short arms and such a large bust. Playing is much more comfortable now! :D Maybe I'll photograph that tonight. ;)