As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I participated in a couple shooting workshops while in New Orleans. Basically, this was an opportunity to learn how other photographers “do their thing”, take photos of models, and see more of the city.

This first one was led by Kurt Gerber, of Chicago-based Gerber + Scarpelli Weddings. The theme was “60 Looks in 60 Minutes” and focused on getting creative with posing, composition, locations, and light. This is a real couple who were recently married in New Orleans. They are cute and edgy and complete naturals in front of the camera. Kurt did all the posing and directing and our swarm of photographers (about 15 of us) shot them from every angle and tried not to trip over each other!The shot below is one of my favorites because it’s more “my own.”  I was the only one on this side of the band…you can see some of the other shooters opposite me. Now, this next workshop has quite a different look. This was all about night shooting and was led by two husband-wife teams from Nashville: Sean and Melanie McLellan and Whitney & Peter Carlson. Here’s a shot I grabbed of Peter during one of our stops on the streets of the French Quarter.
Sean and Melanie focused on using lights already in the environment like the spotlights over the couple below, as well as small video lights which give off a constant light (like a flashlight) rather than a strobe/flash. See how the “groom” (in quotes because this is not a real couple) is lit from the left?  That is the video light.

Whitney and Peter work more with off-camera flash. There is a light on a stand with an umbrella right around the corner illuminating the “bride”. I like how Whitney set this up to show so much depth.This is another video light shot that I think is funny. Check out the shadow on the right side….is it a ghost or someone holding one of the lights?

I can’t wait to hear where PartnerCon will be held next year because I certainly hope to be there!

I went to my very first multi-day photo conference a couple weeks ago, and what better place to dive in to this than N’awlins? I had never been there before, so I was excited to hear that my lab partner, Pictage, would be having their annual conference there. This was the second year in a row that they hosted the conference there because it was so successful last year. It was so fun to hang out with fellow photographers for five days….I thought of it as meeting up with people from “my planet.”

One of my favorite parts of the trip was wandering around the French Quarter on my own, especially when I could find talented musicians playing on the streets.

Random… I know…this one is confusing to look at, but that’s why I like it!  The right side of the image is actually a reflection from a mirror on the wall outside of a convenience store.One of my favorites….like stepping back in time. I wish I had recorded some of the sound at this moment too as there was some fun music going on!
Here are two of my friends that I hung out with the most throughout the week. On the left is Hennessey Green, a DC area photographer who I have met before, but got to know much better on this trip.  The sassy chick with him is Philly-based photographer, Suzanne Tenuto. Thanks to twitter and a #partnercon hashtag, the three of us caught a cab ride into the city together from the airport. The photo on the right is one I caught while Suzanne was taking a photo of her breakfast at the famed New Orleans coffee stand, Café Du Monde.  We went on a quick walk there for beignets and café au lait one morning before the first seminar of the day.  Beignets are the official state donut of Louisiana. For real.And here’s another cute restaurant, Café Beignet. This shot is through the wrought iron table I was sitting at outside.Here is a pic I grabbed during one of the numerous speaking sessions. This is Columbus-based photographer, Kitty Maer, who was demonstrating some Photoshop retouching techniques. Our last big activity was a charity photo shoot where we set up a a bunch of mini studios and created free portraits for families in the community. This is sort of a “behind the scenes” photo of this mother-daughter pair posing for another photographer.  Great smiles! Stay tuned for my next post which will have images from some educational shooting workshops I participated in.

This past weekend, I visited HorseNet Horse Rescue in New Windsor, with my sister, Amy, and my niece and nephew. They’ve been volunteering there for the past five months or so and have been bugging me to come check it out.  I’m so glad I did!  I’ve never been a horse-person, so I admit that I couldn’t really relate to what they were doing just from them talking about it.  Once I was there, it didn’t take long to pick up on the different personalities of the horses. They all have their own histories and quirks. HorseNet is a non-profit, 100% volunteer run organization and they specialize in older horses and blind ones, but will take in pretty much any horse in need of a home. I’m going to copy some of their details along with the photos below. Amy got the scoop from some of the folks who run the farms.

This first one pictured is a noisy donkey named Clyde and he is my nephew, Scott’s, favorite. I can’t believe how old this donkey is!

“Clyde–50+yr old burro from a wild herd in the Grand Canyon.”

This is a sad one. Sassy got sick and had to be put down yesterday, so I guess my photos may have been the last ones taken of her. I love how she’s just peeking at me….she stuck her whole head over the fence a few seconds later and almost licked my camera.

“Sassy – registered name “Sibling Rivalry” is a Standardbred, trotter.  I assume she raced in her day, then was used as a broodmare.  She has been with HN for at least 5 years.  As far as we know she is not trained to ride but could pull a cart.  She is in her 20′s.”I really liked this horse. Gobie came right up to me and was sniffing me just like a dog would sniff a new person. That’s my niece, Caroline, in the photo on the right with him.

“Gobie (along with Robie, Blossom, Sweet Pea, Shane and one named Chance) came from a farm in Western Maryland….they were left in a big herd to breed, interbreed and basically run wild – there were like 30 or so of them all together and the Humane Society tried to find homes for all of them….Gobie was adopted for a while, has had a saddle on him and a rider, but that has been a while ago and he was a bit of a nut when the person got on – but he should be trainable for the right person to work with him with patience – not force. He must be 8 or 9.”This next one is my sister’s favorite, Charlotte. Amy is giving her a peppermint candy treat! Just a few months ago, she was emaciated from neglect and didn’t even want people to approach her, but she’s really come along.  Amy told me to be careful if Charlotte puts her ears back as that could mean she’s about to bite you.  I think Amy likes her resilience and the fact that she’s still got some attitude on reserve.

“She was one of the 29 horses rescued from a horrible abuse case in Garrett County. When she arrived she was under weight and infected with intestinal parasites and lice, but after a lot of treatment and care she is finally recovering wonderfully.”
Here’s Scott looking for trouble. I asked Amy to put him in a nice shirt (actually, I just asked for anything but an “ugly t-shirt”) because I knew I’d be taking photos.  It didn’t take him long to dirty it up!The brown horse is blind and named Mercy; The black one is a huge horse named Vice that my niece is especially fond of.

“Mercy was spotted by someone in the front yard of a huge house with expensive cars in the driveway–he was completely emaciated when he was rescued–he was within hours of death–his eyes were badly infected thus the loss of his sight–he is now about 6 yrs old–which means that he was very young when he was being starved.”
Here is Amy with Charlotte again.  

Anyway, I’ll be back to weddings and portraits in my next posts, but thought this would be a nice change!  All the volunteers at HorseNet are wonderful people for taking care of these innocent creatures, and I’m happy to give them a spotlight.

While I was in the Outer Banks last week (post-hurricane fortunately), I had the pleasure of photographing this cutie-patootie (my bf’s nephew). Technically, I was on vacation, but how could any photographer resist this face?  Price has this wide-eyed surprised look most of the time and you can just watch him looking around and studying everything that surrounds him. We headed out to the beach one evening for some “official” 6-month portraits.  His mommy, Shea, was worried that he would eat the sand (he puts absolutely everything else in his mouth, of course), but he just played with it and had a good time.  You can see who he gets those gorgeous blue eyes from!I love his serious face!I think it’s so sweet how Price is reaching up to touch Shea’s face in this shot.Bye-bye summertime. 

Last week, I attended the JVS Speedlite Workshop which was held at the Love Life Images studio in Savage Mill.  JVS (Joseph Victor Stefanchik) and his wife, Anne, are super successful Texas-based photographers and I was so excited to gain some wisdom from them. I’ve been using off-camera flash here and there during portrait sessions and almost always have one set up by the dance floor at wedding receptions to add a little flare and depth, but I’m always up for learning new and creative ways to play with light. I think the overall lesson I learned is that it is possible to to create really gorgeous lighting scenarios without lugging around big studio lights and extension cords. We were just using the small flashes I already have with varying modifiers and a little knowledge.

Here is JVS helping Mary Gardella of Love Life Images set up a light with a shoot-through umbrella.

Here is one of my fellow attendees, Laurie Bracewell, posing for a photo.  We all worked together and took turns posing. I think it felt strange to everyone to be on the other side of the camera.
These are two shots I took of photographer, Monty, using one light with a “beauty dish” modifier.  This is the type of light often used for models.  The 2nd image has a grid over the light for a tighter light source. Check out those cheekbones!

The Love Life studio was a perfect location with their white brick walls and cool, funky furniture. Here is fellow attendee, Amy Deputy, getting ready with a cup of Starbucks java. Amy was definitely one of those photographers who inspired me to shoot weddings in the first place, so it was really cool to have her there working alongside the rest of us.

My friend, Jen, of JLowe Photos will probably hate that I posted a photo of her, but I think she looks great!

Here is a better look at the beauty dish. I am so getting one.
Jennifer Domenick of Love Life Images striking a sassy pose:Here’s Laurie again.  She is such a natural in front of the camera. I was using a Bruce Dorn Asymmetrical Strip Bank for this photo. By the way, I didn’t write down the details on that strip bank, so I referenced Laurie’s blog post about the workshop!  Is that cheating?Here is Joe Wang of Love Life Images.  I don’t know who took the first shot like this, but several of us wanted one of ourselves, so we took turns!This is Joe’s shot of me.  My hands look ginormous.Laurie Bracewell took this pic of me.  Maybe I’ll use it as my new profile pic at the top of my site!  

Well, the story is pretty much the same all around here.  Snow, snow, and oh yeah, here’s some more snow. I haven’t been to my day-job since last Friday and have to say that I’ve been loving it.  I have almost finished painting my spare bedroom, but that is pretty much the only really productive thing I did this week.  The more time I have on my hands, the less I get done, so I’m ready to go back to work tomorrow and start living life again! I need deadlines and to-do lists.

I had fun the other evening trudging through the snow to the grocery store up the street and taking some night photos.  The way the snow lights up everything even at night and the quiet streets felt surreal, but beautiful.

The buried cars actually gave me the creeps.  They seem dead. Here is the street we have to take to get to the main road with a tree down across it.  Fortunately someone came and moved it within a couple days…I don’t know if it was the city, a private contractor, or a neighbor, but it got done. The view from my front porch today: I’m standing in the middle of my street here.  No plows hit this block, but the neighbors banded together on Monday and we moved the cars on my side over to the Rotunda parking lot one at a time like a parade.
This is the sidewalk in front of my house with snow piled higher than my head.  I bet we’ll still have piles left all the way through the beginning of summer. I hope everyone stayed safe this week.  I felt so bad for those who lost power!  I also thought often of all the people who worked so hard to clear the roads, fought fires, cared for the sick, fixed broken utilities, and more!  Thanks to everyone for keeping us going.

I’m still tweaking things a bit, but am digging this new site so far.  Feedback is always appreciated, so let me know if anything doesn’t seem to work right.  I’ve combined my blog and main website into one place to keep things more streamlined.

Moving on….it seems appropriate that my first post on my new site is featuring little man Jack considering that he was the star of my first real blog post back in 2007.  He was on here again at 8 months old and then 1 year.  Not only is Jack back here again at 2.5 years old, but he has been joined by little sis, Anika!

I had such a nice time last weekend hanging out with this wonderful family again.  I was excited to meet Jack’s grandparents who were in town for the weekend for Vicki’s birthday.  Jack was so cute with his “Pa”…pulling his mustache, giggling, and snuggling up on the couch with him.

Here she is….sweetie-pie drool-monster Ani:
This is Jack’s piggy face.  I’ve seen this before at past sessions…he’s an old pro now. Gettin’ serious with mommy: This was so cute.  Jack’s grandpa made a pretend “ouch” sound when Jack pulled his mustache and Jack thought he had really hurt him and started crying. Silly tears: I always love the family pics that capture the chaos….that’s real life. Vicki took this one with my camera.  I love these kids!

What better time to update my blog than when I’m snowed in? The cabin fever hasn’t set in yet, but it probably won’t be much longer before I must escape. Anyway, here are a few more pics of cutie-pie Bailey:

Yes, it’s the back of her head….but isn’t it just so fuzzy and adorable???

Snuggles from Mommy:

Now this is one of the best parts about being a photographer.I loved seeing this collage that Becky put together of some of the photos I took of Bailey as a newborn.

Yay, love me some babies!

Here are just a few teasers from my weekend. I’m glad that the snow didn’t stick around too long – it’s pretty at first but then I just want it to go away!

I got to visit with my cousin, her hubby and baby Bailey who is 8 months old now and as cute as can be.

I think Scooby is wondering what the return policy is on babies:

I also got to hang out with Julian this weekend, who is 20 months old now and super-energized.  In this first shot, I imagine that he is challenging me to try and get a nice holiday shot of him.

Gotcha!

More later!

Have you ever found money in the pocket of your coat that had been long forgotten?  Even though it was yours all along, it feels like money dropped out of the sky just for you!  Anyway, I just found some photos on my computer that I never finished editing or even showed anyone, which is a similar feeling.  It has been 2.5 years since my solo adventure to Arizona and San Francisco.  I guess because nobody else was there to bug me to see the photos, I just sat on them.

This was part business, part pleasure, as my employer sent me to Scottsdale for a healthcare webmaster workshop.  I have to admit that the desert doesn’t excite me too much, but I decided to add a few personal days to my trip and hop on a flight to San Francisco before heading back home. I had never been any further west than Denver (hi Sarah!), so this was pretty exciting. It was also a new experience to sight-see alone, but at least I got to do exactly what I felt like doing without checking in with anyone else.  It felt empowering to face a new city on my own two feet.

I’d also like to mention that I had to remove a lot of specks and smudges from these photos.  I’m sure those of you who have spent more time in San Francisco know to clean your lenses often, but I was just a silly tourist walking around with the foggy dampness and water spray covering my lens. Live and learn, right?  Chilly + Windy + Wet = San Francisco.

I found it difficult to really show how steep the streets were.  I’ve seen the movies and heard about the area, but I still was not really prepared for the madness of San Francisco.  I definitely got a good workout wandering around.

I took a ferry ride to Sausalito on one gorgeous day.  I was wishing I could be on one of those sailboats!

Sausalito is such a cute town. I had lunch at a little cafe with outdoor seating and walked around.

Before leaving on this trip, I made a reservation with Adventures Aloft for a hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley, which is about a 90 minute drive from San Fran.  I think I had to get up around 5am, but it was worth it.

My view of some horses in a field:

Back on the ground:

Okay, okay, here’s a photo of me.  There was a family on board with me from Bethesda, Maryland.  Small world!

My next post will be back in present time!