I had the pleasure to take a trip to Charleston, SC with some great work friends. It was such a great relaxing weekend and we got to take in some great sites both at the home we rented for the weekend as well as at Magnolia Gardens. Take a minute to rejoice and celebrate the end of this awful winter we had!! View all of the Charleston images here!
It's Twenty-WHAT?!
2014. March of 2014... Where did the time go? Well the good thing is that with the new year, got some great new gear. Being what I call a "techy" photographer, I love learning about new gadgets and of course love playing with them when I decide to buy a new gadget. The most exciting of which of course, is new lenses! I started playing around the house with a couple new lenses I splurged on and figured I'd take a blog post to show them and show more of me... so let's see... What do my lenses say about me?
Creativity. I've always been creative. I love DIY tasks, I love experimenting. Even when something I make is a total failure, I learn a valuable lesson and try again. How does that relate to "Bless This Hizzle Fo Shizzle?" Well let me tell you... One day I was stuck in one of those internet cycles of clicking from one link to another for a while and completely wasting my valuable time, when I saw a picture similar to the above. I jokingly sent it to my mom, who is an avid sewer and I said "I expect you to make this for me." Apparently, she thought I was serious and just a few weeks later she surprised me with the above framed, hand sewn item. She made it just from looking at the cruddy internet picture I sent her. Yes, my creativity comes from her.
Gah, I love this little turd. She's a mutt. I have no idea what she is besides some Jack Russell in there. She's a hyperactive crazy mess of a dog, but she makes me and my husband so happy.
Speaking of "turds" I love, I guess I should mention I kinda love my husband... most times ;)
College. Doesn't everyone go "Yikes..." when thinking about that time? I had some amazing and some really rough times at NC State. But I can not be more thankful for the lessons I learned there.
I love to travel... everywhere. I did a study abroad in Peru as well as in Austria & Czech Republic. Unfortunately, I love Broadway a lot more. So most of my traveling dollars are mostly put towards traveling to NYC to see Broadway shows. I collect magnets from the places I travel as well as all the Broadway shows I see. This is just a snap of a few... Fun fact: I've had a lot of luck seeing shows by winning show lotteries. I've been able to see some great shows on Broadway in front row seats for $30. Take a look at the lotteries if you're headed to NYC soon!
Did I mention I love NYC?
Did I really? 'Cuz I love NYC.
A designer bag on a super sale sale that actually SAYS "New York" on it??? Sold.
Bruno Mars is my idol. Love, love, love.
So let me begin by saying I spent a really long time gathering pictures of my idol to post to my blog... I actually posted them. When suddenly it hit me... "Can I do that?" Thankfully, I'm usually pretty smart, so I googled the rules around taking images off the web and as I suspected: It's completely illegal, even if it's somewhere public, unless it clearly says you can use it, you can be sued. No thanks.
But if I'm writing about who I am, I can NOT pass up the opportunity to talk about this freakin' guy. Bruno Mars has become a huge inspiration to me in the past few months. If you research his story, you'll see he's been around the music industry since the age of 4. He's worked so hard, been at the very bottom and WORKED his way up. Next thing he knew he was performing at the Superbowl Halftime Show this year. I'm so amazed by his talent, his drive, the amazing career he has made, how he has not forgotten who he is or who his friends are and so much more. His story has inspired me in so many ways to continue on my creative path... Can't even describe it. Diiiiiid I mention I love his music? The dude does not have a single bad song on any of his albums. Love, love, love.
Since I haven't had the pleasure to take a real picture of him, you can google his gorgeous face yourself. But I had to post SOMETHING and all I have that is mine is a few clips from his concert I went to last summer. I'm pretty sure no one will watch this but me, but that's fine.
Learning IS fun!
I love experimenting! While you can learn a great deal from reading, the best way to learn is "do it." I have been mainly experimenting on my own and not in public (It's less embarrassing that way!). But a couple weeks ago I decided to join a Meetup group of photographers and thought it would be fun to learn from those more experienced than me, and maybe even help out if someone is there less experienced than me.
I can't thank Chris, our leader, enough! He did a great job of organizing the event given some unusual circumstances - short version: The original location, Anne Springs Close Greenway, had to close at the last second due to a death at the location :( He rescheduled to a park in Ballantyne, brought props and all kinds of fun toys for us test out!
Thanks also to Gwen, our wonderful and fun model, for being patient with all of the event attendees who were all new to photography! (and special thank you to her hilarious husband/bodyguard/reflector holder/everything)
The gallery below includes a wide variety of shots. Some are unedited but for a few of them I did some neat Photoshop effects to experiment a bit!
Special shout out to Doug and Madison too for showing up and being super friendly and making me feel comfortable!
FIRST BLOG POST!
Wow! Blog post number ONE! Where do I begin? I guess the basics of who I am, what I do, how I got here are on the rest of the website. So I'll skip those details.
How about being this is my FIRST blog post, I start with my FIRST photo shoot.
If you read the About section of my website you know I've recently started photography (about April 2013). I figured I'd see if this was a whim or if I was serious.
I have a wonderful friend, Megan, who graciously agreed to let me use (and abuse) her as a test subject earlier this summer. This was my first photo shoot. It was my first "fight or flight" shoot; it was my FIRST time outside of my property line shooting on Manual mode. Was I going to get frustrated, confused, angry, feel uninspired, lost, quit?
NOPE! The sun was setting and I just wanted it to stop so that I could keep shooting. I could have stayed out there all night if I had been willing to start testing out flash! Here's some shots from that shoot. Not too bad for my FIRST try!
