Not just portraits....

Before I started posing and photographing people, I started by photographing every kind of inanimate object I could find, from flowers, to kids toys, to interesting shapes, colors and shadows. I still LOVE to pick up my camera and photograph the everyday and make it something special. 

This past summer when a good friend of mine asked if I would be interested in taking some photos of the Jackfish Lodge, Pro Shop and Golf Course, I said absolutely!! It is a beautiful course - if you are a golfer, make the trip - it is well worth it. Also, the food at the restaurant is amazing, so if you are camping and want a break from hot dogs and hamburgers, head on over! And be sure to stop into the pro shop - they have great clothes and gear. All around great place!!

 When some friends finished building a home to sell, they had considered taking the photos on their phones for the listing, so I hijacked that photo job. They built a beautiful home, so it made the photographing easy peasy!! :)

 

And for those of you who know me, you know that I am a crazy crafter, so my creations often get photo shoots of their own. :) Feel free to follow my Jules Creations (my crafting blog) to see what else keeps me busy when I am not behind my camera or computer.

 

And just for fun.... :) My husband, Ryan and I have been married for just over 11 years now and our rings have seen some wear and tear, but I am not sure we ever taken any pictures of them. So better late than never!

*COLD* Day Fun

Since it is -30 outside today, I had no urge to go outside to take pictures, but I wanted to do something, so I looked back through some of my "pinsperation" and came across a couple of pins of water drops. I have always loved the way those pictures look - the smooth lines, the luminance of them, often the colors - so out came the tripod, speedlight, some very cool colored bowls, colored cardstock to change/reflect different colors, a ziploc bag and some duct tape (to tape it to the stool I had it suspended from). Super high tech.... I read that you can buy special water drop machines (which after doing this little experiment, I am certain that they would work A LOT better than my baggie, but for my first try, I am happy with the results). It took a little trial and error to get my focus just right since I wanted more drops and would squeeze the bag, causing the drops to no necessarily fall where I set my focus.

Anyways, all in all, successful project. The speedlight is a must in order to illuminate the drops, though I had it on the second lowest setting. I look forward to trying it again using different liquids (maybe something thicker, milky, etc.).

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk

What a great night! On Saturday October 5th, me and 45 other photographers got together on Broadway for the annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. From 6:30-8, we had the opportunity to walk around and photograph anything our hearts desired and at the end of the evening, we could choose one (just one) photo to submit to the Photo Walk contest. 

I had never noticed these amazing painted boulders on the shore of the Broadway bridge before. Amazing what you see when you open your eyes!! Very cool.

So, I totally cheated on this picture. The sky was completely washed out, so I dropped in a light blue sky from a few days before. The wonders of Photoshop....

This is the original

 

ran into this lovely fellow as I was walking ALONE by the shore on the downtown side of the river. Can you spell CREEPY?!!

It just so happened that Saturday night was also the "Light The Night: Walk for Leukemia & Lymphoma", so there were a lot of people in Kiwanis Park and the walk opened with the AMAZING Durga Fire Dancers. 

These women had such passion. The whole performance was amazing.... I am SO glad that we got to see it.

I love this picture. It is the one I submitted to the contest. I can't say that it is the most stunning picture I have ever taken, but having watched the dancers and felt their emotion, I loved that you could see each of their faces from my perspective and thought the colors turned out fantastic. I did not modify the colors at all - I sharpened it a bit, but otherwise I did not modify anything from the original pic.

If you look closely, you can see the lanterns and the people on the walk along the path at the bottom of this photo.

Terrible color in this picture, but I LOVED this bike!

I'm at the front.... In orange... :)

The Super Moon

I didn't know when I looked to the sky on Friday night that the moon was a "super moon". I did know that with as close as it looked to earth and how clear the sky was, I had the perfect opportunity to take a few pictures. I am so happy with how they turned out! Check out the craters!!

Tagxedo.com.... Love this site....

If you haven't heard of it, check out Tagxedo. If you have, but haven't visited in a while, go play around for a few minutes. I cannot remember how I came across it, but I am a word girl and I love collages, so these are right up my alley. Sometimes I have a lot going on in my mind and it helps if I get the words out. If I can't sort them out in sentences (yes, this happens!), I love to make these "word clouds". So, I made one about photography today - my class wraps up tomorrow (*tear*), but this is just the beginning. I have learned a lot over the past few months and am very excited to keep practicing and learn more.

And here are some other "clouds" I have made. Fun and therapeutic..... :)

More Me Than You Can Handle....

One of me is a handful.... How about 5 of me?! I got an email a few days ago from Photojojo! in regards to cloning yourself in photos and I just had to try it. So, without much (or any) real thought into it, I set up my camera on the tripod and ran around my room, posing in different positions before the 10 second self timer went off! Then, after collecting a number of shots, I imported them into Photoshop and got to work layering, erasing, layering, erasing..... To see the tutorial that I followed, click here.

I cannot wait to do this again with more elaborate poses and interesting subject/background - this was just fun to see if I could do it. And I did! :)

Note: if you are going to try this, do it in a place that the light will remain the same. Duh, right.... Well, I chose my living room... At 7pm.... Which happened to be when the sun was setting, so my light and colors from the first pics were quite different from the last (which is why the pic of me standing, talking on the phone is a little dark compared to the rest).

The Conservatory at the Mendel

 Flowers, greenery, humidity.... Oh my.... I  cannot wait for summer, or spring.... Or just a lot less snow!! I was informed by a very wise 6-year-old this morning that Spring doesn't start until March 20th, so I guess I have a few days to go. :) In the meantime, my little Lily-bean and I took a trip to the Mendel Art Gallery and Conservatory and took pictures of their lovely flowers and plants. Being in the conservatory was like being in a tiny little piece of summer heaven... :)

Some people don't like lens flares.... I am not one of them!

I gave Lily her own camera, so she took some great pics as well. After about half an hour, so was bored though.... :)

Fun times... I think I am going to have some future photographers on my hands (Owen loves it too)! :) Thanks for looking!