Heavenly Hosts.

My father-in-law had a bunch of these Christmas ornaments in a box of stuff he and his wife let my kids play with. I thought they might be fun to play with as macros.

A Hitchin’.

I should say that I don’t often shoot weddings.
Honestly, I’m as nervous as the brides and grooms are up to the day the event happens and I’m always afraid I’ll start watching the ceremony instead of documenting it. I never do, but it’s one of the things I worry about.

I put that fear aside a little while ago and shot a wedding with Joe’s help. We got some AMAZING results. Since it was a Brainchild Collective project, Joe’s doing post on the images, but this one is surely one of the best.

I’ll pop a few more up when I get them.

For what it’s worth, the ceremony was here, and this was the post about their engagement pictures.

Things Are Looking Up.

I gotta say, I’m pretty pleased with the lineup of images comin’ this week. Some portraits, some snapshots (like this one) and some found photos, to boot.

Stay tuned!

Zoe.

I was playing with the kids – well, mostly Zoe – at the playground and snapped off a few images for fun. I was playing with the flare aspect again. I’m not sure I have it down yet, but I am getting the hang of it.

Flare intrigues me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I’m exploring the idea of good photos that aren’t “perfect.” In addition to my personal musings, I came across this blog post about how to get images noticed on flickr. While I’m pretty sure this image won’t matter to anyone, it’s still interesting to consider.

When I brought this up on the computer to futz with, I was reminded a little of Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World.”

Expanding My Horizons.

Shot this at the playground with my daughter the other afternoon. The sky wasn’t this forbidding and there’s a playground and tarmac beneath these trees in the direct foreground, but without knowing it, this seems like somewhere else. Not a quarter of a mile from my house.

Did this with a little fiddling from some Lightroom presets I scored here.

Bubbles.

It’s the one thing that you can’t see in this photograph that, in my opinion, makes it matter. She’s got a little bottle of bubbles in one hand and the wand-thingy in the other. I should have spent the entire day shooting this and variations of it, but at the time (like 3 years ago), I had a different aesthetic.

The shiny dress and beautiful day were out of my control but add an interesting dimension.

Random… For Some Strange Reason.

I was giving my students grief about saying that things were “random” and for describing (all too often, I might add) things as happening “for some strange reason.”

I have stuff set up to shoot soon, but for the moment I have to pull out some old stuff.

For some strange reason, these random shots are all I could come up with.

Go figure.

Footprints.

There’s an old Tribe Called Quest song called “Footprints” that I honestly was thinking of when I shot this. It’s sort of fitting for the end of the beach photos. A woman and her Scottish Terrier had just come by and stopped to talk to Zoe. She was having none of the little dog, was happier to see him from a distance.

As the Scottie and his lady wandered on down the beach, I snapped a couple with the Holga. I like the effect here but wish I’d been a little higher so that the prints would stand out some more.

Every Freakin’ Time…

Every time I go to the fair, I shoot some variation of this image. I don’t know why. Those damned swings just call to me, I suppose.

Also managed a couple of new looks at the carousel that makes me photograph it every year. Go figure.

And Who Doesn’t Want a Vacation?