Personal Work || Life Lately v. 4

First off: Happy 21st Birthday to my brother, Ryan! He's not much of a one for a big to-do, so we had a pretty quiet celebration with homemade cupcakes on Saturday and ribs on Monday, his actual birthday.

Also on Monday, I went downtown to location scout a venue. I'm photographing an event at the Four Seasons in September. Their staff were fantastic, from valets to event co-ordinator!

Books made a reappearance over the past few weeks, this time starring Agatha Christie. The first book of hers I ever read is featured front and center: Murder on the Orient Express. I bought it years ago at a homeschool book fair at the Palmer Events center. I was probably about 13 or so. (I think Misty of Chincoteague might have come home that day, too.) Book fairs were equal parts tedious and entertaining. I mean, you had a wait while Mom looked at the dreaded Saxon math textbooks, but you also got to browse crates of paperbacks!

Also, in my personal opinion, David Suchet was born to play Hercule Poirot. (FYI, Google Chrome is trying to spellcheck Poirot.)

The other day, I took some more self-portraits. Taking self-portraits is always a challenge for me. Since I can't be behind the camera composing the shot and in front of it at the same time, it's a guessing game when it comes to posing. I'm really happy with how these turned out, though!

Mom is removing wallpaper in my brothers' bathroom and I was intrigued by the texture of the walls. Plus, the boys' bathroom/bedroom catches the best light in the house. Gotta go where the light is.

Leighann made some pretty incredible bread last week, which deserved a photograph. Cinnamon challah - "three rises on that sucker."

On Tuesday, I was browsing through old images and came across this one. It's from 2014, but I'd never edited since I didn't really think it had any potential. I decided to give it a try and I'm super happy with the results. Moral of the story: re-evaluate your castoffs. Here's a before-and-after.

Finally, a pretty simple image from our backyard, but one that will probably make it in my "Favorite Images of 2016" category.

Personal Work || Life Lately v. 2

The new camera, affectionately known as "Don Pedro" (Much Ado About Nothing), continues to possess charm in spades! This post is the second in what I hope will be a pretty consistent series. It isn't quite a Photo a Day challenge, but I'm hoping it will put me in the habit of pulling out the camera more frequently during day-to-day, normal (read "boring"??) activities and cause me to be more creative with mundane objects.

Photograph all the things, including today's lunch.

 I really love graphic minimalist photos. It's a style that doesn't come naturally to me, but I want to start consciously looking for opportunities to make photos in that vein.

Return of the self-portrait! Don Pedro has been easier to take self-portraits with than Old Faithful. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of out-of-focus outtakes. (How I wish I could be behind the camera and in front of it at the same time!) I can't decide for sure whether I like black & white or color better, thought I'm leaning toward B&W. Thoughts/opinions?

I took several different arrangements of these Nancy Drew books (cue childhood). One of the alternates is this post's header, but this was the last one and my favorite! Definitely an idea I want to revisit with other books/objects.

PS: Did you catch Nancy lurking from behind one of the spines in the header photo?

I photographed my portfolio/photobook and I'm pretty happy with the results! I ordered a photobook for a client just a few weeks ago and once I deliver it, I'll be featuring it on the blog. Keep your eyes peeled!

[PPS: I love photobooks. I like designing them and the challenge it is to decide what goes where. I love the fact that they are so tangible and tactile, that you can hold them in your hands and flip through them. They're like old-school photo albums, but without the annoying (but kind of nostalgic) plastic sheets and slipping photographs.]

Question of the post: What was your favorite childhood book? Post your answer in the comments below!!