Personal Work || Life Lately v. 3

Fourth of July edition!

Our menu consisted of grilled marinated chicken, mac + cheese, grilled corn on the cob, and scratch rolls. My sister also tried her hand at homemade creme soda!

When I was little, my mom used to say, "Blueberries are our friends." It must have rubbed off because I love blueberry muffins. And when you're a photographer, you have to photograph your baking efforts.

I'm surprised that I've never taken a treetop photo before this one. I think I need to look up more often.

Sunset, repaving + the gutter.

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!!

Personal Work || Life Lately v. 1

Last week, I purchased my very first full frame camera. I admit that I'm not a huge gear person, but I'm awfully excited about this new camera.

When I bought my first camera, I hadn't ever done photography before. I had decided to take a class at the local community college, just to see whether I liked photography. A little exposure to photography, you might say. (Pun totally intended.) Since I was purchasing on speculation, I bought just about the most entry level DSLR available. (I chose the Nikon brand for the really boring reason that Nikon's menu organization made more sense to me than Canon.)

I decided to stick with Nikon, since that's what I already had and I've been very happy with it. My faithful old camera is now relegated to backup status.

I have to say, first shots were way more exciting the second time around! I waited a few hours after I got the camera to actually take any photos. I wanted the first thing I photographed to be a person and my trusty brother/model wasn't home.

Since then, I've been eager to shoot and I'm loving it!