The days are long. The years are short.
Capturing the unique beauty of your life.
In the moments that define you, and every day in between.
Births are my very favorite thing to shoot. I love the struggle, the drama, the highs and lows and tension that builds until this incredible moment of joy. I recently had the pleasure of photographing a dear friend and fellow photographer's birth at Tampa General Hospital. It was such a privilege to be there and to capture this beautiful day for her and her family. Here are a few of my favorites from this very large gallery.
The third boutique shooting class I took at Click Away was focused on family photojournalism. Capturing my children's childhood in an authentic way is something that is very important to me, so I was really looking forward to this class. Jessica Thomason is a master at capturing the everyday moment in a beautiful and authentic way, so shooting alongside her and learning from her was a great treat. Here are a few of the images I was able to capture in our session. Keep in mind, there were about 20 or 30 photographers crammed into one long, skinny room--so not a lot of room to work or change shooting positions.
And my favorite: Jessica's daughter looking full of mischief while her mother cleaned up the room of toys at the end of the session. It's not the most technically sound photo, but I love the sense of movement and the glimpse of her spunky personality I captured here.
When I discovered Caroline Jensen was offering a Lensbaby Portraiture class, I knew I had to sign up. Caroline Jensen is a fantastic artist and instructor, and I appreciate the work she does using the Lensbaby lenses. Lensbaby lenses allow a photographer to selectively blur parts of an image for artistic effect. The look is very different, and the lenses are manual focus and can be tricky to use, but the effect is gorgeous when done correctly. Here are a few images from the on-location shoot we did at the Alamo.
This past week, I visited San Antonio, Texas to attend the 2015 Click Away Conference, a photography conference sponsored by Clickin' Moms. The conference was three days of classes, shooting demonstrations, hands-on workshops and field trips around the area to practice what we were learning. I have been looking forward to this conference for months. For years, I've been a part of the online Clickin' Moms community, forming friendships on the forum with women I'd never met in real life. But this past week, I was able to change that: I had the opportunity to meet with and get to know the women behind the avatars, and it was such an amazing experience. During the conference, I was able to take a few courses that involved shooting models. The first of these was with Mae Burke, a photographer in Texas specializing in motherhood photography. I really enjoy Mae's work and it was such a pleasure meeting her and seeing her in action. Toward the end of class, we were separated into groups of 5 and allowed to shoot the model. Although it was crowded (5 women with cameras crowded around a mom and her baby) I managed to get a couple of shots during my 1-2 minute window.
I really enjoyed photographing this lovely model and her adorable munchkin. I would love to have had more time to work with them, but I was content to listen to Mae explain the ins and outs of breastfeeding and motherhood photography, a niche area of photography that holds great interest for me, as I am interested in eventually shooting birth and breastfeeding photography.
That's all I'll share for today--keep an eye out for additional shares over the next few days (as I catch up on editing--and laundry-- from a week away).
I was thrilled to have my 'Contemplation' image chosen by the CMPro Project as the 'Daily of the Week.' They also featured my image of the cliff diver on the CMPro Facebook page. Although I shoot my photos for my own need to create art, it is nice to have my work featured by photography communities I respect.
Last week, I achieved a personal goal that I set for myself 3 years ago: I was accepted into the CM Pro group on Clickin Moms, a large women's photography forum. Although I fell in love with photography back in high school, spending hours pressing a shutter and developing in the darkroom, I didn't get serious about learning how to improve my skills until a few years ago. I joined Clickin Moms to take their online courses and learn the art of photography, and from the beginning, I was in awe of the amazingly talented CMPros who taught the courses and mentored the newbies, whose work was featured on the blogs, in the magazine, and in the forums. I made a commitment then that I would work hard to learn and produce that quality of work.
In the interim, I've taken multiple classes, read stacks of books, and put my work out to be criticized and critiqued in my quest for improvement. I am just a few days shy of completing my first 365-day project, and I have taken thousands of images, working to improve my use of lighting, composition, color and form.
A couple weeks ago, I submitted a curated portfolio of 150 images for consideration, with the hope I would be accepted into the CMPro program. Recently, I woke up to find an email welcoming me into the program. It's an honor to be welcomed into such a talented group--but more importantly, I set out to do this and I achieved my goal, despite homeschooling and motherhood, moves and personal difficulties. The end result is wonderful--but it's the process and the growth I've experienced over the past couple of years that I value most. I still have so much to learn and so many areas to grow in my quest, but I've reached a benchmark that once seemed so far off.
I owe a massive 'thank you' to my husband for his unwavering support--for not grimacing at my expensive hobby, the costly classes, and not balking at the weekends I would abandon him to walk the streets shooting. And a big thanks my lovely kiddos, who have (mostly happily) allowed me to stick a camera in their faces on a daily basis. I certainly couldn't have achieved this without them.
Now that I've been accepted to the ranks of CMPro, I'm looking forward to sharing my work with a larger audience and continuing to explore and experiment and play with my art in the company of some really, incredible and awesomely-talented women. Want to see for yourself? Click over to the CM Pro Daily Project page. You can see some of my shares there, and you can enjoy some really inspiring images from the rest of the Pros.
