Happy Baby :: Child Photography

This past weekend I went back to Iowa to photograph some Trash the Dress photos with my friend and her sister. Due to rain and other unforeseeable circumstances, it didn't happen. Oh well! I got to hang out with Kara and her super-cute baby! I took some shots while we hung out.

Gabe wasn't really all that thrilled about walking on the grass. Once we got inside he was all about standing. Grass is weird, I know. My nephews won't walk on the grass because it is "dirty" and there might be ants.

Baby profiles are my favorite!

I think he was like.... "Why are you using the huge lens? Are you serious about this?"

Fall Project

I am still taking photos for my Fall project! Six days strong! I haven't yet rekindled my love of fall (especially when it is this cold this early) but I am working on it!

I was at my garden and the sun came out right when it was setting. It threw brilliant colors all over the grass. Perfect timing.

 The Necedah Wildlife Area along Highway 173

 The Necedah Wildlife Area along Highway 173

Fall Photos from Central Wisconsin

Some pumpkins from Mayflower Store on Highway 10. Day three of the fall project and still going strong! Hehe!

This weekend I am taking some Trash the Dress Photos in Iowa. Fun! I will post them when I get them done! Hopefully it doesn't rain.....

Happy Weekend!

Fall in Central Wisconsin

Fall and I have had a falling out. We used to get along splendidly, the smell of fall leaves was once given to me as a birthday present.... I used to love the colors, the sweaters, the apple orchards and my October birthday. Unfortunately, fall has been tainted by Wisconsin's winter. Now I just see fall as the end of summer and beginning of winter with no fun between and especially no fun in winter.

I decided that I am going to try to find fall again. Since I tapered off my 365 project around June, I have decided to try it again, but for a shorter, more manageable period, the fall equinox. It started in North America September 22, yesterday. For some scientific reasons, it starts today in Europe and Asia. I will take a photo daily, hopefully of nature-y things,  until the first day of winter, December 21, 2010. Here is my first photo!

I photographed this at Cherokee County Park yesterday. It seemed like a good beginning photo to me.

I got the idea to follow the seasons awhile ago, but never did.... because I never felt like it, I suppose. I have the book, Looking for Summer, by photographer Jim Brandenburg, and have seen Chased by the Light. These books follow the summer solstice and winter solstice respectively. The images are stunning and from the North Woods in Minnesota. I would definitely, definitely recommend them if you are into taking photographs of nature.

New Business Cards

I got new business cards today! I am pretty excited. They aren't new in the sense that I am replacing old ones, but they are new because I have never had business cards before! They were designed by my talented and lovely sister, Cathy Brookes. She is a graphic designer by trade and does a super job. Plus, she is good at working with people (me) to get exactly what they want. Especially when this is what she had to work with.....

"I think I want something crisp and classic with a surprising element. Like, the color or the font or a little ditty. Or maybe something a little organic, yet still crisp. I like the idea of yellow.... maybe yellow and a blueberry color? I am eating blueberries right now."

That was from an email I sent about what I wanted for the cards. Good thing she knows me well!

 The front

The back. 

This is a photo from June of a bubble. It was really hard to decide what, if any photo to use. I wasn't sure because I didn't know if I wanted the card to be more for "fine art" photography or wedding and portrait photography. It is hard to find one photo that represents me as a photographer.

She definitely went with yellow, which I really like! Thanks, Sister!

I got the business cards printed at Heinzen Printing in Marshfield, where I also printed the posters for the Mosinee volleyball team.

First Day of Fall ... Tomorrow

The first day of fall is.... tomorrow! It seems like the leaves are changing early this year, but that could just be me. My computer has been having some issues and I am without a few key programs for photo editing right now. Actually, I am without my computer right now, which is sad. I am posting some fall photos, but they aren't new ones, due to the technical difficulty I am currently experiencing.

Fall leaves while hiking in Maine. I had an internship out there photo editing at Aurora Photos and got to spend the fall in Maine. It was beautiful and every weekend I went exploring in the mountains. 

The Chippewa River in the fall. Dan and I went on a kayak trip from Eau Claire to Durand and spent the night on an island. In the morning there was all this crashing around and it turns out it was early gun deer season down there and we ruined a drive. The boat of hunters came around one side and the deer crashed across the river on the other side of the island. 

Fall leaves in Marshfield

Grass at sunset in Dexter Park in Wood County. 

Field in the fall

More grass in the fall. I have a thing with grass and good light. 

End of Summer Holgas from Central Wisconsin

Some end of Summer Holgas....

Kayaking at Lake Eau Claire on Labor Day

Yes, it was rainy, but we managed to get in a picnic on a sandbar before it really started to rain.

I love boardwalks through the woods. This is from the Ice Age Trail near Mondeaux Dam.

 I have been really into yellow lately. As a flower and pretty much any color except sweaters circa 2001.... :) I also enjoy that final yellow burst of summer and sun before fall in winter. Fall yellow is such a different yellow than summer yellow.... to me anyway!

Birds on a wire along the road. Holgas don't pick up that much detail....

Holga at the Fair

I took my Holga to the Central Wisconsin State Fair in Marshfield a few weeks ago. I wasn't quite sure how the photos would turn out... I usually don't shoot my Holga at night. Last time I tried the film quality was just really degraded, but it was also inside. But with a general idea and a few double exposures and a few long exposures, a few of the photos turned out! Actually, I only took three.

This is my favorite. There actually is more detail in the shadows on the original print, but the scanner did a cruddy job and there was a ton of scan marks, so I just darkened it all out. I like hand-holding long exposures, especially with a Holga. The images from a Holga tend to be more "memory" quality for me, so the light motion blur is more forgiving than with the crisp tangibility and immediacy of digital cameras.  

Fair rides. I didn't ride any, but I ate a lot of fair food.

The Ferris Wheel. This is a double exposure. I like how it looks carnival-esque as an image, not just because it is a carnival.

Here is an interesting link about the end of Kodachrome: http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/vmix_4e9f782a-aca0-11df-806f-00127992bc8b.html

I love the colors and those old family slides. Family photos never will look the same....

Nature in RAW

 I have been experimenting with shooting in RAW. This means that the files are larger and there are more editing options..... but I am still trying to figure all this out. I have a way I tone images in Photoshop, a certain workflow and a set of tools I generally use. But the whole shooting in RAW is throwing me off a bit! I feel like I need to recalibrate not only my computer, but also my eyes. I may need to purchase some larger CF cards too. My 4GB cards fill up quite fast.

 I went on a walk yesterday and took some shots. The two images below are leaves. It was really windy, so I used a slow shutter to get some motion blur.

This photo I changed the temperature to a more yellow/golden, which I thought I liked until I opened it in Photoshop all the way and did autobalance just to see what it would do, which is the photo below. That color corrected for all the golden colors. So I switched back to my original toning job from RAW and now it looked too yellow to me.

This is definitely a cooler version of the leaves. I like this, but I want golden fall light, but not too yellow of a light. Conundrum! More experimenting is in order!

Allergy makers, but they are pretty! The warmer temperature here works better, but the plant is already yellow, so maybe that helps.

Shifting Seasons

It is that time of year where the seasons are beginning to shift. Summer is slowly (I wish it would go slower!) shifting into fall.  Here are a couple late summer photos from the past week.