Ball Mason Jars

I love "Do It Yourself" projects!  I love crafty things and making things so for this shot I "dyed" the Ball jars to give them an old antique look. The jars used to come in beautiful colored glass that you can now only find at antique stores and cost anywhere from $12-$30. This was a lot cheaper! Then I took the lids and padded them just a little and covered them in fabric to dress up the jars a little. Pretty fun project!

Fall Apples

For one of my last Self Promos, I decided to shoot a lifestyle of Fall Apples. This was shot in the studio and of course lighting was involved! (You know how I feel about lighting!)  I tried to keep it simple and am happy with the end result.

Silk Pure Almond Milk

Have I told you yet that lighting is hard? Well, it is. On Monday we had to research and make a copy of an existing beverage ad from a magazine or the internet. Then we had to duplicate the ad in the studio with the same product and lighting. This time we worked in teams and my partner was the amazing Lindsay Allen. I know this looks simple, but the lighting is complicated. After getting some tips from James Walters, our instructor, we ended up getting a great picture.

A dozen eggs

This week one of our assignments was to photograph a dozen eggs. I decided to do something other than dairy eggs and chose my marbled Easter eggs. I took lots of pictures from many different angles, but finally settled on this one.

Book cover

This assignment really stumped us! We had to photograph for a book cover that was titled "You must be the change you want to see in the world," a quote from Gandhi. It was so hard to come up with a way to illustrate this. The front of the cover is the glazed vase and the back was the unglazed vase. I took the approach that we are all vessels to do/carry out things and that clay is a very moldable object, easily changed, waiting for the potter to put his hands on to shape into a masterpiece. After shaping  the beauty comes out in the glaze that is applied.

Lighting is HARD!!

Lighting is complicated and hard! In Photographic Illustration class we had to find an ad that had lighting that we liked, dissect the lighting and then duplicate the the pictures as close to the ad as possible. I THOUGHT I has picked a relatively easy lighting set up, but NO! This was the hardest lighting set up I have done. Thank goodness our teacher, James Walters, was there helping me every step of the way. Here is a shot of the ad I picked and the photograph I took to duplicate it. Still learning!

Living Space

Photographing interior living spaces is a lot harder than you might think. For my Photographic Illustration class we had to photograph a living space that was well designed, composed and lit properly. I am still working on my lighting techniques, but this first try was not too bad.

Ice Cream and Cake and Cake!

This is my latest time-lapse project with music, My nephew, Alexander is the star of the show, although my niece Catherine decided to get in on the action at the end!
Click on this link:
http://vimeo.com/49284741

85mm

I was playing around with a beautiful 85 mm 1.4 lens that I think I am going to have to get now! Thanks Dave!

Vegetables

For my Photographic Illustration class we were given a client assignment to photograph vegetables. We could interpret the subject any way we wanted to. I wanted to photograph some fresh vegetables as if they had just been picked from the garden.

Self Promo

Each week in our Photographic Illustration class we have to do two "self promo" pieces where we choose the idea or subject to photograph and then decide how to make it happen to match our vision. My first one was a Southern Living style of a pound cake that I baked. It was fun to do, but I have a lot to learn!

Time Lapse

I am learning a little about making a time lapse using still photographs. I used my nephews Patrick and Alexander to do my assignment. When I was trying to explain to them what I was doing and how to do it,  my 10 year old nephew said, " I know how to do that. I do it ALL the time on my I Touch! It's easy!" Needless to say, he was a big help figuring out how to do the assignment.

It's FINALLY Football season!

I miss football so much, so I am so excited that it is finally here! Sadly, this football season is the FIRST of a year of LASTS for me. This is my youngest child's SENIOR year in high school. (Oh how hard it is to say that!) This year we will experience the last football season, the last Homecoming, the last Prom,  and the last high school graduation and so on. I am going to try really hard to enjoy each and every minute of this last year. For now, Go Whirlies football!

Little Kayleb

I had the opportunity to photograph little Kayleb. I snapped a few of him and his mom during the session. I love the look on both of their faces!

Large Format Digital Back

I have fallen in love with using the Large Format camera with a digital back. You can tether the camera to a computer and instantly see what your image looks like. Then you have the opportunity to recompose or change your lighting set up. SO much easier!

Off Camera Flash

Learning to use off camera flash has been fun, but a challenge. It was 99 degrees this day and Haley was being eaten up by mosquitos!

Indoor/Outdoor Composite

Learning to use Photoshop has been challenging this semester. For this assignment we had to photograph an indoor/outdoor scene where the exposure range was too great to capture in just one exposure. We had to take different pictures for the different exposures in the scene and then "layer" them together in Photoshop. This was a VERY time consuming and tedious task! This picture was taken inside the Pisgah Covered Bridge in Randolph County.

On Location Portrait

This was an assignment called "On Location" where we had to pick an off camera flash lighting scenario and copy it. I took Haley to Bog Garden and used my flash on a light stand with an umbrella and also used a second flash behind her to give a hair light.

I used to love baseball

I used to love to go to baseball games. My son Taylor still plays for Grimsley and we go to every game. I used to think that I could take pretty good baseball pictures. I was sadly mistaken! For my Small Format class, we have to photograph baseball and our teacher has VERY high expectations. I have been to ten or eleven games and usually take about 200-300 pictures. You do the math! All of this to get five shots worthy of turning in. Needless to say, I am tired of baseball!

Americana

Happy Fourth of July! For the past twenty something years, my family and I have spent a week at the beach for the Fourth of July.  Not this year! I was in school. Okay, well we didn't  actually go to school on the Fourth, but I was out photographing ALL day on the Fourth. Anyway, who can do anything like go to the beach when the Fourth is on a Wednesday and you have classes the rest of the week? These are a few of my "Americana" shots from the Grasshoppers game on July 3. (I was there shooting another assignment!)

Large Format Field Trip

In our Large Format class, we went on a field trip to the Courthouse in downtown Asheboro. We were practicing doing architecture shots for an assignment we have. We used the bag bellows and worked on calculating hyperfocal distance. Above is the camera we used, my teacher Chuck Egerton helping students, our Fujiroid picture of the Courthouse, and a picture of the Courthouse in Josh's sunglasses,

No more strangers

NO MORE STRANGER PICTURES!!! In my Small Format class, we had to photograph 36 strangers and interview them. This was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I made it through. We had to turn them in last week, so I am relieved to have it finished. These are two of my favorites. They were taken at Summer Solstice in Greensboro.

Everybody knows PJ!

So, everybody at RCC knows PJ! He has a lot of energy, a lot of passion, and is a little nutty. This is PJ one night while a bunch of RCC photography students were at the Asheboro Copperheads baseball game trying to get pictures for an assignment. This was my first of many nights to shoot for this assignment and it turned out to be a disaster. Not only did I not get any pictures worthy of turning in, but while sitting on the third base side of the field, a batter hit a foul missile going about 80 mph right at me and clobbered me just below the knee. I have never felt such pain! PJ was such a help after I got hit and even gave me a baseball the next day that he had all of the players sign!

More Painting with Light

As you know, I was a little obsessed with this project. Just thought I would show you one more picture that I did at home while I was working on this assignment. I used only the flashlight app on my phone to light this.

Painting with Light

Oh my goodness! I was so obsessed with this assignment from my Small Format class. We had to "paint with light" which you can do SO many different ways. I spent several nights out in the dark trying different ways of painting with light. David was so patient helping me! That is him in the background swinging around some steel wool that was on fire. I love how the sparks are flying everywhere. I had planned on doing this at Hamilton Lakes out on the dock, but every time I tried it was raining!

It's in the eyes

This was an assignment in my Small Format class. We had to photograph a stranger that had interesting eyes. I think I found a winner. This woman was so fun to photograph. She was a real poser, tilting her head this way and that, raising her eyebrows, and puckering up her lips!

Parks and Recreation

 This weeks blog theme is Parks and Recreation. I went to Center City Park and spent hours watching people enjoy a beautiful afternoon. Most of my time was spent at the fountain. The water would spray up from one side and form an archway for people to walk through. I took SO many pictures, I couldn't choose just one! I loved hearing the kids laugh as they ran through the water. They got drenched! There was also a wedding that must have just finished up as I got there. I snapped the bride and her bridal party as they were leaving. There is so much to see at Center City Park!

ABC Major Project

The last ABC project we did was a preliminary to this Major ABC project. This time we had to find the letters of the alphabet in naturally occurring things in nature or architecture. It sounds a lot easier than it really was! I designed mine in the shape of the letter "I."

Rule of Thirds

Last week in my Digital Imaging class were given an assignment to go out in the community and photograph things that work together to tell a story or have a theme. We were to use the Rule Of Thirds and negative space while photographing. Then we had to arrange three photos in Photoshop onto one composition. This assignment was timed and we only had two and a half hours to complete it! Sounds easy, right!

ABC Typography

On Thursday in my Digital Imaging class we were given an assignment where we had to go out in Asheboro and photograph each letter of the alphabet. Each letter had to be a different typography. Then we had to create a layout with all of the letters using the information we had just learned in class about Photoshop. Believe it or not, this assignment is over eight hours of work! And that is just for one class!