Business Cards - That's just too much pressure for one little rectangle to handle!!!

Since I will be doing the photography for the benefit I mentioned in my last post I thought it would be best if I got myself some professionally printed business cards. That way Jo Ann and I have them available to give out at the event if anyone is interested in purchasing prints.

I went with a thicker cardstock with a gloss finish from 123Print.com which is a company that my friend found on the internet that she thought was inexpensive and she liked the results when she got them.

I had a really hard time deciding what to go with for the card. You're card should say so much about you all on one little rectangle...but I think that's just too much pressure for one little rectangle to handle!!! LOL!

If I did a landscape scene I knew which photo I would go with instantly but since I want to concentrate more on portraits/people photography I wanted a person...but even that was too hard to figure out.

Who would I feature? Would I want a customer or family member's portrait? Nah...to hard to decide. If I out a portrait photo of myself to show my portrait ability that would feel very strange/conceited (like hey, here's me!)... if I went with me with my camera that would be too...cliche? So, after laboring over this and getting advice from friends on my options I somehow I ended up with a photo of my own eye! LOL!

I guess it could mean many things if you want to get all deep:

*Having the "eye" for photography is very important
*The actual eye of the photographer is where all the magic happens when looking through the viewfinder
*We see "Life's Fleeting Moments" pass before our eyes
*It's part of a face and people are what I love to capture
*I have a pretty eye??? LOL Ahahahah - that's my favorite..I'll go with that for the reason!! (just kidding)

Reflections of Boredom

You guessed it...when I'm bored and have nothing else to do I take self portraits (well, who I am kidding...I have too much to do...but I needed a break for a bit!)

So, out came the new Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens for some test shots indoors with no flash at 400 ISO.

No clones needed for this shoot! LOL I just took them in my room with the full length mirror..and the only light in the room was my ceiling fan lights.

I'm not happy with the amount of hot pixles I'm getting at ISO 400 but I'm not about to start worrying about that right now.

Here are my favorite "in the mirror" shots of the night. The first one is my top favorite:






Peter from my forum had an idea to merge the 1st & the 4th photos together to see what it would look like if my reflection was looking at the me that is looking at the camera. I think it puts an interesting twist on it:



Then I did some against a painted wall in my room. As usual the hardest part was focusing the camera on nothing. The 50mm made it even tougher than the 18-200.

Tonight was the greenest I've seen my eyes yet in a self portrait. Usually they're a lot more blue but I guess it was the brown shirt and the wall color that changed them. I'm not sure why I mentioned all these details LOL!

Anyway...these are the colored versions:




Then I converted them to Black & White using Itty Bitty Actions and applied a texture and I LOVE how they came out!




So that's me for tonight. I hope this inspires you to do something...anything at all with your photography when you're bored. When all else fails I say take a self portrait! :)

I love this photo

I love this photo. I do.

Yes, it's a photo of me. I'm not being conceited...it's just that I really love this photo for many reasons. It's over a year old now and as many other pics of me that I always experiment with for self portraits I always end up going back to this one as a favorite. I even used it on my website Guestbook.

Maybe it's because it reminds me of a really good time in my life...a time when things were A LOT simpler. It was also the time when my photography passion IGNIGHTING! And then traveled full speed ahead!



The photo was a self portrait of me on the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. I was there with a good frend of mine, Lee, and we had a fantastic day walking around NYC. I think we walked about 6 miles in total from the time we left his apartment and then returned to it. We actually walked so much for so long that I was hardly able to walk on my left foot all week!!

The photo was taken with a point and shoot that I still own and carry with me in my purse (the Canon Powershot A620). The Powershot has the great screen that you can flip around so you can take self portraits and actually know what you are taking rather than turning the camera towards you and just praying you get yourself (and/or you and your friend in).

I love that you can see the Brooklyn Bridge in the DOF and the way the wind was blowing my hair backwards. Okay, I know...I'm getting carried away...

I've processed it many different ways when I was a lot less crafty in Photoshop and decided that I've learned a few more tricks or two so I re-processed it today. It works best in B&W IMO.

Well anyway, back to the story...

Lee along with my sister are the two people that helped me on the start to getting my journey with photography rolling. The "journey" as I like to call it started back on February 11th, 2007 when my sister and I decided we'd go out for "photo days." We continued to do so almost every Sunday for much of 2007. Lee and I had "key" couple of photo days as well in February and March of 2007 that were great for me. Who wouldn't love taking photos in one of the best cities there is! They both made it fun and exciting to spend the day out photographing anything and everything.

I'm glad this spark has ignited and look how far it has taken me... from a little point and shoot to actual photography jobs!

I love my hobby...I just do!

From On High - Taking Photographs Looking Down on Your Subject

I'm always trying to think of new ways to make portraits look interesting. Last night I focused on NOT doing the same ol' straight-on (self) portrait. I got creative with vantage points.

I put the tripod up as high a it would allow (legs fully extended, and middle pole adjusted as high as it would go. Then I positioned the camera at the edge of my black muslin do it yourself backdrop (portion that is well extended out on the floor) and pointed the camera downward.

Next, I crouched under the lens and took a series of shots where I was looking straight up at the lens from below. I purposely wore a black shirt so I would blend in with my surroundings.

I'm so pleased with the results. It was so fun to try new things! I told my friend JULIE to try this with her youngest daughter because I think the perspective is so so so fun "looking down" seeing the head in clear focus and the rest of the body in the depth of field.













I also did this photo when I stood right up against the lights to my left with the camera on tripod right in front of me. I love the half light, half dark look:













Unfortunately this blog is turning out to be a tribute to myself while I try to find willing family & friends to pose for me for practice. The good news is I'm slowly getting people interested in being my models so soon you'll see other faces!

The Many Faces of Jen

Well I had fun tonight...by myself! I was bored so you know when I get bored I turn to self portraits. Well this time I decided to have lots of fun with them and not be all serious.

I laughed, I made funny faces, I jumed up in the air, I jumped into the photo, swung my hair around all crazy, took some serious ones, and tried some new angles with the tripod. I had fun just being silly...

After I while I realized I had developed a "series" of faces...so I went with it and made as many as I could think of. I ended up with 30. So, I came back into my office and made a composite of all 30 faces and called it "The Many Faces of Jen."

It has no purpose at all except for FUN...and fun I had...if you can't tell:

(click to view very large)


I did take some serious ones. I made the tripod as TALL as I could get it and had the camera pointing down at me. I turned my head all different angles and this is the first one I edited. This is exactly how it was taken (landscape) with my head tilted to the side looking upwards into the camera lens on the tallest tripod setting:



Converted to a Dark B&W:



And a little LOMO...



And a session would not be complete without a kiss (well it was really a "sniff") from Lucas aka "Silks" (I don't know why my face was blown out here but who cares....)

Me, Myself, and I

That's all I have...me, myself, and I...Unless I find some more "photo subjects."

If you weren't sick of me yet - you will be now. LOL!

I took this photo recently after I was outside in the snow (hence the winter hat). Natural light was coming through the window so as usual I figured - "why not?"

For the following photo I ran a number of the "Totally Rad" Photoshop Actions on them.









Same as the photo above but I cropped it:



This one is not one of the "Totally Rad" Actions - It's called "Rob's Bleaching Action" found HERE.

Be Prepared...There's A Whole Lot-a Me

It was one of those days... This is me (again). Wish I wasn't lacking people to photograph.

Not a happy-face session as you can tell but that's what I was going for.

The eye was taken indoors with natural light. The rest were taken outside in the direct sunlight. Normally I wouldn't want the blown highlights but for this self-portrait session I wanted it. You don't always have to follow the "rules" to make a statement.









Black & White with DARK levels: