Honesty

If there's one thing I never get tired of, it's photographing my nieces.  They are by far my favorite subjects.  They're very expressive- some of the looks they come up with have me wondering why they aren't Baby GAP models!

I like working with them for a lot of reasons.  A teacher I had once told me the worst compliment you can get on a photograph of a child is that it's 'cute'.  Well, of course it's cute- babies are hard-pressed to be anything else (frustrating, yes, but ugly?  That takes finesse).  To get a photograph of a baby being something more than 'cute' is the real challenge.  Alyssa has such intensely blue eyes and such a dramatic personality, I am constantly running for my camera when I'm with her.

I want to get the shot that tells a story.  I know there are twenty other people in the room with point-and-shoot cameras who will get the 'cute' shot, and that's important.  Everyone wants cute pictures from their childhood.  And certainly I take those, as well.  But my favorites are the ones where there's something more.  Something deeper.  Emotions they probably don't even fully understand yet.

I guess, I want to try to capture all aspects of reality.  The happy and the sad.  The hopeful and the forlorn.  Everything we feel, from birth to death.  Maybe that's the photojournalist in me?  I just... want to show things the way they really are.  No crazy set-up, no contrived facade, just... people captured honestly.

Making do.

Today is the family reunion, and it's raining.  Well, if I've gotten good at anything, I'd like to think it's making do with what I've got.  I almost never use professional lighting- I depend largely on sunlight and what's available in my settings.  The photo I took here was in a poorly lit bedroom with sea-green walls and piles of clothes.

When I'm not having fun with my digital-manipulations, I do try to avoid excess altering.  I don't mean lighting and color- I fiddle with those a lot, but I almost never add or remove objects from the original shot.

With this one, obviously I did a lot of work.  I took out the piles of clothes and shelves to her right, I changed the color of the wall and a few other little things.

I doubt I'll be doing all that with the pictures I take today- probably just color correction.  We'll see how it goes.

Catching Up

Wow, what an exhausting past few days.  I've been helping a friend move, shooting, trying to keep up with editing, meeting people in my department at Temple, watching my nieces so my sister can teach her natural childbirth course, dealing with a lot of personal stuff and trying all the while to keep my head screwed on straight.

On a positive note, I finally put up shots from Baroque on my myspace.  I edited this one just for the heck of it- I guess this would be one of my "digi-graphs".  Nothing crazy, just having some fun.

This Saturday, I shoot the family portrait.  We're a big, Irish family, so it'll be an interesting challenge to see how this all works.  Organizing photos has never been my strong point- I'd like to think I'm better at capturing candid moments.  So if nothing else, this will be good practice for me.  We'll see how it goes.  If I like the result, maybe I'll put it up here and y'all can see my gigantic family.

Suck it up- we're not as great as we think we are.

I've shot so much in the past few days, it's a bit overwhelming to keep up with it all.  This is a practice self-portrait from today- procrastination by means of creating more work for myself.  Hooray!  I have tons of work from Baroque to edit, as well as some portraits and animal shots from the zoo.  Fast approaching is the family reunion I agreed to shoot, as well.  And I'm coming out of retirement for a hair-model shoot, 'cause what the heck- who doesn't want a free haircut and style just for the fun of it.

Someone made an observation a few days ago about a photo I'd taken of my niece.  My favorite photo I've taken of her, actually.  The comment was that it was a bad photo.  Now, my initial reaction was defensive and a little hurt- after all, I obviously feel quite the opposite.  But in retrospect, my reaction was out of line.  People won't always like your work.  Hundreds, thousands, millions of people will either not like your work or never care enough to look at it.  That's just way it is.  It's nothing personal.

I still like the picture though!!!!

Creep

I look at photography and digital manipulation as two entirely different arts, and they really are.  I'm constantly going back over old photos and editing them new and different ways, just for fun and to practice.  Generally I don't do anything too crazy.  But now and then it's fun to tweak a picture just beyond believability.

Much to my mother's chagrin, I tend to err on the side of 'creepy' when I do this.  Yes, I take plenty of sweet, happy pictures of sweet, happy moments.  I love doing that.  But for whatever reason, I just get this immense satisfaction out of making something a little unsettling.

It's pretty funny, because I am the worst at watching horror movies.  I'm so squeamish and I have nightmares for weeks afterwards.  I think there's something about being part of the creation that enthralls me and allows me to forget my fear.  Maybe I just like conquering that fear through my own work.  Maybe I just like freaking you guys out.  =P

Alex

My good friend, Alex DiFiori is one of my greatest photographic inspirations.  When all else fails, I can always count on him to kick my butt into gear and get me shooting again.  What I admire most about him is that he's constantly experimenting- new mediums, new subjects, just constantly challenging himself as a photographer.  And his work is amazing because of it.

It's important to keep skills sharpened.  No matter how much talent you've got, you've still got to go out and use it or it just gets dusty.  I try to shoot pretty often, but Alex has me beat.  His goal is to shoot one really good photo every day for a year.  To me, this is way more challenging than shooting a hundred pictures on your digital camera and assuming one or two of them came out well.  Really forcing yourself to try and take the best shot you can get is an excellent way to get better.

In that sense, film has an advantage over digital.  I think digital gives the excuse of laziness, but I tell ya, when you're paying for film out of your back pocket and your back pocket isn't exactly overflowing with cash, you definitely want those pictures to come out perfect.

I try to keep that ideal in mind while shooting digital- I try to wait for the moment and capture it when it happens instead of shooting in rapid succession and hoping something comes out salvageable.  I'm no Alex DiFiori, but I'm getting better!

Polaroid

I'm part of an organization called The Notebook Army which has been a really big part of my life over the past few years.  You buy a marble notebook, fill it with whatever you want and at the end you give it away.  Leave it in a bookstore, on someone's front step, at the bus stop, wherever.

I'm working on my third right now but I've got to confess, I haven't given the first two away yet.  Maybe I'll scan them or something, but as of right now it's almost scary to think of parting with them.  I was going through some major life changes when I wrote them, particularly the first one, and it feels odd to give them away, even though that's really the whole point.

Anyway, I was looking through the first one today and found the first polaroid I've ever taken- I had taped it to the last page.  It was the first 'studio' type shoot I'd done, really.  I set up the lights, posed the model, figured out the exposure and took a stab at it.  For a first time try, I actually really like how it turned out.

I haven't done much with film recently- too poor, mostly.  But I really miss it.  There is something so rewarding about working with film- it's an entirely different medium from digital.

Safety Net

I was looking back over some of my old modeling pictures the other day and got a bit nostalgic.  I originally started modeling with the intention of meeting other photographers and learning from them.  I accomplished that, for sure, but I got so caught up in it that I barely worked behind the camera anymore.  As an extreme solution, I stopped modeling completely a little less than a year ago.

I still kind of miss it every now and then, I'll be honest, and although I never claimed to be a professional, I'd like to think I wasn't half bad.

The problem for me was how distracted I got from the original goal.  I tend to do that a lot.  I have big aspirations but too many sideshow novelties catching my eye along the way.  Sometimes it's difficult for me to remember that I've got to stay focused, that this business is hard and takes diligence.  I wouldn't exactly say I was raised on a silver spoon, but I've always known that if I'm willing to swallow my pride, I've always got a place to stay.  I've used that as an excuse for procrastination in the past, but I sincerely try to remind myself of my good fortune whenever I can.

Having a safety net to fall back on doesn't give you an excuse not to accomplish anything.

Photo: ©Terry Eggebrecht, Post-work: ©WrittenLightPhotos

It is HOT out today!!!!!

Today I supervised an Urban Outfitters shoot- pretty exciting to have well known companies using our studio!  Honestly though, for the prices we charge I'm surprised every photographer in Philly doesn't know about us yet.  Seriously, these are prices even I can afford!

As far as affording things goes, work has been really great- I wasn't sure how I'd do with the summer months since I'm not in school and my rent is paid, but in two days of work I easily made what I needed, so the rest is pocket change.  W00t!

Please check out the studio if you get time- lots of great natural light (windows can be covered if necessary), 15' ceilings and wide open floor space.  For CHEAP.

I've been 'hired' to shoot my dad's family reunion.  It feels kind of odd to be hired by family although I guess that's how a lot of people started off.  I guess I've just kind of been doing this photography thing on my own and haven't really shared a lot of what I'm doing with relatives so to be hired as the official photographer, not as the granddaughter or niece or cousin is actually new to me.  We'll see how that goes!  =)