Chelsea's Attic

Family Fun

2012-01-16T14:19:00.003-07:00

I really want to photoshop myself in this photo and pretend like I'm part of the family. Unfortunately, I think my attractiveness would pale too much in the shadow of theirs and it'd be a dead giveaway. :-) Check out all the other fun families at I Heart Faces this week!

Well hello again!

2012-01-12T14:31:00.007-07:00

My oh my.
Is it really almost halfway through January already??? I'm having a hard time digesting that 2011 is OVER. Kaput. Where the heck did that year go? I am working on a lot of stuff right now, most of it including changing diapers, dousing fights between children, and picking up toys constantly, but some of it including a few things I'm very excited about, like this:

Yes, folks, I am learning how to knit. Very rapidly in fact. I'm the type of person that will jump headfirst into a project and I'm already halfway through it before I realize that I have to start over because I didn't in fact read through all the directions and didn't do it right, or I don't know how to finish it, or I don't have all the materials...yes, so you can imagine that my knitting projects, while getting better each time, have not yet come to completion. But they will. And soon. My heart will probably always be with crocheting...probably because it takes a LOT less time than knitting...but I just can't help but marvel at what comes out of those two little knitting needles. It's like I'm creating a whole little world out of yarn. Beau-tee-ful.
In the meantime, I've been meaning to blog about these hats forever, but I'm now unveiling them. I made these for a friend of mine for her kids for Christmas and in return I got a dozen per hat of the most AMAZING tasting cinnamon rolls (her signature Gooey Rolls...) I think I've ever had. Seriously. Everyone go contact her and order some from her right now. Or check out some of her beautiful cakes at Sugar Momma Cakes.

Hearts.

Animals and why we love them

2011-12-13T00:48:00.003-07:00

Ahh...I think I used a shot from this shoot in my last I Heart Faces entry, but here's another one! One of these days I will post something from a shoot OTHER than this one, but it was just a blast, I'm still hung up on it majorly. Horses are such noble creatures, you can't help feeling connected to them when you are around them.

Check out a bunch of other magnanimous furry faces shots at I Heart Faces!

Fairy Tale

2011-12-05T22:03:00.012-07:00

Once upon a time two people fell in love. And then they promptly called me and asked me to take engagement photos for them, to which I, in my barely budding photography days, readily agreed. I mean, who wouldn't want to take pictures of these gorgeous people?
Well, then time went on, they got married, and then one day I got another message asking me to take maternity pictures for them. SHAH!!!!!
And I don't know what happened that day, but my camera sort of levitated from my hands and started taking some of the most glorious pictures it's ever produced. Just...magically...I can't...just wow. With permission, I post some of them for your eyes to gam off of for a while.

These first few are of her horse flown here from Denmark. A very gentle creature and we almost didn't take the photos with the horse...so glad we decided to.

Every pregnant woman's envy, right here. :-) I wish I looked half this good when I was pregnant!

Baby Bear

2011-12-01T21:14:00.004-07:00

I love December. Every day is Christmas as far as I'm concerned. I wish I could say that I loved it so much that I had all our Christmas decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, but we have yet to pull everything out. Every night our kids look out the window and see all our neighbor's houses lit up so pretty, then scorn and shame us into feeling like scum of the earth because we haven't put our lights up yet. We'll get there. Hopefully the snow melts quickly so Craig can get on the roof without killing himself this weekend. :-)
Happy first day of Christmas.
We are going to be putting together our 12 days of Christmas calendar here pretty soon- each day we do something together as a family to celebrate. Make cookies, do secret santas to friends and neighbors, it'll be the first year we'll do all 12 days since I'm at home and not too swamped with music programs to put it together. :-) HOORAY!
Tell me what some of your Christmas traditions are, we're in the "building lasting memories" experimental stage of our family, I'd love to here them. :-)

Ahhh...tis the season.

Be on the lookout for some holiday hats upcoming. And some more family pictures. And all the catchup from what I haven't posted yet that I should have.
PS- did you all eat lots of turkey???

OOF!

2011-11-25T22:55:00.003-07:00

Yeah, that's how I feel.
I don't think I've stopped feeling full since yesterday morning. Thanksgiving, love everything about it except standing on the scale the Sunday after. Yeah, that's where that OOF comes in, right?
Please be kind, Mr. Scale. Let's be friends this year, shall we?
Little late for Halloween, but monsters are cute anytime of the year. This one was for a friend from my teaching days- monsters and boys fit so well together. :-)

Imagen Backdrop Giveaway/ 20% off for you!

2011-11-17T11:22:00.004-07:00

Hello there blogoids-
Just a couple of quick really fun and exciting things to say to you and then I will be on my way!
First off:
I love you.
Second:
Because of that true, unending, and devoted love, I have a special gift for you through this weekend! I just posted a bunch of hats lying around my house into my shop for immediate shipment. They are ready made just for you. And if you order one now, you can save 20% until Saturday at 10 p.m. mountain time. What else says true, unending, devoted love like 20%??? Click HERE to check out the shop and see what's cookin'.

Third:

These guys are amazing. AND they are hosting an incredible giveaway with TONS of stuff. AND I am giving away two newborn hats in this giveaway in one of the collections! I have to say that I was browsing through all the really cool stuff they are giving away and I'm a little bummed I can't enter. However, if you refer to the first announcement, you'll understand why I am sacrificing my entry for you. :-)
So click on the picture above and follow the instructions to get as many entries as you can! Giveaway starts November 17 and ends at midnight November 24.
Have a fabulous day.

Back on the Train

2011-11-10T14:23:00.002-07:00

Oh blogging...
How I miss thee.
Time just escapes me sometimes, sheesh! I'm actually backed up in my blogging- starting to understand what it's like for "real" photographers who never have time for blogging. Better then the alternative, where I'm scraping the barrel for something to write about. Not that I, uh...was ever uncool enough to do that....ahem....

This family was SO easy to work with. All of the kids were just smiley and sweet and the parents just the same. That is until we tried to get from point A (the oval on CSU campus in Ft. Collins) to point B (an old hotel maybe two or three miles north of there in downtown Ft. Collins) at 5:30 in the afternoon. First we got stuck behind a 15 min. train (seems a lot longer while you're sitting there waiting)- let me just say whoever runs the train schedule is a madman. Who in their right mind lets a train THAT long block traffic during rush hour in the busiest part of town??? Madman train scheduler, that's who. Then we got stuck in a section of downtown at a light that changed at least 4 times before we moved an inch. Yuck. When we finally started moving, we may or may not have made an illegal turn to get to our location out of sheer frustration from being in traffic so long.
Don't tell anyone.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun and I love some of these images. Fall. The Oval. Beautiful warm weather. Beautiful family. The next day was the megga snowstorm that smashed all the trees to pieces all over town (including our backyard trees....poor old friends, they hung in there, but it was ugly...), and The Oval definitely looked much different after that.
Stay tuned, got more a' comin'...

I heart faces photography challenge- Black

2011-11-06T22:39:00.004-07:00

Okay, I know that the horse is actually white, but there is black in this photo! This was a shoot I did not too long ago and is likely one of my all time favorite maternity shoots I think I've ever done. She decided not to do pictures with her horse (a European horse, no less- this love-bug was flown over from Denmark, where she is from) initially, but while we were out at their ranch her husband suggested that we just take him out for a few pics since I was there. Let me tell you, I am SO glad he suggested it. The shots of the two of them were incredible. Sunset, mountains in the background, open range...couldn't get much more glorious than that. I just love the intimate moment in this capture.
Check out some more amazing photos incorporating the color black by clicking on the button below! Creative challenge this week for serious. :-)
Love

Caps for Sale

2011-10-28T21:51:00.004-06:00

Anyone ever read that book? It was a children's book written by a Russian author. When I was student teaching, my amazing host teacher taught this adorable little song with orff instrumental accompaniment to do for first graders that I did with my first graders for three years in a row. We even performed it once at a Barnes and Nobles book fair. Sometimes I feel like that man who didn't carry his wares on his back, but on his head. You know, if I actually wore my hats...or something...
I actually have a lot of commissioned work right now with my hats. Yay! But I have to warn some of you who are thinking of using my services. I am completely open for business, but if you are looking to use me for Christmas gifts this year, all orders need to be in by Thanksgiving. Or I'll never get them done in time. Just sayin'. :-) I have some very cute creations upcoming, stay tuned...
Like this little charmer. Ordered for a little wee girl, this is the "baby bump" hat. (HAR HAR). I know, I kill myself...I just LOVED scaling this one down to itty bitty size. Anything made itty bitty size is better. Except for chocolate. No use for itty bitty sized chocolate around here, that's just irritating.

It's all about the pose

2011-10-24T21:23:00.004-06:00

Hello Lovers.
I have done nothing but take pictures for the last 4 or 5 days!
It's been amazing. I have others to edit right now, but per request of a very anxious junior in high school, I decided to post a couple of these right now. And also because I just think they are grand. Seriously, this shoot made my morning! She and her wonderful, keenly eyed BFF accompanied me around down town Windsor and we had a blast! And can you believe her sense of style? Amazing. For serious.
And time for bed! Hope you all enjoyed the nice weather today (totally meant to take the kids to the park today and just didn't get to it...so sad!), it's supposed to get chilly. And possibly snowy. ICK.

Home again, home again...

2011-10-21T13:47:00.005-06:00

We have three VERY large bags of candy waiting just outside my kitchen for our church Halloween Party Trunk or Treat tonight. It's difficult for me to just let them sit there...they look so lonely. And wrapped. Don't you think just a couple of them should be free?
...or maybe I should print out a picture of a 400 lb woman and set it nicely on top of the bag...as a warning.
We made it to Utah and back! And I have a busy couple of weekends ahead of me! Five photo shoots in two weekends...yeesh. But also yay!
Last night some of our very favorite friends met us at the park during their visit out to Colorado for a couple of weeks. Although I am happy that they have settled into their home in Missouri since their move a couple of years ago, I have to admit I feel a little jealous whenever I see them with new friends on their blog. Just a little. :-) My plan for them to be so lonely out there that they would just HAVE to move back obviously isn't working. :-) We are so happy to see them when they come through and I usually get to do some pictures for them while they are here! Super plus. They were some of my first "clients"...I mean, "friends" (sorry, I said the wrong thing last night, ha ha) who let me take pictures for them! And now Mommy is getting into photography as well and is taking our family pictures. It works out to be a nice trade! Check out some of her work HERE.
Anyway, on to some of the good stuff. They are expecting baby #2 in December and we couldn't be more excited for them!

The truth hurts

2011-10-12T19:17:00.002-06:00

Oh goodness...little scary only cause we know it happens!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY&feature=player_embedded

Headin' out to Utah land tomorrow to see my beloved family for the weekend. Heart!
Driving solo with all three of my kids for 8 hours! ...not so heart...but we will all give ourselves a cup of character when it's over and through with. I may just stay in Utah if the drive down is too harsh. You know...no sense in repeating the horror on the way back. :-)

A Halloween Gift

2011-10-08T20:37:00.009-06:00

I've been working on a little something special for my adoring public!
That's you....right?

Right. I made some Halloween scrapbook paper! It was fun, actually, I may do this again in the future. Anyway, guess what? You can use it!! Just click on the image to get the full sized photo, right click on it, click "save image as", then save it somewhere on your computer and use it however you want. Print it. Publish it. Heck, sell it for all I care, just please give credit where credit is due! (...meaning link back to Chelea's Attic, if you please).
If you print it, make sure you set the image resolution to 300 pixels/inch. Otherwise it'll be fuzzy. :-)
Love you all. All you...adoring public, you.

Put it together and what have you got?

2011-10-05T14:55:00.004-06:00

Bippity Boppity Boo!
Another hat I completed while watching General Conference.

I was at the ARC thrift store in Ft. Collins last weekend trying to beef up my kid's fall/winter wardrobe a little and I always have to peruse by the yarn section. They don't really have a rhyme or reason to how they bag their yarn at thrift stores, you kinda just get what you get. This bag caught my eye- it was a large selection of lots of "end of the line" little balls of yarn, where obviously someone used all but the last bit of each one and gave them all away because none of them have enough by themselves to make anything. The colors were so vivid, though, and since I just can't pass up anything that is bright (you know, shiny things...just can't let them go), I envisioned this hat as soon as a saw it, a ragtag hat. The bag went in the cart without thinking about it.
Out of small things, right?
And really, those buttons...I just can't get enough of buttons on my hats! It's an instant pick me up when I walk by my collection of makings and see this little treasure lying on top.

My resume

2011-10-03T21:13:00.009-06:00

Ahh....the smell of banana bread is wafting dreamily through the air.
My mother in law has one of the best recipes known to mankind. I don't chop the nuts as neatly as she does, and sometimes I accidentally leave it in the oven a minute too long and it comes out dry... but I can sometimes come close to how she makes it now and again. :-)
This last weekend my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or the Mormon Church) had a giant broadcast from our church leaders to the entire world. This is one of my FAVORITE weekends of the year (it comes twice, better than Christmas!). Since you can watch it online, we hook it up to the TV, snuggle up on our couches, and try to keep the kids as quiet as possible (ha ha) so we can listen to all 8 hours of it (broken up into 4 chunks). I. Love. Christ. And I am proud of being a Mormon!
Now, why am I posting this on my "business" site instead of my personal blog? Well first of all, it will go there too, and second of all, I have a point to make here.
Once upon a time I learned how to make a professional resume as I was finishing up my student teaching in college and beginning to look into applying for jobs to be a music teacher. I had a lot of experience to put on my resume from things that I had done for classes here and there at school, but really I felt like where I learned the most from interacting with kids and working with them on a consistent basis was the positions I held at my church teaching children the gospel each week. At the time I was in a leadership position in what we call "Primary" (where kids go the last two hours of church each week) and I learned a LOT from my time in that job. That helped prepare me for being in front of a classroom more than anything I learned in the classroom in college. So at the top of my resume when all the "secular" music teaching experience, and all the supplemental experience at the bottom, I attributed to my positions I held at church.
I then was instructed to take this resume to the resume review center at school where I met with a very nice young woman who reviewed my resume for me. She was impressed that this was only my first draft, she said everything looked great, everything was in the right place, everything was written very well....all except for my church experience at the bottom. Considering what church I came from, she strongly suggested that I remove this from my resume because although legally a principal is not allowed to hire or not hire based on religious background, it could mean the difference between me getting a job or not if I left it on there. She handed me back my resume and said she'd be happy to look it over again if I needed it once I made the necessary changes.
I went home feeling a little assaulted, although I couldn't pinpoint why. I knew she was right, but I felt stubborn about making those changes to my resume. Did she tell this to people of other religions? That could be very well the truth, but I was just bothered by it. Experience is experience, it shouldn't matter if it happened to take place at my church. In a country where religious freedom is honored and promoted and for heaven sakes, the very principal that founded our country, why on earth should it matter how I teach based on my religion? However, no getting around it, there are a lot of people out there, good people with high morals and standards, Christlike people even, who just don't like Mormons. And the more I thought about it, the more determined I was to keep that portion in my resume. My thought was, I would rather a potential employer know outright that I was Mormon and not hire me if they felt so inclined for that reason than work for someone who later found out I was Mormon and be bothered by it. Perhaps that wasn't the right attitude to take, but it was the one I chose. And I was hired at the position I wanted with that information in my resume.
The Mormon Church has begun in certain cities and areas across the nation what they call a media initiative. They are broadcasting the heck out of TV, billboards, bus advertisements, anywhere, commercials and ads about Mormon people. Perhaps you've seen it or heard of it, it's called "I am a Mormon". Lots of different Mormon people talking about who they are. Mormon advertisements used to focus on our doctrine, now they focus on who we are because of our doctrine. The Denver area is one of the areas chosen to broadcast these bios on TV and everywhere else, and the initiative started on the first of this month. I watched a lot of these bios and we've talked about it at church some, and what kept popping up in my mind was this resume I made forever ago and how MY church looks to some people- which is precisely why I believe this initiative is taking place. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a very recent and very rapidly growing worldwide religion, and anything that butts it's way into the world that quickly on such a large scale is bound to receive critique, no doubt about it, but unfortunately much of what is assumed about MY church is simply not true. Much of what is assumed about the people in MY church is also simply not true. And this initiative is going out to help dispel false information about Mormons and their doctrine and educate people about what we are really about.
So I am putting this on here to let you know, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and my work and my product will be the same for you now that you know this information. It's not something I just happen to do, I am a Mormon because every fiber of my being is dedicated to Christ and his gospel. I think it's wonderful that we are not hiding and enduring the large clouds of false information that float around this world about who we are anymore, and are just coming out and being honest about ourselves! Nothing to be ashamed of, and in fact a lot of good things to learn...
Consider this my resume to you, I am a Mormon.
And if you want to find out more about who I am and what I believe, you can go here.
If you would like to know more about what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is really all about, you can go here.
And here is a really cute hat that I finished while watching our General Conference this weekend. :-)

Ol' Blue

2011-09-29T21:00:00.003-06:00

I love this pattern, and this color! *THEY DON'T MAKE THIS COLOR ANYMORE! Lame! They have a pastel blue that took it's place...which is pretty, but who can't not love teal?? The official color of all bad bridesmaid's dresses?!? That's my question.*
I'm thinking of putting the pattern on etsy, would anyone buy it? That is, someday when I revamp my store and actually put everything on there that I can sell- what am I waiting for, you ask? 1) to get all the rest of my "model" shoots taken care of and 2) sort of tense, I don't know what would be worse, that I would have too many sales to keep up or that no one would buy anything...
Mmm...the scouts at my church made cookies for all the church presidencies- my husband is in charge of the teenage guys, so he got a plate, and there is some good stuff in here. Too good. There goes my no sugar resolve (one of many).

How to Crochet in Rounds

2011-09-28T16:48:00.014-06:00

How do you crochet a hat?
I will tell you the secret, my friend. Lean in close, no one can know but you and me....

*you have to crochet in rounds*

SHHH!
Okay, now that I got that off my chest, step this way while this message self destructs.

Just kidding, with the painstaking time I took to take pictures of myself crocheting (yes, I said I did it myself, one hand on the camera, which then switches to move the hook and yarn, then back on the camera, repeated several times), then the editing and numbering them so I would remember what order they went in, I would not lightly destruct this message.
That's the question I get most often from friends: how do you crochet a hat? I can only do {scarves, potholders, blanket squares, other things that don't express the crocheted-in-round demension}. Well, here ya go. This is how you do it.
I'm starting from the beginning, and also assuming you know: how to yarn over, what a slip stitch is, and what a single crochet is. If you don't, it's really easy, google it. I wash my hands of you.
Although I do kind of explain it in here anyway.

Every crochet project begins with a loop.
Say hello, Loop.

Now make a slip stitch out of your loop by yarning over your hook and bringing it through the loop as shown below.

Don't make it too big, maybe two or three times the width of your hook.
Now yarn over and make another slip stitch.

I think I am channeling Ree Drummond here. This could be a recipe for really yummy cinnamon rolls or beef and snow peas...
Okay, now slip stitch twice more so you now have three lovely slip stitches in a row.

Here comes the mind blowing part, we are going to connect this into a circle by slip stitching back through the first slip stitch you made. So if you've crocheted before, you know what those lovely "V"'s look like when you are crocheting. Find them in your fantastic row and locate the first one. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, look below and hopefully this will help.

You are going to slip your hook through so it goes underneath both parts of the "V" like so:

Now yarn over and pull through everything ya got, like this:

Pat yourself on the back if you've made it this far. Your whole world should be on end right about now if you've never done this. It's like that moment in the movie "Contact" where Jody Foster figures out all that alien code they received is actually a map for a worm-hole warping device that will connect worlds together. WHOA!
If you haven't made it this far...well, nice try. Better luck next time.
Just kidding, silly, email me at chelseas_attic@yahoo.com and I will help ya figure it out. Personally. For you.

Okay moving on, now you are going to make your second round. Start with another slip stitch.

Aren't you glad I took two pictures to diagram that one for you? Just in case you forgot from the beginning of the tutorial and you don't feel like scrolling to the top of the page.

Okay now comes a kinda tricky part. You have to find the hole...the hole...in the middle of the round. You probably won't be able to see it unless you pull the stitches apart a little, or do what I did and just sort of wiggle your hook into the middle until you find the center. I pulled out my hook and "pointed" to the whole for you in the next picture so you can see where it's supposed to be.

Now push your hook through for real, yarn over, and then pull back through.

Beautiful. Now yarn over again, and pull through the two loops like so:

You have just successfully done a single crochet through the hole in the middle. Let's do another, shall we?

Happy face. Now do six more until you have completed eight single crochets all together into a nice circle. *NOTE: 8 single crochets will start you off making a very small hat, like newborn or infant sized depending on your yarn/hook size- this is just for practice, but if you are doing it for real and you want a larger hat, do more SC's (single crochets...if you've never read a pattern before) to start off with so that it will end up being bigger*

Now we are going to seal the deal by closing the round. This is my favorite part. Makes everything so neat and tidy. At this point you should have 8 single crochets around in a circle and be back at the slip stitch you started with. I've highlighted it below in pink (the two sides of the V).

Push your hook through the V, then yarn over and pull through the V and your loop, as shown below.
I usually end up doing that in two steps, pull through the "V", then pull through the loop as it doesn't always just slip through everything so nicely.

Congratulations, you have your SECOND ROUND completed! You may now start playing "It's a beautiful night" by Ace of Base and do a happy dance.

If you were to continue on in the hat, you would do another slip stitch, then start crocheting two SC's into each stitch around the circle until you come back to your original slip stitch and join the round again.

Sorry to leave you hanging, for those of you who want more, but this is the end of my "How to Crochet in Rounds" tutorial. The next tutorial will cover the very mathematical and very complicated (not really) How to make your hat round down evenly and not ruffle or become a cone-headed hat formula!!! (forumla, formula, formula....)
Ba ba da baaah!
Stay tuned.

Brighten your day with some cake, please.

2011-09-27T08:38:00.008-06:00

One of the most wonderful things about being able to take pictures is to swap with my other creative friends. And this friend is very creative- she makes the cutest derned little cakes and cupcakes you've ever seen! Check out her blog here: Sugar Mamma Cakes. I have to admit it was rather hard to hand this beautiful little creation above to my 13 month old. But alas, bygones must be bygones, and this cake became a bygone very quickly.

"Who are you and where have you been all my life?!"

The remnants. She ate almost the entire thing. We were winding down from the shoot and most of the cake remained smashed in front of her, she didn't seen particularly interested in finishing it at first- I was trying to figure out how to get her inside without leaving my camera equipment outside or leaving my kids outside by themselves, so as I started packing up, her older siblings, who were eagerly watching in anticipation, asked politely if they could try some. Sure! Help Mommy clean some of this up. Linus walked over and picked up a small piece of it, but before he could get it to his mouth, Odell began waving her arms frantically and whining in frustration, then snatched the cake right out of his hand and ate it up. Linus started balling (my mother in law had just gotten home and was watching and giggling with me), so I calmed him down, and told him to grab another piece- only the exact same thing happened, and same when Chloe tried to get some. Before I knew it, I had to swoop in and grab a couple of pieces to give to the other two and then the rest of the cake was gone. I got a quick lick of the scrumptious cake from the frosting on my finger and Odell demolished the rest. I suddenly had horrid visions pop into my head of an 80 lb Kindergarten girl hobbling around the cafeteria at school snatching up other kids' cupcakes out of their lunches and smothering them into her mouth before they could stop her...yes, smash cake shoot will only happen once per kid, I believe...
Go order a cupcake from Emily and eat it. Right now. For the rest of us who didn't get any from my monster baby...

Date night with myself

2011-09-22T20:00:00.002-06:00

Watching the new Jane Eyre and crocheting tonight- hubbs has a church meeting and then up all night studying for a test, poor bloke. Although I'm sure he would much prefer that to crocheting and watching a "girly" movie with me. :-)
Found this from a fellow local photographer, it totally describes my photo journey so far. :-)
http://vimeo.com/24715531

In your face Mud. Literally.

2011-09-21T20:19:00.008-06:00

A week and a half ago I was invited by a fellow local photographer to help him shoot this crazy, wacky, TOTALLY WICKED race they call the Mud Brigade in Loveland.
It was awesome.
Now, I in no way consider myself an "action" photographer. I'm much better at still subjects (well, unless you count shooting kids "action photography", cause sometimes it is), however I was stationed at the finish line, right where they had a giant vat of wet mud everyone was supposed to wade through before they crossed the finish line. I hiked my shutter speed up and tried to capture all the golden flecks of mud flying in the air and all the, what my father would calle, "carnage" that ensued.
Shawn Logan, the mastermind photographer in charge of shooting the event, was out on the course. The event had a 5K run through a LOT of muddy, nasty, difficult obstacles and people dressed up in all sorts of crazy things to run the race. Shawn took most of the nitty grittie shots on the course, you can see the work he did HERE. With permission from him, I am posting a few of the shots I took, although this in no way represents the large mass of photos I incurred that day. LARGE. I'm sure I made Shawn's job going through the pictures way harder than it needed to be, but I guess too many is better than too little, right?
Anyway, I did have fun, I did burn my face so bad that I peeled brown skin off a week later, but I'm also glad that I do what I do with photography. I like smiling people in clean clothes. Most of the time.
*secretly I've always wanted to do a shoot with a bunch of kids in nice church clothes in a giant mud puddle....anyone interested in ruining their kids Sunday best??*
PS- if you are in the Northern Colorado Area, check out Shawn's work in the links above, or find him on facebook HERE. :-)

Sweetest smile on the earth {Northern Colorado Photographer}

2011-09-20T20:10:00.005-06:00

I've been sitting on these pictures for a few days itching to post them. That last shot...just as sweet a sugar. :-)

I put a new hat on today

2011-09-19T20:59:00.003-06:00

And suddenly everything was right.

Well, I didn't put on the hat, but my kids all wanted to try it on (as long as it fits, they try on every hat they can get their hands on...except Odell. She doesn't like hats, as previously mentioned here). Don't be jealous of my angular texting skills in photoshop. I know you are. Haven't come up with a name for this one...any suggestions?
The little boy who will be modeling this one has the MOST awesome name in the world, by the way. Outside of my kids' names, of course. :-) Excited to get this one in the portfolio fo' sho'.
Cheers.

A Touch of Light

2011-09-18T21:32:00.006-06:00

What a brilliant theme for this week's photo challenge on I Heart Faces! You can't get shots like the oh so pretty ones I've seen posted up so far unless you are out at those magical morning and evening hours. The light is golden, my eyes drink it all in. Lovely.

This little boy captured my heart with his shy, sweet smiles. He was such a charmer, I just ate him up! I love the ambiance of the shot- the halo of light around his head added to his character. Mmm.

If you'd like to enter this week's challenge, or just want to see some other remarkably lit photos, head over to I Heart Faces and check them out!

Location Location Location!

2011-09-17T23:19:00.004-06:00

Does the location make the shot?

NO.
I have a philosophy on this that I am about to elaborate on, please bear with me, it's not doom and gloom, but I've learned a lot about it and want to share.
Ahem. Pull out the soap box, if you please.

I can't tell you how many times I dreamed about locations when I first started shooting. Literally. I would put myself to sleep (or keep myself up, rather) thinking about locations. Angles. Colors. Rusty. Vintage. Peeled paint. Old. Middle of nowhere. If you take pictures like me, you know what I'm talking about. You can't drive anywhere, ESPECIALLY back country, without thinking about it, and fortunately I live in a place where if I need to go anywhere, I usually have to drive through some back country to get there, so it was on my mind a lot.
Side note: Believe it or not, Northern Colorado has amazing back country. Beautiful.
But I've learned a few lessons along the way. Lucky (or unlucky) for you I get to share them with you.
Here we go.

1) No location, however barn-ish or colorful or beautifully lit or anything can substitute for a good picture of your subject. It takes time (hate to say it, but it's true, I am the queen of impatience, which is why I have to learn the lessons the hard way over and over) to capture a good picture of someone or someones. For example. You finally got your uncle's brother's dog's cousin to let you in their farm to take some pictures of a family to build your portfolio. It's THE location you've been dreaming of, and you count your lucky stars old Billy Bob let you in just this once. You have to make it count, but you're so giddy with all the cool spots you found, you rush through it and then you bring up your pictures later and surprise: no one is looking at the camera. Everyone has fake smiles. All the girl's hair are in their face. You forgot to double check your settings and everything is over/under lit. Whatever the case: if you can't get your subjects looking good, the location doesn't matter all that much. I always say that a good picture of someone can be taken anywhere, their smile, laughter, character matters much more than the location and will matter much more to your client.

2) Each location has it's ideal subject. The red barn (you know, the red barn) that is 20 miles away from civilization may not work for the family of 5 small children you want to bring out there, and then bring to the old junk shed 20 miles from there, and then back to an ice cream parlor in town for the finale. They will get worn out from changing outfits, traveling far distances, getting kids in and out of car-seats multiple times, bathroom breaks, and having to wait when the stupid ice cream is not being served quick enough to get shots of the last kid when the first's is melting off the cone. Ahem...hypothetically speaking. But it MAY work for the senior girl who has more time, flexibility, and bladder control to follow you around the countryside. Think about your subject and their needs and pick a location that will best suit their abilities. And remember that while a certain one location may look really neat, it's just one spot- are you going to do an entire shoot at that one spot? Be prepared and know your location(s) well enough to get variety in there. If your heart tells you to.

3) Ask permission. I've never been turned down by a privately owned property. Most people are flexible, and often times honored or excited to share their space with you. They may think you are nuts at times, but if you are polite, explain who you are taking pictures of, when you will be there, and how long you will be there, usually they will say yes. If they don't, too bad, but it's better to ask permission then get fined, and then never be able to use that location again. And make sure to say thank you. I find that offering my services to the location owner (by discount or even free depending on the extent and time of use of property) or even just sending a plate of home-made delectables gets the message across. And heightens your chances of being able to use the space again without feeling like a chump.

4) Think the "props" in the location through before you put someone next to it. Sometimes the old rusty gas tank or old elevator or whatever it is you see that just looks SO cool looks much better by itself than it does with someone next to it. I can't tell you how many times I saw something that I thought would just bank my photo, hook, line, and sinker, then I pulled it up later and thought..."okay, what was I thinking putting that little girl next to the old dumpster?? That's just awkward.". Just think it through before you take a few shots. It makes a difference.

5) It doesn't much matter what else is around the location if it's not in the shot. I used to look at photos and think "Woe is me, if only there were lone sheds in the middle of fields with sunflowers growing around it in my neighborhood..." but what I didn't see in the shot was the freeway right in front of the shed or the "Stan's Karate Classes" joint right next door. Know what I mean? If you see a location you like and think you can go with it, don't look at everything else around it, just use it, crop everything else out of your frame, and move on with life. :-) May sound simple, but it was one of those "humps" I had to get over.

6) Make sure you go to your location at the right time of day. All it takes is for you to think beforehand "okay, this place faces west, I need to do the shoot in the morning to avoid the sun". Be in control of your lighting! Nothing ruins a spot when you get there like the realization that you went there at the wrong time of day.
You know, not that I've done that or anything.

Also, before I check out, an unofficial 7) includes your own creativity. Don't go to the locations that every other photographer in your town goes to. Be creative. People will see the unique places you've scouted out and want to know where it was and want their picture taken there. However, again, locations don't make the shot, only you can do that.
May the force be with you.