I believe in pink.
I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.
I believe in kissing, kissing a lot.
I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.
I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.
I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.
~ Audrey Hepburn

FINE ART FRIDAY

Fine Art Photography: “photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist” according to the wikipedia definition.

I joined a group of talented photographers who are hoping to expand our horizons and travel away from our portrait businesses for awhile each month and capture a fine art image. Each month, on the last Friday of the month, we’ll post our vision of a fine art photo. We’ll explore different types of photography and take time to capture an image that is just for us.

Take a look at what the talented Tracy Tisdale, a Pensacola FL Photographer came up with for our Fine Art Challenge this month. Click on through the blog circle and see some amazing images. Thanks for joining us!

I shot these in natural light on a day when the sun kept going in and out, darting and dodging behind the clouds. Settings on my camera that were correct at the time, quickly changed to wrong in a blink of an eye. Settings for this shot were 1/100, f 5.0 with my 100mm macro, and ISO 1000. Love how my camera handles the higher ISOs.

Here is a pull back shot of my setup.

This is simply my desk in my office with a white foam board behind the fruit…held up by some clamps I stole borrowed from my husband’s woodworking shop. The window is directly behind me with the sun coming in at an angle.

I first tried for a bright sunlight making-lemonade-in-the-summer feel. (Even though it’s the dead of winter here in the midwest.) I never could get the exact feel I was going for with harsh sunlight shadows and bright yellow lemons.

One of my many rejects:

It also bugged me that I didn’t notice that the slice in front had a crazy smashed in side to it. Changed that up later in my shoot.

Anyway, not one to let all those sliced up lemons go to waste…I rewarded myself at the end of my shoot with this yummy beer:

Be sure and check out what the other photographers in our Monthly Food Photography Challenge came up with. Visit Stacey Siegal, a Longboat Key Photographer, to see her take on our challenge.

Isn’t she darling?

There was a blimp flying around and we inched along in the stalled traffic until I managed to get a shot with the blimp centered right in the middle of the arch!

First time I’ve ever been glad to be stuck in traffic…

There is so much to do. Eat. Read books. Play itsy bitsy spider…

Share your food with your teddy. Play with stickers.

A perfect summer day for a perfect mom and daughter picnic!

Contact me if you’d like to have a stylized theme lifestyle photoshoot! They are lots of fun!

We’re also trying to grow some agapanthus. Here is a photo of when I first saw them in bloom during a trip to Carmel. I love the spread of the bloom and the amazing purple color.

Sigh. I’m really hoping the ones we planted this year will bloom for us. Such pretty flowers, aren’t they? Stay tuned for the saga of the tuberose and the agapanthus! Wish us luck!

Cool car, huh?

I just thought it was so cool. Abandoned in the woods…and how did it get there all surrounded by trees??

We ended up walking along this creek behind their property. There is so much to explore in Columbia! Next week I’m off to explore some of the many parks around Columbia. I’ll be sure to share photos!

This year the target was a pirate. Yeah, no clue…but there you have it. A pirate.

Then we take a large slingshot…and, well…shoot at the target.

There is a lot of competition between the boys.

…and the girls

We have so much fun with our silly family tradition.

It’s one of my favorite afternoons. Year after year.

Since the kids get bubbles in their Easter baskets each year…there is usually a fair amount of bubbles floating around. (Yes, I still do Easter baskets for my grown kids.)

We believe in an equal opportunity shoot out. We’re forever young in our family.

I recently went to an off camera flash workshop put on by Nichole Van. This was her in person lighting workshop and it was excellent. It is a two day workshop and I believe she takes up to 12 people. We had 6 people which was a great size for a workshop like this.

She taught us the basics of off camera flash, strobes and speedlights, as well as what different modifiers will do. The workshop includes her Lighting in a Box materials, so we came home with a detailed workbook/manual along with a DVD of recorded sessions of Nichole talking and explaining numerous photo shoots with OCF in different conditions. Her explanations are detailed but she explains things so well. She’s funny and I swear even the very technical things she explained were never dry and boring!

We did an evening into night shoot as well as a full sun shoot.

We also did some inside off camera flash work.

One of the best things about this workshop is you bring your own equipment. Nichole supplies the models, but you do your own setups with your own equipment. She is there to help if you have questions..though she’ll often answer your question with a question and let you think it through.

The workshop ran from 9 to about 8ish the first day, and 9 to 5:30 the second day. They provided lunch & dinner the first day, and lunch the second day along with snacks and drinks both days.

Her lighting in a box material that you bring home allows you to look up the information she’s taught and reinforces all the lighting information we crammed into the two days. There are also tutorials on the DVD as well as actions and presets along with access to her online lighting forum where you can ask her any questions you might have.

Her husband, Dave, works the workshop with her and is just the greatest guy ever. They are a genuinely nice couple and Nichole is an open book. Ask her anything. Very refreshing to meet a photographer who is so giving and open about her work and her business. I’m probably spoiled for workshops now, because she is just heads and shoulders above any other workshop presenter I’ve had.

Choose similar colors but not matchy, matchy. Lots of texture is great too. I’m always willing to do a clothing consult before your photo session.