Late night snack

Wow, I really cut it close with this one.  Didn't start working on a photo until late (again) and then my first several ideas were major flops.  This is okay I guess, this little elephant seems to be a good subject to shoot (he's nice and contrasty) and I think I'd like to do more with him.  He needs a name though, any suggestions?  Besides that the only other thing I learned from this is that my kitchen floor is really uncomfortable.

Aww, honey (do do de, do de do)

Well, that is enough of baring my soul for awhile, I think, so here is something totally frivolous!  I was making oatmeal cookies today with Josie (she loves to "help", which mostly means eat raisins and spill things) and became fascinated with the honey as I was poring it off the measuring spoon and into the batter.  I was trying to recreate some of the cool patterns and shapes the honey made in this photo shoot, but it didn't exactly work out, I think it has something to do with the honey hitting the smooth bottom of the cup instead of the rough surface of the batter.  Still though, I think some of these shots turned out pretty cool. 

Also, a big thanks to my husband who "helped" me with this shoot, mostly by cleaning the spoon.  Thanks honey!

Finding my own smile

Well, after the last self portrait post I did ("In my own skin") I've been thinking about a lot of things and decided to try to take that theme a little farther tonight.  I'm really feeling exposed (ha, ha, ha) posting this, but here it goes anyway. 

My thoughts behind this image started with a conversation my husband and I were having last night.  I was trying to explain to him how I feel I've changed and am changing over time and how I now more than ever take responsibility for my own happiness.  So I wanted to create a portrait of myself that illustrated this point, how I can feel peace and joy without the aid of anyone or anything.  Obviously I don't feel this way all the time; I am certainly a huge work in progress, but I'm so grateful to the things in my life that are teaching me how to be this way more and more (being a mother, practicing yoga, making art, and just getting older, to name a few).  I hope I accomplished this at least a little.

By the way, the alternate title for this post was, "Adventures in topless photography".

Grave matters

Went to the cemetery in our town today to take some photos, which I oddly found much less depressing than going to the beach yesterday (hmmm, what does that say about me?).  I would have been happy to stay and take pictures for a lot longer than I did if it hadn't been so frigid today; I think with the windchill it was only a degree or two above zero.  There was so much more interesting stuff there that I didn't get.  This cemetery is actually really beautiful, it's very old for this part of the country and is shaded by tons of ancient oak trees.  It's one of my favorite places to go for a walk when the weather is good.  One other interesting thing, the photo of the monument in the upper left is known in town as the "Atheist's Tomb".  Apparently it is the grave of a prominent business man in the early days of our town who was an outspoken atheist and when he died he had something engraved on his tomb that said something about those beliefs, and shortly after it went up the grave was vandalized and the words removed.  I have no idea if this is true, I heard it as a kid, but it's interesting.

In other news, I went to my first Kirtan event tonight, which was awesome!  If you don't know who Allie Stringer is you ought to, so check her out.  But I am absolutely livid at my camera right now, because I took it to this event but had forgotten my sd card but thought that my camera had some on board memory because it let me take some shots if I changed something in my settings.  Apparently this is just a mode in the camera that was created only to torture photographers, because it will allow to to take images and you can see them on your camera but as soon as you turn it off they disappear, never to be seen again.  I hope that Allie will be back in South Bend soon and will give me a second chance photograph her!

A day at the beach

Oh my lord, is it summer yet?!  I really don't know if I can take much more of this.  Believe it or not these photos were taken at Silver Beach in St. Joseph, Michigan.  But where is the lake, you say?  Good question!  I was hoping for a least a glimpse of open water when I went there today.  I wish I had a more powerful telephoto lens so I could have gotten a good shot of the ice on the pier at least, but maybe by next year I will.  Anyway, I am really looking forward to taking some much different photos in this spot in 6 months or so.

In my own skin

I really am so thankful for all the new people I've been introduced to over the last week or so on this blog, and for the community of creative support I'm finding on the web.  Artists are just awesome people I've decided, and the world would be a better place if we ran things (though it may be a more disorganized and poor place, but hey, at least we'd all get along, right?).  This photo in particular had two sources of inspiration.  One being the self portraits of Heather Addley on 365 Days of Me , which inspires me not only because there are some really great photos but also because of her using this project to "see her body in a new light".  As someone who went through a period of anorexia as a teenager and still struggles to accept myself (even though my brain tells me I'm a fool for thinking I'm "fat"), I really appreciate a glimpse into another woman's struggle with these issues.  My second inspiration came from a comment from grow365 mentioning portraits of Georgia O'Keefe which I immediately looked up and was amazed by.  I loved the expressiveness in her hands.  I know what I did today didn't even come close, but I really am starting to like the idea of portraits that don't include a face or at least don't feature it.  So I am back to needing models again! 

Staying on my toes

When my friend Jennifer brought her son Aiden over to visit with the intention of me taking some portrait shots of him, I don't think this was what she had in mind.  Well I say to her then, "you shouldn't have had a child with such cute toes.  It's your own fault." He was sitting on his mom's lap playing with a magna-doodle and I noticed that he has very fidgety feet, and I think they ended up being a really neat subject to photograph.  I know working with kids is really hard, but I kind of like how unpredictable they are and how you never know what you are going to get with them.  I certainly didn't go into this saying, "I'm going to take take a photo of feet today." 

I hope that I actually did accomplish a "portrait" of Aiden, even if it's not in the traditional sense.  Maybe when he's grown his parents will look back at this and remember something endearing about him, even if it is only how squirmy he was.  And that I think is really the purpose of a portrait of a child, to help us remember what they were like on a particular day when they are changing so fast it's hard to keep up.

Seeker of Divine Knowlegde

I've been wanting to try over the last few days creating a photo that tells some sort of story.  I really had no idea other than that what I wanted to do today, and since I waited until the end of the day (again) to start on this I was limited to what I could find around my house.  So, a big thank you all my house plants and coasters, as well as my Buddha and this little elephant guy.  I'm not sure I really love this photo, but setting this up was a lot of fun and I'll probably give something like this another try soon.