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I ran across this organization (one of many like it out there) that does digital photography workshops for kids in places and situations that most people never experience. It’s called Lens of Vision and Expression. They have some awesome prints by some kids in Nicaragua for sale here.
Here’s a few photos of The Melissa Neels Band from last weekend. My dad is the drummer! They were invited down from STL to play in Strafford, so we went to go see them and take pics. Hopefully soon you will see these pics on their website! 
There was some dramatic stage lighting going on, which was surprisingly interesting. Also interesting was the cowboy who had some mad dancing skills with the ladies…with an arm amputated below the elbow. Is that ok to mention here?
And stay tuned – in a few days we will have some CUTIE newborn photos of Miss Eleora. She was featured inside her mommy’s belly a few months ago on our webpage!
I’m lovin’ the color in this first one!
I’ve been getting together some albums lately. Here is the cover and a few pages from the press-printed book of George and Gracie! Their noses look sooo funny when they look straight up at you in front of a wide-angle lens! I really like how the sepias turned out.
Here are some layouts I’ve been planning for the handmade
book I made for the
Justices. They picked their favorites from the shoot and I was able to fit just about all of them into the book. Sometimes I have to switch pictures out because they don’t flow as well in the design. I hope UPS comes today with the prints so I can put them in the book and
collage and get that done! (*edit: YEAH! They came!)
In other exciting news, I finally got the paper for our own wedding book that I’m making. Oh yeah, that’s right. We MAY have gotten married just over a year ago. It’s so sad that we are photographers and haven’t even done anything with our own pictures! I just didn’t know what I wanted to do with them for the longest time. Everything was too expensive and not special enough. I’m kind of picky like that, although it’s a good thing when making book art because it HAS to be perfect. When I thought I’d start offering handmade books for our clients, I realized, “Duh!” I’ve been making them for a few years ever since I decided to combine everything I’d learned in that fibers class in my final project. (As a side note, what kind of fibers class doesn’t teach you how to make handmade paper? Maybe someday when I have more studio space, I can even make my own paper for the books!)
So, since my teacher was not…teaching… I taught myself by reading lots of books and internet tutorials, and looking at lots of pictures. It’s a great way to learn about something you are interested in. Homeschool kids do it all the time. I think the library may never get their bookmaking books back. (Hah! That was some sweet alliteration!) I’ve been learning lots of different, cool binding techniques. The best part is that you can make the cover look like anything you want. For our book, I’ve got some duiponi silk in sunset colors (pink-orange, orange, yellow, red) and I’m trying to find just the right composition with the shapes and colors. They’ll be layered like a sunset, maybe with some patches of white linen, and sewn together somehow…I was thinking maybe using thread in the same colors as each patch of fabric and showing the stitches on top along the edges. On the inside, I want to have brightly colored vellum between signatures (the trick is trying to find vellum that is big enough in one of the right colors). That’s about all I’ve got so far. Stay tuned!
I just received an invitation today to join a social networking group, Hands Across Haiti. It’s a network of people serving God in Haiti. It’s like a small light of relief in the long tunnel of confusion and disappointment in trying to figure out what to do about going to Haiti. Actually, it’s a big, fatty light. Really. I have been emailing many different people, schools, and organizations and finding out more about them and what kind of help they may need, but not a whole lot has been all that promising.
One thing I ran across was
The Caribbean Institute of Media Technologies, a new school that is opening up soon to teach people…well, media technologies. I love that someone is doing this because A) it involves photography and videography, and a lot of art! B) it involves teaching, and C) it involves Haiti!
Here are some awesome photos unlike any photojournalists’ work in Haiti. I think this is mostly due to the fact that the photographer spends time getting to know people and building trusting relationships with people for hours before ever bringing out a camera. Mostly what I’ve seen from the photojournalism world are pictures of people that look troubled, depressed, and suspicious.
That is not Haiti. That is the media’s interpretation of Haiti. Pictures like that sell the story while the story is hot. I like these photos because the people in them have a trust for the photographer, conveyed in their eyes and their bodies. And they are smiling. They are personal. They show their ups and downs, their friendliness, their silliness, their varying emotions. They make you realize that these people who live in Haiti are not that different from yourself. I am not trying to paint a picture of serene Caribbean island life, because it is definitely NOT all fun and games there. What I am trying to paint is a picture that shows more of the real Haiti. But my paint is just words…go look at the photos instead.
And here’s a video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dKRaILEwe0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1]
I am UBER excited today because 1) we got some GORGEOUS shots of Sean & Ann with bonus beautiful lilghting (see below), and 2) we are going to be doing the wedding of my dear friend, Angie. She is a friend from high school and is getting married in February at
this beautiful garden house. For the past week, we didn’t know if we would be able to do her wedding. Matt and I have been wanting to go to Haiti for some missions work for an extended time, but unfortunately what loose plans (ideas) we had fell through. Well…I guess the more accurate term would be, “We hadn’t heard anything and had no idea when we would go or what we would do, so we finally had to make a decision.” As much as we want to stay here and do photography for people, we want even more to go to Haiti and work (and take pictures there, of course, and probably come back for the summer to “make tents”).
But, now that we are going to stay here, we will get to go to Angie and Al’s wedding. And not only that, but we will get to document their day, too (and at some really pretty places)! We are especially excited to be the ones to be there on their special day together. (Ang, I am SO glad you listened to your gut and didn’t contact that other guy! hehe!)
So! To celebrate all of the love goin’ on around here, let us commence with Sean & Ann’s engagement pics (the first one is my absolute FAVORITE)! These two are so ridiculously in love. You can tell by the way they look at each other and the smiles that light up their eyes! I don’t even know how many times I heard them saying “I love you” to each other (and that was when I was in earshot). I know it’s going to be a while until the wedding, but I hope these photos will be a beautiful reminder to each other of your love and the promise of that coming day! Enjoy! :-)
I am about to head out to Rolla for some puppy picstures. It is a surprise birthday gift for someone’s husband. I hope it doesn’t rain in Rolla like it’s raining here! I’m also getting started on a new book. I had just the right size book board left over from the last album I made to make a small gift/parent album. I’m thinking black, white, silver, and classy.
Meanwhile, here are some pictures from Carson’s Late Fourth of July Extravaganza (I made that title up). Enjoy!
I like the short depth of field with all the Christmas trees lined up and the kids running around. Good job, Matt.
Honey locust flower with some nice light (Matt took this one, too):
Had to have a reeeeeally slow shutter speed on this one, but the light on their faces from the sparkler is awesome:
This looks really cool in the big version. I love the little dots all around it. It’s like glitter in the sky!
This is my favorite fireworks shot:. I like the blue sky and how the smoke is even lit up.
This was a really hard shot! People’s faces lit up from only the fireworks….oh man. What timing!
People hanging out:
Here’s Matt in the bug light. I kind of like how night-y it is, and you can tell what kind of light he’s standing by!
Last week, Matt & I volunteered with our small group at Kids Against Hunger, an organization with a branch in Springfield that packages and distributes food to hungry people around the world. They send it nationally and internationally, like to places in Africa, and Haiti. It got its name because it is a volunteer thing that a lot of kids are able to do to help others out around the world. Here is what Kids Against Hunger does behind the scenes:
First, my big strong husband dumped huge bags of rice into containers.
Next, people scooped rice into baggies.
Then they added spices (top) and vitamin/mineral tablets (bottom), the essential part of the meal.
Bags were sealed (I did this! It was fun!)….
…Counted…
…Boxed…
…and packaged for shipping!
Check out the Kids Against Hunger website for the volunteer schedule.
Last week, Matt & I volunteered with our small group at Kids Against Hunger, an organization with a branch in Springfield that packages and distributes food to hungry people around the world. They send it nationally and internationally, like to places in Africa, and Haiti. It got its name because it is a volunteer thing that a lot of kids are able to do to help others out around the world. Here is what Kids Against Hunger does behind the scenes:
First, my big strong husband dumped huge bags of rice into containers.
Next, people scooped rice into baggies.
Then they added spices (top) and vitamin/mineral tablets (bottom), the essential part of the meal.
Bags were sealed (I did this! It was fun!)….
…Counted…
…Boxed…
…and packaged for shipping!
Check out the Kids Against Hunger website for the volunteer schedule.
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