Author Archive
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!
Ok, it’s so late, but I wanted to get these up today. And introducing: my new borders for web posting! I think it makes the whole picture look nicer! I’m still working on a logo; I’ll incorporate that into the border later. For now, here are my favs from Tiffany and Scott’s engagement shoot. They’re getting married in November! They were hilarious and made us laugh a lot. I thought about posting the nose-picking shot….but I’ll leave that for Tiffany and Scott to decide if they want that on the internet…
Some sweet ivy action on the wall:
Some sweet reflection action on the pond:
Some sweet circle action:
Might I add that the Japanese Garden in Springfield will be looking particularly lovely in a short period of time…perfect for romantic photography like this, bridal portraits, or even Really Classy family and senior photos. Our weekends are filling up in October (not so much the weekdays, though) so call this week to book your sessions!
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 took Cruz’s senior pictures a few days ago. It was super last-minute (scheduled the day before!) but it made no difference. It was a beautiful day and they turned out really great! I’ve been doing some self-critique and becoming more conscious about certain things that I wanted to improve upon…so, I’m especially pleased with how these turned out. Anywho, here are the pictures, starting with this nice sepia:
The shapes on this metal wall piece were really interesting! It made for a sweet black-and-white!
Cruz’s eyes really stand out in this one! (You should see the full size!)
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’m sketching out some ideas for a framed collage that Celeste wanted for their pictures. It will be 16×20 with a wide black frame and mounted on white matboard. The big picture is an 8×10 and the small ones will be 3×3 (or 3.5×3.5; I have to play). The words you see will actually be written with wire, hence the silver color. (It will stand out more with the actual wire.) I played around with some different main pics and words. I would make more to share, but I forgot to save my layers, so now I don’t really want to go back and make a new document sketch. There’s also a really cute family picture in front of the lake. And another word combo I thought of was “the justice family.” Any pictures and words can be switched out. Everybody vote! Or, suggest another combination, because I can switch things out on the matboard when I actually make it:
I also thought of putting about three small pictures down each side, but I liked this today.
We started a new session of art classes at the Y, and the kids in my painting and drawing classes are so wonderful compared to the crazy drawing class I had this summer! I’m looking forward especially to the painting class, since it is so small that I can paint along with them while I teach. Usually I am so busy teaching and helping that I don’t get a chance to ever finish my own examples. It will also be the first time we’ve had enough kids sign up to hold the class. I’m planning on doing watercolor, tempera, acrylics, a FRESCO (!), and a mixed media covering different subjects and styles. All of it will have lots of art history mixed in. Yay!
In other news, I now have bangs! (Sort of.)
We did Jason’s senior pics last-minute this Saturday at the Nature Center. It was the perfect place to go for Jason because he really enjoys being outdoors. This was the first time we’d gone there for a photo shoot, although Matt and I have been exploring there lots of times. There were a lot of deer out and about for brunch that morning, and a few just laying around, chillin’ in the woods. I even got some shots of Jason really close to the cutest little deer! We also saw turkeys, water snakes, a salamander (lizard?), and squirrels. It was a lot of fun getting to know him, and Jason was willing to do some climbing and sneaking for what I like to call Adventure Photography! Here are some of the shots! (There’s more than normal for this preview because they have to pick a photo for Kickapoo’s yearbook by Friday!)
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Some sweet reflection action on the pond:
Some sweet circle action:
