Thursday night randomness

Not much to post about... so I thought I'd share some randomness. Obviously I took this photo, oh, about 2 months ago. =) There's been snow on the ground ever since.

I love creative, wacky people. Disturbing, but funny!



Spending tonight catching up on emails, Facebook, Twitter, and of course, Thursday night TV!

Why I became a photographer...

Well, am I a photographer? I struggle with this moniker daily. I don't consider myself a photographer. But I suppose I am given that I take pictures. And there's really no other way to title this post than to admit to myself that I am one.

I found this photo at my grandparents' house, like so many others. I am so lucky that both my parents were excellent photographers... and always had great equipment to play with. And that they encouraged and embraced all sorts of artsy-fartsy-ness. Of course, my dad and I had our dorky darkroom in the basement where I learned all about developing, enlarging, dodging and burning (the real way!). Ahhhh, the smells come back to me as I type. :)

So there he was, camera in hand, the day I was born. Just like a proud dad! Taking yet another amazing photo.



I hope to be able to capture moments like these so that people can have the same kinds of beautiful memories my family has all these years later.

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." -Eddie Cantor

Some more total and complete randomness... just dragging the 70-200 around before I have to return it! =) Enjoying a stress-free, relaxing day.





















Of course, my co-pilot...

::: 2009 Goals :::

So, it's January 23rd and I've finally gotten around to drawing up some goals for myself. I hadn't laid out any for myself last year, which was a good thing, because I ended up traveling down a completely different road than I expected! =) I flipped on the cruise control and went with it. And it was THE BEST. I experienced more, learned more, and grew more than I ever have.

But this year, I'm giving myself a little more structure - I need to keep challenging myself. I'm sure a lot of these are old hat to many of you. =) I'm a HUGE list girl, and writing them down means I will refer to them constantly.

Special thanks to the presenters at Mystic4 last weekend whose nuggets of wisdom stuck with me: Anne Ruthmann, Michelle Turner, Ben Chrisman, George Weir, and David Murray.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

1) Reign in your overshooting.

2) Actually physically delete CRAP. Don't feel compelled to keep every single image the camera recorded. There is absolutely no need to keep a photo of your own foot that is blurry and underexposed that you captured accidentally as you were putting your camera away. Dork.

3) Stick with your "vision" for an image even if your subject thinks you're weird or doesn't understand why on earth you're contorting yourself so.

4) Don't feel pressure to rush. Take your time to get the RIGHT shot - composed well, exposed well, where everyone/thing looks good - which in turn saves time post-processing and storage space! (Are you sensing a theme here?)

5) Stay unique.

Obviously, I also hope to participate in many workshops and seminars, and just keep learning from everyone around me. But that goes without saying, really!

Will need to invest in wrist braces, I think...

Just for funsies, and to see if I should invest in it, I rented the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS lens... I know it's a BEAST and I'm not sure I have the wrist strength to carry it around all day. :) So I thought the winter would be a good time to play.

Holy CRAP is that sucker heavy. But of course, now that I've played with it, I don't WANT the lighter f/4.0 version. It doesn't seem as heavy as it did when it arrived... is that possible? Though, I do fear immediate carpal tunnel.

If you own this lens, or even if you don't but have an opinion, I'd LOVE to hear from you. =) It's a big investment for someone like me, and since I'm stepping up my game this summer, I figure it's the next lens to add to my kit. It might (?) be important to note that I do NOT own the 24-70. If that affects your answer. This would come in very handy for many aspects of my business...

Here are some (totally and completely) random and probably not that interesting shots I took with it on Saturday.




Hmmm... maybe more interesting in black and white?


Wheeee!






OK, again, not exactly interesting, but I'm in love with this lens.


These are on my house...


This didn't turn out as I had envisioned, bit still sorta fun...




Off to catch up on life. I'm behind everywhere and on everything having been at Mystic 4 for two days and gone back to work today! =)

Can you imagine a more fun bunch of girls?

What is more fun than spending the night out with photographer friends who spend the night glued to their iPhones and madly Facebooking in real time?

I'm shamelessly stealing everyone else's iPhone shots because as much as I love it, my Blackberry cannot compete. =) And I can't not blog about this evening. Heh heh.











And this is why we shoot well together.


I sound like a broken record... but I'm just so thankful to have such fabulous friends who make me laugh for hours on end. =)

Weddings, weddings, weddings!!!

I'm so excited... I'm practically squealing. =)

It's January 12th, and I'm already set to second-shoot 9 weddings this upcoming season. Eeeeee! I'm SOOO looking forward to working with my dear friends Robin and Amanda again.

And speaking of weddings, the fabulous Robin Dini is featured on the Connecticut Wedding Blog run by Candice Dowling of Jubilee Events for a wedding that I shot with her. And some of my photos made the cut! ;)

Check it out!
Sean and Lisa's Real Connecticut Wedding Feature

It was SUCH a gorgeous wedding, with incredibly well thought out details... simply gorgeous. I was honored to be able to help document it!

New Year, New Life, New Blog Design!

I thought maybe I'd make the plunge to a different blog host because I've just been beyond irritated with Blogger taking HOURS to publish my feed... but in the end, I decided that I was generally happy, and maybe I just needed a makeover.

So, I tweaked my template around yesterday, waiting for the snow to pile up, and voila! Much more what I was shooting for originally anyway.

And what's a blog post without a photo... gotta make sure it works! And gotta love my lazy, goofy Grovie.



And look at that brand new archive for 2009 over on the right. Fresh clean slate! So exciting!