New "Toys"

I bought a new door. Ok, so it isn't new...I bought an OLD door. Weathered and worn, old and BEAUTIFUL. I found it at a GREAT place Brown's Building Materials. They have old and new supplies there. It is a super cool place to get props...especially if you are in to this particular aesthetic, which as I am sure you are figuring out...I do! I have only used it with my children so far, but I think it is going to be in my arsenal for a bit. Oh, and did I mention that it only cost me $8.15 (and that is after the tax man gets his share)!
Here it is, my cheap and wonderful find!


The second picture was lit with my newly made "beauty dish". My husband found a blog that show how to do it. Yes, it isn't super fancy, but and to me this is a pretty big but, it was inexpensive to make and it works pretty stinking well. Here is the real kicker...after taxes, all the components cost a mere $25. That isn't a typo, and I have used it for a few product shots now and the results are pretty darn good.


These are a couple of the shots I was able to capture with the dish...as you can tell the products are hair fashion, so head shots seemed like the way to go.
Being that I am pretty new to this game, I am not claiming to be prefect or to have the best ideas or the greatest amount of knowledge or wisdom in the field of photography. I am just sharing what I do, and what I use. I rely heavily on the blogs and classes that are offered by those who really are at that level, and then share what I have done with that!

Insomnia...and Pictures!

Last night was a rough one. After posting I decided to try to go to sleep. Try IS the operative word there. Finally, at around 8am I started to drift off, only to be awakened by my husbands alarm. I filled him in on my sleepless night and he got up and took care of things this morning. So I drifted back to sleep only to be woke up by my son who decided it would be dandy to kick his legs and bounce them off the bed. I told him to stop or leave...he stopped. I drifted peacefully back to sleep to again be woke up about an hour later as he decided to get up. then the whole falling back to sleep and being awakened shortly there after cycled through for the third and final time. In total I got around two hours of sleep. So this post is going to be a short one. Just a few of the portraits I took while at the in-laws. You enjoy and I will take a nap! Oh the life of a chronic insomniac!

Been busily taking pictures

Some for pay some for free, all to increase my skills! I am no Napoleon Dynamite or anything, you won't see any bowstaff skills here, only an increase in my shooting skills (of the photographic kind)!
I recently had the opportunity to take my my in-laws family portrait. It was so great! They have some neat and texture rich areas to shoot in...when you like on a farm and own a vineyard that sort of thing isn't too unusual! They are a pretty large crowd, so I was given another chance to work on my large group sessions. The challenging thing is to make them not the same ol same ol run of the mill family shots. I tried to to that by using interesting settings and textures. I plan to post a couple on here for you all to see, but not at this moment. I just checked the clock and it is telling me it is after four in the morning and I have yet to go to sleep. Rest then post. Hope I piqued your interest!