Shadows

Even if you know nothing about photography or photo taking in general, you know that shadows can ruin a photo if they are not intentional. On Easter weekend, Colleen and her boyfriend Matt were in town and I of course took the opportunity to take some portraits of them. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us. Saturday afternoon was so sunny that it was creating horrible shadows on both Colleen and Matt. Luckily I was able to get two photos that were semi decent to share below. The first photo is actually one of my favorites just because of the lighting. The second photo is actually a replica of a photo I took of Matt and Colleen when I was still working with film photography. I still think the film photo looks better (I wish I had it on my computer to compare the two!), but I am pleased with the lighting. Enjoy the selection below:

Things Just Got a Little Crazier

Well, another year older officially and I still haven't been taking as many photos as I would have liked to have been taking. I am finding it so hard some days to pull out my camera and capture life around me. These past weeks have been a little more crazier than usual. . . to start, Dee and I got another puppy. . . yes, you read that correctly, another puppy. Below you will get to meet Lumen (yes, another character from Dexter) who is a 10 (she's probably 11 by now) week old white German Shepard. She is the sweetest dog I have ever met, but certainly not the brightest . . . we are working on her training! I took Lumen and Hannah over to my parents house to play with their new puppy and burn some energy, since they have a much bigger yard than we do at the condo. The girls had a great time together and I was able to get a few photos of them all too.

If you haven't heard, yes in the middle of April, Ohio got a really unexpected snow shower which blanketed the ground with just enough snow to turn everything white. Since Lumen is a white dog I thought I would have a hard time with her and the snow contrast wise, but it appears against a "true" white, Lumen is far from white. . . annoyingly, she looks very tan in the photos against the snow! However, one of the reasons I love the snow so much is because I love the lighting that comes with it. Rarely is it super sunny and snowing. Luckily, today the lighting was amazing and the photos barely needed any lighting help!

With the weather getting a bit nicer (hopefully!!) I hope I can start to bring my camera out a bit more and get some great nature photos as well as photos of the pups growing up. I have included below a photo of a bleeding heart plant that we got. I was just messing around with the camera the other day and happened to get some great shots of this cute little plant. Enjoy the selection below:

A Quick Note

Just wanted to share these photos real quick, next post shall be a longer one! Enjoy:

The Fine Details

One of the greatest gifts my macro lens has given me, is the ability to capture the fine details out of things. Personally, I would say the difference between a photographer and someone who takes photos is that a photographers job is to capture details and different angles of everyday things that nobody else would see. Last week I had bought some flowers from Heinens and at the time I thought I was crazy for how expensive they were, but thinking about it now, they are a week old and still look amazing....now I can never get flowers anywhere else! One of the things that persuaded me to buy these particular flowers was the colors. These flowers have the brightest and most vibrate colors that I had ever seen before, so of course I had to buy them. Yesterday early afternoon I was looking for something to do and grabbed my camera to see if I could maybe get some photos in the spare time I had in. My initial thought was to take pictures of the flowers that have been sitting on the counter basically asking for it. So I grabbed the flowers and placed them on the floor where the lighting was much better and started snapping away. I got about 10 photos in before Hannah realized what I was doing and then she started to steal the spotlight. Of course I changed my focus from the flowers right over the Hannah. Sadly Hannah had chosen to lay where the lighting was no good, so the majority of the photos I took are not really worth it. Half way into the photos of Hannah, Denise shows me this photo from online of this German Shepard where the photo was just the top portion of the dogs face containing it's eyes. That photos sparked something in me to try and duplicate it. Sadly, Hannah was getting sleepy and still laying in the crappy light, so I knew I wasn't going to get the photo this time....(I am still very determined!!!) but the photo made me want to get some of Hannah's fine details, so I got the best ones I could. Take a look below at my fine details:

Natural Lighting

Wow! It's been awhile since I last blogged! I'm excited to announce that I have been working on a website for my photography which will show case my work as well as give a place for future clients. Since I have been working on the website, I have kind of neglected to blog a little! Whoops! That also means I have been slacking on my picture taking as well! The other day Cleveland (and lots of other places in the US) got hit with this random gigantic snow storm! It snowed all day and made a huge mess! Lucky for me I got sent home from work early because of the conditions so I had some extra time to go and play with the puppies all day. Hannah (our 15 weeks old German Shepard) LOVES the snow! If we would let her play in the snow all day, she would! I used the opportunity to take some photos of Hannah. I'm really pleased with the couple I got of her playing outside. After playing outside, Hannah came back into the house and we were getting ready to feed both Zoey and Hannah. While Denise was getting their food ready, I was just playing around and taking a couple pictures of Hannah. The lighting coming in from our patio doors was probably some of the best lighting indoors that I have ever been able to capture. Take a look below at some of the newest Hannah photos.

Stay tuned for information on my upcoming website. I am still in the designing phases, so it has a while to go still!

*Please notice that there is not a logo on these photos! I forgot to add it and didn't feel like going back! One day I will get to it!!*

Let's Go Play!

It wouldn't be Cleveland without a week of wacky weather! On Tuesday we got a massive dump of snow that soon has melted away from the sunshine and 50 degrees we are currently having. I have been dying to go and take photos, but once again, school and work were my priorities and I didn't make the time to go out and take photos! Grrrr. Luckily, on Tuesday my morning classes were all canceled. So, what better way to spend the day? I played with my dogs in the snow and got to take some photos at the same time. I'd say it was a win win for everyone. Our German Shepard puppy Hannah Flora is now 11 weeks and looks very very different from the last time I took her photo. It's amazing how much they can change in 3 weeks (yikes...has it really been 3 weeks since I picked up my camera?!) Her and my other dog Zoey had a blast playing in the snow and burrowing through tunnels they would make. It was really fun to play with them. Take a look at some of the photos from the day. I promise next blog will be more exciting, but it's 12:42 in the morning and I have yet to go to bed!

I really really love this one! 

LOOK at that face!! 11 weeks! 

My Zoey <3

The Love Month

Welcome to February!! Last week I had felt like I didn't touch my camera once in a long while and I was started to get overwhelmed with school and work so I didn't even seem to mind. But then I remembered just how happy grabbing my camera and taking pictures makes me feel. So, this last week my aunt and I had adopted an eight week old (she will be 9 weeks tomorrow!) German Shepard puppy named Hannah. Her full name is actually Hannah Flora---from Dexter if anyone is a fan-- and she is so adorable! She has quite the personality and I really wanted to be able to capture some of her puppyhood  before she grew up! Luckily the night before we had gotten this beautiful snow storm that dropped a good 4-5 inches of snow and blanketed everything in white. I grabbed Hannah and we played for a bit in the yard while I snapped a couple pictures of her. She wasn't so into the whole picture taking thing and frankly just wanted to be picked up, but luckily I got a couple of photos of her. After playing with Hannah in the snow, I realized that the snow was starting to melt in light places since the sun was out. The light airy snow made these amazing crystals when it melted and my macro lens LOVED it!! (Thank goodness!!!)

Take a look and see how amazing the snow crystals and Hannah look below. 

You may notice too a logo now at the bottom of my photos, I had someone on Instagram take a photo from the blog and say they took it. Hopefully now I can prevent that! 

Look at those snow crystals! 

Meet Hannah!

Love the water drops!