Jennilyn & Andrew: Family Portraits

Jennilyn and Andrew are two friends of mine who, clearly, are a photographer's dream to shoot...I'll bet you haven't seen a better looking couple in a long time! In addition, they've got the sweetest pup, Zoey, with whom I adore spending time.

We set out on a perfect spring Saturday to take some 'family portraits' all over Lawrence. First we ventured downtown, where a pub crawl was going on and didn't make shooting easy, but we got a few good ones! They treated me to Lawrence's best pizza, Papa Keno's, before we headed over the the University of Kansas campus.

Jennilyn is a graphic designer (click for her website!) who also works at the Acme T-Shirt shop, and Andrew is an Economics PhD. We made sure to hit some of the spots that were special to them, like her place of work, The Burger Stand at The Casbah bar, and some other scenic spots. My next few blog posts will be showing you some storyboards of the best shots from the day. Thanks for looking!




down. town.

Downtown areas have always fascinated and enthralled me, and I remember back around the age of 13, living in a suburbia devoid of a downtown, saying that I always wanted to live somewhere with a nice downtown area to stroll and people watch. Now, as a photographer, they hold even more excitement, and I think these photos should make it pretty apparent why that is!

Here in Lawrence, there's a great downtown, with a wide spectrum of types of shops, eateries, and activities. Oh, and lights and window and people, too!

...Does anyone have tips for uploading into blogger? There seems to be no logic to it. You say actual size, and it still shrinks it. These images in photoshop are supposed to be 3 inches wide (top image) and 6 inches wide (bottom image) but here the bottom is smaller than the top! Could anyone help me troubleshoot?
















Improv Lessons.

I realized a few days ago that my photos are full of my slight obsessive compulsive disorder and and make too obvious my perfectionistic tendencies and need to control. They all seem very planned and thought out in terms of subject and composition. And while it sounds like it would be, its not even something i do intentionally! For the most part i shoot without thinking about those things. It seems that even my instincts are OCD! that when i shoot from the heart, it ends up looking like i shoot from the head. and though how much that reflects me as a person is an interesting topic for another blog post, what i realized is that i want to get better at improving. Andy made the perfect analogy to a musician who learns his instrument, scales, and technique to a skilled level, but who is not yet in the stage of improvisation. In order to improv, a musician has to know all the basics and technical aspects inside and out, and to take it to the next level, he then plays with the all those elements, restructures structure if you will. [On a side note, isn't Andy a genius? Its a really great personality and I love how he really understands what I was talking about and where I'm at with my photography as indicated by this analogy!]

So when I went to put this into play at the bar the other night, I got some magical results, which I'll be rolling out here and on my flickr stream. I'm looking forward to more improv experiments, though maybe I shouldn't call them that, right? Too much head, not enough soul!







linklove.


Happy Easter!

As promised, this blog isn't going to be all about me. I'm hoping to feature some of my favorite photographers as well as interesting news and stories I pick up along my travels on the interwebs.

Here's the first installation of the latter, click for the links!

I love this photographer's blog. It's always full of worldly inspiration and cutting edge stuff that makes you go, 'is this art?'

Yay Everyday is like going to Marshalls. You can't go in looking for something, but if you have the patience to dig, you might just leave with a couple gems. If nothing else, you'll see things you've never before seen.

keh.com is a great site to follow, as well as a great shop to buy from, sell to, and keep in mind when you need camera repair, and here are some of the links I found interesting lately:




~a University is actually offering a course about cell phone photography! at first it sounds absurd but when you think about all the ethical topics to be covered in the class as well, its more intriguing.

Etsy Shop