F is for Fungus

So, it's obvious that I've completely abandoned my theme of "love." Instead the theme is "whatever semi-interesting thing I can find to take a picture of every day before the sun goes down."

But still, this tree fungus is somewhat pretty, don't you think? I could probably grow to love it if I had to.

C is for Cookies and Milk

Redo of my cookies and milk shot. The white background was causing me all sorts of trouble, so I decided to use the farm table instead.

I'm happy with it, although I think we can all agree the version with the puppy was much better.

T is for Torture

I was determined yesterday to take a "milk and cookies" shot for my SFS picture. I even baked cookies from scratch and had my milk bottle styled just so. But it was cloudy all day and I had basically no indoor light. I had to move my setup right next to the back door and poor Sugar was tormented. This actually turned out to be my favorite shot of the day. And judging from the reactions from my classmates (and teacher) it's the happy accidents that often turn out the best, right?

Hopefully I'll get to try the milk and cookies shot again when the sun cooperates (and sans puppy).

D is for Droplets

It was such a dreary day yesterday, but I was determined to get outside for my SFS shot, even in the rain. Green pine needles and water droplets made for a nice subject.

N is for Newel Posts, New and Old

On Friday I toured the historic home of a coworker that he's renovating in downtown Durham. It was very impressive and inspiring and I'm hoping to share more pictures with you this week. I fell in love with these newel posts (the original and two replicas) and decided to use this shot for my Souvenir Foto School Day 3 picture.

L is for Lucky Strike

I walk by this tower every single day on the way to and from work and have never once stopped to take a picture. This was taken from the top of the parking deck at sunset.

While it doesn't exactly fit my self-imposed "love" theme (I definitely do not love Lucky Strikes), I do love where I work and am lucky to have this view every day.

S is for Sugar

There are few things in this world I love more than this dog, and few things she loves more than attention from her Daddy and playing fetch with her ball (both of which she's eyeing longingly in this photo).

P.S. - I was so nervous to share this with the class, but I got tons of positive feedback which was so encouraging. Or maybe it's just my dog is so darn cute?

Souvenir Foto School

So I've done terrible on my resolution to blog more. But today is February 1st and that changes today! Why? Because I HAVE been doing well on my resolution to try and improve my photography.

First, I took an intermediate photography workshop in downtown Raleigh this weekend. It was short and sweet (just 2 hours) and honestly wasn't life-changing. But I did learn a thing or two I didn't know before (or had forgotten) and I did take this pretty cool picture of the instructor.



Second, I bit the bullet and signed up for Miss B's Souvenir Foto School. This session of Foto School is centered around the theme A-Z, and you commit to taking one photo a day for 30 days, each relating to a letter of the alphabet. You upload you photo each day to a private Flickr group and get feedback from the instructors and the class.

I've been thinking about signing up for the past year or so, but could never get the nerve. I just now submitted my first picture and even though some participants are solely shooting with iPhones or point-and-shoot cameras, I'm already feeling out of my league! There are some seriously creative people in the group! (And one of my blog idols, Jules from Pancakes and French Fries, is even in the class. Yikes!)

But I signed up because I want to practice and improve, and that's what I intend to do. And if we're being honest, I also signed up because I knew this would provide blog content for the entire month!

We were encouraged to pick a theme for our alphabet series, to narrow down our subjects and give us some guidance. Since it's February, I decided to choose Love. It could be things I love, photography techniques I love (wide aperture!) or straight up Valentine's candy.

So tomorrow I'll show you day 1. We have until midnight each day to post our pictures, so I'll post my photo here the following day. And I'll still be popping in with regular blog content here and there.

Here goes nothing!

Day 11: Christmas Lights Bokeh

I knew I wanted to capture some fun bokeh shots with the Christmas tree this year. (Bokeh = the blurry, out-of-focus area of an image)

You don't have to have Christmas lights to have bokeh, but Christmas lights make really nice bokeh.

I used this tutorial as a guide and coaxed Sugar to be my subject.









I still think my favorite bokeh shot yet though is this one from yesterday's Oreo post:



What shots are you dying to capture this year? Be sure to share once you get them!

Day 3: O Tannenbaum

This fabulous Christmas tree picture has been all over Pinterest:



Her simple instructions for how she got the photo? Turn your ISO all the way up, and your shutter speed all the way down (using a tripod).

My results weren't as great (I think the keys to the original pic are the reflective hardwood floors and, let's face it, the kid) but definitely better than Christmas tree pics of years past.











I wanted to replicate the dark, nighttime feel of the original photo, but they didn't turn out as dark as I thought they would so now I'm thinking it might be fun to try it with some daylight too.

Next week I hope to have some fun bokeh shots to share as well, that is if my subject (the dog) will cooperate!

Seth's Senior Pictures

Some pictures from one of my Thanksgiving photo shoots to take you into the weekend.

On the rare occasion we had Seth dressed up and (somewhat) willing, Ann also wanted to get a brother/sister shot.

And then of course we had to do a few of Katie as well.

And by the way, unlike most taken-in-the-middle-of-a-field or let's-pose-in-a-rustic-barn portraits, these guys actually live here. As in, get to wake up and go to bed looking at these views every day. Pretty lucky, huh?

Thanks for being good subjects guys!

Maia & Kelli

Wendy wanted to get a picture of her girls for their Christmas cards this year, so we did some quick shots after church last Sunday.

It was chilly and windy but the girls were troopers and I think we got some good shots. I'm not going to post the winning picture so I don't spoil it for those receiving a card but here are some other pics from our shoot.

Keiley

She might not have any front teeth, but girlfriend knows how to strike a pose.

Adventures in Babysitting

My sister and I got to babysit this little turkey nugget this weekend:

We had tons of fun going to dinner, shoe shopping at Target, applying lots of Chap-Stick, reading books and naming all of our body parts. You know, all of the things that cousins do when they hang out.

And I like to call this series "what Brevyn does as Megan tries to get ready for church":

Can't wait until the next time I get to snuggle her!