Sweetness in the Studio

In February I purchased a few new things for my studio, including a new backdrop that I'm really liking. I popped the kids down in front of it with some props, and captured the sweetness that followed.

Flower farm

Here's Part II of summer photos!
Back in December 2013 I posted photos that I took at Great Falls National Park, as I felt like with the cold weather and snow we could use some summery photos. As we're now even further into the depths of winter, I think these bright, beautiful flowers are just what is needed!

Summer zinnias

This weekend we had a glimpse of the upcoming spring, and then sadly it's being taken from us this week with more cold and possible snow! But maybe these lovely summer flowers will remind us of what's to come... 

These photos were taken in August 2013. My family and I spent the afternoon at a farm in Maryland, where there was a "pick your own zinnia" field. In these long, cold, snowy days of February, it's nice to remember that everything will be sprouting and blooming again soon!

Gettysburg in winter

Last month I spent the better part of two days in Gettysburg, PA doing an installation and training for a client (for my full time job). Upon leaving the first day to head back to Leesburg, the sun was setting as I drove past the battlefield. I'd not actually been through the battlefields in many, many years, and since it was pretty much deserted I thought this would be the ideal time. I didn't have my camera with me, but I think I put my iPhone to pretty good effect!

Portraits in the snow

Yesterday morning I took the kids out in the snow for some playtime in the falling snow. This time, I took my DSLR camera and used my rain shield for the first time to protect it. The shield worked beautifully, and I'm so glad to have these portraits of them enjoying the snow!

My daughter, the dancer

 About three weeks ago my daughter had her second dance recital with the Loudoun School of Ballet. On my personal blog, I've already posted photos I took at the dress rehearsal. When we arrived home after the recital, she of course didn't want to take off her costume, and we had some really nice light coming in through my living room window. So, I figured why not set up for a costume photo shoot? As she gets older, she gets better and better at listening when I tell her posing suggestions...maybe we've got a future model on our hands!

Korean figurines

I'm hoping to take a night off from the photo editing, as I anticipate being home for the next couple of days and should have lots of time to get some editing done! So, as I just finished paying bills, and I had this post all set to go, I thought tonight would be a nice night to share it.

Last month while I was doing my 30 day photo challenge, one of the subjects was "Close Up". I used some macro filters that my husband gave me last year, screwed onto my 70-300mm lens, to take a few photos of these adorable Korean figurines given to me by an old colleague who got them for me in Korea. So very cute!

Be My Valentine!

I'm not really a Valentine's Day girl - my husband and I don't do anything for the "holiday", and it's always seemed a little silly to me. However, I have to admit that I do love the color combinations (red, pink, and silver? bring it on!), and with having a girly-girl in my house I thought why not set up a shoot for Valentine's Day? I knew she'd be a fantastic model, and I wanted to try out the new backdrop that I purchased over the weekend. I could not be happier with the results!

 In fact, I'm running a Valentine's Day special - $50 for a 30 minute session, getting 10 photos of your little Valentines! Please contact me if you'd like to schedule a shoot this week.

January sunsets

January of 2014 was a month of beautiful sunsets. I captured a number of them, on multiple different days, in various locations around Leesburg. I thought I'd share them all here so you can see the beauty for yourself!

Weekly Photo Project: January 2014

The weekly photo project is back! I started in this group on Facebook well over a year ago, and have previously posted here under the tag "weekly project" some of the photos that I've submitted to the project...mostly those that were chosen as the week's winner, as I'm particularly proud of those. 

Due to technical difficulties with Facebook and their changing how groups are done, we temporarily suspended the project, which was disappointing but understandable. However, right around the start of 2014 we realized the solution to the technical difficulty, and the project was back under way two weeks into the new year. Very exciting! I do enjoy this group of photographers. Many of us did the 30 day challenge that I have posted about on here a few times, but it was a lot of work to keep up with daily photos, and we missed the weekly topic. Plus, it's fun to join in some friendly competition :) So, I was glad to have the project come back.

I've decided that for 2014 I'm going to do a monthly summary here of the photos that I submit each week of that month, along with the theme. So, here are my 3 for January.

Week 1: "Shadows"

The rising winter sun slanting through our backyard fence.

Week 2: "Winter".
This is a lone tree near our pond, highlighted by the rising sun on the ice-covered pond.

Week 3: "Say Something" (i.e. tell a story with your photo).

My husband and son building with great concentration.

Macro photography: Ice Storm

Last night we were hit by an ice storm, along with most of the rest of the Mid-Atlantic and North East. Leesburg was right on the edge of the ice/rain, and what started as rain last night quickly turned to ice and led to cancelled school and everything glowing white this morning from the coating of ice. After (carefully) walking the dog, I went back outside to grab a few photos before work. I couldn't walk too far from the house for fear of slipping, so I took these shots in front of our house.

 

6th birthday bash

 In mid-January I brought my daughter to the 6th birthday party for the daughter of an old friend of mine. My friend always makes an amazing cake, and this year was no exception at the tea party-themed birthday party!

Foreground Bokeh

One day of the 30 day photography challenge in January was "bokeh". I've previously published here examples of the bokeh shots I did over Christmas, as Christmas lights make such a great background for beautiful blurred lights. Since I had recently done that type of shot, I wanted to try something different for this challenge and to experiment with foreground bokeh. In this scenario, the subject is behind the lights, but you still want to try for the nice blurred effect. I discovered that it's a lot harder to do than the more traditional bokeh, and I may not have used the most ideal light source for my bokeh, but at the end I was pleased with a few of the shots that I got. 

Self Portraits

This month, I participated in a 30 day photo challenge, which I had previously posted about so I won't go into tons of details again. As you can see on the description, the month starts and ends with a self-portrait, and has two self portraits (of a different type) in the middle of the month. I tried to do something different for each self portrait, and wanted to summarize the results here.

Self Portrait Day 1: This is the one I submitted to the challenge.

Sun + snow + dog = adorable

Yesterday I took my dog for a walk in the snow, which she absolutely loves. It's so much fun to watch her run around in it, and even better she is a good enough dog to pose for me (without a treat in my hand, even!) in the sun. Love this dog.

30 Day Photo Challenge: Hands

I'm currently taking part in a 30 day photography "challenge". It's through a photography group I've been a part of for a while now (well over a year), but this challenge is new. I like the daily topics and really enjoy the people who are doing this with me. There's a different topic each day, and you're supposed to take the photo for the topic that day. It's a really great way to force me to pick up a camera every day (even if it's just using one of the apps on my iPhone), and it makes me take photos of things I might ordinarily miss/ignore.

If you're interested in seeing all of my photos for this project, take a look at the Facebook album I created on my photography page: CLICK HERE.

Key West Wedding: Portraits

I wrote a post here earlier this month showing some photos I took at a very good friend's wedding in Key West. (Side note: thank you all for making that post the second highest viewed of all time!). In addition to the photos I took with my phone, I was able to take some "real" portraits of the bride and groom as I drove them around Key West. These were all taken at the Key West wildlife refuge - such a novel and lovely place to take wedding photos, and so fitting for the two of them!

Note: I was NOT the wedding photographer for this wedding; he was amazing, and posing all of these shots. I was simply fortunate enough to grab some of my own from the side! 

Craft project: Jewelry Box

I'm kind of tired tonight, so here's a quick post of photos I took after helping my daughter put together a mosaic jewelry box over the weekend. She and I had a wonderful time doing this project together, and I really like how it came out!

First birthday fun!

In a recent post, I showed photos I took of the Allen family. As we became friendly afterwards, I was invited to their daughter Zoe's 1st birthday party just a few weeks later. I volunteered to take some cake smash photos there, so her mother didn't have to worry about it. But before the smashing I was able to photograph the beautiful cupcakes, decorated by Zoe's mom!

Key West Wedding

Just before the end of 2013, I flew to Key West to be in the wedding of my good friend Amy. I've known her now for almost 17 years (that seems impossible!), and was honored to be a part of her day. Key West was lovely, she was beautiful, and the wedding was so much fun. Being IN the wedding, I couldn't take as many photos as I wanted, and because I couldn't carry around my DSLR all of these photos were taken with my iPhone, using the Camera+ app. But we know that any good photographer makes due with what she has, right?

Let me also start this post by saying that their wedding photographer, David Champagne, is amazing. Please check out his website and his facebook page - he does amazing work, and was such a wonderful guy. It was really great to see him work, and learn some from him! He's posted their first sneak peeks as well. I stayed out of his way, and felt fortunate to get a few shots of my own.

When we got to Amy's mom's house to get ready that morning, he had placed her dress in this door for photos. Could you have asked for a better location or light?!