I’ve been meaning to share that I’ve been accepted as a volunteer photographer with the Magic Hour Foundation.
The Magic Hour Foundation works to match professional photographers with cancer patients and survivors in order to provide a complimentary portrait session. It’s an opportunity for everyone to have some fun and create beautiful memories. If you know someone who may be wishing for something like this please share the site with them so they can apply for a session of their own. ♥
If I had my way, the money, the resources, etc most of my photography would be made using old processes. It’s not that I’ve done then so much as I admire the craft. The risk. The patience. The time invested. The skill that has to be developed. This is my first attempt at giving a nod to tin type, digitally. The first image is one I took last week, with something like this in mind. A Lensbaby Composer was used to give the natural hazy/blurry feel. I quite like it as is and enjoy the mood that’s created with all the texture layers. Which one speaks to you the most?
I love doing this kind of work. I’ve begged a friend recently to move closer to help me do more of this. She builds sets for plays and I’d love to create some for photographs.
“Events that are predestined require but little management. They manage themselves. They slip into place while we sleep, and suddenly we are aware that the thing we fear to attempt, is already accomplished.”
~Amelia Barr
One comment that stood out to me from our senior portrait session together was Thea’s mom saying something like ”That’s beautiful, but it’s too … MAGAZINE”. This made us all laugh. It was both a compliment and a good reminder to me that we needed to change-up the style of the shoot a little bit. It was exciting though, to see the growth in my images. Maybe a year or so ago we would have said, “That’s cool, but it’s just too … 4th grade art project”. It was a true pleasure working with Jess and Thea. Both artists themselves, it was great to get their input on what we were doing, where we were photographing and how the light should be. Collaboration with other artists can be so energizing. Here are a handful of images we made that won’t make the yearbook but are still lovely and fun.
Sigh. These two are so sweet. Joshua & Jacob came into the studio for their second session with me. It’s amazing how much they’ve changed in just a few weeks – and I was so honored to document some of their cuteness. Mom was amazing, calmly balancing the needs of both boys, laughing when we did something silly and helping me move and prop them up. I was so impressed with her ease and confidence and am so glad I got to have this time with them.
Thea came to have her senior photo taken this week. Her mom Jessica and I met in the 7th grade – so it was pretty crazy to be taking a photo of her daughter – older than we were when we met!! They were gracious enough to humor me with some more artsy moments in between getting the senior portrait. Jessica was “the sun”, holding my light reflector and Thea was my “part time model” – posing in ways that didn’t feel overly natural – but worked well for the feeling I wanted to create. Thea asked me if I knew how to / if I ever played around with the colors of the image in my post processing. I normally don’t if it’s for a straight up portrait – but for fun I spent a few moment with these. Art portraiture is definitely a passion for me and I love them for giving me the time to experiment.
One of the things that really struck me in my portrait session with Elizabeth was how at moments she reflected the parts of her that are still little girl, sometimes who she was in the moment – and now and then there were glimpses of who she will become. In this image she seems to be reflecting an old soul, even someone from the past. I found the moment very powerful. Do you see all of these things in yourself? We all carry with us part of the past, present and future. It was really cool to witness and capture it.
As I worked on the images from my portrait session with Elizabeth I thought about how I needed to cull a few to create a “sneak peek” album for Facebook. The more I came across ones that really excited me the more I realized the “sneak peek” was really more of a show and tell for the photographer. We love what we do so much that when an image we made really strikes our fancy we become like little kids in grade school bringing our most prized possession to class. That’s how I feel anyways. I just want to share this thing that makes my heart sing! Here is my favorite from out time together.
Elizabeth’s family just expanded by newborn twins so her mom brought her into the studio to have an “all about her time” – and we had so much fun. She is a wonderful girl – full of energy, a great sense of humor, a very sweet heart and a vibrant sense of style. We negotiated with each other and did lots of colorful pictures the way she wanted, and then a few subdued, quieter ones for me. In fact – working with her taught me a lot. The artist in me wanted to make images that I liked – and the service oriented photographer wanted and needed to make images she would be pleased with and I had to make sure to let her needs outweigh my own. So, that being said – here is my show and tell of our collaboration. She was a pleasure to work with.
I loved having Donna in my studio last week. We did a 30 minute social media portrait that will [hopefully] work well for her new blog “More than Hungry” – go check it out! Donna wrote and submitted a story into a contest – and she will be published soon!! When the article is published they will be linking to her newly created blog where you will be able to read all kinds of great stories about cooking – well, more than cooking – about how hospitality brings people together and helps foster love and relationships. Donna is very creative, talented, warm and friendly. She was a guest at our first game night here in the studio and brought such a beautiful display of food that I had to take pictures of it [it was quite delicious too]! Here are just a few of the images from our time together. I hope you see the beautiful and generous spirit that I do.
I had a blast on the 4th of July doing a baby reveal portrait session with Glen & Isabel! They came prepared with a bag full of props to play with and great attitudes about having fun with the shoot. Here are just a few of the images we captured … including a couple of goofy poses thrown in for Glen’s entertainment.
Tania Palermo [Studio on Main] 