Keeping busy

In keeping with my last post, about iphoneography, I wouldn't have gotten these shots if it weren't for having my phone with me. While I love my camera, it is heavy and is not always on my person. The first is my neighborhood as I left yesterday morning. Phone in my hand - no intention of bringing camera with me to a Photoshop Workshop - and voila - a mood piece that was easy to achieve.

 This was a quick grab on the River Walk in San Antonio where the workshop was held. Again, I didn't bring my camera along because I would have had to worry about it's security all day and would have had to had it with me at all times - but this was a nice grab with the phone.

Here's one more I got of the torrential rain falling while my husband was driving.  I think everyone can get a sense of, "been there. Done that" with this one.

I am a still a firm believer in my Nikon gear, and without that, I never would have gotten this.

I was asked to photograph this puppy as a birthday gift and I got so many nice shots, I hated to select just the one, so I had fun making a composite that captured a variety of the puppy's many moods.

One of the fun things I did this past week was a Photowalk with Trey Ratcliff. I've been an admirer of Trey's photography, blog, books and traveling experiences for several years now and HOPED that in moving to Austin I might meet him one day. Well, I never really got close to him because of the crowd and pouring rain, but I was happy to be shooting in his presence in such a cool venue as the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin.

 It was actually more fun shooting the people and the atmosphere than any of the cool things in Austin.

These were taken with my camera, despite the raindrops that were falling. Someone told me to look into a lens condom - it's definitely on my list of things to do this week.

Naturally, when the sun came back out, I registered for a day with Kelby Training's instructor Ben Willmore for a day-long seminar on Photoshop CS5. I had actually taken this once before but it was nice to get re-inspired and to see that I HAVE picked up a lot of tricks along the way and there are still many that I need to try out. His smoke sculptures were amazing. Stay tuned - I am going to try them out this week.

Well, friends, keep shooting whatever you've got. And, leave me a note or a link so I can see what you've been shooting.  As a new friend I met this week said, I love to share my photos!

Happy Spring!

Keeping Up With Technology

Here is a picture I took with my iphone using a nifty accessory that I won last week on the Trover Photowalk in Austin. It's called the Holga Dial-a-Camera Effects. I would not have ever thought about such a thing, but since I won it as a prize, I figured I'd give it a try.

 

The Holga Dial-a-Camera Effects is a cool, inexpensive accessory that works as a protective case as well as provides you with 9 different filters. The filters, one of which quadruplicates the image like a kaleidoscope, can easily be dialed into place to add some pizazz to a photograph captured on the iphone. Read more about it at http://bhpho.to/y0ecDZ. 

My husband was disappointed when he heard I won a prize using my iphone as a camera, rather than an image captured from the large investment of Nikon equipment I have. I am really trying to embrace today's technology and realize that the iphone camera is a damn good one and it is more AVAILABLE than my heavy camera. Here's me playing with the filter on my front lawn.

 

One of my young, fellow photographers also showed me an app on the iphone called Camera+ that allows you to create all kinds of effects with the photos in your gallery.  It kept me entertained yesterday when we had to sit in a service waiting room waiting for our car to be inspected.

 

I was able to play with the clarity, depth of field, give it a vignette - you can even make something look retro or grunge. And you can use this app to set up a 10 second exposure. It's got more possibilities than PhotoShop!

Well, I'm not about to give up my good gear, but in researching this article, I see I am miles behind on all of the information, groups, clubs and contests involving iphone shooting and apps. I am determined to catch up. It is a wonderful resource to realize you've got a pretty great camera right in your pocket whenever you need it. 

I was able to take these with my phone and post them right away to the Trover site to let folks know what a great place the Ladybird Wildflower Center is:

It was so nice to have my sister in town - let me get out and find new places to shoot and allowed me to have two very pretty models. 

Keep shooting friends, and challenging yourselves to the new technology that is available! Ciao!

Doing my best to capture Austin's weirdness

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

I discovered an awesome PhotoWalk yesterday thanks to Photographers Adventure Group and Trover. The concept of Trover was brand new to me - it's a phone app that helps you share life's hidden gems, through photography, with others, and it is evidently very popular in other places in the world and is becoming a hit around here. So, the walk encouraged me to use my iphone as a camera way more than I would normally use it. That didn't stop me from taking close to 300 images with my camera - but it did open my eyes to the social networking capabilities of iphone photography and one of my fellow walkers also showed me some outrageous editing capabilites it has as well.

We were instructed to upload our photos as we took them, giving a bit of a description and posting them to the Trover site. This was a technological challenge for me, but I love a good challenge and, at the end of the day I actually won a pretty cool prize for one of the best photos! Here's my prizewinner:

Meanwhile, I met some great folks who were more than willing to share photography techniques, ideas on where to shoot as well as where to eat and we just had a fun day shooting.

 

And I discovered a new section of Austin that I hadn't previously known about - East Austin, which is artsy and colorful and jam-packed with good restaurants and cool murals. 

So, I had fun, learned a lot, made new friends and had a great day of shooting. If you'd like to see more, friend me on Facebook.

Meetups are great ways to find people who enjoy similar interests to yourself. I am feeling very fortunate to have found a great group like the ones at Photographers Adventure Group and I look forward to more meetups with them in the future.

Happy shooting, friends!

Feel Like I've Been Through a Cyclone

Moving is Nuts! The million and one decisions, variables, games that are played and work to be done is all exhausting and insane. But, we finally made it and are beginning to see progress in our new home. Of course, it has meant that I haven't gotten a lot of photography accomplished of late, and I'm definitely behind on blogging, but I am back in the saddle and looking forward to some great, new experiences.

Check out the bold colors we decided to go with. This is my new TEAL kitchen with the TERRA COTTA Dining Room in the background. I am loving the new vibes. We hope to re-do the cabinets in the future, but for now it's a pretty nice lace to cook. Here's a view from the other side:

Our living room is still a work in progress - desperately in need of some seating, but look how we changed it.

So, I guess you can see why the blog has gone neglected. But the best part of being in Austin is being able to enjoy my new status as a Grandma:

Look, she's already a Nikon fan!

This weekend I'm planning to get serious again, as I join a group on the East Side of Austin for a Photo Walk. I'm really looking forward to it. I hope the weather is warm and the Austinite Photography Community is friendly and welcoming. Looking really forward to get those creative juices flowing again! Enough with the boxes already, let's get shooting!

Happy shooting, friends.

 I love following some wonderful photographers and teachers on a regular basis. There are so many out there filled with free, enthusiastic wisdom and challenges. Earlier this week, photographer Rick Sammon showed an image that he composited and enhanced with a NIK filter. He provided the original images and challenged folks to use those same images and create a different picture.  Here are the originals:

Go to Rick's site to see the image he crafted.  This is what I came up with by duplicating the birds, placing them a few inches away from one another and then using Nik's Color Efex Pro filter Color Contrast. Actually, I used Color Contrast twice - an accident because I was looking up the name of the filter, but I decided I liked how it popped.

Thanks Rick, for providing the challenge. It was lots of fun. Can't wait to see what others come up with.
(Check out a really cool one at Darina Boycheva )
Happy shooting!

Visiting the High Line

We were so blessed with a warm, sunny day last Saturday and I thoroughly enjoyed strolling New York City's newest attraction, the High Line, with my brilliant and successful daughter, Kiryn. A city girl who resides in Brooklyn, Kiryn loves accessing all that the Big Apple has to offer.  I am just beginning to realize that I am leaving behind many wonderful places that I have not yet experienced. But, that's what coming back and visiting will accomplish for me in the future.

Check out the High Line's website for a more organic view of what exactly it is. In a nutshell,
it's a spectacular public park built on an elevated railway along 16th- 34th streets on Manhattan’s West Side.  Their website and blog do a whole lot more about telling it's story, but I will say it was a treasure of a find and a place I would like to go back to again and again.

Brilliant daughter, Kiryn

View of the Empire State building beyond an old church

New Frank Gehry building

Even when you are packing like crazy and getting ready for a big move, it's important to take time to grab a few shots. I had a lot of fun using my new 70-200mm lens on this trip. It was a challenge because it brought things in so close, but it's great to be challenged. Good things come from it, like this.

Keep shooting, friends.  Happy trails!

Happy 2012

A New Year always brings new promise of change for the better. Here's hoping you keep up your resolutions and find the changes in your life that you seek!


As for us, those changes are coming fast and furious.  Our house is looking mighty sad as it's contents are all boxed up. Our days in New York are numbered and we are in shock as we realize the enormity of change that we are facing. While moving to Austin, Texas holds a lot of promise for new adventures (and less snow) and lots more of being in our Granddaughter's life, it also means leaving behind a lot of wonderful friends. Saying goodbye has become a daily effort and it's not getting any easier.

I thought I'd post a few pictures of Austin to remind myself of why we decided to move.

May the randomness and color of Austin fill our souls, and may you find all that you are seeing in this hopeful New Year!

Keep shooting!

Merry Christmas - Happy Holiday!

Ah - I just discovered 45 free minutes while my pecan pie bakes. I am thoroughly enjoying this holiday season as I have made time to make some presents from my heart, stop and enjoy the company of people who have been tremendously meaningful to me and take walks as often as I can (thank you weather for remaining mild) to help me ward off the abundance of sugar and unneeded calories.

Life has been hectic as we bid on a house but lost it to a higher bidder and then discovered another that is a truely lovely house, but it did require a relatively unplanned trip to Austin Texas last weekend.  All-in-all, life is good. The engineer gave it a great report and, despite the need for cosmetic surgery, I believe we will live many long and productive years in this new house.

In other news, I won Print of the Year at the Dutchess Regional Professional Photographer's annual print competition. That blew me away! There were so many gorgeous photos - I was stunned when I realized they called my name.  I feel like I've come full-circle. A few years ago I joined that group because I saw a photo in the newspaper of someone showing their award-winning photo that had just won Print of the Year and the article gave info about the group, so I joined. Now I have that kudo under my belt. Pretty cool...and yet, it's just another day and I still feel the need to go out and take better images and more compelling photos. Here's the winner:

I am really looking forward to going to Big Bend National park in March and try to capture the cactus' in bloom.  Which reminds me, I just saw an EXCELLENT movie called Desert Flower. Awesome - enlightening and frightening at the same time.

But I digress, I just wanted to take the time here to wish all my friends, followers, fellow photographers a wonderful holiday season, surrounded by good friends, good food and good photography,

Keep shooting!  And have fun!

Keeping Busy

Well, as if packing up a house isn't enough to do, my past year's worth of marketing is finally paying off. A few lucrative jobs have come up and I'm doing what I do best - photographing events. I felt "part of the family" recently when I shot a Ribbon Cutting for Nerak. Maria and Simone were so much fun to work with - they and the Nerak staff - transformed an industrial site into a warm, inviting setup for a celebratory luncheon.

Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce came out in full force for a lovely, Autumn Ribbon Cutting at Nerak.

Many people were fascinated about the conveyor belt system and the success of this German based company in our local area.

That job reminded the Vice President of Development at New York Academy of Science that I am a specialist in candid shots and getting people who are socializing to pause and smile for the camera, so she hired me for their recent Gala at Cipriani's in NYC. Close to 500 people showed up and squeezing in front of them to ask them to pose momentarily was no easy feat.  I just received an email from them telling me that they are quite pleased with the images, so all-in-all it was a successful venture.

Editing is always the challenge - whether to give the client ALL of the photos of the night or only my best picks. In the case of Nerak, they were thrilled to have all of the photos - it was like re-living a wedding.  I was a bit more selective for NYAS, getting rid of any images with closed eyes or too many backs. As a rule, though, my husband has learned to stay far away from me on editing days - I am very hard on myself and am meticulous about giving the client the very best images.

When I head out to relax, I don't always bring my big guns (lenses, that is). I generally carry my old Nikon D200 with a 24 mm lens because it is the lightest gear I've got. But it's tough looking at my finished images - they are not as tack sharp as my D700 and the better glass.  Still, it's fun to throw the old camera in my bag and be able to grab a few fun shots on the run.

My sisters and Mom in NYC last Sunday.

As Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching, I am grateful to be a photographer who is getting some nice jobs. I am thankful to have a talent that allows me to capture some of the beautiful vistas this word has to offer. And I am thankful for my wonderful family, good health and the fun of writing and sharing the great adventures I get to experience. Happy Thanksgiving, all and Keep Shooting!