2010

It has been quite the year! Our youngest was born at the close of 2009 and we have had a fun ride with a little one in the house again. Being older this time around we are really enjoying the baby and in no rush for her to grow up...

Launching my new business Rustic Photography has been a scary and exciting venture. From naming my company to my first photo shoot, I have really had fun learning, meeting people and developing my own style. I am certain it will be a process from now to the end with changing styles, progression and whimsy.

Every family brings something unique to a photo shoot and trying to capture that personality and spirit is what I strive to do. I never want to get stale with the stick the family on a rock or in front of a white backdrop. I want to be creative and clever when photographing people.

It isn't always easy, little ones are a lot of fun AND a lot of work to wrangle. Thankfully I have years of experience as a cowgirl and corraling kids is part of the fun and excitement. Although sometimes a wild one gets the better of me (usually my nephew! LOL)

I look forward to progressing my business, improving my skills and starting to sell my own prints, metal art, cards and more in 2011!

Addy & Carter

Kind of hard to take a bad photo of these gorgeous kids I got to photograph last week!

Before and after

 

Two year olds

Today I had the fun chance to photograph my niece who just turned two! What a fun morning we had playing in the barn, climbing ladders and playing on the tractor. Could I have a more beautiful subject to photograph? Boy does she look like her daddy when he was a little boy.

We had fun sliding down the car ramps, playing on the tractor, climbing the old corral fences... it was a great day playing around, oh yeah, and capturing her precious two year old spirit. CHEEESE!

You can fix a plain picture

Many of the pictures we take are just plain. The lighting may be bad or there might be a distracting background. Even these pictures can be fixed by trying some fun techniques. Here is a photo taken of my beautiful niece. I didn't take this picture, but noticed how sweet her little face looked when perusing through my sister in laws pictures. I decided to play around with Adobe Photoshop which is how I am slowly learning this program. Don't be intimidated by Photoshop, it's an amazing program. I am only beginning to learn some of the ins and outs of PS4!

Before:

First, I cropped the picture in closer around her sweet face. I use many of The Pioneer Womans actions (which she offers two sets in a free download on her Photography page). I lightened the picture, used bring out the eyes and used "sharpen this" around her eyes and face. Finally I used poster edges to give this picture a funky painting look.



Rustic

When decided what to name my fledgling photography business, I kept coming back to one word: rustic. It pretty much sums up me and my life. I live in the country, always have. I like old things. I prefer a worn old table to a new one. When it comes to my photographs, I like my pictures more natural, earthy.... well, rustic!

While many have their great talents and abilities with props and backgrounds, I have always gravitated toward natural light and beauty. So when I kept coming back to the word rustic, which virtually describes most elements of my life, I looked the word up.

Definition of RUSTIC http://dictionary.weather.net/dictionary/rustic

Rustic (adjective)

1: of, relating to, or suitable for the country : rural <rustic rolling farmland>

2: a: made of the rough limbs of trees <rustic furniture> b: finished by rusticating <a rustic joint in masonry>

3: a: characteristic of or resembling country people b: lacking in social graces or polish

4: appropriate to the country (as in plainness or sturdiness) <heavy rustic boots>

Rustic (noun)

1: an inhabitant of a rural area

2: a: an awkward coarse person b : an unsophisticated rural person

Yup, that's me in a nutshell.... rustic. I have tried to work on the social graces and polish a bit.

Bring your camera ding dong

I am a slow learner, it takes dozens of mistakes before I clue in and make the changes necessary. I go up to our ranch regularly to feed cows, check cows, meet the tree trimmers, escape for a day of solitude (shhhh, don't tell anyone), whathaveyou.. I never know what I might come across up at the ranch. I have learned over the years that if I don't bring my camera, I will most certainly come across something amazing or exciting. Because of my failure to bring my good camera, I have taken lots of really bad photos over the years with my iPhone or my old beater camera. Occasionally I have had the wherewithal to bring my camera only to discover a key component like a battery or memory card is at home on my desk.



I have bumped into pigs, cats big and small, deer and even a bear. I have never been very lucky with my camera and photographing the wildlife I come across. I have really bad blurry photos of all sorts things.



Never have I been so disappointed as last spring when I was working up at the ranch. I was closing up the gate to the hay barn and out of the corner of my eye I see a bird fly. So I look up and the bird has landed on the telephone pole about 30 feet up and just a few feet from me. As I focus my aging eyes I realize, holy crap, it's a bald eagle. Not only is it a bald eagle, which are a spectacle to see in these parts, it is holding what appears to be a 2-3lb large mouth bass in its talons. I grab the only camera I had, which was my iPhone 3G and snap a couple photos and the eagle flies off. When I got home I uploaded my pictures and did everything I could to salvage the missed opportunity. It was a definitely lost moment because I captured a blur of a bird holding something. If only I had my good camera with the zoom lens locked and loaded I could have captured this never to be repeated opportunity I had.



 I will keep trying, although wildlife photography is definitely not my forte, I can only improve! If I can remember to take my camera, make sure the batteries are charged and the memory card is loaded and be ready to shoot, I will have a better chance of improving. What amazing photo opportunities have you blown?