Like I was partial to the last model, (Melanie), because of her Naughty Monkey shoes...I am also partial to this model because of her name. Kennedy. Yes, she has my daughter's name. We spell our gorgeous girls name this way...KENIDI...but it is all the same name. And I love it. Meet Kennedy. She was our 2nd live model for our downtown Chicago Photography shoot. Can anyone say "Beautiful?" This girl was 6'3" with her heels on and boy did she have some legs. Legs that most women only dream of. Kennedy's personality was a bit more stoic but she ROCKED her shoot just like Melanie did. The images above and below are proof...
At one point, I asked Kenidi to climb up on top of this bridge ledge (shown above). Yes, she had high heels on and yes...she did it - like a pro. She had a very short mini skirt style dress on and she got right up there like she had done this a million and one times. I love how the urban-esque back drop seeped from this image. Her fancy dress with the rust and dirt from the bridge behind her made my heart skip a beat. She was a natural!
Every which way she turned...the girl had automatic catch lights in her beautiful brown eyes (as shown above). Stunning!
Her teeth were white as snow. Gorgeous!
She really worked that "stoic" look. I had never seen anything like it...
Keep in mind...there were people all over the place around us. We were downtown on the river. For every 10 people, there were another 100. She took this session and kicked its heiney - acting as if she was the only one around. People were staring, men were gawking...it was all out chaos. However, you would have never guessed it by her demeanor in these images.
Next up, our instructor (shown in the white hat above), whipped out her pocket wizards and allowed us to use our flashes with them. I am a natural light photographer but it was waaayyyy fun to experiment with the flash, the pocket wizards, and even the gels. The gels she used were cool. If you notice, she has a blue one held over her flash in the image above. Take a good glance at that image. Notice how bright it is - still daylight out? Now look at the images below and see how the flash and the gels alter the image and give it a very "drama driven" look. Almost like it is night time. The gels are a fun tool for Senior style portraits.
The flash set up was a powerful tool to learn. I loved every second of it. It will really come in handy this winter here in Indy. (while having to shoot indoors) That is unless we decide to pack up and move our butts to Florida soon. If that is the case, I won't need an indoor studio during the winter. We can just rock out beach sessions all day long - all year long. Hummmm???? Sounds good, eh? I'm thinking so too. We were supposed to be there - at the beach this past weekend for a long Labor Day weekend get-a-way. However, life called and we stayed home. I missed being there. Missed my beach B/F/F's. Missed sugaring my toes in the sand. Missed listening to Kenidi and Brennen crack up while playing at the shore line. I guess I'll just have to wait till' next month - over Fall break - before I can smell the sea face to face again. God knows I need the beach and its solace now more then anything. However, "home" is more important then there right now. I know it is waiting on me. Waiting on our return come October 21st. The ocean is ready to help me reset, regroup, refocus. Until then, I'm pretending as though I'm already there.
I had so much fun at this workshop. I learned a ton and will put all of it to good use in the coming months. Again, a huge thanks to the live models (Kennedy and Melanie) as well as to our instructor, Debbie. We walked away with a wealth of information due to this experience. What an awesome opportunity it was!!!
For now, I'm off to finish my day. Errands, errands, and more errands. My to do list is growing by leaps and bounds. Story of my life. Hope all of you are enjoying this gorgeous Thursday. xoxo, Angie
Gosh, I don't even know where to begin with these shots. I spent the last 4 days pouring over them and attempting to organize them all the best way possible for the blog. (to show you guys) In other words, I'm overwhelmed. Ha ha! After over 600 and something shots, I don't know what to show and what not to. They are all starting to run together now. Either way, I thought I'd share this shoot first. I'm going to break the images up shoot by shoot. This particular one was actually the last of the 5 shoots that we did together out of the 3 days I was there. It was by far one of my favorites though because it was one of two urban shoots that we did. Therefore, we went to downtown Indianapolis and Leah shared some really cool locations with me that I can't wait to use again someday as another backdrop. I'm all about the funky, urban, out of the box, backgrounds. Very cool! This first set of images was done at an old abandoned train depot in a not so great part of Indy. However, the location was a photographers dream. I loved it. This first round of images are all of a model that is a client of Leah's. She had shot her before. The Mother of this young girl was kind enough to allow us to use her again for a practice shoot so that I could have hands on experience.
Needless to say, as you will tell by her "look" in these images, this little gal made my job very easy and very fun. She was full of personality and I loved working with her. I'm leaving out names for security purposes but hope you will enjoy her personality via these images as much as I did by way of meeting her in person. What a doll!
This shot above and below was taken in a different area of town. Still loads of fun with great old, worn out, back drops. LOVE THEM! We even had some goofy fun in front of the camera during parts of our session. This one below is just a small example of that...
She really was a natural in front of the camera. And beings that I am a sunglasses kind of girl, I loved her "shades."
This shot below is one of my favorites of the whole shoot. It was a candid moment when she didn't realize that I was still shooting. It was just her being "her." I am not one for "posed" images if we can keep from it. Posing really isn't my style and I will avoid it at all costs. I'm all about capturing what the camera picks up in those in between moments. This shot below is a perfect example of that.
Leah was teaching me back lighting in these shots above and below. That was a lot of fun. Love the way the lighting is hitting her here in this alley.
And below...we are back at the abandoned train depot. Again, she really was a breeze at this...
Because I am so used to taking product shots for my AGD line, I am used to getting in close and tight. However, Leah taught me that I need to train myself to start backing up a bit so that I can produce images which will be conducive to wall canvases. In order for an image to work for a wall canvas (should the client want to order one), you have to have enough room at the top, bottom, and sides to "wrap" it. Therefore, you can't get in so tight that you end up wrapping their head, lower body, etc. So...I really had to work hard at retraining how my eye sees things in the view finder. Stepping back and leaving room was tough for me but I managed to pull it off on some of them.
We even pulled a quick stunt with her and stuck her out in the middle of the street as cars were coming and going to get this shot below...
And finally...another fav of mine that was just for fun...a shot of her at the depot in front of some graffiti that was already there. No, I didn't add this to the picture. The word "MISBEHAVE" was there for us on the brick when we arrived. Too fun!
These are just a handful of the shots I took of her during that session. There are a ton more but too many to post here of course. She was an absolute sweetheart and so were her Mom and Grandma that came along to watch. A huge thanks to them for allowing me to practice on such a beautiful subject. :) Stay tuned for the other 4 sessions of the 3 other people. They are coming. It's just taking me a long time to get thru all of the images. And no...still no calibration kit yet. Ha ha!
Should you have a need for an "urban" session, call or email me and we'll get you or your family scheduled. I'd love to work with you. xoxo, Angie
Well, first off...I MUST, MUST, MUST start off by telling all of you thank you so very much for your incredible compliments regarding our kitchen/home in the post below. I was overwhelmed at the amount of blog comments, private emails, new facebook and twitter friends, etc. that came in off of Kelly's "Show us your home" blog tour. You guys are beyond sweet and paid way too many undeserving compliments on things like my decorating and such. I love all of the new "friends" I've met off this post. Kelly's blog alone drove over 1000 new hits to my site in a day and over the past 3 days is just unbelievable. I must thank Kelly herself for the fun and for getting this blog tour going. She'll be featuring different rooms in the home in the coming weeks. She has announced that this coming Friday will be 'living rooms.' I hope to try and participate in that one as well even though I'll be out of town. I might try to schedule an update to automatically post for that event while I'm away.
I also have to thank fellow bloggers such as Edie (life in grace), Rhoda, (Southern Hospitality), and Susie Harris (Bienvenue) for their sweet comments and compliments on my blog as well. They along with Kelly drove more traffic to my blog. When I saw their comments come thru, I about fainted. Literally. Yes, I was blog star struck! Along with Kelly herself, these three women are like true celebrities in the blog world. Talk about talent...these women combined have more talent in their pinky fingers than I would in my entire lifetime. They are amazing at decorating and crafting. Fierce forces to be reckoned with! You women made my day with all of your visits and your compliments. I'm so thankful to have had you here and am officially stalking each of you. Ha ha! And Susie Harris, Yes...I'd be honored to be a guest blogger for your blog girl. What a privilege that would be. Anytime sista' - anytime. You just say the word! For now, I must pick myself up off the floor and refrain from looking and acting like such a "groupie" for all of these amazing women. They are going to end up filing restraining orders against me eventually - you watch. Wink wink! ;)
So tonight...I wanted to share these images of some of my glass bottles within our home. I had several of you email me within the last few days asking me about my love for glass vintage bottles. (mentioned in one of my posts below) A few of you were wondering what I meant by "vintage glass bottles" and asked for me to share pictures of a few of them. Not a problem!
These are a few of my favorite bottles because they house some of the best beach accessories on top of them. Each bottle was an older bottle that carries a story with it. I love the shell, starfish, and sand dollar that are housed on these. They are the epitome' of my love for the beach. The shell bottle even has some sand inside it. You can no longer open these bottles because they are sealed closed with the toppers on the caps. They are made more for looks and to accessorize with.
I keep this particular trio of bottles on our hearth room mantle - just above our fireplace. They go best in here because of their coloring and because of the other beach related items I have in this particular room. Oh...and have I mentioned how much I love my 50mm 1.4 lens when photographing still images such as these? LLUURRVVVEEE it! The sharp, crisp, image that it produces is just amazing. Not to mention the "bokeh!" Don't even get me started on the bokeh it produces. WHEW WEE! I believe I've died and gone to heaven.
On other related notes, Kenidi got the clear from her pediatrician today to fly this week. As most of you know, we are flying out Thursday morning and I was fearful that her ears wouldn't be clear enough in time to put her on that flight. Thankfully the doc thinks that she is good to go. I had him check Brennen's ears though because he has a deep chest cough going on and oddly enough, his left ear was inflamed they said. He told me to give him some sudafed and mucinex in hopes of drying up anything that is trying to transpire in there before we leave. Please keep him in your prayers for a painless flight. He says that his ears are fine and haven't bothered him one bit. I'm hopeful that it is the tail end of something he never even realized was there.
Secondly, I just have to send a HUGE congratulations out to Kenidi's teacher, Mrs. Alison, on the birth of her new baby girl. Ironically, she had her baby on Brent's birthday - April 28th. She wasn't due until the end of May but apparently she decided to come early. Brent is pretty stoked that she made her grand appearance on his birthday. I think his words were something like..."Important people are born on important days like April 28th." Ha ha! We are so excited for her teacher and their family. Baby and Mom are home and resting well after a long labor that ultimately lead to a c-section. Both are perfectly healthy though. What a praise! And let me just tell you that she is STUNNING! I can't wait to pass off a little something from Kenidi to her. You know...one diva to anotha'! Ha ha! CONGRATS Alison!
It's currently 6:05pm here in Indiana and I must sign off for now. I've got suitcases to pull out and begin stuffing. You know I'm good at the stuffing part. Just ask the baggage claim guys who pick up our suitcases and put them on/off the planes. I'm way behind on my to-do list after a fun weekend spent with Brent and the kids this past weekend. Until the next update...enjoy your Monday evening. We'll be routing for Melissa to dance on Dancing with the stars tonight. How about you? Poor thing - fractured ribs - that has to be painful! I'm pulling for her to win the whole thing so I sure hope she can overcome! xoxoxo, Angie
