Kaitlyn, Senior 2013

Kaitlyn really rocked her session! She was such a trooper too, because it was really cold and she just grinned and bared it. Haha. And look how beautiful she looks in spite of it!

Blake

It's a good day for me when a senior reminds me of a character from one of my favorite TV shows! Haha! In this instance, it was the awesome senior Blake. He had the soft-spoken, friendly, kind-hearted, and creative nature I see in the character Drew, from the show Parenthood. Parenthood is one of my Top 5 favorite shows (and that's saying something, because I have a LOT of favorite shows...), so this link was really awesome for me.

Blake is a sweet, mature, and handsome senior and I was so blessed to be able to take his pictures.

Seniors that are Doctor Who fans? Best session ever.

Joanna showed up at my house at 8 AM to have her hair and makeup done (which turned out beautifully... if I may say so myself) before her senior session. I already knew I'd like this girl because she was sweet, innocent, totally adorable, and super friendly. But it wasn't until she noticed the TARDIS mug on my coffee table that I was sure this would be one of my favorite sessions. I pretty much feel instantly connected to anyone else who watches Doctor Who (one of my all-time favorite TV shows). So you can understand my excitement, ha.


She was so easy to photograph because her easy and friendly nature really helped her to open up to the camera without much uncomfortableness.

Her personality really shined through the whole session.

And her fashion sense is superb!

Literature vs. Photography

It has been absolutely way too long since I last posted, and trust me, I'm completely aware of it. For the past month my life has been substantially full of schoolwork and picture editing and working out and photo shoots and reading. Have I mentioned how much I love to read? It's like breathing for me, or eating cake. It's a given, it's second nature, it's an insatiable hunger.

I know that "books" do not fall under the category of "photography" and that this blog is supposed to be photography-themed, seeing as it's linked to my photography website... but given that none of my current shoots are finished being edited yet and there's nothing better to discuss and I haven't posted anything in a month, this is better than nothing, right? Or am I deluding myself that anyone would want to read the ramblings of an addicted reader turned aspiring writer turned professional photographer? Eh, oh well. If you find the rule that says a photographer can only blog about photography or a writer only about books, let me know.

My life is actually kind of split down the middle by my love of literature and my love of photography (not to mention all of those hairline fractures caused by my other loves like tv, crafting, and art). I find myself often having to choose between the two: Should I edit these pictures, or can I take a little time out to work on writing my novel? Should I schedule that photo shoot for my morning off, or leave it open so I can spend the morning reading in bed? And I find myself very, very often voting in favor of photography. Not because I love it more, but because of an obligation. An obligation not only to myself to finish what I'd started, but to my clients as well, who deserve a finished product that I threw my entire self into. They deserve what they paid for - a beautiful product that I created for them from heart and hope, something unique, special, and not something half-baked because I was too busy engrossed in a novel or wrapped up in the book in my head to see their order to the end. So photography comes first, every time.

But this week, it's been a little different. Nothing super pressing was in the way, and I had a few bouts of unscheduled time with which I could attempt to finish the book I'd started weeks ago (a stellar and heartbreaking novel called Handle With Care, by Jodi Picoult). And just like every time I finish reading a particularly stunning book, it left me feeling... well, empty, for lack of a better word. Void, broken, ashamed. Ashamed because I have known since the age of eight that the one thing I wanted to accomplish in this world, the one thing I want to have done before I die... is write. And not just write, but write for the world. Get a book published. Give the world my voice. I want to be heard, like anyone else. But more than that... I want to make people feel.

I want to make people feel how I did when reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. How I felt when I read The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, Stay by Deb Caletti, Paper Towns by John Green, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, and most recently, how I felt when I read Handle With Care.

...But saying you are going to do something and actually accomplishing it are two entirely different things.

And I'm sure most of you know what it's like to grow up determined to do something with your life, then suddenly it's ten years later and you ARE grown up, and you look behind you and the path you followed is not at all the one you intended to take. I'm 20 years old and I'm a professional photographer living by herself and working a desk job during the day to support herself while she goes to night classes for her photography degree at the community college. Do you know where I thought I'd be now, just a few short years ago?

I thought I'd have spit out not one, but several books by now. I thought I'd be published, and a third of the way through college to become an editor. I thought I'd have met someone special by now. I thought this, I thought that. But what you think is going to happen to you is never actually what does, is it?

But despite all of this, I'm not really unhappy with the way things turned out. Sure, like anyone, I might have changed a right turn to a left here or there, I might have forced myself to be more diligent when it came to my writing, I might have this, I might have that. But if I'd become engrossed in the idea of becoming an author and an editor, I may have never discovered the magic of photography.

There is more than one way to capture beauty and make it immortal. You can write about it, you can sing about it, you can paint it, you can dream it... or you can photograph it. While I will never give up on the notion that I will never capture beauty as well as I do it with words, I cannot deny that I've found new faith in the timelessness of photography. How can I? On the one hand, writing about life is as inextricably linked with magic as one can get. But on the other hand, photography... well, with photography, you can see the magic. You don't have to imagine it. It's real, it's right there in front of you. Photography opens up an entire new world of possibilities for me.

So maybe I'm not where I thought I'd be. Maybe this life is not the life I would have chosen in a line-up a few years ago. But somehow, I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be. And maybe sometimes, just sometimes, reality is much better than fiction will ever be.

How to Apply Makeup For Professional Photos

Hey, lovers. A few things about this video: It’s super long. My apologies. (It was over an hour long - I shortened it to just over 17 minutes. You can imagine how long that took me.) Also, it was really fun to make. If you watch closely you can see some of the tiny parts of us laughing and making funny faces and noises that I wasn’t able to edit out. (P.S. Bloopers video later??) Also, Christina convinced me that because of the hilarity of the random cup of tea that I held in my first video that never moved, I should have a recurring theme in my videos of me holding unrelated objects - which explains the completely random pumpkin. Another thing, the color and lighting are really wanky because I don’t know how to leave well enough alone and tried to fix them, then when I realized I didn’t like it, I was too lazy to undo it - so I just applied it to the rest of the video. Leave me alone, I’m a photographer, not a movie maker! Last thing, there’s a bunch of bits where the video goes all wild and tries to tell you the future or remind you of the past when it glitches with tiny pieces of other parts of the video. It’s the ghosts, man, I tell you. It’s the ghosts.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_YvYKKLItI

How to Look Good in Photographs

I've decided to start a series of weekly video posts called What's Up Wednesdays. I'm really looking forward to this and I hope that it will be very beneficial to my clients AND other photographers.

This is the first episode! :)

When in cemeteries...

My best friend Christina and I share an appreciation of the unknown. So the other day when we went out before sunrise to attempt to get sunrise silhouette pictures (unfortunately we were unable because of the cloud cover), we somehow wound up taking pictures in a cemetery. These are the adventures of two women fascinated by alternate worlds. (All photos of me courtesy of Christina Morris.)