Sloth Encounter - Tiger World - Charlotte, NC

Yesterday with Lauren, Adam, and Adrienne I got to go meet a baby sloth at Tiger World! His name was Nacho and he was way softer then you would imagine a sloth would be. Adrienne and I came up with this for Lauren’s birthday present and I got to say, we totally benefited from it as well. Such a cool experience. We learned a ton of things, like how sloth saliva is actually toxic- so no sloth kisses for us- and that Nacho could actually rotate his ankles around so that he could climb down a tree without shimmying down butt first!

Lauren was totally enamored and was definitely not paying attention to our guide so I was trying to look like I was to make up for it. I think we retained like 25% of what she was saying because we were all so excited. Sorry!

Tiger World is using these encounters to help build Nacho a nice warm habitat which is really awesome. We found out that 4 out of 5 of the animals at Tiger World are rescued from all over the place. It was a very neat place to visit. Highly Recommend it!

The Birthday Girl

Sloths have little hidden ears under their fur! They almost look like human ears.

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Not Another Film Post - JK It is-- Charlotte, NC

I'm forever taking photos of these kids and their dogs.  If they weren't so darned cute they wouldn't appear as much in blog posts. 

So thankful that the Hubby had such an awesome best friend so that I could steal her away from time to time and she could help me harass him when need be, or you know, for fun.  

Thanks to the The Dark Room for doing such a great job with this film!  Especially since I still have no idea, how old it was.... My bad guys. 

Monika's Headshots - Matthews, NC

Monika is almost always down for a photo adventure so when she came over looking super beautiful and with the news that she had just got hired for a new job we figured it was the perfect time to snap some new headshots for her.  Confession:  One of my favorite parts about shoots is when people drive by clearly wondering why the crazy photographer girl is in such a weird position on the ground or standing on a rock or walking backwards perilously close to the road.  You guys get the idea. 

First Day of Legal Marriage

Clint and I totally got married in a courthouse before we went on our epic jaunt to Scotland and had a ton of adventures involving Scotch and Hairy Coos. This is our first day of marriage adventure. It was pretty low-key, but it features photos in front of my favourite door (may it rest in peace), my husband's goofy hungover face, and oysters at RockSalt so who can complain?

Teal Film - Charlotte, NC

I did a fun experiment with some teal film I found at the PhotoPlus Expo a few years back.  Finally got to shoot and send it off.  It's definitely interesting.  Everyone came out as smurfs!  Lots of family beach photos and the color shift definitely came out kind of eery in those. 

Saint Patrick's Day

Had so much fun last weekend with everyone in downtown Matthews for Saint Patrick's Day!  Met some new people and spent some good time with friends. 

Like this gorgeous woman. 

Had some fun and amazing drinks with the lovely people at Stumptown Station.I love hanging out in Matthews, not only because you see so many people you know, but there's a great atmosphere throughout the whole town.  No one gets shwasted (generally) and you're not dealing with crazy, drunk, bros. 

Then we headed down to Temple Mojo and sat outside in the beautiful weather (where'd that go by the way)!

We paused to take a few photos in front of the Planet Ballroom's cool green door, where Ace got a new dog girlfriend. 

After that we bebopped on down to Seaboard (one of my favorite places in all of Matthews) and sat on the patio where Lori and Laura were trying to teach Ace to balance a goldfish on his nose.... 

Seaboard just opened their brewery! It's awesome and they already make some kick-ass beers! You should check them out!

It was so great to get all of these people together and hang out, even if we were missing my Hubby (he had a bachelor party to be at and he missed out on all our fun).

Snow Days Are The Best Days

I was able to have an awesome snow day today!  I worked on some personal projects as well as some business.  In between that,  I went on a  photo adventure with a couple of my friends. There's nothing like the world being a giant softbox to create some beautiful portraits.  Or some silly ones. And I got a quick one of my dog because dogs are amazing and he was too fast to get anything else (He's not a fan of snow). 

Lori and Ryan Engagement

Though we didn't get to drag race, we did get the strip to ourselves for the engagement. Lori was mostly in the dark especially when we got there and they had just closed because of the rain (even though we called before we left and they said they were staying open).  She did have her suspicions; apparently Ryan was acting a little more lovey dovey than normal the night before. And after she told him how cool it would have been if he proposed at the drag strip they met at (its closed since then); he said, "It would still be cool if it was another drag strip rightttt?"  Way to be subtle there Ryan.   We did convince Lori we were going to take some pictures of the truck on the strip, though I think the gig might have been up when Ryan told her to get into the pictures. 

So, Ryan and Lori met at a drag strip and eight years later Ryan asked her to marry him at another one! 

Landsford Canal State Park

Clint and I took a trip down to South Carolina this weekend to hike.  We went to Landsford Canal State Park and have plans to go back in the summer when it is not 32 degrees and we can canoe!  How I managed to get a sunburn walking through the woods in mostly shade, we may never know.  Also, as you can see from the first picture, I've got no jumps. 

Uncle Steve

A few weeks ago my uncle took my request to make me gazpacho for my Mom's birthday (which was delicious, but perhaps not the first thing my mum wanted).  So I took his request to take some handsome, head shots of him.  As well as his request to look trustworthy and not like a cranky old man.  How did I do?

PS: You should take a look at his website- sbkillion.com. He's one of the smartest people I know. 

Snowed In

I had the good fortune of getting off work early because of snow for my birthday and then I spent the next couple of days snowed in with my roommate and a couple of his friends.  There were snowball fights, board games, and booze.  We may have even pulled each other on a plastic tub's lid behind a car (safely of course). I guess after two days in an apartment together they get to be called my friends too. 

One

Two

Look at that face.

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Little Miss Muffet

For this shoot, I went up to visit a friend in Davidson and we decided it would be a perfect time to make her model for me.  She used to model all the time for me when i was just a wee Photo 1 student, so it was like old times.  We actually planned on getting up super early so we could take photos at dawn in the field by her house and at the dock.  However, we were not counting on it being completely overcast.  The dawn light was not as dynamic as we wanted it to be at all. Waking up at 4:30 am was a bust.  We continued to try to take photos though, moving on to the dock and trying to use the water as a natural reflector with no luck.  There were some alright pictures, but definitely not exactly what I was looking for.  

A nice dock picture.  Kelly got in the water and was a trooper.

We did take some nice pictures outside of Kelly's house before we went to get pictures, but definitely not the fashion editorial type we were striving for.  More of a portrait.

Kelly Portrait

We came back about five hours later when the sky had cleared and we had gotten some breakfast in us.  Good news was there was light, bad news was it was very bright light. So we worked with what we had. I ninjaed the reflector again.  At times I had it propped up with my knee and foot like I did for my Let the Wild Thing Out shoot and at other times I had it propped up between some cut down grain and my tripod or the chair we brought.

We also tried to do a nice floating picture with flowers also floating around her, but we didn't plan for it well enough, and I didn't think it out as much as I should have.  Her position was awkward for a floating pic.  All flat footed.  But we shall see.  Perhaps I will re-edit the picture and give her new feet or something.  Or perhaps we will just reshoot.

Despite these adversities, which accompany basically every shoot I should think, we ended up with some pretty nice photographs.

Prone

Check out my flickr for more photos!

And my About Me for more links and contact information.

Constructing Domesticity

I'm trying to get on an actual posting schedule.  I will! I know I will! Hopefully. Anyway, I did a shoot with my friend Rebecca the other week and it was an adventure in an of itself.

I got the idea for this shoot as soon as I realized there was a house going up on the lot next to our house.  I had Rebecca come over about an hour before the workers usually left and we got her all pretty and did her hair in little ringlets and we were ready.

The workers; however, had other ideas and it took them another hour before they all packed up to leave.  During this time, Becca, my mother, and I went out to the other side of the house to take pictures in the woods.  These did not come out as good as I would have liked them too, but it was a way to spend time.  Mum painstakingly held my reflector mad of posterboard and aluminum foil up and she was very proud of herself when she saw the results.  She told me she wanted accolades so here they are! Ha.  This little outing; however, did have the unfortunate effect of causing all of Becca's ringlets to wilt since it was about 95 degrees.  We finished taking pictures and still the workers were hammering and being on site so we were unable to sneak on the property and make beautiful art.

We went inside to cool off, wait, (have a nice beer), and spy on the workers through the window.  We made up a few stories for them to pass the time as well.   We were about halfway cooled off (done with beer) when they started packing up to head out so we got prepared, gathered up my mother, my reflector, and my camera and prepared to walk nonchalantly over.

Our plans were spoiled again! My dog made a mad dash out the door and I, my mother, and my father had to drop everything (carefully) and give chase! (Becca tried, one must give her credit, but she was in four inch heels and a dress from the fifties soooooo...)

Dekker's Pretense at Innocence

Now, you have to imagine this is the most fun Dekker has had in a while and he will not go back easily.  He dodges and weaves around me, or straight up uses his hundred and ten pound bulk to plow by me.  Needless to say, he led me on a merry chase and was only caught when he had gotten tired (he's a bit lazy) and a lovely, good samaritan neighbor helped me corner him behind a truck. He was still very proud of himself afterwards.

We walked back to Becca teetering on her heels at the end of the driveway and returned Dekker to his abode.  Then we went to take beautiful pictures.  I wanted to get up to the top floor, but stairs had not been built yet, and the ladder had been bolted to the floor.  I am not kidding, bolted!  The pictures still came out great through! Here's what we got!

I hope you enjoy them!

Here's a link to my flickr as well!

The First Studio Time

So I've been in the studio before, but never to officially shoot for myself.  I'm always either modeling or assisting or pretending that I'm not officially there to shoot for myself. A couple weeks ago Taylor and I went in for our "first" time in the studio.  Taylor and I are studio partners.  Mainly because we are awesome, but also because there is a shortage of available times to shoot in the studio.  Our assignment was to shoot our studio assistant in three different kinds of lighting, but me being me and not knowing who he was at the time, I made other arrangements as well.  Nothing big. I just asked one of my friends to show up so I could fool around a bit and take some portraits of him if possible.

Well our assistant, Phil, is a nice fellow, if a bit on the quiet side.  Taylor and I might have frightened him a bit with our sarcasm and blatantly dirty jokes.  I think he is almost used to us now.  Though I do think he believes we are very, very odd.  So here are some of the photos for the shoot.  First Phil, and then Cody.

Here is Phil lit with only a softbox.

I'm sorry if it's a bit green.  Really it looks fine on my computer.

Now Phil lit with an umbrella.

 

For Cody, I strayed from what we were supposed to do for the assignment, mainly because it was not for the assignment....

 

Well Voila!