Every expert was once a beginner

I saw this quote the other day and I really like it. It is good inspiration for me. No one starts out perfect, and when I feel overwhelmed about everything I want to learn, this is a good and calming mantra to repeat. It leads my mind to the philosophy of "Kaizen." This is a Japanese word which actually means "good change" but evolved to mean "continuous improvement" because of lack of an existing word in their language to describe this, and because of large Japanese business companies adopting "Kaizen" as a business model for continuous improvement. It is such a good philosophy for life. We don't need to go from 0 to perfect in 3.5 seconds. We're not cars! :P Whether it be weight loss, a career, school, giving up bad habits (coffee, cigarettes, junk food, etc)... continuous improvement is the key. Maybe you go a step back, but if you go two steps forward then that is progress. However, if you focus on the step back then you prevent yourself from going the two steps forward, and I think that's the most challenging part of life. But that's how success is defined - by how well you deal with life's setbacks.

I'm always practising new techniques and different ways I can photograph the world. I am always looking to learn and grow in not just photography, but everything. I really love photography because I love to make people happy. Happiness is like sunshine - bright, beautiful, and it makes the world a better place. For many years now I have been making people happy with my photography. As time went on, the amount of good shots I would produce and the amount of satisfaction people had with my photographs both increased steadily until it got to a point where everyone in my life was saying I should photograph people... so I decided to give it a go.

Now I am in a unique position where I am working part time so I have the opportunity to learn more about photography. Life is kind of funny.... for the past couple years I've had the ability to afford photography equipment but not the time to develop my photography knowledge, and now I have the time to develop my photography knowledge but not the ability to afford equipment. I find it much better to have the time instead of the money. Equipment is pretty useless if you don't have the time to figure out how to use it.

Excited to photograph this girl next weekend:

You may recognise her as Mary Beth. She has the most beautiful eyes, doesn't she? So big and beautiful! We're doing a vintage shoot... I am excited!

 

 

You can see more pictures of her here from a portrait session last year.

Portfolio Building

I am looking to build up my portfolio and thus need volunteers to photograph!

I propose a trade:

1. I benefit because you let me expand my portfolio and try out some new things as I get back into photography after my healing hiatus.
2. You benefit because I give you all of the digital photographs, free of charge. They won't all be edited, but many will.

It's an exchange of time that benefits both parties. :)

Types of photography I would like to have the opportunity to build my portfolio in (of course, not limited to these categories):

1. Senior portraits
2. Children portraiture
3. Couple portraiture

As for travel, I am based in Rutland, VT. I am willing to travel as far north as Middlebury (not deviating too much from the route 7 area) and as far south as Ludlow. You can always come to Rutland, too. :)

***North Warren/Adirondackers Take Note!***

If anyone from the North Warren area is reading this, and you know someone who has senior portraits coming up, please pass along my name! I would travel to the Lake George/Brant Lake area if I had at least 3 senior portrait sessions lined up. If you like my work and refer customers, I will give you a discount for a future session (can be passed on to friends or family).

You can check here to see my portraiture work and also samples of some senior portraits I've done.

Re-focusing

Happy Memorial Day! I am seriously thankful for all those vets and soldiers who gave their lives and continue to risk their lives to protect our freedom. I have so much respect not only for the men and women in the military, but their families as well. It can be so hard for them and I am in awe and admiration of it all.


Well clearly it's been a while since I last posted. Over a year, geez!

It's been a busy year and I finally have the free time (and energy) to get this blog going again. I had an office job doing medical coding and billing that was very time consuming and left little time to put effort into photographing, exercising, and hub-time. My last day there was March 1st, and after some time off re-learning how to relax and not be a constant stress-ball, I am ready to get back into the groove.

I actually left the job because of a work injury I developed that just wouldn't heal as long as I kept doing data entry. It started last July in my right arm, thought it healed and then it came back with a vengeance in November in both arms. Because of this injury, for a long time I wasn't even able to use my camera. The position of my hands and arms and constantly pressing the shutter was really painful. Not to mention sitting at a computer editing - also very painful! It is nothing like that anymore. I can finally type without pain, yay! The computer I had for photo-editing died a couple months ago so that was kind of bittersweet ( yay, I can take pictures again! No, I can't edit them!). But I figure I will just concentrate on learning to take good pictures the first time around so I don't need to edit them. I think one of the laptops we have may have the specs needed for one of the smaller photo-editing programs, so we'll see. :) 

My favourite Vermont town, Middlebury, on a beautiful summer's day:

(This picture is on like, every Middlebury postcard anywhere. Totally iconic.)

Virginia

Nelson and I went to Virginia recently to visit some family. Mike and Meg are always wonderful to visit, and it was great to meet Maggie and see how grown up Gwyn was! Maggie was born last April, and boy! Is she a happy girl! Gwyn was about 4 and a half, and the last time we saw her she was almost three, so she had sure grown up a lot in that time frame! It was a wonderful visit and I took some pictures of the girls while I was down there.


Here's Maggie:

Here's Gwyn, sitting nonchalantly at her picnic table.

So precious!

Maggie.

 If babies could look pensive, I think they would look like this:

Maggie makes the cutest faces!!

She's always smiling!

Gwyn at the beach with her dad and the dogs. She loves dogs.

Maggie, all smiles of course.

So Gwyn's favourite cartoon is Thundercats. She's really into the old-school version, not the remake that they've done recently. Her favourite character is Cheetarah. She loves loves Cheetarah. As much as she loves Cheetarah, she also loves pink. I'll give you one guess to the inspiration for this outfit:

Such an expressive baby!

Sisters. <3

Middlebury

I recently got a new camera for Christmas/my birthday. They're both pretty close to each other, so we combined them this year. :)

I really love my new camera! So many new things to get used to!

Naturally, I went out around Middlebury to begin fiddling around with the settings and taking test shots. Here are some of them!

I love the contrast of the vibrant red again the stark winter colours.

The wooden playground at Mary Hogan school.

Thanksgiving

I am so far behind the times. I am still catching up on photos I took in November .... yeesh!

So for Thanksgiving, my husband and I went down to Connecticut to celebrate with him family. We stayed with his Grandmother and spent Thanksgiving afternoon and night with his Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. It was a fantastic time. We went to Hammonasset State Park while we were there and I took pictures of the sunset again.

This is a picture of one of the buildings on the beach, before you actually get to the beach. It is a puddle and the building. I love taking pictures of puddles.

It was definitely reminiscent of a wintry sunset.

A couple of people were out walking their dog.

Pretty clouds...

This is one of my favourites...

Nelson and I...

Another one of my favourites...

I love how the pink sky is absorbed into everything.

Beautiful colours...

Reflection in a puddle...