Carpe Diem

About a year ago I was working on a project for my Color Theory class and drove by an amazing old barn. I thought, “I have to use this somehow.” The next day I went back and had a magic moment; I captured one of my favorite images.

Look familiar?

This was the most beautiful barn ever. It was ragged and the paint was stripping off the sides. I had big hopes for taking people out there and doing some surreal portraits. But when I drove by a week ago my heart sunk. This is what the barn looks like now.

While I might not have gotten around to shooting there a second time; I’m so happy I was able to get the image I did. One of the best and worst things about photography is that you are capturing a brief moment in time. No two images are ever the same. You can try your best to recreate a photograph, but it can never be exactly duplicated. As photographers we have to learn to capture the moment while it’s there.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is widely known for his photographs that seem to capture the moment that we miss when we blink; he called this the “decisive moment”. Here is one of my favorite photographs of Cartier-Bresson:

Every photographer longs to perfect this art, myself included. When I saw that my pretty old barn had been “revamped” for more practical use I realized that I need to take advantage of every situation. I had planned to take more photos in front of the barn, but procrastination got the best of me.

From here on out I will be better about taking advantage of time. I don’t want to have another missed opportunity. And who knows, maybe I will channel Henri and capture a moment in between moments…

There is a new week ahead and I’ve got some diem to carpe!

"I am the way"

One of my favorite things in the world is waking up to the sound of rain.  Even though I have to head off to work in a half hour or so, I can't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside.  Maybe it's the rain, maybe it's the extra hour of sleeping in... either way I feel good!   :)

Yesterday morning, before the sun was even up, I found myself standing in the middle of Fair Oaks Blvd.  I was finishing work on a set of pictures for my brother-from-another-mother, Danny, for a church's youth room where he works.  It was such a beautiful morning to finish up this project, the light was amazing and the fall colors of the trees was gorgeous!  I felt like the world was smiling at me.

Danny, if you're reading this, thanks for taking a chance on me!

Here are a few of my favorites from the series:

Drought

These past two weeks have not been kind to me. I can’t seem to get out of this creative slump. I’m working on some pictures for a friend and I’m just not happy with the results so far.

Today I decided that maybe I just need to force myself out of this rut. I’m hoping that taking my frustrations out on fruit with a steady stream of Marcy Playground will do the trick.

Lately I've been addicted to kiwis.  

I liked it in black and white, too.

It's finally pomegranate season!

Have a good weekend, friends!

It's Official!

My business cards have arrived :)
I finally sat down, finalized my design, made some touch ups, and put in my order.  And now they are here!!!  I feel so official and I can not wait to give them out when people ask about my photography.  Here are what they look like, though a lot smaller of course:

Happy happy day!

World's Largest Corn Maze

There is a mountain of clean laundry that is calling at me to fold it, but I would rather put up my pictures from today.  We got up early, went out to breakfast and drove out to Dixon to once again tackle the world's largest corn maze.  Our first visit to this corn maze was two years ago (it wasn't open last year due to damage from high winds) and we made the mistake of going close to Halloween and in the afternoon.  Today, we got there 20 minutes after it opened in the morning.  We were the 3rd car there and it's a good thing because when we left it was packed.  The first time we did the corn maze we kept getting stuck behind other groups, but this year we only ran into people once, and it was kind of weird.  We saw them coming from another direction and they ended up a good 30 yards behind us.  We were goofing around and started power walking to gain some more distance, but they were professional power walkers because before we knew it, they were tailgating us.  We stepped to the side and they didn't hesitate at all to pass right on by.  We aren't even sure they looked up from their maps.  After we finished the maze we went and picked out a couple of pumpkins.  Perfect pumpkins are hard to find, but we did our best and are pretty happy with our choices.  I haven't decided what to carve into mine just yet, but there will definitely be pictures in the future. 

Here are some of the shots I took today.  Though, I do have to say it is hard to take photos and not get lost in a corn maze.  So there might not be as many pictures as I had wanted there to be but oh well.  I think AJ got tired of having to wait for me :)

The corn was so tall this year!

Creepy caterpillar. 

An ear of corn that had all sorts of problems going on with it.

Look at how crazy this corn maze is.  Can you imagine doing it without a map?  Or at night?

Self timer  :) 

Happy October!!!!



Very Good, Young Grasshoppa

The other night I was sweeping the patio and I was nearly killed by this guy. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots. Then he started drooling and turned and looked at me. Pretty sure he was rabid and threatening me, so I might have screamed and ran inside.... AJ thought my near death experience was funny. Me, not so much. At least I got this shot out of it.

Only 2 days til the weekend!  Woohoo!

Feeling bold? Click the 'Follow' button...I dare you. 

Raspberries

These things were so huge I couldn't help it!

And then I ate them all... a whole box of 'em.

Tummy happy