teddy

cacophony

this is from a the Art Cacophony from last night, one of the exercises to play out community, everyone in the conference created their own little house and they put them all together to form a little community

performance

casey and the band playing at winter youth! I'm having a wonderful time resting up here, and listening to amazing music of course :)

learning curve

so since i'm up here at this conference, one thing i've been doing all day (while everyone else is at practice or sound checking) is finally taking the time to learn more about my new flash. How to use it has been a big one, but also cool technique and stripped down techniques for when you don't have much gear (like this weekend for instance). So i've been reading a ton from my favorite lighting blog (http://www.strobist.com)

so today's experiment was with balancing flash with ambient light (lamps, windows, etc.)

first subject is our hotel room chair
pic #1 only lit by ambient light from the stand up lamp. If someone were sitting in this chair and leaning toward me, their face would be mostly shadowed.

pic#2 then adds a flash balanced with the ambient light so it looks as if it is just ambient light lighting your subject. The flash is at 1/4 power bouncing off the white bed sheet hanging over the bed camera left (see the shadow now strikes on the right side of the chair)

this next shot i scooted back on the floor and bounced the flash off the ceiling so you get an even light as if there was a big ceiling fixture (notice no shadow on the right of the chair, and now you can see a bit of the bed sheet i bounced the first flash off of)
next set is my coffee cup placed on this laptop (lets hope casey doesn't see these!)
pic #1 the cup and computer are lit only by the desk lamp to the right of and slightly behind them. You can see where the shadow of the cup falls and that most of the cup itself is in shadow.

Pic #2 then i add a flash balanced with the light from the lamp (even though in this shot you can't see the lamp). This flash is bouncing off the ceiling this time and at 1/16 power. Most of the light is coming from the flash bounce from the ceiling as you can see the shadow cast from the rim of the cup. But you can see it is still picking up a little lamp light at the right side of the cup is less shadowed then the left.
i also used quite a few custom white balance tricks to match the colors of the white flash and the yellowish lamps, my dad will be proud

anyway i hope you all liked the learning lesson today, i know i learned a lot :)
and now you can see what i like to do when i am away from work and home and all responsibility!

Christmas crazy head

i havn't been able to post very solidly lately because of the craziness going on around me the last week and a half. I was working a ton because all my staff took time off for Christmas and then besides work i was directing a children's Christmas pageant! But thankfully much of the stressful craziness is behind and the restful craziness is still to be had! Casey and i are up in portland at the CBNW Winter Youth conference, he's leading worship and i am getting a much needed 4 day vacation equipped with a very amazingly comfy hotel room bed and lots of free food and good company.

Anyways, back to the pictures.... Since i just have casey's laptop up here i don't have a lot of my pictures to share, but i did think i could share one of the pics i made for casey's Christmas present. We gave out of what we've been given this year... he learned one of my favorite songs and played it for me and i framed some pretty pictures of his favorite subject (har har har!)

this i one of two, and my personal fav b/c of how the edit turned out



thats all for now... if you are lucky i might post some pics of the band/conference while we're up here

Ugly Sweater Christmas Shoot

so this is a funny story.... we were taking our corny ugly sweater pictures and this guy walking by asks his dog (yes, talks to his dog but not to us) if the dog wants to be in a picture. Then he walks over and holds him/it (?) up into the frame, i get the shot, and the guy (and pup) casually walk away without saying a word to us! It was hilarious!

The notorious...

....eric nordby

piano men

eric and tyler nordby, taken while we were doing a shoot for a brother picture for their mom's christmas present. Go advent conspiracy!

Tostberg's

family portrait shoot from yesterday, they are such a beautiful family!

Baby Evan

after far too long of not hanging out, i got to spend some time with amanda on saturday afternoon. During that time i also got some photo time with baby evan, he just oozes cuteness!

double whammy

i just love these photos of casey so i thought i'd share both today. They're just so funky

the great laugh

this photo just makes me happy when i look at it. Her smile is contagious :)

little red

i dont know about you but i think val is one of the most beautiful women i know... thanks for letting me take your picture val!

glass in hand

we had an impromptu photo shoot with all the girls after tribe last night. This is one of the many super fun shots i got, thanks to the girls willingness to play, and laugh... a lot!

feeling refreshed

so i'm back, i was feeling a little bogged down with the blogging everyday obligation, its tough with my current crazy schedule, but i am still taking pictures like crazy. From here on out i might miss a day or two between postings, but i'm ok with that. because I'm still loving photography and practicing constantly.

Today i am very proud to introduce this picture... It is my first work with strobe flash, and i'm beyond excited about it. I ordered some studio lighting equip last week and it just arrived yesterday so i have been blissfully playing with it. Last night when i got home from work the package was on my doorstep and i ripped it open and set it up immediately, then made casey sit and be my muse for quite a while, he is such a supportive hubby!

There are many from last night that i love, but this was definitely my favorite.
Let me know what you think!

1,2,3, break!

I'm taking a break from photo posting for a couple of days to relax and restore my creative juices. I'm feeling a little drained. see you next week!

might as well..

I liked the first one so i thought i'd just keep on goin... :)

Wine-o

todays creation: as i was drinking [this] glass of wine and wondering what i should take pictures of today...

Jack's Birthday!

I know this is out of order (jack's b-day was last mo.) but i was just looking through my pictures and remembered that i never posted anything about Jack's Birthday :(
The sweet little man turned 1 on november 11th. He's the coolest nephew a girl could ever ask for!