l o j o d a n i p h o t o g r a p h y

Because I am totally broke this year, I will not be buying Christmas presents for people. I have instead decided to put together photobooks and let people order them if they want. Think of it as a discount.  While I was out with the family today, I saw people already doing their Christmas shopping.  The consumerism around holidays has always driven me crazy. This year, I want my holidays to be calm and enjoyable.  No holiday bustle for me.

On another note, have I ever mentioned in this blog how much I love black and white photography. Well I do.  For the next week, I am going to only take black and white photography.  Let’s see what happens.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love going through all of my photographs on the computer, and post-processing can be a blast. I really wish it didn’t take 10 hours every time I did it.  I don’t know how I am going to take a photograph and post it every day for a year.  It just takes me so long to go through them all. I did finish the photographs from the photo-walk.  It turns out there were not too many of those.  However, I do have this one of my brother. I also have a ton of photographs I took yesterday.  Since it is Friday, I am going to post two photographs today.  So here is my favorite from yesterday.

How’s that for popular art. Yes, I have painted leaves in my yard.  The cable guys decided it would be a good idea to run spray paint lines through our yard.  They just happened to make me some colorful leaves and excellent photography subjects. I just could not get enough of these. So, expect more rainbow leaves.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, I will be awfully busy. I will also have tons of opportunities to take new photographs. I always get excited at this time of year.  The world of photography is just as exciting around the holidays as the real world is.

With a new year approaching quickly I want to make plans for my photography.  I will be moving to Athens and hoping to get a job.  I am really praying that God provides me with the opportunity to be a photographer’s assistant or to work in a photography studio.  I will also be starting a photography challenge of my own at the beginning of the year.  I want to embark on the 365 project.  This will be extremely difficult for me, because I hate to be in pictures. I prefer to be behind the camera, not in front of it.  Hopefully this will push my photography to a new level.  I also want to take a still-life that goes along with the self-portrait each day. Until then, I will just keep practicing and get in the habit of taking photographs every day.

The photograph is not from the photo-walk I went on with my brother. I am going to be uploading those today. Here goes about 10 hours of work.

So I am often confused about the consensus on camera flare. Some of my favorite photographs, like this one, include camera flare. However, I always read that photographers are trying to reduce flair.  Then I remembered that photography is an art and not a science.  Just like noise in a photograph can be an artistic element or a deterrence, so can flair from the light.

So if you are trying for that perfect flair that complements your photograph instead of distracting from it, how do you get it? Because this one was caused by accident, I can only guess how it was achieved.  This photograph was taken in the late morning near 11:00 am.  The sun was actually behind the tree, but high enough to not cause a silhouette.

I am just glad that I was fortunate to have such a great photograph.

I did go on a photography-walk with my little brother today.  Unfortunately here in rainforest, GA it was of course not very dry outside.  I am so uptight about my camera, that I did have a hard time taking it out on the walk.  Hopefully I will be posting one of those photographs tomorrow.

I decided to go out to my side yard and take photographs yesterday. I put on an old pair of jeans and sweatshirt.  I got down on the ground and shot away.  I ended up spending about 2 hours outside that felt like 20 minutes.  It went way too quickly.

Some things I learned about backyard photography:

• get down on the ground – I haven’t been that close to the ground since I was a baby learning to crawl.  It is amazing how much of a whole different world is out there.
• turn around – I started out on the edge of a patch of woods.  However, when I turned around and looked the yard covered with leaves behind me, I got some of my favorite shots.
• move a leaf – There are some plants and animals that will not grow out in the open. By simply moving a leaf, I was able to find all new subjects that were quite interesting and aren’t seen by the everyday eye.
• look up – Once I was on the ground, I took a moment to lay back and look up at the trees.  It was a beautiful view underneath the leaves.
• use a flash – Because I was in a shaded area at man points, the the details of many subjects were brought out more by adding a light flash.
• or don’t – The silhouettes created by not using a flash made for some extremely interesting shots with the leaves and flowers.
• dress comfortably – When I first went out, I was not comfortable with getting down on the ground and rolling around because I was not wearing clothes that I felt could get dirty.  After changing clothes, I could get closer to some interesting subjects with no reservations.

This shot was taken while riding down the highway at 80 mph.

While on a 12-hour round-trip to Tennessee, I was understandably bored.  Of course I took my camera though. This shot is one my favorite from the day and was taken while riding down the road at 80 mph through a dirty car window.  It may not be the most crisp or perfectly composed photograph, but it sure makes me smile.  Sometimes photography ideas seem crazy, but I have learned to take risks.  After all, with digital, I have an unlimited amount chances.

So, I am trying to find my way. Photography is so much more to me than just clicking the button on a camera.  It’s crazy how I feel about my photography.  I am definitely going for that walk tomorrow. I need to get ready for the new year. I want to do a photography project for 2010.  I need to be prepared.

If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Do you ever just get tired of being nice to everyone when you really just want to tell them to shut up?  I am definitely in that mood today. Crabby pants Lauren.