Cole is going to be a big brother in October and the Yenger family wanted to capture their little family of three and use their session to reveal to their families and friends what their new bundle of joy would be; BOY OR GIRL!? Cole is full on toddler mode these days and wanted no part of me and my camera but we did get some awesome shots for their big reveal :) So, what do you think? Boy or girl? Click "Read More" to find out!
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We had a LOOOONG, hard winter here in Ohio this year. I know many people had it worse (sorry New England!) but misery is relative, right? I'm so happy the weather is finally warming up and we're having more and more warm, sunny days when my kids can get out of the house and "get the stink blowed off" as my Grandma would have said. (I always hated that expression just so you know, lol)
With being outside also comes more opportunity to get outside with your camera and take more pictures It was such a FREEZING cold day when we went to Buckeye Lake to shoot Lainey and Bailey's session. It was a last minute session as we had been trying to dodge illness and our long, cold Ohio winter but we finally got the session in! After about a half an hour my hands were completely numb and Lainey'd had enough :) Here's just a little sample of their session!
April showers bring May flowers so what do May flowers bring? BORED KIDS! I don't know about you, but I about lost my mind this winter! It was rough, REALLY cold and REALLY snowy and I am not looking forward to being stuck inside all spring while Mother Nature awakens and turns everything green and beautiful! So, I need to find things to do and places to go with my kids, especially when school is out for summer! I have one place I can't wait to take all my kids; the library in Carroll, behind the Harley Davidson store at Coonpath Road and Rt. 33. You didn't even know it was there, did you? Many people don't know about this branch of the Fairfield County District Library. In fact, we stopped at the gas station there on the corner and asked how you get to the library because we knew where it was just couldn't figure out where the road was and the ladies at the gas station, right there at the same intersection, had no idea the library was there!
I started taking Ginger there on Wednesdays during our 45 minute break between dance classes after one of the moms at dance told us I don't know about you, but all these "bugs" going around are making me crazy! Three of my kiddos have had pink eye. Two of them have had strep throat. Then my little one hit his head and had to have 3 stitches. Amid having 8 boudoir sessions and several sports poster sessions. It's been crazy! But I know there will be a day I miss all of it. So I'm not complaining! I am blessed. WE are blessed.
So, with everything going on, I haven't had a chance to shoot my "Ordinary Tuesday" but I will be back on it tomorrow hopefully! We have a sore throat and another with a fever tonight so I'm probably headed back to the pediatrician but I will find time to shoot something! lol! I do want to share with you one of my boudoir sessions from two weeks ago, though! These sessions were held at a BEAUTIFUL hotel (I WILL do this again!) and we all had a great time. I know coming in for a session like this is probably awkward and uncomfortable, especially when you've just had a baby or you have a few more pounds on your body than you wish you had, but we worked through those insecurities together and I think all 8 sessions were AMAZING! And I think everyone has loved their final images. I love the Dove product commercials and print ads that feature women of all different ages, races and sizes. We're all beautiful. We are who we are and the people who love us love us as we are. I wish more women would have photos taken of themselves (boudoir or just personal photo sessions) to document who they are, to leave a legacy and document their lives. I still love sitting and looking at my grandparents' photos and I want that for my kids. And their kids. And their kids. As a self-taught photographer, I'm always searching for ways to improve my craft. In October I participated in a Worldwide Photo Walk in Columbus with my friend-tographer, Amy Taylor from Amy Taylor Photography, and I happened to win the local walk with one of my images. As my prize I received a 1-year subscription to an amazing photography website with hundreds of courses in photography, editing... anything you can imagine. Anyway, one of those courses was sort of a challenge to get in the habit of doing a photography project to help you improve in your craft. So I have decided to take this challenge. My personal challenge is to do what is called "Seven Ways". This is taking an ordinary object and taking pictures of just this object but taking seven different photos of it, in seven different ways. So, today I began this journey and I had way more fun than I thought I would!! This was fun.
My first subject was my dog. She was lying on the floor in a warm place in the sun and I thought it was really obvious to start there. But after taking a few pictures of her I felt like it was just too obvious. So I began looking around and I saw this letter "W" that hangs on the wall in our living room. And there was this one tiny little sliver of sunshine coming in my back door, throwing a really bright spot on the floor. What I did next was pull the "W" off the wall and slide my coffee table (for texture in the images) into the sunshine and I began looking for different ways to shoot the "W". I'm so excited with how these turned out and I can't wait to do this project each week! In fact, I got so into it that I got more than 7 different images of my subject! I hope you look forward to seeing what I do. Make sure you click "RSS Feed" above the "Author" information to subscribe to my blog so you will know when I post an updated post and I would love to know which of these shots is your favorite!! Comment below with YOUR favorite! :) "They" say we should let go of the past and live in the present, right? But doesn't looking in the past sometimes give us better perspective on the present? Or maybe help us to reach harder for the future?
I've been working on making my business "fresh" again and I logged into MySpace (remember that?! lol) to look for some pictures of my kids I knew I had posted there. That's when I came across the very first senior photo I had ever taken. It was my first paying photography job. It was my niece, Heather, who was graduating from Bloom Carroll High School in 2008 and her mom and step-dad (my brother-in-law) asked me if I could take them. I don't even remember what I charged for them but looking back now it was surely WAY too much! I remember I was using a Kodak Easyshare point-and-shoot camera (GASP!) with the on-camera flash. We did get some decent shots that day but we also got, well... not so decent shots. With the very little that I knew about photography and lighting and posing... *whispers* and selective coloring.. well... Heather, I feel like I owe you an apology! lol! I'm so proud of where I am now. Everything I've learned (no schooling, no classes, just me and my computer and my camera. Lots of trial and error, lots of reading books and watching videos!) has brought me to have a very successful business up to this point and it is growing more and more every year! So, without further ado, here is Heather's senior photo compared to one of my seniors from this year's senior photos. SHM. Is it possible to feel ashamed and proud at the same time? LOL! Wow... has it really been that long since I blogged :/ New year's resolution #1, blog at least once a week!!
So, I recently had a major A-HA! moment. And I just want to talk about that for a minute. I was watching a photography class on family photography and the most impactful thing I took away from the class was "capture the relationship even if you have to sacrifice the fundamentals of photography". This really hit me. Because since the beginning of my business, this is what I have been striving to do. I just haven't been able to put that into words and action when I'm shooting. Now that I have those words in my head, I have finally found the joy and fulfillment that I have wanted to get from my shoots. I feel like I've always been pretty good at capturing expressions (hence the name Expressive Photography), but now my objective every time is the capture the relationship. I'm so thankful that I happened to be online for THAT class at THAT moment in my life because it was exactly what I needed at THAT moment to take me where I want to go in the future. This is the future of my business. Capture the relationship. Here are some of my images since having heard these words spoken directly to my soul. I'd love to know how you think I'm doing so far! Can I be honest? We're friends, right?
I just want to chat for a few minutes because I feel like all of my blog posts up to this point have been pretty formal and that's so not me. I get such writer's block when I sit down to write my blog posts that I get frustrated and eventually I just resort back to high school writing and list my ideas, my supporting facts, write a closing and hope at least someone reads it. lol So here's "me" for just a little bit. (this is the part where I hope you don't think I'm a crazy person by the end! LOL!) Tonight while I was rocking the baby for bedtime I started chuckling about things that make me realize that I really am a photographer. So here's my top 10 list. I'm sure there are more things I'm not thinking about so tell me in the comments what signs you see that tell you I'm a photographer. OR, if you're a photographer, what signs do you have that tell you that YOU are a photographer?
10) When I get a wedding or party invitation I also receive a sidebar email/text that says "will you bring your camera?" 9) In the front room of my house there is a giant 4ft by 6ft piece of a wood floor. Just sitting there. 8) The only umbrellas I own are black with a silver foil-like lining inside. 7) Any time my kids do something fun, funny, cute, they stop and wait for me to get my camera. 6) I haven't been able to "sit back and enjoy the moment" for a very long time. If I'm not taking pictures I won't be able to remember it, right? 5) On the rare occasion that I print a photo at a photo kiosk (gasp) I'm given the third degree about whether or not the photos are "professional". 4) The contents of the only bag I ever carry around are: Dum-Dums, Smarties and a clown nose. 3) When I'm at a function (sports game, birthday party, etc) and pull out my camera, other people put their cameras away and ask "will you put those on Facebook?". 2) The question I am most asked (besides "Why?" from my 2 year old) is "Can you make me skinny?" And the number 1 sign that I'm a photographer: I spend an absurd amount of time removing pimples, wrinkles, unwanted hair, dark eye circles, cellulite and a few pounds from the arms, hips or tummy... and I'm not a plastic surgeon! |
AuthorStephanie West is owner/photographer at Expressive Photography. She is a stay-at-home mom of 4 and is so happy to have finally found HER passion in photography. And she is ecstatic to be able to share it with others! Categories
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