florida 10: people 2

{why i REALLY want to be a professional photographer + why i REALLY REALLY need a new computer!}

so... this is a long-overdue installment {no. 10 } of my florida vacation series. remember i said yesterday that i have been working on processing a photo shoot? well technically, it was not a photo shoot... at least not the kind that professional photographers do. you see, i was not hired to take these pictures. i was not even asked to. i just had my camera with me {like i always do } while at the beach on our trip to florida last year {april of 2009 }.

b's aunt, who lives there, was with us at the beach, along with her husband, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. so darling is this little one, i just could not help but take a bunch of pictures of her. and the best part was that she was not aware i was taking them so it was a very natural setting.

she is a very sweet, docile child, so she was often still and curious of her surroundings... full of wonder at the beach, sand, water, sky... and so loved by her mom, grandmother and grandfather. her stillness and the lighting were perfect for getting nice clear shots. i've photographed a little girl about this age before, but had a hard time getting anything clear, because she was a very curiously active girl.

but this little one was curious in a different way... less hands-on, and more take it all in with her eyes. it made for some really tender moments to photograph. and i couldn't have been more thrilled than i was to capture them with my camera.

can you believe it took me over a year to work on these? i feel so bad about that. i kept putting it off, because i knew with the slowness of my computer, it would take me at least four or five hours to work on them... including download, photoshop and upload time. but i finally had a large chunk of free time these past several days, and so i was determined to devote a few hours each of a couple days. i'm curious what kind of time it takes those of you who have done a similar kind of shoot.

i e-mailed the slide show of photos off to b's aunt last night, and she wrote back expressing pure delight and satisfaction with what i sent. that was the best reward of all... knowing a grandma is glowing and smiling and able to cherish the face of her granddaughter in pictures, and that she can hold on to those memories even long after her granddaughter has grown.

THIS is why i love to take pictures... one of the many reasons. THIS is why i want to do this professionally! there was not one aspect of this that i did not enjoy. i'm certain i could do this all day, every day. pure joy for me, through and through.

it has only affirmed my desire to take pictures, and only confirmed my reasoning for why it is imperative that i get a newer, faster computer. if i were to do this for a living, i would definitely need to speed up the process. and a camera upgrade would be swell, too!

i just picked my top favorites for this post. but if you are at all interested and would like to see the rest of the pictures in a slide show, click here. there are a few more fun shots to see.

florida 9: people 1... {and your tips and tricks, please}

{this is my husband's brother and sister-in-law. i think this is one of my favorite people pics that i've ever taken. of course, i got lucky. i had beautiful subjects to work with, a beautiful setting to work in, and the lighting was perfect right at that moment. we were all just in the right place at the right time.}

hello...

lot's of things today.

first, thank you to all who left me with your thoughts about my story in my last post. hearing from you was so appreciated... especially on something like that. it's just nice to know that others would take that as a sign the way we did. it helps us know it's not so far-fetched to think that way.

second, i had said {even before the whole florida box in the road thing happened } that i would try to post some long forgotten florida pictures from last april. i thought this week would be a good time for that while i was away guest blogging for seven days with kim and p.g. i thought i could just write over there and do pictures only over here. but who am i kidding? i'm way too gabby for that!

well, here it is thursday, and i have not posted one florida pic {until now }. but after my last post, i thought it would only be fitting. so here are some of my people pictures from that trip. these were taken on the beach at sunset one evening. we tried to go watch the sun go down over the gulf every night. i have to say, those were probably my favorite moments of the whole trip. it was always so peaceful and uplifting.

one of those evenings, i decided to have my husband and his brother and wife play in the sand for me. not making castles or burying each other so just heads and feet stuck out kind of playing. this kind of playing... i asked them to JUMP for the camera. we had a blast!

this was one of my fave shots, and i decided i could use it for lookers and leapers, even though at the time that i took it, i did not yet have this project in mind. but this shot works for it. i had taken some face shots that day, too. so i zoomed and cropped in on their eyes to go with the leap pic. i just posted it last night... my second installment. so glad to have this, too, because i was growing antsy to get out and find another subject for lookers and leapers, but have not found the opportunity since my first subject.

okay, all you professional or semi- professional picture takers out there! {or even the amateurs... if you've got some words of wisdom.} i have heard that late afternoon/early evening is a good time to get outdoor photos of people. and i feel that is the main reason some of these photos turned out so warm and nice. but what other tips do you have for me? if i pursue this people photography thing, i want to learn all i can.

tips? ideas? keep in mind, i have very limited equipment and a somewhat simple camera that does not have a lot of "bells and whistles". but i know a lot of the same principles apply no matter what type of camera you have. so let's hear it! what are your secrets to taking good people pics?

{one more thing. i generally don't put photos on this blog unless i took them. i have other blogs for other people's photos. but i had to post this one after writing what i did in my last post. while going through this group of florida pics, i found one of b. and me taken that same evening in the same place as the above photos. i saw it and felt comforted by it. i loved the way we were both looking in the same direction... it almost felt like looking forward. and it was taken in florida! after my last post, i had to add it! i just had to!}

{thanks to my sis-in-law for taking it.}

OMG! {as in, oh my goodness!}

i'm uber excited... like a kid in a candy store...
that shutter sisters chose my photo
for the one word project daily post!
i took one of my florida umbrellas series shots
and "vintagized" it like i did
on this one for effect.
then i entered the photo
at the o.w.p. flickr photo pool
on a whim for the july one word contest.

~ ~ ~

thank you so much, shutter sisters!
i am honored, and i am so happy
that i went ahead and entered.
you don't know what that does
for my morale, as well as my
confidence in taking pictures
and playing with pictures.
i feel especially honored to be picked
after seeing many of the wonderful
entries yesterday on flickr.
~ ~ ~

have you ever entered?
if not, you should!
you just never know!

florida 8: umbrellas

there were so many umbrellas of all different colors on the beach in florida. every one was begging to be photographed. so that i did. and then some. are you sick of beach umbrellas yet? most of the above shots are s.o.o.c. or slightly adjusted {color}. i obviously made the last one black and white, too.

but the below shots are ones that i played around with. i couldn't even tell you what i did. i was just playing until i liked what i saw. mind you, i have a dull and faded old monitor. i just hope i did not overdo it on some of these.

this last one was my favorite. here it is with no edits, too.

florida 7: pool

as promised...

those first three are very similar, but i could not choose which was my favorite, so i put them all in––how very indecisive of me. but of all my pool shots, i like these three the best.

there were at least four pools on the grounds of the condos where we stayed in florida––maybe even five or six. the pool in the fourth picture is the one we swam at, as it was closest to the condo unit we stayed in and the closest one to the beach.

i think the best pool, though, is the one that looked out over the bay {pictured in a few of these including the last two shots}. it was such a cool thing to look across the blue pool and see more blue water that stretched out as far as the eye could see beyond that. it was weird because it's not something you see every day. well, maybe in florida it is. but around here, the whole reason one has a pool is because there is no water nearby. but i really like how this looks. i wish it was my back yard.

every pool there was surrounded by the most beautiful landscaping of flowers of every color and lots of rich green foliage. and the temperature of the pool was always perfect. almost daily, we would swim at the beach and lay in the sand, and then we would head over to the refreshing pool to cool off and de-salt our skin.

the good life, no? i've been thinking of buying a pool pass for the summer. there is a good chance i would get a lot of use out of it if this not finding a job thing keeps up. and hey, if i bought a laptop, i could still search for jobs even while i'm sitting poolside, right? well... that is if i don't fall asleep.

speaking of jobs, i did get a phone number from a colleague of a colleague of my husband––a woman who was inquiring about a job opening in her company that needs to be filled. i'm going to call first thing in the morning and see if i can send them my resume. it's something... it's not what i would call a lead at this point, but i'll take it!

then wednesday i'm off to shoot some photos at the chicago botanical gardens. i've been wanting to go there for years. i've never been there before, so i'm really looking forward to it. hopefully you are having a good start to your week. if not, i give you permission to take the day off and go sit by the pool. okay? okay.