Shoot for the Moon...

...even if you miss, you'll land among stars.

Gosh, ain't that a sweet sentiment?

Guess what! I just heard that today the moon will be the closest to the earth that it's been in 18 years or so, which means it will be really big. And tonight is the full moon, so weather permitting, it will be really bright. Click here to read a more scientific explanation:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382247,00.asp

Photographers everywhere are gearing up to "shoot the moon" (nice, right?) tonight, and I'm going to try moon photography for the very first time. This is your heads up.

Dear Nikon,

As I've said, photography is my passion; it has been since I was in fourth grade or so when I started experimenting with photography for 4-H projects. That's why I was so excited to finally get my first DSLR last summer. I'd been saving money and researching cameras for months, and I eventually went out and bought a Nikon D5000 just before our summer vacation to Colorado. I want to quickly tell you why I chose this camera and what I love about it.

Simple Tips for Sweet Subjects

One of my favorite subjects to photograph is children. Who can say if it's simply because I've gained more experience with child subjects in the last couple years? Or because I've been working as a nanny for a while? Or because I love a near impossible challenge like getting two toddlers in one frame with zero tears? Whether you're a professional photographer, a hobbyist, or a parent, you know getting a decent picture of a young child is indeed challenging, if not maddening. Now, baby-babies are somewhat of an exception because they're immobile, but one of the first things I learned about photographing children is patience. I usually need to take 20 pictures to get one decent photo, 50 pictures to get one good photo, and 80-100 pictures to get one great photo. For instance, I took weeks of pictures to get 12 good ones to display at my senior art show in college. There may be two or three that I consider great, but I've learned a lot since then. (I was a graphic design major and never took a single photography class in college because I wanted to keep photography a hobby that I could enjoy, but I really wanted to do photography for my senior show, so I went with Digital Black and White Child Photography.)

Here are the photos I displayed in my senior show:

Aren't they beautiful kids? I got to be a nanny to the babies (in case you didn't notice, there are three!) The other kids are a few of my cousins, who were willing, cooperative, lovely models--and I was very thankful.

I'm not writing this blog just to show off...hehe. I want to share some tips and tricks that I've learned about photographing children. In the last year I've been fortunate that a couple of my cousins asked me to photograph their kids, and I was chasing TWINS for over a year (more victims from my days as a nanny).

The Force of Advertising

All right. I'm back and I'm sorry for neglecting to blog since November. I've had a busy couple months with the holidays, traveling, moving, settling, and job hunting. But enough with the excuses.

Five days ago when you were parked in front of the TV were you watching the Super Bowl? Or were you watching the commercials?

I was watching my plate overflowing with chips, dips and meat on toothpicks.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the game and the commercials too. According to Trilix's Super Poll 2011, http://www.superpolliowa.com/
the viewers' favorite Super Bowl commercial was "Volkswagen: The Force" with 46% of the votes. Go to the website to see the rest of the results.

Every Rose Has it's Thorns

Today I want to ask for your help. Since I've been actively job hunting and anticipating upcoming interviews, I'm trying to prepare for those interviews as best I can. One of the typical questions that interviewers like to ask is, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" Today I'll focus on weakness. It's a fair question but I dread the fact that I have to tell them why they might not want to hire me. I am flawed, and I might not be your most qualified candidate, but I don't want you to find out until after you hire me!

Just kidding. Sort of.

Ok, so I've read that the trick is to identify a weakness but then turn it into a strength--or at least put a positive spin on it. I'm wondering what is my "best" weakness for this question. What do you think?

Note to future employers: I don't want to spoil the surprise for you, so just stop reading. Thanks.

If it's wrong to Idolize The Pioneer Woman...

...I don't want to be right.

Late this summer, my friend told me about this blog site called Pioneer Woman. She told me I should check out her photography specifically, which is amazing. (Be sure to check out her Photoshop Actions under the Photography tab if you're into that sort of thing)

PW is also a very talented cook. That's probably why she was able to publish her own cookbook. The reason I sometimes I wish I were her is because she lives on a ranch in the wild plains of Oklahoma. How she ended up there with her Marlboro Man cowboy is a fantastic love story that she's told on part of her site, "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels." (psst! I heard there's going to be a movie!) I highly recommend making some time to read through it.

Well, here we go!

Welcome to my blog!

I consider myself an artist--in digital photography and graphic design mainly--and this is my first attempt at a blog. I'm a little apprehensive about this because it's essentially a writing project, and I haven't done much writing at all since college a year and a half ago. I pretty much swore off reading, researching, and writing indefinitely. So this blog may start slow, but I decided it was important to just start anyway. My best friend, Shelly, kept encouraging me to start a blog to get my work and ideas out "there", so here it is: Picture Making and Rule Breaking.