share six

January 6, 2021January 6, 2021

Share Six | Details

Well, what an interesting year 2020 was! While for many people it was a terrible year, I tried to have a positive outlook on it. I hoped that by people having to stay home, it would bring families together and would cause people to slow down and notice their neighbors. While I don’t think that happened as much as I hoped it would, I do believe that it did happen for some people.

This past year I tried to focus more on living in the moment. Those of you who have been following along with my blog posts have noticed that a lot of my blog posts this year have been pictures I’ve taken with my phone. See, while photography is still my passion, it’s also my business. So when I’m not doing sessions or houses, I want to be living in the moment. I don’t want to be focused on dialing in my settings on my camera or getting that “perfect” shot. I want to soak in every detail of my life by simply living it. So I find that I’m whipping out my phone to snap a few pictures, and then I put it away and just revel in the moment. I mean, I want to document the memories, but I also don’t want to be so busy documenting them that I’m not living them. As much as I love photography, I really don’t want to always view my life through a lens. It’s just not the same as being completely present and watching things with your naked eyes.

So, once again, I have decided to share some photos I’ve taken with my phone. They aren’t going to win any awards, but they will most certainly bring more lasting enjoyment to me than any award could ever do. For they are a visual reminder of precious, fleeting moments….moments I will only get to live once.

My son has been doing backflips on our trampoline for quite some time now. I’m in awe of how brave he is. I’ve always been too scared to try to flip. This is one of the many details of his childhood that I want to document.

Late spring we decided to camp in our backyard. I strung lights in the tent to give it an extra cozy and fun atmosphere. This was yet another memory I wanted to etch in my mind and document.

We social distanced for a week during the summer at our favorite remote little cabin. The sun and the water did us all some good.

After getting dumped with the most beautiful snow last week. My son took on a project. He made himself a snow tunnel complete with a window and a door.

In high school, my friends and I loved going sledding in the evenings. The hills were normally empty and there was something cool about sledding in the dark. So my kids got the idea they wanted to sled after dark, so we made it happen. I’m all about making memories. It was a super foggy night as well, so we brought headlamps too.

Since we got the most beautiful snow, ice and fog frost, it has been a most breathtaking winter wonderland here. So my daughter and I decided to go out and try to get some pretty pictures. While primarily looking at landscape style shots I could compose, my eyes kept coming back to this tree and the ice that had encased it…such a lovely winter detail.

As usual, I hope you enjoyed my take on this month’s theme. Head over to Janet’s blog, by clicking HERE, to see her awesome interpretation! And be sure to make your way through the entire circle. You won’t want to miss all of the amazing images!

March 6, 2020March 5, 2020

Share Six | Morning

This month’s theme is morning. I’m not sure what I was thinking in choosing this theme as mornings have been pretty rough for me lately. My motivation in the morning is quite low these days. I used to be a morning person, and I do believe I still am, that is, if I could ever get a good night’s sleep.

For my pictures I tried to capture the things that are a part of my mornings. I love getting outside first thing in the morning, whether it be for a walk or for a bike ride. Winter gets tough though as snow and ice cover the side walks and things get slippery. With the weather finally warming up though, I have started to resume my morning walks.

I love being outside to enjoy the first golden rays of the sun setting the tree tops ablaze, and casting long shadows of anything that stands in their path. The birds have woken up and begun to chatter. The geese signal spring’s coming with their incessant honking. Their splash landings on our pond echo across the glassy water, while the sun’s rays peek through the trees.

We have a pond and woods behind our house. These things make for lots of wildlife. Many mornings I am blessed with seeing a deer or a family of raccoons while on my walk. The sights and sounds are incredibly serene. I can’t help but be thankful for life and invigorated for the day which has begun.

That is, until my goofy dogs see something they need to chase and they lunge forward yanking my arm. Thankfully that doesn’t happen too much though.

Here are my images for the theme, I tried to capture the things I have mentioned above.

I’ve always been told I have long legs, the morning light makes them look like stilts. LOL

These last two pictures were taken with my phone. As the saying goes, and as I’ve told my photography students – the best camera is the one you have with you. My morning walk is not only a workout/exercise (I speed walk and my average heart rate is 156BPM), it’s my time to just think and enjoy the quiet. These may not be the best quality pictures, but I love them and they will serve to remind me of a moment in time. They also show real life. The last one is especially blurry as I was trying to take a picture with the hand that was holding the leash. You can see in the shadow, that my other hand is holding a bag of dog poop. Nothing wakes you up in the morning quite like the smell of dog poop. LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my interpretation! Click HERE to head on over to Sharleen’s blog to see her lovely images!

December 6, 2018December 5, 2018

Share Six | Bokeh

Hello there!! Can you believe it’s already December?!?! Where has the year gone? It’s that time again where we announce our new theme over at Share Six. We are doing Bokeh again, and I was pretty excited to get out and try some different shots and techniques that I haven’t tried before. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get 6 images though, so I’m using two old images, and then the other four are ones I specifically went out and shot for this month’s theme.

For those of you who are not photographers and do not know what bokeh is….According to Wikipedia, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has also been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”. Being that we are so close to Christmas, I chose to go with the latter definition and use Christmas lights in my images.

Here is an image I took of my son two years ago. It’s one of my absolute favorites.

Here is another one I did for our bokeh theme two years ago.

For these next two, I decided to experiment some more with multiple exposures as well as using some off camera flash. These also happen to fit last month’s theme as well. This first one is a combination of 5 images exposed together in camera. You would not believe how long the last image (the silhouette of my husband and I) took. The flash behind us would not fire. I tried just about everything and even turned everything off and then back on. I don’t even remember what finally ended up working to get it to fire. I was so frustrated that I just gave up despite the fact that the image wasn’t exactly how I wanted it.

This next one is of an awesome client of mine who was more than happy to help out with only 45 minutes notice. I was envisioning this shot and really wanted to make it happen. This one is also 5 exposures, 4 of which were done in camera and the 5th I ended up having to join with the other 4 in photoshop. The in camera multiple exposure had one aspect that was bothering me, so by doing it in photoshop, I could remove that distraction.

The last two are of my husband and myself. I have to say a huge thanks to my daughter for standing guard by my camera, as my tripod has recently started to give me some problems as well. Apparently all of my gear is giving out on me…and just in time for Christmas. *sad and frustrated sigh*

Thanks so much for stopping by! Continue on in the blog circle by heading over to Janet’s blog by clicking here. You must see her lovely images!

November 6, 2018November 5, 2018

Share Six | Silhouette

This month’s theme is Silhouette. I planned on actually orchestrating some silhouette pictures with off camera flash, but while on our vacation back in August, the sunsets on the lake created the perfect opportunity for some great silhouette shots. So I decided to take advantage of that opportunity. I may still execute some plans I had in my head, but for my blog post on the theme, these are the shots I chose.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! I hope you enjoyed my images. Continue on in the circle by heading on over to Kathy’s blog to see her amazing interpretation. These ladies here at Share Six never cease to amaze me!

June 6, 2018June 6, 2018

Share Six | Abstract

June’s theme over at Share Six is abstract. Those of you who know me personally as a photographer know that I am a portrait photographer. This is what I love though about being part of a photography group that does themed challenges like this. This group of gals is constantly stretching me and helping me grow. If you are a photographer and haven’t taken part in these monthly challenges or any other challenges, I highly encourage you to do so. You will find that it’s very fun and you learn a lot, therefore your skills improve.

As I said, abstract is not something I’ve really even dabbled in. So I was really racking my brain trying to figure out what I was going to photograph. It dawned on my that I could use intentional camera movement to make ordinary objects become abstract. I haven’t even really played with intentional camera movement either, but what better time than now?

For my first image, I waited until later in the evening. I knew because of using a slow shutter speed I’d need less light. I pointed my camera up at some trees. When I pushed the shutter button, I twisted my camera creating the swirl.

For my next image, I just pointed at some grass (still in the evening when it was getting dark) and moved the camera a bit as I pressed the shutter.

For my third image, I actually shot it during the middle of a bright sunny day. I pointed up at a tree. I shot at ISO 100 and f/29 and 1/2 sec. shutter speed. I used my 28-135 and started wide, but zoomed as I pressed the shutter.

My fourth image was the same technique. This was a picture of the pond behind our yard. This is one of my favorites of the set. Who knew I’d like intentional camera movement and zooming so much?

For my last two, I waited until after dark and headed to the carnival/fair that happens to be in town right now. I wanted to do some light painting, and I once again used a slow shutter speed and intentional camera movement.

For this first one, I just left the shutter open and moved my camera all around.

For this second one, I held the camera still for a second so I could get the ferris wheel somewhat defined, then moved the camera in a wave pattern.

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation on the theme abstract. I have to say, I had a lot of fun playing around getting these images. I hope you will too! Get out and have fun creating art! First though, continue through our circle to see Janet’s blog. You won’t be disappointed!

May 6, 2018May 5, 2018

Share Six | Urban

This month’s theme is urban. I live in the Midwest in a community of a few cities which are surrounded ultimately by miles and miles of farms. We don’t necessarily have what I would call a big city feeling to our communities, but urban ultimately means “of or relating to city”. So I guess it doesn’t matter the size of the city.

My first picture is of my boy on the sky bridge here in the Quad Cities. For those of you not familiar with the Quad Cities, the sky bridge is one of our iconic landmarks.

My second image is a double exposure of my son and part of the Davenport skyline (mainly the skybridge).

My third and fourth images are of my girl during a session we did downtown. She wanted more of an urban feel for her pictures.

I had to include a picture I recently took while we were downtown Chicago. Most people will recognize this iconic location.

And last, and quite possibly least, LOL, is an image that I think accurately depicts urban areas, or at least our urban area here in the QC. You wouldn’t be in the urban areas without being surrounded by construction. I thought I’d end with a bit of humor. This is obviously not a very artistic image, but it depicts our urban area we live in.

Continue though our blog circle by heading over to Janet’s blog to see her amazing images!! You won’t be disappointed!

October 6, 2017October 6, 2017

Share Six | Double Exposure

So this month’s theme is Double Exposure. I unfortunately have an old DSLR that does NOT have a double exposure function, which means I have to do it in Photoshop. I did however find that one of my favorite photography phone apps has a double exposure function, so some of my photos are done in photoshop and some are done in my phone app.

My first image was one that I did in the app using a picture I took of one of my antique cameras and another picture I took of a flower a while back. So every aspect of this image was done with the phone, except I used photoshop to add my watermark.

This next image is two of my favorite things – the Milky Way (at my favorite vacation spot) and a piano. These photos were taken with my DSLR and merged with the phone app.

The next four images are of myself and my family members with something that we love. First up is my husband and a baseball. These images were taken with my DSLR and merged in Photoshop.

Next is my son. He LOVES the outdoors and climbing trees. So I took a picture of him (with my phone) and a picture of some branches of a tree (also with my phone) and double exposed them in the phone app. I have to say, this is probably one of my favorites.

My daughter’s images were also taken with my phone and double exposed in the app. She is an avid reader, so the other image is of some of her favorite books.

(Their pictures kind of remind me of those childhood profile cutouts we did in school as children.)

Last is a self portrait of me that I took several years ago. I LOVE playing the piano and have been playing since I was five, so I double exposed the image of me with a picture I took of our piano. I took the images with my DSLR, but I double exposed them in the phone app.

I hope you enjoyed my take on this month’s theme. Oh, and if you are like me and your DSLR does not have a Double Exposure function, download the app Snapseed. It’s a great photography app!

Head on over to Claire’s blog and see her lovely images! Be sure to continue through the entire circle. You won’t want to miss everyone’s awesome images. Also, don’t forget to post your own take on this month’s theme either on our Facebook page or on Instagram! Tag #sharesix #sharesix_doubleexposure