Happy Graduation... Sad Goodbyes :(

I'm giving myself  a paragraph to be sad, then its back to business.


As I was sitting at graduation on Friday... I was listening to stories and talking to friends and taking loads of pictures and I was trying to remember what happened and where I was for the last 10 months.  I still don't have an answer to that question.  It all seemed to flash by really fast and doesn't even seem like it happened at all.  I do know though, that I met some pretty amazing people and have some super talented people in my life now that I can call friends.  I had my graduation on Friday, packed my apartment up on Saturday and Sunday and then moved on Monday and well.. Its just now all settling in.  I know it seems crazy because it wasn't that long of a program, but honestly.. It was the shortest and longest 10 months of my life all in one. I've seriously never learned so much so fast EVER. (i'm almost done i swear)  I woke up today, back at home in Connecticut and didn't have to run to be anywhere.  It was weird. I miss my friends from school and as weird as it might sound, I miss my teachers just as much.  When I break things.. Who will fix it!!! ME? ahhhh.  Although.. tonight I had a major panic attack because I debated for a while and.... I chose to go Nikon when buying my camera.  Tonight I attempted to edit the photos in photoshop and they wouldn't move into the program. So... all these thoughts about wasting money on a camera that I can't edit photos in and blah blah blah.. MM the amazing stepped in.. *once again* to save the day and well.. who knew you had to update software?  Even though I'm no longer a student and teachers are on vacation, they are still saving us from our craziness.  I seriously couldn't be more grateful.   Thanks a bunch <3

ok, i'm done.


Today, I woke up with a new camera that I've never used before. I flipped through the manual for like.. 15 minutes.  Then decided just to jump in and take pictures and then go back to the manual for guidance along the way.  Andrew has time off this week so the two of us went to a state park near my house for a walk.  I grabbed my new camera and lenses and off we went!  The gardens around this place were beautiful so I did something crazy and took flower pictures.... I know right? Since when do i take pictures of flowers.   Apparently, there are butterfly gardens somewhere there too.  I kid you not, there was one sign that pointed... then we got to a 4 way trail intersection and that was it.  So needless to say, we did not navigate correctly to find butterflies. It was nice though, just to spend some time outside together and walk.  Hot.. but nice :)

I ended up getting a Nikon D7000 and 3 lenses.  It came with the 18 - 105 mm which is fun to play around with.  I also have the 24 - 70 2.8 and the 70 - 200 2.8.  My mother is amazing, thats really all that needs to be said. Oh and one day, i'll pay you back with vacations or I'll knit you a sweater or something.  It will be great. :)

 I asked for a model face, this is what i got.. haha

This week, Im delivering photos all over and getting photos ready for the fairs this summer.  Side Note: I'm determined to win a blue ribbon this summer. I'm not even kidding. I don't care about winning money, I just want a Blue Ribbon. I said it. It wont be the end of the world, but I would be pretty darn excited!  If anyone has any suggestions as to what i should enter.. I'm all ears!!!

Its 2am. I'm usually asleep at like.. 10:30.  I'm not sure if any of this is making any sense.  A storm rolled through a little earlier and Tanner is a big scary ferocious dog when someone is walking through the neighborhood, but throw in some thunder and lighting and he cries like a little girl. SO.. I had to sit with him on the couch tonight cause he was shaking like a leaf... Which is why I'm up so late!  We have one VERY spoiled and loved puppy in this house.

Well, thats it for me tonight. I should sleep!  I leave you with one of my favorite flowers from earlier today!  Goodnight Friends.

*LOVE*

Portfolio accepted???? Check YES or NO!

YAY!!!!! 

Portfolio Review has come and gone and my goodness was it stressful.  On Tuesday June 14th, my mom came up and we went to portfolio review together.  This is a very stressful day for anyone, no matter how confident you are in your work.  Basically, I've been working incredibly hard for the last 10 months, but for the last 3 I've been working in hyper drive like crazy to create a body of work that fulfills both school requirements but also what I'm interested in photographing.  Its incredibly difficult to pour your heart out and put it on display for 3 people you don't know and listen to their first impressions.  With that said, Review was incredibly rewarding and I am so appreciative to have the opportunity for 4 amazing photographers to critique.  Let me introduce them to you! 

First up, we have Lois Greenfield.  She is an incredible dance photographer out of NYC and she has worked with all the best dancers in the country and beyond.  Even if you aren't interested in dance, you should check out her site because, the way she captures beauty and movement in a still photograph is just amazing. 

Next, we have Matthew Jordan Smith.  He looks like someone you just want to give a big old bear hug to.  He has been on America's Next Top Model a few times as the photographer and has worked with Celebrities on beauty and fashion campaigns.  

The last of the judges Grant Peterson.  He doesn't have a website, which makes me sad.. and a bit confused.  However, He has done a lot of work in the still life commercial field and has recreated what was once considered the "normal" still life photograph.  

Last but CERTAINLY not least.. Mr Greg Heisler.  He was not a judge on the panel. He was there as a mediator between the judges and the reviewed and he had his comments as well.  It was actually comforting to have him up there because he knows us and our work. 

That was our group of panelists!  Pretty impressive.  I passed YAY! When I got back to my seat.. my mom was bleeding. She was so nervous she ripped the skin off her finger. She didn't have to sit on stage with the judges!! Graduation is in one week from today!!! How did that happen?!?

OK.. no more about school for a while.  How about some pictures?

 Last weekend was the Relay for Life Franklin County and Myself, Chelsea, Ainsley and a few other teachers and students volunteered to work at the event.  It is obviously a very emotional event.  Celebrating cancer survivors and helping to fight the fight.  Hallmark was the "photography team" for the event. Documenting people and emotions and festivities.  It was really quite beautiful until it started raining at midnight.  Chelsea and I had a theme lap at 2am that we were photographing. So we had to stay up.  Which wasn't hard because the tent we were in filled with water and we were soaked.  It was definitely an experience and well.. I think all you can really do is see the photos.  Every kind of person was at the event and It was so fun just to observe and witness.  I hope you feel the same way.

This is how we looked at 8am.. after being completely soaked.. and no sleep. :)

*LOVE*

Beautiful Disaster

As many of you probably know, Western Massachusetts was hit last week by a pretty crazy storm. Two Tornados touched down in and around the Springfield area. To all my KGP fans, I know some of you are from that area and I am thankful everyone is ok. <3

The day the storm hit, happened to be the day that we handed in our graduation portfolios at school.  Literally just as we were handing them over to our teacher, the rain came.  It was amazing. There wasn't lightening or thunder so naturally my friends and I ran outside.

Thanks to John Nordell for this pretty awesome picture!  

 I live about 40 minutes from the area so my town wasn't hit by any Tornados, but the storm was scary just the same. We weren't sure if we were actually going to get hit or not.  As I was driving home from school the rain was slowing down but the sky was turning black. I'm not a big fan of thunder, in fact, storms have always made me really nervous, so you can only image how Tornado warnings make me feel!!

This was the Sky on my drive home...



















very ominous.








Last year, When I was living in CT, I was at work one day and a Tornado hit. It was crazy.  We were all evacuated to the bottom floor of the building and the skies turned crazy colors and the clouds were swirling.  NOT COOL!  Then, on my drive home after the storm, a tree branch fell and hit the front of my car.  I'm not talking about a smore branch, I'm talking.. tree. I can't even imagine how the families that had everything ripped apart handle this.

After the storm came through, the skies turned Yellow. It was the strangest and creepiest feeling ever.  I literally kept running from the front of the house to the back, to see what was going on with the clouds and with the skies. It looked different from both ends of the house too.

this was the back..

This was the front of the house..

Pretty crazy stuff. Although the storms that hit are scary and can really do damage, they can also be quite beautiful.

So this brings us to now.  Last night and I believe again tonight, we are having more storms. Nothing as crazy as the Tornado storms... but the lightening has been INTENSE.  I tend to be a big baby when it comes to storms.  I was trying to block out the storm, but all I kept seeing was flashing so I grabbed my camera and headed to the window.  I had the perfect view of the lighting from my living room window. I put the chair in the window and waited with my camera.  Who knows what you'll get right??

Tonight, in Greenfield Massachusetts they are having a fundraiser for the victims of the Tornado.  They are taking donations of clothing, food and money.  Also, if you want to help the local Red Cross Disaster Unit is working their butts off too...  Check them out. 

Thank you <3

*LOVE*

Waiting for portfolio review with Poison Ivy!

Hey All!!

I have to start this blog post by saying that I just discovered that I'm allergic to Poison Ivy.. in case anyone was wondering. I had the BRILLIANT idea to do a "trash the dress" type shoot with a wedding dress that I used that i no longer needed. I figured why not try something crazy right? Isn't that what life is about? I like to have fun with photography and I've never really felt that I can be super creative and try to execute ideas before, until I started school for photography. I just have to say, I hope I never lose that either.  Its fun to try new things, and most photographers wont tell you this, but most great amazing photographs were mistakes.  By mistakes i mean, They didn't mean to do something and then clicked the shutter and magically it was an amazing shot.  Its good to take risks and chances and try new stuff......... famous last words. SO.. I put my lovely "sister" Katey in this wedding dress and then put her in a swamp.  I thought it was a great idea and she is basically willing to try anything I come up with so why not.  I went in the swamp first, I wasn't going to put her somewhere I wasn't willing to go into myself.  Everything was great.  So I stuck a chair in the swamp and then gave Katey my rain boots and off she went.  People thought we were NUTS.  I swear, the road we were on has a total of 10 cars a day.  This particular night, a million people drove by and all stopped to say hi or ask what we were doing.  Hey, i'm from a small town area, this is good entertainment!!   So apparently, along this swamp.. was a lovely clean bed of Poison Ivy.  I had shorts on.. I was crawling all over the edge fixing the lights and trying to get different angles... you do the math.  Its been a long, itchy... 2 weeks.  AWESOME.  I almost forgot, I guess I should show you the final product right?? 

OK lets get back to this!!!

I promise once graduation comes, I will blog much more regularly.  But right now things are CRAZY!!!

I'm currently in phase 4 at Hallmark Institute of Photography and I've JUST handed in my final portfolio for graduation review!!!  Lots of emotions are going on here. Excitement, sadness, pride, and lets not forget to mention PURE TERROR! I go in for my review on the 14th and I'm nervous and excited all at the same time!! 

  

This is it!!! All 27 images! 

To continue the excitement I had my very first Senior Portrait shoot this past weekend with Anouchka!  She wanted her senior portraits to be very natural and a bit artsy.  We headed over to a state park in the area where I knew the sunset skies would be lovely and as a bonus the weather was PERFECT. Along with some pretty rad Senior PIctures, We did some best friend shots too with Lissie!  Sneak Peek below!  

It was a beautiful day, beautiful sunset and some pretty awesome company :)  THANKS GUYS! 

This was just a great start to the week.. To continue the awesome-ness, On Monday I spent the afternoon with a pretty cool photographer.  Her name is Katie Slater and she is AWESOME. If you haven't checked out her page, you need to.  Katie Slater Photography Facebook. Click this, check it out, LOVE it.  She let me tag along on a shoot.  It was very cool to assist her and see how she gets things done.  I got to meet an adorable couple on their engagement shoot and it was just very cool.  I want to send a HUGE thank you to Katie for allowing me to join her and for allowing me to bombard her with questions.  Thank you <3

I want to finish my blog post with a photograph.. but i have to set it up.  So, at school, one of my instructors is the fabulous Michael Zide.  He is an amazing landscape photographer and he decided to take us on an adventure.  I personally love landscape and other nature photography so I was super excited by the idea!  He literally drove us 30 minutes from school into the woods and after we parked the  cars.. we walked deeper in.  We ended up at this beautiful spot in the middle of no where, with waterfalls and wildlife.  It was great AND I didn't fall in the river!! I mean, i'm clumsy.. it happens. I was in the river for most of this trip, but i watched EVERY step. I was NOT dropping a Canon 5D mark 11 into a river. yay me!  Anyway...   Thanks Zide. 

*LOVE*