Lovely Morning

A couple of weeks ago, Jay and I went to our friends' wedding in Stone Harbor on the New Jersey Shore (Congratulations, Jeremy and Jessica!). We stayed two nights in the wonderful Lark Motel which was simple, but more than adequate. I'll be going through the few photos I took from the weekend and posting what's good. Here is a lovely Saturday Morning shot.

The cloudy seaside morning light adds a nice glow.

Self-teaching

Somehow in my photographic education I missed everything about studio photography and most lessons about lighting. So, currently I am trying to remedy this deficit in my knowledge. Unfortunately, it becomes much harder to learn about studio work without a studio and lighting without proper lighting equipment. But I have a MFA in Jury-rigging from the School of Make-do, so I'm learning with what I've got. Below are some studio style shots of some of our household knick-knacks. Photographers use translucent cloth boxes called shooting tents or domes to diffuse light and soften highlights and shadows when photographing (usually small) objects. These cost anywhere from $40-$160, depending on size and quality, but mine cost me the price of a half gallon of milk because that's what it was, a half-gallon milk jug. Which is why all the objects were so small. I'm fairly pleased with how it worked and I actually kind of like the effect of the jug's curve and seam in the black cat picture.


The pink is just a red cloth draped over the jug.

My supercool fellow photog friend Steve has promised me a lesson in lighting with his badass lighting kit. Hopefully I'll have some shots to share from that sometime soon!

As Promised

Some pictures I took at the Maryland Wine Festival last Saturday.

This is Jess as queen of the Wine Festival:



And here is Steve. I don't actually think I took this one. I was showing off my camera to the other digital art savvy kids in the party and I think they all took a few. I'm guessing TAG took this one.


Jay is watching the sky for airplanes. Don't worry, he's not crazy. There really was an airplane there.

And here is Christie, Queen of the Wine Festival Forest (hence the leaf earrings), leaning on her trusty forest sprite, TAG.

After a toilsome afternoon sampling the selections of wines from two dozen fine (or not) Maryland vineyards, everyone went home with several bottles of their favorites. Except Jay and I, who were too lazy to carry heavy bottles of wine around and so just drank ours there on the grassy knoll. Don't worry Mom and Dad, it was only two bottles and we shared with others. Doesn't that reassure you?

Welcome

What's this? My first post in a month and it's not even a picture I took? Deal with it. These pictures are of my new niece, Lainie Elizabeth, sure to acheive greatness on the power of her middle name alone. Born Monday morning, September 22 to my sister-in-law, Joelle, and brother, Jeff at a healthy 8lbs 13oz.

Pictured here with her big sister, Zoe:

And here is the whole family:

Aren't they gorgeous? Sorry again that I couldn't be there, Jeff and Joelle.

And I have a couple of my own pictures in the queue that will be up in the next couple of days to restart this blog thing. Really. Promise. Cross my heart.

Friend or Foe?

A few weeks ago, Jay and I went to a farm to get fresh peaches and yummy veggies. Out back they had peacocks, sheep, goats, chickens, bunnies and a few other fuzzy or feathery creatures for feeding and petting.

Jay made a special friend:

Mr. Goat is doing a dance he's so happy to be friends with Jay!

It may also be a dance mocking Jay's lack of elevation, but my studies in traditional communicative goat dance lead me to believe the Dance of New Friend Joy is more likely than the Ha Ha I Have the Vertical Advantage Dance, though the fundamentals are quite similar.