Ominous vibe

Do you know what it's like when you have an awesome vision in your head and no matter what you do you can't seem to bring it to fruition? That's sort of what happened here. I had every intention of shooting a beautiful, ethereal shot of me floating up, up and away. Instead it turned out rather grim. Apparently I've been feeling a little dark lately.

 When rocking an ominous vibe, you might as well throw in a little severed arm for good measure. Special thanks to Cristina for letting me borrow her cool frame. Again, not what I had in mind for this frame. But maybe Halloween's coming a little early this year.

Scanography

Inspiration comes from a lot of places. This week's post was initially inspired by a fascinating online gallery called Face Your Pockets. The idea of their project is to scan your face along with the objects in your bag or pockets. I must have spent an hour looking at all the scanned images people have submitted. There are some really creative ideas there.
It is worth noting that this 'scanography' technique is not a new concept. When I happened upon this site I was immediately reminded of the artwork from the Tori Amos album, From the Choirgirl Hotel. Those fascinating images were created by Katerina Jebb - an unconventional photographer who uses industrial-sized photocopy machines and scanners to capture her images.
So having said that, and giving credit where credit is due, here is my first attempt at scanography. This is not what's in my pockets, but what's in my mind A LOT lately. A place I have dreamed of going since I was a little girl. Now that dream is less than 2 months away...

Sea World

This past weekend we visited Sea World. I think we may have picked the hottest day of the year to go. We will definitely not be back until the fall when it is much, much cooler. But Chloe finally got to feed the dolphins!

I think dolphins are so well liked because they always look like they're smiling.

Unlike these guys. Even the small ones look cranky.

These birds are pesky little fish stealing bastards. But very photogenic...

Is that toe broken?

All he needs is a ball to balance on his nose.

Fireworks

This holiday weekend gave me the chance to do some cool firework shots. Since we have so many trees around our house, we kept it to the ground. So these are shots of the fountains and spinners we lit. I played around with some light painting shots with sparklers, but I want to refine that technique a little more before I post those. These were all taken on a bulb setting, f/11.

Mannequin update

Bill's lovely lady has been busy since I last saw her. She's got some new tats, a manicure, and apparently has been working as a nude helmet model. For some reason, I felt these shots deserved a vintage look.

Happy Father's Day

This week's post is a tribute to my husband. He's a wonderful, doting father. The kind of dad who drops everything to race his girl to the doctor when her school calls with the news that she's got an acorn stuck up her nose. The kind of dad who shaves his face because his daughter tells him his kisses are 'too pokey'. The kind of dad who (as I told Chloe the other day) will ruin her on men. Because one day, long from now, she will realize just how special her daddy is and how hard it will be to find a guy like him.
This is my new favorite picture of C and C.

This picture was taken right before her K3 end-of-the-year performance. I love the sweet, genuine pose and the fact that they are both looking at the camera! However, the lovely brick wall was not the original background. I'm including a 'before' shot below to show how much work went into this photo. I should have just moved them a couple of feet to the right, but when all else fails...photoshop!

Keiko's Photoshoot

My friend Tracy has a beautiful 13 year old girl named Keiko. I had the honor of photographing her last weekend and even though she wasn't feeling 100% (she had an inner ear problem) she was a perfect model.

 

I had to post the black and white version of this because I love it so.

This is her "Have you no more hot dogs for me?" look