Keepin' it Light

Looking the part :-)

Gearing up (literally) for my first wedding this weekend! I rented a flash and a diffuser; makes me look like the real deal, doesn't it? :-) I avoid flash like the plague but with an after-dark reception I thought I had better have a backup plan for my usual natural light tactics. :-)

I know, this isn't exactly the greatest picture given that it looks like my head is growing out of the flash...

but hey, I'm not entering it in the Greatest Self-Portrait Contest or anything.

Planning... | Personal

For my whole life, except for the brief first 20 months when she didn't exist, I have shared a room with my sister. When we were younger we schemed about having our own rooms next to each other, with french doors in between so we could still make it like one big room if we wanted to (even better yet, how about HIDDEN doors! Yeah!!!), but we never really thought it would happen and really, we were okay with that. When you are used to sharing a room it is pretty weird trying to sleep in a room all by yourself.

But... we're "big girls" now, and Tara revived the old idea of our own personal rooms (though we forfeited the idea of hidden doors in between). With her puppy, we are kind of on different schedules and she thought maybe it'd be fun to have our own space as well. Not to mention an excuse to redecorate. The guest room, soon to be her room, hasn't been touched since we moved in and is badly in need of a makeover (can anyone say hunter green and maroon speckled walls?), while our room still sports pink walls, cottage rose quilts and four poster "princess beds," picked out when we had less mature taste. :-) It's not THAT bad or we would have redone it before now...

Anyway, I get to stay in our original room which is quite large, so I am planning to redecorate and make it so I can use it sort of as an informal photography studio. We have lots of windows in there for great light, but with rose pink walls, any pictures taken in there had a pink cast on them. :-) I'm thinking light grey walls (hence the paint chip photo above)... and some kind of accent color. Saffron yellow??

Just a snippet out of my daily life... enjoy your weekend!

Branch Out

While messing around with my new camera (!) and taking pictures of everything and everyone, I snapped this photo of my sister. I wasn't really trying to do something new, or even trying to take a picture worth saving, but I pulled it into Lightroom and played with it. I ended up with something very different from my usual style, and I liked it.

Also goes to show you that you don't need all kinds of fancy stuff to get the "studio look." She was sitting on the ottoman of our old, very beat-up rocking chair in front of a window, I was standing and shooting angled down. There's a dark wood table in the top left corner and I edited out the tissue box on it. :-) On the other side is a tan couch. She was probably still holding on to the dog toy she'd just been playing with (along with the dog... she may be odd sometimes but she doesn't play with dog toys by herself). The photo was underexposed for the scene by my normal standards, and then I added a heavy vignette to further darken everything around her face. Voila!

So... try something new today. Branch out. You might have fun and like the results. :-)

Of new cameras & rainy days

The day my 60D arrived I didn't get home from my harp lesson until around 5:00pm; I exercised great self control and waited to tear open the box until AFTER I took my shoes off (impressive, I know!). But alas... camera batteries do not arrive charged, which meant waiting 2.5 more hours. I improved the time by reading the manual (an unheard-of feat for me... manuals are my nemesis). The battery charged up just in time for.... dinner. I snapped a few pizza shots just because I couldn't wait any more and then set it aside to eat. And then it's dark. So I had to just shoot things around the house in nasty tungsten light, which was really okay because it gave me a chance to see how the high ISO performs (oh, gracious, am I ever in love!).

What was the point of all that? Merely to say that morning dawned and I was pretty eager to really try it out. Outside. Natural light. Beautiful sister. That sort of thing.

And then....

RAIN.

Yes, last week I posted about the joy of finally getting rain after a long drought. And getting more of it is a good thing. But couldn't it have waited until after I did a photoshoot? Nope.

So you make the best of it. You balance an umbrella in one hand and a camera in the other; the aforementioned beautiful sister dons her red jacket and arms herself with her own umbrella and away you go!

Not the most ideal conditions, but it works for practicing. :-)

www.kathryngracephotography.com + new design!

For a while now I've had the "design itch." Also known as, "I'm-bored-with-my-blog-design-and-want-a-new-one syndrome." I've had the same basic, original design on this blog since I started it in 2010. There's nothing wrong with staying with the same design, but... I was bored with it. Sooo, I got a new camera and thought it's a good time to get a fresh look on the blog. What do you think??

Before

After!

In other news, I finally got www.kathryngracephotography.com so my blog doesn't have to live at blogspot anymore (don't worry, the blogspot still will get you here so you don't have to go and change all your links!).

I feel so official. :-)

I Heart Faces - Pets

Worn out and ready for a nap in the comfiest spot... in the fresh laundry.
Why sleep in your cat bed when there are clean clothes to sleep in?

Powers Kids | Portraits

When Abbe emailed and asked if I'd be up for tackling portraits of her group of 10 siblings, I was both excited and just a *tad* nervous. After all, I stick to individual portraits for the most part, and I have never handled a group of more than approximately 4 people! But, being the dare-devil that I am (HA!), I said yes.

I couldn't have picked a better group to start with. We shot at their gorgeous farm before sunset and despite 90ºF temperatures, had a great time (I did anyway) and came away with some fun shots. Seriously, with such a good-looking family it's basically impossible to get bad pictures of them!

This was the best they could do at funny faces... :-)

The contrast of short and tall just really cracks me up

Helping...

My New Baby... It's Here!!!

I know I just posted yesterday but I couldn't wait. I am now the proud owner of a Canon 60D! Whooooooooopie! My Rebel XTi has served me well for 4 years, but I felt the time had come to move on. :-D Can't wait to get out and start SHOOTING with this baby! I am prettyyyyy excited... if you couldn't tell by the smile on my face. :-)

And then God sent rain

Just a week or two ago, everything was dried up and appeared to be dead. The lack of rain for most of the summer thus far had left its mark. The leaves on the Japanese maple by the back deck were curled and shriveled. Area ponds were reduced to mud puddles. The grass was more brown than green and too scratchy to walk on with bare feet. The river birches, water-loving trees that they are, lost half their foliage, making the driveway look the way it does in the fall - covered in crunchy leaves. In the fall I enjoy the crunch underfoot; but it's not quite the same in July. Walking through fallen leaves may be fun when the air is crisp, but it lacks the thrill when it's 90ºF.

And then... God sent rain.

Wonderful, glorious rain, accompanied by flashes of lighting and rumbles of thunder, to soak the thirsty ground. I lay in my bed and just listened to the sound of the myriad drops sloshing against the windows. When you have not heard that sound in weeks (or was it months?), it's the most refreshing thing in the world.

Things are slowly greening up again; the ponds and streams are once more full of water.

Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.

Psalm 68:9