Sunset at the farm

The barn may have fallen down, but its beauty is undiminished in my eyes!

A preview of things to come!

I got some of my photos in the mail today. For anyone who is interested, I am now using Nations Photo Lab, which is a professional printing service and is online. I'm lately taken by their paper selection which includes metallic. I love the way the metallic paper makes my black and whites stand out. It just gives the photos an extra punch as well as a beautiful glow. This is a shot of a piece I plan to enter in the Fonda Fair: Breanna's wedding pictures :) The lighting is poor in this shot but I'm just giving you an idea of what I plan to enter. The frame is an el-cheapo from family dollar that just happened to perfectly compliment the sepia tones I went for!

Having fun with the new lens!

I'm having lots of fun with the new lens and with photography in general the last few days. Today, I discovered that the NYS museum is having a photography exhibit beginning in September that is dedicated specifically to NYS landscapes. I hurriedly looked through my shots and submitted some, but thought, gee, I think I can find more out there somewhere. This first shot is sort of an accident. I actually just came upon this gorgeous field which I believe might be the same one "Zeezee" found a few days back. I shot in RAW and then changed my white balance to cloudy, uping the contrast just a hair.

This second shot I actually took last night. As the sun began to set, I traveled my vast yard in search of inspiration. I found it beneath my oak tree!

Who knows? Maybe one of my shots will be hanging on the wall of the museum in just a few weeks time! Definitely better than a first prize ribbon :)

Putting it all together

Going through my photos, I am trying to choose what I am going to enter in the Fonda Fair this year and the upcoming Hagaman Art Show. The pressure is on as last year, I took home two first place ribbons from Fonda and a third place at the art show. I want to choose photos that people have trouble looking away from. I want my pictures to actually be good and not just be average. I'm still in my Eli Reed stage and so I'm doing a lot of contrast-y black and whites. I decided to put together this collage of some of my favorites. Several of them are in the running, but I'm not 100% sure on anything yet! Which do you like?

Freckles!

Afternoon dreams

I spent most of the day inside, organizing, cleaning, etc. avoiding the wicked allergens that seem to be creeping around these days. But I couldn't help going out in the late afternoon sunshine to look for something worthy. Here is what I came up with: nothing special, just simple and beautiful in my opinion. I call these my afternoon dreams because they both seem dreamy to me!

Father and Son

Family reunions are a great place to capture relationships and my cousin Jonathan and his son, Xavier, look perfect to me perched on this tree branch!