Happy Holidays

The holidays are well upon us and that means that we are busy busy busy. I missed a PHOG entry last week due to my participation in my first 2 art shows. Not bad experiences. Time will tell if they were successful.

This weekend, we went to my family holiday party on Long Island, NY. Since I had the camera, I didn't make it into any of the pictures. I'm still having focus issues with the D200 - especially in a night time party situation. But I got some fun expressions - especially from my immediate family.

What a cute elf ...

... and deer.

I know that they must be saying ... here she comes again with that camera ... will I ever be safe? ... probably not.

Whatever holidays you are celebrating ... may they be happy. Until next week.

Showtime

This week I've been getting ready for the Girls Night Out Club (GNOC) Holiday Cocktail Party and the Northern Virginia Artists League (NOVAL) Holiday Sale. I'll be having a table to display my portrait work and sell things at the GNOC party. And I'll be one of several talented local artists selling art at the NOVAL sale.

I'm working on several series that I will fill out over time. The first is called "Supermarket Flowers." I've taken pictures of flowers that you buy in the supermarket - you know, those flowers that aren't perfect - like those from from a florist - but pick up your spirits. Here are a few of the images from the series.




I continued with portfolio building this week. Here are a few images from a family photo shoot of some of my friends.







Not sure how much photography I'll be doing this week as I get ready for the 2 sales but ... see you next week.

Gobble Gobble - Flash

Thanksgiving (and my birthday) is now past. I dragged out the tripod, set the timer, and the only one missing from our holiday family shot is Ivan, our dog. He was under the table hoping for scraps.

This was another weekend for me to work on portfolio building and get some additional practice with shooting children (which can be quite a challenge). On Sunday a few more of my “photography” friends brought their kids by to help me out. It was a "boys" weekend. There were lots of great shots. Here are a few of the best ones.

More on the photography front … I got an Epson Photo R1800 printer for my birthday (what a great husband I have). I am now trying to figure out exactly how it works so that I can get some nice prints out of it.

Until next Sunday.

Getting ready for the holidays

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and then it will be Christmas and Hanukah and New Years and ... YIKES.

This week I took holiday card pictures for my friends the Peters. They have cute twin 4 year old boys. Our dog, Ivan, likes it when they come for dinner because he gets to "clean up" under the table where they eat.

I signed up to have a table of my work at the GNOC (Girls Night Out Club) holiday party. While I have a small portfolio of work, I made a push this weekend to expand my portfolio. Several of my photography friends answered my call for help and brought over their very photogenic kids to help me out. Here are a few of the best shots ... though there were a few others that I will be using as well.

Watch the PHOG next Sunday for Thanksgiving and more portfolio building shots.

Where are all the leaves now!

PHOG is late this week. This is what happens when you get back to work after a week's vacation.

I didn't get to do much picture taking this week. But I did some.

On Friday there were still lots of leaves on the tree in my backyard. The colors were beautiful. After Sunday's rain, they're all gone. :(

A little Photoshop play.

On Saturday, we went to the Virginia Tech - Kent State football game down in Blacksburg. It was my last home game of the season although Charles gets to go to one more over Thanksgiving weekend (a big one against UVA). For the first time since going to a Tech game, I had a "Hokie" leg (aka turkey leg). Here is a shot of all the turkey legs on the grill.

I finally got to work on some of the maternity pictures that I took of Melanie before we went on vacation. Here they are:

It is a busy week again so I don't know how much photography I will get to do this week. But I always manage some.

Fall Colors - Sunset Reds and Oranges

Yesterday we returned from our vacation in Southwest Florida. So I have lots of pictures to share!!!

One of the best things about Ft. Myers Beach is watching the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. Although we missed the sunset on our arrival day, we got to see one every other night. Some were better than others but all were beautiful. These are all as they came out of the camera - no Photoshop enhancements.

The above shot was taken on the day when we had clouds all day, not much sun and a little rain. Perhaps the best night of the bunch.

We stayed at my timeshare at the Lahaina Inn Resort. The nice thing about going to the Lahaina is seeing some of the same people year after year. This year we saw our friends Tracy and her daughter, Audrey. We shared tropical sunset drinks on the beach with them (and their friend, Kathleen) several nights. I brought the tripod with me and figured out how to work the timer so that we could all be in the shots together.

We had fun playing around with Audrey - she slept well at night because she was GO GO GO all day long!

There are all kinds of folks walking on the beach in Ft. Myers. One day, a woman and her parrot, Nica, were walking along.

We didn't stray too far from Ft. Myers Beach but did a little exploring to Lover's Key, a state park just to the south. We found some funky vining plants that sent roots into the sand. We also saw lots and lots of birds (and jumping fish).

We played on the beach.

We also went to the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve one day. We saw lots of birds there but no gators - although they were supposed to be there.

I explored the Lahaina grounds with my macro lens and played with some of the features on my camera (multiple exposures). Here are some of my "flower" and "play" pictures.

Right before we left for vacation, I shot some maternity portraits of my friend, Melanie. I'll share some of them next week.

A Day Early and ...

I know that I usually post the PHOG on Sundays but I will be away from a computer this Sunday so ... you're getting it today.

I had a short work week this week because we went to the Thursday night Virginia Tech - Clemson college football game. Night games are so much fun. Here are a few shots - fans, players, fireworks, the band.

Oh, yeah, the HOKIES won this game. YAY!!!

On the way back I had hoped to catch some of the fall color in the Virigia mountains. But it was raining. We stopped at a winery and tasted (and bought) some wine. The vineyard looked so dismal because it was the end of the season AND it was raining.

Our friend Melanie posed for some maternity shots. I have to process what I took but here is a portrait of her with her husband, our friend Jeff. I like the looks that they have in this one.

PHOG will be back on it's regular schedule next week (Sunday, November 5) with some of the maternity photos AND images from our Florida vacation!!!