Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween.

Dylan: Seven Months Old!

Another month has gone by and my little boy is seven months old. He is getting very big and heavy. Carrying him a few blocks kills my arms. No more teeth yet, but he is getting way closer to crawling. He gets on his stomach and inches forward. He is such a wiggle worm and never stops moving now, so I am not looking forward to the full crawl. He laughs all the time now and at random things. Apparently me folding laundry is hysterical to him. He just sits there and laughs and laughs, while I fold all his cloths. I guess this is a typical male for you. Laughing at the woman in his life he has conned into taking care of his dirty stuff. His is also eating everything in sight at this point the kid can't get enough food. He is starting to like fruit now. He loves to share my smoothies. This month we took pictures with Cory's first bow from when he little.

Fall Sunrise.

A few mornings ago I looked out the window and saw some great color starting in the sky. So grabbed Dylan and my camera bag and headed to a spot about five minutes away that I had been eyeballing for a sunrise shoot. There happen to be color in the east side of the sky as well which worked out perfect for another spot 1/4 of a mile down the road with a pond that I had been thinking about for sunsets. So I got the color at the pond and then made my way to the barn with the hay in it. I had noticed the sun was coming up perfectly through the barn about a month ago early one morning on my way to get hay. This morning I got the shot I had been wanting, with the added bonus of what little fall color we have been getting this season. Then I made my way around the valley getting the fog with the warm light of the rising sun.

One Step Closer.

This last week I did something that I have been meaning to do for quite a while. I cleaned out our upstairs living area that we have been using as storage. I moved everything into the empty spare bedroom. The area I cleaned out is a big essentially living room for the upstairs. My office is off of this area. It is big, has hardwood floor, two big windows and a sliding glass door that lets in lots of natural light. I have been wanting to make this area into a studio for a while now. Now that I have it cleared out I am one step closer to making that happen. I am now looking at backdrops for this area. I already have a few props.

I haven't always wanted a studio, but since going to school and taking lighting classes I have been thinking about it more. I ending up liking those classes a lot more than I thought. I was actually not really looking forward to them, lights to me were pretty intimidating. We had a great instructor in Allison Leach though and she helped change my mind about all that. She was very funny and made lighting a whole lot simpler. I learned a lot from her and enjoyed the class immensely. At the end when we had to show our favorite images taken during the class. She told me I had a knack for working with and photographing people. Which was news to me because I had went to school wanting to primarily be a nature and outdoor photographer.

So now I am working towards getting my own studio set up. Having someone who photographs celebrities and shoots for People magazine tell you you have a knack for something can be a real motivator. Not that I still don't love outdoor and natural light photography, but now I will be able to work inside during the very long winter months here. When it is just too cold and snowing way too much to even think about going outside. Next step after the backdrops is lights. Still trying to decide which direction I want to go there, one step at a time though.

Grandma & Grandpa Schmid

This last weekend we had some good weather. I was suppose to be the last nice weather for a few weeks. Cory's Sister and her family were here visiting so Saturday we ended up doing pictures of the grand kids with Grandma and Grandpa. It was perfect afternoon light and pretty falls colors which had the makings of nice photos. The challenge was two babies and three dogs, one of which is a 8 week old puppy. Man did I get some practice working with multiple difficult subjects. The funny things was half the time we would get the kids to look, but Grandma and Grandpa would be too into them to look at the camera. It was fun though and we got some cute pictures for Grandma and Grandpa.

How it all began.

My interest in photography started at a young age. For some reason I have always been fascinated by photographs. My Dad would take these great pictures from his hunting trips. They made me want to know how to compose photos like that. Then there was my sister, the model of the family. She was always dressing up and making me take pictures of her. This all led to me doing my eighth grade career project on photography. My parents had an old Minolta SLR (pictured above) not being used that they let me have. My dad showed me the basics and I taught my self the rest by reading and trial and error. Much trial and error if you look at the album of horrible pictures I have as the end result from that project. And that my friends is how and where my passion for photography began. How about you? Where did you get your passion for the thing you love to do most?

P.S. I just happen to find this camera on my last visit to Tillamook. I had asked my Mom a few weeks before if she knew where it was, which she did not. Then I happen to walk by some storage items and spotted it when I was there.