Sophie [i heart faces]

This week's theme over at is pets. While I know Auntie prefers to think of Sophie as a daughter, she's technically a puppy so I can enter.

Yesterday, I showed you the rest of the shots. This one is my absolute favorite.



I took this laying on the floor with her.
f/3.5, 1/30sec, ISO 1600.
It was kind of dark but she was relaxing so I bumped my ISO and hoped for the best.

a wagging tail means "I love you"

I introduced Sophie previously but I didn't really go into too much detail. Sophie is my four-legged, curly haired cousin. She likes to curl up in my bed, especially if she can put her head on my keyboard.

She went to the groomer today to get all prettified. She didn't even make it home without shaking one of her bows. I think it runs in the family. I promised Auntie I'd try to get a few photos of her with her bow(s). I think these are pretty cute, even if she likes to lick my face any time I get the camera near it.






Come back tomorrow to see my absolute favorite.

seeing the sights of our own city

Wednesday was one of those days where I really needed to just take it slow and look around me. I needed to be able to see the world and actually appreciate it. So Doug and I took US1 south from the apartment to West Palm. He said he had a few sights to show me on the way and it was lovely.

This is how the world always looks: a purple-haired girl with a silver camera in an orange car.


I have a weakness for old signs.



One of the places we went to was Northwood village. I was so in love with the area. I wish I had the money to get a cute chair from one of the antique shops--for photo shoots, of course!



I absolutely love the details on some of the buildings.

On the way home, we saw a glorious sunset. While even a sunset wasn't enough to stop my anxiety attack--despite what the Little Prince says--it certainly is making me feel happy now.

L is for lovely

As I promised in my previous post, Lexa is just too beautiful to confine to one post. I hope you didn't have to wait for these too long, Lexa darling.


As I mentioned before, I did not pose her at all. We were just having fun in the parking garage, waiting for Seth to clean the ledge so she could sit down.


It was kind of hot out so she folded her hair up.



I had actually brought the pinwheels to be used as props but they make pretty good hair sticks too.

a mixture of business and pleasure

First, straight up business: the 100th post contest. I got some pretty funny entries.

**Hunting down men that look like Sean Connery in the South Florida urban sprawl. (twice because Megan is smart like that)
**You. Me. All the places [Dan] was too much of a [Dan] to go adventuring with you/ruined for you. Then? Bubble tea from this AMAZING Vietnamese restaurant and Goodwill.
**I have two parter. First part is a ridiculous shoot in the rain (if possible... is Florida in summer so chances are good). Second is the shower scene we discussed maybe more to it.

Thanks to the wonderful random.org, the winner is:

Ashley!



Shooting Seth and Lexa also qualifies as a mixture of business and pleasure. I absolutely love photography and post processing but I'd be pretty lame if I didn't admit I also love hanging out with them. I knew it was going to be fantastic when I mentioned offhand my love of abandoned buildings, retro dresses, and Chuck Taylors and they planned out something that combined all three. I had to delete a lot of shots because they were blurry from laughing so hard.


See? I can't help it though. They're super cute together.



As I mentioned in Lexa's teaser, she and Seth brought me to a parking garage next to an abandoned mall. It was such a lovely scene, although there was a lot of broken glass to contend with.





After a quick outfit change, we headed out to the park.

Seth and Lexa had their first kiss on this bridge so how could we not shoot there?



This is probably one of my favorite series of shots. It certainly ranks up there with Cassidy's skip down the boardwalk.



One of the things I love the most about Seth and Lexa is how much fun they are. Any crazy idea I threw out was met with willingness and even more crazy ideas. They actually asked me if I would take a jumping shot before I could ask them.



Of course, they also have a tendency to be all cute and mushy if left unattended. I am all for lots of kisses, hugs, and genuine smiles.




For straight up pleasure, please come back tomorrow for a few shots of Lexa alone. She's so stunning that I couldn't leave out any of the photos.

To end this post, which I know has dragged on just a little, I'd like to share my absolute favorite shot of the entire day.

This is what it looks like to be in love.

abandoned garage model [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is teens and lucky for me, Lexa just barely qualifies.



When I mentioned to her and Seth that I like abandoned buildings, they decided that this abandoned parking garage would be the perfect place to shoot. While Seth was looking for paper towels to clean off the ledge so she could sit down, Lexa was posing for me.

I hope to have the rest of the shoot up later tonight.

it feels kind of like prom [teaser]

I was going to post this tomorrow but Seth keeps texting me to ask for it.

He and Lexa brought the glam and pretty much rocked my face off. I can't wait to show you the rest of their crazy couples shoot. I promise it wasn't all kissing outside the front door like prom night.

one hundredth postcard

It has been brought to my attention that this is my hundredth post. That seems sort of surreal to me. In honor of such a momentous occasion, I am holding a contest.

For local friends who want to enter, please describe your dream photo adventure with me. For some of you, it will be a portrait session in downtown West Palm. For others, I'm sure it will involve alligators. If you win, you get this adventure with me and a disc of edited photos.

For friends who can't adventure and explore with me, you get your choice of print. Anything from my flickr, deviantART, or any other place where you've seen my photos. Just let me know which one you'd like (up to an 8x10).

You have until Sunday Tuesday night to enter. I will be reading through all the entries and listing my favorite dream adventures on the blog. To be fair, I will be picking the winner through a random number generator but I reserve the right to refuse an idea.


I was on my way to make a post when I noted that I hit 100 posts. I got postcards in the mail today from my mom from her birthday in Paris.


She's super funny. I suggested she celebrate by having tea at a cafe overlooking the Eiffel Tower and then hitting up the Moulin Rouge so she sent me postcards from both.

tactile sensation

I sometimes tell people that photography is more than just a visual pursuit for me; it's almost like there's a tactile sensation that goes with my photos. If a photo doesn't 'feel' right (too slippery, too rough, etc), I frequently delete it or spend too much time in post-processing trying to make it feel right. It's really difficult for me to explain it further.
That being said, I absolutely love using textures. They can change the way a photo 'feels' to me, as well as enhance the look/feel I was going for.

I won a coupon to Photo Flavors through a contest they held on their blog and immediately went for the textures. After a long deliberation, I opted for the Sweet Streets set.

I wish I had had these textures back when I did the vacation in Rapture six month shoot because they just add to the whole old-fashioned-underwater-utopia feel.

family snapshots

I spent a long time trying to figure out what to call this post but I just kept coming back to the idea of family snapshots. I wasn't trying to get amazing, artistic shots so they're snapshots; I intend to marry Doug someday so his family is (going to be) my family too.

We had a ton of fun out on Mr. Andy's boat...




...especially when we went tubing.








Well, except for me. I fell off the tube and got hurt. I'll stick to photographer, thank you very much.

Ms. Sherry wasn't doing to well on the dock.

It might have had something to do with her brother annoying her.


As usual, Doug hammed it up for my camera.




All the air guitar and video game playing happened while we were stuck in traffic.



I always end up with at least one rearview mirror shot on road trips.



And we came home with a 'new' member of the family: Trebek, Doug's high school SLR.