Happiness is a 2' by 3' print

I was sitting at work today when brotherface texted me this photo.

In case you never heard this story, let me start at the beginning. This past winter concert was the first time that the band, orchestra, and chorus all performed together. The head of the music department wanted to capture this momentous occasion and asked if anyone knew someone with a decent camera. Since he knew I was bringing my camera anyway, my brother volunteered me to take the picture.
While they were rearranging the stage to fit everyone on, I dashed to the back of the auditorium to stake out my place. I took a few test shots before they started to get the exposure right, make sure I could fit everyone into the frame, and get a decent amount of sharpness. But once the "Hallelujah Chorus" began, I was ready. I took a few different shots as the lighting changed and the musicians moved so I could capture what it was like to be there and hear them play.

Later, brotherface told me that they wanted a large print to hang on the wall. Jokingly, I told him that the largest print Mpix could make is 2' by 3' (yes, that's three feet across) and asked if that was big enough. I priced it and sent the information to the band director, who immediately asked me to order it.

Not only does it have a Brendazzle Photography imprint on the back, he let me sign the front in silver Sharpie. (Ok, silver paint pen. We couldn't find a silver Sharpie in any of the stores we went to.) He also added his own caption on the front and then he hung it up in the band room.
Sorry. I can't contain my excitement. I have this love affair with large prints. I think a lot of photographers do. This is the first large print I ever had made and it's HUGE. I'm not sure how I'm going to top this; luckily, I'm currently redecorating my room.

for once, my heart is in it

I know this post counts as double-dipping but I had an idea and I executed it. And now I am tired. This week's theme over at is red, in support of Go Red For Women (women's heart health). It's also "open your heart" week for Project 52.


My immediate thought, based on both themes, was a (broken) heart. After all, my actual heart is broken/in need of repair. I didn't really want to go into it on the blog but the only way this photo makes sense is with some disclosure. My heart has an electrical issue which will be 'corrected' over spring break. I actually knit the heart I am clutching for my 'heart electrician' as a thank you for finally diagnosing me. I am nervous over the idea of having to be hospitalized, which is breaking my heart further.
I feel like I spent the past few months standing alone in a cold, sterile atmosphere, waiting for an answer and trying to hold my heart together. I feel like a shadow of who I usually am, especially when I want so desperately to be shooting nonstop. This is me opening my heart and being honest about why I haven't been posting much as of late.
[For the record, this isn't heart disease and being more "heart healthy" would not have prevented it. But I still encourage everyone, regardless of gender, to look into the tips on Go Red For Women's site.]

home sweet holidays

After much technical difficulties and stress, I am finally settled in at home and can post again. Without going into too much detail, my operating system got corrupted and I had to reinstall Windows 7. Luckily, all my photos are safe. Unfortunately, I don't have too much to share (yet!) but I should tomorrow.

As part of family tradition, we make Hanukkah cookies every year. This year, Doug and I made Darth Vader and Yoda respectively.


We also had a very fishy, festive meal with my grandfather at Flanigan's.


This is completely random but it amused me while I was cleaning my room:

He's guarding my sea shells.


And just because stats make me happy: I was checking my Flicks stats and discovered that someone found my photos through a Google search for "photos of Bellingrath Garden at Christmas", which lists my photo as the second link (above their official site). That same photo is also sixth when you search for "Bellingrath Gardens Christmas lights"

breathe in, breathe out...

I've been keeping quiet all week, waiting to hear definitively before saying a word. I've been unable to get my eyes to focus for almost 2 weeks. I was getting conflicting guesses to what the problem could be and quite a few of those did not bode well for a career as a photographer. But I think I found an optometrist with an answer I can live with. The idea of having one pair of glasses for shooting and another for post-processing (okay, more like a pair for daily living and another one for working at my desk) is much easier to stomach than the idea that I have a problem with the muscles or with my brain.

While I'm waiting the week for the new glasses so I can see again, I'm continuing to exist in a state of denial. I'm refusing to let my inability to see get in the way of taking great photos. Today I shot my cousin using only manual focus and I managed to nail about half of them without being able to focus my eyes.

new project: song of myself

I've been contemplating this project for a long time. When I was in high school, a teacher friend of mine lent me a copy of Leaves of Grass. Back then, I had not yet realized that photography was my love and so I threw myself into poetry. I fell in love with the words of Walt Whitman, especially "Song of Myself". Time passed and I moved on to a love affair with photography but I still read voraciously. When I got my hands on a copy of Paper Towns and saw the way Margo left clues using lines from Whitman, my love was reignited. I've been scouring thrift stores and used book stores for years, looking for a leather-bound copy of Leaves of Grass and I finally found one. In rereading "Song of Myself", I found myself associating photographs with lines from the poem. My goal is to make a book combining my photographs--both those I've already taken and those I have yet to take--with Whitman's words.


Once before, I did a "Song of Myself" project but it was on a much smaller scale. I made two cards with the last two stanzas, one for myself and one for a friend.

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.

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.

exciting news

I just got the email (at the last minute, because that's how life goes sometimes) that I won 'most creative' in the Abacoa photography contest. Most of you should recognize my entry from a previous post.



The awards are tomorrow at 3 in the realty office in Town Center in case anyone local wants to go.

I'm pretty sure he promised me a baby raptor

At the moment, I'm working on a scrapbook page layout with pictures from my Universal Studios trip on Saturday. I would be remiss if I didn't at least explain a little bit. Those of you who are Facebook friends with me may have noticed my relationship status changed oh, about a month ago. I sort of alluded to it in the new beginnings blog post. (Go look, I'll wait.) Well, I'm dating Doug. That might be kind of obvious. I mean, he let me use his camera at Universal.



We're kind of cute when we're about to get eaten by dinosaurs. And lens flare just adds to our appeal. Really, I'm only mentioning it as an excuse to post this photo.

jumping through hoops isn't like jumping rope, is it?

Ok, so my choice of a photo might be a stretch. But a) this is as far as I've gotten on my backlog and b) I feel like I'm jumping through hoops. Not like this though.



Is everyone impressed with my series on humans jumping rope with sea lions? Good. Because posting may become slightly uh... scarce for a while.

Simply put, school is very time consuming and...
and...
and...

I have a field interview tomorrow to be the Jupiter campus photographer for University Press.

I'm never going to go through all my Sea World pictures, am I?

introduction

Hi, I'm Brenda and I'm terrible at keeping up with correspondence. I frequently think about writing home or sending letters or emailing or blogging or writing in my journal but I just... don't. However, I am known for taking tons of photos.

This is my fifth(?) attempt at a photo blog. Hopefully this time I've found a way to host and post my photos that doesn't drive me too insane. I'm not going to be one of those superstar bloggers everyone admires who posts new content every day. I can't even promise to post once a week.

This is my letter home. Home is where the heart is, or so the saying goes. If that's true, I'll never run out of places to call home. If I was the kind of girl to get a tattoo for ever home I loved, my entire body would be covered.* And if a picture is worth a thousand words, than this may be the only way to write those long letters home that I keep meaning to send.

When I think of home, I frequently think of my house or my neighborhood.



Sometimes I think of the beach.


But for the majority of my posts, the Honors College campus in Jupiter is home.


Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the blog and share my world with you.

Love,
Brenda

*paraphrasing of song lyrics from "I Woke Up in a Car" by Something Corporate