I enjoy combining many seemingly unrelated objects into a cohesive composition and telling a story too. The theme is reading by candlelight so, in addition to the candle and books, I added a red candle holder, an alarm clock, and pears. I felt that his creation needed some lovely pink lilies to bring it together. The pink glass vase matched the pink lilies. This arrangement has a classic, still-life feel with a soft, blurred textured background.
White Daisies and Books
I love white daisies against a black background so I decided to do a still life of white daisies in a metal pitcher, with books, and glasses. I have two different versions: one without the apple, and one with a green apple that offsets the green in the middle of the daisies. I like them both and I cannot decide which one is better. I only have two in this post because I actually took numerous shots of the same thing until I was satisfied.
Joyce and Family
I was asked to do some family portraits of my friend Joyce, her daughter Amanda, and her granddaughter Lainey. I started out with Lainey who wears glasses. She allowed me to shoot some without her glasses but we ultimately decided she would be more comfortable with her glasses on, since that is how she is used to seeing herself. Joyce was a great model and basically posed as I instructed her. I added in some flowers she picked from her yard. She loosened up a bit later on. I gave her a shawl that I had in my closet and it did the trick. Joyce also wore another fringed shawl bought in my favorite places for props, Goodwill. It was a fun day and hopefully they enjoyed themselves.
Eclipse 2017
I went to South Carolina to see the total eclipse of the sun on August 21, 2017. It was an amazing experience to try to photograph this event. It was not easy and I struggled with finding the sun, with my special glasses and filter on my camera. I had to use the Live View feature on the camera because I could not look through the viewfinder. It was challenging and I didn’t think to remove the filter to capture the totality–it is very dark so I did not need the filter. As a result, I didn’t get that picture–disappointing. However, I did get some and the weather really cooperated that day, although clouds were predicted. Just before the eclipse the sky cleared out. During totality, everything went dark and the crickets started chirping, so weird. I was with very lovely people to make the day one to never forget.