pure of heart

My little cousin, Birgitta; her heart is so pure.

stare at the ceiling

I got this necklace the other day at Forever 21 and my cousin discovered it yesterday and proceeded to wear it over her face as she lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. 

up from below

I don't think I've ever done a strictly candid collection...until this one of course. And on top of never having a candid shoot, I had also never shot with a lot of wind until this. Our Grammy's house, in Winthrop, is by the ocean and is always windy no matter what. Like all my shoots with Mikaela and Birgitta, this one was not planned, it was simply done on the spot. This was the first time I'd ever let them completely run around and do whatever they felt like doing. Even my Dad jumped into a couple of the shots.

yellow hair

First off, Happy Easter! Despite recieving an HD camcorder for Christmas, this is actually the first film that I've used it for. I have this thing about gifts; I never use them (for anything worth uploading) right away, it takes me a while to get into the groove of using that object and then I'll use it for a project. I really do appreciate cinematography and I've been dabbling in it since summer. I would really love to do more films like this one, combining two of my favorite things - imagery and music.

snow day

Snow day today! It is too glorious for words and it couldn't come at a better time! I've been up to my forehead in work that was all due yesterday so having a snow day today was the perfect way to get some downtime. I know that you all know by now that "downtime" is code for obsessive photography the crap out of anything around me. So today it was the magnificent blizzard outside my window. I actually woke up this morning, opened my window, stuck my camera outside, and took pictures from my second-floor window! Then I decided that there were plenty of things to shoot on the ground too so I went outside. Let's just saw that my black, midlength UGGs had become white, thigh-high boots within a few minutes. I was beginning to get worried about Cammy getting too wet so I came inside; my lense was beginning to fog up anyway.

Also before braving the cold snowy day to get these photographs, I did I bit of much-needed video-editing. This video features Mikaela & Birgitta on a crisp fall day just after Thanksgiving. I love how long it takes me to edit my video projects. We also took a bunch of photographs which I have posted about before.

war zone

First off HAPPY NEW YEAR! I would have posted yesterday, but I was driving around running errands all day and when I finally got home I didn't feel much like blogging. I am really not looking forward to returning to school tomorrow. But to cheer myself up I began a photo project called the "365 Project" My new year's resolutlion for 2011 was to live in the moment and never let the good times slip away without a fight. I will be uploading photographs and writing a small diary entry everyday for the next 365 days. I am very excited about this project and I can't wait to look back on this a year from now and see what I've done in 2011. As for these pictures I took them this morning in the woods behind my house. I found the helmet hiding in my Dad's library just as we were heading outside so it was sort of a spur of the moment addition. You can see more in the War Zone set on my Facebook page.

the last of the fall

(Mikaela wears: Dalia Collection faux fur vest, Free People lace slip, Jeffrey Campbell for Free People studded oxfords, and Cynthia Rowley hat. Birgitta wears: Gap Kids sweater, Free People lace slip, Scala hat, and Bass oxfords.)

This shoot was kind of my goodbye to the crisp autumn days and HELLO to those cold winter nights. I'm pretty sure that this is the last shoot that I will be able to do this fall with all the work I have to do before Christmas break. Fall always goes by way to fast for me, but I do love the winter - it's when my favorite holiday occurs! CHRISTMAS! I can't believe how quickly its coming up - only 15 days way! I can't wait for it. I finally got my license last weekend so there will be plenty of shoots in places other than my yard to come.

video propaganda

Over the summer I began experimenting with videography. I edited a few fun videos out of clips taken of me and my friends and then I began filming more art films. I posted yesterday and then realized that I hadn't posted any of my videos on here! I thought you guys might want to check it out. I edited the two with Lexii in "Windows Movie Maker" which came with my laptop and I edited Birgitta's with "Adobe Premiere Elements 0.8."

I really hope you enjoy them.

This one was my very first art film. Lexii and I are both huge Andy Warhol & Edi Sedgewick fans so we decided that for our first video collaboration we decided to go for a vintage, 60's feel and that's what the finished product became. It was funny at first because Lexii wasn't used to seeing herself starring in her own art film and I wasn't used to having pictures moving as I edited them.

During the first video, Lexii and I overlooked quite a few bits of good footage. This was pretty much a scrap video - made of some scraps of unused footage and some previously used footage. Hope you like it!

My little cousin, Birgitta, is one the people I care about the most in the world. This was the first video that I edited in Adobe Premiere so please be kind. The footage in this video was taken the same day as the "Skinny Love" photo set.

Nothing too happy happened today. I went to school, got home and went right to my room to study for 3 quizes, finish up a project, and do other homework stuff. Not a very eventful Monday.

How was yours?

Skinny love

 These were taken quite a while ago (like everything else on this blog.) These are from the 4th of July; I'm pretty sure it was a few days after my first shoot with Lexii. This was around the time that I began bringing my camera with me everywhere. It's amazing when I look back and its only been a few short months since my discovered love for photography.

These were the first legit photos I took of my 11year-old cousin, Birgitta. We were bored sitting by the pool on the 4th of July and she just happened to be sitting in a chair with this multicolored towl over her face so I decided to take a few pictures of her. I even met a family friend that day who was really into photography who gave me a few pointers that I really listened to. It kills me that I can't even remember her name.

About these late updates: they will not be for long - I've got a busy weekend ahead of me with a million chances for photo-opps so I will be sure to upload as soon as I get back...not sure if I'll be able to post tomorrow after school or not. I really shouldn't even be on right now. I have 3 huge tests to study for tomorrow - I really hate being a Junior sometimes.

You are fading

(Mikaela: Delias t-shirt, Birgitta: Victoria's Secret Pink t-shirt)

I should really start uploading these in order. I swear! Once I get all of my work up to date I will begin uploading cronologically.

This is a pretty simple shoot; not planned at all. The Cousins just showed up very late in the afternoon and I just threw white t-shirts from my own wardrobe at them and told them go outside and pose for me. I noticed that I didn't have any shots with the two of them so I decided to actually do some sisterly photographs.

The first and last shots are probably my favorites. The first took a very long time to position just the way I wanted it; they just didn't understand what I wanted them to do and everytime I would tell them to move into place they would bonk heads, which was pretty comical. The last - to me - is almost haunting. Neither of them knew that I was taking the picture and I think they saw something move behind them and Mikaela just turned so fast right when I snapped the pictures. I'm usually OCD when it comes to blury photos, but I did not mind this one because it almost looks deliberate.