Portraits

In an economy where landscape architecture jobs are hard to come by, I have spent many a day thinking about other possibilities for work. Photography, my love and passion, seems like a natural path to follow. But there are so many different ways to go with photography, it can be difficult to find the best place to start. I love the idea of licensing my artwork for for advertising or editorial purposes or shooting creative advertising assignments. However, these fields are highly competitive and can take years to break into and find success.

Until recently, I had not really considered portraiture. But why not? I love to take photographs of people; it is both challenging and rewarding. It is also something I have the space and equipment to do right now. I found my first willing participants in the family- always a good place to start. I was a little nervous doing the shoot and I worried about how the photos would turn out. But alas, working with such beautiful people, I need not have worried. Now I just need a few more willing subjects to help me build my portfolio!

Fertility and the Apple Tree

Ian and I spent the summer of 2007 in Ireland and while he was off working on research and writing, I had the opportunity to explore Dublin, read and photograph. I noticed how few trees the country had and thought this was rather interesting. I also noticed that among the trees still standing there were many very old specimens. This piqued my interest and I began to read about Ireland's trees and tree mythology. I then found the Ogham calendar which is based on trees and decided I would shoot a photography series based on this calendar and the tree stories, myths and legends I could find. I did somehow manage to find a specimen of each tree I wanted to shoot and to set up a photo but I was not happy with the results. I needed more time for each photo and I needed the time to find the best tree and setting to tell the tree stories. Thus, the ideas for these photos are still floating around in my head and when I decided to shoot some pregnancy photos of my sister in law, the stories and images I had read about the apple tree sprung to mind. The apple tree is associated with fertility, replenishment and otherworldly delights. Golden apples are symbolic of the endless fruits of the land of promise and the fertility of the goddesses. I thought these might be interesting ideas to play with during the shoot. Instead of finding that perfect apple tree as I had tried to do in Ireland I thought I could bring the ideas in to a controlled environment. Thus, there are apples, an apple branch and blossom and a silhouette of an apple branch incorporated into the image. I thought the results were pretty interesting and have started to think about how I could shoot the series I had envisioned being shot outdoors in Ireland, in my living room in Florida.

Prego Photos

Ian and I had a fun photo shoot this week. I developed two of the three rolls he took of me and there were a few interesting shots. I was having a bad face day- in almost every shot my face is in a strange contortion or half expression. Ian kept trying to get to get me to relax and act normally but I just couldn't do it for some reason- I guess I could blame it on hormones. Oh well, we'll just have to take more before the little one arrives. I really liked the way the sheer curtain in the second photo came across on film. I think we will play around with that again. We also learned that as long as there is not a huge thunderstorm, we get nice light in our dining room around 5-6pm. Good to know!