A Study in Light, Form, and Films

     I've been on a roll (...get it?) recently with experimentation.  Sometimes I get bored with my regular work, and so I force myself into something new: new film, new camera, new lens, new subject, etc.  Last weekend, I loaded up an Olympus XA, a gift from my dad, for the first time.  As if shooting with a new camera wasn't a challenge enough, I also decided to use some Retrochrome (government surplus of Ektachrome that was discontinued years ago) that was graciously given to me by a fellow film enthusiast.  

     The intriguing thing about this film is that it can be C-41 or E-6 processed.  Supposedly the results are best with E-6, but that would've required a lot of waiting and I was feeling impatient, so I dropped it off with my local lab for C-41 instead.  The results were interesting and I feel confident in saying that I should put a roll of Portra 400 through the Olympus next, and a roll of Retrochrome through my Leica instead; combine new-with-familiar systems rather than new-with-new systems.  I put the film through every kind of lighting I could find and found that it performed best in open shade.  I also discovered that the Olympus viewfinder is pointless and I should just study the rangefinder to determine focus.  Here are a few from this combination.

Most images came out extremely green/yellow.  Here's some dappled lighting/end of the roll :-)

Indoor, artificial lighting.

Indoor natural, directional light.

Full, almost direct sun.

Open shade.

More open shade.

Backlighting :-p

Side lighting.

     So that was take 1 of really investigating obscure film.  I've got 15 more rolls of off-name emulsions to shoot through, so definitely more fun on the way.

Read the Instructions...

     A few days ago, I processed my third roll of film at home and gave myself a second attempt at scanning it as well.  I'm getting more proficient with the developing part and I actually look forward to it.  There's something immensely satisfying about donning gloves, mixing chemicals, taking temperature readings, and then operating in total darkness to produce images that will be seen by you before anyone else on the planet.  It's like holding a secret in your hand.  

     I typically dread scanning (and I still do), but I decided some research was in order before I threw in the towel, swearing under my breath.  As it turns out, reading some instructions and helpful tips totally changed my approach and attitude!  Who would've thought?  Here are some of my favorite images from this roll of HP5:

We're big supporters of science in this family, so here's my daughter patiently waiting to have an atom painted on her face.

Approximately 5,000 showed up to support science at our local march in Oklahoma City.  It was all but ignored by the local media, naturally.

Oklahoma has such beautiful land, but so much of it is inaccessible.  This shot sums up my feelings of being so close, yet so far from being one with nature.  Can you tell I'm a quasi-hippie?

I've driven Route 66 and its offshoots dozens of times in order to get my girls to sleep.  They gave up naps at home when they were 18 months old and the only way to get them some shut eye is on the road.

My mom visited for a couple of weeks and we went to our wonderful zoo on one of those days.  My youngest is OBSESSED with carousels.

My eldest happily tags along with her for the ride.

For Cinco de Mayo, I dragged my husband downtown for some free salsa dancing lessons.  It seems I wasn't the only wife with this idea...there were many, many men just thrilled to find themselves there on a Friday night.  Here's my husband in mid sentence telling me I better not be taking a picture :-p

To add insult to injury, I then begged him to play pool with me.  It's one of my favorite past times that I just don't get to do enough of now that we have kids.  See all those white specks and lines? That would be dust and fibers that I forgot to take out when scanning.

     I also managed to put another roll of film through my Mamiya, and it did not go well.  I literally burned through the grain due to massive overexposure.  I'm perplexed as to how it got SO blown out because I synced the settings to my Leica's in-camera meter and the Leica's exposures were spot on.  The lab guy suggested a possible shutter lag...hope that's not the case because I'll be going to Quebec at the end of the month and I want to bring the medium format system with me.  Here's a combination of images from Clickin' Walk 2017 shot on my Mamiya, Leica, and Polaroid SX-70...

See all those weird amoeba looking things?  Yeah, that's where I burned through the silver halides in the film emulsion...whoops.

Polaroid goodness.  Figures that the shot I had the least control over is the one I like the most.

     I realized during this walk that I have definitively become an analog photographer at heart because I simply took very few shots.  Film gives you the ability to look at a scene and decide whether or not you truly care to press the shutter.  As a result, I had to run through the rest of the film when I got home/the next morning.  I decided to capture some quotidian of course.

We're in the process of building a deck out back, so we've had 2x4s stacked out front for the past week that the girls love to play on.

Ready to move on from Oklahoma, but this will always be their first home.

Oldest: "I have a stinkbug friend."

Youngest: "I have to go potty!!!"

     I've accomplished pretty much both goals for May within a week, so I guess now I definitely have to put another roll through the Mamiya and hope there are no functionality issues there.  I'm also on a mission to find someone I know who has been to Quebec City and can recommend places to go.  It's my annual "Mommy Vacation" and I desperately need a European/French fix, so Canada it was!  Can't wait :-)

Learning Curves

     I've slowed down shooting a bit since returning from Costa Rica, but have shot a couple of rolls on my new Mamiya 645 1000s.  My first roll was almost a total loss...I didn't realize that the waist level finder had a magnifier, so most of my shots came out blurry.  After a bit of research and consultation though, I found the magnifier and my "keeper rate" raised dramatically (well, as much as it can for a roll with only 15 frames available).  Here's a sampling from those test rolls:

     I did give the girls a disposable camera, so that was fun to see what they came up with!  Here are some of those images...

     And I also received a Polaroid SX-70 that is both a treat and a trick to use.  This camera only comes out for very selective shots.

     My goals for the month of May are to self-develop the roll of HP5 that's currently in my Leica and put 2 more rolls of medium format through my Mamiya system.  Wish me luck, especially with the development process!

Costa Rica Adventures

     About a month ago, my family and I went on a wonderful vacation to Costa Rica.  We actually ended up driving three days from Oklahoma to Orlando, FL.  Why would we do such a crazy thing, you ask?  Well, my oldest daughter wants to be an astronaut when she grows up, but a few months ago she was convinced she'd have to be a boy in order to fulfill her dreams.  This obviously shook me up, so I researched astronaut meet and greets and lo and behold, the Kennedy Space Center would be hosting Wendy Lawrence for the week prior to our planned vacation.  It was settled, so I booked our tickets out of Orlando.  Here are some shots from our day there.  Beware, Orlando has this uncanny ability to steal all of your money and sanity...

Here she is meeting "a real girl astronaut!"  Poor thing was so excited she could hardly speak...

    We then realized we had made a very unfortunate decision months prior to our departure in that we thought a 6 AM takeoff was a wonderful idea.  That means we had to wake the girls up at 2:45 in the morning to make it to the airport in time.  Mind you, this was only a couple of days after the time change and we had crossed time zones as well, so we just kind of bumbled around through airports and airplanes in a sleep deprived stupor and somehow found ourselves in San Jose less than 12 hours later.

     San Jose roads and traffic quickly tested every last mental faculty in our possession combined and we managed to drive around in grid-like circles for three hours, alternating between tears and screaming.  It would've helped if the capital city felt like naming their roads, but apparently that doesn't go along with the "pura vida" mindset.  Finally, we passed a tourist bus and I said, "you know, I bet they have Wi-Fi on that bus.  Maybe we can get our GPS to work finally."  Bingo!  We were finally in business and made it to our first AirBnB stay only 5 hours late.

That's a guy walking his goats on a leash across a busy interstate in San Jose.

     Our first and last nights in Costa Rica were spent at "el Barco" in Esterillos on the Pacific coast, just a few minutes south of bustling, tourist-ridden Jaco.  I've stayed in Esterillos twice before on previous visits to Costa Rica and it still remains one of my favorite places in the country.  It's just a tiny town on the coast with beautiful black sand beaches, tidal pools, and a delicious restaurant.  It was so fun to see the girls play in the same sand and water that I used to run across and surf in.

     After our first Esterillos stay, we continued down the coast to the Osa Peninsula.  As I mentioned before, I've visited Costa Rica a number of times before this trip and always frequented the Jaco and Tamarindo areas.  This was before Costa Rica became a big tourist destination, so the cities weren't built up and I hold fond memories of their raw beauty in my heart.  I couldn't stand the thought of returning to these towns and seeing them overrun by gawking tourists and innumerable "tourist trap tees" stores.  So I took my family down south.  Way down.  Down to where the country is still wild and relatively untouched.  I'm glad I did.

     Our first stop was Finca Kobo, a chocolate farm close to the Golfo Dulce coast.  I can't say enough about how sweet all of the staff, and chocolate, were at this farm!  They treated our children as if they were some of their own, greeted us with freshly picked star fruit upon our arrival, and had some amazing grounds to explore.  We saw tons of pineapple, scarlet macaws, and what most certainly must've been a tree of death (see picture below).  Our beds were in a bunk-style house that was screened in, so you could hear the sounds of the jungle at all times.

     We stayed only one night at Finca Kobo and after checking out the next morning, we ventured all the way around the southern tip of the peninsula and up to the edge of Corcovado National Park, dubbed as the most biologically intense place on the planet.  We stopped in Puerto Jimenez to pick up some lunch stuff before journeying deep into the rainforest, but did not pick up enough to last us long.  There are no restaurants where we went (with the exception of one that only serves at very specific times of the day and primarily to their own cabina guests).  Alas, hunger and thirst forced us to leave a bit earlier than we would have liked.  Don't be like us.  Buy enough food and water.

I never saw anyone with this horse and his cart full of palm nuts...

Sea turtles had recently hatched on Carate Beach.

We had to ford a number of rivers.  My husband underestimated one and let's just say we ended up with some water in the car.  Don't tell the rental agency ;-)

Yet another self-disciplined horse.

This restaurant must make a killing considering it's the only one around.

It came complete with friendly local dog.

     After this day of adventure and starvation, we went to our next stop nestled in the crook of the peninsula.  This was to be our most authentic Costa Rican stay of our vacation.  We arrived at our brightly colored cabin, Finca de Nada, for a two night stay.  The grounds were just beautiful, tucked away on the edge of the gulf with a beautiful view.  We had plenty of coconuts at our disposal, and little did we know at the time that this would be our main source of food over the next 18 hours, along with half cooked black beans.  

     You see, when we arrived at our cabin, there was a mix-up with the booking so the place was locked.  After some broken Spanglish with the neighbors, we got someone over who was able to let us in.  Let's just say that I was a bit shocked by the place.  It was moreso a shack, complete with open rafters and cracks between each and every board and a tin roof.  Within minutes of checking in, a torrential downpour started and continued until almost midnight.  The girls were delighted and ran out to play in the rain, while my husband and I huddled together and tried to figure out what we would eat.

     After taking stock of all food options, we came up with a crushed granola bar, a sole coconut, half a bag of dried black beans, and a half cup of mosh (Costa Rican oatmeal).  We decided to save the mosh and coconut for a meager breakfast and then promptly threw the beans into water and placed it hopefully over the tiny flame of the tin stove.  We each got a quarter of the granola bar crumbs.  After three hours of boiling, the beans were still crunchy.  The storm had let up some and it was 8:30, and we remembered passing a single restaurant about a half mile up the road that served dinner supposedly.  We gathered up all the spare change we had (that amounted to only $12 because we hadn't found a bank yet...) and I sent my husband out into the dark, cold rain to search for food.  Our plans were that if he wasn't back in half an hour, I was to carry on without him.  Thankfully, he returned in 20 minutes but unfortunately, he was empty handed.  The restaurant had closed early due to the rain.  We all went to bed hungry that night.  Oh, and we were accompanied by bats that came in through the open rafters.

At least we had mosquito nets to keep the bats out.

A serving of mosh served up in a coconut.

     Honestly, those two nights were the most memorable of the trip and I'm sure we'll laugh about them for years to come!  We had to move on eventually though and so found ourselves driving up an extremely steep and bumpy road into the dense rainforest of the southern half of the country.  I thought the girls would get a kick out of staying in a tree house for three nights, and they certainly seemed to have a wonderful time.  I selected one of the tree houses that was situated on a river, so the girls spent most of their days splashing in the refreshing water under the jungle canopy.  It was a relaxing three days filled with delicious food, fun explorations, and relaxing to the sounds of the rainforest.  My husband and oldest daughter even got to go zip lining, see a Fer de Lance snake, and red poison dart frogs!

We all had to wear these giant boots because of snakes...

So there you have it!  We had quite a wonderful time and within 3 days of being home, my girls were asking to go on another road trip.  It seems that I have successfully imparted my wanderlust upon them...

Baby Chase and Co.

     One of my friends had a brand spankin' new baby boy at the beginning of this year, so I was VERY happy to get my squishy, adorable newborn fix recently!  There's nothing quite like holding a new life, especially when they're so peaceful and calm, oblivious to the chaos of the world surrounding them.  While I was super excited to shoot this session, I was also very nervous because I had sold my 24mm 1.4 Nikon lens along with my Nikon D750 a few months ago.  All I had to work with was my Leica M6 with a 35mm f2 to work with for the indoor shots, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got the scans back.  Here are a few of my favorite images from the time spent with my friend and her loves :-)

Snapshots of Life

To The Sea

     The girls and I have been fortunate enough to spend the past four weeks staying in a townhouse on Pensacola beach, enjoying the sun, sand, and surf.  My husband has been attending a training school up in Alabama and spends the weekends down here with us to soak in life.  We've had wonderful weather almost the entire time we've been here and have created so many fun and lasting memories.  We got my oldest daughter her first big girl bike and she rides it around the beach roads every day.  My youngest daughter has discovered a passion for feathers and will spend upwards of an hour creating feathery forts in the sand.  I've enjoyed walking on the shore at sunrise, either drinking in the first rays of of the day or letting my thoughts drift into the shrouds of fog over the waves.  We'll be returning to Oklahoma this weekend, but the ocean never leaves my blood.

Winter Thus Far

Here are a few snapshots of our month of December from a couple rolls of film I got back last week.  The girls especially loved ice skating, drinking hot cocoa, and riding around in their Jeep.  Oh, and we FINALLY got some snow!! We've been staying in Florida for the past 2 weeks and have another 2 weeks to look forward to before returning to Oklahoma.  Call me weird, but I actually enjoy the cold and hope that some winter will be left for us to enjoy after going home!

16 Film Favorites of 2016

     I've culled through my film images from this past year to dig up my 16 favorites.  I'm so happy with where I am now in my film (and photography) journey and cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store for me!  We've got a trip to Costa Rica booked, a *potential* wedding in Australia over the summer, and I'm toying with the idea of taking a workshop in wet plate collodion photography in upstate New York and teaching at a conference for the first time.  I'm also hoping to delve into boudoir on film and book a few in-home family and engagement sessions.  If only half of those things happen, it'll be a good year :-)

Self-Development

     As I plunge further into the world of film, I've also decided to begin re-teaching myself how to develop B&W film.  While my preferred stock, HP5, is cheap compared to color stock, getting it developed is far more costly and time consuming.  I used to do this myself in my tween years, so I know that I'm capable.  After finishing my first roll of B&W in my Leica, I stood there with the roll in my hand for some time, debating whether I should send it off to my professional lab (which would be about $25 and a 2 week wait), or drop it off at my local lab for $10 and wait a month for results (they send theirs to a local guy in the state who does the developing at his home).  I knew that I had some old chemicals and the bare essentials for self-developing that my dad had given me the last time I was home in Florida, so I took a deep breath, put on a movie for my girls, and locked myself in the bathroom.

     I was just tickled pink to see the images appear on my negatives.  I did, unfortunately, butcher the negatives in my desperate attempt to prevent our hard water from drying on them (curse this Midwest water!).  Lightroom to the rescue though...I managed to remove the scratches/tears and dust (because I also managed to drop the wet negatives on the new chenille bath mat).  They did come out very grainy and I'm still trying to figure that out; could it be that I rated it at 800?  Are my inversions too harsh?  Was the water temperature off?  I guess I'll keep experimenting because my dad got me a bulk film loader and 100 ft of HP5 for Christmas...score!  

    So about $5 and 3 days later (I still have to get the negatives scanned by my local lab since I don't have a scanner yet), here are some of my results!

My First Family Film Session

     I was a bit surprised when Vania reached out to me a couple of months ago and asked me to capture her family of 7.  I had stopped advertising for clients and had begun focusing on film and my personal work, but she had seen a session I did for one of her acquaintances earlier in the year and she readily admitted to stalking my work online, noting that she loved my style and the feel of my images.  Of course I was flattered, so I agreed to shoot a session in their home.  

     Did I mention that they have 5 kids, all ages 6 and under?  Yep, I'm not gonna lie...I was a bit terrified, but only if I stopped to think about it for too long.  In all honesty, this was the first session that I was genuinely *excited* to get started.  She was basically asking me to capture her kids the same way that I capture mine; unscripted, unposed, wild, and messy.  She's my perfect client!  I had so much fun creating these pictures and really focused on making some of the images blurry, chaotic, and disorienting.  I know that's how life feels with little ones, after all.  

     I could not have asked for a more perfect family to work with for my first all-film session.  The kids were the perfect mix of sweet and goofy, and the couple were so in love and at ease with each other.  I even got a few bonding ideas to incorporate into my own family time!  Below is just a sampling of some of my favorite captures.

November Adventures

     In the first half of November, my husband got thrown on a tail swap (plane exchange) to the Middle East.  I had planned on taking the opportunity to go visit my brother up in Iowa and an old friend in Chicago.  However, my husband was just sure that he would be back on time and didn't feel too certain about me going to Chicago without him, so I scrapped that plan to give him peace of mind.  Lo and behold, the day of his supposed return came and went and he was stranded in Crete for a week.  After hearing his plans of taking a sailing tour around the island and sending me pictures of his adventures up to an old monastery, I packed up the girls and met my mom in St. Louis.  While it may not have been as picturesque of a visit as a free vacation in the Mediterranean, we still had lots of fun exploring a new city.

     What was supposed to be a 4 day mission turned into a 14 day one (same as the last tail swap he found himself on).  My husband finally got home at 2 AM the morning we were to hit the road to make the grandparent circuit for Thanksgiving.  We first visited his parents in Tennessee, then made our way down to Florida to see my family, then meandered over to New Orleans to traipse around there for a day before heading back home.  It was a rushed and very full few days, but still worth it to see everyone!  Oh, and all of these were shot on my brand spankin' new to me Leica M6 :-D

The Surprises of Expired Film

     Shooting film is always an exciting experience.  The anticipation of getting scans back is like waiting for Christmas morning, but when you know that you shot a roll on film that expired over 20 years, the anxiousness manifests itself tenfold in your psyche.  Something about knowing that I don't know how the film was stored all those years and therefore is incredibly unpredictable actually becomes an extremely freeing experiment.  I can shoot whatever I want and push the limits a bit more because 1. the film was free for me and 2. there's no pressure/sense of failure if it comes back a catastrophe...I can just blame the results on the previous owner not storing it correctly ;-)  In this case, however, I got a couple of my favorite shots ever.  Here's my first favorite:

The film got quite fogged here, but it makes it look like she's tip toeing through her dreams.  I may or may not have literally gasped when this one came up...

Here's another favorite, strictly because it's a bit spooky and was appropriately taken on Halloween.

And here are a few more that just make me happy to look at!

Hand Me Down Camera and Lens Fun

     My dad was an avid collector of all things camera.  We're talking a room full of gear: camera bodies, lenses, bags, adapters, developing chemicals, etc.  He has routinely given me some stuff that he hasn't shot in decades.  Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't...but this time they did.  These shots were from a Nikkormat EL and 50mm combo.  You can tell that the quality isn't the same as my Nikon F100, but hey, it works!!  Oh, and I just bought a mint black and chrome Leica M6 and Summicron 35mm f2 combination, complete with a red leather strap.  Words cannot describe my excitement...

Seattle Escape

     Every year, my favorite photography community holds a conference in a fun city.  Thousands of female photographers descend upon the town and make the residents feel famous.  We get to attend inspiring speeches, learn from the pros in small boutique classes, and explore the area with our cameras.  I was so excited to see that Seattle was on tap for this year's Click Away!  This is also my chance for an annual "Mommy Only" time away and while I do miss my little munchkins, those 4-5 days each year that I have to myself are pure bliss.  I get to enjoy my tea and books in peace, laze around in bed if I want to, wander and get lost in a strange area with only my own well-being to be concerned for :-p

     I actually skipped out on a couple of speeches this year so that I could really venture out and discover my surroundings.  I took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island and just walked around for about 4 hours, which was so relaxing.  I also took another big chance and brought only my film gear once again on this trip and didn't regret it for a second.  Shooting film makes me so much more observant of my surroundings.  I even figured out how to use the self timer and was able to capture a few "selfies" on film!  I absolutely fell in love with the colors and textures of the Pacific Northwest and I cannot wait to return for a longer stint sometime in the future...

Bumbling Around the Southwest

     Well, I received the scans back from our trip around the Southwest and I think it's safe to say that I won't bother bringing a digital camera with me anymore.  In fact, I'm here in Seattle for Click Away without my digital.  That's right, I went to a photography convention with only a film camera and will have to wait a few weeks to see what I captured in this amazing city.  I seriously love the anticipation though!  Our society is far too centered on immediate gratification, and I love that film forces me to slow down and truly appreciate the moment, and then your patience gets rewarded and you get to relive the memories all over again several days later.  

     That's what I got to do last week when I got back almost 200 images of our most recent vacation, and I fell in love with just about all of them immediately.  For the first time, I felt that I was truly documenting AND enjoying our time together rather than repeatedly taking shots to get just the right angle, just the right light, just the right expression, etc.  This time, I simply saw something that stood out to me, took the shot, and returned to my family.  Yes, sometimes an image was underexposed or blurry, but it was the most present I've been while on vacation with my husband and kids.  It was wonderful.

     We started our journey in San Antonio, and got an amazing free room upgrade from the cheapest basic street-side double, to a RiverWalk front deluxe suite with a private balcony.  SUH-WEEET!  We wandered around for a couple of days exploring the canal, touring the Alamo, and sampling the Tex-Mex.

     From there, we went to this really awesome middle of nowhere Texas town known as Marfa.  We stayed in a totally hippie vintage trailer compound and the girls were so happy, they couldn't stop running in circles.  It was truly a very unique experience and if you ever find yourself lost in West Texas, go to El Cosmico ;-)

     We then made our way to Albuquerque, but obviously had to make a pit stop at the White Sands National Monument!  A lot of these came out underexposed, but you can still make out the faces of joy/terror.

While in Albuquerque, the state fair was in town so we decided to check it out.  We dropped far too much money on wristbands we ended up not even being able to use, but the girls had a blast looking at all the lights, eating hot dogs, and dancing to "Gangnam Style."  Those things were free...

The next morning, we got our own private horseback riding tour through a canyon.  This is the only outfitter I've encountered in the States that allows you to ride tandem with really young children, so I was incredibly thankful for that.  Believe it or not though, my youngest managed to fall asleep and STAY ASLEEP even while the horse was trotting. 

After Albuquerque, we made the magnificent drive up to Ouray, CO, where my husband's aunt and uncle own a house.  The views there are. to. die. for.  I want to move there.  Seriously.  My eldest got to see a deer and a turkey crossing just feet away from her, we went hiking into a canyon with a waterfall, and my husband's family took us on a Jeeping adventure up and over a 15,000+ ft mountain.  I thought we were all going to die on more than one occasion, but I'm sure with time my memories will convolute those moments into a nostalgic tale from their childhood.

Since we were so close to the Four Corners, we decided to go a little out of way and stay in the Mesa Verde National Park lodge.  We even booked a room where we could see all four states from our balcony.  I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises of my life on that balcony...I swear they're more colorful in the desert.  We explored the ruins, ate rattlesnake sausage, and did the obligatory "stand in all four states at once" tourist thing.

We trekked back into New Mexico and ended our trip with a 2 night stay in a very cool teepee.  The girls were just beside themselves to be staying in such a big "tent" and my eldest was quite fascinated by the composting toilet outhouse :-p  Our stay there was perfectly timed with a full moon, yet we could still see the Milky Way with ease.  I just fell in love with Santa Fe...everyone was so friendly, the community was so artistic, and the weather was just beautiful.  I miss it already.

And here are a few more random snaps from all over then I'm done, I promise!

Whew!  Well, there you have it...my longest post to date/possibly ever.  Although we did just book tickets to Costa Rica for the spring, so I'm betting that'll be a long one as well ;-)

Fly Away

     My husband has been deployed for the past few months and when we were within 3 weeks of his return, I foolishly told the girls that "Daddy would be home soon."  Seeing as they are 2 and 3, their comprehension of the term "soon" was only loosely based on an actual time continuum.  Our days were consumed with tears as they repeatedly asked if Daddy would be home tonight, tomorrow morning, will he ever return, what if I make him a yummy cake?  My eldest usually wakes up early, exclaiming "Happy Morning Day!" but instead, I'd go check on her and find this: 

Needless to say, our hearts couldn't handle it anymore, so I decided to pack the girls in the van and head out to visit all of the grandparents!  Our first stop was just outside of Memphis where we celebrated their uncle's birthday, fed catfish in the lake, and visited the zoo.

     After spending a few days there, we piled into the van again and drove to Pensacola, FL, my hometown.  We spent most of our time at the beach where the girls chased seagulls and pretended to be a lifeguard like Mommy (in her past life).  We also treated ourselves to cheeseburgers at a favorite local joint!

     After Pensacola, we drove down to Tampa with their uncle to go play at Busch Gardens with their cousin!  I didn't dare to bring my camera into the park, so no shots of them but rest assured that they had a fantastic time ;-)  After making the three day drive back to Oklahoma, we only had a couple of days to wait for Daddy to come home...

     We promptly hit the road again soon after he came home and took a couple of weeks to explore the Southwest.  We went to San Antonio, Marfa, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Ouray, and Mesa Verde and it was truly one of the best vacations of my life!  I shot 5 rolls of film and just sent them off to my lab today...I cannot wait to get the scans back.  Be ready for a large photo share in a couple of weeks!

Impromptu Indoor Session

     I woke up the other morning feeling inspired and ready to create something beautiful with my camera!  I loaded a roll of Portra 400 into my camera, rated it at 200, and walked around the house to gather ideas.  I knew I wanted something cozy and intimate to capture.  Unfortunately, my bedraggled, yet wild, little girls were not feeling the same creative juices as I was.  I fired off two frames before I realized I was wasting shots; it just wasn't going to happen with them that day.  So then I got in touch with my friend...

     She's always been down for being my guinea pig.  We actually met through a "model call" for when I was casting for pet photography, and her kitties stole my heart.  I have since worked with her for maternity, newborn, bridal, and cake smash portraits, and now we've added a nursing session to our extensive list of shoots!  I asked the lab to push the roll a stop as well, and I absolutely LOVE these images!  I'm so happy to know that my vision for indoor shoots can be translated onto film as well.  

A Fun Family Visit

     I was so happy to have my mom, niece, and nephew come visit the girls and me for a little over a week recently.  We went out to explore the area and hit up Hoboken Coffee Roasters (a seriously awesome little joint in Guthrie), Thunder Fountain/Myriad Gardens, and The Wedge Pizzeria.  Who doesn't love playing tourist in their own town?

     For my fellow film geeks, the images from the coffee shop were shot on consumer Fuji Superia 200 (rated at box speed) and pushed one stop.  I love the tones for the indoor frames, but it definitely made skin tones a bit too magenta in my opinion.  The fountain and pizzeria images were shot on Portra 400 (rated at 200) and also pushed one stop.  It obviously has much more accurate and pleasing skin tones than the Fuji Superia 200, but I think I still prefer the Fuji 400H overall.  I did just shoot a roll of Portra 400 (rated at 200) all indoors today with a friend and will be dropping it off tomorrow for processing, so maybe Portra will steal my heart soon!

Falling for Film

     I've been bitten by the film bug, hard.  The whole process of shooting analog makes my soul sing and my heart happy, from the careful selection of film stock depending on my shooting scenario, to the ability to determine when I want to press the shutter, to the anticipation of receiving my scans so that I can relive the moment that I created the photograph.  Shooting film forces me to slow down, focus, and appreciate the present moment rather than taking on the rapid-fire shooting stance digital tends to lend itself to.  I obviously won't be giving up digital for there's something to be said for its ease and convenience, but film has definitely solidified a starring role in my photography life!  Here are several examples of what I've been up to these past few months!