around the hills

wooh pictures! i was able to steal ellen away for a little over an hour yesterday for some portraits before she had to go back to school. we wandered around the woods and the track where she spent (basically) the entirety of high school. i recently divided my portrait section of my portfolio by person, and i very much love taking photos of people in their places as they grow up. the most fleshed out section of my portraits would be victoria because the archive extends from 2009 to present day from parsippany to paris. you can peek around my site, it's no where near done yet but it's in the works! (finally)

also i would like to wish ellen happy birthday again! thank you for your stories, i love your company. <3


oh yes, "the hills" the nickname for the other side of my hometown. playing around with lightroom, i'm starting to favor grainier edits. and i've been using my 28mm lens for everything now, i love it.

ellen (probably frozen)

here are some photos i took of ellen right before i left and forgot to upload them in the craze of packing and last minute shenanagins. (london update soon!) i recently sold my 100mm macro lens and bought the 35mm f/2 over the 28mm and i'm really loving it so far. it's a different feel than the 50mm and warrants to less "close up" portrait shots and more incorporation of the environment (so far, in my sense).

i realized i've taken photos with ellen for the last two years, so i thought it would be interesting if we kept doing this. we wandered to the dog park across my neighborhood, as i have been doing for the last six years, but this time we wandered a little bit further and what do you know - we find this absolutely wonderful field with sandy browns and steel blues and simply capture the beauty of winter. since the days of flickr, my only dream was to photograph in a field and i was frustrated that my lame suburb in new jersey lacked this photographic staple. oh wait, just kidding, there has been one there all along. alas, so much teen angst probably could have been avoided.

anyway, thank you ellen for braving the cold for me - you are wonderful and i apologize again for the lack of feeling in your entire body. lately photobucket has been failing quality wise, and also i think me putting ellen in shrubbery is a trend.

suicide's note by langston hughes

i saw this poem by langston hughes on tumblr and i was SIMPLY TAKEN WITH IT~ i've been meaning to dable into visual poetry, so this was the perfect place to start.

i know the bathtub is a cliche, and as much as i would love to throw a beautiful curly haired girl into the water with dried flowers on top......i don't know. it would be wonderfully aesthetic and lately i've really wanted to challenge myself. find my own style. so i thought this poem was the perfect chance to play with water and reflections. i'm pretty pleased with the photos, but i definitely want to take this further! thank you to the amazing ellen for submerging yourself in water for me. XD

a lot of the shots are very similar, i couldn't decide between the angles and the level of submersion and testing ellen's comfortability (i worry). so i'll be going back and rummaging through these files again.

  i think this is one of my favorites so far. the water was tinted with watercolor, and although i wasn't sure about the white blob (the skylight) i think it gives the water some texture.   i edit each photo individually, so the colors usually aren't consistent. tell me which scheme you like better!
here are a few shots i didn't edit, but caught my eye.

morning photo adventures with ellen

wow aren't i GREAT at naming blog posts? anyway, this morning i went over to ellen's and we wandered around the same place we went last time (it's a nature get away in the middle of a typical suburb, i am infatuated with it) except instead of going to the right when the path split, we went to the left. o0o0o0o.

i have noticed i have an obsession with profiles and over the shoulder downcast looks. i'm sorry that i'm not sorry for abusing this pose. i ruv it. and ellen has a fabulous profile/is fabulous in general so yeah.

on the techno aspect, i'm starting to rely less on the beauty of the 50mm 1.4. mainly because my camera can't focus with it. mainly. i've been using my 100mm 2.8 macro lens a lot (a different perspective...not sure if i dig it) and my 28-135mm lens. i think i'm going to use the latter was a walk around lens when i go to europe, so i mine as well get used to it now. ugh, but i always end up somewhat shooting at the 50mm focal length.....it's the distance that my mind "thinks" in dammit.

on another random note, i might be a server at a italian restaurant sorta near where i live! it's going to be....a challenge but i'm up for it. 5 foot 1 clumsy chick, leggo. so money for new camera, aw yeah bby.

WITHOUT FURTHUR ADO, LOS FOTOS.

ellen

on saturday morning i went over to ellen's house to basically ask for her life story. i always "preach" this style of photography, but i find that i do not often do it myself. i wanted to try something biographical/environmental. we talked about her life and the places she loved (in/around her house) and what she would miss in the future. we ending up talking and taking photos and eating until 2 (the time my father demanded i return home).

ellen, you are beautiful and lovely - THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME YOUR LIFE STORY AND FEEDING ME GR8 FOOD.

i tried to cut the photos down. and failed.

these photos were taken in the great room. full of art and memories of her childhood (including one with a rug and her sisters).

ellen's lair :)

she took me to this amazing hill right near her neighborhood. honestly, it was stunning. it felt like you were looking off the side of the world (and i didn't really expect our meager town to have something as beautiful as this). she goes to the high school across town, and the peeps there enjoy having bonfires here. it's so empty and lovely, definitely a place of relaxation and all that good stuff. camera wise, i think my camera's focus has died. i have to use manual focus via the live screen - indoors it doesn't have a problem but it overexposes when i'm outside. so i have to focus with the live view, than switch to normal and then take the photo. fml. someone dragged a couch out here! off to the side, there is a forest area dense with trees. in the winter they're bare and sprinkled with snow. i can see how ellen will miss this place, it's so beautiful and peaceful and free from people.
sweet potato fries and her momma's delicious meat sauce. yum.

at times i like these i remember why i love photography and how i get to meet people and make friends and simply learn by just watching and listening.