My Wish for You in 2017

Used with permission from Sarah B. Calligraphy.

Hello, everyone!

I just hope that each of you remembers, as this new year starts, that you are capable of handling whatever life throws at you, and that you are capable of achieving whatever dreams and goals you have set for yourself this year.

Storyteller

When I was a little girl, I walked around with a notebook and a writing instrument, prepared to write down anything that inspired me -- a conversation, a story idea, an observation: anything.

When I picked up the camera, I became a visual storyteller.

I started recording the everyday that was around me.
Here is one of the very first photos I took with my very first digital camera in 2008:

It's nothing fancy: just a set of salt & pepper shakers by a bowl of creamers and next to a sugar container. A few loose crystals of salt or sugar are on the table near the containers.
I took this at the restaurant that I would frequent with both my parents and my then-boyfriend, and I took it with a point-and-shoot Kodak EasyShare.

My love of documenting the everyday continued.

The top of the bookcase in my room.

My then boyfriend's arm guarding the remote to the television.

Evening light coming through the window in my mother's back door.

Milk as it hit my morning fruit loops.

The silhouette of a vase of flowers and a speaker atop a television in my room against a late-spring sky.

The previous autumn's sunflowers still looked amazing against this late-spring sunset.

Then I got a new camera. It was another point and shoot, but this one had macro capabilities.

An accidental selfie in a salt shaker.

My maternal grandmother at my paternal grandmother's memorial service.

Up close and personal with my kitty.

My mom won the jackpot on the nickel (or penny) slots.

A line of autumnal trees against a painted white plywood wall when we got my dad's car from the mechanic.

It was more of the same as it was with the previous camera, except now I could get closer to things. Ha.

I'm now on my fourth camera -- my second dSLR -- and I have photographed a lot of other stuff in the last eight years. (All photos shared on this blog so far have all been from 2008, when I started getting into photography.)

When I first got a camera, it was to share images from my life in an easier way. I wouldn't have to get a disposable camera, then get the images put on a disc, and then upload from the disc onto the computer, which is what I had been doing.
In fact, buying a camera came to me as a bit of a chance. I went to bingo with my parents, as was the Monday-night tradition in those days, and ended up winning a jackpot blackout game along with another patron. I took everyone out to dinner afterward, paid a bill, and bought my Kodak point-and-shoot, which was on sale for a whopping $89. (My winnings were a grand total of $200.)

My mantra hasn't changed much. It's still to share the beauty of life that happens all around me.
Only now it's more of others' lives than my own.
When I'm at a shoot and it's time for posing people, I'll do it. It's not my favorite thing in the world, but I'll do it. It doesn't come naturally to me to do so.
I see beauty in life as it happens: in the gradual messiness that a kitchen acquires as a meal or snack is prepared; in early morning snuggles shared on the weekends; in the smiles that are shared as a family plays a board game; in the wonderment as a family decorates their home for special holidays; in the casual way that one partner embraces and hugs another without any prompting... I've always felt this way. I see specialness in everything. There is a wonder in the life that surrounds us.
If, at the end of our lives, all we have to look back on are the photos of people in coordinating outfits found in yearly Christmas cards, photos of our parents in their wedding day garb, and photos taken at school against scenic backdrops that will not match the life that we lived. Life is so much more than all of that -- and that's what I've been in love with. That's why I so hastily and hungrily took photos of EVERYTHING that I saw: fence posts, meals, tree trunks, animals (1) (2) (3) (4) (5), insects, crab-apples both in bloom and in fruit...
Sadly, over the years, through the busyness of life, I have fallen out of the practice of taking photos of everything. (I still take plenty of photos of my food, my dog, and my husband when he's sleeping, but those are mostly with my cell phone.)
When I'm second-shooting at a wedding, I am trying to document the day. I let the main photographer get the shots that she needs (those portraits listed out by the couple) and I try to get the story of the day. Even when I'm the main photographer, a lot of the detail shots I like to get are documentary shots, ones that the bride or groom wouldn't see in the course of their day, or ones that will help tell the story of their day. In the example below, the bride's dress is being fastened by her father, whose wizened hands -- after decades of being a tailor -- expertly found the troublesome thread eyelet on her dress.

When I'm shooting a family session, I keep my shutter going, even when the smiles are relaxing and the pose is breaking up -- you never know what goodness you're going to get! (The same goes for a kiss...The examples below are one from right after the bride & groom were pronounced, and one right before.)

The most exciting news of all -- the inspiration for me writing this post -- is that I have found a community of photographers who are documentary-hearted, like me.
In this community, I will learn and flourish and grow. I will enrich and expand the photographic voice that I've had all along, but just needs some fine-tuning. 

For the longest time, I've referred to the style of photography that I've been seeking to do more of as "lifestyle" photography. While it's similar, it's not the same. Lifestyle could just mean set at home, set in the home. Taking family photos in front of the fireplace, for example. There's still posing happening, but it's not at a park.
Documentary photography involves noticing details and hanging out with the client/s and capturing them as they go about their lives. Does a typical Saturday involve an outing on a boat? Great -- we'll get that, and lunch before. Does a Friday night involve having friends over for a game night? Fantastic -- I'll get you prepping the appetizers and stay through the end of Monopoly. It's all about capturing the details of everyday life -- and that is what attracts me and draws me in. I love it. I'm so excited. And I'm very grateful to have found the name of it and a community that will support me as I start to delve into it more. 

Stay tuned -- there is definitely more to come on this!

**Some keen observers will notice that there are some photos with watermarks and some without. After having two portable backup drives die on me, I had to go with what I could find, and most of those came from Flickr, which were heavily watermarked by me over the years. Most of the watermarks bear my previous incarnation's name -- Rebbecca.Ella Photography. They are still very much my images, though.**

Taylor & Joe

Taylor & Joe's story is over on my website. 

Check it out here.

Back in the saddle.

The last few years, I have been doing photography still. (Let's face it -- I never really left.)
My schedule has been very limited -- I haven't done many shoots -- but I still have stayed active behind the camera. (Most of the stuff I've photographed has been second-shooting for Juhl Photography, mostly weddings, but also a few senior shoots as a second camera, too.)

This year has brought me more business than I expected.
I photographed a dear friend's senior portraits in the Spring, as she was getting ready to graduate from Colorado State University in May.

Then I photographed two weddings in July -- one for the aforementioned senior's cousins and one for a coworker.

Krista and I have photographed at least six weddings this year together (including my two) but that's just what I remember -- there are probably several that I'm forgetting -- and there's another one coming up in a few weeks.

Let's see, what else has happened in the last few years photographically....

• I  learned that you need to back-up your back-ups. (Two of my portable back-up drives lost the ability to function. The data is still there but no computer can currently read or write to them.) That little thing cost me every photograph I'd taken from 2009-2015. Oops.
• I've been photographing a shit ton with my phone. (Especially since I got an iPhone 6 a few years ago.) Mostly food and my dog, but hey, it counts. 
• I have two Instagram accounts: one for personal use and one for photography.
• I fell in love with Nikon. I remember posting an update where I borrowed a camera from my community college, and it was a Nikon, but I don't remember if that was on this blog or my personal one. Anyway, to sum up what that post said, I borrowed a Nikon from the school and fell in love with its color abilities. I have shot a few weddings with one of Krista's cameras this year (some of my lenses stopped functioning properly) and she shoots exclusively Nikon. I fell in love with them. I bought a new camera yesterday -- a Nikon D3300. We shot our first wedding together last night since I got it -- and I loved it. The biggest thing to get used to (besides where the buttons are that controls my stuff) is that the lenses come off opposite of Canon. Yikes. I love that we can share equipment now -- that should make things easier.
• I was hoping to get a better camera than that -- it's very similar in range to my Rebel XSi in terms of what's on the market these days -- but that's still something for a future time. (Heck, this thing is already more MP and more fps than my Rebel, so I consider it a step up.)
• I have also enjoyed shooting videos lately. Ok -- really only one. Krista had me come along with her to a quinceneara and I shot video while she did stills. But it was enjoyable. (And it was with her D5100.)
• I spent some time with Creative Suite 6, and am now onto PhotoShop CC. It's wonderful.
• I changed my photography business name. It was Rebbecca.Ella Photography -- a name I adopted because it's my first and middle names and I thought I wouldn't have to change it once I got married -- but I have since changed it to Feathered Penny Photography to align with other endeavors I'm pursuing, want to pursue, or could potentially pursue. (My brain is ever thinking.)
• Most importantly, I have been haunted by photography the last few years. It has ever stayed on my brain as something that I feel like I should (and want to) pursue more -- and that hasn't changed, aside from being further fueled by discontent in other areas of my life.

So what's next?

I plan to reinvigorate this blog. Do more posts. (Especially now that I have a few weddings of my own to blog on here.)

I plan to post regularly about other things -- you know, those things that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog: inspirations, information, photography tips and tricks, etc.

That's it, really.
Not a heck of a lot.

I'll be posting more regularly, so see you soon! 

Irony.

In my second-to-last post, nearly a year ago, I complained that it had been two months since I posted.

Well, obviously, I haven't been doing regular updates.

This last year has just kept me crazy busy:
-starting the new job last July and the subsequent six-weeks it took to adjust
-photographing the WestHolmes wedding in September
-...and the six-week mental hiatus that followed a week later, after the floods affected my family and our land
-editing for the WestHolmes
-Christmas
-packing
-photographing the Shirley wedding
-editing for the Shirleys, interrupted by a move to Fort Collins, followed by more editing
-settling in to my new apartment and training my dog to be ok while I'm gone
-assisting Juhl Photography on two more weddings
-photographing the Brewer-Bradfield reception

One of my favorite parts of photography (the editing) has kept me in front of the computer pretty regularly, which can be a torturous thing now that I sit in front of a computer for 8 hours a day. And I don't want any part of photography to be torturous. That's not the point of passion.

Fortiter, et dicite. (Loud & clear)

I have made a decision, one that I have toyed with in the past, but now I am certain of it.

I am going to be taking a hiatus of an indeterminate length from client photography.

I will still be pursuing personal photography (art, landscapes, nature, family, etc.) but as far as services offered to others, I am done...for now.

Since July 22nd, I have been working a full-time job in a neighboring city.
With my commute, my work-week turns out to be about 60 hours. Even with the vanpool that I joined, my week still turns out to be long, as not all riders from the van work in the same place in the city.

I have done a handful of gigs since then, and each one has proven more difficult to complete than I anticipated. (Granted, one of the gigs was the WestHolmes wedding, and that was the Saturday before the flooding that occurred here in Colorado, and as my family was affected by the flooding, my brain was otherwise occupied for a month or so afterwards.) I was still finishing the edits for that one when I shot the next two. 

All in all, I have learned the hard way that I cannot devote proper time to photography while having my current schedule. I hate that it's my clients who have ended up suffering because of this. (I've still been able to deliver by my contracted date, but it's been within a week of it.)

Saving Grace

A few months ago, I started backing up my photos in a way that I never have before: the uncompressed PSD files in their own folder under the parent folder of the client. 

The file also contains the original SD files as well as all edited photos, under different files whether they are watermarked (for digital display) or un-watermarked (for printing). 

From the wedding I shot last month, this is the file hierarchy: 

I started saving the .psd files right before compressing the image ("flattening" all the layers) in case I need to access the files again, without having to remember all the steps I took to edit. (And since most of what I do when I edit is the same, that wouldn't really be hard to do in a pinch.)

I have found that saving the files in this way has saved me some time, even though it takes up more room on my backup drive. I strongly urge other photographers to do the same.