Julia and Quinton

I'm approaching my maternity sessions a little differently these days. Mainly, *let's have more fun* and incorporate the whole pregnancy experience; cravings, weird experiences, the gamut. Julia and Quinton are my kind of people. They like sports, Julia likes potatoes, and they are having a baby. AWESOME!

Julia painted and glazed these sweet shoes for when her baby is born in the next few months. I love the idea of giving something that shows just how loved and excited the parents are for their baby to arrive!

The playoffs were today, Packers v.s. da Bears. Julia's from Chi-town so yawlreddyknow we planned our shoot for the morning so we wouldn't miss the game. Or, my personal favorites, a warm couch and snacks.

Julia: you. are. beautiful.

So Julia had a thing for potatoes, and it's made me start wondering. Where the HECK is my stomach going to take me when I'm pregnant? I already have a love affair with a sandwich that makes most people cringe: tuna, mayo (sweetened with a hint of honey), mustard, pickles, onion, and cheese pressed in between some toasted whole wheat. My boyfriend knows to keep yogurt, chips and chocolate in his fridge when "girl time" comes around. Salty, savory and sweet... cold and crunchy.. nom nom nom! I know you may be questioning my palette but have I mentioned I have a food blog? It's awesome! (And sorely in need of an update but you can see it here .)

Do you have any strange cravings?

Dumb joke or laughing about chips? :)

Ok so slightly ridiculous but I *love* these pictures^!

Advice from this sweet couple? JUST BE HAPPY!
I couldn't have said it better myself...


Julia and Quinton, thank you for sharing your morning and your story with me.

High-five,
Shannon

Linhof

Well hello! Would you just take a look at the gorgeous camera? I was stoked out of my mind to take it for a spin. The Linhof Technika 4x5... le sigh. According to my professor these were originally old press cameras, although after my experience with it today I have a hard time believing anyone could take photo-journalistic (by-the-seat-of-your-pants-quick) snaps. My assignment this weekend was to use a tilt-shift to compensate and fix the converging lines in architecture. I was halfway to a beard when I finished.

For all you non-photo types, converging lines happen when you take a snap of something and have to look up, this causes an "A" shape to form at the top of your...whatever, in my case "building". As such, it's necessary to use large format camera's or tilt-shift lenses when photographing any kind of architecture or advertising work because it will correct any distortion. The photograph above was taken with my digital camera and you can kind of see the A shape on the building to the right.

St. Pete was super fickle today. I left to shoot around noon when the sun was out. As soon as I had the Linhof set and ready to go, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped drastically and I had cloud cover for two hours straight. Discouraged I took a lunch break to thaw out my fingers. After chompin down on some leftovers, and borrowing an extra jacket I was ready to try again. This time I had company! Reuben and my Lion came out to keep my spirits up!!!

Check me out in action with a wind-fro!^

Reuben is so welcoming :)

Linhof in all it's glory^

The natural wind blown look! ^

Feeling pretty lucky I finished today, I'll scan in the film or some prints once I have it developed on Monday. Happy Saturday!

Cake Man

I've been spending a little too much time in the library but I stumbled upon this gem. Make it big, just not while you're drinking any kind of liquid. Hahaha :)

Breathing Room

1-1-11.

5 hours after my lips brought in the new year by shouting salutations on a cobblestone street and kissing a lion who hugs like a bear, my eye-lids struggled to open so I could shut off the alarm that was incessantly beeping me awake.

I was never really a morning person. I've been told I growled like a distressed woodland squirrel defending her winter nuts while simultaneously burying deeper into my blanket cave. If further prompted flailing limbs, and teeth doth protest. When I was in high school I discovered coffee, (mana from heaven) and I truthfully believe my neighborhood has been spared from a family of captain hook's. Since then, I've mellowed out. Everyone has their fingers, everyone is happy. I enjoy sunrises with unabashed glee. The hardest part is getting out of bed.

On this morning, though. I had a really, really good reason to start moving and shakin, no black elixir of life required. 3 days of camping in paradise.

Cayo Costa.

It's hard to hold back all the pictures I took; I could gush forever. But for brevity's sake, and my hatred of flooding the internet with too much crap, let's just say Cayo Costa is Florida in her purest form.

It's a national park on an island and it's flooded with wildlife. We saw osprey, pelicans, ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, plovers and gulls, herons, egrets, all 5 types of mangrove, sea urchins, 2 kinds of starfish, crabs, horseshoe crabs, sting rays, an octopus, dolphins, more fish than you could shake a stick at, sand dollars, lightning whelks, conk, moon shells, you name it. We stumbled upon a dead shark in the lagoon below; and then discovered that it wasn't the real lagoon. (A return visit is guaranteed.)

Did I mention the cactus with purple flowers? Or the campsites in sea grape forests? Meadows of sea oats? Drift wood quarries that line a large amount of the coast? I accidentally brought the wrong battery so I'm missing picture proof of a lot of these things, but trust me, among the 9 miles of beach and countless trails cris-crossing the island, you can find it all.

\

The first 3 days of the New Year bore consecutive sunrises and sunsets, more stars fill the night sky than I have ever witnessed, and endless amounts of peace. 2011, bring it on.