Getting Buggy With It....

There are so many interesting things to photograph and some of them are the smallest things around... bugs.  I began to shoot some of the more interesting looking six and eight legged creatures around my home because my son truly finds them fascinating.  My daughter could care less and would prefer not to encounter any of them.  Living so close to a forest, we get an interesting mixture of "buggy" life.  Bugs that I have never seen before, which I attribute to living the city when I was a young girl.  In a previous blog post, I showed the lovely Woolly Bear Caterpillar that I was fortunate to shoot.  Here you will see two lovely and creepy creatures.  One is a dragonfly and what I loved about the shot that I got was all of the detail that you can see in its wing.  The shot came out just perfect, this particular dragonfly was smitten with the garden in my front yard and you could find it flying about on a daily basis as it made its rounds around the neighborhood.  I am not aware of what species it is, but if you can identify it than let me know!

"Dragonfly Perch" (c) 2011

The second image is a yellow and black spider known as the Yellow and Black Argiope or more commonly garden spider, corn spider, or writing spider.  All I can truly tell you about this one is that it scared the living daylights out of me, was not expecting to see this guy hanging out when I went to water my garden.  After my heart came back in my chest and was beating at a normal rate, I grabbed my camera and captured a shot.  My curiosity got the best of me and I had to document it, but if you see the name of the piece than you can still get an understanding of how I truly felt about it!

"Arachnophobia" (c) 2011

Garden Season...

This is one of my most favorite times of the year.  Getting my hands dirty and planting new blooms in my garden.  My little backyard is my "hacienda" from all things being a mom, wife, photographer, homemaker and the list can go on.   I sit out on my patio, read and drink a good cup of coffee or tea, depending on the time of day.  Another great aspect of garden season is the beauty of nature... all the flowers and trees.  As a photographer, my eye is constantly drawn to these beautiful pops of color and I end up with some cool pieces of art.  


I am currently taking watercolor classes to refresh and rejuvenate my painting before I head off to grad school.  I either plan on getting my Masters Degree in Watercolor or Photography, I have yet to decide and why I began the classes. I have taken the classes before, but had a three year hiatus.  It is wonderful being back, missed my fellow classmates and teacher.  One of our assignments had us taking a small field trip to the local nursery.  I captured quite a few images and was able to create some really cool work as a result.  Below is one of the pieces and what I really like about this piece is how a stack of clay pots can truly create something special.

"Clay Pots" (c) 2012

Flower Painting...

I have always been a creative, artsy person.  Ever since I can remember, I have either doodled, sketched or painted in some form.  Because of this my mother enrolled me in private art lessons that I took from the age of 8 until I was 14 years of age.  Then I had high school projects and took my craft into a different direction.  Anything that I could apply my creative skills to, I did, all the time.  I never thought that I'd be in a position to follow my dream and my passion, but I am blessed that I am able to do so.  I have begun painting again, I had joined a local class in 2005 and stayed with it until 2008.  Then I abandoned it to work as a manager in the retail world... I have since left and decided to take up painting again.


It is my love of painting that ties into my love of photography.  With Photoshop, I am able to paint with my pictures and create new images, images that I might not necessarily be able to do with a brush and watercolors (one of my goals since rejoining the class is to paint some of my photographic fine art pieces... which I will blog about from time to time). I use Photoshop as my digital paintbrush and one such piece, that I recently finished, truly defines what I do.  It is a classic image of Spring flowers and edited to create that painting "feel."  I simply love the end result and I hope you do too!  Below is the finished piece and underneath it lies the original.

"Mellow Yellow" (c) 2012 

Telling A Story...

One of the great things about photographing people is that the imagination is left to create it's very own story when it sees the image.  What is going on? Why are they where they are? And so on.  People are one of the few subject matters that I do photograph, but when I have the opportunity I prefer candid moments where the subject is truly in their own world.  The following image is a photo of my son and his buddy.  It is such an iconic image because it is a photo of two friends and that is a topic and subject that is always close to any one's heart.

"Best Buds Fishing" (c) 2011

It is so simple but how many stories can you create by seeing the image? I can think of tons.  The simple truth behind the photo is that they are learning how to catch tiny fish to use for bait when they go bass fishing later on.  A perfect summer day, a perfect day for fishing and a perfect day to enjoy with your friend.