Personality Portrait

This week's assignment in photography was to take a portrait of someone doing something or of someone in their niche... or something that kind of portrays personality I guess??! 

It came down to today, and I still wasn't sure who to photograph, until I remembered my lunch plans with Mecia. Whew! And it's a good thing she is actually quite the foodie, too! She loves to try out different restaurants and just eat somewhere nice with friends.

So I asked her if she would comply, and she certainly willing. So I brought my good old 7D and 50mm into Chipotle. :) Thankfully, nobody looked at us too weird for changing tables two times so that we could get the "right shot" :P LOL Either they didn't care, or we didn't care enough to pay attention to them...  because nothing really matters when you have a good friend with you. :)

I've also been meaning to share a blog post about some of my new photography equipment (one is a nice fancy thing :) and the other is a really goofy/cute thing that I only paid 1.99 for ;P). And then I have a little wedding photography news to share... so hang tight.

Until then...

-MarLeahJoy

Peer Portraits

From a little portrait-taking we did in class today.

-MarLeahJoy

Trash... or not

Sometimes when I'm culling through images it's really easy to see the things that are just plain yucky and just give the picture up as a dud. (Yucky = that hard shadow on the left, underexposure, uneven skin tones, etc.)
But, goodness, with Lightroom I cleared those things out of the way in less than 2 minutes with a little cloning, a preset, and a few hand edits.
After I do something like that to an image I always love looking at the before and after :)
And then when I do that, I feel like sharing. (mostly because I'm avoiding my homework) :P

-MarLeahJoy

Theresa

Theresa, a photo by MarLeah Joy on Flickr. Click on the image to view in high resolution!

-MarLeahJoy

Flash Assignment

Flash Assignment, a photo by MarLeah Joy on Flickr. Click on the image to view in high resolution!

Awww! Heather! ;)
Thanks for being my subject for my PhotoComm assignment.

-MarLeahJoy

Casey

Casey, a photo by MarLeah Joy on Flickr. Click on the image to view in high resolution!

-MarLeahJoy

Blaize

Blaize, a photo by MarLeah Joy on Flickr. Click on the image to view in high resolution!

It is nothing short of a miracle that I got so many of this little boy smiling and looking at me!
Blaize was so active that I think it was even stressing Bretton out a little bit.

The only way I got this picture was by telling him to hold out the rock (that he was about to throw in the water) so that I could see it. Thankfully, he actually listened to me a few times. ;)
He is such an adorable little boy! Gah! And I get to look at him for the next couple of hours (editing). I'm glad I have a blog to out-source some of this adorableness that is bubbling up inside of me. ;)

-MarLeahJoy

Theresa

Theresa, a photo by MarLeah Joy on Flickr. Click on the image to view in high resolution!

When I joined the photography club at Crowder they told me about an event in the Ramsey center in Joplin where photographers and models could come and interact with each other. Immediately I wanted to go, but as the date drew nearer I started getting butterflies like I do with every new photography opportunity. Somehow I got this notion that the models would be dressed up in really funky stuff and all of the other photographers wouldn't let others use their equipment.
Well, some of the models did wear some weird stuff, but they also changed and obviously you can choose who you want to shoot.
Theresa was the first person I shot and she was so kind. And even that is an understatement. :)
This picture was shot with natural lighting, but I actually shot most of the pictures of her with another photographer's umbrella and softbox lighting. He was a Nikon user, but the hot-shoe still connected to my camera. :D
Everyone there was extremely nice, and I'm not sure if I had more fun taking pictures or just talking to other photographers who willingly let me try out their lenses.
So there is another experience that should prove to me that being around new people and doing new things is not horrifying, but actually fun. Yet, the next time something else comes up, I'll probably still have all of these annoying thoughts run through by head again. :P

-MarLeahJoy

Kami + Kallee

These two little girls have a special place in my heart... in fact, three of them do, but the third one was sick :/ They are the youngest three of my friend's sisters (in a family of 9). :)

Every time I go visit my friend, I actually feel like I have 8 other little best friends, though... and I LOVE it :D

Katelyn and I took two of the little girls out to Red Oaks II -- a place that I didn't know existed and I was kind of stunned by it existence. I asked my mom why we never went there and her reply was, "Oh, we used to go there all the time." Okay, well apparently that was when I was TWO because I have NO remembrance of it whatsoever! :P Basically it looks like an antique model village, except it's life-size! :)

So we had fun taking pictures there... except for the occasional scares from the roaming farm animals, which practically sent the girls into hysterics... not quite. ;)

This milk picture was actually the whole reason this photo shoot even happened. I needed a picture for an assignment about "what I am drinking". Well, about the only thing I drink besides water is milk. And somedays I probably drink more milk than water. It actually kind of ruins my day when I go to the fridge and there is no milk. Haha. 

Anyway.

I had this mental image of what kind of shot I should get, but my idea kinda flopped. :/ Good thing there was a dairy truck there. ;)

But otherwise, we just explored all the photo options with the colorful buildings.

:)

This little girl would pose anywhere. "Look! It's grass! Let's pose by the grass!" Haha :)

Ah! They are going to be friends forever!

Between these little girls and Blaize from a recent session, I feel just a little overwhelmed with so many adorable children. I just love it when they are 3-4 years old and their personality shines through.

-MarLeahJoy

Zacharias Family Portraits

Yay! ...for posting pictures I promised back in October :)

I wasn't procrastinating either; Juliane wanted to be able to send out her Christmas cards first. :)

So now Christmas is over. I'm happily on the way up to West Virginia to be with my newly married sister and to spend a little time on Snowshoe Mountain {hopefully skiing and tubing?? Please!!! :D}

But, back to the pictures... this is Stetson and his mommy and daddy.

At the beginning it was just Stetson and his mommy so I chased him around as he ran circles, just caught up in his own world of play. ;)

I think this is one of my personal favorites (I'm talking about the previous picture... I hope you have caught on by now that I write about the picture AFTER the picture) :)

These were taken at the Sorrell's annual hayride in the hills of Missouri. I always love to go, just to be with people. But this year, when I knew that I was going to take their family pictures, I got sooo nervous and I wasn't nearly as excited about the whole day just because of the nagging anxiousness going on inside. 

But as soon as it was done I was happy with the way it went. And even though I still know that I wasn't perfect at being on top of posing them and keeping the session flowing (as much as I would like), I have to tell myself that I'm still obviously learning! :P

And now these pictures are making me miss green grass :/  ...and editing golden hour pictures. (I must say it was a very happy editing process as I began to really see for myself what is so special about the golden hour!)

-MarLeahJoy

Lucinda

Heather, this post is for you :) I got permission to put these on the blog just so you could see some more "people pictures" ;)

Lucinda called me up on Sunday and said she needed a picture of her to add to their family's christmas card. So I was more than happy to get outside and get a few shots of her down at her house. She lives in the house that is just down the hill from us, and I have to say I really enjoy having her close. Even though she's older than me and she's my "sister's friend", I claim her as my friend, too. ;)

The number one thing I like about her (beyond her bubbliness, of course!) is that she likes to be active. She has already agreed to go bicycling with me... but then it snowed. 

I know she won't be living here too much longer, so I hope the weather will permit us to get out and do stuff together before she has to go.

-MarLeahJoy