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Sit. Relax. Catch up.
Stop and Smell the Roses
Wow, the first month of 2023 has already flown by and I feel like I’m just waking up to the new year! With this time of the year always feeling like the time to “start something new”, it can seem stressful as we start and possibly stop that something. Yesterday realizing that the month was wrapping up, I got a little nostalgic and went over some old photos. Kind of like a walk down memory lane.
Back in 2019 I decided to do a 365 day selfie photo project. The hope of it then was to put in the time and practice needed to perfect my craft. Thinking about the day to day moments, I can’t remember a time throughout that process where I felt that “leveled up” feeling. Much like one would get in a video game. I thought, maybe I could mix some outtake images with what was used to create a video of the progression. I must say, watching the images fly by and seeing some of the incremental images taken to get to “that one shot” was fun. Check it out here:
Watching this reminded me that progress towards any goal takes work. We will have to experiment and fail along the way in order to get to the next step. Sometimes we reach the next step only to fall back down a few. Regardless of the back and forth though, it’s a journey and we have to remember it’s our own journey. Comparing ourselves to others doesn’t help level us up any faster. In fact it may make us go crazy LOL. Seeing one’s own progress from a day-to-day perspective, it may seem non-existent. Pulling back the view though from a longer lens, might just show that a lot of progress had been made and at that point, we should celebrate our personal growth!
40 Days of 40
Earlier in the year I had an idea to capture a day in the life of being forty. I think it just sounded cool and in my mind, making it to the age of 40 just seemed a wonder. Me being me, I kept putting it off and putting it off until I realized I was running out of days in my 40’s LOL. So with 42 days available, I started on the project.
The goal of the project was to push myself a bit out of the comfort zone, kick into gear posting more on social media, reflect on the wonders of making to the age of 40 and maybe along the way impart some wisdom. I’ve put a small gallery of some of my favorites from the project. Check out more of the 40 days project on my Instagram feed.
Headshot Marathon!
What does one do at a photography conference full of amazing photographers around the world? Attempt to photograph all 500 of them!
September 4th - 7th, I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual The Portrait Masters conference in Phoenix Arizona. The conference is put on by my mentor Sue Bryce, bringing together photographers from around the world and amazing guest speakers to educate and inspire us all to take our work to greater heights. While I was there to take that all in, I found myself inspired to play and see how many headshots I could capture of those participating in the conference. In total there were 500 attendees, so the grand goal was to try and capture them all within the 3.5 days I was there.
Doing the math I figured spending about a minute with everyone to capture their headshot, which would require that I spend close to 8.5 hours of my time spread across those 3.5 days. With that knowledge I worked to spread my days accordingly so I could still partake in other parts of the conference, which included listening to the guest speakers, visiting the vendor booths and practicing in the shooting bays.
One of the key things in shooting for this personal project was to try and maintain a consistent backdrop. I learned early on that the location that I loved, was a bit out of the way for the attendees, so as in most things in life, I had to compromise in order to get remotely close to 500 photos. Further into the project I realized the math was calculated for optimal conditions, namely that people would be lining out the door to get their headshots with me :). I certainly had to hustle and get photographers, some a little more apprehensive than others, to get in front of the camera. In the end I was able to capture 209 headshots and have to thank my friends Ashley and Cody Lindsey for helping coordinating and assisting in the project, as well the many other photographers that walked in front of the lens and recruited more to spend a minute or so with me. From that I was able to create this fun slideshow. Sit back, enjoy the music and faces from the project and the fun collage at the end!
Follow Your Passion Project
A recap of my recent speaking and gallery event to celebrate some of central valley’s business women and entrepreneurs.
Over the past few months I had been working on a project that started like many do, with a thought. The general thought was to connect with local business owners and take a picture of them. Over time, it evolved into something more. Something that would become a gallery exhibition of local female business owners, celebrating their contribution to the community and inspiring others in the audience to follow their passion in life.
I loved taking in the process of getting this project up and running. Learning something completely new and overcoming hurdles that presented themselves along the way. From the beginning I knew I wanted to do black and white portraits of each individual. As well I knew that I wanted to print them big! 40” x 60 “ big! That was the first challenge, sourcing prints that huge! In the end with the cost involved, I decided I’d invest in myself and purchase a printer capable of printing that large.
The Canon Pro-4000 printer. The machine I would use to bring this gallery to life!
After that, it was a matter of recruiting local business women and entrepreneurs to come sit for me. I think I got lucky there, because with the help of my friend Anna Hatton, I filled up my list of people to photograph within a couple of days! I think, photographing as it was the part I’m most familiar with was of course the easiest.
Next hurdle was to figure out a venue that could showcase the many large prints planned for display. The idea was to have 20 images! I’m glad I didn’t push for a full 20, I ended at 15, because I wouldn’t have been able to fit it at the venue I was able to get into. That was in the beautiful Greens on Tenth venue. Many thanks go out to Ann Endsley for providing such an amazing space to showcase the images!
Last of all, I decided that rather than have a gallery exhibition, to create an event out of it. One with both gallery and speaking engagement involved. That meant I had to speak! The most I’ve ever spoke in front of was probably 20 people. I was hoping to having 100+ people at the event :). Suffice to say, I figured out what I wanted to say and on August 26th, made it happen!
Again it was great to see a project go from concept to completion! I learned so much from the process and definitely plan to do bring other projects to light. Here is the gallery of the amazing women that were photographed for the project. I’m so inspired by all of them, women who went out and pursued their passions and in doing so brought to life businesses that fuel them and make our local community all the better with their presence.
Ann Blair Endsley
Owner, Greens on Tenth, Underground Kitchen, Event Collection, Gather
Web: greensontenth.com, undergroundkitchen.net, greensmarket.net
Facebook/Instagram: @annendsley, @greesontenth, @gather.2.gether
Debbie Hinz
Owner & Embroiderer, A Stitch In Time
Web: www.stitch-art.net
Facebook: @stitchart1961
Instagram: @debbienewmanhinz
Erica Ormsby
Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker, Author
Web: ericaormsbyinternational.com
Facebook/Instagram: @ericaormsbyinspired
LinkedIn: Erica Ormsby
Jessica Chang Irish
Owner/Public Speaking Coach, Jessica Chang Consulting
Web: www.jessicachangconsulting.com
Facebook: @jessicachangconsulting
Instagram: @jesschangrish
Kelly McCarthy, CPCC
Designed Life Coach, Kelly McCarthy Coaching
Web: www.kellymccarthycoaching.com
Facebook: @kellymccarthycoaching
Instagram: @kelly_mccarthy_coaching
Kendra Dahlstrom
Faith-based Business Strategy & Life Coach
Web: kendradahlstrom.com
Facebook: @kendraLIYC
Instagram: @kendra_your_calling
Stephanie Carver, BSN, RN
Co-Owner/Integrative Health Consultant, Ho’ola Essential Oils
Web: www.hoolaessentialoils.com
Facebook: @hoolaessentialoil
Instagram: @hoolaessentialoils
Summer Barker
Owner & Lead Artist, M.U.A.H by Summer
Facebook: @MUAHbySummerBridalTeam
Instagram: @m.u.a.h.bysummerbridalteam
Tammy Wu, MD
Owner/Plastic Surgeon, Surgical Artistry, Inc
Web: www.surgerytoday.com
Facebook: @modestoplasticsurgery
Instagram: @surgical_artistry
And check out the gallery of images from the nights event here!
