St. Louis Children's Photographer and Maternity Photography, Baby Portraits - The Blog » St. Louis Nature Photography

blog carousel – texture

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:00:25 +0000

Due to our fall busy seasons, we skipped the November Blog Carousel. But we’re back at it. This month’s theme for the blog carousel is texture. It’s that time of year when color is disappearing and we wait for snow to take over and remove the last bits of it. Texture is all we’re left with. But there’s one place I can find color this late in the year, and that’s in the moss that grows on our patio. Unless it gets very dry, the moss is always growing. But it’s still the texture of it that’s fascinating to me. Such a miniature world. I find the “aerial” perspective makes for interesting compositions, the way it grows in the cracks between the bricks. And then from a different perspective….maybe that of a small creature… the moss looks like lush green hills.

To see some wonderful images of texture, take a ride on the blog carousel. You can start by visiting the blog of Westchester County child and baby photographer Dawn Sela. Dawn will have a link to the next photographer, and so on, until you’ve made it around the circle. Enjoy!

Hope – Blog Carousel

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:00:11 +0000

This little patch of land once seemed like it was thriving with life, growing a lush lawn of green grass. But then weeds took root. If you didn’t look too close, the lawn still looked like a lawn. It was still green, after all. A closer look revealed the truth. The soil was full of weeds that strangled out the grass. It was no longer able to support a healthy lawn. For this little patch of land to thrive with healthy life again, the weeds had to come out. Grass wasn’t the optimum use of this little spot anyway, which is why the opportunistic weeds were able to gain a foothold in the first place. So it was time to let go of the lawn too. The process of transformation isn’t always pretty, but this soil has now been tilled and prepped, and even in its raw form, its life already has new purpose. This time, as a perennial garden…

…a perennial garden that’s also a living example of hope and trust. There’s some work. And then there’s waiting. And then there’s beauty. It may look a little bleak right now, with newly-transplanted small hints of the large perennials they’ll grow into, and a lot of empty soil. Winter will arrive before this garden really takes off, and we’ll have to wait and trust some more. But we have HOPE…in the TRUSTING sense of the word…that after a brief period of dormancy, spring will reawaken this patch of land, and it will once again be thriving with life…a better life than before.

Hope is the theme of this month’s blog carousel. You’ll find many images of hope by some wonderfully talented photographers. The next image of hope on this blog carousel is from one of my very favorite photographers, Simone Hanckel, Adelaide’s leading children’s photographer.

Feeding time.

admin — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 04:46:26 +0000

Earlier this summer, while visiting family, there was another family hanging out at the same place. They were great guests. Hardly noticed they were there at all. But once I did, I found them fascinating to watch. And being a family photographer, I decided to get my camera out to capture their activities before they left. You hear family & child photographers talking all the time about the importance of portraits, and not waiting to capturing those little ones because the moments are fleeting and you can never get them back. Such was the case with this family too. A day or so after I shot this, the babies had flown the coop.

St. Louis Photographer | Monochrome

admin — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:00:59 +0000

I get lots of questions about my black and white images, so that’s my focus for this month’s blog carousel, themed “monochrome.” Black and white images appeal to your senses on a different level than color images. Many times, all that’s needed to tell a story is light and shadow, and that story can have much more impact without the distractions of color. I use it often in portraiture, but also in nature photographs. Here’s one that was monochrome in real life, not requiring any conversion to b&w. Snowy days are great for forcing us to see in monochrome; to see the shapes of the world around us:

And then almost overnight, it was Spring and the dogwoods were in bloom again:

I chose to do this one in monochrome because the deep greens behind the dogwood were impressive too, after the natural monochrome scenes of winter. The green would have distracted from the blossoms, and the way they hang in the air like lace.

Just like last month, several photographers from around the country have posted on the ‘monochrome’ theme today as part of our blog carousel. If you love photography, take a spin on the carousel and see some beautiful work. Next up is Corey Sewell, Atlanta newborn, baby, and child photographer.

Reflection.

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:00:15 +0000

For those of you who may have found the blog carnival to be too much reading, you’re in luck. Welcome to the blog carousel. This wonderful group of photographers I know around the country (and Canada and Norway) are at it again, and the carousel will be a monthly event. And it showcases photos, not long articles. The theme this time around is ‘reflection’. I decided to share with you a few of my personal favorite reflection images from my archives. I can’t remember if I’ve ever posted any of these before, but some of you may have seen a couple of them at one of my gallery shows.

When you scroll down to the bottom, you’ll see a link to the next photographer’s interpretation of reflection. And then follow along, all the way around the ‘carousel’ – it’s like attending an online art show of beautiful work.

Mine:

Sometimes no matter how badly a building blocks some of the sky, it can also make for interesting sky scenes.

And then other times, the sky is wide open, and a jet trail reflects the colors of the sunset.Then there are days when the fog is so thick there’s no sky visible at all. But you know the sun has come up because a small portion of the St. Louis Arch is somehow reflecting the morning light.

Reflections on water always catch my attention. On a crystal clear lake…

…or one lit by celebration…

Rippled water creates other-worldly scenes.
And then last but not least, I have to include an image I still laugh about. A gallery viewer once mistook the reflection for a shadow and told me it wasn’t possible to capture it during a snowstorm…and wouldn’t accept the fact that I did. So for those of you who may be wondering, yes, reflections are possible during a snowstorm…

Thanks for looking! To see how other photographers have posted for the reflection theme, keep going on the carousel…just follow the links. The next photographer up is New York Photographer MaryAnn Talamo of Custom Digital Images . MaryAnn does the most beautiful classic portraiture I’ve ever seen. She’s so good at what she does, she’s won many awards and accolades, but she’s also earned the title of Master Photographer. On her ‘reflection’ post, she’ll have a link to the next photographer, and so on.

If you don’t see a ‘reflection’ post of MaryAnn’s blog (she’s working on it at the moment) then skip ahead to Corey Sewell’s and go back and check out MaryAnn’s later. Have fun and don’t forget to leave some love (comments) on each photographer’s blog!

Such a cute house! Webster Groves charmer

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:34:45 +0000

I’m participating in the St. Louis Photographer’s Showcase, a fun competition between local photographers. Thanks to Studio Altius for thinking up such a fun event! It’s like a basketball tournament (or since I’m a girl who never played basketball, a volleyball tournament.) Right now I guess you could call it the regular season, because the elimination rounds don’t start right away. This week’s theme was trees, and so I photographed this gorgeous magnolia tree in full bloom with a full blanket of petals also carpeting the ground below. The cute little Webster house is the perfect finishing touch. As soon as I drove by I knew I need to photograph it. The house is for sale – if anyone’s interested I can get a contact name for you. Oh…and to my surprise, this image won round one!

Empty nest…hmm…what should we do?

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:11:06 +0000

Every time I step outside, there’s a new adventure with our resident doves. Maybe I should start a new blog just for them! LOL I’ll be back to posting sneak peeks and other goodies soon. But for now, here’s the latest on the birds. They are SO protective of their young! I headed out the door one day to go to a shoot, and mama or papa dove swooped in right in front of me, flapping his/her wings. I had to turn around and press up against the door until he backed off. On another day, I was outside taking photos of the whole front door scene, with the flowers and the dove nest (cuz I think it’s kinda cute) and I turned around at one point and the papa(?) was standing on a post right behind my head. Glaring at me with a creepy look. Think “The Birds.”

The dove babies (round 2) are big already:

So big, they’ve flown the coop. Here they are, out on their own:

What are the empty nesters to do? Why mate, of course! They must be married, because it’s a very fast process. First they flirt for about 3 seconds:

Then they play hard-to-get for maybe 2 seconds:

Then they move closer again, and kiss:

And neck:

And I mean REALLY neck:

And then well, I suppose this is why they call it the birds and the bees:

So I’m expecting mama dove to be back on the nest in a few days.

Another baby… baby dove, that is.

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:26:59 +0000

We’ve had a mourning dove nest by our front door for a few weeks now, and everytime I looked out, mom or dad was sitting there. But one day, I looked out, and neither was there. From where I was standing, I saw a small round something in the nest, which I thought was an egg. So I got my camera, held it high above my head, and hit the shutter. The “egg” got scared and tried to fly away…it wasn’t an egg, but a baby dove! And it couldn’t quite fly yet. So it kind of fell to the floor. And then tried to fly again and ended up down on the driveway. I felt so bad.

You should have seen me chasing that bird around my yard and the neighbor’s yard. I caught it several times, only to have it escape. Then the mom swooped down and stood right between me and the baby as I was trying to grab it again. Brave protective mama! But then she just walked around, making dove calls while the poor baby sat there on my driveway. So I went and picked it up one more time, and put it back in the nest. Next morning, both mom and dad were sitting up there with the baby perched on the edge of the nest. Later in the day, they were gone, but I heard the dove calls. I looked around, and found mom and baby sitting in a cherry tree next door:

Looks like the flight lessons had started. Don’t know how long that’s supposed to last, but that’s the last time I saw the fledgling. A strong storm came in that night. Yesterday, I saw that the nest had been built up more. And today, the mom is sitting up there again. I suppose she layed another egg…or two?