Giving Thanks
Sandwiched between Halloween and the busy shopping season that is Christmas, Thanksgiving is a fleeting moment to break bread with family and good friends who are close enough to be considered as family.
Us girls would like to take time to pause and reflect on the many things that we have been lucky enough to experience this year. In addition to having the opportunity to share this wonderful holiday with those close to us, we’d like to thank our fabulous readers. Your warm enthusiasm is helping us to transform an addictive hobby into something more.
L2 is thankful for:
-Having survived the year of thirty,
-The kind ears and warm support of her dearest friends, and
-The opportunity for new beginnings.
Craile is appreciative of:
-Wonderful family and friends,
-Having found the most amazing hobby, and
-Being able to purchase 65356325412 things that she ”needs”.
Gracers is grateful for:
- Getting engaged to my favorite person in the world and my best friend,
- The support and opportunities for me to move toward more creative ventures, and
- Hilarious/smart/loyal/board
From all of us at Girls with Big Cameras, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones.
MMM, nothing makes the house smell better than a pie baking in the oven. Who doesn’t love a fresh homemade pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving?
Filed under L2, personal | Comment (1)The power of weddingbee
Who knew we could get “business” so fast?
I posted on weddingbee’s classifieds board yesterday before leaving work about a free engagement/family portrait session since Craile was getting all anxious about setting up our next photoshoot. Within 20 minutes, we got our first response! This is when I went back to the post and put the “3 couples/families” limit since we’re all full-time professionals and I didn’t want to overwhelm ourselves.
This morning when I came into work, there were 5 more! Who knew that people actually read the classified portion of weddingbee? I also went to our Google Analytics page and our pageview went skyrocketed!
With that said… the three of us need to get together and make a couple decisions:
1) Do we take everyone? or just 3 couples?
2) Are we ready to do weddings? (one girl asked about the potential in her E-mail)
3) Do we do outdoor sessions when it’s blazing cold outside in the winter? Or do we wait till the spring?
Thanks for reading! And keep posted….
This was Craile at our photo safari workshop in DC, doesn’t she look professional?
Next I tag L2 for a post on the Light the Night event we all volunteered at…
Filed under Gracers, personal | Comment (0)Angee, Phil & Karma’s portrait session
So really, THIS is how it all started.
I first met Angee through a charity golf event our company’s Junior Employees Forum (JEEF) sponsored. I volunteered to take photos of the event, and Angee was the chair for my committee. Even though I foolishly *only took my prime lens to take pictures of a sports event, surprisingly Angee loved the pictures (see some of them here and here). I told my friends that she liked them probably because she’s extremely photogenic and looked great in all the pictures ;p
Angee wanted pictures with her boyfriend, dog & horse to use as gifts for the holiday season. Unfortunately Sushi the horse couldn’t make it, but Claire and I had a wonderful and fun session with Angee, Phil, and Karma the dog.
Angee and Phil brought props themselves! I can’t believe Claire got this shot, this is definitely one of my favorites from the whole set.
Angee and Phil were such an easy couple to take pictures of because they were happy to try everything, and gave us endless expressions to capture - plus they’re super cute together.
Karma was SUCH a good sport. When she first got out of the car and would not stop rounding the park with lightening fast speed, I thought we wouldn’t be able to capture her on camera at all. But it turned out that she knew exactly when she had to be nice and quiet so we could get good pictures!
The weather was SO cold, but Angee didn’t even complain. It was evident that she was willing to do whatever she can to get beautiful pictures - and it worked!
I remember telling Claire “I want to ask them to skip” when I was standing off in a distance, and they started skipping on their own accord - what an easy couple to work with!
I followed the “get close and crop” rule.
How can I not ask them to jump? I will always ask you to jump, ALWAYS!
Filed under Gracers, portfolio, portrait sessions | Comment (1)Grace, I NEED….
“Grace, I need [insert whatever electronic device you can possibly think of.]”
“No, Craile, you don’t NEED it you WANT it.”
“Oh, yea.”
This is a typical conversation that I have with Gracers (almost everyday.) I always need something and Grace tells me that I probably don’t. After graduating from college, I’ve always been eager to find something that would interest me. I quickly realized my job wasn’t going to do that for me, so I turned to many different things (including buying a lot of things that I don’t NEED) but nothing could keep me interested long enough. Then(!), what started as a somewhat impulse purchase became a big part of my life. My big, fat camera. Since I started taking pictures, learning about photography, my life got very exciting. I mean, photography can be very frustrating but at the same time VERY rewarding. I haven’t been excited about anything for so long that I feel like this is something I really need to do. (Plus, its sooo much fun!)
So, now I can say, “Grace, we NEED to do this!!” (ha! im such a dork. lol)
We’re serious about this big cameras business
When wanna-be photographers start building a portfolio…