Keep It Simple: Bike love.

While wandering around San Destin with my sister and best friend, I happened across quite possibly the cutest bike ever produced. I was lucky enough to squeal in delight about how cute it is feet away from its owner, Rachel, who was sweet enough to not only allow me to take copious amounts of photographs of the bike, but also jumped in for a few! Florida is just one of those states that is too nice to lock yourself in a car while traveling through, so plans are to gather up an equally adorable bike for myself. Green, economical, and trendy, one just cannot resist!

Lately I have become more and more aware of my environmental footprint, and I want to do every little thing I can do live green, save some money, and better my quality of life. (Getting in shape as a result isn't a bad side effect) If I am not spending $60 a tank on gas, $400 a month on a car payment, $80 a month on car insurance, and all of the other random expenses that come with maintaining such a large machine, I could easily put that same money towards something more fun..... like decorating ;)

Tutorial: Awesome Portraits (Breaking all the rules) Lesson Three: Roleplaying and Props

Let's get creative.

Nothing says awesome like when art meets art, so let's marry some photography with some performance art. A great way to gather a few really interesting portraits is to act out a concept, idea or embody a character/idea. This can be done with costumes, makeup, dance or props, and can take place in a variety of different locations, and you can be as complex or minimalist as you like. Since I am not really an in-front-of-the-camera kind of girl, I went for minimal.

I had the pleasure of shooting with Mike Boike (you can see his deviantART profile here.) and we headed out into the wilds of The Woodlands, Texas to shoot along the waterway before heading to Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens to take advantage of the grounds for some vintage photographer inspired portraits. (Mercer has two sides, the Botanic Gardens side, which is landscaped and offers a variety of great shooting areas for just about any kind of session, and the Arboretum side which is a very lovely forest with great trails. We chose the Arboretum side.)

I am a collector of antique cameras, (It is like an illness, I do not even want to admit how many I have) so the concept I chose was based around this collection. I brought out my No. 1A Autographic Kodak Special and a vintage tuxedo inspired outfit and did my best to not look silly in front of the camera.

If you are shooting digital there is no reason what-so-ever not to snap loads of pictures and just have fun with it! Do a little dance, make a little art, and have fun with it.

Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot, enjoy!

Tutorial: Awesome Portraits (Breaking all the rules) Lesson Two: Crazy Lighting

Today's Awesome Portraits article centers on using interesting lighting to being another element to your photography. Anyone can go outside and take a photo of someone sitting on the grass with the sun shining, but if you are going for something striking you might want to spice things up a bit.

After all, people are not normally blue, so when they are people look.

Places with fun lighting exist everywhere, so keep an eye out!

The easiest way to locate fun lighting is to observe your surroundings while you drive around in the night-time. Businesses often have illuminated signs in fun colors, so stand near one and let the light shine on you. Inside cafes and lounges there are often neat colors of mood lighting, and in many cities there are parks with really great colored lighting that goes with the landscaping. The aquarium is a great place to get a few blue shots :)

Make sure you turn your flash off, or the whole effect is lost!

The Fatal Exception

Saturday night I had the distinct pleasure of photographing (and enjoying the music) at a concert featuring a band called The Fatal Exception. (You can download their album for free here.) I love using stage light in my photos because it makes everything look almost painted. Between the long exposures and the lasers I made some superfun shots occur.

They have a very retro 8bit meets electronic sound and it's best played loud!

The venue was dark and filled with lasers and fog-machine smoke, but the lighting was extra fun to play with. Here are a few shots from the show, enjoy!