Impromptu Sessions - Just Grab Your Camera and Shoot

During our recent vacation in the Florida Keys an unexpected photo opportunity arose when we stopped off at a cute little oceanside park just past the 5 mile bridge. My daughter’s boyfriend starting climbing a tree, and soon after, she followed. With camera in hand, I snapped some photos of them climbing, sitting and posing for a few couples shots. We had to work around the wind, but I have to share with you this tree shot that is just priceless of the two of them. Here is the sepia-toned image followed by the color version. There are a few others, but I love how her hair was flowing in this amidst the backdrop of the twisty branches.

And here is the color version (below)

If you choose to do a similar tree shoot. Compose your shots to work with the branches rather than fighting them. Below, the widespread branches acted as a support for James in the background, while the larger trunk made a great ledge for Kylie to be seated in the foreground. Another perk of shooting from this angle is that you also get the beauty of the blue sky peeking through the branches.

Seated and smiling, they look very happy and relaxed sitting in the tree. Be sure when shooting from below to utilize a zoom lens to enable you to get close to the couple, and be mindful of their clothing and positioning of their legs so the shots aren't overly revealing or awkward.

Also pay attention to how the light is falling to avoid harsh shadows or harsh patches of sunlight across faces. Unfortunately, I did not have my flash along with me to use a fill flash, however, I think we still managed to pull off some great images considering these were mid day shots, not the ideal time for lighting.

Getting a very natural portrait of a guy, especially a teen male, can be challenging since they aren't typically as into having their photos taken as girls their age. That is why I seized the moment to take some quick portraits of James, having fun and looking very relaxed.

On the ground, the wind proved to be a big challenge (part of the reason we started exploring other areas and shooting by the trees). I did manage to snap this solo beachside shot of Kylie by the tree post.

The lesson learned from this impromptu photo shoot is that when your subjects feel relaxed and in their element, it will show in the portrait session. With family, or even clients, you can stage and pre-plan portrait sessions, but sometimes you have to just throw caution to the wind and work with great opportunities as well as nature’s wonderful props. Forget that they may not have on the perfect outfits or makeup, and just roll with the real life experience. You may be surprised with some of the best, most natural portrait sessions yet! Happy Snappin'!

Project 365 Challenge/Days 27 to 34 - A Week of Creativity

Day 27 - Be My Valentine Card

Valentine cards don’t have to take hours to be wonderful. Here is a simple card idea created using stickers, cardstock cut outs, some ribbon, some punched decorative elements and a little bit of bling in the form of some adhesive pearls. This design can be used over and over again by switching out elements, punches, ribbons and papers of your choosing.  In my sample, I paired some reddish-brown Cardstock with wonderful papers and elements from the manufacturer Little Yellow Bicycle.

Day 28 - Cork Board Date Night Card

Wanna try a fun card idea? For this Date Night card I used paper die cut elements from Shabby Chic Crafts along with a scrap piece of cork to create a faux cork board. Try this idea with your own layered elements. I used a paper clip and stick pin to add to the stationery look with two colors of twine from the Twinery and a diecut ribbon heart strip from May Arts. This card was featured as a design team project on the Glue Arts Blog. See the link for instructions and a complete supply list.

Day 30 - Uplift Card

I used pieces from a craft I made at last year's CHA show (the butterfly) to create this inspirational card for my daughter. I love pairing brights with black and white. It gives a high contrast look. Since the butterfly had a stamped french verse, I paired it with a wheeled elegant background in Tempting Turquoise ink. I smudged black ink on the white grosgrain ribbon to make it stand out from the white cardstock and add to the vintage feel. A torn bottom edge with a strip of black glued to the inside panel makes the deckled edge stand out. Try this fun handmade embellishment - layer rhinestones over top of sequins to create your own fun bling accent! I used my Glue Glider Pro and some mini extreme adhesive squares for assembly of the pieces on this cheery card design.

Day 31 - preliminary tree art for digi set

This art shows some preliminary ideas and the evolution of the loving 

tree 2 color clip art which will be the basis of a new themed digital clip art collection.

Stay tuned for the reveal of the completed collection.

Day 32- Guess Who Card

Day 33 - The assembly of the 1st Birthday Invites

Day 34 - The Loving Tree Collection

(the finished set based on the digi art created earlier this week)

Next week's creativity will include some layouts and other crafty surprises, 

and some more digital artwork concepts, too. Please tell your friends to visit. 

I will reveal the details on MY Favorite Things Giveaway contest. 

Day 11 - Same Card, New Twist!

If you visit my blog often, you then already know how I like to use the same layout and mix it up a bit by changing paper, ink colors or embellishments. Why reinvent the wheel when you can get on a good roll with one good idea, right? Today’s card, Amethyst Glitz, is a twist on yesterday’s Kiwi and Red Christmas card idea, only I made the wheeled pattern a bit stronger, used chalk pastels, sponge daubers and versamark ink to colorize the tree and snowflake. I cheated on ribbon useage by doing a smaller bow, added some scallops to the bottom of my framed panel and made the tree sparkle by randomly dotting 2-way glue and adding some lavender Cosmo glitter. The color combinations used are: Whisper White, Certainly Celery and Orchid Oppulence CS. The wheel is So Swirly and the stamp set is Snow Swirled, my Christmas favorite. For the verse, I used Orchid Oppulence Ink and Certainly Celery was used for wheeling. To add vibrant edging, I used Tempting Turquoise to make the white panel stand out and spattered Celery, Turqouise and Orchid markers over the white background using the Color Spritzer tool. All of these products are available on my Stampin’ Up!® website!

Day 12 - Never to Late for Christmas Cards!

Each year I vow to start my cards in August, but I never can seem to get into the Christmas mindset in the middle of summer. This hasn’t gotten any better since we moved to Florida. In fact, getting into the Christmas state of mind takes some real convincing until the reality of Thanksgiving sets in. This year I am being good to myself and have decided to not design a nightmare card that has me up all hours. Here is a peek at our card for this year. I went back to the traditional red and green color scheme with a twist, using the In Color Kiwi Kiss from Stampin’ Up!® with my favorite bright red cardstock, Real Red and the silky smooth Whisper White. I just loved the beautiful swirly tree from the Snow Swirled stamp set embossed in White on the red — it really pops! I will later post a cool poinsettia project using this same combination! So keep checking back on the blog for that project.

Other tools and supplies used: Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, So Swirly wheel, Stampin’ Around jumbo handle, jumbo cartridge with Versamark ink refill, heat tool, white eyelets, Color Spritzer tool, Old Olive Marker and Kiwi Kiss Classic Ink. Adhesive: Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro and the easy-to-use cartridges make large cardmaking projects like this a breeze! They are easy to switch from temporary to permanent adhesive and you don’t have to fiddle with reloading new adhesive when you run out. Just pop in a new cartridge!

Hot Tip: For even spacing on the eyelets, I used the double circle punch from Stampin’ Up!

This is a really fast way to make sure the two eyelets are properly aligned on top of one another. Next use the Crop-A-Dile for quick and easy setting prior to mounting the red panel on card front.