Just before I left, I hosted the Vanity Chair event. It was so much fun and we raised over $100 for Girl’s Inc. I am so pleased with the project, if not a bit sad that it’s over. This personal project challenged me in many ways and pushed me beyond my creative comfort zone. I don’t think I’m quite ready to let go of it yet so if you were at the event, give me a call to create your very own Vanity Chair style portrait. Heck, even if you weren’t at the event, I’d love to photograph you.

I wanted to share some of the images I created for the project as well as some photos from the event itself. We all had a great time and raised money for a great charity too. I really want to thank Kim for taking photos at the event and Heather from Suki and Karen from Salon Karma for helping to make the event such a great success!

-Suzanne

First off, I really love all visual art. I’m drawn to scenery, paintings, and all types of imagery. Since becoming a photographer I see light in a very different way. I even notice it when watching films which can be both fascinating and distracting.

When I first decided to explore photography as a career choice, I took a few classes and learned how to develop film. Yes, that’s right actual film. It was great seeing my images appear like magic in a darkened room with a faint red light glowing and the overwhelming smell of chemicals. I enjoyed being in the darkroom. It was quiet and sort of meditative.

Fast forward to photography school where I spent an exhaustive, overwhelming and fantastic ten months studying every aspect of photography possible. There was literally no room for anything else in my life at the time. My favorite part was being in the Commercial Studio which is where we would practice photographing things, objects. For example, silverware, wine bottles, glassware, toys, and so much more. I loved being in the quiet space painstakingly setting up the lights and set. There was no one to talk to and objects don’t talk back. By the end of the ten months I was pretty sure that I would be a photographer of objects, not people. Then I had the opportunity to photograph a family with three young children as my first paying job after school.

It was challenging to photograph young children who moved around and didn’t do what they were told. And, this was long before I had children of my own so I was a little out of my element. The mother and I came up with a great spot for the photo session and I remember it was a beautiful late summer day. I worked pretty hard that day trying to remember all the “right” settings for my camera and thinking about the different poses to try. I sent the film to the lab and waited for about two weeks to get the proofs back. It was agony.

I stressed for two weeks driving my poor husband crazy thinking that somehow there wouldn’t be anything at all to show my new clients. However, I was happily surprised to find that indeed there were some good images within those proofs and one stood out especially. It was an image of two little girls looking at a bird house and their little brother trying to steal one of the flowers out of the basket one of his sisters was holding.

Now, I didn’t plan this image. I remember telling them all to look at the little bird who lived in the house, but we all know that two-year-olds do the exact opposite as to what they’re told, right? This image sealed it for me. I guess it was then that I realized that capturing life as it actually happens can be so much more interesting than the posed and planned.

The mother was so thrilled with the photos and I made my first sale. I was ecstatic and I wanted more. When I photograph children now, I continue to try to capture what happens naturally, although I may direct a little. But, honestly, just talking with kids and telling them silly stories, I am able to bring out their little personalities and it’s so rewarding when a parent is amazed that I was able to capture all the different sides of their child. I love seeing the joy and pride on the faces of parents when they look at the images I create and that is why I love what I do.

This week, my son started Kindergarten, and my daughter – 1st grade. A bitter-sweet moment for me. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. The idea of my two beautiful children attending school for the WHOLE day, without me having to leave to pick up someone in the middle of the day. Part of me is so excited, and yet there is still a part of me that can’t believe I have two school-aged kids. Before I know it, I’ll be writing about graduation. Yikes.

So, in celebration of this magical moment, I’ve organized our first Fall Mom’s Night Out. We will be meeting at La Cucina in Hampden at 7pm, this coming Monday – Sept. 14th

Can’t wait to see you all there!  -Suzanne

We were only there for two nights, but man did we ever get to see a lot of the city. I brought my camera with me, but honestly, we were having so much fun cracking each other up that I didn’t take very many images. Here is one that I took from Central Park.

I’m so lucky to have my friends and family. I have been in a funk lately and this trip not only helped to clear the cobwebs, but it also put some things into perspective for me. I’m already looking forward to the next adventure.

Chances are, if you are like most adults, you really do not like having your photograph taken. When you do have the guts to actually put yourself in front of a camera, you feel self-conscious and not at all comfortable.

Well, it really doesn’t need to be that way. I take pride in being able to make people feel comfortable. In fact, I’m not afraid to act goofy if it makes you feel better and helps to lighten the mood. After all, if you are relaxed and are having fun, your photographs will reflect that.

Here are a few examples of some business portraits I’ve created with people who are just like you.

Smiles  -Suzanne

Back in the day, (geez, I sound like my grandfather) we all had film cameras. We would bring our roll of film to the local drugstore and have prints made. It was kind of exciting. After all, it had been about six months since we took some of those photos and we had completely forgotten what was even on that roll of film. So, then we would get back a set of prints and the negatives. If we were really organized, we might even keep all those negatives in a place that was easy to find. But, most likely, they were tossed here and there and were destined to a life of anonymity.

So here we are in the digital age with all these digital files floating around in our computers. We all have different ways of organizing information, but I’ll share with you what I do.

First, I like to download my photos from my camera as often as possible, especially after a family event like a birthday.
Second, I label the folder as the date, such as “032109- xxx birthday”. This stands for March 21, 2009, along with the type of event.
Third, I rename all the files that were created on that date to this general number, then add a dash and image number. It would look like this:

032109-01
032109-02
032109-03, etc.

This way, I know exactly when the image was created, since the filename is typically printed on the back of photographs when printed from any of the major photo processing stores. And, since the filename will always be unique using this method, I don’t need to worry about duplicate names like, “christmas”, or “jimmy’s birthday”.

As for the storage, I personally recommend getting an external hard-drive to store digital photos and videos. Having an external hard-drive frees up space on your computer’s hard-drive, and, if you’re really into backing up, you could store the images in both places to ensure that you will have the files if something bad should happen to one or the other.

1. My daughter’s birthday which is on the first day of Spring
2. Picnic and bicycle rides in the park
3. Vacation – duh
4. Breaking out the patio furniture
5. Sitting in the sun
6. Day in Boston
7. My grandmother’s 80th birthday celebration

And the 7 1/2 photo opportunity is really the multitude of moments that happen every single day that make me stop and smile and realize how lucky I am.