Boo to You!

October marks the beginning of winter here in Alaska, but it also marks the beginning of the holiday season! I love the holidays!  It's a great reminder of why we take photos in the first place, memories.  All about slowing down the  every day and remembering special moments as well... here is part of how we celebrate Halloween! (we try not to make it too spooky)...

Scooping out the pumpkin guts is my least favorite part, so sticky.

 then you have to find just the right template (unless you freehand, if you do hats off to you!)

 We usually go through two or three of those tiny saws for each pumpkin, we need industrial strength saws..

almost finished

what do you all do with your seeds?

 we rinse ours off and bake them

add cinnamon and sugar and they smell heavenly

then all that's left is waiting for the trick or treaters!

Happy Halloween! Hope you capture some great memories of your own!

~Charlaine

Out of Practice

I recently did family portraits for friends and I felt so rusty.  I love taking pictures of small families and remember it being so easy.  I guess it is easy when you are using your camera daily and you are doing family sessions at least once a week.  I am a huge fan of using your phone for daily shots but I am losing my "skills" with DSLR.

It is now October and for the first time I have taken a picture a day.  I have never done that before and I owe that to my phone.  I just want to make it clear that I am very grateful for my phone photos.  Now that I am two months from successfully completely my first 365 project it is time for a new challenge.

So, I have decided to do 52 weeks with my DSLR.   

Here is my plan:

1. Read the manual to my 5D Mark III manual once more. 

2. Take my camera bag with me where ever I go.

3. Make a list of prompts to inspire me when I am in a slump

4. Post them on Instagram (I use Dropbox for all my photos so I can access them from my phone or computer)

5. Learn something new each week.  Pose, setting, editing, something.