Meet Andrea

Andrea Blanchette

Eagle River, AK

Shoot with: Canon 60d, Samsung Galaxy

Lens: 50mm, 85mm 

Instagram: blanchettephoto

I got my first DSLR in 2011 after having my baby girl. I love to capture everyday moments and am drawn to photographs that tell a story, evoke emotion, or have a quiet sort of intimacy to them. Photography has driven me to tap into my creative side, which is hard work for an analytical gal like me ;)

Meet Mandy

What you shoot with:  Canon 5D and 40D as backup
Favorite lens:  My 50mm 1.4
Flickr: mandy_reger
Instagram:  
Blog or website:  portraitsbymandyreger.smugmug.com (it's just a site for proofing with clients...it's not even finished. 

A little info paragraph about you and what inspires you....a bio of some sort.

I am a 31 year old mom to two girls, age 11 and 9.  I have been married to my highschool sweetheart for 12 years now.  I started taking pictures in 2007.  I bought my first dslr, and book after book and started reading about how to shoot manually and took a bazillion pictures and learned by trial and error, and a LOT of studying and reading.  I love taking pictures.  I LOVE the beauty of the world, and I see things in a whole different perspective after starting to take pictures.  Photography is my passion.  It brings happiness to my soul.  I took pictures as a business for several years, and have decided that this next upcoming year I will just be finishing up some gift certificates for people and nothing more.  I have been so busy over the years, that it exhausts me, and my family is suffering for it.  I need to take a step back and get back into taking pictures because I LOVE it...not because I have to do it and it is a chore.  I am very excited to start taking more pictures of my two sweet girls, and more nature photography.  I know a lot about photography, but I also have SO much that I need to learn.  I am excited to be a part of this and to learn and grow and share with you all, and to see your beautiful photos as well!  What inspires me are more candid photos, with feeling, deep moody photos with a lot of contrast move my soul.  I love the light, sweet beautiful light, and I'm a sucker for sunflare as well.  Anything that I see that moves me, I just want to capture its beauty the best that I can.  I am a sucker for a good black and white.  They speak to me more than anything else.  I have a desire to learn more, and grow, and am looking forward to this!

Meet Sonya

Sonya Bitz
What you shoot with:  Nikon D3100 and D60 as backup
Favorite lens:  My 50Mm
Flickr:http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozenbeautyqueen/
Instagram:  akphotographer
Blog or website:  www.akphotographer-akphotographer.blogspot.com

A little info paragraph about you and what inspires you....a bio of some sort.

   A little info about me…I am an artist at heart.  I love all things color and I like to think I live a colorful life!  I have two little boys (3 and 5) and they are the love of my life! They keep me motivated to get out of bed and to strive to be a better mother and overall person.  I want to live a life that they may say " My mother was an amazing woman".  I went to college for Interior Design with a minor in art and I have used  my art minor for many things since being a mother.  I love to watercolor…it is my "go to" medium, but I love painting in general.  Oils are expensive and quite frankly, my husband would complain of the smell if we had oil paintings in this tiny apartment of ours.  I am open minded and understanding to our crazy family life! We are always adventuring out somewhere and coming back with great stories to tell about them!   I love all things creative…from sewing to painting to drawing to cooking and even attire! Yes…even getting dressed takes some level of creativity in my book!  I hope to get to know everyone in this group and I am thankful to be part of a group of creative artists and share inspiring ideas!

Meet Leaca

Leaca Young
I live in Alaska but I am from Wyoming
I shoot with two cameras 50D and the 5D Mark III
My favorite lenses are my 50 1.2 and my 24-70mm 2.8
I use my iPhone 5S for most everything.  It saved my bacon last year with my 365. 

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leacayoung/
Instagram:  @leaca_travels
Blog:  http://thetravelingpalace.blogspot.com/

I have always been drawn to photography.  Newspapers and magazines always peeked my interested as a kid.  I loved the way they captured moments and froze time.  My father was always taking pictures and I love that about him.  My husband bought me my first DSLR in 2007.  I joined Flickr and joined some groups.  That is where I really learned photography.  I am still learning and it seems it is from surrounding myself with great inspiration. 

Meet Marina

Marina Spooner

Long Island, New York

D600

50 1.4, 14-24 2.8 – love them both!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthandskye/

http://instagram.com/earthandskye

https://www.facebook.com/earthandskye

www.earthandskyephoto.com

www.earthandskye.com

I’m inspired by the feeling I get when I see something that strikes a chord in my heart.  It might be beauty, ugly, truth or serenity.

 

Meet Claudia

Claudia Lauro

Minnesota

Sony a77, iPhone 5

50 mm 1.8, got an olloclip for the iPhone for Christmas that will be fun :)

On Flickr I am, Cosi!

On Instagram I am, Cosibella

I have been very bad at up keeping my blog cosibellaphotography.blogspot.com :( 

First let me explain Cosi, it's Italian for "thereby · so · thus · that way · this way · like so · like that · like this · such ·this · in this way" - I chose it for my flickr name years ago because there were so many ways of photography for me to learn when I first joined. I studied many different photographers'  styles and techniques. Armed with my point and shoot when I entered the digital era, I tried new techniques, like adding textures, making my own textures, shooting throughout the lens of another camera (Ttv), blurry shots, and experimenting with every function I could teach myself in Photoshop Elements! 

People would say my photos were "so beautiful" and pretty soon people were asking me to photograph families, events, and seniors. I wanted a name for a business I could build. I also wanted it to have an Italian ring to it in memory of my Dad. So I picked Cosi Bella, so beautiful!

All that to say I am still building a business that I can hopefully grow bigger, when I am done home schooling my youngest who is in 6th grade, I've been doing it since his brother was in kindergarten. What a blessing it has been to have been home with them all these years, watching then grow, and teaching them at home! It also afforded me the opportunity to "get back into" photography, I started when I was 14 - yes, film, darkrooms, jobs managing photo labs and selling cameras all before kids. 

Needless to say, I am still learning, I struggle with losing my photo mojo, especially in winter when I have to chase the light around the house. I've found I need to continue to study photographs/photographers I love to get inspired. I'm inspired by the everyday details of life, and challenged by iphonography and the elusive great selfie shot.

Meet Charlaine

Name: Charlaine Williams
Where you live: North Pole, AK
What you shoot with: Nikon D700 mostly prime lenses
Favorite lens: 50mm 1.4
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/justcharlaine/
Instagram: northpolemama
Blog or website:
http://charlaine-williams.squarespace.com/

I like to capture memories and beauty and light, I guess like any photographer