The Holidays

I wasn't in a very festive mood this Holiday season. It's been a long, hard road this year. I was pretty Scroogey! I did manage to eat a lot and spend time with friends. I guess you can't really ask for much more right?

Catching Up Part Three

I missed the window for Halloween and Holiday portraits, so hopefully I'll be better prepared for next year! Until photography starts paying more of my bills, I shall continue to be preoccupied with the other J-O-B's. I'm a little disappointed in myself for not doing more with my art but there's only so much I can do. When I finally do have time, I have no energy or motivation. I'll figure it out eventually I guess. Here are a few more photos that have been left by the wayside. Some from the Renaissance Festival and some from pictures of my boyfriend's guitars.

Catching Up Part Two

The number one reason I haven't really blogged is that I loaned my laptop out to a good friend of mine (my laptop is my direct link to internet.) So when I did go online it was to check my emails and such from my boyfriend's house. He's the second reason I haven't had a whole lot of time to update this photo blog. The third reason is that my BFF was in a show and aside from working at the casino and hanging with the new boyfriend, I spent the rest of my available time trying to achieve the status of unofficial show mascot. I took many pictures of my best friend/roommate in her role as Googie Gomez in the LVLT's production of The Ritz. We also had a Halloween party..........(I'm actually posting pics of myself, ew!)

Catching Up Part One

All I can say is that I'm a horrible blogger. It's the economy's fault! Isn't everything the economy's fault? Yes.
Here are a few photos from another one of my toddler/baby portraits attempt. It's not easy to photography babies, they don't pay attention, they don't do what their told and they pee at will! No wonder I haven't had kids! They are pretty adorable though and some photos end up being awesome so I can't really complain.

Town Square Impromptu-ish shoot

My very good friend/internet marketing queen called me on her way to Town Square, one of the newer and nicer malls in Las Vegas. There's a cute playground area that I had noticed and commented to her about a possible photo shoot. So when she called me to say she was taking her out of town guests there, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to bring my camera. We ended up making new friends/potential clients. I really enjoyed shooting although, I think next time I will have to get more shots in before the kids get their hair wet and messy.

Bellydancer

Everytime I type the word bellydancer I think of the Elton John song Tiny Dancer. Then I start singing the song in my head and it carries me off to the scene in Almost Famous where they start singing on the bus after a tense moment. I love that movie. Yeah, it's a little sad how immersed in pop culture I am.
I took these of Amber, a friend of a friend, who is now my friend. Yes you guessed it, she's a bellydancer. I was obsessed with having a shoot at a dry lake bed, so that's where we headed. We started off late in the afternoon and ran out of natural light. I brought my lights but the power inverter I had wasn't strong enough to handle them so I was bummed. Of course we tried using the headlights as an alternate light source, but it wasn't working well. I did manage to squeeze out some nice looking photos though so I was happy! Not to mention making a new friend always works! I am still obsessed with the dry lake bed idea, this one we found wasn't to my liking so I'm on the lookout for a better one. I am perpetually in search of isolated, nicely lit, scenic areas.

Just in Case

I wandered the Las Vegas strip about a month ago, drunk and armed with my back-up camera, Veronica. The reason I had Veronica is because I go through these phases where I force myself to have a camera with me at all times. You know, just in case. The phases end when my shoulder, neck or back start aching from carrying around a heavy bag that would make even Mary Poppins envious. The reason I was drunk was because of my friend, who celebrated her birthday with bowling and drink.
I love the Bellagio. It's such a beautiful place. When I moved to Vegas the first time, I was a 21 year old girl intent on partying and enjoying my newfound independence. It wasn't until I dived into this whole photography thing that I started appreciated the little things. Maybe it was during broadcasting school, maybe it was before and I just never noticed. Not only do I notice details like decor and design but I am touched by them. I am feeling myself getting a little hallmark-card cheesy so I shall stop. I ended up at the Bellagio because of the model with working fountain.
There's one photo of fountains outside The Mirage. Not only was I drunk but I totally slow-shutter speeded those without a tripod! I did it with the aid of a rail and camera's timer. Ok, but that's all the trade secrets I will share!

No Photo Post

Since this is my photography specific blog, I've never posted without photographs to accompany the blog. I'm breaking that cycle right now since my laptop has recently been suffering the effects of a virus. With work, rearranging my living space, discovering racquetball and photo shoots, I've managed to have little or no time to troubleshoot the virus situation. I've actually shot everyday for about a week and can't proof them or post to share. I'm excited to see what a recent night shoot of the moon rising over the Las Vegas strip turns out. I've also captured some interesting sunsets. I'm still learning a lot about photography but also feel that I've come a long way. So this blog is for me to say well, I'm proud of me. The one of you that actually reads this might agree!

Sparks

I loved shooting this family! They were fun and laid back. I'm glad we picked Sunset Park in Las Vegas. I had never been there and it was absolutely lovely. I'm really not the snooty person that uses the word lovely a lot either. Below are a couple of my favorites and above are a couple that my "apprentice" Olga took.

Lucas

I am a huge animal lover. The only bad thing about this is that I am incredibly allergic to most of them. Including this beautiful baby named Lucas. I wish I could adopt him and keep him for myself!