lexi mire

So. I'm currently in St. Simons Island, GA. Many of you probably know this already, but my Gran grew up on the mainland, and my family has been coming here at least once a year since. Much of my family is buried on the island, including my mom. Since my mom died, I've been coming here several times a year. Tomorrow is the 9th, which will be one year since my mom died. I came here for the week to be near her final resting place, to be in the place she loved so much (and I hold so dear), and to be with my grandparents, during a week that's very difficult for me. I'm grateful that my mom is buried in a place with so much beauty and so much love around it. It helps to be in a place like this. It's healing.

When I knew I was going down for the week, I messaged Lexi, knowing that she doesn't live too far away. We figured out a day, and she drove up here yesterday afternoon. We went to the cemetery, to a park with oak trees, to the pier, and to the neighboring island, where there's a driftwood beach. The day was cloudy and chilly, but the sunset was to die for.

When you meet someone that you've only known through the internet, it's always a little nerve-wrecking. You aren't always who you seem to be on the internet, and especially with people who seem to be such genuine, deep (for lack of a better word), and talented people. You hope that the picture you have of them as a person isn't tainted, and of course... you hope you get along well, too!

I am so glad to have met Lexi. We had so many good conversations, about everything, not just photography. She is absolutely every ounce of the talented, genuine person that you see on the internet through her photos and blog posts. At a time that's difficult for me for a variety of reasons, hanging out with Lexi, chatting, laughing, shooting (and watching her tackle a GINORMOUS burger) was the light that made me remember how good life can be, and what a beautiful thing it is to get to know other people.

And now, for the pictures!
(see Lexi's blog post from the day here!)

At the cemetery my mom is buried in:











in the park full of oak trees by my gran's place:







driftwood beach







(couldn't decide)
















sunset and darkness coming












headlights


:)

thorns (double exposure - large format)

today, I saw this beautiful photograph by Kalea Molloy and was inspired to try taking double exposures with my large format camera. I tried to mix it up a little bit this time :) It's so nice to take pictures.












burned and blurred

large format self portraits

I've been dying to take pictures and became so desperate that I decided to take large format self portraits in my bathroom at night. haha. I'm not the greatest model and I didn't want to waste too much film, hence the lack of variety in expression :P but I do like these :)

Large Format Photography

With some of the money I got for Christmas and the money I saved from working a million hours before I left school, I bought myself a large format camera and a fujifilm instant back (to clarify, this is NOT Instax film, it's the instant film Fujifilm makes for large format cameras [the FP series], though I do love instaxes!!). I take instant photos on my Hasselblad all the time and I LOVE them BUT it only comes out in a tiny 6x6cm square, and I want it to fill the whole frame. I have a cheap polaroid camera that does that but the pictures aren't nearly as nice and I don't have nearly as much control.

SO, I got this great deal on the camera and I'm so excited! I haven't scanned in everything yet but I'll do another post soon with medium and large format instants I've taken when I finish scanning.

For now, here are a few of the pictures I took with Mia to test out my camera yesterday :) This shoot had no concept and was purely for testing purposes since we didn't have much time, but we're going to plan out a shoot to do shortly :)

I hope you all had lovely holidays and a good new year!

Anna in the Cold

Today was really busy, but I hadn't seen Anna in forever and I hadn't shot for fun in a while so I went down to Rutgers for a short little shoot with Anna! I didn't take many photos, but it was really nice to catch up and I'm SO excited that I'm going to be so close for the next 8 months... expect lots of photos in the future! :)

here are a few from today:

autumn rose

for the first time since summer, I had a shoot that was purely for fun! it was so great. I've missed it so much. it's great shooting for clients, and I've had great client shoots, but shooting for myself helps remind me why I love photography so much.

this shoot was great because we only had a short amount of time and nothing planned, so it was super low key, which was a nice way to ease back in :) we're hopefully going to be shooting a more story-oriented shoot on Friday... fingers crossed it works out!

the model is my friend Tessa, who went to my high school and goes to college near me. she's represented by Click in NYC and by Dynasty in Boston.








(a happy photoshopping accident layered another photo onto this without leaving a trace (no undo, it's like it didn't exist))

























and finally, a photo that I accidentally over-exposed. I decided not to overlook the picture like I normally would, and instead edited it in a style inspired by Natalie Kucken's dreamy photography. it was fun to experiment!



hopefully, these next few weeks will bring more for-fun shoots to put up on the blog! :)