flying moose

In the back woods of Maine near Canada, there lives a flying moose that likes to hang out on the side of the road. Here he is. 

Excitement

I am very excited to do a food photography shoot next monday, to beef up my food portfolio. I checked out a sweet macro lens and a lighting kit and it is on. Oh how I love working with studio lights! 

Today I am going to deliver some pictures of some flower arrangements I shot for a local florist. Hopefully I will be doing more work for him and will get some wedding referrals. 

I am also in the process of finalizing a couple of interior and portraiture shots for some local businesses. 

Flashes

I have been experimenting with using multiple flashes. This is something I really need to learn more about. I have been using my flash on master and using Connies nikon flash on slave, and most of the time it works, but I would like to work more with pocket wizards and more external flashes. I watched the Joe McNally DVD  The Speed of Light recently and learned some tricks from him about how to use speedlites creative and efficiently. 

Today I did a photoshoot today for my cousin. She is freelancing as a make-up artist and Connie and I helped her beef up her portfolio with some photos of her work. The whole thing was one long drawn out ordeal and I ended up posing as the bride in a pretend wedding gown.. yippee. Pictures to come. Todays challenges were dealing with people not showing up, taking pictures of little kids, keeping up the energy level, not getting eaten by bugs, working with flashes in fading light, and not getting frustrated when shit happens and you get tired. 

Cookies and Grasshoppers

Here are a few shots from this past weekend, some impromptu photo-shoots with speedlites. 

Horse show

This past Sunday, I helped photograph a horse show as a favor for a friend. If you click on the link you can see an image gallery I have set up. www.laurengaw.com/brd

Poor ignored blog

I have much to update about my life. My internship with LB was short-lived. I the Grasshopper am now the intern of a wonderful photographer that goes by the alias of Kung Fu Panda. I suggest projects and Kung Fu Panda urges me to go out and take pictures, which she later reviews.  

I have picked back up working with Howland Development. I have traipsed around many of their buildings snapping pictures and making conference rooms look glamorous. 

I cant wait to get into the studio to work on my food photography, but also to do a shoot with the whole mini cast of Kung Fu Panda...Images to come 

I am in the process of writing a business plan for my new wedding photography business. Oh yes I did say wedding photography. For those of you that know me, know I did nothing but piss and moan about the wedding industry while at school. I have turned over a new leaf or rock or wedding dress. I am excited at the opportunity and challenge of doing it my way, and learning from those I admire. 

I shot my first wedding about a month ago, and while it was around 95 degrees outside in NH and humid, I did have a lot of fun, and how often can you call work fun...everyday is my goal!

I will be posting some pictures soon of shoots from the recent past. Appearing shortly will be pictures from the Boston Marathon, a sampling from my street musician series, and an artistic shot or two of fireworks from the forth of July. 

I am going to get back in the habit of carrying my camera around with me everywhere I go. I had camera envy last night because Connie had hers with her and we went to the Aquarium and then had a great dinner outside at the Boston Harbor Hotel. They had a live band playing and there were some cute couples dancing that she photographed. Then on the walk back home we kept pointing out different architectural features and scenes that would make cool photos. The excitement of taking pictures just for fun, and just because things look cool came back rushing thru me. 

I just got braces slapped on my teeth today in an effort to fix my cross bite.  I am trying to see the humor in this situation since I was far from my first trip to the orthodontist. So in Ugly Betty fashion, Connie is taking photos of my dental work as it progresses. Our first shoot was last night to take some "Before" pictures which equalled a really tired me barely keeping my eyes open while an also very tired Connie tried to figure out lighting and her settings. A couple of shots later we hit the sac and passed out.  We will do another shoot today with my new mouth metal and continue on from there. I will post an image or two from the project as they interest me. 

I plan my brains out with working at the UPS store, trying to start up a wedding business and acquire more architecture jobs, things often fall to the wayside. As mentioned I am excited to work on food photography in the coming weeks as well as keep up contact with local food photographers. I want to continue to explore drive-in movie theaters and those who frequent them. I cant wait to drag my tripod to downtown Boston and take pictures with Connie of the city and how it looks at night. I also want to continue to photograph and enjoy the street musicians of Boston and Cambridge. I am trying to stay on top of it all and make time for the things I really want to do.