Seeing is Believing

Photo Assigments

2009-06-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

I am tossing some ideas for future photo projects because I need some motivation and need to use my camera.

What I need is focus and something to get the fun back into photography. I want to produce great work but have absolutely no focus, which was great at a school where you changed your focus and topic of photography every week. But now in the real world I am stuck with a jumbled portfolio and not much to show for.

Ok, so survey says:

I could take photos of a specific color food ex all red foods or green food etc
I could go to different event and photograph it, like the sail boats on the charles or the rowers on the Charles or the runners on the Charles
I could look in the Boston globe for different events.
Homeless people
extreme close ups of people-especially wrinkles
Dogs out for a walk
A photo that tells a story about a person.
Pick a color or a shape and put it together- all things that are round
Something that inspires me

I will post photos here every Friday from my assignments, I welcome your suggestions and comments!

A resource or a cheap shot?

2009-02-16T11:17:00.000-08:00

Is using a spy lens resourceful? Or is it for cheeters? Let me know what you think? Is this the dream lens we have been waiting for? The lens that is great for capturing candids, or is it just a cheap shot?

I'M IN PRINT

2009-02-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I posted. I have been taking a break from the business of photography and trying to do it more for fun.

I am working on putting together a new website.. tho aren't we all.

In March's issue of Down East Magazine my photo is pictured with an article about Lakonia Olive Oil. They are a great company based out of Saco, Maine and Lakonia, Greece. Check it out!!!

A Taste of Greece

http://www.harvard.com/events/press_release.php?id=2174

2008-11-15T17:48:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to the lecture and book signing that Annie Leibovitz is giving on Monday night at 7pm. Hope to see you there.

5 D upgrade?

2008-09-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

This camera is drool worthy, with video and so many cool features.

http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/

another list

2008-09-05T09:05:00.001-07:00

Here is an addition to the things I must do, I am posting it here on my blog because, I have scattered index cards with to do's that wont gett done if they are not organized

I need to get a monitor calibrator and print a print source I like the prints from, I have to research a couple one is listed on my phone and its worth a shot to try moo again if the price is right.

I need to download the pics from my leica and get cowboy his photos,

I need to get the pics from maine that I shot of my family and put then on my hard drive,

I need to actually post photos on this blog,

I need to at least upload pics from this past weekends lunch and soda shoot.

I need to rent a marantz from school for a possible movie attempt at the olive oil bottling.

and I need to buy more and recharge some AA batteries along with some more DVDS and CDs.

gotta run print some pics and mail some cds!

marketing say what?

2008-09-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have come to a stand still, and am stumped at what to do next. Writing helps me answer most of my own questions. I am going to envoke the law of attraction and summon the clients to me. But I will also put forth effort to find them. I will keep telling myself that the clients will come, and that I will be sucessful. I will type it in present tense. I have many wonderful clients, I am successful and financially thriving.

I am trying to figure out what to do next, because I dont always feel productive sitting in front of my computer, I want to do something that has an effect, I want to go talk with people, florists, cake decorators but something is holding me back. So I need a plan of action, but I need to go beyond the planning and actually DO!

First I will list the projects that I am working on right now that might develop into something more, opportunities can open up anywhere!

I will be hanging 13 fine art prints on the walls of Antonio's restaurant Gran Gusto.
I am going to be going up and photographing authentic Greek olive oil being processed and bottled in 2 weeks time. They also might use my photos on their website! I also would like to develop my olive oil photo shoot into a little final cut piece for promotional uses.

I would like to make a promotional movie for my business, but I also love making little movies that tell peoples' stories. I want to start making 1 minute or shorter movies for companies that they can use for promotion. I would have fun and my photography gets exposure, plus clients would pay a lot such a nice product.

I am putting the spazzy free for all behind me. I should make a new food postcards and email that out to the food photographers I have on my list.

I should bite the bullet and call Jon and grovel and ask him how he finds wedding business and ask for some tips.

I should update my personal website and get the inthenook website up and running with matching business cards and promo cards to match. Then I need to actually step out of my apartment and distribute the post cards to local businesses. I know I have lists of florists and cake bakers and dress designers. I will have to organize these lists and systematically go to them, and just say "look I am a wedding photographer, I was wondering if I could place some cards in your store." NO ONE WILL BITE also I should get a little card stand for the cards.

I will keep a list of the dates I go to these places and revisit them??? How can I make it worth while for them ?? I need and excuse to revisit them.

At the current moment I will flip out if I read one more article about marketing. I will take a break from them and then revisit them because I am sure there are some useful tips somewhere burried in the countless articles Google shows me.

I did like the idea of notebook business cards, essentially your business card is the cover of a little notebook that is perfect for a purse or pocket, its an attempt at people not throwing your card away and seeing your name when they use the note pad.

I should register/sign up or atleast visit the Cambrigdge Chamber of Commerce and see what networking meetings they have to offer.

I should keep in contact with Greg and give him some promo cards to put in his store.

I need to get up the nerve and see if I can photograph the food at the Stolen Menu in York.

I need to book more time in the studio to photograph food with my love.. and not spaz out. I am smarter than the seamless.

I also want to practice portrait photography. But with who?

I need to learn how to put up a graphic add on craigslist and update it weekly

I should send a promo card to everyone I have a business card of.

Maybe try and contact Pat and see if other people in that building are interested in my photography services.

I sometimes lack the motivation needed perhaps because I cant see a result, I should think of building my wedding photography business like planning my wedding, as exciting and new. Also weddings cost money, but by marketing my wedding photography business I am hoping to make money, so there is an added incentive.

I need to join more photograph organizations and attend meetings they might have in the area. I also need to look into wedding expos and tradeshows, because those are elemental in reaching new customers, maybe have a give away and have a list to join the mailing list. To go along with that I will need some display materials to impress the clients with.

Studio Food Shoot

2008-08-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today Connie and I went to do a food photo shoot at school. Here are the difficulties that I ran into and some things I learned:

The seamless was really frustrating to put up and not wrinkle, plus a whole bunch of it was already dirty so there was lots of rolling and unrolling and improvising.

Its important to stay calm and listen to those that are there helping you.

If you dont like the way a photo is turning out stop, step back and see what you can change to get better results.

Have fun with your food

I will post a few photos from this shoot and a few previous food shoots soon

Things I accomplished that weren't a total waste of time

2008-08-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today I got home from work and firmly planted my self on the couch. I should amend that. I went to the farmers market and bought some wonderful tomatoes. I then proceeded to photograph them on a blanket and then photograph my process of making a mozzarella tomato basil salad. But after all was send and done, then I sat down. I sit at my computer in hopes of being productive, sometimes I am but mostly I feel drained and get distracted. Today a mish mosh of Cash Cab, How its made, and ET were playing in the background. Jenae came home and told me all about the happenings of her jobs as they come and go. I attempted to order some products online with surprising difficulty. So my evening happened away while I sat in my living room. Here is what I did.

Emailed Olive oil company, asked to order olive oil and attached pics I had taken in email, and checked out their website

Emailed Portsmouth Tea company and attached pics to their email too, and checked out their website

Talked with My Love

Checked email

Ordered lotion from Dirty Moose and looked at their website

Posted on both blogs several times

Burned discs for Leanne, and Dr Hall and wrote addresses on post its, set them aside to be mailed tomorrow

Talked to my mom

Stumbled on a few cool websites

Proofed and re-proofed the book I designed in Iphoto

Cursed Iphoto for loosing some of my photos and generally being difficult

Repeatedly tried to order said book and finally was successful on 3 or 4th try

Stumbled some more

Cooked dinner-raviolis with basil and butter

Chatted with Jenae

Imported the pictures I have put on flickr(awesome) into Iphoto (the devil) so I can put promotional photo albums on my Iphone(amazing)

Put those photos in albums but didnt update phone yet bc it takes forever

Wrote a pretty awesome cover letter/artist statement- I am pretty proud of it

Updated resume

Then used it to apply for two photography job openings.

Blogged again

I am exhausted just typing the damn list.

Now I may blog one more time before bed and read a page or two of my book before I go to bed

I will post my tomato photos when I have edited them.

Good Night All

In the Nook

2008-08-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

Me and Connie are in the process of starting our own wedding photography studio. Here is a promo card I have designed. Our website isn't up yet but we plan on calling ourselves In the Nook Photography.

Blog Crazy

2008-08-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

I am posting in rapid succession to catch my blog and readers up with my recent shoots. I alternate updating my flickr and this blog. My flickr is more organized so check in with that site too from time to time.

Here is some picks from a home photo shoot, the ridiculous set up and the results!

Portraits for Leanne

2008-08-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

I did a photshoot for my cousin a couple of weeks ago, I believe I mentioned the shoot in a past blog. Here are the results

Portrait and Office Shoots

2008-08-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots from a job I did last week for a doctor, of himself and his office

flying moose

2008-07-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-30T06:59:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

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

Horse show

2008-07-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-09T11:33:00.001-07:00

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.

Great news

2008-05-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty busy day today. I got an internship with the photographer Laura Barisonzi. Her work it amazing and very stylistic. I am very excited to learn from her!!!

My new paying job at the UPS store is going really well. I work with some nice people and enjoy living vicariously through the packages I send around the world.

I also did a shoot today that included two moms and their kids. Once I have processed the photos I will put a few cute ones up.

Ok so I tried

2008-05-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

So the posting pictures everyday seems to be a lost cause. I do have an aversion to uploading photos. I still need to get a handle on my photo organization. But I am working towards making money as a photographer. I ordered some new promo cards yesterday and am going to order some more later today. I am off to my first day of work at my new job. I am now an employee of the UPS store!! I have worked in one before and liked it so I am eager to start this job.

Dinner adventure

2008-05-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Ok so I know I said I would post a photo everyday, but last night I was a bit tied up. I just found out that I had gotten the part time job I applied for. So as part of a celebration Connie and I were going to go have dinner at Kelly's roast beef in Revere. We got really lost and turned around about 15 times. It took us a really long time to get there. But we finally did and ate a tasty dinner on the beach! By the time I got home, the only thing I wanted to do was sleep. Therefore I will be posting 2 days worth of photos today.

2008-05-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

I noticed this statue at the park for the first time today. Thought it was beautiful and tried to take pictures of from a bunch of angles liked this one the best

It's spring !!!

2008-05-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's Spring! and that means flip flops and green grass

A walk down my street to the park

2008-05-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

I find this photo rather ironic because living in Cambridge = getting towed and getting ticketed, sometimes at the same time

I am back / pictures of the day

2008-05-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

I took a break from the blog to figure some things out. I was getting overwhelmed trying to make a living as a photographer, so I took a while to seek alternative employment. I realized that I needed some photography motivation so I have decided to post at least 1 photo everyday. It is really easy to forget to take pictures and this way I will always have new stuff to show the world.

Enjoy today's photos!

Shoot Q Grant

2008-04-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the website for a really cool photography grant. It offers 10,000 to pursue a personal project that you believe will have some positive impact and create change

Gulf Shores Part 2

2008-04-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

This photo I really love. I exposed for the beautiful blue sky and then used a little fill flash. I like the extra sky on top. I tried cropping it but didn't like it that much

My website is ready!

2008-04-02T12:50:00.001-07:00

I have given my website a facelift. It has been a long time coming so I am very excited to have worked out all of the bugs!

Check it out at www.laurengaw.com

Gulf Shores Part 1

2008-04-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

I will be posting a number of photos I have taken on a recent road trip down the east coast. I visited Alabama where my fiancee's family is from. A pretty popular beach in the area is Gulf Shores. High rise hotels have been taking some of the charm away from the place, and changing the scene a bit. Here is my take on the beach and its surrounding buildings.

Fishing for fools

2008-04-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

Happy April fools!

I have posted some photos of some koi fish. I had a lot of fun photographing them working with different shutter speeds and the use of flash on the water. I applied the brush strokes filter to some of the images at varying opacities and used curves and hue and saturation to get the desired effects.

Welcome

2008-03-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. My name is Lauren and I am a photographer living in Cambridge MA. I received my photography training at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts. I just graduated in January and I am currently working as a freelance photographer.

I recently sold my first photo!!! CDIA had a student gallery show for all of the graduating students. I had three photos in the show and the one that sold is titled Weirs Beach. It is a 40x60 print that is an image from a series I did on some remaining drive-in movie theaters in New England.