Monday, February 28, 2011

i heart faces :: anything but a face

Generally at i heart faces, one of the requirements to entering the weekly photo contest is that a face must be present in the image.  But not this week; this week it's the opposite.

Recently, I had the opportunity to photograph a sweet newborn for a friend.  This is one of the resulting photos of his precious little feet.


There are many other amazing photos not including faces at i heart faces this week.  Take a look.



Monday, December 13, 2010

I heart faces :: pets

It's pet week at i heart faces this week!  I have two of them (pets that is); a delightful Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that joined our family at the end of summer and a black a white fluffy cat.  Their names are Dash and Hudson.  Unfortunately, the pets are on the skittish side when the camera comes out.  For some reason, the big black thing seemingly attached to my face frightens them, go figure.  One day a short while back, I snapped a few of Dash on my bed.  Not once could I get him to look at my camera, but he's a super cutie in profile also.

If you're looking for a pick me up, be sure to catch the multitude of other super cute pets at i heart faces this week.


Monday, December 6, 2010

I heart faces :: self-portrait



When I saw that this week's challenge was for a self-portrait, I was excited that I just took a bunch of pictures recently utilizing this very concept.  In this photo, I'm laughing at myself for feeling like such a dork.  I hope you enjoy my entry!

See all the other self-portraits at www.iheartfaces.com.

Monday, April 26, 2010

I {Heart} Faces : Smiles







Remember how I said this isn't a photo blog just 15 minutes ago?  It isn't.  But I am going to post for i heart faces because this week the theme is *Smiles*.  I just so happen to have a lovely little peanut with a fantastic smile!  I realize I am a bit biased, but still...  I took this image of Miss Eva about a week and 1/2 ago, right before she lost both of those top front teeth within two days of each other!


Head to iheartfaces to view the other submissions.

Not A Photo Blog, I Promise...

However, I really love photography and I have been so excited to increase my skill set in producing beautiful images.  I also really love Photoshop and feel so blessed to have Creative Suite 4, even though CS5 was just announced this last week.  I dearly love my Photoshop!  There are so many creative and artistic avenues in post-processing an image through the means of manipulation in it.

One realm of post-processing I have been on the fence about for some time has been the use of added textures in an image.  I have seen it done well, but many times I feel it is a bit distracting and I have a tendency to prefer clean, crisp images.  Tonight however, I did try my hand at editing a photo from the fall with the use of a texture after watching a great tutorial on the subject.

Below you will see an image of a red barn I took for a "landscape" photography class assignment.  Because I was shooting into the sunset and I forgot to readjust my exposure controls, the front of the image is underexposed.  I knew it had potential though.


I really love vibrant colors anyway and below is the image I finished with after editing.


Though it's not that strong of a landscape composition-wise, its bright colors really help to bring more visual interest.  Tonight, I chose this photo for my first experiment in textures.  I also edited the image to have a more vintage feel which compliments the texture so well.


The texture was only added to the sky, but overall I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm excited to continue working with this medium in my future post-processing endeavors.

How does all this relate to Fairchild Designs you might ask?  It doesn't, but it does make me intensely happy and is just another facet of my life.  I will post some real "business-related" material soon.  I promise. =)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I {Heart} Faces : Hands on Fun


There is a blog that I follow (and love) called iheartfaces.  It's a great site for photographers, professional and amateur, providing tutorials and wonderful inspiration.  This week they are having a challenge called Hands on Fun, focusing on hands instead of faces.  This is my submission below:  a picture of my sweet Eva's hands.  I edited the photo to have a vintage feel.  


You can view many of the other amazing entries here.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

A Story From My Life


I try to live my life without regrets.  I mean generally speaking, if my thoughts are stuck in the past, how am I moving forward?  This is my line of thinking, even if I am not always perfect in it.  Try is the key word right?

Who hasn't felt regret for a fashion choice though (or choices maybe)?   Usually when I think of fashion regrets, I think of acid-washed tapered leg jeans and florescent colored accessories; stirrup pants and slap bracelets (yes I am of the age group that loved these).  Luckily, a whole half decade of people joined me in these more unsightly fashion choices so I feel little to no regret for wearing rolled down socks, with  Keds, a puffy paint shirt, and stirrup pants.  I am however, haunted (yes, haunted) by a wrong choice of a different nature. Unrequited love...fashion-style.  It involves NOT keeping a certain little black dress. The perfect little black dress. I will explain.

Seven years ago it was 2003 and I was about to turn 22 years old.  I was young, just out of college, poor, and up to my eyeballs in student loan debt.  I worked two jobs.  One was an entry-level managerial position and the other was a position with Williams-Sonoma as a visual merchandiser; a job I really loved despite the very conservative dress code.  Amidst this debt-infused, yet carefree time in my life I was diagnosed with colon cancer and an incurable colon disease all in the same day.   So what did I do that week? I purchased a very expensive outfit that involved the afore-mentioned black dress above.   It was this amazingly perfect black wrap-styled t-shirt dress from Banana Republic that was very well fitted and had fantastic tayloring with a wonderfully crisp deep black cotton.  The dress had a very 50's feel to it, yet with a modern touch and it was $200, which was a lot for me back then.  I of course did not have shoes worthy of this dress and I found fantastic, very high heeled and pointy toed Mary Jane heals at Nordstrom that were also out of my price range at around $150.  I had a rough week and bit the bullet.  The outfit was very classic looking and I was excited to give myself something that helped me feel great at a time when I felt wretched in every other way.

It was early June, which is a very temperamental time here in Portland, weather-wise.  My perfect new outfit was in my closet waiting for a fair-weathered day.  Only the fair-weathered day must not have come because it still had tags on it about a month and 1/2 later when I found out I was pregnant.  Somehow a stunning three-inch heal no longer seemed practical and neither did a fitted black dress.   When would I have the opportunity to wear them?  I didn't particularly imagine myself as the 50's perfect mother type.  You know....perfectly coiffed, perfectly dressed, heals...red lipstick and a baby on my side. Would I ever be a size 0 again I wondered?  I just wasn't sure.  I also knew that $350 would put a serious dent in my crib fund thanks to my 40% Pottery Barn Kids discount (WS is very generous in that way).  So, the dress and heals went back from whence they came.

I should have kept the dress.  Seven years later, I can think of so many times that wonderfully perfect dress would have come in handy.  It would still fit too--if I owned it that is... even if I am  a semi-squishy variation of my pre-pregnancy self, maintained only by my partial colectomy.  Why am I thinking of this now?   I have a tendency to think of it when I have occasion to wear something like it.  For instance, a wedding I am RSVP'd for a month from now would be a perfect occasion.  I have been looking for a similar dress for years without finding a good match.  Not even from Banana Republic surprisingly enough, I mean, don't they recycle their designs???  Generally, I'll find the t-shirt dresses are too casual looking with a hint of surplus and the wrap dresses just have too much fabric.  This season is proving to be no less challenging.  The closest match I have come up with  is a Diane von Furstenburg number that isn't really what I want and it's priced at $395 no less.  Expensive taste? You should see the Manolo Blahnik heels I thought would go perfectly with it.  I could post pictures, but it might be unkind.

I will post some realistic pictures however.   Here is a dress Banana Republic currently offers.



You will notice that it is a wrap-style dress.  It's silk, which I am sure feels lovely against the skin.   It also looks as though it would accessorize well.  But did you notice that it's missing about 6 inches of fabric from the hem?   I may be slender, but I'm not a model and I'm not 19.  Wearing such a short dress seems scandalous to me...and not in a good way.

J. Crew also has a dress that could perhaps be a decent alternative.


My beef with this dress however, is that it is taffeta.  It would be so much better if it were a cotton/silk fiber blend!  Taffeta seems too bridesmaid-ish.  It doesn't have the same wearability factor that I'm seeking.  I want a fabulous jackie-of-all-trades kind of dress.  On a side note, did you see the cover of the most recent J. Crew catalogue?  I *heart* this outfit below.  It's perfectly me.  And the hat!  I might have to have it...and the pencil skirt too.



Oh well, I'll keep looking.  I am determined that someone, someone will design a similar perfect black dress again.  I am an optimistic kind of girl after all.  In the meantime, I am still on the hunt for a dress to wear to a wedding.  If you have ideas, please feel free to pass them my way.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the picture at the top is not mine.  It was featured on the front page of Etsy today and I think it is soooooooooo beautiful.  The shop is called ThisYearsGirl and can be found here.  An 8x10 of this print is offered for $22.50 plus minimal shipping charges.