Jacksonville Arboretum

This is FINALLY the last week of this semester. It has been one of the most difficult semesters I have ever taken. For some reason I decided to take 5 classes one of those being my capstone course. The only way I have been able to live with the stress is by staying active as much as possible. Between my course load and working full time at my job, I haven't had much time for photo shoots. In order to fill this void I am constantly snapping away on my phone. Occasionally I will bring out the DSLR on my hikes, but on days like today when we decided to bring our dog it wasn't very convenient to do so.

I wanted to share some images I snapped today of the Jacksonville Arboretum. If you haven't been out there, I highly suggest going. It's like this small slice of paradise in this city. It almost feels like you drove 30 miles out of town into the woods. The weather today was fantastic as well.

So here they are nothing fancy, but just some nice pics of a beautiful park.

My Bluetick Coonhound Dr. Gibson

Inspiration Post Continued

Last week I talked about just a few of the photographers that inspire the work in my portfolio. This week I wanted to take to Twitter and show you guys exactly what a couple of my favorite photographers have been up to. Twitter is a great way to get almost live updates of what people are doing. Some of the photographers I follow will use Twitter as a platform to share behind the scenes shots as they are working. They even share their finished work on there. It's also a great way for them to stay connected with their fan base. In the case of Lara Jade (one of the younger photographers I follow) it's very important for her to stay connected with her fans because she runs workshops. These usually span 3 to 4 days and she teaches the ins-and-outs of her style of fashion photography.

Below are some of examples of her work and and Mario Tetsino's work via their Twitter feeds.

New work for @blackmagazine shot in Aus with the beautiful Talia Berman. https://t.co/oREBBCgxJB pic.twitter.com/YUljBOzOBj

— Lara Jade (@LaraJade_) March 10, 2016

When your model looks better than you wearing your new @chloefashion sunglasses! 😩 pic.twitter.com/X0XjIlEWFZ

— Lara Jade (@LaraJade_) March 5, 2016

Behind the scenes shot.

Shooting a beautiful story today in the studio with the stunning Sanna Backstrom pic.twitter.com/bz3kgwmGrV

— Lara Jade (@LaraJade_) March 12, 2016

and a couple of Mario Testino's images as well

.@LANADELREY, NEW YORK, @BRITISHVOGUE, 2011. FROM THE 'MUSICIANS' GALLERY ON MY WEBSITE: https://t.co/NO0uwY4QOL pic.twitter.com/ey3THmb0iw

— Mario Testino (@mariotestino) February 1, 2016

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, @VANITYFAIR, 2004

#MyFirstTestino #TestinoArchive pic.twitter.com/PIpcklktLD

— Mario Testino (@mariotestino) November 29, 2015

The other two photographers I mentioned don't have Twitter accounts, but they use Instagram very heavily. If you're into fashion photography at all I highly recommend either of these photographer's feeds on Twitter.

Inspiration post

I wanted to talk today about some of the photographers that inspire me to continue to work on my art. There are so many great ones out there, but a few of them have really stood out to me over the years.

Lara Jade, JUCO, Steven Meisel, and Mario Testino are just a few of my favorites. Lara Jade is an English photographer who I have been following since day 1.10 years now. She is a year younger than me and has just really made a name for her self in the photography world. She started out as conceptual photographer who focused mainly on self portraits and then grew into this incredible fashion photographer and moved in NYC where she currently resides.

Steven Meisel and Mario Testino  have been around for what feels like forever, They are the big shot or what would be the A-list celebrities of the photography world. There work can be found in almost every fashion publication in the world. They both tend to do ads for major fashion lines too.

JUCO is a duo of two photographers that live in L.A. they are more of my current inspiration of the direction I would like to take my portfolio.

Although I don't plan to make in the photography industry I would never turn down the opportunity if it was handed to me. I just really enjoy creating art and making my visions come to life. The process of creating everything is a fantastic feeling.


Below are the websites of these said photographers if you would like to check them out.

http://larajade.co.uk/

http://www.artandcommerce.com/artists/photographers/steven-meisel

http://www.mariotestino.com/

http://jucophoto.com/

First Day of Spring : Jacksonville Fashion Photographer

Spring is my favorite season in Florida, it's warm enough to go back to the beach, but the evenings can cool down to the high 60's. Its really the only time of year we experience any type of change in scenery and by that I mean flowers bloom! Fresh flowers are a big staple in many of photo shoots taken during this season. Whether it be flower crowns, wall paper, shooting in a garden, etc...I absolutely love shooting any type of floral element. They add great color, texture, and scenery to images. It also helps create a more magical world for my shoots to take place. I believe this comes my love of Alice in Wonderland as a child. I have always had an attraction to gardens with beautiful blooms.

I wanted to go ahead and share some of my favorite spring photo shoots that I have done in the past. I'm gearing my self up for another season full of beautiful women and flowers!

Lake City Hunt Club

This weekend we went out to Lake City to hike my boyfriend's hunting property. We went out looking to see if there were any signs of turkey's since the season opens in a few weeks. This time was a little different from the other times we have visited because we were able to bring our Bluetick Coonhound, Gibson. Gibson is very rowdy, loud, and just plain crazy about 90% of the time so we thought that bringing him out to the property to run around would not only expend some of his energy, but also help us train him to be off the leash, his recall, and tracking skills.

We had a wonderful time with him out there and did find lots of evidence of turkeys in the woods. I decided to bring my DSLR out today to take some shots of Gibson roaming the woods. I thought I'd share those since its something other than just snaps from my cell phone. Plus, who doesn't love dog pictures?! I didn't do much in the way of editing with these. I quickly ran them through Lightroom, but I wanted to keep them true to what came out of the camera. Just something a little different. It takes a lot in this digital age to feel comfortable appreciating how you expose things with out the help of filters or editing programs. Reminds me of when I used to shoot film in high school.

Beauty In Bloom : Jacksonville Beauty Photographer

I've always wanted to collaborate with and illustrator on a shoot. I tried it once in the past where I had the artist paint on the model's body and it didn't quite come out the way I had hoped. This time however, I got together with my stylist and good friend, Argie, who also happens to be a visual artist and we came up with a concept for this shoot. This shoot is one of our many shoots that incorporate fresh flowers. Every spring for the last few years we have incorporated floral elements into our shoots. Whether they are in gardens or the models are wearing handmade floral headpieces, its a constant theme with us. Holland and Erin also joined us on this shoot, I love working with these two as well. They are part of my dream team!

We took this shoot a step further and added the element of hand drawn flowers on to the finished images. This gives this photos a very unique and feminine flare, which contrasts nicely with the very 90's grunge styling/makeup. The shoot ended up being published in CoCo Magazine. 

Beauty in Bloom for CoCo Magazine

Model: Courtney Beach

Hair: Holland Morgan

MUA: Erin Foster

Stylist/illustrator: Argie Mitra

Shed Hunting Weekend : Georgia Travel Photographer

This weekend my boyfriend, Allen, and I went on our annual trip up to Pine Mountain to visit one of our good friends, Richard. Richard owns property up in Pine Mountain which he has an archery only hunting club. Allen is normally up there every weekend from September to January for deer season, so when that's over we normally head up there together to hike the property and hang out with Richard. Since February is normally the time that deer shed their antlers we decided to try and find some shed antlers! We able to hike about 10 miles on Saturday in different areas with in Richard's property and we had a couple of his dogs accompany us as well. Allen and I each found a nice sized shed, but didn't up find more than one a piece.

The whole weekend was a blast and I'm hoping once I'm out of school I'll be able to travel much more than just a couple times a year. Here are some images from this weekend's trip.