Experimenting {Spinning}

So this week has been pretty laid back for me in the world of photography and getting out there and taking photos. I have mainly stuck around the house taking my daily photos for my 365 project. I was on Facebook looking thru local photographer's fan pages when I came across FotoShisa, a well known photographer on island, and he has taken some of the cutest pictures of his daughter here. So it got me thinking, how the heck did he do that!! That's when I turned to my friend, google, and just started searching for 'taking pictures of spinning kids' after a couple minutes of looking at different links and trying to find a tutorial I finally came across one here. The instructions were pretty good the only thing is that I would be doing this while my husband is at work so I had to figure out a way to do this solo. I clicked on the flicker group that is linked within the site and just started searching thru peoples pictures in hopes that there was a way I could do this on my own. With further exploration I came across this picture and the photographer has made a harness of some sort to attach the camera to his torso. I then put on my thinking cap and grabbed what I had at home (fabric), cut a hole in it just big enough so my lens would fit and then tied it as tight as I could. It worked pretty good. I still need to come up with a better harness so the camera can be as tight to my body as possible for less camera shake...I will be def taking a trip to the local craft store here soon. Hope this inspires a few to get out there and play a little. Sometimes we get all caught up in creating the 'perfect' picture and we forget to just have fun with our cameras.

The two B&Ws were my very first attempt

 Was babysitting my friend's daughter and decided to go for round two

 Trying so hard to get him to look up but he just couldn't do it. 

Belly Dance {Stylized}

Once again, the art of photography has brought together a group of photographers and friends. My good friend, Ashley got an idea to shoot belly dancers after our ballet shoot. Finding people with as much passion for what they do makes photographing them an amazing experience. Upon meeting Milagros (Millie) and her 15 year old daughter, Viole, they were so sweet and and very composed despite the handful of photographers that showed up. As Millie put it, she felt like a movie star with paparazzi following her around and asked if we could do this everyday LOL She defiantly wasn't shy in front of the camera. It took Viole a little longer to warm up but once she did, she did amazing! I am very grateful to have met Millie and Viole and see many more photo shoots with these two in the future.

Love the look on the mother's face looking at her daughter. 

  

My Favorite shot of the night.

Perfect timing

Dance like no one is watching.

Desie and the Sunflowers {Children}

I absolutely love being a mother of a spunky, car loving, playing in the dirt, making crazy faces when he sees my camera little boy. However, I do get the itch to do girly things, play dress up, and just do those things that mothers of daughters do. About 1.5 years ago we got new neighbors, the Martinez's, and our husbands happened to be in the same unit which at that point were on their way to deploy so they were all over the place getting in their trainings and prepping for their upcoming tour to Afghan. Alex and I hit it off right away as she fell in love with my son and I absolutely adore her two daughters. Desie, the youngest, is honestly one of the most gorgeous little girls I have seen. She just has this natural beauty to her and the personality to match. With our families becoming so close,  having her daughters around has helped me fill that void of not having a daughter. I am constantly taking pictures of her girls and if I get the want to do something girly I know Alex wont hesitate and let me steal Jackie or Desie.  Well, that 'itch' came as all the flowers on island started blooming. One of my favorites is the sunflower fields right down the street from base. There are rows and rows of bright yellow flowers that are between 4 and 6 feet tall. I just knew I HAD to take pictures of Desie hanging out in sunflowers. With school, errands and just the every day hustle and bustle it was a bit of a challenge to find the time to kidnap Desie before the fields were going to be chopped down. We finally found the time and I am so glad we did. We spent all of 30 mins in the fields, made a dress out of a maxi skirt of mine for her to wear and the outcome was nothing but great. Even thou the sun decided to hide for the day I was still able to get what I wanted out of the pics and Desie was a trooper in the chilly, Okinawa weather.

Can't wait to do a duel sister shoot with Jackie and Desie. Already planning it in my head :)

Andrew {Part Duce}

Last month I met a young man visiting Okinawa from the states that I took head shots of (here), well before his departure from Oki my friend and I wanted to do one last shoot with him with the concept of yoga and sunsets. Little did we know when we met up with him at the beach he didn't know a lick of yoga LOL We ended up sticking to the basics and everything turned out pretty good. This shoot defiantly fueled the fire to finding someone who is flexible and knows some yoga. Nothing is more peaceful then an beautiful sunset, calm oceans and the energy that radiates from yogis.

Silhouettes are a piece of cake when you have an amazing backdrop. SOOC. 

Namaste

Andrew took on cycling as a way to get around island while he was visiting so he wanted a photo with his bike :) 

Andrew may not have known much yoga but he surprised us that he knew how to slack line which was fun to watch and photograph. 

Haunted Ballet {Stylized}

Photo courtesy of my amazing friend at Ai Photography

This shoot has been in the back of my mind for over a year! However, my confidence hasn't been there and so getting the nerve to ask someone I don't know to be my model was nerve wrecking to say the least. Also, being surrounded by amazing talent that continuously pushes me to be my best helped me take the leap and my this shoot a reality. Almost a year ago I asked on Facebook if anyone knew of a ballet dancer because I was getting the 'itch' to photograph one at the one and only Haunted Hotel down the street. A friend of mine sent me the email address and phone number to a friend of hers and said she was willing to model. I was happy and nervous that I got a response back so quickly that I just tucked her information away forgetting that she is a military spouse and will be moving off island at some point. Fast forward to now~dug out that message and got the courage to email Erin, not even knowing if she was still here in Okinawa. Thank goodness she was! and was more than happy to pose and do her thing. For support I invited along two wonderful women and fellow photographers to tag along. We then spent 2.5 hours wondering the hotel admiring the light that was cascading thru making our jobs that much easier.
After whittling away at the photos that weren't to my standard and then emailing them off to Erin to get her approval for correct ballet form I ended up walking away with 101 photos. All of which I am very proud of and have gotten a tremendous amount of positive feed back. And all of this wouldn't be possible without the grace, beauty and talent of Erin!

I am beyond thrilled that I not only got one leap but two! Erin was quite impressed as well ;) 

Beyond beautiful 

First time pulling out the wide angel for a photo shoot! :)