BUY WHOLESALE PHOTO FRAMES

100 Things I’ve Learned from Project 365

1.Get close. Then get closer.
2.Flash is the devil. Natural light rocks.
3.But sometimes, flash is necessary.
4.It’s better to take a crappy picture of a once-in-a-lifetime moment than to let it escape entirely.
5.Some rabbits are more photogenic than others. This applies to people as well.
6.Black & white has its place. Selective coloring seldom does.
7.The Rule of Thirds!
8.Increase ISO, increase noise.
9.Watch the background. Your camera will never miss it. And most people don’t look good with a tree, sign post, or Washington Monument growing out of their heads.
10.Abstract is fun, but can be difficult to achieve since what you’re photographing is always something that actually exists!
11.The Golden Hour – dawn and dusk – is the best time for outdoor photography.
12.I <3 macro.
13.When in doubt, take another picture of the rabbit.
14.Sunrise and sunset look really different.
15.Compose and crop before pressing the shutter release. Never press it thinking “I’ll fix this later in Photoshop.” That’s lazy art.
16.Put the camera down and watch the damn road.
17.There are two types of photos: documentary and artistic. Some document what people and places look like and don’t go beyond the facts. But there’s no reason they can’t look good, too!
18.If you don’t point out what looks to you like a glaring flaw, others probably won’t notice it.
19.Nobody – and I mean nobody – offers square prints anymore. And that makes me sad.
20.Never pass up an opportunity to photograph a loved one. Life is short and you may not get another chance.
21.Get out from behind the camera and get IN a picture once in a while!
22.Exposure triangle: shutter speed, aperture, ISO.
23.Do what you want creatively, but make sure eyes are always in focus.
24.My husband has an unhealthy obsession with ducks.
25.The same can probably be said of me and rabbits. And me and Jon Secada. And me and food. And me and….
26.Flowers are easy. Flowers don’t make faces and run away.
27.A boring subject can be made interesting by looking at it from a new and unpredictable angle.
28.Long-exposure yields striking night shots.
29.The rabbit is sick of seeing the camera and will hop away.
30.I have two rabbits.
31.Turns out the other one’s had it, too.
32.It is impossible to walk into Target and spend less than $50.
33.DSLR stands for digital single-lens reflex.
34.Babies change fast, holy crap.
35.The eye will be drawn to contrast, sharpness, and faces.
36.Always check your white balance, especially in artificial light.
37.Fun with colors: convince the camera’s white balance sensor that a traffic cone is black.
38.It IS possible to over-do bokeh. But it’s tough.
39.Just stand up and take the picture. No one here knows you, stop being self-conscious.
40.Sometimes the camera’s auto settings actually do know best.
41.…but not always. The camera doesn’t always know what you want to focus on. Sometimes you need to tell it manually.
42.As with time and money, the closer you get to the end of a daily project, the more vigilant you get.
43.Timing is everything.
44.I have to wonder how many people hid me from their Facebook news feeds because they were sick of crappy pictures. Eh, who cares?
45.If you don’t have a camera, you can’t take a picture.
46.God’s a pretty good painter.
47.Fifteen dollars will not get you a quality tripod.
48.The moon isn’t going anywhere – try again tomorrow.
49.If given the option, include people in the picture – it will instantly be more interesting and meaningful.
50.Bad bokeh: if the circles of light look like donuts, the result will be jarring. Good bokeh is brightest in the middle and fades out at the edges.
51.Post-processing is part of the process. While Photoshop should not be used exclusively to fix errors that could have been avoided to begin with, sometimes it is necessary to enhance and crop after the fact. Sometimes SOOC (straight out of the camera) is the lazy way.
52.A lot can happen in a year.
53.Procrastination yields shit.
54.ISO cranked way too high yields shit, too.
55.When you get a new toy, the old toy immediately isn’t good enough. And the toy before that, which was at one time amazing, is rendered laughably archaic.
56.Cameras don’t take pictures – people take pictures! Ok, admittedly, people with cameras take pictures.
57.If you give me or my friends “bunny ears” in a picture, I will Photoshop you to look like a prostitute from outer space.
58.If it becomes work, it’s no longer fun. It’s work. Gotta keep it fun.
59.Don’t set the shutter speed too high - sometimes a little motion in the photo helps tell the story.
60.Plants need water. Even cacti.
61.Taking a good shot doesn’t have to take hours to prepare. Sometimes you only need a few free seconds to take the camera out and fire away.
62.The lower the aperture the smaller the depth of field and the less of the pictures is in focus.
63.Hummingbirds are frickin’ fast.
64.Shoot first; don’t

12"x 12" ACRYLIC ON DIGITAL IMAGE

This is the 2nd installment in the collaboration between me and Elle Limon.

This photo was taken in downtown Denver (in a rough neighborhood called Five Points). This piece deals with maintaining a relationship with a drug addict. It is, more specifically, concerning Elle's relationship with her brother, Michael. It's not my place to try to define their relationship. The truth is, I don't know that I could even if I tried. I have been with Elle when her brother disappears into the streets for weeks at a time. Over the years, I have watched her cry for him and pray for him and yell at him and finally detach from him. It has been a long and painful process for her. There are still times when she wants to make it better for him. She wants safety for him. The difference these days is she knows all she can do is pray for him, keep some hope and faith, live her life as an example, and love him without expectation. She can let go of her need to control his situation and just love him.

I, admittedly, have not spent a whole lot of time (especially one-on-one) with, Michael. But the time I did spend with him I found he was a really funny guy. Listening to Elle and her brother talk and laugh about shared childhood memories, it is easy to forget there is a fucked up elephant sitting in the room. That is the magic of siblings.

The backing that this is pasted down to is an album cover for, Keely Smith's, "Swing You Lovers".