Making Friends | KE365 | D92

Day 92 was about making friends for my daughter. They're actually sitting ten feet from a playground but the two of them sat and played in the sand together the whole time.

Wanting to achieve a simple image without a lot of clutter I chose to photograph them with the natural background as opposed to the playground equipment. I also used a shallow depth of field to put the focus right on the girls with just enough clarity to see the awesome landscape behind them.

Shot at 1/640s at F/4.0, ISO 100 with 85 mm lens.

Landscapes | KE365 | D91

Working with my old photography assignment as college for inspiration yesterday I remembered what Tasra had said in her 365 blog about going back to your roots of photography. I began photographing landscapes and nature at age 11 after a field trip to local nature preserve, Glen Helen. My parents got me a nifty ;) disposable camera which I really enjoyed and loved photography more and more every day after.

For Day 91, I photographed some of the same landscapes I would work with back when I was a teenager except I have a completely different eye now. I notice different things, I have better equipment and as this 365 project has made me realize you can go back to something over and over and have the results turn out differently every time. The light at the Narrows in Beavercreek was gorgeous and I captured some landscapes in ways I wouldn't have been able to back then. It has made me realize how I have grown and changed as a photographer and a person.

ISO 400 F/11 1/200s with wide angle lens at 18mm.

  

ISO 400 F/11 1/200s with wide angle lens at 18mm.

 

ISO 400 F/5.6 1/60s with wide angle lens at 18mm.

Shades of Grey | KE365 | D90

For my research of Day 90 I was looking back through the photography school textbooks. Remembering back to my art school days, we always had projects on patterns, texture, or ideas to work with specific color schemes.  I shot this one as a tribute to all of those assignments wrapped up into one.

I'll fill you in on a little secret, it's also another personal motivator for me.

Shot at ISO 100 F 5.6 at 1/125s with the wide angle lens.

The Bright Lights | KE365 | D89

I walked up on the setting sun at the park on Day 89 and I had a mission to shoot an inspirational image specifically for myself. I felt as if I owed it to myself, with each barrier life throws at me somehow I am finding a way to leap over it. It may not be pretty, it certainly isn't easy but I am still moving forward and towards those bright lights shining on where I want to be.

Shot at ISO 100 F3.5 1/400s because I really wanted that shallow depth of field. I would normally use my 50 mm lens for a shallow focus shot but with my 18-55mm lens it gave a sweeter look giving that wide angle effect.

Athena's Bridal Open House!! | KE365 | D88

Open House for Athena's Bridal was amazing. Athena's is the oldest bridal salon in Dayton in a historic building and when Beth Harper bought the business it was in need of some restoration. Beth completely transformed the business into an eloquent boutique environment with the friendliest most caring staff. I cannot tell you how much they care for what they do, but it shows immensely in the faces of their satisfied customers. The dresses they have filled the store with are so gorgeous, there were even a couple who wanted to try things on during the open house! All in all I think it was a total success. Congratulations to everyone at Athena's, you are amazing.

I've talked about Jasmine Star before, I think she is an amazing photographer. I was able to watch Jasmine Star's live broadcast through CreativeLive last week I remember her saying they give 10% of what they make back to the community in some way. She even said she has shot weddings for free to those who couldn't afford it and looking through her blog you would have no idea which weddings those were. I think that is awesome and a sign of an amazing person. This reminds me of Beth so much. You would never know it unless you really get to know her but she is one of the most charitable, thoughtful people I know. If you ever just have one of those really bad days she is the kind that would take you to lunch out of the blue or some other sweet gesture. One of those random acts of kindness kind of people. She's one of those, like Jasmine that like to help people for the satisfaction in helping people and not for the recognition. It is an admirable quality.

Beth has worked hard to get where she is and I think everyone who walks through the doors at Athena's can that clearly.

Did I mention she also bakes, quite well I might add. Not to mention decorating! What doesn't she do ;)

Beautiful roses by Furst Florist.

She even has an eye for interior design, I love how she has decorated the store.

If you interested in bridal or prom dresses and would like to check out Athena's on facebook they often have updates about new styles arriving and all the latest news.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1406180086&ref=search

If you are a photographer and purchase supplies from B&H you can use the link below to benefit CreativeLive which helps make it possible for them to continue providing amazing learning opportunities for creative people around the world.  bhphotovideo.com/?BI=6220

It's a Hard Knock Life | KE365 | D87 1/2 (Day 87 Part 2)

Can't help but do a post about the theater under the stars presentation of Annie we were lucky to see. We saw less than half of the play in person but that affected my daughter in extraordinary ways. The girls in the play all did wonderful and had beautiful voices. I had to snap this picture for my daughter because she is in love with Annie's dog, Sandy. She looks up to Annie big time, goes around singing and dancing pretty much trying to be just like her.

Just so you can see exactly how much this impacted my daughter, I thought I would share this:

Summer Fun | KE365 | D87

My nieces were in town for Day 87 and we headed to the water park for a couple of hours of summer fun. These three are little balls of energy and I love photographing them when they have a million things thrown at them because they actually settle down and take it all in which gives me some great portrait opportunities. This is the case for Siena and Kailyn at least, Natalie is almost like a little model and just sits there posing for you, it's just too easy with her 98% of the time. She is a doll. Okay maybe I'm biased, but they are all dolls.

Siena is such a smarty that while the rest of us were burning our feet on the scalding sand, she crawled under the turtle sculpture and played with the sand where it was much cooler! The scalding sand is probably also why Kailyn took a minute to chill out in the shade in the middle shot above.

I took this next shot (two down) for nostalgic reasons. While I don't remember the exact occasion, I do remember the photo and of course the stories of taking the photo. When I was young, a little younger than Kailyn is now we were at the beach on a family vacation. My mom was posing us for a family shot (as she often did =) ) and apparently I didn't have the same idea. I refused to cooperate and ended up clapping sand in everyone's face in the image.

 Photographed by Sharon Lawrence

My mom was upset over it, she hated it. However, years later it's turned into one of her favorite images. It is hilarious, the reactions from my brothers and sister were priceless. This is one of my favorite images of me with all my brothers and sister of all time. I think my mom managed to capture our personalities perfectly even though we weren't all in favor of taking the picture.

As you can tell my daughter was not in favor of taking a picture or about being 'posed' in an image, which is often the case for my daughter. This is the exact reason why so much of what I do is candid, she has pushed me into it because I still want beautiful images of my daughter. She has changed my eye for photography. So many of my jobs in the past required strictly posed images and while I had no problems with it there always seemed to be something missing with the final product. Reality. True Emotion. Even though the above photo was 'posed' (thanks "papa" a.k.a. dad for inserting Kailyn in shot), I love it because she still has true emotion and it is reality.

"Freezing" Rain | KE365 | D86

Sometimes it rains cats and dogs in Ohio, sometimes it's more often than not. So I decided to work with it for Day 86, might as well work with what I have available.

This time I played around with "freezing" the rain but it turns out I liked the streaks it creates when you slow down the shutter just a bit. My favorite image was shot at F5.6 with my shutter set to 1/125s.

Crazy Hair | KE365 | D85

I realize that I post images of my daughter Kailyn all the time, but I think it would be a crime not to share her crazy bath time hair. And lets face it, I have such a special place in my heart for kids photography. Having my own daughter just increased my love for it.

She loves it when we make fun hairstyles.... being a former swimmer this one is classic...

RUFUS | KE365 | D84

I love photographing animals, I haven't done it as much in recent years but used to get to work with them all the time at past jobs. Specifically at MotoPhoto when my husband and I were living up in Toledo. The owner we managed under worked with the Assistance Dogs of America. I enjoyed photographing all the dogs, the ladies dressed them up in their Assistance gear and it was almost as if the dogs were honored. It has been years since I have seen any of those dogs, it's great that I still have copies of most of the images because they were such great memories but I'm not sure I could post any of them here for copyright reasons. Some of them are so cute I might just have to check with the copyright owner to see if they mind if I post them.

We have a friend with the best dog in the world, Rufus. He reminds me of one of the assistance dogs I worked with so much. Not just because they look alike, but the awesome personality they both display. The most obedient, friendly, protective... pretty much just awesome all around kind of dog.

Meet Rufus.

A.K.A. My daughters favorite dog in the whole world (oh, I forgot about Sandy from the movie little orphan 'Annie'... ok, second favorite dog in the world) When we have a nice, fenced in backyard some day... I think my daughter (and husband) will have it no other way than to have a dog exactly like Rufus.

Devotion | KE365 | D83

I think that anyone who would spend this amount of time preparing for work everyday would have to be entirely devoted to what they do.

Elaine | KE365 | D82

When I set out with my family for an afternoon at the lake I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought it would be a regular day of splashing around, building sand castles and watching Kailyn chase seagulls around. It ended up being so much more, at least it ended up meaning a lot more to me than usual.

Right after we set up our beach blanket and Kailyn ran off to play, Joe headed back to the car to get something we had forgotten. I sat on the blanket watching Kailyn when this butterfly flew up and landed right next to me. We are talking about 6" from me, then it flew up again and landed on my stomach. Then a giant blue butterfly landed on my leg at the same time and stayed for just a moment as if to say hi in passing. It's not everyday that a butterfly lands on you, it is certainly not everyday that two of them do it at exactly the same moment. The first butterfly hung out with me for the better part of the afternoon.

Now if you know me by now... you know I'm symbolic by nature and I couldn't help but feel there was something about this butterfly. Something in my gut was just pulling at me, I just couldn't put my finger on it...

The next day I was at my parents house when my mom happened to ask if we had gone out to the lake the day before. I said we had, as we often do on Sunday evenings to relax as a family before another busy week. My mom told me that she almost stopped by to see if we were there, she was right down the road passing by on RT 42 heading to my grandmothers grave. Still I didn't fit the pieces together.

As I was going through my images of Day 82 I was about to edit one of Kailyn chasing a ton of seagulls when I came across the butterfly images. Finally I put the pieces together. The exact moment I was photographing this butterfly and thinking to myself... there is something more to this, my mother was driving past us heading to my grandmothers grave. It had been 4 years to the day since my she passed. August 15, 2006. The missing piece.

And as for that second butterfly, it has been just over 7 years since my grandpa passed, if you've read much of my 365 journey you probably know just how special he was to me just as my grandma was... I think maybe he just sent me a little hello from a better place.

I've often been asked why my business name is KimberlyElaine. Of course it is my middle name, but I wanted to use it because of my grandmother, Elaine Santo. She was a strong, independent woman who was an outstanding grandmother. She had so many characteristics that were admirable and inspirational. I feel honored to be named after my grandmother and I hope Kailyn is lucky enough to understand why she was named after her great-grandmother that she never got a chance to even meet.

Step into a different world | KE365 | D81

Living in the concrete world so much of the time, it's nice to step into a different world and it's simplicity.

My daughter loves going to the wetlands so much because of the sounds, smells and different kinds of plants and animals. It's such a diverse place that it looks different every time you go. I'm working on a series of how the wetlands change over time. The bottom left image is one that will be added to the series.

Decided to design an album page out of this one for my daughter since this will probably be one of her favorite places for a long time to come.

Summer Night | KE365 | D80

There is something so nice and refreshing about getting some ice cream on a hot summer night. On Day 80 we headed to one of my favorite ice cream spots as a kid, Jet Freeze out in Beavercreek. Kailyn got to see Grandma & Papa, ate an ice cream cone and said "I see the moon" about twenty times.

Good summer times.

Bailey & Smoe | KE365 | D79

Meet Bailey. 
AKA Bailey Bonkers, Bailey Button, my cats best friend, the Furry Cow, Wild Eyes, Warbler (she makes crazy funny noises)

Bailey enjoys laying in the sun, sitting on the screened in porch or various windows around the house, laying on a clean pile of clothes in a laundry basket, laundry basket rides through the house, sniffing carbonation bubbles from the top of a cup until she sneezes then knocking them over so she can drink it and of course rolling over and over warbling while she attacks a pile of catnip. She may seem plus size but don't let that fool you, it's all fur.

Bailey is more than awesome. She is kind of like a cat but part dog, monkey... and from the sounds she makes... I might have to say pig. I love her, Bailey rocks.


Meet Smoe. 
AKA Crazy Cat, schizo Kitty

Smoe enjoys being unique. She loves to lay on her back under a chair and back kick at the chair bars, bothering Bailey, sitting on my mom's lap or laptop, tripping you in the kitchen to make you give her a treat, running out into the garage and hiding under a car, dashing out any door that opens so you have to bolt inside the house when you come home, climbing up Christmas trees (must have been an outdoor kitty at some point,) sitting on the 'hall tree' and staring at herself in the mirror and nabbing up any of Bailey's favorite perching locations so that Bailey can't have them!

She may be a bit of a crazy kitty, but deep down I think there is a sweet heart hiding in there and she can't help but make you laugh a little at all the shenanigans she gets herself into.

Serenity | KE365 | D78

Nothing feels quite as serene as watching the sun and the moon setting at the same time. We were lucky enough to slow down for a few minutes and watch this beautiful scene.

High Hopes | KE365 | D77

Next time your found, with your chin on the ground
There's a lot to be learned, so look around

Just what makes that little old ant
Think (s)he’ll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can’t
Move a rubber tree plant

But (s)he’s got high hopes, (s)he’s got high hopes

(S)He’s got high apple pie, in the sky hopes... 

(From Frank Sinatra's- High Hopes)

Cicada | KE365 | D76

Just a normal day for Day 76 but I did get an up close look at a Cicada. I'm not sure I have ever looked at them that closely- I was about 4 inches away.

Dreams | KE365 | D75

I have been touched the last week at the response from those of you who reached out to see what is going on with my 365 project. Of course I'm still doing it! I just haven't been able to get to posting & blogging them. I have a lot of days to catch up on posting but have been so fortunate to find some personal time each morning or night to research and photograph. I have been caught up in some important projects for KimberlyElaine and feel so good to be on track again. I should be catching my posts up now a few at a time so that I remain on schedule with the rest of my projects. Thank you to those of you who have checked in, it makes it feel a little more worthwhile.

As a little girl I had so many dreams, one of my dreams along the way was to be an artist. I didn't realize at the time that there were so many avenues in which I could travel down that path. I did the art school thing, I worked at places who had a need for creative people along the way. I just didn't realize the creative need these people wanted was not the same creative process that I desired to take part in. I like originality, I understand that we all need inspiration from things and as artists that is how we all progress but there comes a point when you are just directly copying what someone else has done. I just don't feel like that is creative and it didn't fill up the hole inside of me that true creativity would.

I feel like it is a similar situation for my good friend Beth. She is fantastic at business & marketing and worked in the promotional industry for years. She was really good. Deep down she just wasn't happy though. She made such a smart decision along the way and left the promotional industry to pursue her dream of owning her own bridal store. Beth now owns Athena's Bridal in Centerville and in the last year she has completely transformed the company into a modern, elegant and stylish establishment. If you would have seen Athena's a year ago and then walked in there today you would just be astonished, I assure you. It makes me so happy to sit back and realize where we are today. Happy. I am getting to be creative in the way that I love and Beth is using her business ability to make other girls dreams come true. It is a beautiful thing. At the end of a day it really makes me smile.

We shot the Athena's Ad I was telling you about for Day 74 on Day 75 and it went better than I could have wanted. I had awesome models, Stacey has modeled for me for ads before and it's just in her nature or something. It's too easy. Stacey modeled Athena's most popular dress, it is a gorgeous gown. Mark and Kailyn did fantastic too. I kind of thought I wouldn't end up with any images with my daughter in them. She is really shy at first, especially around boys. Towards the end of the shoot she just stated hamming it up though and now all she does is talk about Stacey the princess. It was adorable and I was really proud of her.

This time we chose to shoot down in the Oregon District, the urban atmosphere always turns out so cool in images.

This is such a beautiful dress, I love it.

Took some shots for the old portfolio too..

Have to finish with another one of those images that just made me stop and think wow, my little girl has really grown up.

Heaven for a Little Girl | KE365 | D74

Well... if you ever wanted to know what heaven for a little girl is, it has to be something like getting to play dress up in a bridal boutique. My good friend and owner of Athena's Bridal in Centerville was looking to do an ad for a bridal magazine and called to ask if Kailyn might like to model a flower girl dress and be in the shot. As soon as she heard she got to wear a "princess dress" she was ready to walk out the door and go pick one out at Athena's.

She was very opinionated in what dresses got picked and which ones she wanted to try on. Kailyn can be such a tomboy sometimes, but obviously she is also a girly girl at heart. Here she is trying out her 2 favorites.

She was dancing and twirling and singing to herself, admiring herself in the mirror. It was a riot. She is a lucky little girl.

This is my favorite one, I about passed out when the image popped up on my computer and I realized just how much my little baby is growing up. I appreciate every moment with her and I try to consider how quickly she grows with every stage so I can enjoy the most of it, but no matter what it still surprises me just how quickly it all flies by.

Another Hectic Day | KE365 | D73

With another hectic day where not only my daughter felt sick, I also felt badly. But again I was lucky to remember at just the right time and ran outside to snap this sunset shot.

This summer has been easy to get an image a day, summer is always easy. Looking ahead to the winter I am somewhat unsure of what I will be able to shoot every day to keep my project interesting. So as always feel free to comment or send me ideas, I will start up a list for all the times I don't have something at my disposal to easily photograph.

Facing the sun | KE365 | D72

Facing the sun this time instead of the moon... Day 2 I did a series called Faces with the moon and this very tree I photographed below for Day 72.

This also shows the difference between what kind of shot you can get with what lens. The above image with the sun is shot with a standard 18-55mm lens at 18 mm to get the wide angle look. I cropped the top an bottom in further to add to the wide angle. The below images of the moon were shot with a 70-300mm telephoto lens all the way at 300mm which gives that crisp, fine detail.