scouting locations

So yesterday i headed into Landstuhl, one of the local German towns looking for locations for my photo shoot next Tuesday. The client wanted an "urban" setting so Landstuhl made sense, & suits the individuals in question more then the hills i used last week. So naturally i set out with my camera looking for suitable places for backdrops when photographing the couple in question. & these are the images i ended up with, hinting at some of the locations i feel will work well, & in fitting with my photographic style.

Karen & Dan

Portrait photography is not something i have a whole lot of experience in, & i'm not going to lie when i say the whole canned studio images you see aren't something i'm a big fan of but some people have been asking me if i would doing some pictures for them so figured i could give it a go, what am i going to loose right?

So wednesday afternoon i went out with the Hockenberry's, 2 of my closest friends (who will be leaving us soon for the beaches of Florida ... jealous ... noooooooo), & the dogs to have a go at taking their photos. It was an interesting experience, hard work, awkward at times but i got some good shots & it's only the beginning so i have somewhere to go from here, & next time i should have a better idea of what's going on.

I like bowls!!

Ok so my new blog is about bowls ... there is no reason behind this just that i happen to love bowls. Don't ask me why, it's just one of my "things", besides you can never have too many right?

Cinnamonsoup

TheYarnChick

FindingFabulous

CatherineReece

LynnCaldwellsPottery

"If life gives you a bowl of lemons go find an annoying guy with papercuts!"

me & photography

Before i go any further i want to right my disclaimer ... I love photography. & when i say love i mean in the sense that it's part of who i am, it helps me to feel & understand, it lets me see things i would never notice & experience the world in a way i wouldn't otherwise.

One of the girls in my forum, Tali,  wrote her story about her & her relationship to photography , & got me thinking that maybe by writing down mine i could figure out where i go from here.

I was the average kid in school, loving sports & art more than anything but skating through as a B-grade student. I was never in trouble but i never stood out. But i did have all these kinds of dreams & headed off to 6Th form with the idea of working with horses. Well in picking my subjects i wanted to study photography but with horses in mind it was recommended i try something else & ended up with history, biology & psychology. Well pretty early on it became apparent me & biology weren't going to work out together, so at the end of my first year i took up art & photography. 

Photography was the one class i loved, it (& my awesome tutor) helped me to grow (as cliched as it sounds) & there began my love of all things photographic. Here i started to find the detail in things, to get a new perspective on those random objects, & living in Cambridge i started to admire architecture. I was also lucky enough to have a 50mm 1.4 as my first lens on my beloved Olympus OM-1, which is where my signature small focal point comes from.

But the journey was never easy or straight forward or any of the above, & at the end of my a-levels taking photos all but stopped & i disappeared off to do whatever it is you do when you're trying to find your way in the world. & then i ended up living in Cornwall doing an HND in outdoor education. It was here on my summer off, traveling round the states that me & my little point & shoot rediscovered my love for photography. I decided i wanted to go to University & study photography.

So here i up & moved half way across the country (it's England so really it's not that far) to start all over where again i was privileged enough to have some awesome teachers. In the beginning i just wanted to photograph people, not regular portraits but the kind that capture something in the people your photographing. & then it was sports, with a press pass to the British Superbikes. This it seemed was what i wanted to do. & then it was back to people, editorial style stuff, the things you would see in Time, or Life. I wanted to work for newspapers, my images appearing in weekend supplements around the world. But again at the end of my degree, with my return back to my hometown i became lost again. & i would spend hours in a dark room, printing up my images. There's something about watching your picture appear on paper as if like magic, & going through reams of the stuff as you try to get it perfect.

I spent the summer temping for a pharmaceutical research company & discovered if nothing else, the office life was not for me, & at the end of the summer got a job working in a secondary school as a photography technician & teaching assistant. This has to be the hardest, most challenging job I've ever had, & sometimes the most rewarding. I got to share my love with children who were just discovering it for the first time. There was no pressure on me to perform, just a chance to fall in love again. & gradually i started taking photos for me, no one else just myself. 

But ... yes there's always a but ... i fell in love with the most incredible man (don't tell him that his heads big enough all ready) & went & married into the military. Moving to Germany 2 months after our wedding day, & all of a sudden i went from being Laura to "Mrs Evans" or "SGT Evans wife" & again i forgot what it was i loved before. I was starting over, finding myself again & for the first time since i was 16 unemployed. There's only so much sitting around the house a girl can do before she goes nuts. So i needed a job, but the ones i wanted weren't out there. Jobs for spouses on base are limited & frustrating, & there i ended up as a waitress & now bartender at Chilis. The one upside being the tips, allowed me to invest in my Nikon D300, paid for by myself (seriously i was all kinds of proud about that) & my Macbook & now I'm starting over.

I'm back to photographing the little stuff, the random & unique things i see on my travels, & selling my work. I know that this is what i want to do, it's who i am & just as important it will allow me to have a career as a military wife. But how do i go about this? I have my Etsy shop & my friends are helping me to spread the word, & I'm also looking into doing some portrait work but this whole thing is scary & frustrating & i feel like i don't know where I'm going. But I'm going to give it a try, so i can't look back & wonder "what if", so i can be the person I'm meant to be.

So the question i guess i left answering is where do i go from here ... in the words of Blue Peter ... "answers on a postcard please"!!

Lorraine American Cemetery

Lorraine American Cemetery, located outside of St Avold, France is the largest American cemetery in Europe. Covering 113.5 acres, it currently contains the graves of 10,489 American soldiers who died in World War II.

Included are the bodies of 28 pairs of brothers, who lay side by side, 5 medal of honor recipients & 11 women.

The wall of missing holds the names of 444 soldiers whose remains were never recovered.

51 of the graves contain the bodies of soldiers who's name is known only to God.

4 soldiers lost their lives that same day, & since then at least another 13 have lost their lives. Where was the wall to wall media coverage for them?

So next time you shed a tear for the death of your favourite celebrity remember to say a pray for the soldiers who give up everything fighting for the rights of others to listen to Michael Jackson's music, & the loved ones they leave behind.