For this photo shoot I envisioned little rubber boots in a reflective puddle. I called up my friend, Olivia, to see if I could borrow her young daughter, Sophie, for the shoot. Sophie was ecstatic to have an excuse to play around in puddles, so she was happy to oblige.

Believe it or not, the hardest part of this shoot was finding a puddle! Darn you, Woodinville, and your perfectly even roads! We eventually found a puddle that was decent enough. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I had to make do with the one and only medium-sized puddle we saw anywhere.

Sophie is a silly one, just like her mom, and just like me. We cracked up the whole time she was prancing around in the puddle, and I managed to get a few stock worthy shots. Mostly, though, she just did her thing, and I was there to capture it.

She started out slow, hesitating a bit…

She got a little closer to investigate…

A little closer still…

And then she jumped right in!

There was no holding back after that! It was difficult for us to get her to leave, but she eventually decided she was cold enough to stop.

The photos above to the right, and below, are more of what I was intending to get as stock photos. I’m so used to going with the flow, and capturing the moments, that it’s hard for me to not to do that!

I figured I could use what I got as stock… or not. That’s the beauty of a self-challenging project. No biggie if I don’t get exactly what I want, because it’s a personal project. These projects are meant to help me expand on what I do; to go beyond my comfort zone. The self-portrait project of last year really took me out of my comfort zone (mostly because I don’t like being in the photo), but I got better and better each month, and I went way beyond what I thought I could do.

I hope this year goes the same. How have I done so far? What should I do next month? I hope you will visit my Facebook Page to join in the most active conversations about my monthly project!

This year, I will be doing a different project each month, but I will (fortunately!) not be in front of the camera. I know, I know, the self-portraits were usually pretty hillarious, but I want to give someone else the opportunity to make a fool of themselves. Just kidding! I plan to make each photo stock worthy, which means it would look worthy of being in an advertisement, a calendar, or something else that you might see when flipping through a brochure. If you are familiar with Getty Images, then you’ll know what I’m going for. Hopefully, my last series of monthly photos will convince people that they want to volunteer as a model (instead of me!)  for one of the upcoming photo shoots. I promise not to make you look too ridiculous… unless you’re willing to be a little silly and you don’t care.

If you are interested and in the Seattle area, please let me know through email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or by phone. My contact info can easily be found in the menu above. I will then add you to a list that I’ve already started, and contact you to find out your availability for the month. Another way you can volunteer, is to follow the conversation on my Facebook Photography Page, and speak up if you happen to have a free month or are interested in a particular idea. And don’t worry, it’s unlikely that I will have too many people that I can’t fit everyone in at some point this year. I may very well need more than one person for each shoot or even assistants for behind the scenes, so we shall see.

Don’t forget, I will still need people to make theme suggestions each month! That has not changed. Just keep in mind a few things if you are new to suggesting themes:

• Themes are general ideas, I try to steer away from specific suggestions because they don’t allow for much flexibility. To help you with this concept, think of what would be an acceptable theme for a party, like “the 80′s” or “Hawaiian”.
• Supplies – I am not rich! To make a theme a theme, I will likely need some props. But I will beg, borrow, and buy some props within reason.
• Location – It does not snow here much, it is not sunny here much, it is mostly rainy and gloomy. Okay, so not always, but just consider the weather, that’s all.
• Just suggest something. If I don’t pick yours, it could be any number of reasons, but I always appreciate a suggestion. Ideas often spawn other ideas, so yours could be inspiration for someone else’s.

I can’t wait to get started! I’m looking forward to staying behind the camera this time!

Happy new year!

I’ve recently met a couple of guys that had fun mustaches, AND Movember was a theme suggested by a friend, so I felt inspired. Since I am unable to grow my own mustache (cross your fingers that this will always be the case!), I went out to my favorite prop supply store, Archie Mcphee’s. Of course, they had a variety of mustaches to choose from, so I picked the biggest, most obvious one.

The Movember theme was a last minute decision, since I had already decided on another theme suggestion. However, I figured that “holding onto fall” as a theme would work nicely, paired with “Movember”. So, given the abundance of beautiful fallen leaves, I was able to tackle this month’s theme(s) with a little more ease than in the past. And here are the results!

In addition to simply having the desire to do a Halloween self-portrait, I had another task to do for a fellow vendor. Ashley Obena, of Dress My Cupcake, sent me several of her adorable, Halloween themed cupcake wrappers to photograph. So, I started thinking, how can I combine these two projects into one? My solution was to be a baking witch! As soon as the image came to mind, I just had to do it!

I had a lot of problems to overcome with this series of shots, but I still just had to do it. I know that if I have a strong desire and set my mind to do something creative, then I can do it. What I didn’t know is that this gets me into trouble with limited time and resources! So, with a couple of days to do this, I prepared by collecting my props and baking the cupcakes.

I didn’t know where else I could do this, but at my house. It’s just easier when you have everything at hand, when your boyfriend is gone, and you can temporarily destroy the house without him ever witnessing the disaster. The hardest part of the shoot, was making part of my house look like a witch’s house. I probably didn’t succeed, but I blame that on the time and resources issue. Lighting was tough too, since I had a lot of black (hindsight is 20/20). I also wanted to make it look kind of dark and witchy, but with enough light to show off the cupcakes and wrappers well. My solution was something in between, although I’m not sure how well I like it.

Despite desparetely wanting to do this, I think it was a tad too elaborate for me to handle on my own. The only help I had for this shoot was from my dad. He came all the way down from Snohomish just to deliver the costume! My hero!

Anyway, enjoy the photos! Oh, and check out the awesome fake nose that I stuck to my face! Yes, I used a little Photoshop magic to make it look attached.

Be sure to check out these Dress My Cupcake wrappers at : http://www.dressmycupcake.com/shop/28-shop-by-holiday/75-halloween-cupcake-wrappers.html !

For this shoot, I combined the idea of a stereotypical teen nerd with an exaggerated enthusiasm of returning to school. For the awesome background, I rented a classroom from the Phinney Neighborhood Association at the Phinney Ridge Community Center, which used to be an elementary school. It was too pricey for me to rent a classroom for more than an hour, so I called in my friend, Mary, to help speed things up.

She was great! She found the best nerdy glasses for me to wear, wrote on the chalkboard (The equation was from Dave. Thanks Dave!), put up my hair, and pressed the shutter button, among other things! Yes, she pressed the button. But, would I have gotten this awesome shot if she hadn’t?

Anyway, I started out with one shot in mind, but I realized there was so much more potential for this theme. So, Mary and I came up with several shots that I think turned out great, especially considering only an hour’s worth of work. Many were interesting enough to share, but may not make sense without the intended story behind them. One of me after my books were dropped, another of me running through a classroom excitedly, and one of me waving to anyone that might want to be my friend. All ridiculous and overly dramatic of course!

I even got one of her jumping for joy!

She seems just excited as I am to be returning to school, doesn’t she? I’m glad I found that friend I was looking for!

The toughest part about this shoot was probably figuring out when I could do it. I had some car maintenance to take care of, a river float adventure to participate in, a Highland Games event to attend, and a last minute baby sitting favor to volunteer for. So, finally, I was able to get this shoot done last night.

It wasn’t too difficult, once I got everything set up. I made a hat, even if it was a bit tall for the photo. I put on a wide angle lens for an intentionally, slightly distorted look. I plugged in one shop light (make that 2, after the first one fell down and broke), aimed it at a reflector for a little fill light. Then I was ready to go, once I lit the candle. Then it was easy-cheesy. And if you’ve been reading my blog for even a short time, you know that the cheesy is almost always present in these self-portraits.

Anyway, enough about the shoot. Here is the final result…

After my vendor collaboration shoot, I was inspired by details, and I wanted to include a bunch in this scene. I already had the perfect blanket for a picnic, and what a background it was for some of those details! One such detail, and really the star of the show, was Dave’s apple pie!  I knew he was capable of making a beautiful pie (from scratch!), and he was up for the task.

Dave was kind enough to transport me and my stuff to Woodland Park for the shoot. He also helped out by letting me focus on him, so that I could get into the same spot and be in focus (one of the major inconveniences of taking self-portraits). And, while it seems at first that this is a picnic for one, I had company at my pretend picnic towards the end.

While the final result of my actual self-portrait is pretty goofy (not to mention the ones of me and Dave), I thought I would include an even sillier one along with it. I really didn’t know what to do with myself in these shots, so what can I say?

I had such a blast with this shoot!!! And thanks, Dave, for a yummy and beautiful pie!

Greedy pirate is probably redundant, but it so perfectly describes what I set out to do with my most recent themed self-portrait. Melanie, a loyal Liker of my Facebook page, suggested doing my favorite deadly sin. While I don’t necessarily have a favorite one, I thought greed would be the easiest to pull off in a short time.

So, where did the pirate idea come from? Actually, Melanie also suggested that. She first wanted me to do a theme park character. When prompted for what she had in mind, she listed a few possibilities, one of which was a pirate. So, I figured, why not combine two great ideas?

I was inspired when I saw a huge jar of coins that Dave has in the closet. I decided to fish out as many quarters as I could find, and start stacking. I topped each pile with other coins I’ve collected from traveling and scattered a few more around, hoping to make the coins look more exotic.

And yes, I happened to have a pirate costume lying around. What can I say? I also had a bunch of random, old looking items that I thought might work for the background. I set up quite a nice little scene, if I do say so myself!

I wanted to include my new favorite arm prop, so I stuck it into a few scenes. I just can’t help myself sometimes! One of my favorite photos from this shoot was a little blurred because I accidentally moved the camera before taking it (and I didn’t realize until later). I had to show it though, because the hand is so prominently featured.

This shoot was the most fun of any since I started my themed self-portraits. I got really into it, and tried several different poses, expressions, and even a little symbolism with my piggy bank. Some of them may not be so much greedy as they are just piratey, but they were too funny to not include. I had too many favorites to choose from, so here are several variations on this theme.

I wasn’t too happy about doing the idea for this month, but at least I didn’t have to buy anything! I also wanted to make my mom and step-mom, Teresa, happy. They both suggested Kirsten Dunst because they think I look like her. I’ve had many people tell me this, and I have to agree, but I only wish I had her body… and her tan!

The photo I tried to match is from this “Wimbledon” movie poster:

Anyway, since I was planning a visit with my dad and Teresa, I decided to do the photo shoot there too. They have a big white wall in a room that my dad sometimes uses as a photo studio. I knew I would need a bunch of lights coming from different directions, and a bright white background.

It turned out that this was much harder than I had anticipated! The sometimes photo studio is also a sometimes game/ excercise/ storage room, so I ran into some obstacles when trying to position lights around the room. I added as many lights as I had to fill in shadows and highlight as many edges as I could. The lights were all pretty close to how I wanted them, but there always seemed to be some pesky shadow making my life miserable.

When I finally got everything set up well enough, I started posing. I checked the results and realized that I had forgotten about the worst shadows of all! The strings from the tennis racket!  This is when I called in my good ol’ pa for some assistance. I had him pose with the tennis racket so I could adjust some more things. If only I could post those photos without embarrassing him! Anyway, we found a way around the string shadows by moving the racket off center. If positioned just so, it gave the illusion of being centered while casting no shadows.

Since I had to mimic the position of Kirsten in the original photo, I needed some more help. This proved to be challenging, but my dad has had me model for his paintings and illustrations since I was a kid, so we were old pros at this game! I figured I could stretch the rules of this “self-portrait” since it had to be as accurate as possible. Plus, I needed help eliminating those darn string shadows!

He coached me well and I got a few winners, but since they all look pretty much the same (no extra goofy faces this time, sorry!), I will only show one as the final pick. The one that most looked like Kirsten Dunst in that photo, happened to be one with the string shadows. I decided to just retouch them out, since there were some other unusual shadows I wanted to eliminate as well. You can call it cheating, but I figure the original photo was super edited too! Besides I make the rules for my photo projects, so why not? Dad pressed the shutter and helped me pose, so I was already cheating anyway. I also decided to lower the resolution on my own photo to match the original screenshot that I snagged online.

Anyway, here is the final result alongside the original:

Now, if I could only get Paul Bettany to pose with me…

Don’t forget to suggest your idea for next month!!!

This month’s self-portrait theme was suggested by my loyal friend and follower, MaLora Ann. She is very creative and came up with a few ideas, but I decided to go with her first suggestion, “International Spy”! It sounded fun and not too difficult costume-wise.

Every time I thought about how to pull this off and during the actual shoot, the James Bond theme song kept popping into my head. “Sunglasses at Night” might have been even more appropriate, but for me, when a song is already there, it’s usually stuck for awhile.

Anyway, I first started thinking about clothes and backgrounds. I knew my step-mom, Teresa, had the type of coat I wanted (even though you can’t really see much of it), and she was kind enough to let me borrow it. I scoured thrift stores for a hat that would make me look a little more exotic. Nothing says “international” like a beret I guess!

The background was tougher, because I wanted something to suggest that I was being secretive and mysterious. I considered a brick wall, but I didn’t want to be outside at night, in the cold, by myself . I decided to backlight a little room divider I have to make it look kind of vague and mysterious. I would have preferred a brick wall, so maybe I’ll attempt this again when it’s warmer outside. Suggesting that it was night time, was easy enough. I turned off the room lights and set my flash pretty low for a soft side lighting. I suppose that wearing sunglasses is not the best way to suggest a night scene, but maybe I’m just not a very convincing spy.

It took some time to get everything set up right. Not only did I have to arrange the background, lighting, and costume to my liking, but I had to position myself just so. That was the hardest part by far! There were only a few gestures I could think of that would suggest “international spy”.  I kept running back and forth between where I was posing and the camera to check. It’s hard to direct yourself when you can’t see what you’re doing or how the light is falling on you!

Anyway, it was a good experience and I came out with some fun shots. My favorite photo is the one above, which I will use for about a month in my different profiles. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the first post on this subject: http://www.traciehowe.com/2010/self-portrait . And please submit your ideas for next month’s theme!

Here are a few of the runners up:

Okay, now that I’ve got your attention…

I’ve been debating about what new picture I could use in my various online profiles, including here, on my own site. I don’t like the idea of someone else taking the picture, because I’m a photographer, so I should be able to take it , right? Well, self-portraits are easier said than done, so this will be a challenging, but rewarding project for me. Not only will I end up with a plethora of profile pictures to choose from, but I will be able to put my skills to the test on a regular basis.

So, where do you come in? Once someone else, besides me, is involved, then I am much more determined to get something done. It’s kind of like turning in your homework on time because you don’t want to disappoint your teacher. I don’t want to disappoint you, so give me an assignment!

I want you to suggest a theme for me. This will be a monthly assignment, so I may get multiple suggestions and I won’t be able to use them all. However, if I am lacking in good theme ideas, I can always pull from previous suggestions. I say “good” because, well, I get to be the final judge of what I will subject myself to. Seems fair to me .

When you’re making a suggestion, please keep a few things in mind:

• Supplies – I am not rich! To make a theme a theme, I will likely need some props. But I will beg, borrow, and buy some props within reason.
• Location – It does not snow here much, it is not sunny here much, it is mostly rainy and gloomy. Okay, so not always, but just consider the weather, that’s all.
• My pride – I am a photographer, and I would rather be behind the camera. For the sake of a photography project, I am making an exception. In other words, go easy on me!
• I want to be fair to everyone, so if you have a great suggestion, but I chose yours the previous month, I’ll try to pick someone else. This, of course, is assuming anyone is even interested in this little contest, if you can call it that.

I may add to the list if I come across anymore obstacles that I would like to avoid in the future.

I will take suggestions throughout each month to use in various profiles of the following month. You can email, Facebook, Twitter, or comment your suggestion. It doesn’t matter. I will choose one and thank the person who suggested it. I guess it is kind of like a contest, except that you’re winning a picture of me. Maybe not so exciting, but hey, it’s all I’ve got!

As my very first themed self-portrait, Christmas may have been a bit too obvious. I had all the props already though, so why not? I may leave this one up for about a month as my profile, just because I’m posting it so late this month. But I will always have it here as a sort of reference. Here is my final choice:

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!!

The first step requires me to wade through a few thousand images. After that I begin narrowing them down by rating each one using my favorite tool, Adobe Lightroom. Eventually I have weeded out the bad or so-so ones so that I have the amount that I promised the couple. Then I edit!

I won’t get  into the entire process, but I will say that it takes a long time and it can be fun sometimes. Playing with Adobe Photoshop since I was about 12, I’ve pretty much had my fill of extreme editing for crazy effects or head-swapping and that sort of thing. When I turned to photography, I took the more conservative approach, which meant that I only applied a tiny amount of post-processing to give the little bit of pop that most digital photos need. Now I’m at the point where I don’t really know how much to edit. I look at the work of other photographers and I often see over-saturated, high contrast, bright subjects. I usually like the way it looks, but I somehow feel guilty because it’s not quite as real that way. Some may make the reasonable argument that it’s an art, so I can make it look however I want. So, what I’m wondering is, does that still apply when documenting a real wedding? I guess it’s really up to the clients who want to hire me, but I’ll continue to ponder this. Meanwhile, I appreciate any opinions concerning my little dilemma.

I have some adjustments to make that I am aware of, but there are some problems that I can’t see. So, I invite you to comment on how it looks from your end. The more specific you are about the problem, and the browser, screen specifications, etc, the more likely I’ll be able to fix the problem. For example, because the “zoom” setting in my own browser was wrong, my header images looked off, so I easily adjusted for that.

Also, feel free to make any positive, “way to go” type of comments!