As a method for coping with the current sub-zero temperature and piles of snow, I decided to work on pictures I had taken during the summer, in order to remind myself that this frozen hell does not last forever.  I continued my experiments with texturized landscapes, as well as a requisite flower.  I am particularly fond of the coloring on the first lake image, a product of serendipity.

This is such a fun – and photogenic! – family to photograph (this was my second session with them). The oldest daughter is so lively and loves to have her picture taken; the youngest would rather be crawling than sitting, but is nevertheless the cutest thing ever – how could one not want to photograph those big blue eyes!

This volleyball team needed a poster with their schedule that included the theme “No limit but the sky”. I took small group photos of them jumping and then edited them together – choosing each girl’s best shot – and added a landscape background, so that they appear to be jumping high into the sky. I also took a variety of team poses.

Meet my new canine friend, Banjo.  He is a rambuncious chocolate lab who is always ready to play; don’t let the white snout fool you, he’s just a big puppy. During a breather from our game of Tug-o-War, I grab my camera and quickly got some shots, before playtime soon resumed.

Lately I’ve been playing around with adding textures to my pictures.  While I like the depth and color the textures add, I wonder if this is another one of my artistic phases that I will look back on and wonder why I thought it looked good.  At least I can always go back to my original RAW file and redo it if I want; yay for Photoshop. Here are a few of my latest works.  The self-portrait was taken at the Sherburne National Wildlife refuge (my adventure there is a story for another post) and the other two were taken of a farm in St. Bonaficious.

I had an awesome senior portrait shoot with this young lady.  We did the photos in her backyard, and both she and her entourage (mom & sister) were fun to work with.  The sky was very clear with a low evening sun, so we did a lot of backlit shots and a few in the shade.

Today I visited Gale Woods Farm, where I found a little of everything to photograph: livestock, landscapes, and of course, insects.

I took advantage of my day off on Monday to explore the St. Paul Brickyards, a.k.a. Lilydale Regional Park.  The park includes a nice (but short) hiking trail, a few waterfalls, and lots of fossils.  While it is one of the least photogenic places ever, it did have more spiders in one location than I have ever seen!  The skittish creatures were not used to company, however, and quickly dispearse; the extreme slope and soft soil added to the challenge (especially where changing lenses was concerned), but it was fun nonetheless.

I did get quite a few sweeping panoramics of the St. Paul skyline, and will post those when I have the patience to deal with them.

Here are some pictures from a great senior photo session.  Guys tend to be more low-key than girls as it is, but this young man was particularly good natured (and brought a few fun spectators as well), which made for a nice, relaxed photo shoot…Despite the fact that our location was swarming with people headed to a concert in the park.