Now here is a couple who knows how to play! :) We had so much fun with Jill and David at the park on Thursday evening. We started off on the playground and then moved to the creek. "Hi, my name is Melanie and I am a water-photography-aholic". Couldn't help it! These guys will be having three sessions done with us over the next few months - summer, fall, and winter - and what better exemplification of summer than splashing in a creek? :) Jill saw Danielle and John's session on the blog and came prepared with towells and the works. I don't think David was fully warned about what he was getting into but he was a great sport about it! Anyway, here they are - viola!
Do you know what 6am looks like? We do now! haha - ok we've seen it many times before but have to say, it's not been recently. :) We were out in the woods by 7am with Heather and Noel to begin. (I don't think they've seen 6am in a while either!) Both of them have such quiet spirits. It's so peaceful just being in their presence and the mood was set nicely in the morning light. Here are a few we thought turned out especially well...
Thanks for getting up so early with us! We hope you enjoy the preview! :)
- Mel
A Canadian photographer whose work I really like posted a comment about self portraits recently on a forum we subscribe to. He said that he thought that the great artists of history used self portraits as a means of self exploration and that it was an interesting tool for discovering self. I find the topic very interesting (it appeals to my fine art self) and I've been mulling it over recently. Who am I when no one is watching? Do you ever think about that? We all act slightly differently depending upon who we're around - it's all genuinely you but different people bring out differenct aspects of your personality. Who are you when there's no one but you? I stood in front of the mirror with my camera the other day for a good 30 minutes to an hour trying to capture the true essense of myself - the person I am without any outside influences. The camera itself is an outside influence and then when you bring to the picture that other might see the image, that's a HUGE influence in and of itself. It's hard to empty yourself of those thoughts and just "be" while clicking the shutter. Well here's what I came up with:
Is it me without any outside forces coming into play? I don't think so but it's getting close. And as a side tangent, how do you know which "you" is the most true to yourself? Who I am when no one is around is not necessarily the most "me" - silence just simply brings a quieter facet of my personality to the surface just as does "girls nights" or meeting new people, or hanging out at home with Sean. People are such interesting creatures! :) I think this will be my new project for a while so there may be updates to the "self project" from time to time. Thank you for indulging my contemplative mood. :)
