Holly Anissa » 2011 Project 52

Project 52 [Twenty-Twelve]: Week 26 ~ Friendship and Kinship

Holly — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 04:03:17 +0000

The My Four Hens Project 52 theme this week is friendship! Jenny and Dominic are 14 years apart but are the best of friends. Dominic reminds me so much of Jenny when she was his age. They both are incredibly smart, love to read, are independent, and have a love affair with anything technological. It makes my heart so happy to see them reading together, snuggled up all cozy before bed. I know that these siblings will always be best friends the rest of their lives. <3

Thanks for looking!

My Personal Portfolio and Projects

Holly — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:47:47 +0000

I love to shoot. In fact, I pick up my camera nearly every day! Because I only accept a few commissioned photography sessions each year, most of my blog is populated with personal projects and posts. I’m honored that you would like to see these in more detail, so check out my favorites in my personal portfolio and each individual category by clicking on each the thumbnails below. Thank you for stopping by!

My Complete Personal Portfolio

My Kids

Anna

Photos of my daughter, Anna. She has multiple special needs including PDD-NOS (a form of autism), epilepsy, hypotonia,

Dominic

Photos of my son, Dominic. He is crazy, spooky smart... for example, he was already doing algebra at age six. He is my

Jenny

Photos of my daughter, Jenny. Jenny is my little angel on earth and is one of those rare young women who has strong

Annual Projects

2010 Project 365

My 2010 Project 365 photos.

2011 Project 52

My 2011 Project 52 photos.

2012 Project 52

My 2012 Project 52 photos.

2013 Project 52/365

My 2013 P365/P52 photos.

All Other Categories

Creatures

Photos of animals, bugs, critters, wildlife, birds, insects, and pets.

Everything Else

Some photos defy categorization.

Food

Everything edible and ingestible.

Giving Back

Pro-bono sessions for various charitable organizations as well as gifts from myself to others.

Macro

I super puffy heart macro!!! I shoot with a Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 macro lens, having upgraded from the 60mm f/2.8 macro in

Nature

Photographs of flowers, landscapes, nature, and the outdoors.

Street Photography

Street photography shots.

Photography Forums

Clickin Moms

Clickin Moms is a private forum for women who share a passion for photography. I have been a member since May 2010 and

i heart faces

i heart faces is a wonderful forum for photography. I participate in the Fix-It-Friday challenges as well as their

Pioneer Woman

Photographs or projects submitted for The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.

Project 52, Week 52

Holly — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:25:10 +0000

This is it… the last photo for this year’s Project 52! On our way home from Ohio, we took a different route home so that we could drive through St. Louis and see the Arch. The weather was rainy, windy, and cold so we didn’t stay long, but I did get a few shots that I liked. This is Dominic walking up from the pond toward the Arch and I used my super wide angle to capture the entire scene. Dominic looks so small! And the Arch is much bigger in person than it looks in pictures.

I am thrilled that I was able to get a photo for each week this year and tell a little story about the week. I’m hoping that when the kids are grown, they will enjoy looking back at these and reminiscing about the memories.

I will be doing another P52 for 2012 and have several more personal photography projects planned… stay tuned! And thank you for following my journey and leaving comments. Happy New Year!!!

Project 52, Week 51

Holly — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:25:13 +0000

For the first time in 15 years, we are spending Christmas in Ohio. We left Austin on Saturday, leaving Jenny and Nana behind because they had to work. Jenny is taking care of the dogs for us and my mom surprised us with an early Christmas gifts of his and hers iPads! Wow!!! We were totally gobsmacked! Two days in the car with Anna and Dominic went much more smoothly because of technology (thank you, Mom!!!) and I got this week’s photo on our first night in the car… Anna playing on my iPad and Dominic playing on his DS.

We stayed in Memphis at the halfway point but I think we’re going to come back through St. Louis. We’ve had many adventures this week and I have loads of photos to share (once I have time to edit them!). The trip is going great though I miss my mom, my daughter, and my dogs very much. We got a great hotel with 2 bedrooms (both with doors), a small living room, and kitchenette, which makes it easy to put the kids to bed and stay up late with my hubby. We are spending lots of time with his mom, his sister and her family, and we’re getting to see my dad and his wife too. So far this week, we went to EnterTRAINment (a fun model train museum that also had a fabulous Santa!), the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, the Clifton Mill Christmas light display, and Young’s Dairy. I did most of our Christmas shopping yesterday, braving the mall and crowds, and spent hours wrapping last night. I think we’re staying at my SIL’s house for Christmas Eve and I got those adorable striped jammies from Hanna Andersson for the kids to wear.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and I’ll be back next Friday with my last Project 52 photo for this year!

Project 52, Week 50

Holly — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:14:43 +0000

Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. Unpacking and hanging ornaments is a walk down memory lane and always evokes warm feelings of connection to the past. I was feeling a little out of sorts last weekend, frazzled to tell you the truth, and once I had the tree decorated, I was compelled to pull out my macro lens. Now I think I’ve mentioned before, but something profound happens to me when I’m shooting macro… the world stops. All of the noise, all of the chatter, all of the pressure… it just stops. I become one with my camera. I know that sounds hokey but it truly does happen to me. I shot a series of macro images using my Christmas tree and I’ll share those images too this week.

This little angel has been mine for as long as I remember. I have no recollection of how I acquired her (I’m sure a gift from my mom at some point), but she is always the last ornament I put on the tree. She is tiny, measuring maybe an inch in length, and I always hang her near the top of the tree. Once she is in place, I step back and fold my arms across my chest, taking one last critical look before exhaling that contented sigh… it’s done.

We will be traveling for the holidays and I intend to write and write and write. I have one last family session to share and oodles of family photos from the year too. This week was very interesting and sobering. What I need to talk about is not Anna this time… it’s Dominic. And I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we learned this week. Be prepared for lots of blogging! LOL, you’ve been warned.

Here are some of my other macro shots…

This tiny teddy bear is my second favorite ornament. I’ve had him as long as the ballerina and he is just as tiny. His swing really swings too!

I took a shot of these red bells on last year’s tree and I love this image so much more. It’s nice to see my growth as a photographer!

Playing with deliberate out of focus Christmas tree light bokeh by manually moving the macro lens. In each successive shot, I rotated my lens to the right a bit, then a bit more.

These ceramic angels were made for my mom when I was a child and I loved them so much that she gave them to me when I moved out on my own as an adult. I always have them on the mantel anchoring the center amidst the stockings and they reflect the Christmas lights so beautifully.

Thanks for looking!

Project 52, Week 49

Holly — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:22:39 +0000

I’ve been busy decorating, editing photos, creating Christmas cards, trying to shop, and generally just going a tiny bit crazy. I had my last family session of the year yesterday and Jenny was so kind and came along as my assistant (i.e., lugging around the stepladder, holding the reflector, and helping engage the kids). She finished up her first semester of her sophomore year in college yesterday and got the best grades yet! Jenny has really matured this year, holding down a job and taking 18 (!!!) credit hours, earning all As and Bs, and managing her life so well. I could not be more proud of her!!! She also turned 20 this week. Gulp, that makes me feel really old! Here is a shot I got of her yesterday as she was being my stand-in for the family I was about to photograph.

Happy Birthday (a little belated for the blog), my little angel on earth! Thank you for helping me yesterday. I have a few birthday photos from Tuesday that I’ll try to share soon.

Thanks for looking!

Project 52, Week 48

Holly — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:35:47 +0000

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks so I haven’t picked up my camera much for personal photos. So what do I usually do on a Friday night when I realize I have no good contenders for a P52 photo? That’s right, I shoot the dog. *Snort* shoot the dog…

I’ve shared him before, but let me re-introduce you if you haven’t met him yet. This is Rocky, he’s our 12-year old Lab. He’s been the best dog, so patient with the kids. He’s been having trouble getting around, has developed cataracts, arthritis in his hips, and barks for no reason at times. Curtis is going to build him a ramp from the garage to the dog yard since he’s been having trouble with the steps.

I got down in the floor with my new (used) wide-angle… I love this perspective! Processed with CM Film Art preset Onyx.

Thanks for looking!

Project 52, Week 47

Holly — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:33:59 +0000

What an incredible week! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Curtis led us with a blessing and prayer that nearly brought tears to my eyes. Dominic is being quite charming these days and I’m so enjoying spending extra time with him. Anna is doing okay overall but struggling emotionally with daily meltdowns. I feel so badly for her. Jenny had to work at midnight last night at Target (she’s a barista at the Starbucks there) and she said it was a madhouse. 80 people in line for coffee between 1-3 a.m., with a 30-minute wait, and no one was very nice until the morning. She was so tired today!

My photography business is really taking off now… I’ve done two sessions this week and have one on Sunday, with two (maybe three!) more in the next two weeks. A friend (and fellow photographer) and I traded sessions this week… I did her family on Wednesday and she did ours today. She is a doll, such a sweet person, and very talented too. I’m super excited to see our photos and share hers, but I have to finish editing them first. I brought my camera along today to grab a few candids of my family and I got this one of my mom that I LOVE. She is my bestie, my lifeline at times, and she helps me out so much. I’m very grateful to have her. Isn’t she beautiful???

I’m feeling so so so blessed tonight. <3

Project 52, Week 46

Holly — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:05:35 +0000

I haven’t been blogging much lately. The last few weeks we had a virus play hot potato with the entire family and we passed it around, some of us twice. Ugh! We are all better now, yay! The kids both were at school the entire week… the first time I think that’s happened since school started. So this week was spent playing catch up. Paperwork, bills, emails, inquiries… I had two photography consults this week and I’m so excited to be now fully booked through the end of the year! Woot!

I’m super stoked to share my Project 52 photo this week. A client commissioned this piece for her office. It was one of my 6th Street photos from back in May and she wanted it BIG. This is printed on metallic paper and mounted, and I got to go to her office and hang it today. It’s sized 40×30 inches! Definitely the largest piece I’ve had printed yet. And it’s GORGEOUS! Seriously, the metallic paper makes the tones so rich and there’s a slight gloss too. It’s mounted on styrene so it’s not very heavy and came with pre-made holes in the back to make hanging a breeze. Isn’t it perfect for her office and her color scheme?

And a closer view… you can see the reflective quality of the metallic paper along the edges. I wasn’t quite tall enough to get directly in front of it, so there is a slight distortion. I almost got it fixed in Photoshop though.

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone has a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Project 52, Week 45

Holly — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:36:04 +0000

Oh my gosh, we have been so sick! Three weeks now… first Curtis, then me, then Dominic, then Anna. Anna was home half the week and ended up with an ear infection on top of the parainfluenza virus. She is slowly getting better but is still very fatigued. She went to my mom’s house after school yesterday after doing homework and fell asleep for an hour and a half. Poor little Booksi. Dominic is almost all better now with just a lingering cough.

I’ve been studying off-camera flash this week so it’s been a quiet week for my camera and actually taking real photos. Yesterday I noticed my Gerber daisies were happily blooming in my front flower bed, so I took my macro lens out to get a few shots. I also discovered Nicole Van… and her Flourish Emporium for Professional Photographers. She offers a free tint action and texture on her Facebook page, so I thought this image would be perfect for trying it out. What do you think? Do you like texture on photos? I reduced the overall opacity, then masked the texture 50% off of the actual blossom.