I love the “good vibes” vibe of this photo. Cassidy and I were out riding around downtown Asheboro and the sunsest was just so beautiful. This was taken on Sunset Ave also which is perfect. She turned onto the road and I was like “Woah, I gotta get in the backseat and capture this!” So, I jumped in the backseat and took this photo. I love that she is driving in the old Blazer too to create a more vintage feel. I want to capture more photos like this in the future to perfect the look that I want. #goodvibesonly
I had to shoot a “long line posing” assignment for a portrait class. It was a technical assignment, getting us familiar and used to directing our models in how to pose in different ways. A male model and a female model had to perform both masculine and feminine poses. What this did was show the form of the body and show how posing affects how the overall composition of how the image looks. We decided to have some fun while we were at it (hence Drew’s awesome jumping skills). I left the images of Drew jumping not cropped because I like the feel that the entire photo has. When I cropped it, it didn’t have the same effect to me. This is yet again another example of how I am learning how to appreciate the studio and the skills I am acquiring.
For Labor Day, Shiloh and I made a last minute trek up to my home state to see my family. I hadn’t seen my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins in many months. My grandparents live out in the country which is wear Shiloh and I spent our weekend with my cousins. We went camping, fishing, star-tipping, slept under the stars, and so much more. I am so thankful to be a part of a family that loves the great outdoors and spending as much time in it as possible. I love that Shiloh is such an adventurous dog as well and loves to pose for the camera. I have a passion for shooting outdoors. And of course I love putting Shiloh in front of my camera too, as you all know by now. I love this photo because it is at the pond where I spent so much time growing up. I love that Shiloh got to go there for the first time and go on my adventures with me.
A few days ago, Drew took me to his favorite sunset location in his hometown of Rockingham, called Blewett Falls. I have been wanting to try astrophotography for weeks, and we decided to try it at this place. Drew, his sister and I had fun watching the sun set and photographing each other while waiting for the stars to come out, (we all know mine were better though;). There was a lamp post and a very bright moon when the stars finally came out so it was kind of tricky getting shots we wanted of the stars. Though the star photos didn’t come out exactly how I had hoped, I am still pretty happy with my first attempt.
For one of my portrait classes, we got a bridal in-studio assignment. Since I am not from North Carolina and do not know too many people, I am a little slow with the finding models part of the assignments. Therefore I decided to ask Cassidy to be my bride and she said yes. We had a lot of fun doing this assignment. I was blessed to have a beautiful photogenic model for my first bridal assignment. This shoot definitely made me see a little bit more that the studio can be fun. Especially when you work in the studio later at night so there are not that many people around and there is not as much pressure to be in and out in such a fast amount of time. Looking forward to future assignments in the studio.
I love this photo because it kind of shows how I am feeling these days. I feel like I do not know what I am doing or where I am headed in this second year. I am trying to keep persevering though and I keep telling myself that since I have made it this far, I can make it to the end. I have come so much further than I ever thought I would or could. I am excited to keep learning about portraiture and photography in general. There are many reasons why this photo could be “bad” technically. I, personally love it though and I think my dog is really cute.
I personally am realizing that working in the studio is not my favorite thing to do. It could be because I still feel clueless on most of the equipment or because I would rather be taking pictures outside, but either way I am trying to have an open mind. It is fun, I will say, to learn more about it every time I go in the portrait studio bay. I think I will learn to like it a lot more as the semester goes on, since I will be taking photos and working in there so often. I took this photo for Lab 2 in Erin’s portraiture class. We had to photograph all 8 of the portrait students, but I think this one was one of my favorites that I took.
At the end of July, I went to Ireland for a couple weeks. This was the most amazing trip I have ever been on! Prior to this, the only time I had been out of the country was visiting Canada. It started off kind of interesting. I was supposed to be flying out of New York and I drove all the way to my parents house in Pennsylvania on the day of the flight out before I noticed that I completely forgot my passport in North Carolina. Long story short, I got my passport shipped to me overnight and had to fly out the next day. I went on this trip with my mom. Neither of us had ever flown over the ocean before.
We saw a ton of castles, and sheep, and pubs, and rain. It was so cool learning about their culture and learning some of their slang as well. This first and second photo is at the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of the island. Many of you have probably seen photos of this place somewhere in your life since it is very popular and absolutely beautiful. The third image is the Doonagore Castle in the village of Doolin. I love it because it looks like it is straight out of a fairy tale. I am very thankful for the opportunity to go to this amazing country and I can not wait to go back.
I took this photo of Brendan for a lab assignment for Erin’s Portraiture Class. We are currently learning our way around the Portrait Studio Bay 1. We are also reminding ourselves about lighting ratios, lighting patterns, and modifiers like the parabolic reflector and softbox. For this assignment we had to shoot two images with the parabolic, short and broad lighting, and the same with the softbox. With the fifth picture, we had a little freedom with the portrait we shot. This is how Brendan chose to pose and I think it is just too good not to share, haha! We are preparing to shoot the RCC staff photos in a couple weeks. Don’t worry, they won’t look like this one. 😉
I love this photo of Shiloh. It shows her looking straight ahead. Her eyes are a stunning bright blue and there is no chance of her looking back or wondering who is watching or looking to me for approval.
Each week I try to post something I am learning that is related to my image that I chose to post. As I was thinking of what to post about this week and this photo of my beautiful dog and how she has such an independent personality, I couldn’t help but be reminded that it is so easy to get caught in the trap of always seeking other’s approval and being dependent on another person or how we are viewed by other people. Whether it is seeking approval from your friends, guys, girls, teachers, parents, strangers even; there are so many ways this could go on in daily life. I want to encourage whoever is reading this that you do not need to seek validation from anybody. Nobody owes you anything. If you are always seeking approval from others, you will never be enough in your own eyes. There will always be someone better. Don’t try to compete. Be yourself and be content with the way God made you. He doesn’t make mistakes. Believe in yourself.
Natalie Thompson Photography 