Project: Completed!

Today marks the conclusion of an 11-month long project I have been working on!  I can be really good at getting ideas for projects (photography or otherwise) and getting so far, and then......life happens.....and my project gets put on the shelf.....sometimes for years.......or forever......  :'(

But then, when you actually finish something, and it turned out great--better than you imagined, and you are so proud of yourself for finishing something so cool---yep that's about what I'm feeling right now :D

If you have been following me from the beginning, you probably remember my three-part exploration of the snow storm we had back in January.  If you are a new reader (welcome!), get caught up by clicking here, here, or here to see some stunning pictures of snow :)

Why I am bringing up these old posts, you ask?  What on earth do they have to do with my super-cool project? Well, the panorama I posted of my parents' dock inspired my brother to commission me to capture that same scene--in all 4 seasons of the year!  This required me to remember to make the trek to my parents' house with my camera and the correct lens to make sure the perspective would be consistent across all the panoramas.  For any fellow photogs out there, I used a Canon 6D, and used a 50mm lens for all of them.

As you look at the four photos, you may notice some small differences between each one.  I'll be honest--I couldn't remember exactly where I stood for the winter shot, so I had to do my best guess for the rest of them.

Once I decided where to stand, I took seven photos across the scene.  Each pano was put together either with Adobe Photoshop or with Adobe Lightroom-after making the proper adjustments to each photo to bring out it's very best :)

Adam and I still have a few more steps in the process of this project--we are delving into the process of printing each one of these so he can get them framed for his house.  I had the winter one printed today--wow!  This is the first time I have had one of my photos printed somewhere other than my own personal printer.  It makes such a difference to see a photo printed on semi-gloss paper  being held in my hands instead of on a screen.  The dimensions of each pano are 7" x 36.254" so they are pretty long.  I am excited to see the finished project of all four printed, framed and hanging on my brother's wall.  I'll keep you updated on when that finally happens :)

Viewing instructions: to view these panoramas here in the blog, I lowered the photos enough to avoid them clashing with the sidebar to the right your screen.  So make sure you scroll all the way down!

Also-- to view the entire photo on your screen at once, hit "ctrl -" to zoom out in your browser.  It may make the text small, but it should allow you to bring the entire photo into screen.  To go back to the way you had it, hit "cntrl +" and you will be good to go!

Happy viewing!

Terlecki Family Photos :)

It's been a while, but I had another opportunity to do a family photo shoot!  (my last one was almost a year ago!  Check out Christmas Family Portrait)  This time, with the beautiful Terlecki family: Jake, Lisa, Carmen, and Rose.

Photographing children is always an adventure--you never know what they are going to do!  Lucky for me Carmen and Rose smiled and laughed a lot.  Throughout some of these photos, you might see Spunky Jr.  He was my assistant during this photo shoot--Carmen absolutely loved him!

We got together at Chapman State Park in Indian Head MD.  It's a little known park with an absolutely stunning view over the Potomac river.  If you ever have a free day--consider coming to see this place :)

So sweet.

Carmen loved to run--such fun to capture this pure joy :)

I'm pretty sure that Rose was fascinated with her reflection in my camera lens!

Carmen twirled for me!  So perfect to have the rest of the family in the background.

It's always fun to have bubbles!

Daddy always catches her! 

The love between a father and daughter is like no other--so beautiful.

I had to get one of just Jake and Lisa.  They are a beautiful couple :)

.....and this is what Rose was doing below that last picture!

Peek-a-boo!

Walking as a family :)

What a fun morning!  Plus, I get to do this again today with another family--the James's! Keep an eye out for those photos to come soon!

Ashland and Brendan's Wedding!

Remember Ashland and Brendan? (Click: Ashland and Brendan Sneak Peek).  The rest of their photos turned out beautiful!  Congratulations to Ashland and Brendan--thank you for the great privilege of being a part of your special day :)

I had so much fun with this mirror as the girls were getting ready.  Reflections always make for gorgeous shots :)

I loved this long shot of Ashland and her father and all of the boardwalk and buildings in the background.  It was a difficult shot to get, but it came out beautifully in the end.

In case you are wondering--yes there were most certainly people in the background that I had to take out.  We were not the only ones on the beach.  There were a lot more umbrellas, but a couple of awesome bridesmaids went down about a half hour before the wedding asked (told?) a lot of them to move!

One of my favorite shots.  It doesn't quite capture how beautiful the sky was above our heads during the ceremony, but it comes close.

First kiss!!

Her dress was sooooo beautiful!

So the guys didn't have bouquets like the girls did, so I had them but all of their bare feet together.  That was fun :)

All of these guys were such troopers.  They were dressed in pants, vests and jackets and it was so hot out.  Not one of them complained and kept the smiles and jokes coming the entire time :)

Jumping--always fun to do in large groups!

Jenga blocks--I loved this!

The wedding was at 10:30am, so the food was all delicious brunch delectables.  In the background here you can see the doughnuts---oh so good!

I don't do B&W with color pops very often, but this shot was a perfect opportunity to take out all color except for the berries on top.

Their send off was so adorable!  They were originally supposed to drive off in a car, but something went wrong, so they used bikes instead!  It was a sweet way to end the day :)

When I saw these windows in the hotel, I just know that I wanted to take some shots of the newlyweds in front of it.  The backlighting and the frame of the window posts perfectly reflect the love of these two people.

<3

Congratulations again Ashland and Brendan!