Christmas 2008

Christmas has come and gone once again. This past week I gave myself an assignment to get a picture that represents Christmas. Now – I have to put a HUGE disclosure out there about my picture, although I know artistically this is not a great picture, it captured what I wanted to show…an empty Wal-Mart parking lot. The one day a year when even Wal-Mart closes down and it is almost as if time stops. Please excuse the composition on this one and just let the thought carry it through. One last time, Merry Christmas, I hope you and your loved ones had the best one ever. Until next year…

Now it is time for a New Year and a new week of pictures to take and to share. My assignment this week is Fireworks. I hope, I have an opportunity to actually see some fireworks this week that I can shoot. Wish me luck.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and God Bless!

Here is looking at you

Just an FYI, I am still looking for the perfect picture that represents Christmas. Yesterday I went shopping, and I was oh so tempted to take a snap shot of a disheveled big-box retail store and frantic shoppers, but that is not quite what I had in mind. I will post as soon as I get the shot that captures what Christmas should be about. Until then...

God Bless.

New Day

One of my two assignments this week was to photograph something that represents a new day. Well, let me think what could represent a new day...how about a sunrise. Genius. So this morning I woke up at 4:00 am (I had fallen asleep at 2:00, so I was not thrilled with this early rising time), and it hit me - today is the day to catch a sunrise. I made myself a pot of coffee, looked up the sunrise times online and headed off. Only after I was headed up a road, and I am so embarrassed to admit this, I realized I did not have a compass and I really did not know which direction to really focus on. So I drove and drove and I just did not see anything that suited my fancy or that I was just really wanting to capture. The sunrise time came and passed, it was foggy, wet, and just dark out so I decided to head home without my shot. But, at the last moment I decided to head to a local pond to see if it would ever be a good shot sight. It is called, and I am not kidding Cooter's Pond. I had never been there, but when I arrived, I found the illusive sun I had been looking for. So although this photo is a little dark, it represents exactly what I went out to find, a new day.

God bless.

My Gertrude Kasabier Mimic

I have to confess; mimicking another photographers work was much harder than I ever expected it to be. I looked at a ton of Kasabier’s pictures, and I picked three to try to mimic. Two of the three did not turn out very well, but one I was pretty happy with. I wish I had some good picture editing software because I really think I could have really nailed this and made it look old and a little more rustic. So of course, the darker picture with the man in the suite is Kasabiers (I got it from Wikipedia). The other is my Dad (thanks for modeling Dad!). I really learned a lot from trying to do this assignment, but I am glad it is over. Monday was the last night of my Photography II classes, so now I have to decide on my own weekly subject. Hmmm, what to do. I am going through a hard time right now because I was laid off from my real job last Friday, so I think I need to do an inspiring assignment. I am going to go out on a limb here and give myself two assignments….(1) is to photograph something that represents a new day and (2) Christmas. Let’s see how this turns out!

Finally, I picked an artist!

After a trying week that did not include much focusing on my photography...I finally picked a famous artist to mimic for my class assignment for next week. I have picked...drum roll please...Gertrude Kasebier. Ever heard of her? Me neither until I was listing to the History of Photography podcast. She was a turn of the century photographer who declared her photographs to be valuable because they were art. I like her thought process. So this is just a quick update. More to come now that I at least know what the heck I am doing.

God Bless!

Faces

I am currently taking some photography classes and this week we had an assignment to bring in a 8x10 photography that was on a face. That was it, so other specs. I ended up missing class because I was working, but since I had my picture all ready to go I figured I would save it as this weeks subject. So your thoughts? To me the composition is okay. I wish I had not cut of the top of this young guns hat, but other than that I think he has good position, decent lighting and good looking room. My only issue was one that I did not see until I blew this up to 8X10. I shot this in a backyard with a small aperture to blow out the background, but what I see in the background is a 5 - gallon bucket that was sitting there. I did not see it when I first reviewed the photo, and to be honest, I did not see it until it was framed. But now that I see it...boy do I see it! That is all I see, and if you are like my husband, now that I have pointed it out...it will be all you see also. So lesson learned. Even on a blown out background, I need to look - look - and look again!

Well happy shooting to you all. Next week I will be working on another assignment for my class. I have to mimic a famous photographers work, we'll see how that goes.

God Bless!

Welcome to Pratts Photography

Welcome to the Pratts Photography Blog page. I am the founder and creator of Pratts Photography. Now, about the name. I wanted to start a photography company that was unique and individual. My name is as plain as Jane Doe, so nothing with my name would work. I live in a beautiful city in Alabama named Prattville. Even though I probably won't be in Prattville the rest of my life, I will always love it so I figured it was the perfect name for my company. So here I am and here is Pratts Photography! This will "hopefully" be a weekly blog in which I share information about what I have shot that week and some examples. This upcoming week I am having to shoot 'faces' for a class assignment, so I will 'hopefully' share some images from that shot. Thanks for checking me out!

Amanda Griffin Smith
Pratts Photography