Category Archives: Photography

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Golden

July 17, 2008 – 10:56 am

The thing I love about family portraits is the way families tend to frame each other. Photography is like life for me, and life is like dancing.  In dancing, the man is in most cases a frame to showcase the beauty of his partner. In turn the womans beauty showcases the strength and intricateness of the frame. It is that combination of strength and sesitivity that most men cannot help but portray. Dancing, and I’m talking ballroom and the like, requires complete trust in the partners, especially from the woman, and men always seem to take that trust so seriously. Which I bet while flying thru the air their partners are thankful for.  

In photography, for mr at least when a woman says to her partner I want to take a photo with you, she is telling him in so many words, I trust you. I want to show off what we are to me, and she does when she is comfortable and secure in that moment. For him he wants to portray that trust.  For him he wants to be solid, wants to portray the stability that he offers and that she gives him. He wants to stand and allow his pride and affection to be seen, and the childeren become the decoration, like the perfect gown or the exact right music. And then we can begin the dance.  

WIth this family, it was very easy, to begin the dance.  I often got caught up in just watching them together. Dad was the perfect frame, Mom with her easy beauty and son the perfect decoration.  That day we met at the Boat House At Forest Park, we talked about light sabers and Yoda, their son and my girls, and marriage and life in general. We got rained on, and I think the best images came after the storm cleared. Which I think is a testiment to life and dancing, and hopefully photography.  

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All Heart

July 16, 2008 – 10:56 am

The thing I love most about this family is easily, the mom. She is the kind of person you root for. She moved into my neighborhood temporarily, only staying for a year. My kid, and every other kid int eh neighborhood it seems figured out what we adults were a bit slower to see. This lady was six kinds of awesome with fanny-tastic sauce on top.  We had met, in that my “kid keeps disapearing and is at your house so I think I should know who you are..” kinda way, we spoke often when we would see each other outside, we were both our natural bubbly selves and I remember thinking I should go over there and hang out she seems cool, a number of times. But it wasn’t til just before she left that I got to find out how cool she was. So when she asked if I was free for a session, I immediately moved things around to make that happen.

The boys were boys, one so engrossed in his book that I don’t think he put it down to climb into the sky, the other young and quick, and the daughter the kind of girl who makes me think of pixies and fairies, sweet and slightly mischevious. It was an honor to occupy some of this lifetime with them, and I hope to do it again.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with a new post I’ve been trying to get all the sessions I have taken up and avaible to clients. I am making progress people! Thanks for all the emails of support and the referrals, it means more than you guys would ever know.

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Girls like their toys

July 1, 2008 – 11:57 am

hey - this post is not dirty unless you are a Techno-whore like me, I am . I admit it. Shoes and Techno. Although I can never afford the shoes I covet, and I have to save up for the techno - none the less - There is grand news in the world of photography for me anyway.
Nikon is coming out with a D700. Its the new D300 (which is what I shoot with) and now relieves me of the need to covet the D3 (which was way out side of my price point- hey even I have a limit on how much tech I’m willing to actually PURCHASE) But the D700 is right on the edge of my comfort zone so hopefully in Early to mid 2009 I’ll be pickin one up, so if you plan to get married in the dark I can shoot it! As it stands I can shoot in candle light with out a flash and still get a decent image. aLthough I prefer you get married soemwhere with some light.. if I have any say in it.. I’m just sayin..
Now they (Nikon) have also released the SB900 flash - which hopefully will make SB800’s more affordable for a girl like me.
GAWD, Nikon, its sweet.. Thanks for the opportuinity to geek out. Jerry - its only a momentary thing, I am only sort of a photo geek (I can’t admit to my husband I am just a geeky as he is.. That is NOT AN ADMISSION DARLING! )

That it all..

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Glenn Echoes Wedding

June 10, 2008 – 10:56 am

The bride wore a beautiful beaded gown, the groom was the picture of calm contentment. But the scene stealer all night was their daughter the flower girl who I’m sure ran away with a few hearts.

Bridesmaids wore pink, and it was held outdoors at a local golf club. lots of cute moments, the grooms dressing room was the size of a closet, the brides SUITE was well a suite..

mom to great care in dressing her daughter for her big day, dad was so proud, and the guests had a great time, you can’t really ask for more in a wedding now can you?

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Adam + Angela

June 10, 2008 – 4:42 am

They met three years at a party and hit it off. Then he was off to Japan.  She heard he was back, three years later, this time the timing worked, she was available, and hoping that the spark wasn’t a fluke she had her brother set up a little opportunity. It wasn’t. He told his friends about the nice girl who was his mentors sister, she didn’t discuss for fear of jinxing it all.

They were a lot of fun to shoot, Adam has this very man vibe about him, not boyish, not a guy, but very very man, and a lot of their banter and interaction was somewhat raw and basic. Angela does the coy confident girl really well. I love couples who are really into what we are doing and want to be involved. Not afraid to say what they’d like to try, I got a happy trigger finger and a zillion CF cards, as I like to say BRING IT!  It was wonderful to shoot.

In the end I think they are just adorable. This isn’t a engagement session, but I don’t think it has to be. I think more couples should take the time to record their affection. And I’m honored that Adam and Angela let me document theirs.

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Tom + Courtney

June 9, 2008 – 6:54 pm

They are the kind of couple you are glad to see. Bright eyed and excited about being in love and living their life together. Watching him look at her made me want to go home and love on Jerry. Tom and Jerry have a love of making homemade ice cream in common, and they don’t live too far from us. Which is sweet. Courtney and I have a thing for crafts although shes way more crafty than I am I think - which is a feat for any human. But I think for Courtney shes a ball of great energy.

They met through friends (who are marrying this week- Congrats!) and tend to compliment each other with out really trying. My favorite couples to shoot are the ones who make me think everything could be okay in our world.  Courtney and Tom so rank up there.

We took a little walk around one of St. Louis more charming neighborhoods Lafayette Square. They have such great doors. They wore black so we were looking for color to surround them. I think we found some pretty good ones.

So here are a few images from our session.

congrats on your engagement Courtney and Tom, I am so looking forward to your wedding!

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Pinxit blog

April 28, 2008 – 7:19 pm

so up at the top of this blog is a link for the temporary Pinxit web space.. take a look tell me what you think.. I’m in the air about whether  I should blog separately over there or if I should just link to this blog here… take a look around give me your thoughts, I appreciate it…

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No risk No reward pt.II

April 23, 2008 – 12:12 pm

The whole RISK part is well under way. I’ve started pulling things together. One little thing at a time. Although it didn’t feel like little things, no baby steps at chez henderson - no, I ran a jumped off a cliff.
So as I have mentioned, I am moving forward on the whole “dream a little dream” thing. Funny thing is - I have actual sessions set up, a couple of weddings secured and it looks like May is my offical launch date.
Who’d have thunk it, paid gigs.
This week I’m grabbing a logo and trying to get the site together, although I think I’ll have the blog link back to here - I like my blog and I like who I am, and I think people who hire you to document their lives should see how you document yours. Which means my headers are gonna change, Not TOTALLY change but mostly to include more than just my little wonder Cam and Bri.
Can I also say that my husband is the kind of man girls dream about? The kind of man women push towards their daughters. He has constantly been thinking and helping, being supportive pouring his ideas out, filling in the gaps for me. I don’t think this ever would have gotten past the “man I should be…” stage if not for Jerry. Not that my people who I have let in on this haven’t been AWESOME, they have - Spoken has set up chances for me to shoot people, Nana gave me lighting gifts for my birthday. (they both HAVE blogs but neither of them update often)
I expect I’ll be going to some seminars in the coming months, and I am planning to take a couple courses at the local community college, mostly cause all of my formal training is in Film SLR’s and I want to make sure I am taking full advantage of the equiptment I just sunk a large amount of my retirement into. I know how to USE it, of course I just want to PIMP THAT SHYT OUT!!! I also want to beef up my photoshop knowledge, and a student discount on alot of hte software I want to try would be super duper nifty! I know it seems a bit bassakward, but I really want to be as soild in this as I can be.
I’m joining the associations I think are the most benificial to me. I’m learning as much as I can. Business accounts and fictious names and all manner of things you’d think I should have already known about, since I been shooting as Pinxit photo for about 10 years.
I bought a laptop then promptly gave it to my mother whose computer died a week ago and shes in the middle of a major transistion herself and needs the internet access, so there you go. easy come easy “I better get it back in a week, brudda in law and sister who are supposed to be fixing a laptop and sending it to mom YESTERDAY!!!” (is my hint subtle enough do you think?)
Funny I never actually owned a lap top that I used alot before. I have a Old Mac laptop that I really never used, I bought used from somebody back when I was poeting myself out. I think I may put it on ebay and see what I can get for it. Also trying to decide what to do with the Pentax, I want to upgrade it for backup equiptment - though I am sentimentally attached to it.
I would love to be in a position tha I could just give it to somebody who could love it, alas that is not the case. so things are moving along at a steady clip and I have to hold myself back to keep myself from runnin off half cocked. Will update hopefully upon delivery of my new precious…

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St.Louis bloggety good times

April 21, 2008 – 11:29 am

So we had another meet up -

Fonze thumbs

Dana was in the house, clearly. :)

billBill I think won the award for social butterfly he was everywhere and ended up in more pictures I took than anybody i think. My favorite Blogger Jaelithe was there with her hunky husband John, who blogs by the way. Their adorable son hung out with Cammy while we were at Atomic cowboy.
BOO to the arsehole who broke into her car while we were having good times. St Louis City is making strides but we still got a little ways to go. The Grove has alot more nice businesses than it used to, and is on the verge of become a Lacledes Landing type atmosphere, we just gotta stick with it. If the city, the patrons, police and business owners keep at it, it will get where we want it to be.
ANOTHER cute couple It was nice to see everyone out again. Particularly J. Spagetti who I hadn’t seen in a while. And Farrell, who I LOVE. We are gonna have to Hang out girl, bring your girl to hang with my girl, maybe science center or magic house soon?!? Irony, I spent most of the evening talking to Walljm, who is a photographer as well, and he gave me some nice meat to chew. Jerry too on the compter side of my new start up. I like sitting with him and Tojosan. Craig gave me a great peice of advice as well, and it was nice to meet his wife. He should meet Joe, they could have alot in common I think.

Walljm

I swear I thought we’d only been there a few mintues when I looked up and it was time to go! Time flies. I think our next meet up happens in June or July, we’ll be posting information soon!
*the goal is to update my blog rolls today so I’m not going to link to people who I should always link to - I’m gonna get this done today…
** you guys know how the picture tool works below right, click a thumbnail and it should blow it up

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St. Louis Shaken not Stirred

April 18, 2008 – 1:22 pm

And I like mine dirty with extra olives… So there was an earthquake.

Fun times I’m tellin ya. Thus being I’ve been up since 4:40 this morning, which while not that much earlier than my alarm rings out - it is earlier than I wanted to be up.
I am well on my way in the photography realm. I’m pulling the peices together one thing at a time. Think I am gonna sell my old kit, put it on craigs list, see how that goes.
Working on pricing lists and wording for the site. Do you have any idea how hard it is to put a price on what you do?!?! Where is the balance between a good honest wage and DAMN ARE YOU CRAZY LADY?!?! I found a web site where the local in our area photographer charges $400 just to come take the photos of your family,… Got more than five people in your family? its an extra thirty bucks person. I was like GET THE &#$$*! OUTTA HERE! I shoulda been doin this YEARS ago.
Do not worry my chicadees, even if I did think I COULD charge 400 bucks per session I don’t think I could. People should be able to afford their memories.

THis is just a drive by posting I shall write again..

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