This is one of my favorites from this year’s trip to LBI, she’s dancing her way down to the water, happy as could be, and in that unaffected way only a child inhabits.

Dancin' to the sounds of the waves

At the end of our visit Madeleine happily plunged into the fountain in the children’s garden — and I was not-so-secretly wishing I could do the same. While watching her I took note of some of the other kids splashing around, having fun, laughing — and one, screaming:

Girl screams in delight at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Honestly, I couldn’t believe I caught this moment. I heard the start of the shrill and somehow, with my camera still in my lap, focused and shot. I was hoping I got something. This was definitely better that something.

You see, there were two guys on that car standing right in front of us wearing skinny jeans. One wore a white pair. After both had departed, talker started saying to the girl next to him, and not very quietly, that if you want to scream “I’m gay!” then wear those skinny girl jeans. “Guys should not be wearing girl jeans,” he went on and on about it then took a strange turn to tattoos and his “dumb-ass brothers.” His take on tattoos anywhere on the body besides the biceps: “how do they think they’re gonna be taken seriously? How they gonna get a job? Those dumb-ass (you insert the next word) with their tear-drop tats think it looks cool now, but wait till they can’t get a job!”

He finished up, laughing and saying “but at least they ain’t wearing those skinny-ass girl jeans!”

What I have been up to is part personal and part professional. One project I will share with you is my “iPhoneography” series, more precisely, my shots on public transportation. As I mentioned before it started out as inspiration. It was a way for me to have a (nearly) daily way to be creative. The characters on the trains, the light that streams through the windows and the colors that splash around the long train cars are what keep my iPhone in hand during my 35-40 minute commute to and from work.

Both of these photos are shot with the Hipstamatic application.

Lens: John S; Film: Kodot Verichrome

Lens: John S; Film: Float

Nate, the monkey man.

So strange that my favorite photo of a newborn would be of him out of focus with his parents (mostly) in focus.

I recently attended a PPA (Professional Photographers of America) seminar here in Atlanta. It wasn’t about how to take great photos, but about how to make a living taking them. I didn’t know what to expect.

The first two speakers of the night were Allison and Jeff Rodgers. Both were former art directors. Allison wanted to spend more time at home after she had her first child, so she gave up the day job to start her career as a portrait photographer (plus some). It was a rocky start and kept her away more hours a week than the day job would have. After 6 years in business they are now very successful. And they showed their numbers! It was so eye-opening and real that it made me feel much better about chasing after this dream I have (which can also be somewhat of a nightmare). They laid out the basics and helped me understand how backwards I had been approaching, well, it all.

By that, I mean everything from business sense to promotion, to handling clients to delivering product. It’s not just about making beautiful pictures. Of course, I knew that — to a degree. I’m not going to get into all the details of the program, but I can say I am more motivated and have better direction than I did last week or certainly from my last posting.

Now for the literal side. I spoke very briefly with Allison’s husband Jeff, who did not say too much during the presentation, but made his mark on it nonetheless. At one point during the presentation, he pulled out his iPhone and started taking pictures of both the audience and Allison. Allison stopped and said “oh, he’s always doing that.” They admitted that they never take their “big” cameras home and rarely to parties and events they attend because they take pictures all day long. They use their iPhone cameras for fun, personal photography.

Anyway, I asked Jeff which photography app he likes best and he showed me one in particular called CrossProcess ($0.99 on iTunes). This question was important to me because as Allison went through her slideshow of lists and inspirational sayings, etc. some of Jeff’s iPhone photos would pop up. They were just as inspirational as the information that Allison was conveying.

Okay, so what’s this got to do with “light?” Well, it’s about inspiring yourself again. As they said in their show, “Inspire and be inspired.” (God, I hope I don’t have to use that word again in this post!). Seeing light, the dark and the light, the chiaroscuro (mentioned in a previous post), is what does it for me. And, since I have that day job, I don’t like to lug my DSLR around with me when just going to and from the office, I now see that light through the not-so-great but definitely adequate lens of my iPhone.

Here’s a sampling of what I’m talking about and a picture each of Allison and Jeff too. I did a lot of experimenting with free photo apps so I didn’t take notes with these. In future posts, I’ll try and caption each with the app it was produced with. I do know that “The atrium at the Hyatt Atlanta,” “Southbound on the MARTA train,” and “The long way down” were all shot using CrossProcess.

Allison Rodgers at the PPA Tour (Atlanta)

Jeff Rodgers at the PPA Tour (Atlanta)

The atrium at the Hyatt Atlanta

Southbound on the MARTA train

The gates of freedom

The long way down

Homeward

I’m not nearly there yet. I have my photo site, thanks to SmugMug, who host it for me (and to whom I pay for that privilege). I have my blogs, this one that I have neglected for over a month and my Tumblr photo only blog. And I am just about set up on Etsy too.

As one of my relatives said, I’m “everywhere on the web.” Facebook, Twitter, RedBubble, ImageKind, well, you get the picture (no pun intended). Yeah, I’m everywhere — that I can think of anyway. It can be hard to keep up, especially with a full time job. But I promised myself that this year I would work as hard as possible to get this dream going.

With so many friends and family members out of work I can hardly complain. And I’m not going to. I’m just going to keep chasing.

In an earlier post I mentioned how hard it is to get a good shot of my youngest niece. Welllllllllll, I think I get to take the prize for first place away from her. As a child, she is honest in her expression and hasn’t developed an ego, or at least, hasn’t become self-aware and therefore self-conscious yet. As an adult, though I think my ego is negligible, I am very self-conscious and very critical. That’s why there aren’t that many photos of me floating around.

I started this little project at about 11 o’clock last night — i know, what was I thinking? I took a strong halogen desk lamp and sat it on the floor facing the chair I would sit in. I was going for chiaroscuro, which is a word my high school art teacher, the late and more than great Mr. Claude J. Falcone, used quite a lot in my three years with him. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s basically high contrast between light and dark. In my portrait, I set the light to my right — therefore obscuring part of my face, see where I’m going with this? My plan was to shoot myself without revealing too much, a welcome change after a week of having a photo of Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon) from “The Facts of Life” as my Facebook profile picture for doppelgänger week.

You take the good, you take the bad. You take them both — and then you throw those bad ones away! (And I’m here to tell you, there were a lot of bad ones!)

My flavors.me page. Click image to go to page.

Now, it’s not hard to make this wee man (he’s 5) flash those pearly ones. Just tell him not to and he can’t stop. Nor can he stop laughing. During Julian’s latest photo shoot, he would alternately turn serious and silly. Ask him to stay still, he moves like a kitten — as was evidenced by the blur in many of my photos. Ask him to stand and he slides down the wall till he hits the floor, all the while covering his devilish smirk. So naturally, we asked him not to smile. And he did. Typical male. Typical child.

Except for one thing. He is absolutely gorgeous.

To see more photos of Julian, please see his galleries at skyeandraine.com.

Julian is available for modeling and can be contacted through Fran Jeffries, fmjeffries@hotmail.com or 404-532-8468.

Reverse psychology.

The silliness of Master Jeffries.

The smiling eyes of Julian Jeffries