Friday, March 26, 2010

March 19th Photo Friday: Children

Everyone say it with me....F.A.I.L....yep...I did it again...I completely forgot about my submission until I got the e-mail for this weeks Photo Friday challenge (which by the way is Pleasure...that should be an interesting shoot...) ::sigh:: I'm losing my memory in my old age.

But, lucky for me (and maybe for you?) there's no deadline to my own blog post! Yay! Procrastination wins again! Ok, back to business...

I  had so many options for this challenge (that's really why it irritates me so much that I forgot.) So many fantastic photos of so many wonderful children. Plus there's my furry children. There is one girl who I photographed that always stands out in my  mind though. And it's because of these...

Big blue eyes full of joy and wonderment. She's going to break some hearts with those big blue eyes. I had the pleasure of photographing this lovely young lady and her family for their holiday photos in 2009 (hopefully again for 2010?) That was my first photo shoot without my partner (in crime) and was a great learning experience for me (I really like the parenthesis today don't I?) Plus I got to meet some of the most photogenic kids ever. Anywho...I digress. This isn't actually the photo I would have submitted for Photo Friday...

This is:

The reason I would have used this photo over the previous one is I feel this photo really captures what we all remember about being a child. The simple joy of a backyard swing set, a cool crisp autumn day, and being able to wear a butterfly on our shirts! come on, it doesn't get better than that. 

Makes me want to go make a leaf maze at my Grandpa and Grandma's house in NY again. Those were the days...

Well thanks for looking, don't bother going to the Photo Friday website to vote for my photo, because you won't find it. I swear, I'll post the next challenge photo on time...really...should be an interesting shoot...

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com
oakcityphotographync@gmail.com

Friday, March 19, 2010

March 12th's Photo Friday Challenge: Nightlife

I went into this challenge thinking, "Sweet, nightlife, I can photograph nightlife," yeah...maybe if I had one. My nightlife (especially on the weekdays) consists of walking or running the dogs, eating in front of the TV, working on the house or wedding stuff and generally lounging. All of this isn't so bad really, but doesn't make for incredibly exciting photos. Then I thought on it some more, let's face it...I live in Suburbia. Cary, North Carolina is a great, quiet, safe place to live and I love it, but it doesn't lend well to a nightlife (I guess we have our local watering holes but still...this isn't a big city type of atmosphere). But who says that a nightlife can't be tranquil and picturesque. Well I say it can be! and with that, here is my submission...


This is a photo from my front door. This is the nightlife of Cary. Calm streets with street lights, beautifully manicured lawns (my neighbors, not mine) and an abundance of landscaping lights (yeah I don't know what's up with them either). Not much going on, but that's perfectly fine with me. I can still cause mayhem if I want to...just means it's easier to get caught.

This Friday's challenge word is children. I think I have a few (a LOT) of options for that one! I'm trying to talk Chrissy into submitting one too...maybe some encouragement from our audience will do it?

Thanks for reading! Tune back next week for another Photo Friday!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com
oakcityphotographync@gmail.com

Friday, March 12, 2010

March 5th Photo Friday

I'm on a roll! But only barely. I think I made the submission deadline by 30 mins last night. Good thing my pups are good sports and will let me take their photo for random reasons, in random locations, at random times. The challenge word for March 5th's Photo Friday was "Cleanliness." How exactly do you take a photo of cleanliness? I thought a photo of the cat cleaning herself would work great, but that didn't pan out (apparently she likes to mainly clean her butt...........) and then I had this awesome photo in my mind of a very soaked Rhea, like when we give her a bath. However we didn't bathe the pups in the week of the submission...so what is a girl to do?! I can tell you! Coax your loyal subject upstairs (sometimes cookies help) and force them to enter the Shower of Doom and sit there patiently. You will automatically be greeted by a very sad and forlorn face, which was perfect for the picture I was going for.

The end result was a slightly damp Rhea (from the rain) with a sad, and confused (maybe bored) look on her face, laying in the Shower of Doom. I call it "I loath the Cleanliness." She's such a good sport. If you like my submission go to Photo Friday and vote for me! My submission is titled SOR_Clean. Ok enough yammering, I give you my submission!



Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com
oakcityphotographync@gmail.com

Saturday, March 6, 2010

The Beginning of Stiz

As promised I am finally posting our engagement photos. Yes, a little late, but better late than never, right? I'm just going to keep telling myself that... For our engagement photo shoot, Chrissy was all on her own and she did a fantastic job. I'll admit it was rather odd being on the other side of the lens but I tried to just go with the flow and let Chrissy do her thing. It was a great experience and I'm so glad we were able to do it. Now I'm really excited about my bridal portraits.

For the venue for our engagement shots, what better place than NC State campus. While we didn't meet there, we both attended NC State and probably passed each other without even knowing it. The campus symbolized a special time in both our lives and we were very happy to be able to do our photos there.

I had so many favorites (SO many). These are the first good photos taken of us and I just gobbled them up! I'm afraid I can't post all of them but I will show you a few of my favorites. If you would like to view the reaminder, please visit our Couples and Engagements portfolio on our website

To me one of the most unique things about NC State campus is the Free Expression Tunnel. I mean really, how many other universities out there encourage graffiti? I think it's fantastic and always enjoy seeing what is new in there. Unfortunately while we were there it appeared UNC was blueing out the tunnel (one of the drawbacks to allowing graffiti) but we were able to find a small area where there wasn't quite as much blue...




Our photo shoot wouldn't be complete if we didn't have our dogs! It was fantastic to be able to get some great shots of the 5 of us by the bell tower.



I love the sequence we did with the brick wall. 


This is my favorite on the brick wall though. I love the energy of the photo.


I could keep going but I think I'll leave you with just one more. I believe I loaded about 20 photos on the website so feel free to check out more! 

It is fantastic to finally have engagement photos of Steven and I. We've been engaged for about a year and 3 months at this point and still have about 6 more to go. It's been great and I'm looking forward to finally being Mr. and Ms. Stiz.* Thanks again Chrissy for braving the cold and the wind to do our engagement photos!

 

*Ok, let me explain the Stiz. A lot of the friends we visit often are married and have the same last name so most often we just refer to them as the Smiths, for example. But with Steven and I, who will never have the same last name, they were faced with having to say our first names when referring to us (I know, terrible isn't it). So our friends came up with Stiz (combination of Steven and Liz) as our designated name. In other words, we are the Stiz's not Steven and Liz. I think it's hilarious and I love it and so I have adopted it as my own. 

-Liz DiNatale
oakcityphotographync@gmail.com

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Feb 26th Photo Friday

Yes! I did it! I remembered again! After my failure last week, I was determined to remember this week's submission. The challenge was Self Portrait...I've never done a self portrait...I always kinda felt vain taking photos of myself. But, duty calls (duty Chrissy, not dooty).

When I asked myself, what a good self portrait would be, I pondered the things that brought me to be who I am today and the things that influence me on a daily basis. I didn't think it would be an appropriate self portrait if I didn't show example of those things as well. So here is what I came up with...


This is me surrounded by the things that influence me daily. My 3 terrific pups, my awesome cat, my fiance, Steven and my hobbies, photography and cycling (those are my cycling glasses I'm wearing). Yes, there are tons more things that influence me but these were the easiest things to represent. Yes, my family has had a huge part in making me who I am today but I didn't have any printed pictures of my family (this is something I need to remedy). Thanks to everyone who's helped me grow as a person or who has dealt with me on my  continuing journey (it couldn't have always been easy). I can only hope as I age and mature (like a fine wine? No? Maybe?) that who I become will do justice to those that influenced me.

And on that note, thanks for reading!

Yep, I still haven't uploaded the engagement photos, I'M SORRY! I've been painting a master bathroom! I'll try to this weekend..promise...


-Liz DiNatale
oakcityphotographync@gmail.com