A Barrett Family Christmas

Christmas is one of the few times everyone in my family comes together. We are all spread out, I am in Sacramento and I have a cousin at Harvard and another at UCLA. Since we were all together my dad asked me to take some photos of everyone.

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This is the whole family, minus me…because I’m taking the photo. If I had thought about this photo more I would have asked a few people to change place. I don’t like where everyone is standing… lesson learned I guess.

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Like every family, ours has a lot of stories. My grandma came to America from Mexico some time in the late 1920’s. She and her twin sister grew up on a farm in Kansas. When my grandma and her sister grew up they became nurses. Grandma moved to California and had three kids (My dad, aunt and uncle that are seen above).

My dad grew up with his siblings and his single mom in San Francisco. He listened to cowboy shows on the radio, went to Catholic school and collected comic books. A year after graduating high school he joined the U.S. Army. He eventually got accepted to West Point but turned it down and got stationed in Germany.

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My uncle, grandma and cousin. I love the laughter in this photo!

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My aunt and uncle (both teachers!!!), grandma and cousins.

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All the grandkids! Thanks dad for taking the photo 🙂 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Barrett family!!!

(Photography) Goals for 2012

My boss likes to say “the first step in meeting a goal, is setting a one.” With that in mind here are my photography goals for 2012.

1)      Become better at posing people

Posing people has to be one of my biggest weaknesses as a photographer. I often get stuck in a shoot. Furthermore facebook photos have created the standard, hand-on-hip, twist your torso and smile look, as good posing. I understand why girls do this pose: it is very flattering. However if you are using the same poses in every photograph you are recreating the same photos over and over again, just with different people.

I sincerely want to move away from that. I want my photo shoots to be as individualized as possible. Each time I shoot I am photographing a different person, in a different part of their life, with a different story. The posing should be a part of telling the story.

2)      Focus more on writing in the blog

I am REALLY dyslexic! I am sure it shows in my writing. I have poor spelling and bad grammar. Because of this I have shied away from posting blogs with too much writing in them. However, I have decided that photos cannot stand alone. Photography is about telling a story but words help tell that story. National Geographic does not just stick a bunch of really nice photos in a magazine and call it a day. No! They pair the photographs with articles. It is time for me to do the same.

 3)      Meet more photographers

I really do believe that meeting other people who are doing what you are doing is a great way to learn. Every time I talk to another photographer about photography I learn something new: tips about new locations, poses, fashion trends or how to deal with clients. I find that by swapping stories, lessons are learned and friendships are made. I become better because I know good people and I learn with them. That is true in every aspect of my life. Photography is no different.

4)      Have enough couples photos to create a couples page on the site

Someone recently told me that the type of photos you put out there, are the type of clients you attract. Basically, if you want to shoot senior photos then profile senior photos on your blog and if you want to shoot weddings then profile weddings. I think I have the senior/profile photos covered (though I don’t want to stop doing them) but I feel I have not shot enough couples. I would really like to do more couples/engagement photography. In 2012 I am really going to work on building that portfolio.

 5)      Get  a new laptop

I am currently working on a 6-year-old laptop my mom got me my senior year of high school. I love that computer more than anyone can possibly know but it is time for a new one.

6)      Get Photoshop (I love you GIMP but it is time to move on)

I am currently using GIMP to edit my photos. It is a great FREE online software but if I want to take my photography to the next level… it is time to upgrade and get Photoshop.

7)      Invest some money in a pro WordPress site

Investing a little more into my website is the next move to establish my online photography “brand.” Showing I’m serious by investing a little money in my site (aka how the world mostly views my work) is a good thing. I would also like my blog to expand it is content next year. I think it would be good to do more than just show my photos, random quotes or stories of what I’m up too… that gets really boring. Next year I would like to post more interviews with photographers, have more “how to posts” and more posts that get clients ready for their shoot. My blog needs more information!

 8)      Be comfortable enough with my skill to raise my prices

Charging people for photos still seems strange. However I am beginning to understand how people can make a full-time living off of it. Being a photographer is a lot of work. You have to scout locations for shoots, do pre shoot prep work, shoot the event and the edit all the photos! It takes an awful lot of time. And I am coming to realize my time is valuable. I work a lot hours in my day job. So my free time is a valuable recourse.

I am also noticing that as I become a better photographer I am more confident in asking to be paid. I know I can produce at least a few good photos and I know that I am at least a little better than some other photographers out there…I am still not great. I am probably not even good. But I am okay. And that is better than I was before. I should have confidence in my work and realize it is okay to ask to be rewarded for it.

9)      Do some street photography!

I do not always get to book shoots as frequently as I would like. When this happens it is easy not to pick up my camera for a while because I have “nothing” to shoot. The major lesson of 2011 was that the more I shoot the better I become. I NEED to shoot more!!! With that in mind, I think street photography will help me do that. There is no excuse not to do street photography. I can do it on my own time, anywhere I am. It is perfect for me and my crazy schedule!

 10)   Read more about photography and about photographers

There is a lot to be learned from reading books. However, I don’t think I have read many books about photography or about other photographers. Time to change this… it is easy enough.

So these are my photography goals for 2012. Wish me luck!!!

Merry Christmas!

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I was so excited for this holiday season! It is my first Christmas in my own place and I’ve been planning how I want to decorate since late October. If I had my way I would have spent hundreds of dollars on a tree, decorations and other holiday items. However, I scaled my plans back. I have a small tree and lots of lights. Though it is a scaled back decorating plan, I still think it looks great!

Thank you to my friends who bought me lovely Christmas tree decorations! They make my tree so much more special!

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf (the perfect winter accessory for a photo shoot!)

The scarf really is the perfect accessory for a winter photo shoot. It can keep you warm and really bring an outfit together. But if you are anything like me, then you probably only know one or two ways to tie a scarf (I am pretty sure there are no scarf tying classes where I went to school). That is why I was so excited to run across this video on youtube! It is from a website called Wendy’s Lookbook and let’s just say Wendy got a A+ in scarf tying class. In this video she shows us not one or two or three ways to tie a scarf but twenty-five!!!

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did and that it might inspire some outfits for future photo shoots!

 

 

 

I also highly recommend checking out the rest of Wendy’s site. I spent a good few hours checking it out and learned how to walk in high heels and what clothes its okay to wear my jean jacket with. There is also some really great photography on the site. I really think photographers can learn a lot about posing from looking at sites like this.

Book Report

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Being dyslexic, reading is a struggle for me. However, I made it a goal to try to continue reading in my post college life. My reading habits are a lot less vigorous than they were a year ago. I am not reading three or four books a class per academic quarter. But I am reading and I am reading books I like.

Here is a mini review of three of the books I’ve read in the last six months:

Of Mice and Men: I have wanted to read this book for a long time. I had heard the phrase “the best laid plans of mice and men” and I have always wondered what it meant. Now I know. The book is about two men traveling in California. They stop and work on farms, trying to make enough money to one day buy their own farm. However, despite their best planning, the two characters plans do not come to fruition.

The Help: I saw the movie previews and thought it looked good. But I missed seeing the movie in theaters and so while waiting for it to come out on Netflix I thought I would read the book. It was FANTASTIC!!! I have not had that much fun reading a fiction in a long time. The story is written from the perspective of three different women in the south in the 1960’s. Two of the women are black and one is white. All three of them are trying to find their voice.

Bossypants: I have been mildly curious about this book since it came out. I loved Tina Fey’s Saturday Night Live sketch about “bitch being the new black” and her Sarah Palin impressions. At the time I had not seen Thirty Rock but heard good things…so I figured, why not read it. The book was laugh out loud funny but it also had some tongue in cheek advice for women working in a male dominated workplace. That was a nice bonus to the book.

Cat Naps

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Happy post-Thanksgiving!!!! I’ll be taking the day off and relaxing. After all that turkey I need to take lots of naps.

Blessed (and Happy Thanksgiving)

Thanksgiving is the one day we are all meant to stop and think about what we are thankful for. If you think about it, that makes it is a really great holiday. It doesn’t matter how busy your life gets, every year there is one day that tells you to slow down, eat tons of turkey and mashed potatoes with your family and think about all the ways you are blessed. With that in mind here is my “thankfullness list.”

(Is thankfullness a word?!? I swear people, I did graduate from UCLA…)

1. A dad that understands I might be a little late paying my monthly college loan bill (right, dad?)
2. Friends that live in New York and Arizona
3. A job that takes me to New York and Arizona
4. Having a little sister that can teach me how to cook
5. I have a job, a roof over my head, a great family, and good health. That is more than what a lot of people have.

Wondering Through the Desert

I recently got a chance to go Phoenix, Arizona. To be honest I didn’t know what to expect. I guessed it would be hot, dry and have cactus’ (kinda like the setting of a Road Runner cartoon).

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I didn’t expect to see soooo many skyscrapers or bank buildings. Above is a view outside my hotel window. It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of new buildings and dry desert mountains. There was also great public transportation and a baseball and basketball stadium. I even got to take a tour of Chase Field!

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On the last day there I took some time to explore the city and I found St. Mary’s Basilica. It was a really pretty old catholic church tucked in between all the new hotels, transportation systems, convention centers and skyscrapers. I couldn’t help but think how this church has seen this new city grow all around it. It’s the oldest catholic church in Phoenix – it’s over a hundred years old!

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And here are more photos from the trip! (sorry there are no fun people photos…)

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New York, New York!

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“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years” -Thomas Wolfe 

Boo!

This is Boo. He got caught by the hotel I was staying with. Rather than letting him go to the pound my boss (and me…) decided that we should take him home (and by “we” I mean me). So the cat went home with me and I started tracking down his owner.  Boo had a collar but it didn’t have a tag. So I called the pound, the humane society, twelve different vet offices in the area and the three apartment buildings next hotel were Boo was found. I asked all of them to put up posters about the cat.

Sadly, I was told that only 4% of lost cats are reunited with their owners. So I started trying to get ready to have a pet cat. I was going to call him Apollo. I bought him little cat toys to chase and trained him to meow when he wanted to go out on the balcony.

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However after a few days Boo’s owner and I found each other and a few days after that Boo went home. I’m a little sad to see Boo go but I really know it’s for the best. I can’t have a pet right now. I can barely look after myself. But it was nice to have Boo for awhile.