Category Archives: Photo Projects

The Beach Life in New Smyrna

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The following photographs are a series taken to document the beach and town of New Smyrna. If you’ve ever been to New Smyrna Beach, then you know that I have hundreds of other photos I couldn’t post here because there’s a lot to photograph. If you have never been, than here’s a quick taste! Enjoy…


The Jimmy Lane Surfing Academy bus left parked on new Smyrna Beach while instructors give lessons.

New Smyrna Lifeguard

A New Smyrna Beach lifeguard stares into the open ocean instead of watching swimmers.

Three-wheeled buggies cruise the beaches.

cars on new smyrna

Beach goers, cars and hotels share the New Smyrna Beach coastline


kids surfing
Two young boys eagerly take their surfboards out to the waves.

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Seeing Past the Ordinary

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One of our first projects in the photography class I’m taking is to photograph landscapes, including nature, cityscapes or buildings, and interiors. The field trip we took happened to be nearby our house as well, so the challenge for me was to photograph scenery and places I’ve seen and been to regularly.

I think these came out pretty good and are a little bit different than some of prior photos I’ve taken in the Winter Garden area. We’ll see what feedback I get on Monday, but I thought I’d post these here first. Enjoy!

This was taken in an old hotel lobby.

hotel hallway

The water tower.

water tower

This shop seemed so lonely.

lone street shop

The following around Lake Apopka.

Pier sunset with birds

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Opening Up Shop on Imagekind

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You may have noticed a fancy new button in the right-hand column of my blog, and yes indeed it is a link to my new store! Or at least the start of one for that matter. Over the last few days I’ve been slacking on posting because I’m still trying to figure out how selling your prints online really works, and here’s what I’ve figured out so far.

imagekind shop

Above is a snapshot of my profile on Imagekind. That’s one of the things I love about Imagekind, is that you can easily view all of the different seller’s profiles and artwork in a clean and simple layout. My “store” is all pretty bare bones and I’ve got a lot more photos to add to my gallery, but for the most part this platform is great for independent artists who want to sell their work. I’ve also looked into RedBubble and Etsy, both of which are great for selling your handmade art, paintings, photography…or whatever you want for that matter, as long as the artwork was created by you.

RedBubble is great because they make their site simple for the sellers and the buyers. There’s not too many choices to pick from when it comes to setting up your account or making purchases, which keeps things easy and less confusing. Although, if you’re like me, you need options which is why I leaned towards Imagekind because the print sizes and options are far greater.

Selling on Etsy is also a wonderful way to get your artwork noticed, especially because it has a good following already. You can sell anything you want on this platform, and the freedom to price and ship your handmade handiwork is all yours. Be prepared to do your own printing and shipping calculations though. Etsy takes care of processing payments through PayPal, but the shipping and handling is up to you.

In comes Imagekind. What I love about them is that they do the shipping for you. And if you’re like me just starting out, that makes things a whole lot easier. I have accounts on all three and am testing the waters to see what works, so I’ll keep you posted. Overall I’m excited about selling my prints online, so wish me luck!

If you have any recommendations or tips, I’d love to hear them as well!

The Ever-So Intimidating Self-Portrait

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My Self Portrait

Have you ever tried to take a self-portrait? It sucks. Okay, I know for some of you pros out there it’s a piece of cake and say, oh it’s not that bad, or, I love getting my picture taken, but to take your OWN portrait, in my opinion, is a pain in the you know what. Let me begin by saying I had some extra time today to work on some of my photos I haven’t had chance to get to, and once I was done with that I pondered what my next project would be. I’ve been putting off (dreading) the ever-so intimidating “self-portrait” project, which I truly believe can teach you a lot of things if you’re going to be working with other people’s portraits down the road. I really had no excuses why I could put it off today, so I set up shop in front of a window in the living room.

I didn’t use any fancy lighting; I prefer to use natural lighting for anything I’m shooting if possible. I began to think about what type of self-portrait I would start with, and that left me thinking for a solid five minutes, so I thought the heck with it, I’ll just start firing off some photos. I put it on “rapid fire” in an attempt to get some natural looking facial expressions, but more often than not I was looking like a statue (not a pretty one). Staring off into the distance, smiling directly at the camera, trying a different angle, then the lighting would be completely horrendous, all snowballed into a big disappointment. And some people can pull off the “serious, but I’m not so serious look”… not this girl. It got me thinking that people who sit in front of the camera for a living must have to stare at themselves in the mirror for hours to get those faces down. I mean, I feel like I’m making one face, and then when I see it on my camera’s playback it appears as though I’m in mid speech, having stomach pains or I just woke up.

Then I thought, ‘why don’t you just be yourself?’ I closed my eyes, opened them, flopped my hand under my chin, which caught some hair in between, half laughed and smiled, and BAM, that’s my self-portrait.

Check out this site if you want some great tips on taking your own self portrait.

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Chicken Marsala, Coming Right Up!

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chicken marsala recipe

"...with linguine"...you've got my attention.

Days 3 and 4 of my No TV escapade have whizzed by like TV never existed, most likely due to me filling my time with things I’ve been putting off. One thing I have been meaning to do is make this recipe that’s been floating around by the fridge for about two months- chicken marsala with linguine (recipe at the end). Now some of you are thinking “moderately easy dish,” but for me, foreign territory. And because I couldn’t listen to the TV like I usually do, I turned on the pop/rock station, cranked the volume and began cooking the unknown.

I always thought of myself as someone who followed my recipes line for line, but after this one I think I was wrong. I didn’t use mushrooms, chicken cutlets, or the recommended linguine and onion measures, but hey, the world is still turning!

Parsley

I gotta use this spice rack more, but it intimidates me with its many choices of flavorful herbs that can screw up my dinner.

Marsala Wine

I’ve never made a wine reduction with Marsala cooking wine, so I thought we’ll give it a go. After the fact I thought I could have just used one of the many bottles already in the house.

Butter

One word: butter!

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