Red Red Wine

I love wine, but it doesn’t much like me.  So when I first learned that our good friend, John Michael, was organizing a day trip to some Virginia vineyards, I had three rapid-fire thoughts – 1. That sounds like fun!  2. Maybe I shouldn’t go, what would I do while everyone else is tasting wine?  3. Ooh, I’ll bring my camera!  And so, it was decided that I would go. 

I also decided that I would remove the lens that I keep on my camera 99.9% of the time (50mm 1.4) and shake the dust off some of my other lenses to unleash my creativity. 

I started with my basic zoom lens (28-135mm 3.5/5.6) at our first stop, Breaux. 

  

It’s a slow lens, so you get more motion blur, but sometimes I love the effect, like in the above. 

So that was fun, but not dramatically different from my 50 except for the slowness… so I decided to go crazy and put on my Lens Baby.  It is a tilt-shift lens and manual focus only.  I use it very rarely since I usually photograph children, and they don’t have the patience to wait for me to first, swivel and second, focus the sweet spot.  However, the blurry effect is cool, so it’s fun to get it out every now and then.

That was the last shot of Breaux.  Mark said that they had the best wine of the three (of course, he probably wasn’t able to tell red from white by the third stop!) 

Up next, was Notavita only a hop, skip, and a jump from Breaux.  I started by taking more photos with the Lens Baby.

However, I quickly ran back to the bus to grab my wide-angle lens to capture some of the beautiful symmetry of the Notavita tasting room.

That last one was taken by the bartender…. that’s me over to the right.    I liked this place the best.  It had a really great atmosphere.

We made one more stop at North Gate (is it just me, or does that sound like the name of a cemetary?).  I left my wide-angle on and the other lenses on the bus, where I couldn’t get to them. 

By this point, I decided that I needed to be a little more social and put down my camera, so limited photos from this stop. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little adventure as much as I did!  Thank you, John Michael, for a wonderful day.  It was great to have time away with my husband and without the kids.  Sure, I had no wine, but also no whining, so bonus!

Celebration!

Thank you so much to all of my fans for helping me to reach and far surpass my goal of having 500 Facebook fans by February 5th!  At the time of writing this, I’m at 649 fans!  I couldn’t be more thrilled! 

I have two winners for free photo sessions!  The winning comments were chosen using the random.org random number generator.  There were 46 comments (plus 3 pingbacks, skipped and not included) and the winners made the 20th and 28th comments.  

Starting at the first comment made by Heather T., I counted down to the first winner who is… Wendi Mayhew!!!  I kept counting down to comment #28, and that winner is… Jen Clark!    Thank you so much!  I will send each of you an email so that we can coordinate our calendars for your sessions. 

Noone goes home empty-handed though!  Each person who entered will also receive an email from me within the next week with a $50 gift certificate toward your next session!  Woot! 

Also, keep an eye out on my Facebook for details on Cherry Blossom mini-sessions coming in March/April.  I’ll only have room for 4-5 sessions, so feel free to leave a comment or send me a note if you are interested, and I’ll send you a heads up once I post the details in a few weeks. 

Well, I can’t let this post go without adding a few photos!  Here are some photos that I took of the Newell family this fall. 

Cute! :-D

Sisters

I know it’s a month past Christmas, but I thought I’d go ahead and share that one of my own personal holiday traditions is that I always sit down by myself every year and watch White Christmas while I wrap gifts (promptly followed by Holiday Inn because I have so many gifts to wrap… and I usually stop to watch all of the musical numbers).  The second song in White Christmas is called “Sisters,” and it’s pretty funny, especially when Bing and Danny Kaye lip sync it later.

The song makes me think about my own two sisters.  We are very close in age (all born within three years), and my younger sister and I shared a room until my older sister went to college, which made us very close (many times too close for comfort!).

Here we are circa 1979.  Strange that my hair looks almost the same now.  (God bless that photographer.  Tracy looks like she was about to jump out of the shot.)

I am so grateful for my two sisters -  my oldest, Karen, whom I always admired growing up for her fashion sense and knowledge of the world awaiting me, and my youngest, Tracy, whom I always envied for her searing wit and sense of humor.  I wish that I was able to see them more often, but I can always count on their support and love when I need them, which is such a gift.

Here are some photos that I took recently of two very cute sisters, Annie and Sophie (and their little brother – not pictured here, but who is in many other cute photos!), on an incredibly chilly morning in DC.  I chose to extract just the sister photos for this post because they exhibited such a beautiful bond that reminded me of what I feel for my own sisters.

These photos use the “Purple Grunge” texture from French Kiss Textures, and I love how it goes so well with their adorable Matilda Jane dresses!

By the way, if you haven’t yet entered my contest for a free photo shoot (I’m giving away TWO), you still have time to do so!  Click here to enter!  Winners will be selected on Sunday evening, February 5th!

Do the Jitterbug

I’m totally cracking up writing this post because my husband said I could “not write a blog about that song. It is absolutely ridiculous.” Oh yeah?  Watch me!

I don’t think we actually had an official prom song, but I do remember that at least half of the people there went crazy and jumped onto the floor when Wham’s “Jitterbug “song was played.

I actually had a pretty crabby evening tonight… running errands with two kids in tow is not fun, but then I started talking to my husband about high school and proms.  I looked this song up on You Tube, and we both started dancing regardless of my bad mood and his being all feverish and sickly with a cold.  Here, you try – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlCRcR50aI8.  See, you’re smiling now, too, right?

So the reason this all came up is that I had the honor of photographing a high school friends’ newborn son two weekends ago.    As if photographing newborns wasn’t fun enough, it was so great seeing Michelle Donachy Knisley again after so many years and also talking shop with her (because she’s a photographer, too!  Visit her site!).

Just like the Jitterbug song, photos of newborns make me smile no matter how rotten my afternoon has been.    Here is Mr. Nolan Knisley!

He was born 4 weeks early and was only around 5 pounds when I photographed him!  Look how small he is in his daddy’s hands!

Love how his arms and legs are all stacked up!  More photos of Nolan will be posted to Facebook, too, so look for more there!

Before I go, I wanted to give you an update on the contest!  I hit my goal of 500 fans and then some!  At the time of writing this, I’m up to 530!    Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen!  I will definitely be giving away TWO free photo shoots on February 5th, so if you haven’t entered already, you can do so on this post.  Thanks again and good luck to you!

P.S.  My husband just admitted that he was impressed with how deftly I was able to tie the Jitterbug song into a photography blog.  Props to me!

Ain’t Nothin Gonna Break My Stride

Wow!  What an excellent, amazing week!  First, I want to thank all of my fans for helping me to get 38 new Facebook fans this week alone!  Welcome new fans!  I’m well on my way to meeting my goal of 500 fans by February 5th!  If you haven’t already entered my contest for a free photo shoot, whatcha waiting for?  If I reach my goal, I will give away TWO free photo shoots instead of one!

Another thing I did this week was join the “Be Nice” Campaign on Facebook, which is kind of like a pledge that you’ll be nice to other artists and help them to grow.  That’s an easy one for me!  It feels great to help out other photographers.  Besides, where would I be without the help and mentorship of photographers who did the same for me?

Almost immediately after doing that, I received an email from Leslie Nicole of French Kiss Textures with some questions about my website.   My site is used as an example site on Zenfolio.com, which is the platform that I use to host my photos and e-commerce.  These types of emails aren’t out of the ordinary, and I am always happy to help, but the difference this time is that after I responded, she graciously gave me my pick of textures from her site!  Yay for good karma!  I am so excited to play with them!  I’ve added a before/after with one of her textures at the end of this blog.

Here are some gorgeous photos that I took of the Kropp family in November (it was one of those Indian Summer days, hence the short sleeves!)  I love this family; they are too much fun!  I’m sure you will love them, too, after seeing these shots!

Monkey hats!  These were on their Christmas card! 

Charlie giving me a stare down.

There’s that smile!

Okay, here’s the before and after I was talking about…

Before applying texture:

And After (using the Fantin Light texture).  Click on the photo to bring up the larger image to see the actual texture.

How fun is that?!  I can’t wait to play with them some more!

When You Say Nothing At All

My husband and I used to have monthly “State of the Union” talks to go over our finances and plan the month ahead.  That was before we had kids.  Now, he’s lucky to get me for 10 minutes while I’m making dinner.  But we did make time on New Years Day to sit and talk about our goals for the year, and it was wonderful!  I am so jazzed about this year and everything that awaits us!

I want to make it good for you, too, so read on to learn about a new contest I’m hosting.  You could win one of TWO free photo shoots!

But before we move forward (keeping you in suspense), I want to go back and show you some of the photos I took at the end of 2011.  The fall was wonderfully busy for me, so I got a little behind on sharing photos of the families I had the good fortune to photograph.  It’s probably going to take a few weeks to get them all up for you, but I’ll post some here and some on Facebook, so check in when you get a chance!

This is the Carter-Minnemeyer family.  I photographed them in November with their 3-month old son, Rowan.  I really love these photos because they just wanted everything simple and relaxed.  We used only their bedroom comforter, a black blanket, an heirloom quilt and a boppy to give these photos as natural an air as possible.  How’d we do?

Love the silhouette!

Okay, I know you’re thinking… didn’t she say something about a contest?!  Yes!  Here goes!  It’s the “500 Fan Frenzy!”  I want to get to 500 fans on Facebook by February 5th.  If I do, I’m going to give away $500 in prizes (two photo shoots worth $250 each – covers the session fee and a $25 gift certificate to use on prints!).  If I don’t, I’ll still give away one session, so there’s going to be at least one winner!

Here’s how to enter:

1. Go to www.facebook.com/rebeccadanzenbakerphotography and click the “Like” button.  Then come back here and leave a comment that says something like, “I liked your page!.”  (or “I already liked your page!” if you’re already a fan.)

That’s it!  Well, that was simple!  Once I get 500 fans, I’ll count up all the comments, go to random.org and “draw” the winning comment.

Hey, want to earn an extra entry?  Sure you do!  Here’s how:

2. Change your Facebook status to something like “Help @Rebecca Danzenbaker Photography reach 500 fans by February 5th and you could win $500 in prizes.  Check out www.lyricalphotography.net for more info.” (What’s with the @ symbol?  If you type it in (instead of pasting it), it will link to my fan page to help your friends quickly “like” it and get us closer to our goal!)

3. After you do that, come back here and leave a separate, second comment saying something like “I posted your contest on my status.”  This second comment is your second entry.

Thank you so much and good luck!

P.S. As if FREE wasn’t incentive enough to enter for a photo shoot, here’s a heartbreaking true story shared by a fellow photographer about how valuable family photos are.

P.P.S. Ahh, forgot a few minor details.  I will contact the winner via email.  Session must take place before July 30, 2012 and be within the Greater DC or Richmond area.  This contest is not sponsored by Facebook.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

For me, Christmas is about love, giving, life and birth.  So I thought it would be apropos to share with you these photos of Miss Ella Kennard, a little blessing from heaven that I met when she was a week and a half old.  She was born the day before Thanksgiving, and was the easiest newborn I’ve ever photographed.  She slept when we wanted her to sleep, and she didn’t pee or poop on a thing!  What a little angel!

Love that pouty lip!

Oh, but we mustn’t forget about her older brother, Jack!  He is the sweetest little guy.  He played and smiled the entire time I was there.  We’re not talking the big “CHEESE!” smile, either.  It was the real, genuine thing.

He loves his sister, too!

These really do bring a smile to my face and also help me to remember the real reasons for all of the craziness that goes into making Christmas perhaps my favorite day of the year (despite the fact that it’s in winter.)    I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah and/or Kwanzaa!