Lauri Stumph Photography Blog » Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota based natural light newborn, children’s and senior photographer. Also serving Shell Lake, Rice Lake and Spooner Wisconsin.

Day 6 - 1/8/2009

You could say Jase and I have a drinking problem.  A coffee drinking problem.  This little espresso machine was Jase’s birthday present and our attempt to cut back on getting coffee’s out.  To be honest, it works!  I think I’ve had about 5 coffee’s out since we got it in September.  I *super heart* it.  (I used a macro lens for this photo that I had rented for a newborn session.  Macros are fun to play with!)

(by request, the techie stuff:  105mm macro  f3.3  1/25th  ISO1600)

Day 7 - 1/9/2009

My poinsettia before the leaves started falling off  :-(  I have no green thumb.

105mm macro  f4.5  1/80  ISO800

Day 4 - 1/6/2009

Jase got me a Peace Coffee Stout Porter (I didn’t know a beer could be both at the same time) beer kit for Christmas.  We cooked it up last week and here I was checking the specific gravity to see when it’s ready for stage 2 fermentation.  It also gives a hint as to what the alcohol content is…right now it’s at about 4% with a few weeks to go.  This post reminds me, I need to still check it tonight!

Day 5 - 1/7/2009

I drove through Minnehaha Park on the way back home from an appointment today.  I thought it was strange this one little area of sidewalk wasn’t buried in icy snow like the rest of the sidewalks.  It snowed just a little bit this morning and the fluffy snow in the cracks made for a much more interesting sidewalk.

And the bonus - Mr. Turkey was hanging out in the park by a minivan and I thought it was someone changing the tire until I looked a bit closer so I turned around, rolled down the passenger window and snapped a few shots.  Probably not such a big deal for some people but for a city girl…well, kinda cool.  After a peek at his sharp little feet, I’m glad I didn’t get out of the car.

I have been seriously neglecting myself.   Not in the ‘take a shower, clip my nails’ sort of way but as in not going out to take photos, just for myself.  When I’m out looking for new locations for sessions, heading to a clients house for an ordering session or just on my way to the mall, I always see things to take photos of but I just.never.do.  Part of it is that I just need to start carrying a camera around more, even if it’s just my cell phone.  Another part of it is I’m stuck in the ‘everything has to look great’ mode.  And it really doesn’t.  It really is about capturing a moment.

So I’m going to take on Project 365 which simply is taking a photo every day for a year.  After I missed January 1st and 2nd, I was going to just wait again until next year but really, I was just being lazy.  The idea behind it is that at the end of the year, I’ll have a year of my life documented.  I’ll be able to look at that one photo and remember something from that day.  The photos I’ll take will be mainly personal photos; family, friends, events, life, experimenting, learning my camera.  Some will be with my main camera, some point and shoot and some probably with my cell phone.  Whatever it takes to get a photo a day.  Thankfully, when I need a little inspiration along the way, Flickr has a daily challenge as well to get some ideas!

On to my first 365 post….I’ll be posting at least once a week, hopefully more often!

Day 1 - 1/3/09 - We were up north for the weekend.  I was going for the side of the road, old farmhouse mailbox covered in snow and rusty but came across this and couldn’t pass it up.

Day 2 - 1/4/09 - I love lakes in the winter but go into almost a panic when driving on them.  Walking is okay but I didn’t get on to this lake and didn’t want to because there was not a single footprint out there…I wanted to leave it that way.

Day 3 - 1/5/09 - There was an old retro washing machine sitting at the end of our alley today and it got too dark before I got out there to take a photo so instead, I dug out my flash which I need a ton of practice with, my Lensbaby which has been collecting dust for about a year and some gels to make pretty colors and stuck my head into our washing machine to take a few photos.  The Lensbaby is a really cool lens but pretty impractical to catch little kids running around since it is completely manual…but it’s pretty cool for just playing around.

I had meant to post these photos from a senior session this week before New Years, but it took me until today to thaw out!  I thought it would be okay, it being the warmest day (35) in quite a while but the wind pushed it back to ‘unbearably cold’.  But I do think snowy sessions are pretty cool so it was worth it (I can say that since I’m warm).