Frisco, TX – wishes and lanterns

This is the second time I have photographed this super connected, lively family. The first time was here in California while they were on vacation.
Shelley was the one who inspired this trip – so big thank you to Shelley for allowing me to visit Texas and meet a bunch of really wonderful people.

She made the quilt for the session and found the lanterns on Amazon – they each wrote a wish, hope, or dream on the paper and we set them off. It was a little bit harder than expected and we lost a lot of light while trying to light the lanterns, and then almost caught a tree on fire. (ALMOST). Even though it didn’t end up exactly as planned, the experience was a wonderful way to start off my Texas sessions.

-Tara

**NEXT TRIP – I will be heading to San Francisco in July – if you would like more information please contact me.

 

plans

Couple of quick things:

– Next week I plan on sharing my Texas sessions here on the blog. A big ol’ week of Texas. Preview above.

– Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the great feedback on the personal work dilemma. I bought some film and batteries for my Rebel. I am looking at picking up a Canon AE-1 on Craigslist to play with as well. I really feel like this might be the perfect combo for me. iPhone for instant gratification, film for forever. I am excited and can’t wait to start.

– This weekend is all about getting stuff done. We have been doing a lot of playing the last few weeks. I hope to make some progress on a few projects around the house. Wish me luck on that one. There’s also a big garage sale happening here – Anna and I are excited to check it out.

– We still have a few weeks of school left, my Summeritis has kicked in for sure. So ready to pack away the lunchboxes and start sleeping in! We are all talking about what we want to do over our vacation, we just have to make it through the end of the school year in one piece.

– I changed my San Francisco plans – realized I was crazy town to think I could get everything together in time for a June trip, so I am now looking at mid July. If you are interested please contact me – I can only take a limited number of clients.

Happy Friday night,
Tara

 

 

the personal work dilemma

 


(These are some of my last film images ever taken. It MAY have been on my last roll.)

I haven’t processed my personal work from NYC in November.
I haven’t looked at anything from Christmas.

It is happening more and more often.
I don’t want to be in front of a computer.

I am here to work, and then I go. I like it that way, but I have just begun missing my own family in front of my camera.

Over the last six months, my phone has been my main source of picture taking in my family, simply because IT IS SIMPLE and always with me. The phone is small, I have it on my person all the time. I don’t have a camera on me all the time. It is unobtrusive, easy to grab candid moments without anyone paying attention. Not so with my DSLR.

Most of the time, I am okay with sticking with my phone, but there are times when I miss shooting manually with a really rad lens.

What I want:
Something easy, manual, transportable, and done once I click the shutter.
Which is making me think: maybe shooting my family with film is what’s up.

Once upon a time I learned on a Canon Rebel. Just as the digital photography thing was getting going, I was learning how to manually expose and process film in a lab. I remember being in my local camera store, and the guy behind the counter telling a customer, “Digital cameras will NEVER be able to match the superior quality of film.” To give you an idea of where I came from. I was uninterested and happy to shoot my Kodak c41 and my Portra 400. The moment I finished a roll, I would race to one hour photo. I couldn’t stand the waiting.

Then, Jeff, the ever present gadget guy, bought me a digital camera. It gave me the instant gratification I was so impatient about with film. And I never looked back. I haven’t loaded a roll of film since 2003. (WHAT?)

I think I might get out the ol’ Rebel and see what that girl still has in her.

I wonder if it will be an answer to my dilemma.

Thoughts?