Hello hello! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I have a ton of photos to go through from our trip but it’s moving week for the Fralins which means no down-time what-so-ever. BUT I do have a few things to share and first up are some photos from my best girl, Shannon of Shannon Roddy Photography. We did a test shoot with her in Cape Cod this past weekend in our wedding gown and suit. It was so much fun and I will cherish this session forever since it rained on our wedding day (cue Alanis Morrisette) and we didn’t get to do as many photos outside like we had hoped. Who said you only get one shot at wedding photos? Well, you sort of do. And this gave me a great reason to get some more use out of that gown of mine :) If I could get into it myself I’d probably wear it around the house more often. Click here to see some of the shots.
We spent some time in the woods and John, the awesomest photo assistant, had the opportunity to show his tree-climbing skills. Now that’s dedication (although she didn’t even have to ask him) :)
Something else you should definitely check out is our good friend Joshua Longbrake’s new portfolio site (Hi Josh!!!). I love his Balloon series and of course all of his other work. Apparently there is an easter egg hidden on the site somewhere. I have yet to find it.
And last but not least, our extraordinarily talented friend from college, Anna Bond, of Rifle Paper Co., designed Joshua’s adorable logo. When I get enough pocket change I’d love to have her design some personal stationary for Jeff and I. Check out her shop for greeting cards, invitations, art prints, etc. And visit your local Anthropolgie store to pick up her beautiful recipe cards to go with her beautiful recipe boxes:
Monica did an alla prima portrait of me last weekend. I sat for a total of six hours but she didn’t finish because we ran out of time. I’ve always envied admired those who could draw or paint and it blows my mind how easily it comes to some. This is a time-lapse showing the first hour or two. I wish the camera was angled lower but you can still see most of it. Edit: I updated the video to full-frame.
I came across this quote in Bobby Earle’s blog post titled “Originality is Overrated (for Photographers).” In it, he writes about the importance of sincerity in art and I couldn’t agree more. I know for a fact that I do my best work without the added pressure of doing it for any other reason than just to make a photograph that is meaningful or taken candidly in a quiet moment. Check it out for some reassurance.
This is year three in the Bunny Ear series that I make with my husband’s family. Each time is a great time and I am always grateful for their willingness to participate :) You can view last year’s images here. And two years before that here (skipped 2008 because I was out of town).
P.S. We missed everyone who celebrated with us last year and wasn’t able to make it today (hi, Beth!)
Updated the Polaroid section with a photo mosaic. After making a few of these, I remember going through a phase of not being able to work touch screens—they just wouldn’t read my finger prints or pressure or warmth or whatever it is they are supposed to read. So if you try this at home, remember to wear gloves.
Also, remember my love for typewriters? Enter exibit B as proof of my obsession. This one got me first place in an art show a few years ago. More mosaics to be added soon.+
Alrighty, folks. It’s finally that time that I was telling you about many moons ago. And by “that time” I am of course referring to you updating your bookmarks and/or RSS feeds to my new URL: http://huongfralin.com and http://huongfralin.com/blog.
No more hyphen, no more single lady, all new married name, all new design. It’s mostly just a make-over to my old site which had not been updated for centuries so I’m just pretty proud of finally taking the time to take care of it. And special thanks to my husband who built it for me and made sure it worked. I got the fun job—designing the layout, picking the fonts, uploading images, while he had to worry about heights and widths, codes and links, etc. And this is only round one of the launch…there are still a few things to be added such as icons to find me elsewhere as well as an updated bio picture, but I have one in it’s place for now and those of you who read my blog already know where to find me elsewhere via the links to the right. And I am not necessarily sure the edits I’ve made for the site are final but I’m too excited to just let it sit there and not tell anyone about it while I keep changing my mind about things. So yeah, it’s nothing fancy, but then again, neither am I.
My categories are people, places, and things (the definition of a noun) as an ode to my alter ego, the journalist, and I should mention that I totally don’t even like pink in real life but for some reason I’m drawn to use it on my sites for that punch of color. Maybe because some people can’t figure out if Huong is a man or a woman’s name and I think the pink might help them. You’d be surprised at how much junk mail comes to our apartment addressed to Mr. Huong. So let me know what you think and if you encounter any problems. My site hasn’t been completely moved to the new url yet so you can’t use the back and forth buttons in your browser without it doing something you don’t want it to do, but that’ll be remedied.
And of course because a post without a photo is a boring post, here I am in the reflection of my travel box…it has old stickers all over it and I don’t even remember where it came from but I just know that I love it. I taped a polaroid of Jeff to the mirror in college because I once saw Liv Tyler do that to the inside of her travel case in That Thing You Do (I totally own it on VHS). Love that movie. It made me want to be a drummer.
*I can’t ever decide whether I like diptychs to touch or not…I usually put the space in between just because it looks consistent with the space between each row of images but if you have any thoughts on this minor detail (I make a big deal out of what most would call minor details) I’d love to hear them.*
1. I will learn how to use my camera.
2. I will not use the Auto setting on my camera.
3. I will not use on-camera flash.
4. I WILL NOT BE HINDERED BY THE GEAR I DO NOT HAVE.
5. I will shoot in RAW.
6. I will learn how to process my shots.
7. I will share my photos with others on the web.
8. I will accept critiques of my work.
9. I will set goals and be proactive about my photography career.
10. I will connect with other photographers.
You can read up on these resolutions in detail in this article by Lisa Bettany. I have never been to her site before reading this post but will most certainly take the time to look through and see what other delicious tid bits I’ve been missing. Resolution #4 is one that I personally struggle with. Maybe it’s because I had the liberty of playing with so much expensive equipment in my heydays that I think I need more than what I have to be successful, but so many amazing photographs have been made with just a hole in a box so I think I should be able to do just fine with my Nikon even though everyone talks crap about it compared to Canon. I’m one of them. But who cares what kind of gear you use. What’s important is what comes out of it.
Here’s to getting out of my own way!
Sidenote: One of my pet peeves is when someone says they “edit their photos,” when they really mean “process their photos.” Editing is the act of selecting the images you want to work with from your days’ shoot…”Editing down to 20 images and then processing them in photoshop.” I guess it doesn’t matter if it’s someone who’s not in the photo business but just thought I’d throw the correct industry terminology out there.
Hi! My name's Huong (pronounced "Hung") and I'm a photographer, writer, wife, and paranoid germaphobe who lives in Roanoke, VA. Traveling, good reads, and witty people with lovely brains are a few of my favoite things, but photography and writing are what this web log is about :)
