Alicia Bruce: lifestyle photographer?

Over the past ten years I have gone from first-time digital camera owner (2.1 megapixels!  Silent video recordings!) to full-fledged photographer.  Though sometimes I still hesitate calling myself a photographer and say "I enjoy photography" instead.  Nomenclature aside, for the past decade I have learned the ins and outs of the five digital cameras I've owned, outgrowing one before upgrading to the next.  After owning my 7D for over a year and a half, I'm still learning new things about it.

And photography in general.

By my very nature, I am a learner.  I love to educate myself and learn new things.  I love to try new things. I like to experiment with my camera and try techniques I didn't know existed until I read about them on a blog.  Through all of this educating and experimenting, I am working on finding my own style of photography.  What is it that I want to shoot?  I take pictures of everything, of course, but what is it that really gets my heart going?

Landscapes?

Macro?

Long exposures?

All of the above? Pretty much.

 But, you know, I'm not too experienced at shooting portraits of people. It takes more than just a super good camera to capture something like that.  You've got to know the camera and how it works to be sure you'll get the shot when you press the shutter.  You've got to have an eye for composition.  And you've got to have a heart that can capture emotion.

Maybe I have an inkling of these things hiding down inside of me.  I'll never know if I don't try, right?

So off I went in search of people to photograph; four families of my husband's coworkers.  They all agreed to be my subjects in return for some free family photographs.  I had quite a variety of families to work with:

Large.

Small.

In between.

Older kids.

Younger kids.

And a baby.

I've certainly got a lot to work toward, but I think I'm off to a decent start.  I need to become more comfortable with directing people, for one.  I also need to learn how to pose subjects and how to encourage natural smiles.  But that will all come with time.

As I finish editing the family portraits, I'll be sure to post some of them here.

picture the holidays

I'm so excited to be participating in Picture the Holidays with Tracey Clark this year.  It's a 31 day photo experience in which there are 31 prompts (one a day), and the participants are to photograph something that  relates to the day's topic.  It's an exercise meant to slow us down for the holidays; to help us enjoy what is around us instead of getting caught up in the madness.

Stop by tomorrow for day one!

Dear Santa,

This.

Merry Christmas,
Love, Alicia

New website!

Ladies and gentlemen, I've got a website.

Having a blog on its own is nice, but I decided it was time to make a website to host a portfolio and contact info.  I've started what's referred to in the photography world as the 'portfolio building' stage in my work.   Recently I've been doing photo shoots for my husband's coworkers and their families (who were kind enough to let me bring them out into the chilly November weather!).   Portraiture is such a difference from what I normally shoot; mountains don't move and flowers don't blink.  Just incorporating the natural movement of people gives me a lot more to think about at the same time as trying to compose the photograph.  And that's part of the fun of photography, but it is going to take practice.

Post-processing also poses its own differences from other types of photography.  When I shoot landscapes or travel photography, I like to process the image so that the colors are close to what they looked like in person.  With portraits, it's all about emotion.  I'm finding it a little bit difficult in a way to make that change from keeping colors and lighting 'as is', to getting creative to express emotion.  Don't get me wrong - I love being creative.  There are certain shots I take with a specific mood in mind, and process them accordingly.  With portraits, I think it's because I haven't found my style yet.  So basically I'm using this portfolio building time as my chance to experiment and find my style when it comes to post-processing.  It's nerve-wracking, but definitely a lot of fun.

This was my long winded way of saying 'Hey!  Check out my new website!'  Soon I'll be registering a domain name, but either way, you'll be able to find it here: http://aliciabrucephotography.blogspot.com/

Happy (almost) Holidays!

I told myself I would wait until Thanksgiving to post this... but I couldn't.  I'm impatient in most aspects of my life, but especially when it comes to Christmas.  That's why I am offering a free download of the above picture (without the text) for your personal use as a desktop wallpaper two weeks early!

Click one of the pictures below (the top is for widescreen monitors; the bottom is for standard monitors), then click the 'Actions' tab and then 'View all sizes'.  Ctrl+click (right-click for PC users) and save as.  Enjoy!