Cicadas 2013!

The cicadas have returned. I have fond memories of these little dudes when they last came to visit.

Anyone see the article Fredericksburg.com posted regarding the different uses people have found for cicadas? If not, check it out here!

Chris Turns 26!

Over the weekend my brother turned 26. To mark the occasion, I decided to take some photos of the birthday boy.

My brother is throwing a "White Trash Birthday Bash" in July and he wanted to demonstrate what an example of a costume for the party could be. If you know me, I love a good themed party. (Heck. I love a good themed anything) Below is what we came up with!

Senior Portrait 2013!

Hey everybody! I'm stopping in really quickly to show you some senior portraits.

The family loved a set-up I had on my website so we created a really cool variation of that! It's always fun to shake up convention and work outside the box.

I hope you enjoyed these! I'll be back on Wednesday to show you a special birthday photo session I did this weekend. I hope you have a great Memorial Day!

Family Portrait Session Part 2

I'm back with more photos from my session I began sharing with you Wednesday! Let's get to it!

If you saw Wednesday's post you'll remember a sneak peak featuring Boo! He is the most charming little dude. A family portrait wouldn't be complete without including all of the family members and Boo was a lovely addition to our session. He is quite the Ham!

And there you have it! My favorite images from this family's session. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend!

Family Portrait Session!

On Sunday, I had the honor of creating a family portrait for a wonderful group. If you follow me on Twitter you know that I was a little nervous about rain ruining a session! The forecast called for rain showers and thunderstorms all day but thankfully it held off just long enough for our portrait shoot together. We even got a little sunshine at the end! After consulting with the family, they expressed the fact that they didn't want to create a stuffy or overly "traditional" portrait but rather one that accurately depicted their family dynamic. It was such a joy to work with them and together we created something that I believe captured this fun-loving and quirky family perfectly.

Here are some of the images from our session together!

In the next photo you can see a little "photobomb" by that flamingo on the right. The family requested it be included and I love how little personal touches can add a unique and rich layer to the story an image can tell. 

I couldn't help but to include this action shot.

If you have already Like'd Stephen Turner Photography on Facebook, you saw this little preview I posted on Monday and I thought I would include it here.

I'll be back on Friday with some more great images from this session but first I thought I'd leave you with a teaser of what to expect! 

Throwback Friday!

One of my favorite things to do is "Photoshop." There is something about editing an image on a pixel-ar level that is so exciting to me (1. I just made up a word 2. Can you tell I'm a photography nerd yet?) This is an old painting that had been loved over the years but so much love can kind of look like not any love at all. One of my favorite things is making something out of nothing and in this case I'm talking about Mr. Fancypant's nose. So marvel at the magic that is the internet and enjoy this instant before and after!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Sushi

Kaylee & Chase

DIY Live Edge Table

One of my passions (other than photography) is woodworking. While I'm no master carpenter, I love to learn by experimenting. My parents had some trees cut down in their yard recently and I convinced my dad to cut me a slab out of out a pair of trees that had grown together at their base. I had seen a few versions of live edge tables on pinterest and boy, are they pricey! I decided that it couldn't be that hard to do it myself. So this is the starting point:

At first I was "OOOH PRETTY" (I get too excited about things like this) and then after leaving it in our garage for a few hours I returned to further examine my new project. To my surprise, I saw little ant-like creepy-crawlies moving all over it. Termites. This was the first roadblock. After 3 days and some termite spray I was finally ready to begin the project. Next I had to tackle removing the bark around the edge of the entire table. I was hoping to keep it intact but as you can see from the photo a lot of it fell off in the cutting process.

So after lots and lots of bark removal, learning how to plane, extreme sanding, filling termite holes with woody putty I made from sawdust, this is where I was at. All that was left to do was stain, seal, and add legs. And thanks to the Internet we can just skip all those steps and get to the pretty after pictures.

So Get Excited...

Here is a full shot to give you an idea of what it looks like with its' new legs and stain.

Now for one with it all gussied up! This is what lived on it for about a week. (I'm constantly moving stuff. Hoarding tendencies. I'm basically a Magpie. If it's shiny, glossy, or looks like it came from New Jersey I will own it. And then move it around my house.)

And I'll end this novel of a post with a gratuitous detail shot. So there it is! My DIY live edge table. The only tip I have is to let the wood dry out for approximately a year before you turn it into a table or you can find a friend with a kiln who can dry it for you. In the words of one Sweet Brown "Ain't Nobody got time for that". This project would also be great for making coffee tables, shelves for your wall, or foot stools!

Headshot

Today I worked on updating my headshot. My old one was done in 2010 by Tony Hall  while we were in a Studio Photography class at VCU. I stepped in as a test model for one of his shoots and this bad boy was created:

(Yup. Can you tell I modeled my expression off of the JC Penny portrait studios? One word: Iconic)

Needless to say, I've lost some weight since then and I kind of wanted something a little more traditional in terms of a headshot.

Now for a behind the scenes moment brought to you, apparently, by an Uncle Sam pose.

And now for the final product!

Colonial Williamsburg

My family went camping at Colonial Williamsburg last weekend. If you know me at all, you know that I am basically a huge Colonial Williamsburg fan (so much so that I affectionately refer to it as "Cowilly"). I also love English Boxwoods. They are the bee's knees.  Anyway, back on topic.

I saw this guy and immediately began taking about 50 photos of him. He was such a ham. I'll save you from a cuteness overload and just leave you with this image.