Summing up May

This month has been so crazy! Since my last shoot I did a wedding for a client, took a weeks vacation down to Cocoa Beach in Florida VERY spontaneously lol. Got to visit Disney's Epcot (one of my favorite places on EARTH), see space shuttle Atlantis take off, and visit Kennedy Space Center. My inlaws came into town from England for their daughters wedding (my sister in law) which was down in North Carolina... 7 hour drive away! And I was their photographer : ) My sister came home from England (her husband is also from England, as well as mine.. long story lol) and she has been gone for 4 months. So nice catching up with her!

Things are starting to calm down again and I've finally gotten my editing done from the last two weddings. I have a photoshoot tomorrow, and some family things this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to create some fun time! Things have been pretty stressful. I'm hoping to get some more business this summer and fall... things are going to get slow again : ( But always leaves time for creativity. I need to better market myself.. anyone have any suggestions?

More later : )
Brooke

Casino Spades

Yesterday I did a Punk themed photoshoot with a model I met from Model Mayhem named Casino Spades. We met up at this really neat 6 story abandoned building near downtown Cincinnati but when we got inside we soon discovered that the upper floors were inaccessible due to the collapse of the staircases! We crawled into the basement which was nearly pitch black and climbed up a set of stairs. It took us into a HUGE room where the walls were covered in graffiti and holes in the floors and ceilings offered unique ways to make use of natural lighting (YAY!!). There were lots of props, rubble, and debris that really added to the Punk feel in the photos! Casino did a great job offering lots of variety in poses, looks, and creativity : ) She was so great to work with! The photoshoot turned out to be a great success! Which I'm really happy for because the last 2 models I scheduled with ended up never showing up! Grr..

you can see more at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooketownsend/

First Shoot

Yesterday was Emily and Zach's Senior Portrait photoshoot. They contacted me a couple months ago wanting me to do their session this spring. They are brother and sister, twins, and they are awesome people who were really fun to work with! =) The session started at 3 and I was afraid weather was going to turn into a storm! Wind kicked up blowing trees almost over and it started to sprinkle. But once they got to the park the sun magically appeared and for the entire hour and a half session we had PERFECT lighting! I felt blessed. Thank you so much for letting me work with you! Here are some of my favorites from their shoot:






^I love her face in this one =P

Shoot the Hills '09

This weekend was the 8th annual Shoot the Hills photography competition. The contest started 1pm Friday and ended on Saturday at 1pm. The deadline to turn in all your images on a CD was 4pm saturday and they were critiqued and judged til midday Sunday. Then, the awards ceremony went on at 4:30pm Sunday. I participated last year and found it to be a lot of fun! This year, my husband and I made it into a little trip and camped all weekend. Found waterfalls, gorges, fields, beautiful nature and landscape photo opportunities :) Hocking Hills region of Ohio is the prettiest place I've ever been to. Amazing!

Compeition was tough this year! A lot of amazing photographers both encouraging and inspiring :) I only got one award this year (last year I wont 2nd place in two catagories.. but that was in point-and-shoot, not digital SLR because I didn't have my nice camera then). Got 3rd place in "Human Interest" catagory for the image above. These are the others I entered:

Entered in LANDSCAPE:

Entered in ABSTRACT:

Entered in WILDLIFE:

Entered in FLORA:

Had a lot of fun! Can't wait to do it again next year :)
-Brooke

Tax Day Tea Party

TAX DAY TEA PARTY: APRIL 15, 2009





Yesterday were the Tax Day Tea parties all across the country. Basically, people gathered to protest against Obama's socialist plans, raising taxes, and taking away more and more American rights and freedoms just making the country and all its rules, laws, and restrictions greater and more complicated. The fact that he's giving the federal government more power than it deserves and forgetting that the government works for US, the people of the United States, and not a way to show yourself off to foreign nations, leaders, and his followers. I had a lot of high hopes for Obama when he came into office, giving him a chance, but as the months seem to pass he seems to be all talk and no walk. And that's a person I have a hard time having respect for.

So anyway, even though I could go on and on, the tea party turned out a lot bigger than I was expecting! I went to the one in Cincinnati, Ohio and people showed up in the 1000's from all around the Cincinnati area and I met a lot of amazing, passionate people. And watching the news and doing some research, there were another 600 (so far calculated) tea parties that held similar results across the country! I got some amazing pictures and I'm greatful to have been apart of something to inspirational and motivating. The majority will be silenced no longer.

We need to rid the world of Scammers

I got an email the other day with a "job offer" for a photoshoot for Glamour Magazine from a lady that didn't want to make sense. After numerous emails back and forth AND an internet conversation lasting 2 hours, my gut feeling of it being a fluke was realized and I became utterly disappointed. I was sent a check in the mail with a LARGE amount of money and this girl was telling me to take it to the bank and cash it and I just had this feeling it was going to get me in some sort of trouble. So, I did take it to the bank, but I explained to the ladies up there my situation and showed them the check and they told me it was fraud. They wanted to run the check through security and I gave them the emails and conversation I had with the woman. It was such a mess but I took control of the situation and its finally been resolved (hopefully lol). I keep thinking about it and for some reason I keep finding the whole thing pretty funny... lol! Oh well. I'm not about to let it discourage me. I know there are fakes out there and real opportunities and it's going to be impossible not to run into these assholes. Be smart, swift, and take control and things will be fine :) but definatly life lessons learned, never be TOO eager lol.

Even though this craziness has been distracting me from recent work I have been able to book photoshoots for the summer :) Which I'm really excited about! It's going to be nice to add new faces to my portfolio. I'm looking into doing some creative photography with some models in the area and they're all really excited to be working with me, it's going to be a nice switch the daily routine! Something to look forward to :)

I'm also looking at starting a part time job soon so Paul and I can get out own place! Its becoming overdue -_- Being over a year married already and we still don't have our own place! But we have been able to open other opportunities for ourselves, such as this photography business :)

This Month:
Melissa's Photoshoot
Emily & Zach's Senior Photoshoot
Shoot the Hills Photography Contest

Look for lots of new work this month! :)
Brooke.

Lights, Camera, Action!

So this week was a little hectic! I got my order of brochures in on Thursday and I've already went out to advertise at a few places. They turned out AMAZING! Much better than I was expecting. Had to order them from a company in Florida and taking a risk without seeing a sample was a little shakey to me but I had a gut feeling about the place and they turned out fantastic!

So Saturday I worked on a film project that's going to be entered into an independent film festival up in Cleveland this summer. It's just a short 5 minute movie that's going to be screened in their mini-movie catagories and I was in charge of taking behind the scenes shots, and footage. I also got to do a little directing and producing ;) It was so much fun! And a much needed creative boost. I can only put a few on here from the MANY that I took lol so here are some:







if you're interested, full set can be seen here.

Enjoy :)

Also, this week I'm going to be putting together a behind the scenes video on all the stuff we did. Just little sneak peaks ;) I enjoy all this kinda stuff! In fact, I had so much fun on Saturday, I want to look more into doing film work. Could be fun :) Hopefully I'll be able to post the video on here.

All for now :]
Brooke.