Rangefinder Magazine win: Best Friends photo contest
For this week's post, I wanted to highlight a recent photography contest win that I'm very proud of. If you know me, then you know how much I LOVE animals. Growing up in a NY farming town probably helped with some of that.... There were always cows, chickens, goats, and other animals that I would drive by and see regularly. Growing up in the middle of the woods probably also influenced my curiosity for the animal kingdom, as I was living symbiotically with the deer, birds of prey, salamanders, frogs, snakes, wolves, and even bears that shared our property. After adopting cats at a young age, I also soon learned the incredible companionship that these adorable creatures could provide in my life.
For this week's post, I wanted to highlight a recent photography contest win that I'm very proud of. If you know me, then you know how much I LOVE animals. Growing up in a NY farming town probably helped with some of that.... There were always cows, chickens, goats, and other animals that I would drive by and see regularly. Growing up in the middle of the woods probably also influenced my curiosity for the animal kingdom, as I was living symbiotically with the deer, birds of prey, salamanders, frogs, snakes, wolves, and even bears that shared our property. After adopting cats at a young age, I also soon learned the incredible companionship that these adorable creatures could provide in my life.
While I was living in NH (about 6 years ago), I loved working with animals so much, that I decided it needed to be a part of my photography business. It can be very challenging working with different species, and so I jumped right in to learning the ways I could safely work with different creatures to create stunning portraits, while also learning how to respect the animals and their natural behaviors and limitations.
Well, it feels good when hard work pays off.... 2 years ago I submitted some images to Rangerfinder Magazine's Best Friend contest that I took for The Animal Rescue League of NH for their marketing, and it placed as a runner up! But wait, there's more....
Published in the April 2015 issue of Rangefinder Magazine. Click to view 2015 Gallery.
A few months back I submitted a series of snake images that I recently took working with the non-profit Nature's Educators here in Colorado. To my excitement, I took 1st place in the Best Friends contest this year! Persistence pays off :)
Published in the March 2017 issue of Rangefinder Magazine. Click to view 2017 gallery.
As a photographer, it's always heartwarming to see your images get published somewhere and be honored for your ideas and talents. It reminds me to follow my passions, always be working towards personal goals, and pursuing my dreams with perseverance. I wholeheartedly believe good things will come when you follow that formula.
If you'd like to see the rest of the images from my Nature's educators project, you can view them here. If you'd like to check out my strictly pet portraits, you can view them on my other business's website, Colorful Life Studios.
Personal Project, Installment 1
One thing I've been doing more of since I relocated my photo business (back in 2014) to Colorado, is shooting more personal work. I love working on personal projects, as they allow me the freedom to test out ideas I've been floating around and make some work I'm really excited about. Sometimes the results I get are thrilling, and other times they come up short. But you can't win unless you play, right? So even though it can be scary venturing into the territory of controlling a project 100% start to finish, you definitely learn along the way, and grow as a photographer..... so it's totally worth jumping in!
One thing I've been doing more of since I relocated my photo business (back in 2014) to Colorado, is shooting more personal work. I love working on personal projects, as they allow me the freedom to test out ideas I've been floating around and make some work I'm really excited about. Sometimes the results I get are thrilling, and other times they come up short. But you can't win unless you play, right? So even though it can be scary venturing into the territory of controlling a project 100% start to finish, you definitely learn along the way, and grow as a photographer..... so it's totally worth jumping in!
So what inspired this personal project? I love animals.... like of ALL kinds. I used to play with the snakes, frogs, and salamanders that I would find in our pool growing up, or in the natural pools that would gather at the base of our cliff. I actually have a photo of me reliving this childhood experience from a college project on community and home ---> Ahhh.... I miss those times.
As I've grown, my curiosity and wonder for the animals we share this planet with is still strong, and so I was super excited to get to work with a group of creatures that most of us don't get to meet in our day to day lives. With the help of Devin and one of their animal handlers, Eric, Nature's Educators let us capture the images below utilizing some of the animals they care for. If you don't know about these guys, they offer great programs where they bring their animals to you for customized wildlife educational programs. Their mission is to teach anyone and everyone about the importance of birds of prey and get excited about wildlife.
So with this project I wanted to paint some of the creatures in a new light. Use my product photography experience to look at these guys with a fresh perspective and, hopefully, also get people excited about wildlife.
If you'd like to see more of these images, you can view the personal project gallery. We just did another visit to the wildlife center today, and are in the process of planning and prop shopping for installment 2 of the series. On the the potential call list for round 2: a burmese python, a rosy boa, some blue tongued skinks, a giant leopard tortoise, an alligator, an adorable barred owl, a teensy screech owl, some whites tree frogs, giant millipedes, a plated lizard, a tiny scorpion, and a gila monster!..... to start :)