I scoured my brain for days thinking of what to photograph for this month’s Creativity Project theme. Like most months, it came down to the wire and I had nothing. I didn’t want to resort to the ol’ archives for our first theme of the year, so this is all I’ve got. Five minutes before heading out the door for work, I grabbed an apple, spritzed some water on it and started shooting with my “new” used macro lens (more on that soon!). I’m accustomed to shooting with wide angle lenses, so I’m just loving the fresh new perspective that this lens has given me. I can see the world in a completely different and fascinating way!
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I always have a tendency to lean on my wider angle lenses during sessions to capture the “bigger picture”. But one of the great things about photography is that there’s always room for improvement. This year I want that area of improvement to be portraiture. I want to better capture faces, expressions and the subtleties that make us who we are. So I’m challenging myself to take a portrait a week for the duration of 2014. I also want to up the ante and capture a different face each week! So that’s 52 different faces I look forward to capturing this year. If you’d like to volunteer to be one of those faces for this personal project, email me at info@madheartsphotos.com.
This week’s face belongs to my sister Cindy. We are total opposites when it comes to our appearances: she’s always dolled up and I’d live in black yoga pants everyday if I could. But I love her more than words can say. She’s got a fabulous beauty/fashion blog, which I helped designed, and we’ll be working together throughout the year on monthly styled posts. So you will be seeing this particular face around here more often!
January 8, 2014 - 6:40 am
Cindy is beautiful. I love your personal project idea. Great job, Maddy!
January 10, 2014 - 9:07 am
love her makeup! im following her blog, love her tips and her DIY Happy New Year Friends! Everybody’s talking about their resolutions/goals for 2014 and I wanted to chime in with mine, but first I wanted to revisit last year’s goal to see how well I did with sticking to them. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. • Personal Posts: I didn’t do as well with this goal as I hoped. Nor did I take as many personal pictures for that matter! But I did follow through (for the most part!) with the monthly Creativity Project themes. So this goal is definitely going back on the list for 2014 – I want to do better! • Tips + Tutorial Posts: I actually really enjoyed doing these posts over the year! It helped me be a better photographer because I was constantly stopping to think about what I was doing and why I was doing it to better explain the concepts in my posts. Hopefully, you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Expect more of these posts in the new year! • Going USB: We went USB – and we loved it! But more importantly, so did our clients. We are so glad we made the switch. • New Site: Make that two makeovers! We started 2013 with a new look, but by the tail end we made another switch. There’s a purpose to this madness, I swear! But I’ll share more of that a further down in this post. • Social Media: As promised, we pretty much kicked Twitter to the curb. I went back to check it out a few times, but just didn’t feel compelled to keep going. Instagram and Facebook is where you’ll mostly find me.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. • Take more personal pictures: Not only for blog fodder, but because as much as I love Instagram and taking pictures with my iPhone, it doesn’t compare to having “real” pictures. When I gave my office a makeover, I also purchased a nice little photo printer to make it easier to print my personal photos and put them in albums. I’m ashamed to say it’s been collecting dust, but hopefully, I plan to get more use out of it in the new year. • OCF: I mentioned wanting to delve more into off camera flash last year, but it didn’t really “click” until finally got around to purchasing remote triggers for my flashes for a wedding in December. After experimenting a little at the wedding and getting some great results, I’m looking forward to really getting creative with flash photography this year! • Add traditional portraiture to my portfolio: I don’t want to say goodbye to lifestyle photography altogether, but I find myself drawn to traditional/fine art portraiture more and more these days. I look forward to focusing on photographing faces in 2014. •Rebrand my business: I think one thing I was very good at doing in 2013 was branding my business. Whenever someone described Mad Hearts, the following words always came up : colorful, fun and young . My packaging, site, content and images all worked cohesively to portray this youthful brand. However, I want to go in a slightly different direction in my photography business and focus on traditional portraiture, glamour sessions, couples and weddings. So I want my site, logo, packaging, blog content and overall brand to reflect this more “grown up” direction. So that’s my biggest goal in 2014 – to change Mad Hearts from “cute” to “chic”. Ok! That about sums up where I want to see my photography/business go in 2014. Hopefully, to some new and exciting places! Now your turn: do you have resolutions or goals for the new year?
January 6, 2014 - 8:17 am
Oh la! LOVE the new look! Very swish :)
January 6, 2014 - 9:21 am
I love how determined you are to create something of intense beauty. |
Even though there were some misses, looking back I have to say I fared pretty well with sticking to my goals in 2013. That’s why I love writing stuff like this down because I feel that it makes me more accountable – or at least I’d like to think so. Now on to the new goals for 2014:© 2010-2020 Mad Hearts Photography|ProPhoto Website |Template By: LaLune Creative
scarlett - im craving apples now with this pregnancy, i ran out but surely after this post im heading out to buy some more, yummy!
Buckeroomama - …and you’d picked such a pretty, pretty apple to shoot, too! I just love that color. Imagine that shade in a lipstick… hmmm. Happy new year, Maddy!
Sharon Covert - These are so great and I definitely want an apple now! Can’t wait to hear about and see more from your new lens.
Dan Beeler - Thanks for sharing! Great post
s. badiyah austin - yes, maddy, YES! i am in macro heaven!!!
delighted by this deliciously refreshing take on this month’s theme!! AMAZING SHOTS! if you didn’t know, i am in LOVE with still life, so this blog post has officially WON MY HEART THIS MONTH!!! (((BRAVO))) xo
Life with Kaishon - Stop it right this second.
I FLIPPING love this post!
This is JUST what I wanted to do.
You are my hero.
My apple shooting hero.
Love you to the moon and back.
Can’t wait to hear about your new lens.
Good bye, Superstar.
Amanda Jillian - I love it! So simple and beautiful!
kris allbright - I love your interpretation of Fresh. The simplicity of these are mouth watering and brautiful.
Pam D - That is simply awesome! Clean and fresh indeed! What a great lens, but more importantly, what a great EYE you have!
photowannabe - That apple makes me want to just dive into it.
Love the droplets of water…so FRESH.
Maddy {Mad Hearts Photography} - Agreed! That would make a very pretty shade of lipstick!
julia goss - Awesome idea and well done ! Love the water drops as well :) Have a great start into the new year
Erica - I absolutely love these photos! You should sell these as prints! That color red against the white looks amazing and I could see this in my kitchen!
Sarah - Simple and gorgeous, I love it!