And once again the months have snuck up on me. It's not so good that I haven't posted since May. The weeks are flying by and I haven't had time to post anything so here it goes.

I recently took a trip to New York City and Washington DC.
I love traveling to NYC! It's so unreal being in the middle of Times Square everything seems to big and it's almost like you're so minuscule in that place!
A friend of mine and I took a tour around the city. She had never been so I signed us up for the double-decker bus tour. We passed my absolute favorite building, The Flat Iron Building.

We saw so many amazing sights! I always love seeing 30 Rock too!
But sadly our NYC adventure came to an end and we went on our merry way to Washington DC.

It was really an incredible trip. I can still picture walking up to the Capitol Building for the first time. It was definitely a sight!

I just can't believe the architecture of the buildings there! It was almost a surreal feeling being there as I had never been before. I just wanted to take pictures of everything there. The nice thing about that city is that you can basically walk everywhere or take the metro which is absolutely beautiful and so super clean. You are not allowed to eat or even drink on the metro.
We went on to see the Washington Monument and on the green in front of the monument I caught a glimpse of the White House!Our trip ended with a visit to the Arlington Cemetery which is absolutely an amazing sight. It's so sad to think that it's in memory of all the people we have lost, but also breathtaking.

The trip was a success and I have all these great picture to share with you all!!

I'll try and be better about posting, but you all know how life is!

It's already May.

I can't believe it's May. It seems like the months are just flying by. I'm hoping to find some time once the weather warms up a little to get outside and do some photographing. I'm excited to find new places and things to take pictures of. Even more exciting, on May 10 my friend (pictured below) had a baby girl, Lydia. I can't wait to take pictures of the baby for the proud mom and dad. They have an almost 3 yr old little boy also, so I'm sure he'll want some proud big brother pictures to look back on later in life! Also, some more exciting news, my best friend is leaving for Washington D.C. in a few days and I'm hoping to make a long weekend trip down to visit her and to hopefully capture some great shots to share with everyone while I'm down there.

As for the wonderful world of photography, I am trying to get my name out there. It is a slow process, but all little businesses start from somewhere. I'm not trying to make this business into something that is unmanageable but I do love taking photos of people and things that everyone enjoys looking at. It's what you could say is a passion. I love it. I love taking photos, I love seeing people's faces when they look at photos I have taken, I love hearing later how they love how the photos came out and that they look at them all the time. That's one of the things I love the most, making people love what they see.

Hopefully I'll have some more exciting news to share and I'll be better at posting!

I think it's funny..

I've been categorizing all of my photos that I have scanned and have added on my computer via digital means and it's funny to look back on my style of picture taking. As with all things in life, you grow and change your outlook on things. Images that you once found breathtaking now appear to be somewhat ordinary. I do think that technology has a lot to do with that though, the need for the next bigger, better thing. I have been looking through all of my old 35mm pictures and I feel as though I have come a long way and have found my own personal style, finally.

At a recent camera show I attended there were so many people selling photographs taken in different eras with different pieces of equipment. The thought of selling my family's photographs is absolutely astounding to me and I could never imagine parting with such valuable things, but that's just me I suppose. I was pawing through an old box of images and it's completely amazing to see that as much as the style of photography has changed over the years, it's pretty much the same now as it's always been. I think it's more of the change of subject rather than the change of style, if you get my meaning. I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the older, sepia, faded, ripped corner pictures in that damp cardboard box at the obscure camera show, the subject was dressed for the time but the setting and posing is almost the same as some of the traditional poses you would see and use now. Not that I'm saying I would love to replicate an older photograph (although I probably would not say no) I am just saying that now the photos are taken in almost a more relaxed setting and not so proper as they used to be. The chairs may be set up the same way, but most of the portraits that are taken now are of people with smiles on their faces and people that you can tell are mostly happy to be there. Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the people in the photos I was looking at were the happiest people on earth, but those pictures surely did not show it.

With that being said, as much as I love modern technology and the theory of instant gratification I also love the excitement of waiting for film to be developed and awaiting the arrival of the good news or the bad news. I love documenting things with photography but sometimes throwing the strap of my '72 Minolta (or my newer Canon Rebel 35mm camera) on my neck and trekking out somewhere to see what I can find to shoot is more exhilarating than being able to see right away what the picture looks like. I do love digital for its versatility and response to camera shake and the ability to quickly set to a mode to capture exactly what you want, but I do love good old film for the "I'm going on an adventure" picture taking escapades.

Hopefully if this weather ever cooperates I'll be able to take a quick walk around the pond and share some great 35mm pics with you all!

Slow start already.

I'm already pretty bad at updating this. I was hoping to be able to update it every day but that seems to not be happening right now. Well, we'll see how it goes from here.
I recently set up a small studio in my spare bedroom in my apartment that I share with my lovely husband of almost 2 years.
I bought an inexpensive lighting kit and a few colors of inexpensive backdrops and have been experimenting with different lighting arrangements and different settings on my camera. I feel as though sometimes I have a constant brain fart and can't remember what settings to change on my camera to fix the problems with the pictures I am taking. But that aside, I feel as if I have been bugging my husband to sit and pose for pictures which is taking time away from his beloved hobbies of watching hockey and playing video games. How dare I, you ask. Well... Once he gets in front of the camera, a new person appears, one who likes to make funny faces and always manages to make me laugh, especially when I get frustrated when something goes wrong.As in, you're fired.

But on with it. I recently took my friend's maternity pictures. I have photographed her family about a year ago and they're a good time to be around. I love knowing that she trusts me enough to let me take the pictures that will preserve that time in her life. I believe it was a few weeks after she found out she was pregnant, we had planned on doing her maternity pictures.

So here we are, back to the beginning of my story. I'm glad that my life allows me to grow and expand on my photography and I hope to perfect my skills to be able to get a very beautiful, well composed picture all of the time.

I hope that soon I will be able to update this every day, with more pictures and different subjects, but it's all so new right now, these may be few and far between.

New to this!

My name is Jen Miller. I'm an amateur photographer and I am going to try and start blogging. I'm just going to share my view of the world through my lens and post things that mean a lot to me. I love taking photos, I hope to do it for a living one day, but for now, I'm just taking them for fun, trying to perfect my skills in creating beautiful things.