New Orleans - Part 1

A few weeks ago, I traveled to New Orleans to visit my sister. She's there working in the public school system and recently got accepted into the teachNOLA program. Congrats Jill!!! Her students are an amazing group of kids.

Expect to see a lot of New Orleans in the coming weeks. I'm in the process of editing roughly 300 photos (not all will make the final cut!) so it will be a bit-by-bit process. Photos will be posted in roughly chronological order.

And now on to the Big Easy.

Jazz City

On the first night there, Jill took us to the Napoleon House. A perfect into to New Orleans. The 200 year old landmark was meant for Napoleon although he never actually make it there.



You don't get too much more "southern" than these two characters. The city is filled with street corner musicians.

St Louis Cathedral

As always, all images are © Melissa "Blue" Amrich and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.

Open for Business

I have a couple of (potential) freelance jobs coming up in May, so suddenly I needed to get myself organized. Honestly, it's something I've meant to do for a while. But between my regular full-time job and the red dog who's like a second full time job, I just haven't found time to get my stuff together. I haven't found time to do much of anything else, and hence the silence on this blog.

The good news is that these projects are forcing me to get my butt in gear and get a little freelance business going. I've been working late putting together contracts, order forms, price lists, business cards, and a quasi-website.

I'm pretty pleased with the business card and should be getting them in the mail next week.

I almost went with the version of Iris lying on her back decided it didn't work as well small.

I also really needed a place to organize my "professional" photographs, so I ended up organizing them in a blog format: Blue Amrich Studio. Basically, I needed a quick fix for a website and I think that was the fastest. Also, I'm pretty impressed with the new "Blogger In draft" layouts. Ultimately, my goal is to create a polished website for my photography business and then combine this blog and that one. For now, this one will stay as my work-in-progress catch all, and that one will be reserved mainly for professional work.

And for the shameless plug, if you're in the area (Eastern Mass. or Southern New Hampshire mainly, although I will do some travel) and are looking for a photographer, feel free to email me at blueamrich@gmail.com. I do portraits and events, with an emphasis on pet portraits (although I have quite a bit of experience doing weddings).

xkcd

I'm a huge nerd, so I've got a whole list of webcomics that I follow. This xkcd comic just made my day:


(Click on image for larger view)

Koi Pond WIP 2

Here's an updated photo of the Koi painting. I'd really like some critique on it, especially regarding the composition. Although at this stage, I'm open to just about any feedback.


There are a few things I see that need to be changed, but I'm really interested in what other people have to say. I'll probably add my thoughts in later, but I don't want to influence other opinions yet.

In case anyone is interested, here's the photo I'm using as my main reference right now. I shot it at the gristmill when there was still ice on the ground. It was not taken specifically for this project, but it's working pretty well as a rough reference.

Koi Pond WIP 1

I recently started this painting, so it's a very early work in progress (WIP). It supposed to be an overhead view of a koi pond. The canvas is 44" x 18".

I'm still trying to work out the composition. The right side especially isn't working for me. Looking at the spacing now, the yellow area is the same width as the light blue below it, and also the same width as the two green lilly pads below that. That whole area is going to get reworked next time I work on it.

I really want to give this painting a more complex (sophisticated?) composition than the last couple things I've done. No subject in the center of the canvas this time. I'm hoping to get the general composition tacked down later this week. We'll see. The dogess has class for the next couple of nights, so I won't get a chance to work on it until later this week.

Tiger Portrait Finished

I finished this guy a few weeks ago but never got around to posting a photo of him. Here's the in-progress shot for comparison.


I'm not completely happy with his nose/muzzle but it was time to call him done and move on.

Crop or Not?

Here's the original shot without any cropping. It's not my favorite shot. I was playing around with the depth of field and didn't quite get what I was going for.


But, here's my late night solution:



Yup, it's the same photo, just cropped into a vertical. I think I like it better. At the very least, it definitely fits in better with my recent work. Cropping might be a crutch for not shooting well enough to begin with, but it is a good tool for figuring out exactly what it is I'm going for before I go out to shoot next time. Besides, if I hadn't included the original photo here, who would know?