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Marygarvin.com for the new blog!

Caitlin- Just because she’s BEAUTIFUL.

Caitlin is beautiful. Last weekend I got my Christmas presents from my dad-new camera lenses! They are amazing. I’ll tell you more about them later, but first-take a look at my beautiful friend! I needed to get the feel of my new lenses, and she was so willing to help me. Thank you Caitlin! You are beautiful!

The lenses I got are great for close-up shots. That’s really all I did during our mini-photoshoot. These were all taken in the hallway of my dorm. Caitlin was so sweet, I had only seen her for 15 seconds before saying, “Be my model for a minute! You look purdy.” So we just sat down in the hallway and had a blast. Her eyelashes are so long, the majority of the shots I took are just of her looking down, which exemplified her lashes perfectly.

I was experimenting with selecting only certain areas of a picture and applying a texture or action. What do you think? oh, and, ignore the messed up logo on the picture below

New STUFF.

You GUYS! I’m so EXCITED. There are so many new things I need to show you! For starters, I’ll admit. This blog looks pathetic right now. The pictures are way too big and the template is just screwy and it frankly makes me sad. BUT! Not to worry! Something even BETTER is coming! I recently gained access to a program called Artisteer. Artisteer’s website is oh so cheesy, but it seriously rocks. It’s a program that enables you to make dozens and dozens of custom WordPress themes. I am highly impressed with Artisteer. All you WordPressers, consider investing in this program. It’s so worth it. Here’s a screen shot of the template I’m working on:

Why am I getting a new site you ask? If this pathetic example of a blog isn’t enough of an answer, then maybe this will help: Right now I have four different websites. Four different URLs. Four different places to find all my STUFF. It’s time for my work to act like they love each other and live as one happy family. If everything goes as planned, the new site is going to combine everything. It will have my old Life=Risk blog, photoblog, and many new sections to look at. I’m going to have the following new pages:

• Photoblog This will be where I post all my recent photographic and design work, like I’ve been doing here.
• Life=Risk is my creative writing blog I’ve kept for the past year or so. College has absolutely killed it, though. I have had zero time to write anything new, which depresses me. I’m going to include it in the new site in hopes that everyone will still read it
• Inspiration This page is going to list off everything that inspires me. I wish more people did this. I like lists, and I like lookin’ at stuff. It’ll have my favorite magazines, websites, stores, photographers, graphic designers, musicians, etc.
• For photographers will include all of my “tools.” Cameras, lenses, Photoshop actions, where I get my brushes, ect.
• What to wear Caroline Joy Casey inspired this page. Caroline is a fellow Abilene Photographer and is one of the sweetest people I know. She met me for coffee one day and showed me how to do so many new things with Photoshop and Squarespace. On her blog she has a section that gives a detailed of description of what to wear during a photoshoot. It’s so fun! I’m going to do a spin off of what she did. I’m not a copycat or anything, oh no
• Journalism This page will include my journalism writings. I work at the Abilene Christian University Newspaper and have written for the Abilene Reporter News and also slaved away at my high school paper for the past few years, and thus have lots of stories to share. This is mainly for my family who wants to keep up with all that.

And look! I have a new logo! Much better, yes? I designed it myself It will probably keep changing, but for now I like it. if I had $1,000 I’d make someone else brand me, but I’m a broke college student. So I make things myself. The current logo for the pictures being posted on this blog says marygarvinphoto.wordpress.com instead of marygavin.com, but as soon as the new site is up, this will be it!

What do you think? Excited? Suggestions? I like suggestions. They make me happy. Suggest away!

p.s. 24 more days until Christmas.

Halloween kiddos!

Okay, I realize this is a LITTLE late, BUT, look at these adorable kiddos! I spent Halloween in Albany, my little hometown (population 2,000) and got to catch these photos of some trick-or-treaters. But I won’t bore you with my stories of how I know each kid (yes, these are random kids, but  I know many of them! oh, small town livin’). Enjoy!

 

JEN

Sneak Peak- Jen

Jen is one of the many girls in the dorm I force into modeling for me. They are sweethearts because for the majority of their mini-sessions I’m quiet and awkward and don’t tell them how to pose. Basically I just tell them to stare at my camera for an hour. Like I said, troopers. Jen wasn’t awkward at all. She was a fantastic model.

I’m starting to add grain to a lot of my pictures. This is the grainiest one yet, and I like it.

Being different is GOOD.

Hello all!

I thought I’d show you what goes on after the photoshoots, what you’re really paying for. After each senior session, 70-200 pictures undergo intense work in Adobe Photoshop. Hundreds of wedding shots will undergo editing process, and as for every other type of shoot, the number of edited photos vary. Editing your photos can take as long as one or two hours, to eight or ten. Although it sounds strenuous, this is my favorite part of photo sessions! I love manipulating colors, adding blurry effects and bringing out your best features. There’s a huge difference between unedited and edited pictures. Heres a couple of examples for you.

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The purpose of editing pictures is not to cover up, but to bring out. It’s to put my own spin on things and make snapshots art. Let me know what you think! I love me some blog comments

Senior Session special!

Dancing Light

TWLOHA Day

Almost every night I join my fellow procrastinators in the hall for a late-night study sessions. Our talk is usually centered around, “We have a test in Bible tomorrow? WHAT?!” And, “Oh how neat! Facebook has a dislike button now.” But tonight, after all that talk, we found out our friend Janna was leaving ACU (Abilene Christian University) for California this weekend and wasn’t coming back. This was right after we remembered that today is To Write Love on Her Arms day. We’re all big fans of this organization, and it’s been a big part of Janna’s life, so we decided to send Janna off with a little we-love-you party. We brought out some Sharpies and eye liner to write love all over her, and ourselves. These are some pictures from our late-night TWLOHA party. I encourge you to check out the TWLOHA story at http://www.twloha.com/vision/story/. That story inspired me to become a writer, and writing eventually inspired me to become a photographer. So all in all, you can thank TWLOHA for this blog Enjoy!

If anyone want’s to send me some TWLOHA pictures, I’ll upload them in a new post! E-mail them to me at mkg09a@acu.edu.

www.twloha.com

Precious Janna above, decked out in “love.”

Writing love on our arms

And on our foreheads!

A few candids, of course.