photography | BOOK THIS PROJECT.

May One Word | custom photo book

Wed, 30 May 2012 01:09:15 +0000

The following is an example of my May page for the One Word Challenge. For this layout, it is only 1 page with a simple border around a 5″x7″ photograph.

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Monthly Interview | Rhonda McMaster

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:10:44 +0000

Hey everyone, time for our next interview! You will love Rhonda McMaster. She is a photographer located in Ottawa and mother to three absolutely beautiful children. I mean, seriously beautiful children. Rhonda’s photographs have amazing color, clarity and light but perhaps what I love the most about her photos is the way she frames an image. She finds a way to make the surroundings tie into and perfectly frame the subject. A perfect example was when she stayed a couple of steps behind her kids going down an empty escalator. The rail of the escalator led perfectly to her children and she got their reflection in the glass sides.

We did not coordinate this in advance…but my favorite photograph of hers is exactly the photograph she selected for #9! I was so happy she included this photograph in the interview. This photograph not only captures light in an amazing way…but the interaction between brother and sister is real and genuine. I feel cold but warmth at the same time. It seems casual but perfectly executed. I long to one day capture an emotion similar to this in my photographs. Right now we are still in the “be gentle, brother” phase; but one day!

To see more of her photography, check out her website and make sure you like her facebook page.

On her website, she has this really cool feature highlighting photographic collages (click the tab “collages” to view). My favorite collage is “girly girl.” What mother of daughters would not love something like this!

[divider]1 | me and my camera:

Hi! My name is Rhonda. I’m a photographer, mother, teacher and life-lover. I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and the 50 mm 1.2L and 24-105 mm 4.0L.

[divider]2 | my family:

This is my busy, young family.

[divider]3 | my current photography challenge:

My challenge is to let go of expectations. The images I get are not always the ones I *think* I want to get, but like this one, when I saw it, I knew it was the one I was *meant* to get….

[divider]4 | what I have time for now:

Chasing children.

[divider]5 | what I don’t have time for now:

Afternoon naps. Long ago (it’s hard to remember when) afternoon naps turned into afternoon plays.

[divider]6 | my favorite photography subject:

My children (any of them!). I have never met a mother who doesn’t love a photo of her babies.

[divider]7 | my favorite place to photograph inside my home:

I love taking advantage of the beautiful, natural light that pours in through the largest window in my living room.

[divider]8 | my favorite time to photograph:

It’s not the easiest time to photograph and I shoot more frames, but learning how to embrace the midday sun has made me a better photographer. The way the sun lights up my daughter’s already-vibrant hair makes me smile.

[divider]9 | my favorite blog post (or photograph) right now:

My favourite photograph is usually my newest one, but I keep going back to this image from this past winter, which is perfectly imperfect to me, and shows true sibling love.

[divider]10 | what tip, trick or info helped your family photographs the most:

Contrast in an image makes a beautiful black and white. Also, there are many beautiful locations to take a photograph, but wherever you are, when you see something beautiful or inspiring, take a picture. (This image was taken from the front seat of my van on our way to skiing lessons.)

[divider]All photographs are copyright to Rhonda McMaster, Rhonda McMaster Photography. Do not copy, print, or distribute.

Thanks again for sharing! It was fabulous to see your photographs!!!

[divider] Are you interested in being featured? Contact me at info[at]bookthisproject.com

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April 10 photos in 10 hours | custom photo book design

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:19:58 +0000

Saturday was actually a really stressful day. My daughter wasn’t feeling well (getting over another ear infection) and my son…well, he is three. He was okay most of the day until a major tantrum around 7. But we survived and here are the photos from the day! And a couple more than 10 :)…

[divider] 8am

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[divider] 6pm

[divider] 7pm

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Family Meal Photo Book Challenge | Southern Biscuits

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:28:29 +0000

I love homemade, flaky, hot-from-the-oven Southern Biscuits. I think I have shared this before, but I am not much of a cook. A couple of months after my husband and I got married, I tried to make dinner. Not only did I screw up the ingredients making the food absolutely inedible; I also broke one of our new dishes (gift from our registry) by putting it on the stove. After that experience, my husband suggested that he would make dinner from now on. And he is a fabulous cook…so it all worked out for me!

But, I can bake. Or at least I haven’t screwed up to much with baking. I make a mean carrot cake. Love baking the no-knead bread. And am fabulous with scones and biscuits.

So for the February Family Meal Challenge for my Family Photo Book, I prepared biscuits. It does not make for exciting photographs because all of the ingredients are a variation of white: flour, butter, milk. The key to great biscuits: keep your ingredients cold, flex your finger muscles when cutting in the butter and minimize the amount of mixing.

Here are some of the photographs from a quiet Saturday morning. I will include the recipe and book design layouts on Thursday!

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Monthly Interview

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:00:21 +0000

As mentioned in this blog post, each month I want to conduct interviews with moms (and dads) who document their everyday lives with photographs. The main goal of each interview is to learn more about who, why and how we photograph our families. I loved the idea of using photographs to illustrate the answers.

For the first interview, I put myself to the challenge.

10 photographs to describe… Stacey R Wiseman

[divider] 1 | me and my camera:

Nikon D7000 and lately my 24-75mm f2.8 lens;

[divider] 2 | my family:

Even if partially…we are all in the frame!

[divider] 3 | my current photography challenge:

I am trying to find interesting interior light and creative compositions to document potty training.

[divider] 4 | what I have time for now:

Puzzles!

[divider] 5 | what I don’t have time for now:

Reading The New Yorker.

[divider] 6 | my favorite photography subject:

The interaction between my two kids.

[divider] 7 | my favorite place to photograph inside my home:

My bedroom.

[divider] 8 | my favorite time to photograph:

After-work walks in the park.

[divider] 9 | my favorite blog post (or photo) right now:

Baking chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

[divider] 10 | what tip, trick or info helped your family photographs the most:

Besides setting your custom white balance (which can even be done with point and shoot cameras!), I would say, facing subjects towards the light to get catchlights in the eyes. Of course I understood windows = light, but I never maximized the light in my kids’ eyes. As mentioned above, I am still learning about how to use interior light…but I have definitely improved!

2009 Photo

[divider] 2012 Photo

[divider] Are you interested in being featured?

Send me an email at info[at]bookthisproject.com and include your blog link, if you have one. Let me know how long it will take you to photograph your answers. Feel free to be as creative as you like! I will respond with the details!

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our christmas tradition

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:53:01 +0000

One of our Christmas traditions is to bake, decorate and leave sugar cookies for Santa. While the holidays are always hectic and the lure of store-bought cookies would be very easy, I actually enjoy taking the time to make the cookies (and icing!) from scratch. This year I doubled the icing recipe for homemade carrot cake. I hope this is something I can keep up with as my kids get older. I think with each year, they will enjoy it more and more.

[hr] My youngest daughter can’t help yet, but she looked so adorable on Christmas Eve holding the cookie cutters.

My sister and I are rolling out the cookie dough (somewhat blurry photo from my husband who is learning to shoot manual!).

[hr] And my son did a fabulous job decorating the cookies.

[hr] He emptied the entire plastic jar of sprinkles, mostly on one cookie!

As a tradition, I will design a specific layout in our photo yearbook so each year we can see the cookies they decorated.

What are your Christmas traditions?

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