"You may now kiss the bride!"

On Saturday, I helped a friend shoot a wedding. It was fabulous experience for me, and took a little of the pressure off him. The couple's names were Chuck and Shelly--apart, they didn't really look like they belonged together, but you'll see in some of my later pictures that they are a truly beautiful couple...and (sighs the hopeless romantic somewhere deep inside cynical Emerald) very much in love.

But first, the cute kids.

Cutie #1's name started with a T and ended up sulking down the aisle--it seems all he really wanted to was play with the decorations (aka a ton of balloons) and smile for my camera. Little kids seem to like cameras.

Cutie #2 was playing with a friend after the ceremony. Friend was standing where the pastor had stood, holding her hands out as if supporting a bible, and repeating verbatim the ceremony. I crept up just as she was saying, "you may now kiss the bride." Cutie turns and puckers up for the imaginary groom and I, as you can see, snapped her picture.



and Cutie#3--I really just love this shot. I think its so sweet, a little father daughter conversation, both so intent on the other and dancing while they're at it.

More about the wedding to come...

a little bit of flare

On Saturday, Smith Adams residence hall held an annual "backyard bash" for its residence. I was there taking pictures when a friend of mine from study abroad decided she wanted to sing (they had a stage and sound equipment set up and an audience of college students in lawn chairs). So I took a lot of pictures of her because a) she's really photogenic, and b) I was intrigued by the light. She was fairly backlit through a group of trees (yes, there are trees in Abilene) and the situation was reaking havoc with all of the auto functions on my camera. So I was just playing around, trying to master the situation (ha!) and I noticed the lens flares...and I liked them.

Emily Hobbs

Tell me what you think!

SURPRISE! a sport I like to shoot

So last week I shot softball practice for the first time and I surprised myself--I actually liked it. Looking back on it now, I think it might just have been because of the informal atomosphere of it. I was allowed to go anywhere the ball wouldn't hit me in the head, the action was repetitive so I couldn't miss anything important changing angles or positions, and the lady wildcats really didn't care that I was out there, they were just having fun doing something they love. Practice is definately better than a real game, I think. And once, I thought I heard the 8-year-old tomboy in me craning her neck to reach my ear and whispering, "see! girls can too play baseball...just not you."


I really liked this angle, the ball in action about to be caught, but the background could have been cleaner.

This girl undoubtedly hates me, as this was the picture that ran in the Optimist and her facial expression isn't the most flattering. Alas, I seem to be following in the footsteps of our photo-editor, attempting to catch the most embarrassing facial expressions...lets face, they're a lot more fun.

The obvious critisism: another inch on the right side of the ball would have been nice.

In this one, I really like the way her body is positioned...kind of like a goalie blocking the ball/puck/whatever. In the three last pictures I really like the clean backgrounds and the ration of dirt to grass. It seems kind of soothing to me...until you look at their faces.

One last thing: these photos were shot entirely on manual settings...manual settings that I set. And it really was easier to have a consistant setting than to battle the automatic systems.

Finger-licking good

Today I shot pictures at the Barett Hall cookout. The dorm and RA's paid for and/or cooked burgers for all the residents who wanted free lunch. It smelled INCREDIBLE and believe me, I was wishing that I lived in Barett.

Alexandra Miles

I really liked her expression and action but the framing wasn't wonderful. I cropped a little, but it still doesn't feel like an overly strong picture.

Liz Whitley and Katherine Leigh Young

These ladies were wonderful for letting me shoot them eating. In this shot and the next shot, I was trying to portray as accurately as possible the scene and how many people were there. This shot portrays what they were doing and the next portrays how many people were there, it just could have been taken anywhere. I wish there was some way to combine them.

Liz Whitley, Cassie Watson, and Katherine Leigh Young

Life is like a box of chocolates...

When Trish Tobin woke up on Saturday morning, her only plan for the day was to pack up the baby and head to the mall for the second-ever Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra Chocolate Festival Fund-raiser (that's a mouthful!). After attending last year, Trish wanted a return trip to discover if the chocolate samples tasted just as good as they did when she was pregnant. They did. Little did she know, that I'd be there to catch her in her moment of discovery.


My next stop was the puddin' eatin' contest. The young gentleman to the left is Mason Caraway, age 5, and he's wearing that victorious expression because he has just completed his bowl of pudding in the fastest time. You'll notice Kaitlyn Hathorn, age 5, and Zeke Mendoza, age 4 and the most proper eater, checking out Mason's empty bowl. At the end is my favorite, the oblivious messiest eater, Antonio Guerrero, age 4, still plugging away at his bowl of pudding.


My last stop was the Godiva Chocolate station outside of and sponsored by Dillards. I wanted to get more of an interaction shot, they were passing out chocolate and giving free samples of lotion that smelled like chocolate (I passed on both for fear of addiction), but I got distracted by Cameron McCay, a Dillards Employee. I really liked the way the blue drop cloth brought out her blond hair and skin tone. Also, I liked the way she was moving and the composition of her body with the trays with the background sign. So far as a journalistic shot, it's not so great, but for publicity or as a portrait it's maybe not bad. Tell me what you think.

Rockstars! (or the next best...well..somewhat close to it)

Saturday, ACU held a Battle of the Bands for Christian rock bands. I had never personally been to a Christian Battle of the Bands, and it was an interesting experience. Definately different in very singular ways--no alchohol, no cigarettes, and slightly quieter. The bands, however, were just as wild and crazy on stage.

Elijah Felding, Rhythm guitar for Everthorn

Everthorn was the first band to perform on Saturday and they were quite a shock for me. While I've been to Battle of the Bands before, I've never shot photographs of them. They move a LOT! Through the first song I was constantly playing with ISO and framing, attempting to get the shutter speeds fast enough and myself far enough back (using a 50mm lens) to catch all thier flailing limbs and do so in focus.

Justin Barton, bass guitar for Everthorn

This guy had some interesting facial expressions, he just moved so much I couldn't catch them in focus.

Phillip, vocalist, and Cody, bass guitar for Burgundy Road

These are two of the guys from Burgundy Road. This shot was interesting to take because Cody was jumping in circles in the background. I had to wait for him to face the way I wanted him to.

This girl is a friend of the Burgundy Road Band. I was testing ISOs on her before the first band started and really liked the backlighting...I just wish her huge purse wasn't so messy in the middle-ground.

Chess is like football...

Shooting chess is like shooting football--the game lasts forever with frequent stops, pauses and whistle blowing. But I really liked this shot of Chase Watters. I like the chess handbook and chess pieces in the foreground and also the focused expression on Chase's face.

A Slow Post from China...

My last week's post caught a slow boat from China. Well, actually, I kind of forgot to post it...but the subjects WERE from China.

Last week the Bently family spoke at ACU about thier ministry serving orphans in China. Lisa Bently is a former ACU student and she and her husband John have 6 children. Eric told me specifically that I was not to go ANYWHERE near them for fear of contamination so I positioned myself directly behind them at the Monday night forum in Moody. And of course, they were adorable.

Levi Bently in the arms of his father John

Levi is a burn victim adopted by the Bentlys through the orphanage they work with. Levi sustained serious burns over the majority of his body and the scar tissue does not grow with him. Every year this happy, healthy little boy undergoes major surgeries and skin grafts to keep his body from bleeding.

This young Bently was attempting to introduce himself to the students in the collesium but, alas, could not stop giggling.

Orly Bently, 8, tells Dean Bernard a joke

Orly Bently is also an adopted child from the orphanage in China. She told Dean Bernard a series of jokes after the forum and kept him in stiches. What I loved about this family is that they were all always smiling.

Have you ever seen Rent?

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon photographing members of Soulforce. For non-ACU readers, Soulforce is a group of gay rights activists who targeted a number of conservative christian and military schools to raise awareness about violence against gays. ACU was one of those chosen schools, and also the first school on the tour to welcome Soulforce on campus and actually listen to what they have to say instead of forcing them off campus with police escourt.

While I was taking pictures I met Angel Collie. I know this is going to sound bad, but he had a truly interesting face and I just took a few minutes to watch him and take pictures.

Angel Collie speaking with Blake Bond, junior biology major,
in an open forum

I really like the strange way his mouth dimples at the corner. Also, check out his ear...that's a lot of gauging!

sleeping through tennis (and other adventures)

Okay, admittedly I'm not a sports fan by any means. I did go through my brief tom-boy baseball obsession--though I was definately never any good--but I've never really had an interest in sports. This passionate dislike could possibly be due to the fact I am the child of the two least athletic people in the world. It could also be because I grew up across the street from our small-town high school, a school that placed a large emphasis on sports.

Our house faced the athletic side of the school: the baseball field, football practice field, band practice field (all three of which doubled as a golf practice field), and my bedroom specifically faced the tennis courts. I have a large collection of abandoned sports equiptment that somehow made it's way into my yard and spent the most horible midterm of my life holding my head and trying to think physics while a stupid tennis player with a purple Stingray blared rap music loud enough to shake the chair I was sitting in.

I am not a sports fan. And yet, I kind of had fun shooting it this weekend.

Like when, while watching home, I caught our team tagging the other team out with a "creative" play. I wish the background wasn't so busy, but I'm really happy with the action that I caught. Next time I will try to shoot higher.

And here's a friend I made at the game...a munchkin, chewing on her brother's hat. Isn't that what little sisters do while the parents aren't looking?

And here's my tennis shot--my first sports shot ever!!! And it actually ran in today's optimist (probably because they didn't have anything else to use).

And here is my friend from the tennis match. This dog is a guide dog for a child in the wheel chair to the left. We had the same oppinion of the game...but, we both did our jobs--I got my shots and he got a nap.

That's (not) my dress!

This weekend I traveled to Austin with my roommate Kalyn and our friends Kayla and Brittany for a dress fitting. As you all know--from my constant complaining--Kalyn is getting married this summer and Brittany and Kayla are two of her bridesmaids. Kalyn ordered her wedding dress in Austin and needed to pick it up. The girls were going to get fitted for thier bridesmaid dresses...and I was just along to take pictures.

So, after meeting Kalyn's parents, we go into David's Bridal, all of us excited to see Kalyn's dress for the first time. She's led into a dressing room by an employee with a garment bag. We here the zipper. There's a rustling of fluffy fabric. Then we here Kalyn:

"That's not my dress."

After much discussion with the manager, it was unanimously decided that David's Bridal had ordered the wrong dress and we could spend the $50 in gasoline to come back in several weeks and get the right one--no discounts. Despite our obvious disapointment, we decided to go ahead and get the bridesmaid dresses so that Kalyn's parents could pick them up when they came back to get Kalyn's dress (and save us $50).

So the girls hit the racks. Kalyn had already picked out a cute little strapless number so we found a random color in the appropriate sizes and headed for the dressing rooms. Kalyn will have four bridesmaids and her brother (although he will not wear a dress) standing with her at the wedding. The four girls are all extremely different body types.

While the chosen dress looked just beautiful on Brittany (far right, in blue), you can see from Kalyn (far left) and Kayla's expressions that the dress perhaps enhanced Kayla's assetts a little too much.

Which Kalyn then failed in attempting to hide with a scarf.

So Kalyn went with a quickly improvised plan B.

Different dresses but all the same color. They'll still be beautiful in the pictures, they just won't match completely. Two bridal disasters solved in one afternoon and we hadn't even eaten lunch yet!

And as we are checking out, from behind us we hear a loud "I want this one," and Kayla appears with a very white dress. But hopefully she'll wait a while...I can only stand one engagement at a time.


Shooting these pictures was a challenge and a lot of fun. David's Bridal was cramped with racks, dresses, and people (never go wedding dress shopping on a saturday!), so backgrounds were a little cluttered and the florescent lighting wasn't incredibly awesome either. Plus people were tripping over me or hitting me with hangers (accidentally, of course), while trying to get through the narrow walkways. But in the dressing area, the mirrors were a lot of fun to play with. They allowed me to get dresses and emotions in a very tight space. I wish that I had gotten a few wider shots and also a few closer shots. Also, I wish I had more verticals--normally I'm better about that, but I posted the ONE that I shot.

My very own speaker shot

I figured since Gary was working on his speaker shot, that I should go ahead and put mine up for comment. This shot was taken on Monday during lectureship. It is of Rick Atchley, explaining why he was chosen for a panel on Restoration Unity, and ran in Tuesday's edition of the Optimist.

For Non-ACU Viewers: Lectureship is a four day conference held at ACU that discusses theological ideas/issues. As far as I know, it's been held since ACU's creation. Theologians, preachers and alumni travel from all over the country to speak, listen or critisize the lectures.

I also took this shot of a senior as wild art but I'm glad they ran Anna's little kid shot instead. It was precious.

blowing bubbles, and other happenings

This week I decided to do something a little different. As I constantly have to remind my father, I do have five classes other than this one, so I decided to post a little of what I'm doing in those.

The following picture is one I took during Homecoming in October. The man's name is Joel and he's attending an outdoor game day, like inflatables and throwing darts at balloons, with his little girl.

Blowing Bubbles

So in my Art for Elementary Education class, we were getting a brief intro to watercolor, so I decided to use that picture. This is my first attempt at watercolor ever, so be gentle.


The next picture is one I took in August of 2004 while studying abroad in Europe. What you're seeing is the Robert Burns memorial, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and it is the first thing I saw when I stepped out of the train station upon arriving there. It is also one of my favorite images that I have captured, maybe because of the color, but more likely because of the moment it holds.

Witches, Poets and Pretty Pink Flowers

In my basic drawing class, we were learning to create value with ink lines and Mrs. Willis asked us to bring in personal pictures to practice with. Here is my result. The picture of the drawing isn't as good as it could be, but blogger didn't like my edited image. Grrrrr.

My first photo-story

This week I shot my first photo story. It will run full-page in Wednesday's Optimist, and I have to say it was a lot of fun. Here are some of the shots I got, though not necesarily the ones that ran in the paper.

This image is of Bitsy making a bud-vase, a popular Valentine's Day order. The vase will eventually contain several sprigs of leather, a leafy green plant, a little baby's breath, and a single long-stemmed rose. In this shot, she is spraying the leaves and stalk of the rose with Pokon to make them shiny. I like this shot because it shows the wrinkles of Bitsy's hand--a hand that is still strong and steady after 31 years in the business.

I've included this image just because I like it. I like the color, the composition...it's not the best picture in the world, but the feeling it gives is soothing and simply makes me happy. The gerber dasies are wrapped in "bonnets" to keep them from opening too soon. This picture was taken on the Friday before Valentine's Day on Tuesday, so they had to stay fresh for some time before going out in arrangements.

I've included this shot because it shows the chaos of the shop: flowers everywhere, baskets of orders for Valentine's Day, and Bitsy, as usual, up to her elbows in flowers. She is straigtening the heads of the gerber daisies so that they will stand tall in thier arrangements.

And here was a mistake I made: Debbie (yellow) and Lauren (blue) were arranged perfectly...well, except for the harsh backlighting behind Lauren's hands and head. It was the shot I was waiting for, had composed in my mind. They stepped into it...and then Bitsy did too. If I had been looking for her, as I should have been, I'd have waited for her to go a little further to show a sense of movement. As it is, she is just a distraction. In any case, the ladies are cutting thorns off of countless dozens of roses. All the roses arranged at Bitsy's have their thorns cut off--one less thing to distract from the special moment of recieving beautiful flowers.

And the finished product. The business next door to Bitsy's, The Tool School, allows Bitsy to use his tables, air conditioning, and most importantly space to store the finished arrangments. The arrangements start being made on Sunday and are mostly finished by Tuesday morning--except for the extremely late procrastinators that is. I did a series of shots like this in a sort of layered focus, but thought this one was best for the group of pictures I've included here.

My favorite mistake

This picture is a perfect example of my favorite mistake. It is a three-fold mistake, one layer adding to the next. First, I deem the pictures horrid at the scene of the shot, only looking at the camera screen. Next, since the pictures are so horrid, what's the point of going up to the person the shot is of and asking them all their caption information? I mean, why get thier hopes up if you know it's not going to run? And finally, the grand finale, turning the picture in to my editor anyway; neglecting to delete it, even though it has no information. And every time, what do you think happens????

It runs front page on the Optimist. I'm dead serious. Sometimes I think the most secure way I have of getting a picture on the front page is to neglect to get caption information. The caption that ran under this picture, somehow Brian, our chief photographer, got.

Lining up for some soul
David Galaz, Junior international studies major from Elsa, serves food to students Monday during the Soul Food Festival, an event to celebrate Black History Month.

Brian suggested that I learn from this mistake. Cade will suggest the same during our lab today. But lets be honest. Will I learn? Probably not.

There's no green in Abilene...

About two months ago, my roommate informed me I needed to start looking for a new fall residence...and a new roommate. Apparently, she decided she loves this BJ kid she's been dating, that she wants to marry him on July 22 or so, and the idea of me living with them was only a lot akward. And so began the long list of things that have to happen when you want a wedding: the actual proposal, calling everyone you can think of, apologizing to those you didn't think of, planning the day of JULY 22 down to the very last second, and, of course, the engagement photos.


These two photos were taken at Minter Park, on Cypress St. in downtown Abilene. I used my brand-new 50mm lens (that is fabulous, by the way) and an ISO of 200 (because I wasn't an idiot and actually thought about my settings this time). I find it extremely funny that Kalyn wanted pictures taken here, because she's been complaining since we were freshmen about the "pretty little park downtown that everyone at ACU proposes at." Kalyn has broken a lot of her personal rules with this engagement business. She's annoyed with herself that she's become the sterotypical education major she's always made fun of...and yet, she won't postpone her impending marraige and save me from having to move.


This photo was taken at the park next to the depot in downtown Abilene. We opted for parks with water because it is February in West Texas in a six month drought--There is no green in Abilene. Water is the next best thing. Spontaneous pictures are one area I definately need to work on. When I'm looking for a specific picture, in this case the perfect engagement photo, it's hard for me to switch gears and catch the happy couple as he attempts to throw her into the fountain...but, I think you can get the idea from what I did get.


And my vote for the engagement photo: two happy faces--who wouldn't believe this is a couple in love?--a nice bare tree to represent the dusty barren land in which they will tie the knot, and even a little bit of green. The colors of their clothes complement the background colors nicely, and the sunlight and wind--for once--worked with us. But I'll let you know what they choose.