Branding: Bayou Some Cake & Cookies

Not too long ago, one of my bosses approached me about designing a logo for his wife. She was going to have some of her baked goods at an event that would help spread the word about her small business. He told me the name, which I immediately fell in love with..."Bayou Some Cake & Cookies." I thought it was pretty clever, and he gave me a brief description of what he believed should be on the card (a raccoon picture). I quickly let him know that I would discuss it with his wife and was internally praying that the raccoon would disappear, pronto.

Thankfully, Janeen and I were on the same page about the direction of the design. After a few revisions and discussion of colors, we were done. I wanted to share the result here.

Branding: Joli Renee Photography

As you've probably noticed, I've been on a little break from the blog. I really wish I had time to write every day, but that just isn't a possibility right now.

Despite my insanely busy schedule, I have done some branding work in the last few months that I want to share. This is the first of a few installments.

Joli Renee Photography is a friend of my, Enjoli, who also happens to be my co-worker. She was ready to brand her new photography business, so I offered my assistance.

Being a fellow creative, she had definite ideas for her branding. We had a great time meeting together and developing her ideas together. She wanted a little whimsey with a touch of New Orleans. Here is

the final result.         

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

At least I hope that's the case. I've been insanely busy lately because I made a big life decision. Hopefully you'll be happy to see this blog updated.

I made a plan! I'm not the type of person who sets goals for my year or my life. I may have tentative things rolling around in my head of what I'd like to do or see happen, but rarely is it anything concrete.

I've decided to go to nursing school! Feel free to take a minute, as almost everyone in my life has said, huh?

I've been a graphic designer for ten years now; that's really hard for me to admit. It makes me feel old and somewhat seasoned as professional. My career path has not looked anything like I thought it ever would, and it doesn't accurately reflect who I am as a designer. Don't get me wrong; I LOVE designing and photography! I'm actually hoping that in this new career, I'll have more time for both of those things. I also want to travel; there's a great big world out there that I want to discover and capture with my camera.

Above all of those things though, I find myself wanting to be able to help people. I feel like this will give me that opportunity and open up some other doors to serve.

I've been taking classes this semester and working full time, which is why I have absolutely no time for blogging. :) Lord willing, I'll survive these prerequisites and be admitted to nursing school for the Fall of 2013. Check out the image below of my in Biology Lab.

Despite not having much time, I have tons of images and logos that I'm want to share. Stayed tuned to see what I've been up.

Thanks, Megan!

I really wish you were me. If so, then you would have had the chance, like me, to go into my friend Megan's home last weekend. She has done a stellar job decorating and not in any of the typical ways. Everything looks perfectly put together and comforting, all at the same time. There are tons of flea market finds and hand crafted pieces alongside a custom table made from an old hurricane Katrina door. It oozes the air of warmth, style, and vintage melded together. Each time I visit, there is new gem for me to discover, and I do love discovering new things. I could put together some great photo shoots with some of her "found" things.

Like most people, her home is a reflection of who she is as a person. She is all of the things I mentioned above...warm, comforting, stylish, full of ideas, able to craft, and so much more. I guess that's why our friendship never seems to skip a beat, even though we only see each other a couple times a year now. We can share our joys and our sorrows, and friends like that are not easy to find. I'm thankful that God put her in my life, even though she took one of the joys of my life (her son) and moved away. :)

I'm looking forward to the journey that is our friendship and where our next adventure will lead. It may be a road trip, but it may be changing a diaper. Life is full of surprises.

She surprised me with this awesome prop as my belated Christmas gift. I can't wait to figure out a great way to incorporate it.

I know, you're wishing I had pictures, right? Maybe if she reads this blog post, she'll send some along for me to share with you or write a guest post about her design method with antiquing tips for those of us who are green.

PPA Extras

Since there was so much time at the EXPO (5 hours) per day to wander around, I ended up attending several mini lectures.

David & Whitney Scott
http://whitneyscottphotography.com/
Genuinely nice people who live right near Joplin, MO where the tornadoes devastated the town. They're not just making it but thriving.

Gene Ho
http://www.geneho.com/
He uses two fish eye lenses on two camera mounts, one in each hand for his candid set up, even at weddings. Pretty amazing stuff!

Vanessa Joy
http://www.vanessajoy.com/index.html#/home/
&
Rob Adams
http://www.robadamsfilms.com/#/award-winning-wedding-films/
Combining motion and still shots to take your art to the next level. They're married, but have separate business. They met at a wedding. He was the cinematographer and her the photographer. :)

PPA Goodness

I had been it somewhat of a rut for the few months leading up to this new year. Thankfully, I had a couple great clients that got me through the Christmas season.

I had no desire for my life to be so mundane and ordinary, but the logistics of my work schedule and everything else did not leave much room for creative inspiration.

In order make this year different, I needed a fresh start and to be re-inspired. I couldn't think of a better place to get rejuvenated and geek out with my kind of people than the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) Annual Convention. They just happened to be meeting in New Orleans, lucky me.

I attended about four seminars each day for three days, not to mention the hours I had to take in the Imaging EXPO. You cannot imagine the amount of vendors available to see; it was completely overwhelming and tempting all at the same time. I was in my own, personal geek heaven of photo equipment, props, gifts, gadgets, software, and more.

I gained so much from each of the seminars I attended. The speakers were phenomenal and funny and so willing to share their expertise. Needless to say, I gained inspiration, vision, and lots of practical business knowledge.

Here are some of the amazing, talented photographers you should check out:

Kevin Kubota
http://www.kkphoto-design.com/2009/
If you're looking for actions, he's got them.

Sarah Petty
http://www.sarahpetty.com/#/special/splash/
Just plain fun & great at marketing!

Julie Klaasmeyer
http://www.jklaasmeyer.com/
Newborns galore!

Drake Busath
http://busath.com/
Amazing large group portraits.

Joey L
http://www.joeyl.com/
Travels worldwide, you may have seen some of his work for Ice Road Truckers

Sandy Puc'
http://www.sandypuc.com/
Great photographer + great person (she's fostered so many children)

Blair Phillips
http://www.blairphillipsphotography.com/
Eclectic lighting & style. He uses what's around in his small town & makes it work!

Check these guys out; they're sure to challenge and inspire you too! They make me want to work harder. I have a couple other fun people I want to mention, so check back soon for more.

Weddings...Oh My!

Back in July, a couple of my friends were getting married and asked me to be their photographer. I honestly tried to talk them out of it, explaining to them that I'm a portrait photographer instead. Weddings really intimidate me. They were set on me doing it, so I agreed to be there on their big day, camera in hand.

Oh yeah! Did I mention that shortly after agreeing to this, I broke my finger. Meaning, I was shooting my first wedding in over two years with my left arm in a cast. I was nuts but determined to come through for them. I enlisted the help of my good friend Joe, who kept me calm and was my second shooter. I could not have done it without his help.

Their wedding was beautiful and incorporated many different elements. You see, Blanca is from Bolivia, so some of her family was there who mainly spoke Spanish. They were doing ministry at a deaf church in the city, so there was sign language throughout the ceremony. I was happy to be there and experience all these different people coming together to celebrate their union.

Even though I'm six months late in posting these, congratulations Corey and Blanca! Here are a few of my favorites.

Cross Processing Take Two

As I mentioned in this previous post, I've been experimenting with E-6 film in my old 35mm camera. I learned a lot of what not to do from my first roll, so here's what came out of my second one. I explored some familiar and not so familiar spots in the Crescent City. Here are a few of my favorites. You can see more on my facebook page.

Confessions of a Friendaholic

I confess:

I like people.
The good ones are almost like a drug to me.
I can say no to tasks but rarely to my friends.
When I do say no, I'm afraid I'll miss something really fun.
I talk too much, and that is exponentially worse when I'm having a good time.
I have a tendency to stay up WAY past when I should on a work night.
When I'm responsible and leave early, I feel bummed.

I'm a friendaholic!

To survive 2012, I need to detox a little. Some will be by choice and some by necessity, but it must happen.

So, if you're my friend and you see my lapsing into old habits; tell me to go home! :) And if anything fun happens after I leave...tell me later.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one, but stay tuned because I've got a backlog of thoughts and photography to share. Twenty-eleven was an eventful year; bring on 2012.

Cross Processing Take One

I work at a photo store, so I'm constantly surrounded by artists. Some of them are not so good and others are amazing. When I see other people making great art, it really challenges me to learn new techniques and be better at what I do.

I still have my 35mm film camera from back when I was in college, and we were still cranking out images in the dark room. Nothing quite compares to watching your image appear in the chemicals. I'm glad I had the opportunity to process my own film in a dark room and create images the old fashion way.

So, I've been experimenting with film again.

First, I had to buy some batteries for my camera, and then there was that pesky roll that was only half shot from three years ago. Thankfully, my tried and true Canon Rebel still works, and I was able to finish my roll of black and white film.

My co-worker suggested I try shooting a roll of E-6 Slide film. The only catch is that no one in New Orleans processes E-6 film. The only way to get it developed is to process it in the C-41 chemicals, and it produces some pretty cool results. The images tend to have a lot of contrast and grain, as you'll see. I shot this roll blind, meaning, I had no clue what results I would get. In addition, every time I snapped a shot, I tried to look at the back of the camera...then I remember I was shooting film. Ha!

Here are my favorites...stay tuned for roll number two soon.

Pumpkin Carving Results

I have several friends who really enjoy carving pumpkins, or maybe just the atmosphere of friends hanging out and scooping pumpkin guts together. It is always a good time, especially when one of your friends decides to make masterpiece pumpkin carvings of their friends.

This time around I decided not to carve one myself. It's a lot of pressure for a creative person like me, and it is really hard work to do anything other than a simple pumpkin face. :)

Thankfully, my friend Cody carved some special pumpkins this year. His imagery kept me in stitches, so I just had to share his amazing skills with all of you.

Here's how it shaped up:

Meagan's Cowbell for Mississippi State

Cody's carving of our friend Jim

Cody's carving of Lou

JoLynne's Florida Gator

Walt & Josh's Superman

Check it Out!

I wrote a guest blog for my friend, Joe. Check it out at www.ahhhitsmyblog.com.
Peace!

Adoption is Everywhere!

...and I'm happy about knowing that more children will be with loving families.

It feels like everyone I know is adopting, fostering, or giving money to those who are. It's exciting, and I'm a tiny bit jealous too. I'm still waiting to hopefully have a family of my own someday, but until then I can make fun things for them to give away.

I wanted to craft not too long ago because I had borrow a Cricut from a friend, and I was able to cut all sorts of festive shapes and letters from scrapbook paper with ease. Hooray! However, there is absolutely no more space in my room for any more stuff. There's no current wall space to display what I already have, so I did the next best thing.

I made something to give away on someone's adoption blog; I just assumed it would be my friend Cole. I have yet to frame it and give it to her though.

Until then, here's what it looks like, and maybe you can win it on her blog sometime in the near future.

From My Sketchbook: Shine

I have a confession to make...

I doodle in church. I know, I know, but don't judge me before I explain myself.

Sitting still and staying quiet does not come naturally to me. I have NEVER been know as quiet...EVER! When I was a kid, I would marvel at how people could keep their eyes closed for the entire invitation time; I certainly could not.

You can imagine that if the 3-5 minute invitation was a stretch; the sermon was like a marathon for me. One where I usually got in trouble for talking and then eventually punished for talking too much.

I have never known my life without drawing; it is part of who I am. It's only fair that it seeps into ever area of my life...even church.

I'm proud to admit that I still draw in church. It actually keeps me focused, quiet, and more attentive to what is being said. It has a way of quieting my soul to allow me to hear God, instead of noticing that someone else has just gotten up to make their way to the bathroom. :)

I used to just draw on whatever scrap paper was available and ended up tossing most of my artwork when I would clean out my Bible. Thankfully, I started bringing a sketchbook with me each week, so I can hang onto the creations that are birthed during the sermons.

I wanted to begin sharing some of them with you. Here's the first one. It was originally just a swirl, which looked more like an "s" and turned into the word shine.

Shining is such a positive thing; no one wants to be dull, right? Enjoy.

The Road to Recovery

I never imagined that a broken finger took such a long recovery period. EVER!

The initial break wasn't too bad. I know what you're thinking if you saw the pictures, but it happened so quickly that I didn't have time to stress about it. For me, it was the three days following my ER visit that really kicked my butt. My fingers swelled up like sausages inside of a pretty tight cast, which obviously made my whole hand hurt.

My mom took me to the orthopedist the next day for some follow up. He checked out the x-rays, deemed the setting the ER doc did good, and told me to come back in nine days to see how I was healing. I was in tons of pain, so I was really happy he didn't mess with the finger.

The next day I had planned to attempt to go to work, but a new symptom hit me. I developed some severe chest pains every time I took a deep breath. Maybe I'm a little paranoid when it comes to my health, but I wanted to get it checked out. Mom drove me to another appointment. Apparently, I bruised some chest muscles when I smacked the pavement, so that was the cause of the additional pain. This was worse than the hand for a few days because it made every movement when I was laying in bed difficult and excruciating.

The next Friday, I had my next orthopedist appointment, and my finger was healing crooked. He schedule the surgery for the following Monday to place a pin in my finger. The surgery went smoothly (not like I would know if it didn't), and I got another cast that would stay on for an additional two weeks. Can I just say, having a cast is no fun?

Two weeks later the cast was cut off and the pin removed with no numbing whatsoever. Yikes! Actually, it didn't hurt at all.

Then, the therapy began, which I'll share more about later. Now for the good stuff...pictures.

1. Bruising and the somewhat crooked pinky before the surgery.

2. Freezing and ready for surgery.

3. Close up of the pin in my finger at the removal visit (it looked totally different than I imagined).

4. Another angle showing how bad I needed to exfoliate.

5. The hole after the pin removal.

The only thing I'm missing is a picture of my x-ray.

Reflecting: One Year Later

Time has really flown by; it was a year ago, today, that I lost my job.

It has been a rocky year for me.

To be truthful, I was devastated and extremely hurt by the way I was "let go." It caught me completely by surprised and really rocked the security of my little world. I immediately wanted to run from all the people who hurt me and never look back. However, I've always felt God prompting me to face my problems and not run away from them. I could never truly express to anyone, just how tough the road was for me this year. I was doing everything in my power to hold myself together, and if I allowed one little crack in my wall, the floodgates of what might flow out could not be contained. In addition, no one but me seemed to understand how big of a deal this was...like I should be able to get over it quickly.

I've experienced a whole range of emotions, as most people would. I've been bitter, angry, jealous, torn, frustrated, and so much more. All the while attempting to remind myself of the promises of God and know that He had a plan...even in this.

Even now, I'm not over it.

I still don't have an answer for any of my why's? I'm not sure if I ever will on this earth. I still have a hard time looking the people who hurt me in the eye, especially after they moved on so quickly. I still pretend and say that I'm "okay," when they ask, even if I'm not. I mean, what's a girl really to do in this scenario? My world stopped turning, but theirs kept on moving, leaving me completely in the dust. My turmoil as a result of their actions seemed to have absolutely no affect on them.

I've been trying to move on, but what does that look like for me? I've prayed about forgiveness, focused on my job and my relationship with God. Funny thing is that God has been pretty quiet.

I'm definitely ready to not just be putting one foot in front of the other. I want my joy back; more importantly, I want to thrive in whatever circumstances God has placed in front of me. Trust me, I realize things could be so much worse.

Despite that, I'm always hoping for more...from myself and the people in my life. It has been one long year, but God has put some great friends in my life. They have helped me to laugh when I've wanted to cry, treated me to dinner when I jobless, put up with my moods, and most importantly stood by my side. To those folks, I couldn't have made it through this year without you.

And...I'm moving on, and I don't know what that looks like. I'm sure there will be more bumps in the road on this journey, but I'm ready. This is just one of the songs that I've enjoyed in the last few months.

http://youtu.be/hYMM3FYPv30

Busted Phalange!

As I'm sure you've realized, I haven't posted in quite some time. I haven't been able to type for the last 6 weeks, and it is still a little sketchy.

Back on July 6, I went out cycling, and had a bike accident. I don't really know what happened, but I fell. When I peeled myself off of the concrete from a face down position, my left pinky finger was broken in an unlikely way. It was stuck in a crooked position, and I knew the a visit to the ER was imminent.

However, I was out by myself, and had to "effect self rescue" as the guys on Dual Survival would say. Thankfully, I has my trusty iphone with me. I dug it out of my bike bag and called my parents; but, they were working in the yard and didn't here the phone. My brother was much further away (20 mi.) , but I called him anyway. He answered the phone and began to make his way to me. He was definitely my hero that night.

While waiting for him a couple things happened. Nice people came by and moved my bike out of the way of other traffic on the levee, checked on me, and offered to go by my house to tell my parents. Me, being a photographer, felt the urge to share a picture of my broken finger on Facebook. Some people appreciated this, some were horrified by the picture, and others were horrified that I was taking pictures instead of crying. After that, I had to make my way to a spot where Chris could pick me up, so I walked my bike with my right hand about 1/2 a mile with my phone tucked under my left arm with the mangled finger to be ready for his call.

I spent the evening in the ER, and the staff at West Jeff was pretty great. My brother was so freaked the whole time because he doesn't like hospitals, but he was a trooper hanging out with me there. I did my best to entertain him, even though that bothered him as well...I guess he thought I should cry or something because of the swelling and relentless throbbing of my finger.

Obviously, I left the hospital late that night with a reset finger, my arm in a cast, and a handy prescription for anti-nausea and pain medicine. I was pretty out of it from being sedated for the resetting portion of the evening, but the family got me home and into bed.

Then, the road to recovery began, but more about that in future posts. I've been documenting the process, so here are three images from the beginning. The initial shot I posted to Facebook (a little blurry but my hand was shaking), a better one I forced my brother to take while waiting in the ER, and the first of my three casts. Enjoy!

Cody & Emily

Cody and Emily are two of my friends. Emily recently posted on Facebook to Cody that they needed some pictures. You can bet that I interjected and offered up my services, which got Emily very excited. At about that time, Cody got nervous; he doesn't like pictures.

On the day of the shoot the weather was temperamental. At the last minute, we deemed the weather good enough to go out photographing. Yay! Apparently, Cody didn't share my enthusiasm because I found out that he had been literally praying for rain all afternoon. This just cracked me up, and I had to laugh at how much he wanted to put this off for a little longer.

Despite all of the obstacles...I had a blast. Emily and Cody are both gorgeous people, so making images of them was a breeze. Especially Emily, I was actually getting annoyed when editing at just how darn cute she was in every photo...even the ones where she was talking. That's just not fair! :)

See what I'm talking about for yourself and check out some of my favorites below.