Thursday, March 8, 2012

Spring Fever

Today is a cold, rainy day.  It's the kind of day I would love anytime between September 22 to December 26.  In March, I'm okay with rainy.  I'm a Texas girl.  We love thunderstorms.  But the cold?  Not so much. 

To brighten things up on this dreary, wintry day, here are some lovely spring flowers.  Please enjoy.

































                                      *All photographs © copyright by Jacqueline E. Smith.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

A Girl's Best Friends

I used to think I was only interested in nature photography.  Then I took a photography class and I realized just how much I could be doing and how many ideas I had that I wanted to try.  This was my first attempt.

I love books.  I love reading.  I have a not-so-secret ambition to become an author/photographer and spend my life writing and taking pictures.  I decided I wanted to do something that combined my passions, so I started posing my favorite books and playing with lighting, trying to capture moments in those books that were meaningful to me.

                                   Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling

                                            A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle

                                                       Macbeth by William Shakespeare

However, there was something missing.  I sort of liked the results, but they weren't as, for lack of a better word, cool as I'd been anticipating.

Getting ready for bed that night, I noticed my favorite seashell sitting on my shelf.  Right then, I knew I'd found my solution.

I spent the next day gathering personal items, mostly pieces of jewelry and photographing them. The books I decided to photograph as well as the items all hold significance for me and I tried to pair them up accordingly.

This is where I started. The book is The Shack by William P. Young. Wonderful, astounding, eye-opening book. I highly recommend it to everyone. The cross is from Iona, Scotland, one of my favorite places in the world.


The book here is Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover's Soul. My sister gave it to me on my 18th birthday and it remains one of my favorites. The bracelet is just pretty.  But I do love the ocean, so therein lies it's significance.  


This page is from my Greek Mythology book. Greek Mythology is so cool. I love it. Anyway, the necklace is special because my mother gave it to me for Christmas.  A woman she knows hand makes them, so that makes it extra cool. 

I found this poem in a really neat book full of Lighthouse photographs and quotes. The real significance here, however, is the seashell. In high school, our class went to Pensacola, Florida for our senior trip. On our last morning there, my friends and I were walking along the surf (which was freezing, by the way), and of course, I was trailing behind, taking pictures. I was about to run and catch up with them when I glanced down into the crystal clear water and a shimmering orange caught my eye. The tide was about to go back out, so I reached down into the icy water without bothering to roll up the sleeve of my jacket and pulled out this beautiful, perfect shell. It was seriously one of the coolest moments of my life. I could get all deep and philosophical about finding this perfect seashell when I wasn't even looking for it, but since this is a photo-blog, I'll keep going with the pictures and perhaps save that for another entry when I'm feeling particularly profound.  



Okay, so I haven't actually read this book yet, but it's high up on my list. It's just a really pretty book (fitting, considering it's Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde). The butterfly pendent though, is highly significant. It belonged to my grandmother, though I'm pretty sure it passed into my possession as payment for a lost tooth. 


This is another piece of my grandmother's jewelry. I used to play with her jewelry a LOT when I was little, convinced that if I wore enough jewels, I'd magically transform into a Disney Princess. The book, or play actually, is William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, my favorite of his comedies. I'm particularly partial to this scene.

Again, this is A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle . I chose the page because of the phrase, "I let my mind drift toward the dolphins." The pin, you guessed it, also belonged to my grandmother.

Wow, every piece of jewelry in this project belonged to my grandmother. This piece is special, however, because it's her birthstone. The book is Abandon by Meg Cabot, one of my favorite authors.


I'd forgotten this ring existed until recently. It was one of my favorites back around 4-7th grade (vague, I know, but I don't really remember). All I know is there was a time I would not take this ring off my finger. So, for a favorite childhood ring, I chose a favorite childhood book: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.



The book featured here is called AcaPolitics (http://www.acapolitics.com).  What makes it particularly cool is that it was written by my friend Stephen Harrison. If you love music, particularly college A Capella, you should definitely check it out. The jewelry here is pretty self-explanatory. My senior rings from high school and college. I was going to use just my college ring but then I realized that it's nearly as pretty as the high school one, so I decided to go with both.



Pretty self explanatory here. I chose the most significant part of my favorite Gospel, Luke, for the setting. Each item of jewelry holds significance for me. The Episcopal shield, my senior year acolyte cross, the cross I got at sixth grade graduation, my grandmother gave me the tiny gold one when I was Baptized, my parents gave me the descending Dove for my Confirmation, the next cross belonged to someone in my family, and the last cross is my seventh year cross for church choir. 


Okay, so I couldn't decide if I liked the image better in color or in sepia tone, so I chose both.  I haven't actually read this book either. To the Lighthouse by Virgina Wolfe. I chose it, however, to go with my item, or items in this case; all the pounds and pence I had left over from Scotland. I love these coins. I think they're so cool! I chose To the Lighthouse because A) I love lighthouses and B) Apparently it's set in Scotland. Really should read it. 

Back to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This is my absolute favorite book in the entire world so I used my absolute favorite piece of jewelry. When I was little, my grandmother (so many of my treasured possessions go back to her) called me into her room and told me to reach into a bag she was holding. This necklace was inside. 

Finally, my guiltiest of guilty pleasures, Nicholas Sparks. This, however, is probably my second favorite book in the world (after Prisoner of Azkaban, of course). It's called The Guardian and I really, really love it. Since I love my guilty pleasure love stories so much, I used my two heart necklaces. One is a Tiffany Heart and the other is made up of my birthstone, garnets. 


I hope this post hasn't been too me, me, me.  I had a lot of fun with this shoot and it was great getting to branch out and experiment.  I'm really looking forward to trying out some of my other ideas.  

*All photographs © copyright by Jacqueline E. Smith.