Developer and Photographer | Amber Wilkie

February: Stray Frames | Personal

I consider the fact that I have any images to put in this post a success, seeing as how I spent most of 2014 with absolutely nothing to file under "personal work". I hosted another photo walk and I'll host again this month. You should come - all are welcome! All of the random street images in this post (and all the ones I took last month) are from my photowalk. You see, I'll take more personal images in a one-hour dedicated photography block than in a month of just seeing what comes. That's solid advice to all photographers: you gotta work intentionally! We photowalked at Eastern Market. This is my husband, in appropriately Mardi Gras colors. Remember that Sunday when it was 70* and beautiful and we all walked around in tank tops for one afternoon? That was so nice... And then I went to NOLA for Mardi Gras. Last year, I took a bajillion pictures and busted my ass getting photos. This year, I took it easy and I have almost no images to show. That's how it goes. For me, I can't have a relaxing vacation and also work on photography. It's one or the other. Or at least, certain days have to be set aside to be photography days. That's hard to do with a traveling companion... like a spouse. Other times, I don't want to work. I want to have some bloody marys at 10 in the morning and catch a bunch of shiny garbage made in China and scream for four hours at marvelous floats passing by with rich people on them. (See last year's post if none of that makes any sense). These pictures were taken in New Orleans but they have nothing to do with Mardi Gras: This is a sick-ass fox that showed up the first morning we were in NOLA. It probably lives in City Park. Also, it might not be a fox. I'm not that great with animal taxonomy. And finally, this one isn't really a "random" image, but I did a little half-day shoot for Kaplan, the education company. It was way off my normal line of work of weddings and portraits and such, but it was fun to break away for a day and interesting to work for a big company with all their bells and whistles and different departments. And that is it for February! I've been working on all my hobbies - ceramics, calligraphy and guitar. Calligraphy ends soon enough and I'm going to go ahead and let that drop for a bit. Maybe I'll pick it back up on the other side of Spring. I'm also trying to teach myself to code for Android apps. I made it through 87 beginner Java videos, which I'm going to go ahead and call one semester of Java. I've also been working on The Firestarter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte. Lots of food for thought. See you next month!