Developer and Photographer | Amber Wilkie

Pumped and in the air

Here's a secret: part of my desire to get into photography "for real" was America's Next Top Model.  I have been and continue to be fascinated how a bunch of skinny, awkward girls could look so ridiculously amazing in their photographs.  They even show you the videos of them taking the pictures but you can't tell at all how they're going to look.  The pictures at the end always blow my mind. I mention this dark part of my past because almost every season, they have the girls do a "jumping" shoot.  They jump, the picture gets snapped - easy, right?  Yeah. Why am I grimacing?  Because I'm jumping and I might hit something!  On ANTM (oh yeah, they use the acronym), they tell them to relax and keep their faces "pretty."  Simple enough. Are you looking at my crappy tiny apartment?  Stop looking at my apartment.  You'd have mismatched furniture too if you were... well, if you were too cheap to decorate appropriately.  I'm a minimalist! Ugh, this is painful.  So why did I take all these jumping shots?  Because all this awesome stuff has happened to me lately and it makes me giddy.  Also, I am crazy excited for my wedding photo shoot tomorrow.  I'm dressing up all my friends in their wedding gear and assorted finest and we're going to hit up Old Town and maybe a park on Duke Street for a massive photo shoot.  I picked out colors for the couples and I'm getting them bouquets.  Yesterday, I scoped out locations.  I could not be more pumped about it.  Pumped like this. Don't hate.  I'm not even posting the worst ones.  Some advice for jumping shots - wear a shirt that won't fly up.  Your belly will look really, really bad.  I have proof that you will not see. Okay, two more.  I want to point out that self-portraits are easy if you're not trying to jump.  You use the little remote release, the camera prepares itself and then clicks.  But if you're trying to jump, you're aiming to get the very top of your jump when the shutter clicks.  The timing can be tricky. But you have to keep going until you get - more or less - what you were aiming for. I'm quite a bit more calm today, but I want to send a big shout-out to the universe for sending so many good vibes my way.  Something strange is happening with me.  Even as I was writing this post, a lady from Preservation magazine with the National Trust for Historic Preservation writes and asks if she can use a photo I took ages ago.  I've had it listed under a Creative Commons license for at least a year, so yes, she can!  I feel like I have so much momentum and good energy whirling about me. And on a final note, according to my statistics, 100 people visited my site yesterday, which is twice as many as have ever come in a single day.  If you're there, leave a comment and let me know.  Tell me something great that has happened to you lately.