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March 10, 2017March 10, 2017

Life {Unscripted} Blog Circle | February 2017

Unscripted Photographer Scottsdale | ©CeriHerdPhotography

Whether you’ve come straight here or you’re working your way around the Life Unscripted Blog Circle, thank you so much for stopping by.

I am beyond thrilled to have recently joined the Life {Unscripted} team. Seriously! LU was the first photographic community that I found on Facebook, or any other place for that matter. The support that the team showed me from that initial contact 2 years ago, as well as the amazing array of talent that they showcase each month, shapes the photographer that I aspire to be now. It really is an honour to have been welcomed into the team. I feel like I have circled back around to where I began.

The past few months have been a bit of a blur. With germ infestations on a seemingly weekly basis for the smaller people in our family and my own camera fatigue, I have barely picked up my camera, so for this post I want to focus on getting back to normal. A “normal” day: not trying to do fancy things in-camera, not stressing about capturing every part of every day in magic light. Just a normal, balanced and relaxing day – a dog walk that is more about the children running than the dog walking (hence why you will barely see her here) and some boy time in the garden on our new-to-us hammock. This may be just “normal” but for me it was a breath of fresh air. Enjoy!

Next up is our wonderful LU Mama, Crystal Raynard of Crystal Raynard Photography. Please click HERE to keep following the circle.

March 6, 2017March 3, 2017

Share Six Blog Circle | March 2017 – Restore

Scottsdale Creative Photographer | ©CeriHerdPhotography

I am thrilled and honoured to be to joining the talented Share Six team! Share Six is a group of photographers who blog 6 images each month; each month is a different theme. This month our theme is {restore} and what a wonderful theme to kick start my involvement!

As 2016 came to a close I was competing my 365 (in fact 365 + 3 months). I was completely burnt out from the pre-Christmas rush and the endless months of daily shooting. In the last days of December and moving into the New Year, I was not thrilled with anything I produced. I couldn’t find any artistry or *see* what I was looking for. At all.

As January passed by and I took some time away from the camera, I continued with the struggle. My desire to create was still strong but my fear of failing stopped me from picking up my camera.

At the beginning of February I had a sudden realisation that I needed to make an effort to change my mood. This funk was not going to go away by itself.

In order to love the final image, I need to love the process of creating it.

In these past few weeks I have been attempting to {restore} myself. I took some time to focus on the specific aim of “creating.” My Share Six images where not specifically taken for this blog but they were taken specifically to restore my artistic soul. I played with each of my favourite creative techniques, techniques that push me technically and artistically. All of these images (apart from one) was taken within a one hour time frame around noon on a bright and sunny day. You’ll will see which is a different time of day (it was the following afternoon, with much lower and more golden light).

Freelensing

ICM – Intentional Camera Movement

In-Camera Double Exposure

Shooting Through : Prism

Macro

Shooting Through: Convex Lens

Over the coming months I’ll be doing a series of “how to” blog posts explaining how and why I do these different techniques. If you’d like to keep up to date with those posts make sure you subscribe to have them delivered them directly to your inbox >>

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I {restore} my creative soul. Time to stop being burned out and overwhelmed with the catch-up task ahead!

Please click HERE to see the talented Aubrey Dettmer of Applewood Photography’s interpretation of this months theme.

Join us for this month’s theme by posting your {restore} images on our Facebook page at Share Six and to our Instagram gallery, by tagging #sharesix and #sharesix_restore. A new theme will be posted on 6th April.

January 14, 2017January 14, 2017

Artists Inspired Blog Circle | January 2017 – Grey

Desert BW | Scottsdale Photographer | ©CeriHerdPhotography | Family photographer

{Grey} (or {Gray} if you’re American)…

I will admit, this month’s colour had me completely stumped. Unless I really go hunting there is nothing grey here, just the desert. So if it is not here right in front of my eyes, what is it fundamentally? Grey is black and white. I almost said “merely black and white”. But in photography black and white is everything. It is the crux and backbone of it all so I should not say “merely” at all.

With that in mind, I would not be me if I did not take that as an opportunity to try something new. You see, these two boys in this desert location, I would never see a black and white image. I am just not that photographer. Some photographers, some very wonderful talented photographers, see their images in black and white before they have even taken them. To me that happens but only occasionally. These boys to me are life. They are bounds of energy. They are love. They are colour. Similarly, so is the desert. I moved here expecting a barren wasteland but I was so wrong. There is a full spectrum of colour (just maybe not grey) and so much life, I struggle to see it in monotone.

And so I took a walk from last month and made it {grey}. (And I did the conversion in a way I had not tried before, because, hello my name is Ceri and I can’t help but experiment). In the process I had a lightbulb moment. I see texture. I see connection. I see I need to make more effort to love the black and whites in my life.

This blog is part of the Artists Inspired Blog Circle series. Click here to continue the circle and see how talented photographer, Brandi Geoghagan, interpreted this month’s theme. Be sure to follow the links all the way round to complete the full circle.

The Artists Inspired Blog Circle is made up of an exceptionally talented group of photographers from all walks of life, from all over the world. They are wives, mothers, friends, daughters and visual storytellers who draw from their own experiences to create art that is inspiring, unique, beautiful and thought-provoking.

December 13, 2016December 13, 2016

Artists Inspired Blog Circle | December 2016 – White

Roosevelt Row Street Photography | Scottsdale Photographer ©CeriHerdPhotography2016

What does {White} mean to you? White in December…it has to be Winter! Snowmen and snowflakes. Thick crunchy frost underfoot glistening in the early morning sunshine. Cold. A deep down cold in your bones winter chill.

But I live in central Arizona. The valley of the sun. If we get frost here it’ll be melted by the time I get out of bed. If we get snow here it will be a light dusting on the surrounding mountains once a year and it’ll be a headline on the major news reports. But if we take the weather conditions out of the equation {white} says “outside”, so for this month’s blog circle I’m going to get out and about. White street photography is where I’ll be at.

I decided to take images specifically for this blog rather than revisit my archives. Truth be told I wanted an excuse to visit a part of downtown Phoenix that I’d heard was great for photographers: Roosevelt Row. Oh boy, I was not disappointed! There is so much colour, so much visual interest; there is art on every single building, every street corner. I could go back time and time again and always find something new. Take a look at what I found…

Wouldn’t it make an awesome location for a photo session – families, kids, seniors, all of it! First person to book a session with me here gets their session fee waived!

This blog is part of the Artists Inspired Blog Circle series. Click here to continue the circle and see how talented photographer, Channon Williamson, interpreted this month’s theme. Be sure to follow the links all the way round to complete the full circle.

October 30, 2016March 20, 2018

{Inspired by…} | Scottsdale Photographer

To be {inspired by…} great photographers is not to imitate; it is not to impersonate. It is to look at their art, to soak it in, to think about their thought processes and let those guide you in yours. It is not to copy but to allow your style to be influenced and to open your eyes to new possibilities.

By HeArt, a wonderful online community of photographers, hosted an entire month of {inspired by} themes. I was so inspired, I felt compelled to put my submissions into a blog post. So here it is!

Francesca Woodman ~ Francesca Stern Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models [Wikipedia].

Influenced by Francesca Woodman — Inspired by Francesca Woodman

Check out the winners for this theme (not mine, but the winners truly are stunning) here.

Imogen Cunningham ~ Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes [website].

Inspired by Imogen Cunningham Theme Winner

See all winners for this theme here.

Ansel Adams ~ Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, and books [website].

Check out the winners for this theme (again, not mine but the winners are inspiring in their own right) here.

Henri Cartier-Besson ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and conceived of photography as capturing a decisive moment [Wikipedia].

Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, theme winner

See all the theme winners here.

I hope you enjoyed this look through a month of my image submissions. People often ask what the benefits are for submitting to By HeArt, other Facebook-based communities and their weekly competitions. To them I say this: researching and studying these photographers has given my own work a new lease on life, I have been inspired to try new things, I have found a new method and a new confidence for creating for black and white images. These pages are integral to my photographic and artistic development. They push me to be the best that I can be. I will be forever grateful to these pages for their support, their encouragement and the inspiration that they provide.

Love~ Ceri