Book Photo Shoot Contest

I recently teamed up with Red Creative Design (read more about it here) and we're SUPER stoked to do a book inspired photo shoot with your help! We're running a contest to find out what you guys want to see transformed into a book shoot.

I'm reblogging the contest details from Red below, but the condensed version is: comment below and let us know what fantasy/paranormal (or even horror, I suppose) book you want featured. Easy as that!

Here are a few of my fav images I've shot in the past, with a fantasy/horror/paranormal vibe:

From Red:

Book Photoshoot Contest

One of the services we are really excited about offering is our Book Inspired Shoot Package! All of our photographers have done shoots for books and definitely know how to bring them to life.

To show you what a book inspired shoot would look like, we are giving away a FREE SHOOT (up to a $1000 value) to one lucky book/author.

How It Works:
Fans and authors alike can submit their favorite fantasy or paranormal young adult novels in one of three ways:

- Leave a comment below with the title- Reblog with the title and author - Tweet about the contest with #RedPhotoContest and the title of the book

Once entries are in, we will compile the top 10 and put it to a vote where YOU, the fans, will decide the winner!

Photographer:
The staff photographer for this project will be Jennifer Rush who is also an author herself. So she knows a thing or two about working on both sides of the fence.

Rules:
1. Book must be traditionally published (not self-pub).
2. Book must be already published, as we must read the book for ideas.
3. Book must be considered Young Adult.

But other than that, this giveaway is completely up to you! You submit your favorite books then we will take those titles and put them in a poll for you to vote on who wins! Easy as that!

So leave a comment telling us which book you’d most like to see brought to life through photography! Share with the authors to get them involved too! 

Feel free to tweet with #RedPhotoContest, reblog, and share this giveaway! The more excitement we have, the more shoots we can do!

I Want To Be Me

I just had an email exchange with someone wherein I mentioned how crappy I'd been feeling physically (and because of that, emotionally) lately. In the email, I said, "In the past, I've always been okay with myself, no matter what I looked like, but this winter has been hard on me..." Because I write full-time, I don't have to leave the house as often as I used to. And if you know me, you know I hate winters. Which means, I hibernate. And this winter, I hibernated mega hardcore. And I ate A LOT OF FOOD. And drank A LOT OF MOUNTAIN DEW.

Mountain Dew is my weakness! Tell me I'm not alone?

Directly after that email exchange, I went through the rest of the new emails that had popped in overnight. I signed up for a photography newsletter several months ago and the girl always puts out new videos every Tuesday that focus on business and marketing. But this particular video was about image and being real and confident in yourself.

And I realized something.

We all have our weak points. The things we are embarrassed about. The things that take our self-confidence down a notch or two.

We are all marvelous, weird, silly creatures and I am not alone in feeling awkward or lame or overweight or dorky at moments in my life.

To attest to that, I decided I wanted to share some images I'd taken in the last year or two---images that, to an outsider, looked like fine images, but to me reminded me of my double-chin, my chipmunk cheeks when I smile, my freckles, the weird dent in my nose. Images that show just how dorky I can be. How I don't always get my concept shoots right the first time.

Are you ready? Because I am. And it's all right to laugh at them. ;-) Because I did.


My husband helped me take my author photos last summer. And it was quite a hilarious experience. He's learning about photography, and lighting, and props. But sometimes I giggle too much while he's snapping pictures. Especially when he asked me to put this freshly picked daisy in my hair. I am not a daisy-in-the-hair kind of girl, but I realized, looking back on this image, to my husband, I am that girl. A bit carefree. Big-hearted. A pretty girl.

Moments later, he snapped this picture of me "posing". Maybe this should have been my author photo? ;-)

This next image is from a few months before the author shoot. I tried setting up a scene to take some pictures of my daughter. I wanted to have "laundry" billowing in the wind behind her. She didn't want to have any part of it. She wanted to chase the dog around the yard instead. So my husband grabbed the camera while I took down the "laundry" and he snapped this photo. I hated all of them in this set. I thought I looked fat. I thought my chin looked too big. But I'm smiling. And I'm happy. And my husband is making me laugh. And that's what makes this image something more than just an image. It's the kind of image I will carry with me as a memory. 

Last summer, I had this photo concept I wanted to try out in the water. Since we live so close to Lake Michigan, the husband and I planned to spend a few hours there trying out a few different things. I wanted to take some simple images of a figure floating in the water. In this instance, I am that figure, because I couldn't come up with a model on such short notice. My husband snapped I don't know how many images. And I hated all of them. I liked the water. The vibrant colors of the sun set in the background. But I hated the model. Here you can kinda see the dent in my nose. The dent! I've always hated the dent. But my husband has always loved it. Why, I often wondered? "Because it's cute," he said. And this is why I <3 the guy.

I like playing around with the concept of levitation in my images. This one was shot late last summer, I believe. This is the result of the shoot ---

In order to get that effect, I lay back on a stool, which I later photoshopped out. But have you ever tried to balance on a stool while whipping your hair around? It's hard work!

Which is why this happened:

This is me, falling off of said stool, caught on camera by the husband. 

And, again, on another levitation shoot. Husband wasn't quick enough to snap the actual falling this time!

Looking through these images today reminded me of something --- when I look at them, I hate them because of flaws I see in myself, but when we took the images, we were laughing. We were happy. I didn't care how I looked while taking the pictures. 

So if I take anything away from this day, from this post, it's this: I want to live more in the moment, rather than in the after-moment. The place in my head that picks apart everything about myself, my apperance. That somehow forgets the joy felt while taking the image, while creating those memories. 

I don't want to waste anymore time worrying about what I look like, or what people will think when they look at me, or images of me, or even images taken by me. 

I want to be me 100% of the time and no one else. 

And if you made it this far (I hope you did!), I'll leave you with a bonus image. Some of you may have seen this already, but it makes me giggle every time. 

My husband's blue steel look. Enjoy. ;-)

I feel like I should apologize...

...for my long absence. But you all know what it's like to get so swept up in writing and deadlines and life that you forget about everything else, including blog posts. So perhaps an excuse/apology isn't needed?

With ALTERED less than two months away from release, I definitely want to update the blog more! There will be so many fun things to share --- like swag and upcoming events and giveaways! --- so stay tuned.

I'm also having the blog updated by the lovely Savannah at Oh So Pretty Designs so I can't wait to share that! I've already seen the design, and I love it.

And since I am sooo behind on Picture Posts, I thought I'd include a few recent pictures. Fall is a gorgeous time of the year for photography and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

Picture Post No. 13

Picture Post No. 12

I feel like it's been forever since I've sat down to write a good blog post. I just feel like I have nothing important to say lately! Perhaps I should do something about the writing process, or writing two series at once, as that's been on my mind a lot lately.

Anyway, enough with the carrying on.

Picture Post No. 11

Picture Post No. 10

Author Photos

Both my pubs (and my t-rex-alicious foreign agent) asked for author photos within the last few weeks. And I was all, I have nothing. And they were all, Get something. And I was all, UGGGH I HATE GETTING MY PICTURE TAKEN. 

So I wrangled my husband into being my assistant and we took some author photos today.

I truly really so much hate getting my picture taken. And I have an even harder time picking which one looks better. You all should totally help me. These three are the best out of the bunch (and I took 80 gabillion).

No. 1

No. 2

No. 3

I think #3 is my favorite, but that's only because you can't see my face. Which obviously I much prefer. I suppose being that it's an author photo, you should be able to actually, ya know, see the author. 

Picture Post No. 9

Picture Post No. 8

Picture Post No. 7

I just realized I never posted pictures last Friday. Which means I will not make it 52 straight weeks! *shakes fist*

Oh well. I suppose it was bound to happen.

Picture Post No. 6