This Has Nothing To Do With Photography, But It’s Good!!

I frequent Kelly Moore’s blog. She is a photographer out of LA and is awesome! She has a post about a recipe contest so I thought I would give it a go. I tried to think of an easy recipe that everyone likes and aha…the Chocolate Chip Cheeseball recipe. It sounds weird, but it is yummy goodness. Everytime I take it to a party someone asks for the recipe. I don’t know if it counts or not….but there is actually no cooking or baking involved. So, here it goes:

Ingredients:

1 -80z. package of Cream Cheese (softened)

2 -tbl. brown sugar

1/2 c. butter (real butter!- softened)

1/4 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. powdered sugar

3/4 cup semi sweet mini chocolate chips (sometimes I use more because I love chocolate)

Then you use graham crackers – either honey or chocolate for spreading.

Instructions:

In a medium bowl mix together cream cheese, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar until nice a creamy. Then stir in chocolate chips. Spread out a piece of plastic wrap. Spoon mix onto plastic wrap, then use plastic wrap to form mix into a ball. Refrigerate (to harden mix) then serve with graham crackers. You can chop up some nuts and spread on top of cheese ball if you like. That’s it – no baking or cooking involved!

A Polaroid Day

One of my students, Jessica, asked if we could do Polaroid Emulsion Lifts, and of course I was definitely willing. So, I got some of my old slides out. I don’t know what it is about Polaroid Transfers and Lifts, but I just never get tired of them. Even though they are saturated in advertising and the media, I still get re-interested in them every time I show how to do them at school. Maybe it is because of all of the possibilities. If you are not familiar with Polaroid Transfers, here it is in a nutshell: Basically you make a Polaroid print from 35mm slide film, interrupt the development process and transfer the remaining dyes onto watercolor paper. The Emulsion Lifts are a bit different. You fully develop a Polaroid print, then put it in hot water and the emulsion lifts off the base and you can transfer it to a new base, like some kind of paper. I was printing the Polaroids to get ready for Emulsion lifts and I experimented a bit with the other side of the Polaroid film. These are done with peel apart Polaroid film so you have one side where the image transfers and one that is kind of like a negative. I wanted to see what would happen if I put the “trash” or throw away side on a paper towel. I have tried this in the past on other papers, but nothing came off. This time, I actually got something….it works better if you use a little bit of water on the back side of the paper towel and use a brayer. 

Transfers from “trash” side onto a paper towel:

Polaroid Emulsion Lift

The Dillion Family

Well, actually two families  here. I met up with everyone in Hampstead NC a few weekends ago. It was quite windy, we almost felt like we were in a sunny tropical storm. So, we went with it! Lots of cute kids, nice people, and an great little Westie named Mollie! We have two groups…this is Kevin, Jaclyn, Jordyn, and Addisyn…and Nancy (Grandma):

And here are the Dillions…Brian, Kerri, Connor, Michael, Aidan, and Mollie (the Westie).

I like Mollie’s little bum sticking out in this one…makes me laugh.

All the grandkids!!

Coalesce Workshop Update

I have had a few people asking about registration for the Workshop. The Workshop is actually set up as a Continuing Education class through Lenoir Community College so registration fees are not required until the day of the workshop. I do, however, need to know if you are coming! If you would like to join us, send me an email at jsmixon06@aol.com and let me know you would like to attend.  Space is limited to 15 people. If you have any questions about the Workshop feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email. I would love to see you there!  To read more about it, click on the Workshop link above. 

Just to give a quick rundown, it is a workshop geared towards enhancing images through Photoshop techniques, such as color saturation, toning, and finishing touches like sharpening, etc. It is July 13th-14th from 5-9pm each night and will be held at Lenoir Community College in Kinston, NC. The cost is $150 and includes my design disk with textures and borders as well as an instructional disk of techniques discussed in the class. Here is more info: 

 

Anyone Flickr?

I really love flickr. I love it because it is such a great and easy way to see and find lots of images and a very wide variety of images at that. I signed up for a flickr account a long time ago but had only a few pics up there until now. I don’t have a pro account yet, but am planning to do that soon so I can add more. So, if you flickr and are interested, check me out on flickr, I have some art work and portrait work posted. Tootles!

Yes, It’s Been a While…So Here’s What’s Up

Wow, I know my posts have not been as frequent as usual. We just got done with finals from Spring Semester last week at LCC and I just started teaching my first summer class today!!! I got back late Sunday night from the Ethiopia to Wilmington Shoots. My friend/assistant/student Heather came with me to help out. All I have to say is bless her heart! That is a true friend!! I think we did around 13 or 14 shoots this weekend….crazy!!! The proceeds are going to Shane and Meredith McCumbee who are in the process adopting a child from Ethiopia. To check out there progress click HERE. We were rained out for a few shoots, but for the most part we had great weather. I will be posting a few pics from those sessions in the near future. I really want to thank everyone who signed up. I appreciate it so much and I know the McCumbee’s do too! 

So, I am back to school teaching Photography I and II this summer. It’s back to the good old 35mm film and the darkroom. If anyone is interested it is MTW from 10:30-1:30. Also, don’t forget about COALESCE, the workshop I am doing this summer. Check out the workshop page for more info!!

My goal for the summer is to MAKE SOME ART!!! Also, my goal is to streamline what I do outside of making art. What do I mean by that? I am working towards defining what I do with portraiture and wedding photography. I want my work to be consistent, focused, and to have continuity. My hope is to really spend a lot of time on individual photo sessions, taking a lot of time to consider the subjects, location, time, lighting, etc. Any suggestions or helpful thoughts would be appreciated. I don’t know if any of that made sense. Just thought I would share some goals.

That about sums it up.

More for the Grads!

I posted just a few from the graduation session with Kim, Jocelyn and William. I thought I would share a few more. They really were so much fun to work with. Jocelyn and William’s Mom were in a few too. What a beautiful bunch to photograph! The ladies let me have some fun towards the end with some off-camera lighting.  What I love about off-camera lighting is the options. You can take one simple light source and do so many different things. So, the off-camera flash images I included really are very similar in pose and were shot pretty close together in time. What I like about this setup is that you can completely change the mood or feeling of an image just by manipulating the light. 

 

Elizabeth’s Bridals

Our friends, Bryan and Elizabeth got married this past weekend. It was such a beautiful wedding. Elizabeth asked me to do her bridal portraits, so I thought I would share those: