Maxlouski.

My friend Maxlouski is a great photographer.
This is what he looks like.










I am almost completely finished with my school assignments. What a mellow feeling!
I launched my website today so take a look,
sararenee.com



About my new blog header:
Andy Bardon took that photo of me yesterday and was gracious enough to let me use it as my Bio photo on my site.
Concerning Andy, One- Andy is a very nice human. Two- He is a strong man and can pull me around on slick floors when I am wearing only my socks. Third, and lastly- he is tall like a giraffe.

This is Andy,




I think I'm going to make a hot water bottle (the air has a sting of cold in it today) and read a book in bed.
I LOVE NOT PROCRASTINATING!
and I love Hallmark .
and I love leggings. external harddrives. photoshop. mannequins. putting itunes on shuffle. chris pino's headphones. my brother (who totally graduated college this weekend). having short hair. the fact that i am going to TN in 2 weeks. dreamweaver. the 5D MarkII. shooting wide open. naps. printing. being barefoot at school. grins.
end list.

Limted Edition-One Time Print for sale!

This is what's real!:
From now until June 1st, I will be taking orders on the following print.





The print size is 11x14,
and the cost is fifty dollars (that covers packaging, shipping, and handling.)

I will only be printing 25 of these!

Fluffy.
The Fluffinator.
My best friend and a part of the original logo for SR-Photography

It's history!



TO ORDER:
Send an e-mail to
sarareneemurray@gmail.com with your paypal account information.
If you don't have a paypal account, it is probably time to create one.
Serious e-mails only pleeease!

Thanks and I hope you are all somewhere warm and enjoying the Spring blossoms!
As Stephen Jenkins said "I love you all for you are all made of lions."


LOVE!
SR.

Sara&Tony&future baby!

Today I was lucky enough to have a shoot in the AMAZING green/gold light we've been having every evening.

Sara and Tony (as pictured below) drove up and we made these photos!
They are a GREAT couple and very few other things in life make me as happy as seeing a loving couple.
I loooove them. Everything is golden and whimsical and I like that.
























There's nothing quite like making photos/memories/fun.
I like it very much!

And now, back to final portfolio scramble week.

Fluffinator.

This rascly wabbit is twenty-one years old and is named Fluffy.
And I am still sleeping with him.

He head fits into the nook of my neck and chin perfectly.



I think this first shot is going to be used in my final portfolio as my conceptual still life.






and then how about this for a tentative promo piece?
the fonts definately need some work, but I feel Fluffy is a good representation for my business (except that my business is wedding&portrait driven...).






Images were shot with a Canon 5D, 85mm f1.2 (which makes me drool!).


I'm currently in the Imagin Lab at school, starting to print images for my final portfolio.
Pretty EXCITING stuff. It's like being on a nervous/excited high. I don't hate it.

I'm stoked to use some of my friends in my portfolio (Ourtna&Lyton, Brett Wise, my dad, cousins, etc).

This portfolio is due MAY 20 (really really big day) and after that is PARTY TIME!! Sike. We will have optional emphasis classes, and then we have the reviews of our final portfolio. Let me break this down:
we show up on to school, dressed to impress. We sit in an auditorium with our group members and whatever family/friends we choose to bring with us for moral support. There is a mysterious black curtain on stage and behind it is your (or a classmates) prints (11x14, matted). Behind this curtain are three established photographers, who have been flown in to judge and critique our work. They grade your work for technicalities (if it meets the assignment guides), and then critique it based on...whatever art standards they have in their heads.
Then, you pass or fail.

I don't feel nervous.
But I do a little bit.

Saradon/Branara

I mean, how many girl's have brothers who fly them to Florida for an all expense paid weekend?
Maybe just me.

This weekend I had the rockandroll time of flying to Orlando, FL to hang out with my brother and his friend Tuck. We went to the pool, spent one entire day at the beach (where I fell asleep like a baby and swam with the jellyfish), ate at this restaurant that specialized in high-end red meat!, looked into indoor sky diving (but decided against it), jammed out to the new Britney Spears, checked out Ripley's Believe it or Not, and did I mention that we spent an entire day at the beach? Because I really, really enjoy water and wind.

When I am out in the sun freckles develop on my nose. Since my BB Ourtna loves the beach and wasn't there, I named a freckle after her.

Oh! how about this!
A man smoked a cigarette on my airplane! This is the same man who, was sitting directly behind me, took his shoes off and the smell made me dryheave 2.5 times. Smoking cigarettes on an airplane...bad idea.




This is Black Murray.
(sidestory: he called my Brother "Big Murray" and then started calling me "Baby Murray", so clearly his name would be Black Murray).
Taken in the Orlando airport.





Big Murray (aka. Brother)


My brother delivers packages. Rule number one, no names.
Trasnporter himself.



And I guess this is Baby Murray.




Smile all around. My brother and I are REALLY, REALLY funny when we get together.







This photograph sums up the entire weekend:




These two photos were taken within days of each other. Long hair...I'm not cut out for the matinence.






To explain the lack of beach photos...
I am at the point in my career where I can't afford a new camera if something were to happen to mine. And mine cost a chunk of money. And bringing my nice gear to a place filled with oil, gritty sand, lots of water, children, and 90 degree weather...seems like a bad decision.
I am wanting to get maybe a Canon G10 (which shoots RAW!) to bring around for things like this.


Fact about me: I hate air conditioning. Really, hate it. It makes my whole body shrivel and hurt. and...I hate it. While at the hotel my brother said "Gah! Why is it so warm and clammy in here?" and I said "Oh...I put the thermostat on 75".

I have a good family, an awesome life.
Voila!


ps. Saradon/Branara
are blends of my brother's and mine names.
Titles for our potential kingdom.

Wednesday. A day unlike any other day, which makes it like every other day.

Today I had a BALL photographing these children.
They asked me if I could sleep over at the end of the shoot. That's awesome!
They were a lot of fun. I took 9 gigs of photos. And many of them were pretty good (if I can say that about my own photos?)

Being child-like is...the way to be.



35mm, ISO 160
1/180, f2.5




35mm, ISO 160
1/180, f2.5



35mm, ISO 200
1/500, f2.0
Slides make your hair static: fact.



I got my hairs cut today.
It was CONSTANTLY in my face, which made it a safety hazard. Especially since I drive with the windows down...it whipped all over, blinding me, which was fun!...but, not something I can handle on a regular basis.
For whatever reason, my hair was growing WICKED FAST as of late. It normally takes its sweet time, but in the past two months it's been spurting out of the tiny holes in my head.
So now I have short hair mcgee and it feels so good.
Think of all the money I'll save on shampoo!

Firefly Salon in Northampton, MA (specifically Melissa) did an AWESOME job. That place is IT.

This is what my hair looked like today (BEFORE) the cut.


As you can tell, it was unnecessarily long.



I was forced to tie it back in this messy ponytail everyday because it creeps me out to feel my hair on my neck.



Tomorrow- I am flying to Orlando, FL for the weekend.
I will NOT be answering my phone or text messages.
(Not that I'm great at that kind of thing anyways).
And if you have ever texted me, you know that my texts are in their own language, a language I like to call "i-can't-get-used-to-the-iphone-keyboard".

Good-night and good-bye for the weekend!

Meet my three buds,

This was an awesome night and I'll tell you why:
1) Shamus is really cool.
2) Bear & Diamond are super fun (they are the dogs)
3) We drank PBR while taking these photos.
4) Shamus' room is incredible. I mean, look at it.




Canon 5D, 20mm, ISO 50
1/60, f8





Behind the scenes...

Canon 5D, 16mm, ISO 50
1/60, f6.7



So if you live in western Mass, you might have noticed that it has been wonderfully hot here lately. THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY!
I wake up without covers and am not cold! There are crickets that lull me happily to sleep, and then this excited choir of birds (mainly robins, I think) that wake me up.
Golden.

New England summers are why I thought I would like living up here (but the winters are entirely too long).
---------------------------------------------------------

A word about photography...
I am at the point in my life where every photograph I make is worse than the one before it. No image is good. At all. It stinks. It is a terrible feeling.

BUT!
I am going to FL this weekend to vacation (not an ideal time for vacationing, but I am ahead of the game with my shot list) and am only bringing my camera for pleasure work. Well, unless I encounter something that will work for an assignment.
My brother and I are having a family weekend full of fun, sun, and rock and roll.

Wala! (which is really spelled voila!)


ps. when making sweet tea
(which I did today), the concept of
"less is more" (in regards to the sugar)
is a falsehood.

Shamus Shamus Bo Bamus

This is Shamus and he is wicked!!
He creates beaaaautiful blues music that you can listen at here.
I have had the pleasure of photographing him twice (soon to be thrice) and he's great.
Also, his pitbulls are SO NICE! I love them. A lot. Tons. So much.




50mm, ISO 200,
1/125, f1.8



50mm, ISO 125,
1/60, f1.8



50mm, ISO 125.
1/125, f1.8



35mm, ISO 125,
1/180, f2.0



35mm, ISO 50,
1/45, f11, one white umbrella


Today I am shooting my interior shot and re-shooting Shamus with the lovelies.
But all I can think about right now is how hungry I am. Coffee makes me very hungry.

Life consists of:
Shoot, shoot, and re-shoot. And then maybe re-re-shoot.
Ya dig?!

Three boys, a camera, and a night in the studio

The portrait studio still isn't really my thing, but I'm trying to own it and get a better grasp on it. But being outside...is just so nice!



Mamiya, 150mm, ISO 50,
1/45, f16
















Today my friend Greg helped me shop. I think that is awesome. Not only is he a boy, but I am a picky consumer. I don't understand what the current style is where everything looks like a potatoe sack, but I will not buy into it. The bad news is: my favourite pair of leggings (that I wear 6 days a week, sometimes 7) ripped in a major way and are now unsuitable for public display. Very unfortunate.

Well, this is Greg. He is funny. Fubby to be exact. (Pretty obnoxious to make inside jokes in a blog, eh).




Canon 5d, 35mm, ISO 125,
1/4, f3.5, window light & bounced flash



Canon 5D, 50mm, ISO 200,
1/8, f3.5, window light&bounced flash





Today was another good day!
I've been shooting so much. You will never see all the images, because there are that many.

I love making photos more than...well, more than almost anything.
I still really like to read, but I would probably choose my camera over a book eighty seven percent of the time.

Sigur Ros is epic and I got new rainboots today.

20 April 2009.

Twas a good day.
I love wide studio/behind-the-scene shots.

Exhibit A:

16mm, ISO 50,
1/60, f 16

The actual shots were taken with the Mamiya, but they are still in the edit stage.