Finding My Aloha's New Prints Now Available!

Aloha, friends! Sorry if you have missed me lately. No, I haven't been pinned under an iceberg or taken captive by a polar bear- not yet, at least. To be honest, I kinda needed a break at the beginning of the year. I am sure you can all relate to the burned out feeling while recovering from the holidays. I intended to focus the first week of the year on completely scouring my house top to bottom and purging everything we don't need or use. I was mostly sucessful, but I definitely under-estimated my time commitment! Besides copious amounts of organizing, photo shoots, and life in general, I also launched my photography website this month! See, I told you I have been busy!

I'm dusting off the cobwebs around FMA, and today I am here to share my new website! Besides showcasing my portfolio and session info, I have a photography print gallery with images you can hang as art in your home or even office! I have embedded a slideshow of all my artwork prints available for purchase. Take a peek, and even hop over to the site and let me know what you think! I will be adding more and more to the selection too!

Newborn Photography Session

Last week I had the honor of photographing my dear friend's two week old baby boy! It was so fun spending time with this precious little boy and his doting parents. Read on to see a sampling of my favorites from the shoot...

Beautiful Historic Printable Art

I wanted to give my "chalet-chic" living room some character by hanging vintage ski posters and historic artwork or drawings. In my search of the perfect art, I stumbled across the U.S. Fish & Wildlife National Digital Library. The library is completely public domain! I feel like someone just gave me the keys to the Smithsonian. In the spirit of paying it forward, I downloaded a couple images, restored them in Photoshop, and have made them into printables and downloadable images for your pleasure. Read on for the links and downloads...

Aerial Tour of Alaska and a peek at the Supermoon

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a fantastic weekend! Yesterday I has the unique opportunity to go on a spouse flight in a C12. My husband flies a different and much bigger plane but the C12's are apart of his squadron and our good friend flies it. A group of 5 of us spouses got to go on the flight and enjoy a scenic tour of Alaska yesterday. I snapped some neat photos of this beautiful State and wanted to share them with you!

So, this is a C12

And these are the Chugach Mountains that surround Anchorage and my home

More of the Chugach Range and a glacier

This is Shoup Glacier near Valdez, Alaska

And this is Anderson Glacier right next to Shoup near Valdez, Alaska

I am not 100% sure about this one but I think it might be the Columbia Glacier. Either way, doesnt it remind you of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland?

And this my friends, is Prince William Sound.

Gorgeous isnt it? The water is such a brilliant turquoise that you would never guess you were in the Arctic!

More of Prince William Sound. This is probably one of the most popular cruise ship destinations. This is also near where you can see whales, seals, and puffins!

Another shot of the Prince William Sound. This part of Alaska reminds me so much of the San Juans in Washington State!

And to conclude our tour, a shot of Anchorage sitting on the Cook Inlet. The Chugach Mountains are behind me in this shot and its too overcast to see the Alaska Range in the background.

Wasnt that fun? I feel so blessed to have such a great opportunity to see the plane and tour this gorgeous state. The flight was so entertaining and really helped me reset my compass and catch my bearings.

Also, did you all hear about tonight's Supermoon? It was actually an extreme Supermoon and almost precisely its closest distance to Earth. This baby was HUGE! I hope it was clear enough where you were to see it! After we played around with our camera's settings, here's a shot my husband captured...

And we didnt use a tripod! Ours broke last summer and we still have yet to replace it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tour of Alaska! How's your weekend going? We have been running around banshee style. I have been trying to finish painting a 2 story accent wall in our living room and repainting our downstairs bathroom since Thursday. Its been slow going. I primed on Thursday but had to abruptly stop because my very sneaky two year old son somehow managed to climb up and get his Children's Tylenol off the pharmacy shelf in our hall closet. That itself is an impressive feat but then he managed to get it open and drink at least half the bottle!! So scary! I freaked out! Two calls to Poison Control and one Emergency Room visit later, my son is fine. Thank the Lord! The doctors tested the levels of acetaminophen in his blood and while it was above what they consider "therapeutic" it was not lethal or enough to damage his liver. WHEW! The most frustrating part of the whole ordeal is that I was within 5 feet of him when this happened and it all happened within a 10 minute timeframe. Those little toddlers are FAST! He royally scared the bejeezies out of his mother! So ever since that, it has been one thing after another and I just finished the living room wall tonight and the trim for the bathroom. I hope to be able to share the outcome here this upcoming week!

Long Exposure Photography

I just recently became familiar with the German photographer, Michael Wesely. He is known for his long exposure photography. It is simply astonishing! Some of his exposures last as long as 3 years!!! That means it took 3 years to take a single photo. The effect is amazing! His photos follow major urban construction projects and even the life and death of a bouquet of flowers. The long exposure gives the photos an eerie, ghostlike feeling. 

In 2001, the Museum of Modern Art asked him to document their major construction/renovation project. These are some of his images from the project. Some of these exposures took 3 years!

The streaks in the sky are the pattern of the sun as it rises and sets as the earth rotates. Incredible!

Through the use of filters and a very small aperture, yet one that is standard in a professional camera lens, Wesely is able to diminish the amount of light hitting the negative to the point where he can extend the exposure many thousands of times longer than we would ordinarily expect.

His work has been compiled in a book that accompanied his exhibition, Open Shutter. I would looove to flip through this book! I find his method of photography to be spellbinding!