Snap Happy

This past weekend, Shinks found herself on assignment, photo assignment that is. My mission? To capture the heads and faces of “willing” volunteers in an outdoors environment, paying close attention to all sources of natural light and shade. WOW, did you get all that?

As part of the photography class I’ve been taking, 15 classmates and myself were let loose into the parks of Atlanta to practice headshots. And obviously for an assignment like this, there needs to be heads to shoot. This is where our “willing” volunteers came into to play. Friends, family, fiancés, grandchildren and even a set of triplets all gave selflessly of their time so we could put into practice the hours spent learning. And let me just say, these guys, were nothing short of awesome.

The hours spent sitting, smiling, tilting and leaning were all handled with the poise and patience of a saint. Not easy when you have the lens of 16 photographers pointed in your face, all of them requesting your head, eyes or hands to be somewhere different from the suggestion of the previous photographer. Honestly, I would have lost my mind, but this group of models; they were troopers to the last and should have been awarded the Purple Heart for Tolerance.

For me, the opportunity was invaluable. I’ve been working on shooting full manual (thanks Matt & Kate Altmix for that push & I promise, RAW is coming), which has turned out to be less scary then I had allowed myself to believe, but it does require a lot of thinking and a lot more practice, so friends and family beware, I will come calling, that much is guaranteed.

And before I show you some results of my work, let me first say a BIG THANK YOU, to all our models. You were the best.

Here we all are, photographers and models getting ready to have some fun (I'm the one standing left of middle'sh, in the white shirt)

Just look at us and our enthusiastic selves.

Now we're into it. This is the fabulous Sydney.......

and her stunning eyes and smile.

Sarah had classic baby-blues, I want them.

I love this picture of Michelle. She was so shy but completely adorable and I wanted to find a way to capture that.

After spending some time chatting about school and how silly boys are, Michelle allowed me snap one last picture. This time she gave me a smile, a Mona Lisa smile :)

What can I say about this little guy, other than this is Bryce and I want to eat those cheeks.

Camping Anyone??

At a birthday dinner last Friday night I had a few too many scoops of wine. No surprise there, right? When it comes to a yummy wine, Shinks has NO off-switch and trust me, I have spent many a night searching for said switch, thinking and truly believing that it lies somewhere at the bottom of my next glass, but it never is and yet again I walk away the loser. Off-switch nowhere to be found, Shinks intoxicated.

Friday night was no different. We were at a fabulous restaurant, with some fabulous friends having a fabulous time and the wine was flowing. And since it was a party, I went with the flow. Fast forward a couple of hours and Shinks is buzzing. Husband now has his hands full as I’m not the easiest to control once my brain becomes fermented. But luckily for him, I was pretty tired this night so it wasn’t long before the buzz wore off and all I was ready to do was sleep.

Once back in the house I made a big effort to sit and converse, but me thoughts were a mess and I could not get my brain and my mouth to sync up, as a result, very random statements and bits of useless information just spewed endlessly from my foggy brain. Eventually I just gave up. The fatigue got me and I knew it was time to retire myself to bed.

Once in my bedroom I looked down on the floor and had a thought. “Damn that floor looks comfortable. I think I’ll just grab my duvet and pillow and set it up right here by the bathroom door. Yes, that’s definitely the best spot in the whole room”. I ran the idea past my cat, Fintan and he agreed. So we put the plan into action. Duvet was pulled from the closet, spread out on the floor, a pillow was added for extra comfort and kitty and I were set. Life was good.

However, a while later I’m woken by Husband. I can hear his voice and eventually his face comes into vision, but I don’t know what he’s saying. I’m confused. I can’t even remember where I am. He keeps saying something but its no good, I don’t understand so I try to block him out and get back to my blissful sleep, but he’s relentless. He gives me another shake and begins to repeat himself. This time however, I understand. His words are making sense, “Shinks, what are you doing on the floor? Why aren’t you in the bed?” I brush off his question and once again, make an attempt to go back to sleep. For some reason I think he’s being difficult, cos in my mind, its obvious why I’m on the floor. But he won’t be silenced, “Shinks what are you doing on the floor?” Ok, now I’m irritated, he’s not giving up, he really wants an answer, so I give it to him, “I’m camping”, I tell him with a tone that’s screaming “Duh, can’t you tell”.

Honestly, to me, in the moment, it was perfectly logical. As far as I was concerned, he was the idiot, not me. Go figure the logic of a person with a few too many scoops on board.

Babies, Babies and Oh Yeah, Babies

I realize not everyone is a baby person, and for the most part, Husband and I are not either. We're still pretty attached to our independence, freedom and the general spontaneous disorder life throws our way, regularly. But for some reason, when it comes to our nephews, we morph into different animals completely. Blabbing, gushing and bragging, as well as gooing and gaaing and honestly, if I were on the outside looking in, I would be nauseous watching us too. But if all our silly faces, noises and expressions result in acknowledgement by way of a smile, kick or wave, then its absolutely worth it.

And right now, I am finally in Ireland to meet my newest nephew. It's been 2 long weeks, but I'm here and I can't get enough of him. I've basically set up camp at Edward and Sarah's (brother and sister-in-law) so I can absorb as much of the little guy as is humanly possible to do in the space of 3 and half days. And lucky for all of you out there, I brought along my trusted camera, so I can capture this tiny packet of pure cuteness.

The camera was put to a couple of hours work today and below is the link to tons of Evan photos.

http://kshinkins.smugmug.com/gallery/7670831_7Nb9W/1/495251603_BTgxC 

I promise all my blogs are not going to be baby centered, I'm just so pumped to finally get my hands on the little guy, so bare with me for the fews days I'm here. I promise I'll be back to my usual bitchy self after Sunday.

Welcome Baby Shinkins

Today at approximately 1.37pm Irish time. Weighing in at 7lbs 12oz, little Evan Thomas Shinkins made his début into the world.

His arrival has sent the whole family into a tailspin. He is the first everything, child, nephew and grandchild and I have been a complete ball of emotion and joy since my brother called to share the news of his arrival. I already knew I was going to like him, a lot, even though I had yet to see a picture of the wee thing. Now that I’ve seen some photos, forget it, I’m head over heels. I cannot wait to get over to Ireland and get my hands on the little fella. Unfortunately, I have to wait 2 weeks before I can make the trip to see him and let me tell you, never has 2 weeks felt like such a lifetime. I’m afraid he’ll be graduating college by the time I get there.

Anyway, “Congratulations Edward and Sarah”, he is PERFECT and ADORABLE and EDIBLE and CUTE and oh yeah, MINE.

See you all soon.

My brother and his new son.

Evan Thomas Shinkins

Dominic & Gianne Engagement

Recently a friend of mine, Dominic, who I’ve known for most of my track career cos he’s a kick-ass sprinter from Bahamas, with a very sizeable collection of medals and records to his credit, called me to share the news that he was now engaged. “Yeah, Congratulations”. But another reason he called was to ask if I would take his Engagement Photos. This request was totally unexpected. Apparently Dominic remembered that I had been taking some photography classes, so once he had popped the question to his then girlfriend, now fiancée, Gianne, they thought of ME.

I was so completely honored; yet terrified by the request. Up to this point the most experience I had photographing living things was harassing my poor kitty, Fintan, and a couple’s engagement memories, well they’re a little bit more important than chasing Fintan around the garden like some sort of crazed paparazzi. But I was excited and flattered by the fact that both Dominic and Gianne trusted me enough to take this risk and if they were willing, then I was willing.

Historical Marietta Square was chosen as the place we would shoot the photos. It’s a beautiful old railroad town with tons of character, perfect, and last Sunday we hit the Square to capture some loving memories.

I had never met Gianne before the day of the shoot, but as soon as she arrived, I was bowled over by how stunning she was. This girl belongs on the pages of a magazine. She couldn’t take a bad picture if her life depended on it. But more than that, she was just so sweet, warm and friendly, I could see instantly why Dominic had fallen for her. That and she showed up wearing some killer boots, a woman after my own heart.

We got into the shoot pretty much straight away and had a blast capturing plenty of romantic shots, serious shots and just some fun shots and even though it was cold and more windy than we would have liked, the sun managed to stay shining, so we were able to tough it out for a couple of hours.

I created a link to a slideshow, so you can check out the results of my first ever photo session. Just click below.

http://www.kshinkins.smugmug.com/gallery/7477627_CBVJf

And lastly, Congrats to Dominic for putting a ring on it and a BIG THANK YOU to you both for taking a risk and giving me the opportunity to flex my photographic muscles.

Karen Shinkins DNF/PSYCHO

So this past Saturday was the day of my 2009 pace-making debut at the Boston Indoor Games and I’m happy to report it was a job well done, I think. My confusion arises from the fact that the athletes didn’t utilize me to the full. They hung back off the pace a little too much and as a result left me thinking I had taken it out way to hard. A quick look at the clock as we went through the first 200m told my I was in fact a second ahead of what they were looking for, so after a couple of glances over the shoulder to try and judge the distance between myself and the rest of the field, I decided to steady it up a bit, allowing the ladies to pull that bit closer and drive the pace on from there. But there were no takers. Nobody really wanted to sit on my shoulder and work the race hard from the front. I’m guessing there was some calculating and tactical movements going on behind me that I was unaware of, so I just kept trying to encourage them towards me by constantly checking over my shoulder and adjusting my pace. Once we were past the 500m mark, I stepped off to the side and let the ladies hash it out for the remaining 300m. I was a little out of steam but not crippled. My endurance and fitness is definitely much better than I had been giving myself credit for, so next time it’ll be all the way to 600m, maybe even more, who knows ; )

One thing that did kinda bothered me from the race was the presence of those big, ugly, judgemental letters “DNF” that went up next to my name when they posted the results on the stadium scoreboard and online and in other various print media. “DNF” for those of you who may not know stands for “Did Not Finish”. It’s nothing positive. In fact, it usually means that an athlete has 1. Pulled up due to some instantaneous injury, 2. Was having such a nightmare performance that they stepped off the track or 3. Was unfortunate enough to get caught up in some sort of track scrap and as a result ended up biting it hard somewhere near the water jump. Bottom line, its never good news and so I was horrified to see it up there, in lights for the entire world to read. Never in my life have I been a “DNF”. Even on my worst days, I always got my ass to the finish line. It was a pride thing I guess, not wanting to whimp out just cos things didn’t go my way. So having to suck it up right now was frustrating. As soon as I saw it I wanted to hunt down the announcer, pull the microphone out of his hand and inform the crowd that I was not as the scoreboard implied “A failure” but a “Pace-Maker”, “its my job to step off, so why am I being treated like this?” However, I have a feeling that that outburst may have lead to a result looking more like “Karen Shinkins DNF/PSYCHO” which would not really have helped me save any kind of face. Therefore, in my humble opinion, the only real solution is to add the abbreviation “PM” (Pace-Maker) to each track meets box of verbal trickery. It’s so much less judgmental and helps avoid any feelings of hurt or wounded pride experienced by some of us more sensitive and egotistical pace-makers. Just a thought.

Baltic Boston

This past weekend saw us wing our way up to Boston to spend some time with Husband’s side of the family. And let me just say, Boston in January, COLD, cold, oh so very cold. I felt it as soon as we deplaned and it took everything in my power to not turn on my semi-wedged heel and demand the pilot return me back to my rightful place, that is the warmer, drier climate of Georgia. Now I know most of you are probably screaming at me “but your Irish, isn’t it cold in Ireland too?” Yeah, it gets cold, but never Baltic cold. Rarely does the temperature go below zero. Rain, yes, we got that covered, many times over, but snow, ice, and temperatures of minus freezing, no sorry, not covered.
I did however do my best to get acclimatize and not allow the minor issues of snow and ice to hold me back. I even went out and trained in the stuff. It was a frightening experience, but it had to be done.

On warmer side of things, we did get to spend most of the weekend with our wee nephew, Paul. This little fella is cute as a button and growing so fast. Words are coming and walking is just a couple of weeks away and everything, I mean everything, gets his own personal taste test. Nothing is safe from his grip or his mouth. You need eyes in the back of your head to stay one step ahead of this guy.

An cos blogs are better with photos, here are a few from the weekend.

Husband and I try the parent look on for size. Clearly he is taking it way more serious than I am.

Paul is bundled up as we wait in line at the Boston Aquarium.

Totally absorbed in the fishes.

He even makes a grab for one.

Shinks braves the elements all in the name of health and fitness.

Paul supervises Husband as he child proofs the cupboards.

And later practises his walking skills.