Traca Miller Photography - Stephenville, TX Photographer

52 Wednesdays – 18 | Fifty-Two {Home}

Traca — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:08:07 +0000

52 Wednesdays – 17|Fifty-Two {Simple}

Traca — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:35:20 +0000

It’s that time of year: end of school, graduation pictures and invitations, baby dedications, weddings, family reunions. We’ve been running crazy. So when I saw that this week’s theme was “Simple”, I actually breathed a sigh of relief. It’s pretty bad when my weekly photo project has to remind me to take some time, slow down, and enjoy the simple things in life.

So I took a walk. By myself!

Life should be slow and savored.

Simple.

Speaking of simple….. or simply lovely…

Marla Misclevitz of Simply Splendid Images, a Portland, Oregon Photographer, is the next talented lady in our photography circle. Stop by and see what simply splendid things she brings to the group this week!

52 Wednesdays – 16|Fifty-Two {Colorful}

Traca — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:47:45 +0000

So I shot a wedding this past weekend for a friend and colleague who ended up with two weddings on the same day! He hired me and another talented friend of mine to go shoot one of the weddings since I had previously photographed another wedding at this specific location. (Have I mentioned that I’m NOT a wedding photographer…(big eye roll) and that I turn people away all the time, yet end up doing them anyway somehow?!?) So my friend dropped off some flash cards and batteries, asked me to shoot in jpeg, and then came by to pick up the CF cards, and I had to do absolutely NO editing. Nothing. Zilch. Zippola.

That’s my kind of wedding!

All that to say…. I forgot my camera was still set to jpeg, so all my shots this week have such a different feel to them! It was very obvious to me when I was editing (even though it only took me a fraction of the time!) so I decided to go with it and embrace a more photo-journalistic approach this week. Sort of a “day in the life of Color” if you will….

Aubrey and I started our day with a Geography lesson. We’ve been using the Sonlight Geography Songs program where she learns different regions by listening to the song as she colors the region. To help it stick in her little brain even better, we color the states/countries in the order we learn them in the song to correspond to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple! It’s amazing that the kid can find almost any country in the world after just 1 year of this!

Look how colorful Africa is! We finished this one several months ago, but she wanted to go back to it just so I could get a picture of it. And, she still knows the songs and countries! Great day for review. One thing that I love about this program is that the countries are labeled with letters or numbers (again, in the order they are learned in the song) and not the name of the country. That way Aubrey is actually learning the location of the country and not just looking for the name on a map!

I promised Aubrey that after we finished our homeschooling for the day, I would take her to our local produce/flower market so she could pick out some things to plant in pots around out little RV site.

Brooks just wanted to splash and play in the water! See him way in the back?

She started out just picking out every kind of pink flower known to man! So we talked about mixing colors, contrasting/complimentary colors, variety of textures, different shades of green, etc.

This is what she ended up with. Not bad!

It amazes me to think that the creator of all this color knows each of His children by name and declares that we are even more beautiful than this! I have to remind myself even though I don’t feel this colorful sometimes, that, according to Zephaniah 3:17, he takes great delight in me and even rejoices over me with singing!

I know that color is all around us and that we take so much of it for granted. From homework to God’s creation, we can find color in anything. If we just take the time to look.

Up next is fellow Texan, Marsette Guerrero, a photographer from Kingwood, Texas. Her blog is always full of color and “colorful” kids! Enjoy!

52 Wednesdays – 15|Fifty-Two {Fruit}

Traca — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:23:02 +0000

A few months ago, a friend and neighbor of ours, Paul Risse, asked me to take photos of some of his raw food recipes for his new eBook, Small Town Raw; Big City Taste. So we spent a couple of fun days with Paul making yummy food and me trying to get the hang of making the recipes look as good as they taste!

This week’s topic is Fruit, and even though these photos are from the archives, the timing couldn’t be more serendipitous! Why you ask? Because tomorrow is the final day of the first 10 days of Cleanse America. If you don’t know about Cleanse America and the vision of 1,000,000 Americans transforming their lives by simultaneously participating in a 10 day cleanse, then be sure to check it out here. I’m very proud of the whole Cleanse America team and my small part of being able to provide a few photos for Paul’s raw food recipe book. Enjoy!

And if you missed out on this first cleanse, don’t worry it’s not too late to join the effort. Be sure and check it out on Facebook to find out about the next opportunity to participate!

And don’t forget to hop on over to Simply Splendid Images to see what Portland, Oregon Photographer, Marla Misclevitz has in store for your eyes to feast upon!

Bee Fruity

Sunshine Kid

Popeye-C

Acai Bowl

52 Wednesdays – 14|Fifty-Two {Nature}

Traca — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:13:49 +0000

I have never lived in a city or even in “town” except for the two years I was at Tarleton. We live by a river, I grew up on a creek, or we were always out at the ranch, so I’ve always been surrounded by nature. But this week we found ourselves surrounded by a totally different kind of “nature”. We went to the coast over the long Easter weekend and spent 3 days in a house right on the beach. I hardly got my camera out of the bag, but I did have a great time capturing our week on Instagram. So this week I’m simply sharing my Instagram shots taken with my old 3G iPhone!

The boardwalk over the sand dunes.

Sandcastles

Toes

Almost dark and they still don’t want to leave.

Headed home after a day at the beach

Looking back at the gulf.

My kids called this the palm tree path.

End of a great day

This counts as “nature”, right? It used to be a lime…

Easter sunrise. A little church time right on the beach.

“Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” – Acts 1:11

Now drop in and see what the ultra-talented Marla Misclevitz of Simply Splendid Images, a Portland, Oregon Photographer, has in store for us this week! You will be glad you did. ;)

52 Wednesdays – 13|Fifty-Two {Pastel}

Traca — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:25:30 +0000

Remember back in Week 5 when I told you that I don’t do pink? Well, I don’t do “pastel” either! But this project is all about getting out of our comfort zone and challenging ourselves, so I decided to challenge myself with my editing style.

As someone who has worked so hard to achieve proper skin tones, preaches monitor calibration, and doesn’t believe in using presets and actions on portraits until I can first master correct exposure and white balance, I’m going way out on a limb here! I’m all about clean processing and won’t use color or over-exposure to “fix” an image that I wouldn’t show to a client with my normal editing style. Call me a purist, I guess…

So here goes.

I took a few of my favorite shots of Emily and decided to process in pastels. And, please forgive me, but I have to show you my “normal” way of processing as well! I hope you enjoy; I did. But I can’t promise you I’ll do this very often! (And if you aren’t viewing this on a properly calibrated monitor…well, then I can’t vouch for the results. Go get calibrated!)

Here are a couple of the originals.

And a few “pastel” edits.

The super talented Marsette Guerrero from Kingwood, Texas is next one in our Bloom 52 Wednesdays project. Stop by and see her “pastel” creations this week!

52 Wednesdays – 12|Fifty-Two {Spring}

Traca — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:08:09 +0000

Compared to last year, the bluebonnets here in Stephenville, Texas, are crazy gorgeous! We’ve had plenty of rain and spring is upon us, so naturally, I had to get some photos of the kids in the bluebonnets for this week’s theme. They were so not cooperative, until a little butterfly started trying to land on them! That was the only thing getting them to smile. See it trying to land on Brooks’ ear?

Just as we were about to wrap it up, we ran into some good friends and neighbors who were also out to get some photos in the bluebonnets. Ms. Debbie (whom the kids adore!) was with one of her sons, Daniel, and his new fiance, Carolyn. Carolyn is from Colorado, so this Texas tradition of taking pictures in the bluebonnets is a whole new experience for her. I offered to take a few quick shots for them before the kids and I left and they were so much more cooperative than my two! It was great to see part of the Thompson family again, and I was honored to be able to welcome Carolyn to the way we do things in Texas! Congratulations, you two; God’s blessing and grace upon your marriage!

Now head on over to Sarah Phillips of MG Design Photography and see what spring is like in Lincoln, CA!

Protected: Young Maternity

Traca — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:37:18 +0000

Waiting on Eva

Traca — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:25:18 +0000

We went to see my sister-in-law’s family in the Canyon Lake area last week and it turned into a maternity photo shoot! Dannette has been sticking pretty close to home lately because her first granddaughter should be born any minute. Dannette’s son, John, and his wife Angela, are now entering the 41st week of Angela’s pregnancy! I personally think that baby Eva was just waiting on her Aunt Traca to get there with the camera. Little diva…

Protected: Allison {Stephenville HS Senior}

Traca — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:49:51 +0000