your protector's coming home

day 227

A big huge thank you to Joel for willing to get wet all for the sake of a photo and to my boyfriend Matt for having way too much fun squirting water on Joel. Couldn't have done it without you guys!

Today I woke up early to go to the dentist for a cleaning, and came out with yet another oral surgery in the near future. Blarg. I thought I was done with surgeries years ago but I guess that's not the case. Then I went to the orthodontist to get a new retainer, which I have to wear all the time for a week. Blarg again. Speaking of which, I probably should put it back in my mouth ... now I am in pain.

But really, today has been a good day. I'm finishing up the last of the paperwork for college and getting extremely apprehensive about going. I just really hope I can find time to shoot and blog since I have heard that college work takes a lot more out of you than high school work. Blarg yet again. This model kick for the 365 project that I've been on has been so awesome; this is the sixth photo in a row without me in it! I had made a goal to myself to shoot 75 people other than myself (with the same people being able to count multiple times), and at first I was afraid I wasn't going to make the goal, but I definitely think I have surpassed it. Success! I'm only hoping there will be a lot of people willing to do crazy things for me in college. Fingers crossed!

day 225 edit

I've always been fascinated by edit videos that photographers used, so I finally decided to download some software and record myself editing a photo. This was my 365 photo from two days ago, and you can see the final image here.

I'll meet you there

day 226

Today was such a fun day! I got to meet up with up-and-coming model Matt to help him out with his modeling portfolio (which in turn helps me with mine), and it was a blast shooting with him! We got to go to three different locations and shoot a couple of concepts I've had in my head for a while. The train idea was one I thought wouldn't happen, because I wasn't quite sure where to find a train, but thankfully as I was driving to one location, I saw this one and knew we would have to go take photos there. The idea to have his friend Stephanie (who was also along for the ride) model as well was a totally last minute idea, but I'm so glad I got it because we were able to produce a fantastic image, if I do say so myself. So thank you Matt and Stephanie for modeling for me and for driving around and for climbing on the train even though it might have been illegal.



This photo was my original concept today, and I wanted to share it with you guys because I don't like it. It's not that it's a bad concept or a bad model (far from it), but I wanted to show you that not every photo comes out looking like I had planned it to. Things I don't like about the photo? The angle I shot it at: I think shooting slightly above or straight towards Matt would have been better. The sun: I wanted the image to look really dark, so the sun helped me none whatsoever. The contrast between darkness and light was impossible to fix in photoshop. I write these things to remind myself for when I revisit this concept, and to show that not every photo comes out exactly as planned (just look at nearly every other photo in my 365 project, hah!). You just have to keep working and practicing and don't be too hard on yourself when something doesn't work out like you planned.


I have a lot of other fun images from today, so I'm off to edit more photos! In the upcoming days I'll show you some of my favorites, but until then, have a great day!

Behind the Scenes

day 224 photoshoot from Lauren Parker on Vimeo.

The other day I filmed a behind the scenes video for one of my photoshoots and I wanted to share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it.

The final image Aly and I produced is here.