Writer, Photographer,

Yesterday I got to go out shooting all afternoon with my good pal Ryan DeLapp! We shot at 4 different locations in Redlands/Riverside (I’ll bet you didn’t know there was anything photogenic there, right??) and I have about 600 photos to wade through and edit today. Here’s hoping my hard drive hangs on another day.

Today’s contest is through a company called Joby, which makes the Gorillapod and its accessories. The category was “Summer Candids,” and while you can enter up to three, I only chose two. Since I’m mainly a landscape photographer, I don’t typically have/keep a ton of photos around that have people in them. I always feel weird taking pictures of people I don’t know, like they’re going to run after me and yell at me or something. Is that weird? Anyway, this contest chooses 5 winners who each get $100 worth of Joby gear. These are the two images I chose:

What I Like About this Photo:
I took this while walking around Balboa Island during Memorial Day weekend. This woman was by herself, just gazing off into the sea, and I wondered what she was thinking about. This image has been processed with Photomatix (HDR), which gives her a little glow and adds texture to the water. I do like the slightly dreamy feel of the image, and I like the woman’s messy hair. I also like the colors; a lot of pastels here.

What I Like About this Photo:
I took this during a separate beach trip last year…might’ve been Exodus’ beach day at Crystal Cove last September. When I do take pictures of people, I tend to gravitate toward choosing a single subject instead of many. Maybe it’s because I’m more interested in a person’s singular behavior than their interactions with others (I’m definitely an introvert). This little girl was ADORABLE and just running from the water when the waves came in, trying not to lose her ball. Movement and reflections are always nice in an image, and my only regret with this one is that I had to crop out most of her reflection because including it would’ve meant having other things/people in the frame I didn’t want.

Here’s where you come in! These contest entries are located here and here. If you go to the pages and click on “Like,” it will help me win! Yay!