Archive for the ‘portrait’ Category

a weekend in tahoe : the film challenge

May 14

I love our friends.

Aaron and I are so thankful to have so many wonderful people in our lives, and it’s pretty fun to know so many other young couples to share this time of our life with.

A few weekends ago we took a trip with a few of these guys to Lake Tahoe to get away for quality time with each another and with nature.

My personal challenge for the weekend was to get some practice with a few of my old + new film cameras. Thankfully, this didn’t feel like work at all. It was fun to capture life as it was happened with one or two clicks rather than looking at my screen, readjusting, deleting, refocusing…

That’s one reason I’m so in love with film. It forces me to slow down and compose carefully. To be intentional about what I capture. And then after that, forget about it. It allows me to be more present with my friends, my subjects.

One day of our trip we all went out to explore and I spent a few minutes with each of my friends to photograph them, just as they are right now. They were all so patient with me as I manually focused every.single.frame.

At the end of the day, I really cherish these images.

Each one is a visual reminder to me of how much I have to be grateful for.

Mia + Chrissy are both alums of my fun : 101 photography class so I let them take the camera for a few frames. They did a good job… although I’m thinking it’s about time for a haircut…

Besides exploring for our photo shoot, we mainly hung out at the cabin, cooked + ate food, and played games. Pretty much the perfect weekend.

This was the view from our balcony…

Paul + Mari were the only ones who really worked out. Kudos!!

xoxo,

Em

p.s. for my photo friends, these images were taken with these cameras / film stocks

mamiya 645 // kodak portra 400
fuji GA 645 // fuji pro 400H
pentax k1000 // kodak portra 160
canon eos-1 // kodak tri-x 400

Posted in film, friends, personal, portrait, travel | 3 Comments »
brian

May 11

There was that time we tried to sneak into the movie studio family picnic by giving them my real name and just acting confident “Oh, no Emily Hathaway on the list? How strange…”

I think what we had really wanted was to ride in the hot air balloon they had on the grounds. We did manage to find a way to snap a polaroid as Brian ran in front of it. We told people they had given us a ride.

Then there was the time we bought electric scooters at AAAH’s in Westwood and we were so excited riding them down the hill to In-N-Out from the dorms only to find that the battery power did not even get us 1/4 of the way back up … It was a long and heavy drag back up that hill…

There were countless 2am Wendy’s runs with the other dorm staff. There was a road trip to the Grand Canyon. And there was one very fateful drama/history seminar in which our final assignment was to create a story based on a character in a famous piece of classic art and then PLAY THEM in that drama that we would perform for an unwitting audience. Well, that was interesting. Don’t even get me started.

UCLA was a wonderful place to me. Mainly because of people like Brian.

Friends who were up for an adventure no matter what watch of the night.

My friend Brian continues to inspire me. I have loved seeing the dreams he has chased after UCLA, and it makes me incredibly proud to see him achieving them.

Brian is a writer and a freaking funny one at that.

He and some of our other talented friends have created one of the most popular web series to hit hulu and now he is set to embark on a project that made me jump up and down for JOY when I heard he got the job. Here is just a little hint.

I KNOW.

The future is pretty bright my friend.

When Brian was up in the bay last month taking a short respite from the busy life of a Hollywood comedy writer, I made him go out on an adventure to test out some new film with me. He was very patient while I tried to figure out how to use my new Mamiya. Very patient…

I shot most of these on my canon eos-1 with kodak portra 160 and a few using the Mamiya 645.

xoxo,
Em

Posted in film, friends, portrait | 3 Comments »
Molly

April 11

If dog people are my people, then dachshund people are my kin.

It takes a special lover of whimsy to truly appreciate those little sausage-shaped pups. They are so dysfunctional in every way, but I cannot help but want to snuggle them.

I think the first time Molly and I emailed she brought it up. Her dachshund love. And it was probably right then and there that I invited her over to my house for milk and cookies and asked her to be my friend.

That’s just the way it is with kin.

Molly, you are a lovely soul.

xoxo,

Em

Posted in friends, portrait | 3 Comments »
carissa : las vegas headshots

March 13

Carissa is the best kind of beautiful.

The kind that doesn’t totally realize just exactly how gorgeous she is.

The kind that tells you a crazy story about how her mouth does a weird thing when she smiles with her mouth closed – which is absolutely not true.

It’s the kind of beautiful that makes you jealous because it’s beautiful without being all full-of-itself-look-at-me-beautiful.

I have a feeling it’s the kind of beautiful that her husband sees when she wakes up in the morning and tells him she’s a hot mess and he just smiles because he knows it’s not true.

I like that kind of beautiful.

Carissa is a photographer too.

We met at a workshop last year and when she asked if I would do a few headshots for her while we were both in Las Vegas last month for WPPI , I was excited to reconnect and excited to photograph her.

I love photographing friends because I feel like it helps me show them how beautiful I truly think they are.

I love photographing photographers because they need great pictures of themselves just as much or maybe more than anyone… because really, doesn’t this picture make you want to hire her?

Carissa… I’m excited for you and what lies ahead. Thanks for letting me take your picture. You really are beautiful.

xoxo,
Em

Posted in photography, portrait | 2 Comments »
leanne : a little bit vintage

March 9

Vancouver is full of hipsters. I love it. Those crazy kids inspire me.

While visiting my sweet Jamie Delaine last week, we walked into many a vintage clothing store and I left each one with nothing because I was just overwhelmed by the awesomeness. You know how that happens when there is too much of a good thing?

But one store was just right. If I lived in Vancouver, I’d have to be careful about how often I allowed myself to visit Mintage.

Fashion inspires me. Seeing the potential in an item of clothing stirs me to create something.

It’s not the first time a thrifted dress started a photoshoot.

Thankfully, Jamie has an amazing community of friends. One of them is Leanne, and I’m so thankful she let us photograph her.

Leanne is a photographer too, and so she wasn’t confused about why we would want to have an impromptu photoshoot in the woods by Jamie’s house at 2 o’clock on a Tuesday. I’m grateful for that.

Or maybe she was confused but hid it well. You can’t always tell with those Canadians, they are just so friendly…

Either way, I’m so grateful we got to play around with a new (old) dress on a crisp (COLD) day. And the sun was shining through the tall trees. It was perfect.

You can see some of Jamie’s photos of Leanne on her blog today. I loved seeing how Jamie and I can look at the same scene and she can capture something that I never would have noticed.

She’s pretty special.

xoxo,

Em

p.s. Jamie I still have your headband. Unbeknownst to me it traveled across the country in my coat pocket. I guess it wanted to see California. I’ll send it back soon. Loves you.

Posted in portrait | 6 Comments »