Author Archives: Amanda Raney

{Forgotten Frames} Muddy’s Edition

Oops. I did it again. More “forgotten frames” of film!

There is no good explanation as to why I didn’t remember about these photos. It’s not like some other film I forgot about that wasn’t developed until six years after it was taken. These were only taken at the end of November 2012! By the looks of it , it took me another month to finish this roll of film. Then, I dropped this roll at the photo lab (along with ten other rolls) and didn’t get to pick any of that film up until now. About two and a half months later…

What I have here are photos I took during a couple of photo shoots for Muddy’s, just as incidental shots for my own enjoyment. I had shoots at Kat’s house and at the bakery that week. I’m kind of glad I didn’t remember about these photos before getting the developed film back. I think they’re really cute and they made me pretty happy, so I thought I’d share them with you!

Ricoh FF-1* • Fuji Superia 400 (expired)

*So much love for this little camera right now!

Long-Term Project {My gift to you}

The Shoot With Personality you see today is not the first incarnation of SWP. I began doing live band photography in 2000, when I’d go see my friends’ play local shows with their bands. By 2002, I registered shootwithpersonality.com, as a place to put those photos as well as snapshots of friends when we were all attending shows. In 2009, I changed SWP to a blog/portfolio site. The sheer volume of band photos meant that most of the ones I took at shows in the early days of my photographic “career” didn’t make it into the new SWP photo galleries. I felt like this was the right move for my website, but I felt it left my friends without a place to look at pictures from the good ole days.

I’ve had plans to find a way to get a lot of these older photos back onto my website in some way, as a gift to those who’d like to look back on years past. This plan got derailed when my external hard drive took a dive and was rendered completely useless at the beginning of 2012, meaning a lot of the photos archived on it are unreadable.  There are some photos which I may never recover. The plan right now is to publish the photos that I am able to gather, bit by bit, and have them available in a photo gallery on SWP. You’ll always be able to find these photos if you go to the Photo Gallery link you see above, and visit the “live band photography” section. In the olden days, I didn’t know that I needed to save high resolution copies of my photo scans, so I will apologize on the front end that the photos aren’t quite as large as others found on SWP!

As you see the shows I’ve been able to get online as of right now, you’ll see that it doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the bands I’ve photographed and that which used to be housed on SWP. Never you worry. I’ll be working diligently to get more archived here. I feel like this is the least I can do, since all those shows I photographed and friends I made along the way have shaped me as both a photographer and a person.

 

 

FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY: THE JACKSON FAMILY, Fall 2012

Maybe you’ll recognize these beautiful people from the photo session I did with them last year. Imagine my delight I received a very charming message from Meagan:

Mike and I are wanting to hire the talented A. Raney for family fall portraits again!!! We absolutely loved last year’s and hope that you can help us out again this year!

Well of COURSE I could! The Jacksons are such awesome people, and I had been secretly hoping they’d invite me to photograph them again this fall!

Daddy, helping Ezra get ready before our photo session

We began our session together in a skate park near the Jacksons’ home. That gave us lots of color to incorporate into the photos!

My my my, how baby Ezra has grown into a proper toddler since our photo session last year. And like most toddlers, this boy was on the moooooooove!

Next, we headed over to the Overton Park and found our way to a wooded area of the park. It was a gorgeous autumn afternoon for an outdoor photo session!

Ezra was enamored with the leaves. He & mommy had just done a craft project with some! 

Squeeeeeeeeeze!” (ALSO: MIKE’S FACE IN THIS ONE!!!)

Poor Mommy. I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing this outtake – but the boys look like they’re having so much fun in it!
Ezra made a couple of new doggy friends along the way

Mommy and Daddy allowed Ezra a little play break before finishing up our session.

We call this one “Determination”

Sliiiiiiiiide

All the best models have the “pouty” look

And so ended another fun afternoon with Meagan, Mike, and Ezra! (The latter of whom I wanted to take home with me by the end of the day – he is sooooo cute and let me tote him around!)

 

{Instant England} On Holiday

‘Ello guvna!

I went to England again, ya’ll. As was the case in 2006, I took along an exorbitant amount of film cameras. Are seven cameras too many cameras? Probably! I lugged those cameras around and shot about 22 rolls of film! I foresee it being a few weeks before it’s all developed and ready to be shared with you all! In the meantime, here are the (random) shots taken with my Polaroid SLR 680 and Impossible Project PX 680 Color Protection film (or Colour Protection – these were taken in England after all!)  This film is so awesome! It performs better than any other Impossible Project film I’ve tried thus far.

(Of course, being slightly careless, I put some of these pictures in my pocket to help warm them during development, causing the photos to crumple and acquire some “character flaws.” Just thought I should mention that, since these flaws were not the fault of the film but of the one using the film!)

 

I loved all the awesome doorknockers in London

Cuteness from Kayla’s kitchen 

 Yellow roses, on top of the recycling bins outside the Swiss Cottage Tube station

( Silhouetted) The Rising Sun pub in the Tottenham Court area

 Another awesome doorknocker 

 Memorial statue dedicated to WWII Polish General/Prime Minister Wladyslaw Sikorski 

Festive shop window 

 Iron railing + window flower box

Pretty seafoam/turquoise-y railing   

(Greasy) eggs and a side of chips at a Russell Square cafe

Gold flower on iron gate in Bloomsbury

 

Sadly, I dropped my beautiful, near-mint Polaroid SLR 680 one grey afternoon in England. That cut short my ability to use the last pack of Impossible Project film I had brought  with me. However, the bright side to not being able to use that film in England is that I’ve been able to sort of get my 680 working again and have been using that pack of film here in the States! You’ll see some of those results on the blog as well!