Happy New Year! See how I squeaked that in on the last day of January!?
I’ve been on a bit of a holiday this January. I’m back well-rested, inspired and ready to go. This year I’ve taken a tip from Gretchen Rubin, who I’ve mentioned several times on my blog. She’s the author of The Happiness Project with a blog that I thoroughly enjoy. Gretchen suggests rather than coming up with a list of resolutions, come up with just one word that will be your theme for the year. Only one word to describe what you aim to change about yourself, your life, your direction, for 2011. For the first 29 days or so of January, I changed my word constantly. First it was ‘more’. Sleep more. Read more. Laugh more. Exercise more. Then I changed it to ‘less’. Worry less. Less screen time. Eat less. Then it was ‘action’. Take action. Initiate action. Get a little action.
Then, a couple of days ago, I hit on the word that is officially my word of 2011, and that’s ‘share’. Share time. Share love. Share treats. Share the road. Share knowledge.
So, in the spirit of my word of the year, I invite your questions. If you are a photographer just getting started and you have a question for me, send it along. If you are a mom or dad who wants some tips for taking better pictures of their children, send me a note.  Perhaps you just need a really great recipe for banana bread…I can be reached at trish@trishmennell.com.

Also in the spirit of sharing, I’m going to include a bit of extra info with the images that I post on my blog telling how that image was captured and with what gear.

Let’s start with adorable Mr. Hudson. Hudson is a little man with Dad’s good looks and Mom’s incredible brown eyes. This image was shot about three minutes after arriving at my client’s beautiful home. My assistant and I walked into this warm home on a cold day in January and were met with a fire roaring in the fireplace and a happy family enjoying a day at home together. Hudson was popped down on the floor for a minute while everyone got ready for our shoot. I loved his hair, his eyes and the fire behind him. The white shirt was lovely and bright and helped with the natural light coming in on Hudson’s right side. I grabbed my Nikon D3 and my 85mm 1.4 from my bag, dropped to my tummy and shot three or four frames. Shutter speed 1/125, f1.4 ISO 160.  Love it.