Homemaker Monday: Finding Photography Inspiration From Google Images

YOURS: This portion is in progress. Thanks for your patience! :)

MINE: Recently I decided it would be fun to do a journalist-style photo shoot of a couple of the missionaries in our area. If you remember, Mormon missionaries are young men usually between the ages of 19 and 21 who serve the Lord for two years in varying destinations all over the world. In order to focus on the work of sharing the gospel, they are asked to have somewhat limited contact with friends and family back home. Our son, who is also a missionary, is able to write to us once a week, and can call on Mother's Day and Christmas. We look forward to his emails every Monday afternoon, and he ours.

Although mothers the world over are overjoyed the day their sons go out and serve their missions, it can sometimes be difficult for moms who have spent 18 years raising them, focused on this purpose, who then must severe their apron strings so abruptly. It was for this reason that I decided what a wonderful thing it would be for me to take photos of the missionaries in their current working conditions and send them to their mothers.

So I wondered how I would go about doing the photo shoot. What poses would I use? How would these pictures be different from your average missionary companionship photo? It occurred to me to go to google images and there I typed in "lds missionaries working" and found all kinds of inspiration.

The first photo was a typical missionary-walking-away-from-the-camera shot. This one is really cool because of the reflection on the tracks....

We don't have tracks in our town that I know of, so I thought of a lovely location about a block away, and when the lighting was just right, John and our family, on the missionaries' preparation day, drove them there on our way to take them home. Here's the original, having been cropped, brightened and contrasted a little...

...and here, the edited version, with a little cross-processing and vignette. And just for your info, I used the very simplistic editor at photobucket for my post-processing. One day I'll get light room, but for now it's one-click editing!

Next I came across another quite typical photo of some elders (title for young LDS missionaries) walking, facing the camera. I love this photo because it really captures the society in which they are serving.

Since I didn't have time to secure any livestock to walk down the road, I simply asked the elders to turn around and start walking back towards me...

....and because I know moms love this kind of thing, I added a popular and meaningful scripture, which in English says, "I will go and do what the Lord has commanded." I thought I was original, but then the 16-year-old girl reminded me that my photographer friend Shauna had used this scripture on a photo of her son. She said I was copying. It all came back to me then, that yes, indeed, this is where the original inspiration had come from. Hope you don't mind me copying you, Shauna! It's the highest form of flattery! Here is the same photo with again, some simple cross-processing and vignette action....

Okay, so I loved the following inspiration because it highlights the companionship, but it also focuses on only one missionary. I thought that the moms would like this highlight of their sons as well.....

Here's mine, which I think I like even more because, of their own accord, the elders chose to face sideways, which adds interest...

...and now again with the post-processing, including one of the elders favorite scriptures....

Now, for the final portrait, I came across an elder reading scriptures....

While I liked the focus on the word of God, I had remembered that I had seen an inspiring photo of a man sitting on a chair studying a book in front of a window. It was an image that stayed with me because I thought it would be an excellent pose for John. So I set it up with the missionaries ...

It's definitely by far my favorite image in the series, especially after the simple post-processing....

I am so pleased with how these images turned out, and I share this with you so that you might know you can do it quite easily, too! Search for inspiration on the web, in books, and in magazines, and if you don't have a fancy edited program, find one on the net. I've heard picnik and gimp are good. But most importantly, have fun with it!

Thanks for listening! :)

OURS: Now it's your turn! What homemaking tips do you have today? Can't wait to see!