The last of nine photos with Amour. She’s handing a Pikachu doll to her friend Jerica. This is actually a remote for an old Pikachu VCR… it has play, stop, fast-forward, and rewind buttons on Pikachu’s hands and feet, a power button on the Pokemon’s stomach, a remote sensor on the back of his head, and AA batteries inside.

Jerica and Amour couldn’t help but laugh.

I wish Amour good fortune in her modeling and psychology career, and the same for Jerica in her field of study.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F3.5, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T09:41:27-05, …

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Amour wants to wander the world instead of being stuck in boring college courses. I wasn’t planning on using this for anything, but I love her eyes and pose because she looks innocent and curious.

There’s some guy standing in the background with a backpack, facing away. We were at a busy (sidewalk) intersection. If I asked him to move, three people would have immediately replaced him. Oh well. I think he filled in a hole because there was bright sky or a building behind him.

I brightened Amour’s eyes and darkened her pupils, cleaned her up a …

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Amour with her friend Jerica O’Neal, acting all serious. I have a photo of both ladies smiling but it doesn’t work… there was no balance.

Amour is the noun for love in French, which is very serious.

Jerica had to stand on her toes while Amour crouched down or they’d be blocking each other. I couldn’t have them stand side to side either.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/500, F4, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T10:12:27-05, 20091102-151227rxt

Amour is watching you. Or she is being watched. Either way, she’s not afraid . . . my caption-writing abilities are going down fast.

This is outside of the photography school at Daytona State College. They have these cool blue-tinted windows… you can see my reflection vaguely in the window on the left.

I just told Amour to do something interesting and I got this. Good job girl.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F3.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T10:10:38-05, 20091102-151038rxt

Amour pretending to play a video game.

I gave her an old PlayStation 1 controller and told her to start mashing the buttons. She’s looking at an imaginary television set to the left of the frame. The cable for the controller just trails off to the ground.

If you play video games make sure to do it with friends because it’s no fun alone. I’ve been in a couple impromptu Mario Kart DS tournaments at the college cafeteria. Fun fun fun. Of course I can out-snake everyone.

She smiled with teeth and all in another …

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Kathleen Edsom, a culinary student at Daytona State College, posing with Amour Bloomfield in the grass.

I took a few photos with both ladies looking at the camera, but I preferred having Kathleen look up at Amour so it isn’t an ordinary portrait. I got grass stains on my jeans… but I had to kneel in the grass to get the camera down low enough. This was near bldg. 300 at the campus, so there were a lot of students watching, asking questions, trying to join in. There’s a big photography school just a few …

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The 3rd of 9 portraits of Amour. She’s stopping to smell the roses… or petunias, or whatever these blue flowers are.

The flowers and mulch was planted there, the flower in her hair is fake, and she’s wearing a dress and makeup, but I still say she’s with nature.

For editing I removed some freckles from Amour’s arm (spot healing brush), darkened the corners, added contrast, brightened her face, and toned down the greens a bit.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1600, F2.8, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T09:58:38-05, 20091102-145838rxt

Amour is looking for you! This is at the clock tower at Daytona State College. You can see her books and coffee in the background at the bottom left. It was overcast, which is the best lighting for portraits.

From the camera this was too dark, but I brightened it with the exposure tool and highlight recover to 45 in Adobe Camera Raw 5.0. There wasn’t much to do otherwise because she knew how to pose.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/2000, F2.8, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T09:55:30-05, 20091102-145530rxt

Amour Bloomfield playing the violin. Amour is a Daytona State College student and she assures me she has modeled for many of the photography students.

She didn’t know how to play my violin, but she picked it up pretty quickly so hopefully no one will notice. The book is Suzuki Vol. 2, which I enjoy playing. I’ve never advanced beyond a second-year level in violin (unlike piano), but at least I have good intonation.

At first Amour was looking at the music, but I told her to look at the camera instead. It doesn’t …

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