a new photography venue and a few other things

a friend of mine is applying for a singing competition that requires her to submit a “full-figure” photograph (as opposed to a headshot).  knowing that i like to dabble in photography, she asked if i would be willing to take a picture of her for this purpose.  i agreed, so she came over to my house this morning (dressed much more formally than when she normally visits!) and we tried it out.  i think we got some okay shots, but just for fun, i also took a few headshots.  here is one of the full body shots:

and here is one of the headshots:

isn’t the closer photo so much nicer?  other than the fact that she’s smiling and looking directly at the camera (we got some full-figure ones like that too and they looked a little odd somehow–like her smile was less formal than her dress or something), why is the bottom photo so much more appealing?  any advice from photographers on how to take a more engaging “full figure” portrait?  we tried to look at other “full figure” portraits online to get some inspiration and see if there was a standard to follow (does it really need to include head-to-toe?  should the person be standing or could they sit?), but google searches for “full-figure photo” garnered less than helpful results.  however, did you notice that i added some photoshop brushes to the headshot?  it was nice enough without them, but they are my new favorite toy and i just had to try them out.  i’m pleased to say that i figured out how to rotate the images!  (has to do with layers–go figure)

in other parts of my day, i baked two ugly (but tasty) baguettes:

is the dough really supposed to be that sticky, or did they print the recipe wrong?  when it came time for the last step, i was supposed to “roll the dough into long sticks with tapered ends” and i was doing good just to get the dough off of my hands in a somewhat oblong shape.  the only reason they are as “stick shaped” as they are is that i have one of those funny baguette pans that is sort of shaped like a rounded “w.”  oh well.  it toasted up nicely as garlic bread with our dinner tonight.

i liked the “smiles” of snow on my lawn chair in the back yard.

and i just had to show you this adorable tiny snowman someone built on top of a trashcan in front of the bus stop on my road.  i saw it as i was driving out to do some errands, but i didnt’ have my camera with me at the moment (you’d think i’d learn!), so i went back later.  yes, it was after dark, but i was afraid that if i waited until morning that someone might have knocked it off.  they even made a snow nose on it!