Gralyn J. Photography

 Last weekend I was photographing a wedding and my husband was invited as a guest. Often times he will help me with switching lenses, packing my bag or backgrounds etc. He kept me laughing all day, as did the wedding party, and on our drive home I looked at him and said, “Don’t ever change”. It took me a moment when I really stopped and thought about that phrase, “Don’t ever change”. I had meant it in a kind way, a way of love and appreciation as he makes me smile and keeps everything light even in stressful situations. But as I thought more about it I realized how confining that term was.  Don’t Change. That’s scary. As much as I’d like to think that change is scary, not changing is even worse. I look back at myself even just two years ago and recognize how much I have changed for the better since then. I am far more outgoing, can strike up conversations with just about anyone, and business practices- Forget about it. I wouldn’t be where I am in my business if I hadn’t grown ...

I have learned a lot in the ten years that I have been doing professional grade photos. I could go on and on about how I got started but then I would be contributing to the blogs that make you scoll endlessly until you find the actual information in them- That's not this blog. I had a family photo session at the Armstrong pumpkin patch and after having an absolute BLAST with these wonderful people my sister-in-law, who was involved in the family photos, started posing for me. I took a handful of photos and went through them, not really sure what I was looking for, but just wanting them to be as beautiful as they were in my head. After capturing this one, I looked over it and wasn't happy with how it looked on my screen. I moved, got down into the dirt and told Tamieka to do exactly what she had before, but look down instead of out over the patch. It changed the entire "feeling" of the image! Instead of losing my subject in the background I was able to fixate on he...

To the person with the abused dog; I see you. I’m not judging you. You’re being so kind and other people are looking at you so strangely, commenting on how the dog is terrified ‘of you’. I’ve heard your story, I’ve heard her story. I know her previous owner beat her, and you’re trying so hard to help. You’re trying to get her to sit with a hand signal and she is panicking, but she will understand. I promise she will see the love you’re offering her. She already trusts you so much more than her previous person. Keep going. Keep being kind. Keep loving her as much as you do. Ignore others who jump to conclusions. They don’t know. From the Mom of a rescue dog.

I'm sore all over from working a job I actually enjoy for once, and not sleeping at night because I'm panicking about life. No reason in particular, just the fact that I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. I'm 20, fresh out of teenage hood and finished my first year of schooling, now beginning to doubt everything I've ever thought about in life. I had a recent set back which took me back to when I was alone and scared. My parents were divorced and not speaking which made it tough for me to get any information to or from them. I found a group I thought would help and they did for a while... Until everything went wrong. I lost friends, connections, and people I thought I could genuinely trust in my life. Why is this affecting me now? I have no idea. It's something that still hasn't left me. It still keeps me up at night- Why would someone do these things? Why did this happen? What could I have done to stop it? It put me back in 16 year old me's s...

    Alright, so today I am going to go through my new job; Highlights, some low lights and the overall experience of being a school photographer.     In the last month I have been traveling to various schools in my area to take school day photos--ages Kindergarten to grade 12. WOW! What an experience it has been.     I am going to try and balance the high and low lights just to keep it nice and even.     The kids are by far my favorite part- depending on the age group. High schools are very tough for me because what I experience in high school was stress, about everything! So going back into the schools was nerve wracking, but dealing with teenagers was even more so. One of my first days on the job I was set up and ready to shoot so I asked my boss about the rule on hats for the day. As usual it was first shot without, and second shot with. So that's how I shot--Until I got to the grade 12's. Yikes. I sat one guy down...