I’ve always been impressed with photographers who tackle  “365 Days of Self-Portraits” projects. One of my favorite photographers to do this is a woman I found on Flickr years ago by the name of Lauren Rosenbaum. I don’t know this gal, I don’t think she has a blog, I’ve never tried to contact her before, but I could spend HOURS memorized by her art (particularly her frames of her daughters and her buttery bokeh nature shots). And I think I looked at every frame from her 365 Days project. I felt like I KNEW her after I did, know what I mean?

So 2010 was the year I was gonna join the whole group of folks over on Flickr who devote time to their own 365 projects. I mean, what a fun thing to look back on at the end of the year, right? Then I started thinking about how daunting it’d be to take a photo of myself every day. All year. How hard it’d be to come up with ideas after like, the first week. So I chickened out. Threw in the towel before I even let myself get started.

But shortly thereafter, I came across the wonderful Sarah Rhoads’ post about self-portraits and their value and it’s when I realized, who says a self-portrait has to be a daily thing? By turning the concept into a chore, I almost prevented myself from doing the project all together.

I’m glad I didn’t because I think there’s value to be had in photographers turning the camera on themselves. I believe every photographer who takes your picture captures something unique about you that is unique to them and their ability to document people. For some it’s a particular way they smile … for others, maybe a look in the eye they make often but never seen memorialized in a frame. Certain people coax those traits out of us better than others.

And in this photograph I took of myself, what do I see? My mom. Particularly my mom at …oh, about 30 (an age I’m creeping up on). There are not a lot of photographs of my mom at that age so if embarking on a little project like this helped me make a connection like that — to another time, another place, another person so very important to me — well then, this was so totally worth it.

For this being a January self-portrait, I really snuck it in under the wire, eh? :)

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Friend Gail on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

When I started a section on my blog called “I really love,” I thought I’d document one thing I love per post. (You know, maybe a book or a movie, or some pair of earrings I loved so much they hadn’t left my lobes in weeks.) Then I realized, over time, that a lot of times, I think about stuff I love in bunches. Trying to blog about everything I love individually …well, it can become more of a burden than something to enjoy. Yet another to-do on a list that keeps piling up. That’s never been my intent behind this idea. Nope, I just want to share all the random “stuff” I collect (figuratively and literally). ‘Cause if I keep it up there by its lonesome, it’ll start to drive me insane. And folks, my sanity’s hanging by a thread ’cause this stuff? It’s been bottling up for a while.

Which leads me to this, your first installment of my “What I’m Lovin’ Round-up”. Up for the first take:

1) Coconut Records

I cannot stop listening to these tunes! If you’ve seen Rushmore, I Heart Huckabees or The Royal Tennenbaums, chances are you’re familiar with Jason Schwartzman THE ACTOR. But, folks, y’all really need an introduction to Jason Schwartzman THE SINGER. He performs under the name Coconut Records and to say I’ve spent the month of January obsessed with his work would be an understatement akin to saying the iPad is, you know, “kinda” cool ;) . The song below is my personal fave track, but give either of his albums a listen over on Lala.com and let me know if you like. Stand-out tracks: “Wires,” “The Summer,” “Slowly,” “Mama” and “The Thanks I Get.”

2) How I Met Your Mother

My friend Tracy introduced me to HIMYM about a year ago (she always told me she thought Ted looks like Nick and I dig, I dig … ) I was all, “Yeah, yeah, but I realllllly don’t need another TV show sucking my will to live.” THEN I got the first and second season on DVD. And didn’t move my butt from the couch for an entire weekend. From there it was on to Seasons 3, 4 and now, 5. My own HIMYM DVDs have been on a rotating “interdepartmental” loan with colleagues in my office as I think I’ve told every person I work with to watch it. And those who take the bite? Well, they too, skip a weekend’s worth of homework and housecleaning because you JUST.CAN’T.STOP.WATCHING. For those who are fellow HIMYM fans, share a favorite episode with me in the comments. My favorites always involve anything to do with a SlapBet or Robin Sparkles (Non-viewers, any chance you’re curious now? ;) )

3) Dawn Landes

Ever zone out in front of the TV and all of a sudden, some commercial comes on and you sit up and pay attention ’cause suddenly you’re all WHO IS THAT SINGING? Well thank you Chrysler Town and Country for my introduction to this gal. “Straight Lines” (the song in the commercial) is fab, but it’s another track that’s been stuck in my head off Dawn’s debut CD, which came out last week, and that’s “Romeo.” Check out the video below. Bonus cool points for Dawn: She’s married to my FAVORITE folk singer, Mister Josh Ritter.

4) Victoria Secret’s Beauty Rush lip gloss

I usually am a Burt’s Bees or Bonne Bell kind of gal when it comes to this kind of stuff, but the other night I went out to see a movie with some gals, one of whom had on this superfab gloss that was, well, distracting. BECAUSE IT LOOKED AND SMELLED SO AWESOME. A few days later and a trip to the House of Pink and suddenly I’m sporting it too.

5) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I first read this book a few years ago and just fell for it. HARD. With its Depression-era circus plot and one heck of a love triangle, it was hard NOT to get swept up in the storyline. And of course, I couldn’t help but immediately start visualizing who’d play the key characters in a big screen adaptation (my vote had always gone for Ryan Gosling or Jake Gyllenhaal to play Jacob and Scarlett Johansson to play Marlena).  But this week, I heard that Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson are closing in on starring in the film and well, HELLLLOOOOOOOO HOT STUFF. I’ll go see those two in this in a heartbeat. So check the book out first if you haven’t yet. It’s hard NOT to fall in love with it!

It happened last week. Nick came to me with a sheepish look on his face, professing he couldn’t find his wedding ring.

My response was something along the lines of “Excccuuusssee me?” Or maybe it was a dirty glare. Yeah, I think it was the glare. But to be fair, well, I should have been more fair. After all, I’ve found myself in that position a few times myself. With my heart in my stomach because I’d forgotten that I’d left my ring on a countertop while soaking my hands in cleaner to mop the floor. Or having failed to remember I set it on the bathroom sink that one time ’cause I didn’t want my ring caked in mud the way my hands were going to be post-gardening. So I should have been more understanding with him. ‘Cause really, it just as easily could have been me.

This time around, I discerned a level of panic in Nick’s voice I’m not used to hearing. Almost as though he’d REALLY LOST HIS WEDDING RING. “I think I left it at work … yeah, yeah … it’s at work,” he told me. Next day—while at work—Nick found no ring. “It’s in the house. Somewhere around the house, I’m sure of it.”

So where did we find it? Well, turns out there was (white) gold in that thar carpet of ours because, while sweeping the living room before we had friends over on Friday, I came thisclose (and when I say thisclose, I literally mean like, 2 INCHES) from sweeping that band up with my beloved yellow vaccum. But I didn’t. Which means I saved the ring, had a bit of a “Eureka” moment AND got one of the biggest hugs from my husband in return.

Yep, just call me Gail the Super Sleuth :)

Anybody else out there ever have a lost band scare? Share it with me in the comments (it’ll be my way of making Nick feel better about losing his ring. ‘Cause you KNOW I won’t be letting him live that down for a while ;) )

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Friend Gail on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

I’d be here at my computer until tomorrow if you asked me to list all the things I love about my photo BFF, Betsy King. She’s a busy mama of an adorable tot with another one on the way, so it’s not always easy for us to get together. Which is probably why, when we do get together, our banter could be fodder for an episode of the “Gilmore Girls.”

For real, I didn’t think it was possible to talk that fast with someone. But when the pair of us meet up, I feel like the day starts with us wanting to synchronize our watches with a “Okay, we’ve got four hours together to get everything we want to talk about in …, get ready, set, GO!” So it never fails that after a day spent with Betsy, I’m spent. But in the ABSOLUTE best way possible. Because for however many hours I get to be with her, I’m all in. There’s a lot of us finishing one another’s sentences, starting a topic only to circle back to it an hour later and talking over each other, but it’s a dialogue we’ve grown fondly accustomed to and our conversations — hurried though they may be — always leave me on the drive back to Muncie feeling oh so happy.

And of course, when two photographers get together, you KNOW there’s gonna be some photo-takin’ involved! So here’s what we came up with in the 10 minutes we busted out some new gear, hopped back in the car four times to warm our fingers, and braved some Fort Wayne traffic to feel the satisfaction of that shutter clicking away once more. Folks, is it summer yet? I.AM.OVER.THIS.COLD.WEATHER.

And a few that Betsy snapped of me :)

Oh, and, well …. I couldn’t drop a “Gilmore Girls” reference without, you know, spending 20 minutes on YouTube watching old “Gilmore Girl” clips (come on, I’m not the only one who does this, right? I swear, one day a couple weeks ago someone Tweeted about “The O.C.” and suddenly I found myself spending my lunch hour reliving my college years and watching the first half of the first episode online. I’m so silly…). So, here’s a snippet from one of my all-time favorite TV shows. I keep my fingers crossed for that movie that may come ’round ;)

I remember it like it was yesterday. Falling asleep the night of my wedding happier than I thought it was possible a person could be. Beside me was my best friend, my HUSBAND (the first few times you say that is so surreal!) and in my mind what exactly did I remember about my wedding day? Well, not much actually … it was all such a blur. The images that carried me off to dreamland that night literally were the moments caught by our wedding photographers, Turtle Pond Photography — still fresh on my mind after seeing them play on a slideshow at our reception.

People will tell you your wedding day flies, but until you experience it, you won’t believe how much it’s true. Or how, what you WILL remember of it — whether it’s as your head hits the pillow that same night or the next year or 20 years from now — is what was reflected through the lens of your wedding photographer. This photo above of Nick and I? When I think of our wedding day, it’s this image that Amanda captured of us that is the very first memory that comes to mind, every time. And to me, it is perfect.

So, shortly after our wedding, I got caught up in this intoxicating world of wedding photography. I’ve had photography friends and new photographers alike share with me that, for them, what got them going in this business was someone telling them they had a knack for photography. Those first photos they’d taken, and shared with others, were their catalyst.

Me? Not so much. That’s not how my journey started. No, it all began with one night — the best of my life — where I fell back on a bed, exhausted but EXHILARATED.

And it’s in those moments when I come home from a wedding I’ve just photographed, peel off my sweaty clothes and fall back on a bed, exhausted but EXHILARATED, that I realize I’ve been chasing that feeling every since.

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Friend Gail on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.