About Naomi Figueroa Photography

Traveling. Farmer‘s markets. Changing of seasons. Latin America. Cooking. The color blue (definitely not pink). Maine. Fresh fruits and veggies. Photography. Big dogs (if you‘re going to be a dog, be a DOG). Writing. The smell of pine trees. Jesus. Teenagers. Speaking Spanish (or trying, at least). Learning. Fair trade coffee. Dancing salsa with my husband. Nature. Family.

Just a few snippets of my life, but it all comes out in my photography because it is part of who I am. The why of everything I do is to bring glory to God. He is the ultimate Creative and the reason that we have this wonderful gift of being able to create, whether our medium is art or language or technology or music.

I‘m so glad you stopped by my blogsite. I hope you‘ll enjoy exploring a bit. Leave some love in the comments, or send me a note on the contact page! :D

Archive: October, 2009



Rainbow Chips Deluxe

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

We didn’t go on “real” vacations when I was a kid. I mean, now that I’m an adult, I realize that a lot of people go to Florida or the Grand Canyon, or maybe even another country for “vacation.” But when I was eight, I didn’t know that people did that for vacation. Vacation to me meant bug spray, bikes, a hammock, a raft, a canoe, a 4 WD pickup truck, and cookies. Rainbow Chips Deluxe.

See, the only rules we had on our camping trips in the back woods of Maine:

1. There are no rules.

2. You can eat as many cookies as you want.

Oh yes, it’s true. I distinctly remember my dad telling me those very words. What I didn’t realize is that my parents had already taught us to define the term “snack” as something like an apple, banana, or piece of toast by the way they had raised us….Plus, they were the ones who bought the cookies in the first place, so they were ultimately in control of how many cookies we had access to. But I didn’t know that…all I knew was that my parents finally said I could eat as many cookies as I wanted! I was in heaven…

I’m so glad we didn’t take the “real” vacations.

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Fall Hike

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

What a gorgeous day after all that rain and cold last week! And I was blessed to have it off from work WITH my husband, so we decided to head up to French Creek State Park and go for a hike, which is about 30-40 minutes from our house. I had been wanting to check it out for quite awhile since it is so close, but we just never had gotten around to it.

So today, we packed a lunch, grabbed our cameras, and piled in the car with puppy in tow…We were pretty hungry by the time we got there, so we just ate outside the park station, trying to avoid the hundreds, if not thousands, of lady bugs swarming around. Migrating ladybugs really make things difficult sometimes. We decided to try out the Boone Trail (blue blazes)…it was a rough start trying to figure out exactly where the trail started (as it was a loop, and you could start from various parking lots). We finally got it and were on our way…We hiked for a couple of hours–we didn’t do the whole loop, but we hiked about halfway around a lake. The fall colors and crystal lake were amazing! I’d definitely like to go back and check out some more trails sometime…but for now, I’ll just enjoy how incredibly tired Sabana is as she sleeps peacefully in her bed…and as for the rest of this gorgeous day, I think we’ll fire up the grill and have burgers and the last of the Pennsylvania corn.

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Why Black and White is more than “remove color”

Monday, October 19th, 2009

A good black and white photo can really take my breath away. I’m inspired by photographs like these and these to work on refining my post-processing skills. The spark started when I took a B&W film photography class in college. Working in the darkroom hadn’t really interested me before I took that class, until I understood how amazing the process was. I was still somewhat afraid of contrast at the time, but by the end of the semester I started to see what life and interest a little contrast could bring.

And now, well, I don’t work in a darkroom anymore (though given the opportunity, I’d love to shoot a few rolls and get back in there with all those chemicals). These days, most photographers work digitally, AKA the “lightroom.” Luckily, I don’t have to run test strips of expensive photo paper to come up with the best exposure and contrast, but it is still hard work. I have a one simple example of why beautiful black and white photography is much more than hitting the “desaturate” or “remove color” button at the Walmart kiosk.

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