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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

MEP Intern Photo of the Week - Week #1 | Maris Ehlers Photography

Hi all! I am pleased to meet you.

I know you all enjoy reading posts from Maris, but you'll have to put up with me (Courtney) every Tuesday morning for my weekly blog post. Hopefully you won't mind. As this is my first post as MEP's intern, I'd like to introduce myself.

As I said, I'm Courtney. I just finished my second year at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM), and I am majoring in Studio Art with an emphasis in Photography with a business minor. I met Maris through her photo contests believe it or not, and began going on shoots with her as an assistant last summer. She - luckily - put up with me, and now for this summer I have graduated to intern...which is still the same as assistant just with a fancy title ;-) 

As part of my internship, Maris has suggested I do a weekly blog, and I loved the idea! I had started a "photo diary" last summer, in hopes of reminding me to get out my camera every day, and it was a ton of fun, and so I've continued it this summer. That is what I'll blog about each week.

For each blog post, I'll pick one image from the previous week to show and tell you about.

However, if you'd like to see all images for the current week and from previous weeks, feel free to view my page, and photo diary here:    www.facebook.com/CapturedByCourtneyPhotography 

PLEASE feel free to leave comments, suggestions, critiques, questions, anything! This is meant as a learning experience for me, so please, have at it! Feedback is always welcomed!

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This week, I'm going to share two of my favorite images from this summer so far. Both have the same theme: Baby animals!

The first image puts a smile on my face every time I look at it.

Lady, the special fawn that touched my heart.

This image is one of my personal favorites. I graduated high school with a friend whose family raises deer. She got ahold of me a couple weeks ago saying the babies were here, and naturally, I jumped on over. They had about 15 fawns at that point, and were bottle feeding all of them. To give you a sense of how small they are, Laura's hand is on Lady's back. It was precious, and very humbling to have an animal you normally see in the wild crawl in your lap to cuddle and give kisses.


The second image also has a unique story.

Baby Robin waiting for food.

I learned the hard way last summer that in order to get an image every day that I am happy with, my camera has to be with me at ALL times. This was no exception. 

My family goes camping every year for vacation, and we're currently looking for a new camper. My dad came home one day, said he'd found a potential one worth looking at, and asked if I wanted to come along to look at it. As I had nothing else I had to do, I joined him, and - thankfully - grabbed my camera at the last minute. We got there, and I was walking around looking at all the neat stuff this guy had, when I noticed an odd mound of weeds on this bird bath. Curious, I went to look at it, and as I got closer, I realized it was a nest, with not only three little babies looking at me, but the mom was sitting on the nest too! I got within three feet of this nest before the mama flew off while the babies sat there unfazed. So, I ran to the truck and grabbed my camera, and this was one of the shots I got. 

When I pointed it out to the guy, he told me something even more amazing. The mama had built her nest on a tire of the camper. When the family went to use it the weekend before, they had no choice but to move the nest, and chose to place it above the bird bath, hoping the mama wouldn't abandon it. Miraculously, she did no such thing, and in turn, that gave me the chance to see her babies up close. 

I loved how a normal animal, such as a bird, could have such a beautiful story. Nurturing runs deep, and I am pleased I was able to capture that.

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