Category Archives: Personal

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

God Bless America Land That I Love

Posted in Personal, Photography, Travel

In June of 2012, my family and I embarked on the longest road trip of our lives. We decided it would be a great idea to drive from Hampden, ME to Denver, CO in order to save money and see the country on our way to a wedding. While the kids will probably have been too young to remember it, the trip was long and memorable and one of the coolest experiences of our lives.  Two weeks of driving doesn’t leave a lot of time for photography but I tried my best to take the camera out every so often.

Below are some of my favorite images from the trip. Do you recognize any of the locations? Let me know what you think and where I should take the family on our next trip!

Posted in Personal, Photography, Travel
Thursday, January 24, 2013

A Winner is You | Maine Photographer

Posted in Personal, Photography

It has been a long while since I last posted an entry so I thought everyone might like an update. 2012 was an extremely exhausting, gratifying and successful year. Here’s a quick recap:

  1. Completed the 365 Day Portrait Project
  2. Summited Mt. Katahdin
  3. Graduated from UMaine with my Masters in Business Administration (My wife earned her Masters too!)
  4. Drove across the country (from ME to CO and back)
  5. Visited Washington DC for the first time
  6. Saw a Wallenda cross Niagara Falls on a tight rope in person
  7. Watched several sunrises and sunsets in Acadia National Park (see lighthouse above)
  8. Tony Llerena Photography had its most successful year yet!
  9. Probably a bunch of other things I can’t remember right now…

Bottom line, I thought I would be burned out by everything that I went through, everything I accomplished. The truth of the matter is that I’m actually more energized now than I’ve ever been. I feel great creatively and have so many things I’d like to do. I have the tools and skills now to take my photography to the next level, and I have some ideas about how I’m going to get there.

I received so much love encouragement last year that I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get me through the tough times. I couldn’t have done it without your help. Thank you for all of your support!

 

Posted in Personal, Photography Tags: , , , , , ,
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Portrait 230 – Jennifer

Posted in 365 Portraits, Personal

This week has been a blur. I have to give a big shout out to everyone who has helped me with the project. You would think it would be easy to find people but we all lead very busy lives. I was ecstatic when Jenn was available and in Hampden to boot! It made my day so much easier, especially since I had a location I wanted to try near my home. About Jennifer:

Hi, I’m Jenn. I’ve come a long way. 19 years ago, I dropped out of high school, and this past December, I graduated from UMaine for the third time with my second Masters Degree in Counselor Education.

I like to stay busy, so I work as a part-time elementary school guidance counselor, an adjunct English Composition teacher, and as a fitness instructor. In my spare time last year, I began a peer abuse prevention project, and spoke at more than 20 schools around the state, educating students about the long term consequences of bullying. I am also a writer, an active volunteer in the community, and a nature enthusiast.

And did I mention that I am a wife and mom as well? I love my family; I am so thankful for them. We laugh all the time and do silly things together. It’s what life is all about.

Posted in 365 Portraits, Personal Tags: , , , ,
Monday, February 6, 2012

Portrait 207 – Brandon

Posted in 365 Portraits, Personal

The thing I like most about working at UMaine has to be the community. If you stay long enough, you’ll get to know just about everyone. I sold Brandon my first iPad about a year ago and it turned out that he worked periodically just down the hall in the Multicultural office. Small world!

I had an idea for a shot that I couldn’t quite execute because I couldn’t get the perfect toss. We tried a buch of different variations and then Brandon nailed it with the flash catching the ball in the correct position. LACES OUT!!!

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, P.A. I played for the University of Maine Football Team, BLACKHOLE. Now, I’m a second year graduate student in the College of Education. I’m also a graduate assistant working for the Office of Multicultural Programs and Academic Support for Student Athletes.

Posted in 365 Portraits, Personal Tags: , , , ,
Friday, September 16, 2011

Portrait 64 – Kaidi

Posted in 365 Portraits, Personal

Today’s Portrait is extra special because it’s a birthday Portrait! Originally, Kaidi asked if we could do it ON her birthday but I’ll be shooting a wedding so we compromised on the day before. She was a good sport about me forgetting where she came from and asking her to walk through ivy while dressed up. Hey, at least I remembered how to pronounce her name! Happy Birthday Kaidi!

My name is Kaidi (pronounced like Heidi with a K). I am an international student from Tallinn, Estonia. This is my third year at UMaine as an International Affairs major and Psychology double major. I work as a Resident Assistant in Hart hall and am a tutor for the Tutor Program. I don’t like long walks on the beach or the sound of rain – basically I’m just an average girl with my own vision of the world, and I use every opportunity I get to share it with the people around me. Oh, and it’s my birthday tomorrow (9/17). Yay.

Posted in 365 Portraits, Personal
Sunday, August 7, 2011

Take time every day to laugh, to think, to cry

Posted in Personal, Photography, Photography Tips

Photography, much like life, comes down to the choices you make. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all existential on you, all I’m saying is that any time I take my camera out of my bag, I have a decision to make. What separates the good photographer from the great one is the knowledge and experience of knowing when and how. Filter… or no filter? (see below) That’s why I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes by Mary Schmich: “Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.”

If you’ve ever seen me while I’m shooting, half the time I have no idea what I’m doing. The other half, I REALLY don’t know what I’m doing. But I feel the reason I succeed is that I’m not afraid to fail. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again, right? This applies to anything in life you find difficult or challenging or when things just seem like they’re not going your way. Jimmy Valvano said it best when he gave his famous speech at the ESPY’s in 1993 “Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up.” If you haven’t heard his speech, do yourself a favor and take the time to watch the video. I promise, dust will spontaneously appear in your eyes.

Posted in Personal, Photography, Photography Tips
Monday, July 11, 2011

Funtown Splashtown USA

Posted in Personal, Travel

Call me a theme park snob if you will but growing up in Florida kind of spoils you when it comes to tourist attractions. We had Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Busch Gardens, Sea World and others all within a few hours drive. But I live in Maine now. So what do we have in Maine for theme parks? Well… we have… Funtown Splashtown USA? As hesitant as I am to visit any attraction with USA in the title, I relented under wife pressure because that is what she wanted to do on her birthday. No Floridian can refuse a request on his wife’s birthday.

To sum up my experience, it was “fun”ny and “splash”y. We actually had a really great time. There was something for everyone, the lines weren’t too long and the park was just big enough. The Splashtown side is actually well laid out with areas for little kids separate from the areas for the bigger kids and adults. The Tornado and Mammoth slides were each several stories tall, giving pause to even the most seasoned thrill seekers. Funtown’s rides had a little bit of everything from antique car riding to teacups. My favorite ride was the Excalibur Wooden Roller Coaster which was a lot faster and more fun than it looks from the ground.

It’s suffice to say that while Funtown Splashtown does not compete with the ultra mega theme parks from Florida, it certainly does hold its own and is perfect for what it is. Good family fun close to home.

Posted in Personal, Travel
Thursday, March 10, 2011

Back to the basics

Posted in Personal

So I pestered my father-in-law to bring down his old camera from storage because I love to look at them and figure out how they work. He has a Canon FTb 35mm SLR with a “standard” 50mm f/1.8 lens and a couple of other accessories. After tinkering with it for some time, he discovered that there was still film inside! Who knows what could be stored there and when the last time the camera was used?

Ah, yes, the point of this post. What I’ve come to realize is that as far as we’ve come with the technology inside cameras, the foundation of capturing an image remains the same. It all comes down to capturing light. You really had to know what you were doing 20 years ago or else you may have ended up with no pictures on the film because all of the images are white from overexposure or black from underexposure.

Manual settings!!?!?! What’s that? You’re afraid to use the manual setting on your camera? Well, with this particular camera, everything is manual, literally. Aperture? Set manually on the lens. Shutter speed? Set manually with a dial. ISO/ASA? Also set manually with a dial so you’d better hope you remembered what type of film you put in.

So I took a few test shots to see if I could appropriately guess the exposure because the built in meter had run out of battery 15 years ago. I’m going to get the film processed today so hopefully some of my shots came out.

Posted in Personal
Thursday, February 10, 2011

To blog or not to blog… just like everyone else.

Posted in Personal

I’m trying to revamp all of my photography business related multimedia and part of it entails revamping my blog. Every photographer worth their weight in salt has one so I guess I’d better have one too. : ) I’m just not sold on the blogger format yet though. I feel so limited by the stock themes that I’ll probably be doing some research into a webhost where I can house a WordPress blog. I’m also not thrilled about how statically the images are displayed but I’ll have to decide if this works for my budding business, Tony Llerena Photography.

This was the group photo of the the peeps in charge for the Jackson Laboratory party at The Spectacular Events Center in Bangor.
Sweet base of a custom ice sculpture that was a double helix, whatever that is.
Weeee!!!
Posted in Personal
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Non-existent AT&T iPhone Service in Bangor, ME

Posted in Personal

Let me start off by saying that my iPhone 3GS is probably the best portable electronics device that I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned a lot of them. The 3GS is a dream come true in terms of functionality and productivity except that the AT&T service in the greater Bangor area renders its communication capabilities useless. There are as many dead spots on I-95 as there are good ones. The Edge network works slower than dial-up in most cases if at all. Basically, most of the time I feel like I grossly overpaid for an iPod Touch and I keep getting nailed $30 a month for a phantom 3G network that I’ll never be able to use. Even if only the phone service worked well, I think I’d be happy with the service overall since I have plenty of access to wifi. Instead, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the Verizon version of the iPhone this coming January so I can finally get some work done on the road.

Rant over.

- Posted from my iPad

Posted in Personal

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