Nancy Lary and I got waaaaaay back.  Over 2 years.  OK, that’s not a looooooooong time, but it seems like we’ve known each other longer than that.

Nancy and I both started out over on Clickinmoms and spent quite a lot of time there.  I knew Nancy as a web and blog designer.  Back then most of her posts included terminology foreign to me, like HTML-this and CSS-that.  But she would always comment on my posts with kind words of encouragement.  And every once in awhile when she posted one of her own images, I knew that she had some serious talent.  The first session that caught my eye was when she had a family who held a lifestyle session where they made pancakes.  Her black and white images of that session spoke to me because they were so “in the moment” and all about bonding as a family doing something that they loved to do together.  Nancy made the ordinary look extraordinary.

I was so excited when she finally launched her own photography business, Nancy Lary Studios.  We’re now both over at The Bloom Forum and I continue to be inspired by her lifestyle photography, not to mention her sarcastic and down-to-earth sense of humor.  The fact that she’s watched Tommy Boy at all, let alone that she could watch it a few more times,  says it all.

Hi, Nancy!

Where are you from and where is home now?

I’m from a small down in Northeast Missouri.  We’ve now happily settled in South Bend, Indiana after having lived in Kansas City, MO, Amarillo, TX, Southwest Iowa and Northern Iowa.

Tell me a little about your family.

Brian and I have been married just over 11 years & we have three kids.  Bradyn (7) talks too much but it a total charmer.  Ellie (5) is the sweetest child ever.  Pure sugar.  Lily “Lulu” (2) is lucky she’s cute.

Are you formally educated or self-taught in photography?

Clickin’ Moms, baby!  Seriously, that’s where I found myself as a photographer & build my foundation.  I’m just now investing in formal workshops.  I did a mini-workshop on lifestyle with the amazing Stacey Woods and am now halfway through Bloom.  I’m glad I waiting to do the workshops because now I feel like I can more easily wrap my head around what I’m learning & really focus on the assignments rather than flounder around with my camera.

I am in love with your black and white lifestyle photography.  What does a session look like to a fly on the wall?

I’m a total introvert and am learning to use that to my advantage as a lifestyle photographer.  I try to connect to my subjects without giving too much direction.  My best sessions have been when the family is involved in a meaningful activity so they’re naturally interacting.

Do you have any secrets you want to divulge about how you do your black and white conversions?

There’s no secret!  I prefer soft & reflected, but not flat light.  I really feel like the light has a lot to do with the way the conversion ends up looking.  I shoot jpeg but am working on matching my RAW conversion.  I use the basic LR conversion and boost exposure to the point where I have a highlight almost to the right of the histogram, then I bump brightness just a tad, contrast just a tad and add a vignette.  I tweak until there’s a “shine” to the subject’s face but I avoid losing detail or super-bright faces.  I watch to make sure I’m leaving a nice range of grays in the image and on the face.  Sometimes I shoot my kids in B&W and just have to boost a little in LR.

When you’re in a rut, what inspires you?

As cliche as it is, it’s probably my kids that usually fill my mojo cup back up when I’m needing it.  I either dress them up and take them to a location I’ve been eyeing or I do a “day in the life”.  I don’t get in ruts so much as I end up with pent-up creativity that makes me agitated and needs to be expressed.  It’s rough being artsy!  When I’m bored with my kids, sometimes I’ll ask a friend if I can do something specific with her kids.

Talk to me about personal projects.  Are they important and what have you done lately?

My main personal project is a 365 this year.  Oh the 365….  But I’m keeping it alive and meaningful by printing the pictures (yes, I said printing the pictures) and doing a Project Life album.  I also did a “Christmas outfit” shoot with my kids & Brian shot Flip video and made an iMovie.  It was a masterpiece & I totally want to do it again!  There’s something so fulfilling about doing a personal project and having something to show for it.
I love your fabulous idea for Krispy Kreme Fridays.  Tell me how that came about and how successful it has been.

I think one of the first times I shot my kids at Krispy Kreme was right after Bradyn’s kindergarten graduation (so of course I had my camera like a true mamarazzi).  We left the ceremony and Brian went back to work.  I looked at my kids and thought, “Holy crap, I have to keep all three of these kids busy all summer…what am I going to do?”  Eat donuts of course.  Shooting kids when they’re happy makes for much more productive sessions.  So I get to practice and they get donuts.  Everybody wins.

I offered it a few times last summer and it was really fun.  I’m looking forward to doing it again this summer!

If you could be invisible for one day with your camera…

I’d document a birth and the first 24 hours.  Someday I’d like to shoot births for real but for now, I can’t commit to being able to drop everything and be there.  A close friend recently had a baby and I went to see her that evening.  I was unsure about bringing my camera but I’m so glad I did.  I’m not a baby person.  They make me nervous.  But this was such an emotional experience for me that I’d love to do more of it.  Being invisible would be handy in a situation like that.

Name a photographer you would like to take a portrait of?

Tara Whitney.  Like a lot of photographers, I just really dig her.

What’s in your camera bag?

I really only use my camera at sessions and only have one lens so that’s all I should need.  But I carry a red JoTote with a speedlite (never use it), some clamps (?), a diaper or two (wipes would be good but they’re never in there), a WhiBal  (totally should use that more), a pair of kids socks (never know when you’ll make an emergency trip to the Chik-Fil-A playplace) & an empty raisin box.  Sometimes I get lucky and find a lens cloth in there.

What have been your three best photography investments so far?

I’m so glad I upgraded from the 40D to the 5D MarkII & 50mm 1.4.  Being able to shoot with that focal length on a full-frame camera with high ISO capability has allowed me to photograph the way I see things.  I also switched to Mac last year which was a good move for me.  All three very predictable answers but oh so true.

If not a photographer, what would you have been?

I have a degree in Occupational Therapy.  I think that if I wasn’t a photographer, I’d still want to work one day a week or at least a few days a month.  I feel very fulfilled and purposeful right now & wouldn’t do well with feeling like I didn’t have a “thing” outside of home and family.

If you could live anywhere in this awesome planet, where would you build your dream home?

Columbia, MO.  We are still very close to our high school and college friends & our families are all in Missouri.  I’d love to live right in Columbia where we both went to college.  I love where we live now and the friends we have here but it’s still hard being far away from friends and family.

What talent would you most like to have?

Singing.  There is nothing I’m worse at but I do it enough that it would be great if I was amazing at it.

What are the three words your spouse would use to describe you?

He said, “Personable, laid back & social”.  Are personable and social different enough to count as two separate things?  I have to tell you, I emailed him to ask and he first said, “Hooch.  E.  Mama.”  I think if I’d have had to guess what he would have said, I’d have definitely said “laid back” but probably also something like “creative” and “flakey”.

Something that is over rated…

Keeping a clean house.  Having a clean house totally isn’t over rated.  Keeping a clean house totally is.

Your favorite movie of all time?

I don’t have one!  I could watch The Hangover a time or two more and maybe Tommy Boy a few more times…and will definitely watch Elf & Christmas Vacation every year with my kids.  It was such a joy to introduce them to inappropriate humor from Clark Griswold this year.

If you could change one thing you did while starting your photography business, what would it be?

I wouldn’t have put so much of myself into shooting for clients and friends with whom I didn’t share a common vision.  It might have been good practice from a skills perspective but it didn’t do me any favors in developing my style and no one was happy with the results.  I didn’t get to go as lifestyle as I would have liked and they didn’t get the portraits they were hoping for.

What quote best represents you at this moment?

“To thine own self be true.”  –Shakespeare.

Thank you, Nancy!

Nancy’s work can be found HERE.