Happy Birthday Dad!

One of the best gifts I gave this year was my dad's birthday gift. Jeff came up with the idea of ordering him a "custom" cover featuring his car on a magazine. It was a great idea, however, the custom covers you create through online companies are less than "custom".... well, not what I was imagining anyway! I decided I would create my own cover which could include multiple images, several headlines and more. It turned out amazing.... better than I could have hoped for. I got quite a reaction from my dad, in addition to alot of requests for copies. I have definately added a new piece of work to my portfolio!

Merry Christmas!

So Christmas is a mere 10 days away.... can you believe it! I have actually had little time to post anything exciting as I have been working on Christmas stuff which cannot be revealed until after Christmas - obvious reasons, of course! Hopefully the creations I have made will be well received! For now, I will share with you my Christmas cards I made. The design, I love: it's fun, it's bright, it's bold.... I got them back from the printer on Saturday and to much of my dismay, I am rather disappointed. I had pricey ideas this year and had a hard time finding a decent price for printing my cards. I finally found a place in Canada which was a fourth of the price I could find anywhere else. They aren't bad except for the skin coloring of the pictures on the front, apparently, Canadian printers believe the color of skin should be hot pink. I think next year, I'll find a different printer. For those of you who will get a printed copy of the card, you may be amused when you see the difference.... I suppose you are your own worst critic, maybe they aren't as horrific as I think. In any case, the holiday season is upon us and I wish you all a safe and happy Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Thankful....

There is so much to be thankful for this year. Healthy family, stable jobs, unconditional love, and so much more. I thought this would be a nice time to introduce another reason for thanks, children. Children are such wonderful creations and everyday, I give thanks for my own. Here is another precious child from a good friend, Amy, and her husband, Chris. I'd like to introduce, Ruby....

Happy Birthday!

Today is my niece and nephews First Birthdays. No, they are not twins, however, they are referred to as the Birthday Twins by some in the family. They were born to my older brother and younger sister and their spouses only a matter of 7 hours apart. Join me in wishing Emmy and Sam a very happy FIRST BIRTHDAY!!

As promised, here are two brothers, Tyler and Jake. These two guys are tough. I had them hanging from trees, jumping off walls.... it was great! They are definitely "all boy". They even sported wife beaters for a few shots - keep in mind it was a pretty chilly morning, the rest of us were nice and warm in sweatshirts!











Thanks guys for being so willing to do anything, I had alot of fun! Maybe next time we can get more adventurous!

Coming Soon.... Brothers

I finished up one set of images last week and had a couple quick projects to get done before I could start the next set. Well, I am happy to announce, my "quick" projects are done (and will be showcased here in the near future) and I am on to the next set of images. These boys will be back on the blog within the week, hopefully by the weekend. But for now, enjoy the preview image.

Fall Morning Photos

I had the pleasure of taking pictures of a good friends kids last weekend. We also had another family, my husband's cousin, wife and their kids... sorry, D, your pics will be up soon! These two are so cute, G, was up for pretty much anything. L, on the other hand, was less than pleased to have the camera following her around! She was a good sport anyway and I managed to get some good pictures, take a look. J, I also have a CD for you with all your images!















Thanks J, G and L.... It was fun, we'll have to do it again!

This one's for you, M!

Last weekend, we had my grandparents birthdays / anniversary party. I was asked to bring the camera along to snap a few family pictures - like that wouldn't have happened anyway. My brother referred to me as the Paperazzi the other day, funny. Anyway, I took this picture of my cousin M, her sisters, J & S and her mom, M. She asked if the picture would make the blog.... well, of course! The blog is dedicated to the images I capture and those I love. Both of which, fit the bill! So, here's to the stunning M, her goregeous sisters, S & J and their adorable, mother, M!

My Capture

I don't know how many of you watch the news - or for that matter - WOWT, Channel 6. No, I'm not endorsing any specific channel (nor do I watch any other newscast except channel 6!) But anyway.... Channel 6 is having a contest and for the next 8 weeks I am attempting to enter. The contest is titled "Picture Perfect" and it is a photography contest.... see how it caught my attention! So the first week was sports and considering I'm not a big sports fan, I didn't have any pictures worth submitting nor the opportunity to take a picture. This week, is pets. We are a house with three dogs, a fish and a fake lizard, I think I might have a fighting chance!! Here are the four pictures I submitted, keep in mind, not all these animals call my house a home.....

Mess with the bull....

You get the horns!

We went out this weekend with my family - and by family, I mean aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings.... It was a good turnout and something we should definately do more often! It was fun to actually hang out with my cousins, it's neat to know that we have gotten old enough where age doesn't matter as much and we can just hang out and have fun. We went to the "Stumble Inn" and some of us were brave enough to ride the bull. Yes, I rode the mechanical bull (twice) and would do it again - it is so much fun! Here are a few highlights from the night.

The first one is me and the bull - - I'm the one in the black shirt (ha ha ha!). I have decided that if your going bullriding, you shouldn't be the same size as the bull. This picture really opened my eyes to the word... DIET. Yikes!



This next one is my Uncle "F"... He and his wife, "S" are the reason we all got together in the first place. They should plan these things more often. Sunday is their wedding anniversary so, Happy Anniversary Guys!!



This is my cousin, "S". All I can say is this girl can ride!! I was thoroughly impressed with her bull riding ability. Her brother also rode and apparently bull riding skills run in their family!



Here is my younger brother, "J" - I have to say, I was surprised to see him hop on the bull. He did a good job, I think he rode twice also.



Finally, I saved the best for last. This is my cousin "R", his sister is pictured above.... His face in this picture is priceless, I wonder if anyone told him that the bull was not real, he looks a little frightened!

DUMPED! Shoot

I had to share this with you because honestly, it looks like so much fun. I stumbled upon this blog, A Little Sussy, through another blog that I frequent. I like to get ideas and inspiration for my own photography - - it's a great way to challenge yourself.
As disgusting as it may have been for some of these models, the images turned out pretty funny! Check these images out to "tide" you over until I have some of my own new work to share!

CHECK OUT THE MESSY SHOTS HERE....

Welcome to the World

My cousin L, just had her second baby. Another beautiful baby girl, Mia. I was thrilled when she asked me to do the baby announcements for her and I think they turned out pretty darn cute! The pictures were provided by her and converted to black and whites by myself. Take a peek at precious baby, Mia...

Handsome Little Devil

As promised, here is my "photo session" with my nephew, S. Handsome as can be at only 9 months old, give him about 10 years and he will be stealing hearts left and right! Without further adou, I leave you with these.....

Super Sneak Peek

I took pictures of my nephew, S, a few weeks back and I am just getting around to processing them (I know, slacker!!) Anyway, this is a sneak peek of his pictures, although this image didn't actually come from our "session". This was taken a few weeks earlier at my younger brothers house. I felt I better give something to look at and hopefully soon, I will post a massive amount of pictures of this handsome young man.



It's a nice image of a grandfather giving his grandson his first driving lesson. Very fitting as my dad is a professional truck driver, although very rarely does he take his doubles off-roading as you would in this jeep!

Please stay tuned for more images. I swear, I have a whole bunch of stuff to share with everyone!

Preschool.... First Day

This year my daughter, L, started preschool. Apparently, she was under the impression that she was heading off to the University for Preschool Rockstars. Being as independent as she is, she insisted on getting ready herself. The basic outfit was supplied by yours truly, however she added her own special "touches".



Check out the fancy rolled pants, nice, huh! And yes, her outfit wasn't complete without her pageant sash from Libby Lu and her Hannah Montana microphone / headpiece. You never know when you'll need to break into song!

After much discussion, a little persuasion and some begging, I finally got her to leave behind her rockstar look for the more traditional preschool style.



She did wonderful, her teacher actually said she was "fabulous"! The worst part about this is my baby girl is growing up! It seems impossible that I have a child in school already and even worse, my son - - the baby of our family is right on her tails.

Another Assignment

This weeks assignment for DPS was Product Photography. This is my humble attempt - somewhat thrown together but it works!! More to come....

The Eyes Have It

So I didn't get my images posted by the end of last week like I had hoped. However, this kind of works out well because I decided to use one of the images from last weekend for the DPS Assignment anyway. The assignment this week is "The Eyes Have It" - there are a ton of goregeous eyes posted for the assignment so I decided to take a different approach... I'm reaching so bear with me! My entry for the assignment are the "eyes" that lead you down a dark and winding road.



This is my younger brother, J, and his wife, T's Galaxie. They've put alot of heart and soul in to this car and it is beautiful. Someday, maybe we'll have a car like that. Here are a few additional pics of J & T's car along with a few of my aunt and uncles car.

Multi-Purpose Post

This past weekend was chock full of good fun: we celebrated my moms birthday on Saturday and went to a local car show with the family on Sunday. Hopefully, by the end of this week, I will have had time to work on posting more images but for now, you get my multi-purpose post.

Purpose #1: My assignment entry for DPS
(Yes, I actually made it in before the deadline!)

Purpose #2: A before and after showing the work I put into my images.

Purpose #3: A sneak peak from this weekends activities


This weeks assignment for DPS was Auto Mode. Me and "Auto" are good friends, I haven't mustered up the courage to stray very far, but nobody has complained yet. I decided to show a before and after image of my Goddaughter, E. The image on the left is taken in Auto mode and uploaded straight from the camera (no enhancing). The image on the right, I put a little work into: brightened the colors, rotated the image a bit, etc... Either way she's a doll, but she really "pops" in the second image.



I love to see how a good image can turn into something great with just a little work. I love taking pictures, not only do you have to have an eye for capturing the image but you have to have the talent to take it all the way. Every image I take gives me a little more practice and makes me that much better for the next.

I have been a bit busy the past few weeks so I have kind of slacked off but I hope to get a schedule down again and start posting more regularly. Life has been a bit hectic to say the least!

A few weeks ago, DPS had an assignment called X-tych. An X-tych is a multifaceted image formed into a single multipaneled image. It could be a diptych (2 images), triptych (3 images), quadtych (4 images), you get the picture, right? Anyway, the individual images create a story by how they relate to one another. I unfortunately missed the assignment (hence the chaotic week) but wanted to put one together anyway. My example is a quadtych - 4 images. My daughter, L, was playing in the sprinklers and the water created a nice pool of mud. She decided to go swimming. Jeff made the comment that this is what summer is about, just being a kid with no cares in the world. She was having the time of her life playing in that mud. He's right, that's what summertime is about for a kid: letting loose and having fun.



We should all learn swim in the mud sometimes!

10 Minutes from Home

I got this weeks assignment for DPS submitted in just the nick of time! We visited my mother-in-law last night and she lives about 10 minutes from home. Conveniently enough, the theme for this week is "10 Minutes from Home". My daughter loves horses and after promising her pictures of the neighbors horses, I decided to use one of them as my submission.

Zac Sunderland: America's Most Amazing Teen

This is Zac Sunderland. Looks like your typical teenager, right?



Ehhh, Wrong!! This kid is truly amazing and I have to say, as a mother of two, this kids mom is one brave woman - kudos to you! Typically, parents give their sixteen year old boys (and yes, girls) a curfew, this young man was given the opportunity of a lifetime. He is in the process of fulfilling his dream of becoming the youngest solo circumnavigator. How many sixteen year olds get this opportunity! He is from California but is currently living alone on his boat, Intrepid, sailing his way around the world.

Seriously, you're impressed aren't you....

Check out his website / blog here.