DPS Assignment

This weekend, my sister-in-law and I gathered the kids and let them run wild at the park. Thanks to her letting me run wild with my camera, I actually got a picture for the DPS Assignment for the week. This weeks assignment was feet and I wasn't about to take a picture of my narly looking feet - I don't exactly have the prettiest toes in the world. J and her baby, E let me capture a few pics of their feet while playing in the sand. I also snapped a picture of all the kids little piggies but decided on the mom and baby feet for my assignment entry.

The Business of Being a Mommy

Picture this....

You're at the park chatting with another stay at home mom about her three kids running rampant with your two kids. After watching the kids play for an hour or so and getting to know her, you both decide to get the kids together again. She is scrambling for an old receipt and stray crayon in her purse to scribble her name and number on, you whip out this:



I know, I know... You're thinking: You've GOT to be kidding me!

Well, I'm not... It's a Mommy Card - I met a lady last night and as we talked about our kids and what not, I told her I would email her something (I was drinking and don't remember what though, so if you happen to be reading this (and you know who you are) drop me a little reminder!!)... Anyway, I told her to give me her email address and grabbed a keno slip and a crayon, by the time I slid them across the table she's whipping this thing out, "Here," she says, "it's my mommy card...".

What an awesome idea!! I know several stay at home mommies out there always looking for something to do with another stay at home family, why not make the contact part easy on everyone. You've got your name, number, email and kids names (as a friendly reminder) - you can put as much or as little information on them as you want, personalize your image and next time you find the perfect SAHM to hang out with for some well deserved play time, whip out a card! So, point of my story - I'm starting a trend, and you're spreading the word!

If you are a SAHM and you want some really cool Mommy Cards, contact me.... I'll hook you up! Tell your SAHM mommy friends... I think it's a great idea, they're cheap, easy to keep and if I was a SAHM I would totally have these!

Oh, and by the way - the mommy card shown above isn't real, it's a fake. The kids aren't anyone I know - I googled them, the name is made up as is the info. So, if you try to contact Miss Jennie Wilson and her two kids, you will be sadly disappointed. So sorry.

Photography 101

This blog seems to be taking the turn to photography only and I apologize for that, I haven't exactly had a mad rush of design jobs coming my way!! Much of my days is spent around the house, forcing myself to do housework and entering application after application after application in hopes of finding a "real" job! Mind you I have applied for fifty-seven jobs as of this morning and have been called back for only ONE interview.... how that is even possible I don't know. I spent a while this morning making phone calls to follow up but it seems everyone is screening their calls today. Just my luck.

Anyway, enough about that.... I am a member of an online group called Digital Photography School. Every week they have assignments, and every week they choose one winner and two runner ups which are featured on the blog. They have a ton of information, activities and critiques all aimed at improving your photography skills. This weeks assignment is "Natural Framing". Natural framing includes borders, nature paths, windows, etc... anything that may setup a nice natural frame outline for the focus of the subject. The photograph entered into the weekly assignment has to be taken within a specific date range and unfortunately, I don't have one.... yet. However, to give an example, I pulled one from the past. This is a picture of my (beautiful) daughter, the natural framing being the window of her little house. Maybe before tomorrow I will be able to shoot a picture with natural framing to enter into the assignment, otherwise, there's always next week.



Happy Tuesday everyone, enjoy your day.

Flickr Photostream

I don't know if many of you have ever used Flickr but I thought I would share it with you. Somewhat because I really have nothing else to share but feel the need to update my blog every few days! Flickr is a website which lets you create "photostreams" or albums of different images and / or photographs. It's a great tool to use for sharing your work with other people or getting opinions on your pieces. I have uploaded some of my photography and artwork to Flickr and I have added a link to my flickr photostream, click here.

I have used flickr to allow my "customers" to see designs I have created for them, I have uploaded images to use in a digital photography forum and I have uploaded photos simply as a way to share them. I also like to use flickr to see other peoples work, it's definately a way to get inspired and see things from another persons perspective.

If you have a minute or two, check it out following the link above, from there, you can browse different public photostreams and see the amazing talent people have out there. Have a great day, everyone!

By Special Request....

This past November my younger sister had a baby and gave to me nephew number two. As tradition says, myself and my sister-in-laws had a baby shower for her and naturally, I did the invitations. My sister K and her husband R are avid Husker fans so I opted to go with a Husker football theme. The invitations were based on a game ticket and I recreated the Husker logo to fit the baby's name. They turned out pretty cute and I had several comments from people who had to read them twice to figure out it wasn't actually a ticket but a baby shower invitation. Just another option for anyone looking for themed invitations or designs in general, take a look:



Thanks to my sis, K, for suggesting this post - suggestions are always welcome!

On another note, I have to say I am thrilled to see some of you actually subscribed to my blog! It is such a HUGE compliment to me and my talents and I truly appreciate your interest. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see and I will do my best to make it happen. Thanks again!

Lovely Ladies

Here they are... as promised! I took over 100 pictures of these beauties and here are a sampling of my favorites. As I have said before, photography to me is purely a hobby, any talent it may seem I have comes to me as purely accidental! Hopefully, my brother will love these pictures I took of his lovely wife and beautiful daughters.









One of my personal favorites is this series of three. An image of each of the girls with mom and the special bond between mother and daughter.

Millard Tornado 2008

Jeff and I have always wanted to see a tornado, I know, crazy... but I think it's an adrenaline rush thing. Well, we had our chance and missed it by about 3 minutes and half a mile. Honestly, we are thanking our lucky stars that it went where it did, it was right between our brothers houses and a little one way or the other and one of them would have had the wake up call from hell! Here's a few images I took the following day. The first is our "damage" which is nothing compared to what others in Millard have experienced. But for us, this is what we got and actually, it's quite a pile, the picture doesn't do it justice.



The next image is of the Mackey Grain Elevator and the shambles it remained.



This image is the car wash near Q steet in downtown Millard. The roof is completely gone and honestly, I didn't see any pieces of it. Who knows where they ended up!



Finally, my personal favorite (I'll explain!). This is the carwash on Highway 50, it was built about one year earlier. If you will notice on the second image, there is a sign on the left hand side of the picture. The sign reads: "New Car Wash 5 Blocks South of Harrison on Highway 50". The funny thing to me is all the debree is the roof of the new car wash. It's just ironic that the tornado rips apart the carwash and scatters it's pieces next to the little metal sign advertising it.

Sneak Peek of What's to Come....

Yesterday I had the honor of taking pictures of my sister-in-law and her three girls. The pictures will be a surprise for my brother for Fathers Day and from the shots I've looked at, they turned out pretty well for not being a photographer!! Here is a sneak peak of what's to come, hopefully the beginning of next week I will have more pictures to post but for now, check out these lovely ladies!!