Tony

Seniors are so exciting to photograph. They all have such different personalities, passions and ideas. As soon as I think I have no new ideas, in walks a creative individual who is full of them! Tony's an avid hunter and wanted some unique shots of him with his bow. So much fun! Great images from the day and a great kid! Here's a few from his session! Enjoy!

Embracing uniqueness

We just went to a birthday party for a dear family friend who turned 80. I have known her all my life and my kids call her Grandma Jean. She is a precious soul that has touched so many. Time, these days, has gotten away from us and the urgency of every day things has superceded the important things. We haven't been for a visit in over a year. Something that I'm not proud of.

The morning we were getting ready for her party, my daughter Tressa jumps up from the table and announces she's going to give her a card. I took a deep breath because I needed to get ready and her spelling is atrocious so whenever writing is involved I have to sit with her to help her spell correctly. By the time she had found the perfect card I had begun to get ready and forgotten all about it. She came in the bathroom and announced she was done and needed an envelope. The first thought that came into my mind was "I hope she wrote it in pencil". She went to watch Sponge Bob as I read her card.

"Happy Birthday!

I haven't seen you in years! Know I'm in fourth grade?
But right now

I'm right here

On your birthday.

From, Tressa

Look on the back ->"

On the back of her card was taped a plastic heart bracelet.

I balled.

I balled because of her sincerity and innocence,

because of how deeply her words rang through my ears

and straight to my heart,

because of my stupidity,

and because she gave an 80 year old woman a platic heart bracelet.

When I regained my composure, I asked Tressa what made her decide to give Jean the bracelet and she said,

"I have so many and I wanted her to have something pretty to wear for her party."

It's unbelievable the way He speaks to us.

I sat down with her and told her what an amazing thing she did in writing this card. She said, "How many words did I spell wrong?" I cried as I told her that it didn't matter.

My actions could have caused her to dislike writing all together.

She is a gifted writer.

I told her someday she'd grow up and write cards for Hallmark.

She thought that would be great.

Don't let the urgent supercede the important.

Eli's famous!

The adorable hats I purchased from Bridget at Charbridge Knits & Gifts put Eli on her websites! Check him out and her amazing work!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31737191

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=509187

October,

Here's to you.

Here's to the heady aroma of the frost-kissed apples,

the wild-as-the wind smell of hickory nuts and

the nostalgic whiff of that first wood smoke.

-Ken Weber

Eli is 1!

Okay, so I'm a little late...a year and a month. Where did the time go? Although I believe the third time is a charm. I really feel like I'm spending oodles of quality time with him and capturing tons of moments of him and the kids. We're completely enjoying this big ray of sunshine that has come into our hearts.

I took a few shots of him this morning partly for his benefit and part for mine. I bought these new hats and had to try one out (the others are adorable but for newborns so you'll have to wait to see those). My family immediately identified him as an elf and Cory even wanted to know if I could make the colors red & green for Christmas pictures. Poor kid, he's really going to hate me when he gets older. People will tell stories when he's a teenager of seeing him in the cutest little elf hat while in his "birthday suit". But, hey that's the only disadvantage I can think of for having a photographer for a mother. When they grow up they probably won't leave their kids alone with me. Ah, so is life. Besides you think they're cute right? I've got years before the repercussions start!

Outlook on life

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.

-Ralph Emerson

Fall days

What makes these fall days so poignant

is my keen sense

that each one is a gift,

maybe the last before winter storms blow in.

-Claire Dole

Kristen

Sign me up for Facebook's Anonymous! I have forgotten my blog and turned into a Facebook junkie! I've had these pictures ready to post for a week and have them on FB but have forgotten about my bloggers! So sorry, it won't happen again!

Meet Kristen, another beautiful cousin of mine! We had so much fun shooting her pictures and even stopped for a little breakfast...and lunch! More difficult than picking out her final pictures was getting her jersyes and sports paraphernalia situated for a picture! It was worth it though, what an accomplishment! Now begins the fun part of editing and adding textures! I've included a before and after so you can see which one you like for yourself! Thanks so much for choosing me to do your senior portraits Kristen, sorry it took me so long to get these up! Can't wait to post more!

A beautiful family

I'm so blessed by the wonderful people I meet. The Bissell's found me through a coworker of my husbands and I was lucky enough to photograph them in what seemed to be the perfect setting. Their children were little angels! While feeding the ducks and just playing with their children I think we captured some of my favorite images of all time! At our sessions end Skylar, their little girl, just about brought me to tears when she held out her arms to me to be held and wrapped them up and laid her head on my chest. What a gift from God! Thank you for this amazing chance to meet your family and help preserve this special time in your family's life.

Tuesdays & Thursdays = No TV

While growing up I dreaded when my mom wanted to "try something new".

"Now girls," she'd say (I do have an older brother but he was married by the time I remember chores coming around), "we're going to try something different. On Mondays and Wednesdays it will be Michelle's turn to do the dishes and Tuesdays and Thursdays will be April's turn to make dinner." "Ugh...can't we just go on like we are?", we'd say. "We come home from school, do our homework and then watch tv?" Of course looking back she was teaching us new things, we were gaining bits of responsiblity and never realizing she was preparing us for life.

I had one of those "let's try something new" moments the other day and I could see my dread, from all those years ago, in their faces. "We're going to try something new," I said, "there is just too much tv watching and video game playing going on so, Tuesdays and Thursdays we're not going to do either of those things and instead we're going to play together."

Gabe says, "All day? All day there's no tv or video games? What about Leapsters? They're learning games, can we do those?" Now Tressa pipes in, "Does the Wii count too? Cuz' some of the games you jump around and stuff and you get stronger, it's good exercise ya' know mom." I am trying hard not to laugh at their attempts to hold onto their normalcy.

"No," I said, "no Wii, no Leapsters."

So, after a few grumblings, a few more pleading questions and some disgusted looks we "agree" it will be a good thing. The next morning I awake with Gabe over my head, "Today's Tuesday right mom, so I can't play the Xbox right?" "Yes, Gabe that's right." "Right, that's what I thought." he says.

The day begins kind of rough with "I'm bored" and "there's nothing to do" and any suggestions made by me are quickly dismissed. So, I went upstairs and started bringing toys down and soon they quickly saw toys "they hadn't even ever seen before" and the make-believe playing began which brought back so many memories of when I was a kid. "Let's take these outside," Tressa says, " and it can be like a treasure hunt!" Gabe's not so sure that's a good idea so she pours it on thick with her syrupy sweet voice and tells him how exciting it will be and he could be the leader and they'd find all kinds of jewels and the pirates would be after them..."Oh yeah! I'll go get my sword and I can chop the bad guys head off!" Gabe says, totally into it now. Amazing, I think. What a great idea. Suddenly I felt how my mother must have felt when we were kids. I felt so proud, not of myself but of her. She didn't have to spend time with us but she did, she didn't have to let us leave our gigantic cardboard house in the middle of the living room but she did, she didn't have to take the time to instill in us the things she did ~ but she did. And now I am passing on those things to my kids and someday I will see them passing them on to theirs. And that won't be so far away. They're changing so fast now and the opportunity is right now, not tomorrow or not even "in a minute". I want my kids to be proud of me when they see themselves instilling good things into their children.

So go call your mother and tell her how much she means to you and go spend some quality time with the people you love.

It's a girl!

Since senior season started for me back in March I have had yet to get a girl. Session after session the guys kept coming. Not for one second am I discriminating against the guys - we had some awesome shots and I met some amazing people but - there are just certain feminine things you can only do with a girl.

I was fortunate enough to have the honor of taking this gorgeous, talented girl's senior portraits...and she's my cousin. We were only planning to take a few shots since we are going to a beautiful garden in a couple of weeks for the second part of her session. Anyone who knows me knows a couple shots turns into a couple hundred! After finishing at the bridge we couldn't resist passing up a field of Queen Anne's Lace and clovers, we were on a roll then so we decided to stop at this aqua colored barn up the road. Back to the studio we went to get some indoor shots with her brand spankin' new snowboard. She just got it that day and was still so excited. I had never even seen one before then, couldn't imagine ever getting into one either. You rock on sista'! I think the shots we got are fantastic! In fact we got so many amazing shots I don't know how they're going to pick - and there's more to come from her next session! Glad I'm not making the final cut, I get to show them all off! Here's a few of my favs so far...but like her mom said - "My fav - just one of 145!".

Have to have a family portrait...even on vacation!

One of our other favorite things about our trip was the beach, the kids LOVED the beach and so did we! Tressa got her first mouth full of sea water, and her second, and her third and then she puked...all over me. We got to see the shuttle launch, that was once in a lifetime! We also had to take a family picture and what better place then on the beach? We hadn't had one since Eli was a month old so it was time. We had opinions about where it should be taken so we did one at my father-in-law's house and at the beach...twice. Which one do you like best? I love the ocean one but my favorite is the one with the sunset, Florida has the best sunsets plus I love the reeds in the background. Fun times and great memories!

Our Family Vacation

This is our first real family vacation and boy we sure have set the bar high! Everyone said, "Florida, in July? Are you guys nuts?" Yeah, maybe we were but God sure hooked us up because although it was really warm, for the most part it was overcast and not one of us got burnt! I think we'd all agree that our most favorite part was swimming with the dolphins at Discovery Cove. If you ever get the chance to go - do not pass up the opportunity! It was amazing with the hours of snorkeling we did and then the interactions with the dolphins....wow! We have tons of pictures and a video to remember it by and I'll just share with you a few of our favorites!

This is us in the wading area with the manta rays. Tressa was really proud she touched 48 at that point. They are really soft. It was an awesome experience! At one point Cory had one land in his hand under water and just stayed there for a couple minutes!

What a good dad, though I think he would have thought twice about taking both the kids by himself if he knew what he was in for. The Tropical River is an area at Discovery Cove that has a current pushing you through it. For any of you that ever decide to go - a bit of advice... it would be nice to have something to float on while looking at all the gorgeous scenery and going underneath waterfalls or at least know how to swim for long periods of time as most of it is over your head.

This was a little piece of information Cory did not know about as he took Gabe, who can't swim very well and likes to climb over your head as he's trying to get away from the hundreds of gallons of water falling on his head, and Tressa, who can swim pretty well but has to wipe her eyes every time they get wet (which was a lot). Since I had my camera with me I couldn't go in so I waited for them at the place where they should have ended up and wondered if I should go in after them when it seemed like it had been way too long. Finally they emerged from the water "a little worn out". Needless to say the next time we went through we got floating vests and goggles for the kids!

When it is your turn to ride on the dolphin they tell you to grab onto his fin with your right hand and under his belly with your left. Gabe was the last one for a ride. Assuming he watched all the previous rides and knew what they meant when the trainer said "Hop on!" Gabe actually did "hop on" just like he was riding a horse! The trainer laughed so hard and told him that wasn't quite what she meant and that was the first time she'd seen anyone do that!

More pictures to come soon!