Merry Christmas!

I want to share this year's card from our family. This year I wanted to slow down, and remember God's blessings and His grace. My family certainly weathered one of our hardest years ever this fall, but answered prayers, healing and comfort were the gifts He gave back to us. My prayer is that you will look back through your year and be able to recognize God's blessings even in the face of what may have been great difficulties and hardships. Merry Christmas to everyone that I have had the pleasure and honor to have met and worked with this year!

Personal Portrait Shoot FAIL

Many photographers will tell you their kids are the hardest to shoot a good portrait of. I will say that we had improvement in a couple areas this year, but most of my tricks don't work on my kids. As if that's not enough, I have to be the one to referee a disagreement instead if sitting back while the parents handle it. This particularly lovely shot was courtesy of my son just before he smacked his forehead with his hand. I think, actually am almost positive, that I told him to say he loved me, because last year, that is what worked to get him to give me a genuine smile instead of a forced one. The comments that followed the head smack from the girls were...

from G, the littlest one "You don't love Mommy????"

from A, the oldest: "REALLY, dude? Like, SERIOUSLY?"

The next shot would've shown him throwing his hands in the air asking me to just take the picture already.

Have I said how much I love my kids? As you can see, they are dressed perfectly for the 40 degree weather, and yes, there were outside shots where they threw their jackets as far as they could at the last second and then I snapped 3, then they got to warm up. I am open to bribery, and a warm Starbucks drink was their reward. I'm not even going to show you what G's little dress looks like after she warmed up by dumping hers all over herself.

Holiday Fun in the Park

I had the pleasure of meeting and working with this family a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun trying to capture the little one's different personalities. I definitely left smiling, and had some chuckles as I was editing as we'd have a perfect family picture with a 3 yr old blur leaping out of it to go see the fish again. Have I mentioned I'm a sucker for 2 and 3 yr olds? LOVE them. This was the first time I've used this park, and will be back.

Preschool Fun

I spent the last two days hanging out at the preschool my two youngest children used to attend. They were having their Western Days celebration which is always so much fun for the kids. I'm not even sure how many kids I took portraits of, wearing all their western duds and looking totally adorable. But I had so much fun and left both days smiling for the rest of the day. I wish I could share some of the preciousness with you, but there was no way to get releases to do so. Hopefully I'll get to see some of them again soon with their families and then be able to share.

Does your child not like their school pictures?

Well, mine refuse to hand a check over and insist I take their annual photos instead. Half of the time, I never even see the paper saying they are having them taken and I rarely see them until I see the yearbook.



Here is a sample of the photo we will use of my oldest this year. She tagged along with me on a location scouting trip and we snapped several in just a few moments. I will be taking out the younger kids separately for theirs soon.



If you would like a less traditional headshot of your child, please contact me regarding my "school photo" package. I would love to be part of your annual back to school memories.

Tis the Season

Announcing this year's Christmas special!

$125

mini session includes session fees, (2) 8x10's (or 8x12's),

(2) 5x7's and 25 flat 5x7 press printed Christmas cards.

Some of my favorite people

I finally had a chance to photograph a family whose schedule is at least as busy as ours thanks to softball. I have known them since our girls were little and played t-ball together, I think it was Kindergarten. Then a couple years later, I am convinced God placed this woman in our paths for a reason, as she has had a place in my daughter's heart, and for that reason, ours ever since. She was the first coach who taught my child the meaning of the words "passion" and "sportsmanship". She taught her to love the game, and to play honorably. She has guided our decisions in more ways than I can count. For those reasons, I was honored when she asked me if I could take photos of her family. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed working with you.

Butterflies

I could have stayed at the Butterfly Pavilion all day long. So peaceful and relaxing watching all the different types flying around. Except I had my daughters with me, and as with any outing where the youngest is there, there will be some excitement somewhere. We had already experienced her holding a tarantula and petting some starfish. I was sure I could relax. So we go into the garden, explaining beforehand to watch where you step so no butterflies get squished, etc. Really, I thought I had it all covered. Until we walked in and stopped to make sure we had everyone, and a beautiful butterfly floated right in front of my little one's face. And she instinctively clapped to kill whatever it was. I am happy to say she missed. But also, I can say that my emotions were in overload at that point. In between being mortified that she would do such a thing, especially in front of all those people and trying not to laugh hysterically as she tried to explain herself I was a mess. Then she wondered why none of the butterflies would land on her when they were landing on everyone else. Word gets around, baby.










One did finally get brave enough to land on little one's hand, with the help of her big sister. I think she was actually still and quiet for a full minute.

Back to the beginning. Sort of.

4 years ago, my husband asked me if I didn't think I wanted a better camera. I told him the one I had was still working and why spend the money. I worked on things like composition, etc. with my good old point and shoot and was perfectly happy learning what I could with that. He shrugged, and told me he thought I'd really enjoy it, but ok. Then there was the squirrel incident. I had a friend, and I saw a photo her husband had taken of a squirrel. I can still see that photo in my head. I have a link to it saved, as a matter of fact. It was at that moment I realized my camera did need improved upon and I set out on a mission to find out what I wanted. So I asked my friend what in the world her husband used. Which led to my first DSLR. I loved it so much, I am now on my 3rd. Now, even before the squirrel/camera incident, I have always loved watching those things. Chipmunks too, but we don't have those around here. So it really came as not much of a surprise when I got home from our Colorado vacation and I found TONS of photos of squirrels I'd transferred from my cards onto my hard drive. There were lots of other critters, and lots of mountain shots, and softball shots (we were there for a tournament after all). But in honor of that first squirrel photo that inspired me to get a new camera so long ago, I will share a couple of my buddies I met on my trip. The first two are the same little guy. He kept running back and forth while I was taking a break on our hike. He'd go up that rock, then back down to the grass, back up, back down. The last one was at our house. He watched our entire pitching session from the log pile next to the driveway. He sat there, maybe 3 feet from us, for a good 15 minutes. He was NOT leaving that pinecone.

The trouble I've been getting into

Well, not really. I just got back from the Country Music Association Fan Fest in Nashville earlier this week. It was 4 days and nights of concerts. I lost count of how many artists we watched, but I will say my itunes account got a workout when I got home. It will definitely be an annual trip. I wanted to share a few of the images I took while I was there during the daytime concerts. Next year we hope to move in closer to the stage for the evening concerts.

My attempt at Mom of the Year: trying to get Taylor Swift's autograph. I did get my daughter a tshirt and an autographed cd. And missed about 4 concerts in the process. Totally worth it though for the hugs I got.

Gloriana-Loved their music, their harmonies. Not sure I will encourage my daughters to look to them for role models. The guys seemed pretty down to earth, the girls...not so much. Just one of those mom feelings I guess. The references to Coyote Ugly seemed to fit the vibes we were getting.

Lee Brice-I'm going to keep watching him. He was fun, sounded exactly like on the radio.

Rodney Atkins-loved when he brought his son out on stage.

Sawyer Brown

Jake Owen-had a lot of fun watching him, but he did forget his shoes. That's ok, mine were lost somewhere under my bags. It was HOT out there!

Neal McCoy. SO much fun. Cannot believe the energy he has, or how much I laughed watching him.

Keith Anderson. What can I say, other than I am not one for buying concert tshirts, but I nearly had to break my rule for this guy.

Joey, of Joey and Rory. They were probably the ones who surprised me the most as far as how much I enjoyed watching them. Both were so genuine, and obviously adored each other.

Two Brothers

This had to be a speed record for me. It was really hot, the middle of the day, and the boys were looking forward to swimming as soon as we were done. A little sweet talk, a little joking around, a threat of a 10-shot penalty that would last at least 5 minutes if they so much as looked cross-eyed at their brother, and we had those head-shots Mom was after super duper fast!

Just for fun

I called my husband recently and told him I'd heard on the radio that a local restaurant was having a private Amy Grant concert a couple days later. He said he'd do some checking and find out if there were any tickets. When I checked, the only tickets were being given as prizes by the radio station. But thanks to my husband's awesome contact, he found out the restaurant had kept a very small amount of tickets and they still had a couple left.

I must say that I have loved Amy Grant since high school. She was the first contemporary Christian artist I ever heard. I was just thrilled to be able to see her, and in such a small setting. I love her new single "Better than a Hallelujah".

I was very excited when the owners said that I would not be bounced out of the concert if I brought my camera with me, and then to be taken to a table right against the stage...I was so happy.

I just wanted to share a few shots from the evening. I used no flash. I was so close and felt sorry for her whenever she'd get a flash right in the eyes from other people, that I just took it off. Might have made for some better shots, but these are more for the memory than anything. It was such a blessed evening, I won't ever forget this one.

A special Senior

I had so much fun hanging out with my beautiful niece at Spring Break taking her Senior photos. I wasn't sure I would get to do them for her since she doesn't live nearby, but as it turns out, a couple of dead trees at Grandma's lakehouse provided just the right timing. Everyone else got to cut up and haul away dead limbs, and we got to go have fun exploring a little town nearby. Hope you like them Chels!

Baby snuggles

Meet Baby B. Oh, was she ever snuggly. And alert. I just loved having her over here. She has to be one of the prettiest babies I've seen in a long time.