A Life in Words and Pictures...

Sneak Peak:

Hi Mom C! A small sneak peak of your adorable A. He was a charming young man and a pleasure to spend time with. Here ya go:

Latest Newborn to share!

Please join me in welcoming our latest little friend:

She is just the most precious little person. We KNOW she is allowing her parents to get plenty of sleep...LOL! Not really but who could resist her sweetness.

Thank you mom and I hope you like them!

William and Mary Homecoming 2007!

Wow, what crazy weather!!! We were having so much fun though. The little man quoted it perfectly..."This was a perfect day, we got to get candy, toys and it is like running through a giant sprinkler"! LOL...Yes, it rained, A LOT!!! John played in the golf tournament and came in second place out of 20 teams! Yay for him :D We plopped around market square and took a gander at the Williamsburg historic area and really had a terrific time.

I took a few photo's here and there and here are a few I'll show off~~~

Once again, I'm showing off with some of Shabby Miss Jenn's stuff and added some frames from this fab designer I just found, Jessica Dittmar. Great creations!

There are more to share but it was a busy weekend and I'm one tired mommy!

Fall Colors!

Little Lizy and I went out to water the mums and catch some fresh air and I thought it would be a perfect day to capture some of the fall all around us. I just love this time of year and Halloween ranks up there with one of our favorite family enjoyments!

Here are a few to share~

All this beautiful digital scrapbooking artwork was from a fabulous digital artist Shabby Miss Jenn . I love all the fun things she creates. Putting together a digital scrapbook page is so easy when you use her art.

Time to catch some zzzz's. Toodle's ya'll :D !

It's fall in Virginia!

Yes, it is fall here in Virginia! Leaves are falling but not a lot of color change going on, LOL! It was so dry over the summer and certainly not as wet as it should be for the fall so we are quickly changing from green to brown! You can spot a tree or two but it is unusual. I am hoping to catch some color a little later in the month when we head out to Williamsburg for William and Mary's Homecoming.

We took a break from the children's normal sports routine to head over to Morvan Park for the Annual Steeplechase. As we were making a mad dash to head out the door, I snagged one of my lenses out of my lens case and realized when we got there it was my 135mm f2.0. I haven't shot with it in a while and really like the photo's I captured.

Here is one to share:

Here is a photo with Uncle Rich and his precious grandson:

Now that we have gotten through this crunch week, I can relax a bit until we head off to our little mini-vacation. The children just love going to homecoming and hubby and I enjoy catching up with friends. Then we move into November and all these wonderful holidays and fun family moments. I just LOVE this time of year!!!

Well, off to have a little relax time so we can get back into the weekly schedule again. Be well all!

Startin it up!

Don't let anyone ever tell you it is easy starting your own photography business!!!

Not counting the $$$ investment, which with photography, isn't a small investment...the time invested in doing it all the right way, making sure I'm spot on for the state, figuring out my studio space, all the contracts and pricing, etc...goodness, I better make this good, ya know!

And, this doesn't figure in my little peoples schedules. Of course, they have to come first so this is a slow going set up, LOL! I don't mind though. I'd rather do it slow and right than jump in then find out all the mistakes I made weren't easily corrected YKWIM??? I'm learning a lot though. I'm going to make sure my contracts state the black and white of all the legalities. My pricing will be straightforward and my time will be covered. It will always be a learning process. It's all good, keeps you from being bored with the profession. I can only hope that every client realizes the whole reason behind photographing their little ones...not just a piece of art for the walls, but a memory captured to pass on from generation to generation.

All that being said, I was still able to make some time to practice my "Rembrandt" lighting this last couple of weeks. I have purchased my Larsons, but they won't be here for another couple of weeks. Today, I went into Penn and grabbed me a smaller Westcott softbox that I'll be able to keep as a fill when needed. Should work ok with the Larsons. These are a few photo's I've been able to come up with. Not altogether a perfect Rembrandt style, but It is all about developing my own style and comfort level. I will hopefully be able to get a newborn in this week. If the mom is feeling better, I'd love to create some photo's of this precious little girl. I'll keep you posted when I get the chance to bring them in.

Capture those moments, big and small!

A photo to share:

I took a photo of my dear Elizabeth this weekend and wanted to share it with you.  She'd been sick all day and toward evening we went outside to sit on our front porch.  I was taking some photo's of the sun setting through the clouds and turned around and captured this one of Lizy...I love the depth of her gaze and the tiny smile starting to spread on her face.  I can't tell you enough what a gift I have in my children.  I want to hang onto every precious moment and I feel I can, even for a second, with a photograph.  I love catching glimses of other's that came before them in their features and wondering what kind of childhood these ancestors  had before their nuances passed through me into these miraculous creations.

Inspiration!!!

You need to stop what you are doing right now and go see this website...

Jesh de Rox

Phenom is one of the words that comes to mind...imaginative is another.  I'm so inspired by this individual!

After viewing his website, I thought I'd play with some of my overlay's and actions to see what I could come up with...I had a mom in tears when she saw the photo of her son in his catchers' gear.  It truly wasn't my talent...believe me!  The other photo is a photo of my son I was able to capture as he was running toward 1st base.  I really do love a vintage look and these turned out better than I could have expected.  Thanks for the inspiration Jesh!

I'll share:

Capture your moments and never let them go...sleep well my friends.

Just in case you wanted to know...

Things are a changing...

To what?  I don't know.  But I have that feeling that a transition is coming on and my thoughts are a-whirl!  I think there is definitely something to be said for the "KISS" method in life...going through my days feeling so overwhelmed and wishing for more hours in the day aren't going to cut it, LOL!  On those days that I wake up from a great nights sleep and have a more productive day I want to embrace this method even more.

I was in the craft store the other day setting up a project for my daughter's Girl Scout meeting and another customer asked me what adhesives to use on a foamcore board with her treasured photo's.  I start giving her the blah blah on photo protection with non-acidic adhesives, scanning and printing her photo's before using her originals, etc...next thing I know, she want's to hire me to create the boards for her...I think the panic shown in my eyes because all I could think of was "What, another @#*&%^ project"?????  "I still need to get mouse ears together for the "Read Across America" dress-up day, this GS project, clean for Grandma and Grandpa's visit, etc., etc."  I did give her my number cause I have a really hard time just saying "I can't right now"!  I"m just praying she decides to go out and purchase her own scanner cause I really don't have the time, LOL!

Speaking of photo's, I have so many photo's to process from RAW...I'm reading a couple of books right now on this subject...one is Photoshop CS2 Raw and another is RAW Workflow.  I like the idea of working from a "digital negative" so you can bring your photo's up right.  However, you need to be able to set aside time to process the photo's.  I'm considering Adobe Lightroom but don't want to duplicate software if I don't need to.  Scott Kelby seems to like it but he is years of experience ahead of me (of course) and can utilize these software packages beyond anything I can imagine right now.  I do love his books.  NAPP is holding a photographers conference here in DC in a couple of months and I'd love to go but with the kiddie schedules...ain't gonna happen!  I may check on purchasing the schtuff for the conference and trying to learn on my own...I'll just add that to the list, LOL!

I'll leave you with a couple of photo's of the girls...