Monday, May 30, 2011

{Baby Violet | Newborn Session Contest Winner}

Meet my Newborn Contest Winner: Violet. 
Violet is a BEAUTIFUL little baby girl. I fell in love with her the minute I saw her sleeping on the couch. I can't tell you how MUCH I adore her name! If I ever had another baby girl I would totally name her VIOLET. Such a beautiful name with a hint of nostalgia. Soooo love nostalgic names. Her mom Ashley obviously has a great sense of style. I loved her decor, her clothes and just how ridiculously cool, cute and adorable she is!!

These are some of my favorites from the session. Thank you Ashley for participating in my contest and winning!! :) 

{White pom hat made by Sonya Hooley.}
















Saturday, May 28, 2011

{Rwandan Celebration}

I was honored to be able to photograph this event that celebrated the lives of those lost in the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. I found myself crying multiple times through the event... and though the coverage of such an event is sad, the event was a celebration of life. The lives of those who were lost. 

Immaculee and I worked together at Saint Mary's. I remember the first time she told me her story. The two children shown in the photo frame below were hers... They were killed in the genocide along with her husband and best friend... and so many other friends and people that she knew personally. I sat there and just cried as I listened to her story. War forces many families to split up in order to try to protect the family. Hearing the stories of survival are incredible yet so horrific. Hearing about the deaths of the victims ... despairingly tragic. Most impacting through all of this was hearing Immaculee express what sustains her: her faith in God. Just incredible her testimony and the testimony of others who managed to survive this nightmare.

This ceremony was held to celebrate the lives of those who were lost 17 years ago. A mass of Thanksgiving was held and then a documentary which brought to life the stories of the remarkable people who were lost, followed then by a reception and dinner.

For those who do not know here are the details recorded about the genocide. You may read more if you wish with the link below that I've provided. If you have not watched Hotel Rwanda, it is a very powerful movie about the genocide.

"Over the course of approximately 100 days from the assassination of JuvĂ©nal Habyarimana on April 6 through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate. Estimates of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 and 1,000,000, or as much as 20% of the country's total population. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–1962 and overthrown the Tutsi monarchy."
{Taken from Wikipedia}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide

God bless the men, women and children who were left with such sorrowful loss. And may the lives of those who were lost always be remembered. 
{Immaculee is in the second photo, singing with her eyes closed.}


















More photos can be found on my Facebook business page:

Friday, May 27, 2011

{Willamowski Family | Vintage Couch Session}

I love this family. That's all there is to say. :)
Well, not really. I could say so much more  good about them. Vincy is my dearest friend and I've watched her family grow over the years. It is always such a joy to photograph them. :) Here are some of my favorites from their session at Baugo Creek.


















Thursday, May 26, 2011

{Thankful Thursday}

Hey, I've got fifteen minutes until it's Friday. :) It's not belated Thankful Thursday ... yet.

It has been a busy week. It's getting to be that time of year again.

I love it though. :)

It's been a rough week but also a week with a lot of cool, good news. Little bit of bitter with sweet. But none the less, there's some sweet.

This Thursday I am thankful for:
  • Good news that I can't really talk about yet... but soon enough I will. {heck no I am NOT pregnant. Lol}
  • Coffee
  • Really cool Senior Pix sessions here lately. :)
  • Reaffirmation that I sometimes need and get.
  • My Dad. Gosh I love him. He's an amazing, amazing man. 
  • My Aunt Noodle. She sends me cards. :)
  • My friend Jamie who just got engaged. She is a special friend. So happy for her. I know I will cry out of happiness at her wedding. 
  • A possible road trip to TN this summer and fall. :)
  • Adrian's new Harley Davidson {which we will not be taking on the road trip. Lol}
  • Peace. I needed it this week and I found it.
  • Clients who give you gifts with butterflies on them when they don't need to!! Makes me smile.
  • Adorable babies that I get to hold and photograph. 
  • Good music. Good, good, good music. 
  • School is out. As.of.today. Love my kids. Excited about summer.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

{Quotes}

“One of life’s quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful, even if it is only falling ash.” – Norman Maclean

"A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man - the one he used to be." - Cesare Pavese

"We do not remember days, we remember moments." - Cesare Pavese 


"You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages." - Mignon McLaughlin


"Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle
Everything I do is stitched with its color."
~W.S. Merwin



Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night.  I miss you like hell.  ~Edna St Vincent Millay



Missing someone gets easier every day because even though it's one day further from the last time you saw each other, it's one day closer to the next time you will.  ~Author Unknown



“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”
― Derek Walcott


"The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.”

Derek Walcott

Saturday, May 21, 2011

{California | Days 1 & 2}

We took a trip to CA in April this year to visit my Aunt and Uncle. It was an AMAZING trip all around and such a great experience for my kids to see a state TOTALLY different than Indiana. Of course I came home with over 1,300 images, but over the next few days/weeks I will be posting just a very few of my favorites from each day. Along with a brief synopsis of each day, where we went and what we did. SOOOO much to do and see in CA! {Please pardon any dust spots/imperfections as I am not as particular about my own photos. Unfortunately I don't have as much time to edit them.. as you can see as I am finally getting around to actually blogging them!}

Chicago to Sacramento...
This first picture is from Chicago, obviously. :) Very industrial! The shot from the plane was overlooking Sacramento, so green and different from the midwest at that time of year! The rest were taken at Folsom Lake which is a man made lake/dam that combines at the mouth of the American River. The lake bed fills up before Memorial Day so the flower you see below would be covered with water in such a short time. The trees even show wear of water on their branches as they too sit under water partially. The last photo was of the sky in my Aunt and Uncle's back yard at night. Sooo pretty out there.