{Thankful Thursday | 06.30.11}

Thankful for...

• Three beautiful, beautiful weddings in the month of June. Every one of them a GREAT couple.
• Brendon's baseball team has tournament games this week - hoping they make it to the final championship and thinking they have a GREAT possibility of doing so! We'll see tonight!
• A really talented kid - that Brendon makes me smile when he pitches HEAT and hits home runs. 
• New black Otterbox iPhone cover. It's fantastic! Literally accidentally tossed my phone into the sand the other day - totally wiped clean.
• A day at the beach. :) I actually TOOK A DAY OFF!!! I know right? Ha, it was fantastic.
• Suntan. :) 
• My assistant Ashley who has been helping me over the last month at sessions and weddings - shadowing me and learning about photography {which she also wants to pursue after she graduates} and also by helping me I help her fulfill her credit hours at school towards an internship in photography. She is a God-send and has been WONDERFUL. Thank you Ashley for your help and I hope you are learning some things too! :)
• Applecare. I didn't expect to use it and hoped I wouldn't have to, but it's saved me some money. More than I put into it. 
• External Hard drives. Three specifically as well as DVDs that also back up my files. 
• Time Machine. A Mac App that quietly backs up everything for you in the background. It's incredible and I think the best back up system around. {Outside of cloud storage}. 
• Zero candy bars. Lots of them.
• A supportive husband who helps me remember all the ways I am blessed when things get tough.
• Wii is fixed and back. Trying to go through summer with two kids and no Wii is a cursed thing. 

{Phaly | Senior Pix Session}

Phaly {pronounced Polly for all of you like me who might totally mispronounce! Haha, I am horrible with names sometimes!} is incredibly beautiful. She has these intriguing eyes that totally showcase mystery and beauty. She is a tiny little thing and somewhat quiet. I'm sure I talked her ear off. :) But she was quite sweet and obliged all of my photo ideas. It was a super HOT day out, 90 some degrees and she held up just perfectly. Thanks Phaly for choosing me to photograph your Senior Pix! Here are some of my favorites from the session!

{Food Friday | 6.24.11}

I am excited to announce that on FRIDAYs I will be *trying* to consistently blog a Food Friday theme.

Those of you who know me personally KNOW I love food. I love to cook, bake and eat. OH, and I LOVE to photograph my food too. :) It's just fun. So, for those of you who have enjoyed my food pictures on Facebook over the years... I will now be posting something each Friday along with the recipe!

These will be traditional dishes from my family, favorites and/or new things I'd like to try!

If you enjoy photographing food too here are a few tips to help you get great food shots:

• Photograph your food while it's steaming - most often it'll represent that the food is hot and fresh, ready to eat! Talk about making mouths salivate!

• Photograph your food by a window. Using natural daylight will provide the most flattering light on your food as incandescent lighting will alter the white balance of your photo making it look orange - if you have shot the file in RAW you can correct this later, but I usually try to avoid it. 

• Photograph your food (if you have it) with a good lens. For starters, those of you who have interchangeable lens capabilities on your camera can find a nice 50mm 1.8 for right around a hundred bucks. This lens will offer so much for you if you are just starting out and enjoying shooting portraits and food! Most of my food photos are shot with my 24-70mm f/2.8

• Place your food on a clean surface - lay a table cloth down if it makes the image better. Make sure there aren't too many distractions - focus should be on the yummy food!

Obviously I am no food expert. BUT I love food and often when I post food photos people ask for the recipe so I think this is a great place to share my love for food AND photography. :)

{Ryan Family Session}

Here are some favorites from Becky's session with her gorgeous family... including the doggies! Bobo {the English Bulldog} is a TOTAL showstopper. Ha! I love the pix of him eating cheese. My dogs are fanatical about cheese. :) I love it when people include their dogs in the session b/c they really are family too! Thanks guys for bearing through the heat that day AND helping point out a fawn in the brush that became my photo of the day! That was the coolest thing! You guys are awesome and I'm happy you chose me to photograph your family. :)

{Thankful Thursday - Lily Edition}

Lily brings so much joy to my life. So many smiles. She's a comical dog.

So often first and foremost I am thankful for my family. Adrian and the kids. I feel like Lily and Rocco are my kids too. Today I just wanted to list a few of the ways that specifically Lily makes me thankful.

• Let's get to the coolest part about Lily. She's gorgeous. :) She has a blue eye and a brown eye and is completely white. How often do you see a dog like that?

• She is protective. 

• She's a boxer. My favorite breed ever. The best breed as far as I am concerned for companionship.

• She sheds very little and is very clean. She's not a stinky dog. Ugghhh to you stinky dogs of the world.

• She's a ball dog. She LOVES her ball. She brings it to me and tries to tease me with it. She could play fetch all day. 

• If I say the word "cheese" you wouldn't believe how her ears perk up.

• She's in charge. She tries to um, how to say... show dominance the way dogs do to Rocco. In other words, she's not afraid to take the old bull by the horns and let him know who's in charge. Cracks me up every time. Rocco just stands there like, huh? He he he.

• She knows commands like: sit, lie down, shake your paw, go outside, go for walk and go to bed. I think for a puppy she's quite intelligent. Dogs really do know what you say and are impressively keen.

Here's my Lily Boo. Aka, "Wootie woo". I dunno how she got that last part. It just rhymes. Seriously... if you think all of this is overboard embarrassing ... you should hear me TALK to my dogs. :)

From the dog's point of view, her master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog. ~Mabel Louise Robinson


{Photos taken by my awesome photographer son: Brendon, who I have already convinced that in HS - his PT job will be helping me shoot weddings during the summer. He's really good. I think the part that sold him was that I would pay him a LOT more than McDonald's would and he'd get to do something waaaaaaay cooler.}

{Karey | Senior Pix Session

Karey is a total photo rock star. The first time we met we started photographing and literally minutes later it was a total down pour! I was so bummed for her but she met up with me the next day and it was gorgeous out! She is stunningly beautiful - and she totally has eyes like Rihanna. As incredibly beautiful as she is, she is SO sweet and humble. Thank you Karey for choosing me to capture your Senior Pix! You did fantastic! :)


And as was commented on Facebook and I think pretty much sums it up best: 'This girl is Gorgeous with a capital "G".'