The Holidays are over

Today is my first day back at work and now my life can move back into its normal schedule. Katie and her husband, Pat, visited for 10days and being snowed in, we watched a lot of TV. It was nice to just do nothing. But I'm fighting the urge to still do nothing. I want to clean out my studio and still have one senior to finish, so I've got plenty to do. I'll start posting again now that I'm back to normal. If you could ever consider me normal... LOL

Ending 2008 Weddings

My last wedding was on the 20th. I've played with an image I took of her in the doorway - a twist on the typical silhouette shot. I HATE the door handles, so I PSed the image a bit. Does the adjustment look too stupid?

From the Webcam

just me & the kids playing with the webcam - of course I changed it to b&w in photoshop.

Session this Morning

I haven't had many sessions lately, but things are starting to pick up. Hopefully next year will be better. Here is one from this morning.

{It's beginging to look alot like Christmas}

Look what we woke up to - and it's still snowing. It's coco season for sure...lol Patten and Ruth had sooo much fun. As did the boys. More images on my blog if you want to see more fun in the snow.

ILP

Anyone know what's up with ILP? I've not been able to get on for days.

Rain!

On our garden....we certainly needed it!

things are calming down

tryouts are over, parents meeting is over now I just need to order the teamwear and I can be a photographer again! Whew! I hate being this busy. I'll be back soon with lots to share.

Corel Painter

I received The Art of Digital Photo Painting by Marilyn Sholin in the mail today. It comes with sample images and step by step instructions for how to use the program to make these images into paintings. She uses some filters/plug-ins that I don't have the funds to buy right now, but I made my own adjustments and thought it turned out pretty well. So, should I bring in more detail in paintings? About this much since it doesn't have faces? Less? Let me know what you think.

Don't Shoot Me

I won't even say I've been busy, cause who hasn't? Football is over, writing is over...for now. Love writing, love getting complimented on my articles but hate the editing process. I can't stand having my stories changed "to fit the AP style" but we're working on a compromise :) and maybe I'll write again during baseball. For basketball season tho, I'm just taking pics....yeah! This is our son Wilson (#23), he's a junior starter on Varsity.

ISO 3200, ss400, f2.8

The Molen's Christmas

Here is my Sister-in-Law with her family. We took family pictures after the blizzard that we had. Although it was absolutely freezing we got some great shots.

Greetings from the Lost

Sorry I have been missing, business has been very slow here. But, I do have a cool senior shot to show you. This was my cousin last week.

ok I promise I'm not gone

I'm just busy with volleyball tryouts. Give me a few more days to get this going and I'll be back and rarin' to go.............

{Happy Baby}

This was taken during my portrait party yesterday. What do you think, is she happy or what! lol

I'm not lost

I'm submerged........ I'm in the middle of volleyball tryouts and I'm still NOT done with my Seniors. But I do see the light at the end of the tunnel and in two weeks I will be all caught up!!! But I'll try and post some images but don't count on me until the beginning of next week ok???

My Baby, the Fashionista??

Jessica put this outfit together and wanted pictures taken, so we spent about an hour playing at the train tracks. I know the pp work blew out the white dress in the standing image. I've got to get the pp figured out! Any other CC on the pics or the pp would be much appreciated!

My Niece Abby

I was taking pictures of my girls yesterday and grabbed a few of my niece. Naturally, those got edited first. Here are a couple. Still working on my post processing, so ANY and ALL tips/CC are greatly appreciated.

{Happy Thanksgiving}

A craft project that I created today - Everyone in the family did this project together - to see the others project take a look @ my blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Natalie

This was my family session today. What a cute girl!

just trying this out

I don't even know if this will post. But I bought this collage maker from Gary Fong and it might just look great for my other blog. Cross your fingers I can post it.

Ho Ho Ho

I did pictures of friends' babies this morning for holiday cards. While I was setting up my lights and getting everything ready I snapped a few of my baby. This is Mandi!

WAHOO!

I finally got my computer put back together!!!! Oh and Happy Birthday Mom!

my senior tonight

another one of ziggy and

then its back to seniors

{Photo Swap'N Trade}

I met up with a gal from ILP over the weekend and we swapped photography services for one another. She did an awesome job of my family (feel free to check it out on my blog) and I hope I did as good for her family - here is a picture from our Swap.



Aren't her kids just tooo cute!

Focal Length: 17.0mm * Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160) * Aperture: f/5.0 * ISO: 200

ok Ziggy is NOT a senior

But this was from my session tonight. Ziggy.... really had NO desire to be photographed. But he was a trouper.

My Senior Tonight...

...hey, he's a senior :)

No jokes about the fact that I'm not dead (yet)....I've been (choke choke) writing for the newspaper instead of taking pics, tho I do that for fun while I'm at the game. The paper had a few too many photogs and they knew I could write, so that's my gig this season. Kind of fun, but I refuse to put down the camera for long....and they still have me taking pics for away games!

ISO3200, ss320, f2.8 ...VERY dark field!

And my senior tonight

come on everyone can play.... let's all sing along....

and my senior tonight

this is the senior I'm working on tonight

been gone too long

Sorry I've been gone so long. So much has happened. I've had a couple of eye surgeries, my computer crashed and I went out of town. But I'm back now, whew!! I went to Utah and did a little mini session, learned soooo much. Here are two images.

{Feeling Fabulous!}

I have lost a total of 19 lbs since September. I still have a long way to go but I feel FAB-U-LOUS about my progress. Hubby took this picture of me after church yesterday - I congratulated my progress with a new dress & shoes. I thought I would share my progress!!

Roommate

During the photo seminar I was attending, my roommate (KrisG) wanted some budoir pics for her hubby's Christmas gift. Now, those who know me know I'm VERY prudish/tame. This is NOT something I would shoot! So my images were very tasteful and PG rated. Here is one of the images that was processed in Lightroom with a free preset I downloaded from Kelsey Smith. Again, I'm working on my PPing skills, so let me know what you think. I did order CS4 and Andy Armstrong's Design House Suite - so learning must follow...

you made me smile.......

twice!!! I so wish I was there!! :( I kicked myself last year too and swore I would go this year. But I had already committed to Imaging USA with Michelle and I have so many seniors...to still proof AND lots of viewing sessions this week......AND I had already planned on going to Utah to shoot with Tina, Tennesse and Katie....

My plate is too full! :( Please learn lots and then teach me. Julie has been such a great help to me and I think we are learning things together, which is nice.

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!! tons of it............

Ruthless INFERNO

Why aren't you here? I met Julie, says she sees you all the time. You really should be here.

Ruthless INFERNO

Why aren't you here? I met Julie, says she sees you all the time. You really should be here.

The Berens family

The Berens came to see me today. I've been asking for for 4 years to bring me her family.. Finally they came. Here is one. The dad came to but this is the one I wanted to show you all... Nice to see people posting again. :)

At the Farm

Spent a couple of hours yesterday shooting Shannon at the stables with her horse. Here is one of my favorites.

Timothys

Here is my most recent session! Cute family.

Sunset in Napa

Our trip north this weekend was wonderful....baby-sitting my nieces and nephew on top of a mountain in Napa....tough life.
ISO 500, ss60, f 5.6

New Favorite

This kiddo and his sister gave me a run for my money, sweet kids but very wiggly and giggly. I knew immediately when I shot this, it would be a favorite.

BEE

Look what I found on my door step....

bad acne

I shot two twins tonight and they both had really bad acne. Does anyone know how to clean it up better than this? This is going to be a long post processing gig.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight we had a trunk or treat after worship services. Wasn't easy trying to get focus locked when it was pitch black outside (porch light only goes so far). I loved the little scarecrow outfit this littl boy was wearing, so those are the images I've chosen to share.

{Phidipus the Jumping Spider}

This is a jumping spider I found while wandering around with my camera this afternoon...as you can see he has captured his favorite dinner "a-la-fly".

Blake and Lauren

Blake and Lauren went to homecoming tonight and her are a few of their official pictures.

Today's Wedding

I've recently had my website/images critiqued by a fellow photographer. One HUGE comment was that my workflow needs more POP. So, taking that to heart, here are a few of the images from today's wedding with my new workflow. What do you think?