3.07.2012

Doors are opening!!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by one of Caldwell's finest about doing some head shots for her application to The Voice!!  


I could go on and on about how great Kelsey is but the truth is: you all already know it!!

She has been a part of my life for 14 years and I am thankful for that every day!!  She is smart, happy, positive, funny, genuine, honest, upbeat and WONDERFUL!!!  She is just plain flat the best!!!!  My children are old enough to not need a babysitter and still they beg us to go out on a date and hire Kelsey to come babysit them!  :) 

Here's a couple of images from our session.... while you look at them take a second to send up a little prayer for her!! 

I can't wait to see what the future holds!!!












2.26.2012

Awesome Family Session Today!!!


I love meeting new people!!  

I especially love meeting new people when they are fun people!!  :)    

A few weeks ago Tonya asked me about shooting this session since she'd be out of town and I am so glad I did!!  What an awesome (and photographic) family!!  Maci tagged along to help me carry props (the real truth is; she didn't want to stay home and work in the yard!) and ended up with a new best friend!!  She was a big help though, drawing and playing while we worked on the images of Mom and Dad.



Tirzah and Bob, Thanks so much for sharing your day with us!!  We had an absolute blast!!!  

(and Maci)

2.09.2012

Soooo.... I decided tonight that our blog has been neglected... very, very neglected! :)

I'm going to try to be better at this... it just seems like such a toss up when I can jump on Facebook any second of any day and basically "blog" anything I want you to know about.

In trying to be better with the blog I'm going to start by share something I used to look towards for inspiration.  Nike has had some awesome ad's throughout the years and one of their ads was my "go to" solution to everything through my drama filled teen years. (Yes, Mom, I'm admitting I had a little drama!)  If I couldn't find a solution to my problem I would read and read this ad until something made me feel better.  Maybe it was because it was about love, maybe it was because it was real, maybe it was just because I sat down and had a little time alone. Whatever the case, it worked.  I was probably about 17 when I found this ad, I tore every part out of a magazine and still have it in a scrapbook.  It meant the world to me and still does!!

Struggling with something you love?  Read the Acts.... I guarantee you'll feel better!!!

Thanks, Nike, for keeping it real!!




FALLING IN LOVE IN SIX ACTS
A passion play
(Or what happens when you fall down that long well of passion
over a person, a place, a sport, a game, a belief, and your heart goes boom and your mind leaves town.)
ACT I LUST (I think I love you. Who are you anyway?)
Here it is, the big “Wow,” the big “Gee,” the big “Yes-Yes-Yes” you’ve been waiting for. This is where you find something or someone and believe they are better, greater, cuter, wiser, more wonderful than anything you have ever known. Lust isn’t a sin, it’s a necessity, for with lust as our guide we imagine our bodies moving the way our bodies were meant to move: we can do marathons with our feet, lift pounds with our arms, have stars in our eyes and do a nifty tango. And you think: I have no need of food, I have no need of sleep, I have no needs other than occasionally chewing a breath mint. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, probably because you haven’t happened to me yet. Now I can pass into the next Act, so poetically called:
ACT II EUPHORIA (Or: Oh Yippee, you’re mine.)
You feel funny inside. You feel funny outside. You feel you could do anything and no one would dare laugh at you. This love, you will treasure. You will not put it in the basement next to your rowing machine, treadmill, and thermal body sweat wrap. And you will not take this love for granted, because that is the biggest sin of all. And you say: I feel so good, I feel so strong, I feel actually attractive and I could learn to live with that feeling. Oh let us sing and dance and eat brown mushy foods low in fat! Oh joy! Oh rapture! —– Oh but what if I’m no good at this? Oh I am no good at this. I am a dingy speck on the wall of humanity and look how badly painted that wall is! I am becoming very, very afraid. That must be because I’m passing into the Third Act, called:
ACT III FEAR (Also known as: Uh-oh.)
This is where the doubt begins, where the mind comes back from shopping, yells at the heart, binds and gags it to a nice lounge chair and allows guilt, failure, and remembrances of things past to sit in for a nice game of bridge. This is where you fear what you need most. If it’s a person you love, you fear appearing foolish in front of them. If it’s a sport, you fear being foolish in front of many, many people at the same time. And you begin to think: oh no. What if I’m wrong? What if this stinks? What if my heart has blinders on, it’s had blinders on before, in fact it had dark heavy patches taped all over it. How can anyone love me if I don’t love myself? I mean, I love myself, there are just parts between the top of my head and the bottom of my feet that could use some improvement. I’m not demeaning myself, I have relatives who do that.
ACT IV DISGUST (And the strange desire to eat everything in sight,
hide in your room, and watch old Gidget movies with friends from high school.)
Now comes that unavoidable time when you say to anyone who will listen: what the heck am I doing, anyway? If it’s a person you love, first you hate only their foulest inadequacies, then you start hating their good points as well. If it’s running you love, you start to hate hills, sidewalks, and bad weather, and soon anything that slightly resembles a bump, concrete, or a small breeze. I can’t believe I ever said I felt this way, I must have been dreaming! Wait, THIS IS NO DREAM, THIS IS A FILM NOIR MOVIE, and one of those really dark ones, too. I mean, this is love? This is what they tell you about when you’re 11 and naive? Or 32 and more naive?
ACT V THE TRUTH (Love is hard work. And, sometimes, hard work can really hurt.)
Love is a game. If they didn’t tell you before, we will tell you now. Love is a game and if you play you either win, lose, or get ejected before the game is over. There are no ties. Maybe you’ll lose and learn some great meaningful answer from it all (like if it looks too good to be true, it is). It’s easy to love something when you don’t have to work at it. It’s harder when it asks something of you, you just might be afraid to give. GIVE IT ANYWAY. The heart is the most resilient muscle. It is also the stupidest. So if this love you’ve found is good to you, hold it, keep it, shout about it. If it isn’t, then maybe you should just become very good friends.
ACT VI THE FINALE (Also known as the big whopperdoodle, or,
the most important part of this whole darn thing.)
So this is love, as demanding and nourishing and difficult as it can be, and as strong and wise as it makes you become. There is something to be gained from commitment. There are rewards for staying when you would rather leave. And there is something to be said for running up that hill when you would rather slide down it. And so you let love come perch upon your shoulder. And you do not turn it away. You do the tango.
Just do it.


8.18.2011

Welcome to the world Kane Matthew!!!




I am so incredibly excited to be starting a new adventure into Birth Photography! I hope that eventually Birth Stories will be my specialty and I'll be welcoming new babies into the world consistently!! It was an honor to be included on such a special day and capture some everlasting memories for the family. The vision of Mom watching this video for the first time will forever make my heart happy!!


To many of you it is no surprise that I Love babies!! I believe the entire process from conception to birth is so amazing it's almost unbelievable. Honestly, without stating all the details, every single minute process, the perfect timing, the body's ability to create life... how does it all work so perfectly time and time again? Not long after I really started getting deep into photography I saw my first birth video. I sat in front of the computer and bawled my eyes out while watching complete strangers bring a beautiful new life into this world!! I HAD to see more!! I watched every video I could possibly find... and I bawled through every single one of them!! I HAD to find a way to be a part of this. I HAD to find a way to capture this amazing process that only someone as great as our God could create!


One of the best things (I think) about Birth Photography is the ability to forever remember one of the most important days of your life!! I was medicated with all of my births and, while I am SO VERY thankful for modern medicine, it left my memories of the day groggy to say the least. How awesome would it be if you had a video from the day your child was born? To be able to show your child how much they are loved and let them see for themselves the joy their life brought you!! And, as in this case, for mom to be able to see everything that occurred while she was in recovery is priceless!


The goal is to include the birth but sometimes (as in this case) that's not possible. This doesn't make the slide show any less perfect, as you can see!! Before anyone screams and runs the other direction let me just say: there is nothing inappropriate included when the birth is captured!!! The things that are not in this slide show that would be, had it not been a C-section, are mom bearing down during contractions, dad comforting her, baby just seconds after he/she enters the world and the immediate emotions of Mom and Dad when they see their child for the first time! I would not publish things like that... my belief is that if it's not something I would let my kids watch, it won't be published by me!


Hope you all love it as much as I (we) do!!!






Oh, and one more thing.... I would have loved to put some AWESOME song that we all love on this video but it's agains copyright law and I'm not that kinda person! :P

6.11.2011

Grand Ol' Flag Special

Since Flag Day is just around the corner and Fourth of July is not too far away, I've decided to offer a Grand Ol' Flag Special! I will come to Caldwell for evening sessions on three different days between June 14th and July 2nd. The first three to schedule a Caldwell session will decide which days I'll be there. All other evening sessions held in Anthony. Call for availability.


details: session fee of $20 due at time of session, up to 20 minute session, 5-10 images in on online gallery to choose from, plus your choice of one set of wallets OR one 5x7 with paid session. Caldwell will have three dates available for this special - those dates determined by first three clients booked, all other evening sessions held in Anthony.
The above images were taken around 8pm to capture the best sunset. Please plan accordingly.
Clothing choices should be very plain clothing. Navy blue and dark jeans would work fabulous! Would avoid white, if possible.



it's been sooooo looonnngggg....

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since we've posted. It seems like the last month or two of the school year is always JAM PACKED with so much to do - and I only have one child... can't even imagine how Sandy handles it all.

The month of May, at our house, was packed with trips here and there. The first weekend of May, I flew to Syracuse, New York to bowl with a group of fabulous ladies! We visited Niagra Falls and New York City, rode the Staten Island Ferry and the Subway, ate at Hard Rock Cafe in Niagra Falls and in Times Square, stayed in the "W" hotel which is right across from Ground Zero, stood in line for what seemed like forever at Carlos' Bakery (a.k.a Cake Boss) in Hoboken, New Jersey, then back through Pennsylvania to return to Syracuse for our flight home. Then shortly after I returned, George took a little trip with his brother to Mississippi, traveling through Arkansas and Tennessee. He had a great time! Then within the same month we were all three traveling together to Arkansas and canoed in Missouri. WOW! It was tons of fun, but I'm glad to be home this month.

June is full of heat, wheat dust, long days and short nights in our household. Since George works at the Coop, he man's the elevator at Spring (six miles south of Anthony) and almost every evening Zack and I take him supper. This is pretty much the only way we see him during the month of June and sometimes July.

And July is approaching quickly... which means fourth of July! I think next to Christmas, this might be Zack's favorite holiday. With that in mind, I toted my camera to our evening dinner date with George and captured some great images. I hope you enjoy them!



 


3.27.2011

Lathers/Nicholson Engagement Session


Yesterday I had the opportunity to document the engagement of an AMAZING couple!!! I had an absolute blast getting to know Kalli and Steve and I think their mutual love really shows in these images!! Although it was chilly, we braved the temps and headed outside and I'm sooooo glad we did!!

Kalli and Steve, Thank you so much for sharing your day with me!! Can't wait to see you again!!

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