gorgeous.....

i had the pleasure of shooting a long time friend of S's and his gorgous family on their property. just look at those eyes, they are amazing!!!






i can tell such an improvement each and every time i go on a shoot, with my confidence and technically. i got practically perfect SOOC exposure on these, i was so happy because i need almost NO post-processing! now i need to work on getting creative and thinking outside the box with posing, any suggestions?

an apology.....

i know this won't mean as much as the actually thank you card that i owe so many, but i will write this regardless.
i think writing thank you cards(and teaching my children to write them) are very important, especially in this day and age of technological disconnect, but i have failed miserable. My MIL so graciously through T his first birthday party back in August(ages ago, as far as i am concerned) and i have not sent out one single thank you card. i have written about half of them, but now i am embarrassed to send them out because it has taken so long.
i know it is such an inconvenience to take out the time to shop for a gift and then spend part of a hard earned weekend at a child's birthday, and i appreciate it so much that my family and friends do that for us.
so to all those that read this and i owe you a thank you....... thank you.

choo, choo.....

Debra, my mil, brought the boys to garden ridge the other day to pick out an ornament for the Christmas tree. well, we were only there for 5 minutes when the Santa express train caught K's eye, needless to say that is what he got, and he lets EVERYONE know about it! we have already had to get it out several time so he can play with it, he is going to drive me crazy with the thing until i give in a put up the Christmas tree way early.

i took these pictures very late the night he got it, so with it very dark outside and inside, the light was a challenge. i decided though, as i was processing them, not to change them. i could have lightened them, changed the color cast, cropped and sharpened, but these are sooc, i figured they where not that bad and a true representation of him playing with it the first time.

beautiful family.....

i had the pleasure of shooting this beautiful family last weekend, can you get any more precious? We took these pictures in front of a local neighborhood, Rock Creek.
probably my fave....





now i know i am not the first, nor will i be the last to take an image like this, but it is one of my favorites and i find myself going there all the time! it just works so well.

red, please.....

i loved kool-aid when i was growing up and i loved cherry. to be more specific i loved black cherry flavored kool-aid. i have never made K kool-aid before, but i had some in the pantry, so when he was begging for juice today, kool-aid saved the day. cherry flavored non-the-less!! he loved helping me spoon a whole cup full of sugar in that tiny pitcher that would be filled up with water and more colored sugar, just what a little boy that refuses to take a nap needs, right? so, today, i got to see my little man with his first red stained, kool-aid mustache!

full moon.....

after much research i was able to go out and get a decent picture of the latest full moon. i would much prefer a picture of a half moon or smaller, but when i saw this big, beautiful thing hanging there in the sky, i had to give it a try. hopefully the next time there is a tiny sliver of moon, the sky will be nice.

*ETA* i was asked to explain how i took this shot....here goes!
i had my camera mounted on a tripod,it is hard for me to hand hold when this lens is zoomed all the way.
i had my zoom lens set to infinity(300mm for this lens).
ISO @ 100 & 200
Aperture @ 5.6
tested the shutter speed between 1/125 and 1/500. i think this picture is ss 1/500.(i will go back and check later)

i think it is a common mis-conception that you need a long shutter speed to get a picture of the moon because it is dark out. but remember the sun is reflecting off of it and it really is brighter than you think. if you use a long shutter speed it will just be a big ball of white, trust me it happened last time i tried, hence the research! good luck, i hope to see some of yours soon.

don't fence me in.....

my boys don't like to be couped up in the house for more that an hour, ever. so i am sure you can imagine how the last two yucky days have been. they beg and scream at the door to go outside and play, really if you were my neighbor, you would think i was torturing them.
my mom finally opened up the blinds on Monday afternoon so t could at least see daylight. he had more fun playing in that dirty, nasty windowsill. i guess as long as they can see that outside is still there and hasn't gone anywhere, they are fine! when i saw t's eyes pop up behind the couch i couldn't resist getting this shot, bad or not! excuse the wonky colors and dirty windows.....

true love.....

i am not sure i will ever have it in me to bill myself as a wedding photographer, but this day was A LOT of fun! thanks M & R for this opportunity.

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i just want to cry.

fall back.....

there are just no nice words to describe how much i dislike daylight savings time.

just sayin'

momma's helper.....

these are from way back on july and i have just gotten around to looking at them! i do remember having a lot of fun and a lot of mess with K that day! he loves to help me cook!

yummy.....

clean up.....

taste test.....

i sure wish i had some, nice warm cookies and cold glass of milk right about now!!

siblings.....

i shot these pictures for Kim, as a trade off for swim lessons(awesome, thank you!). i know i had fun, but garrett was a little less than thrilled to be in front of the camera! Hailey was a good sport and we got quite a few good shots! and the red hair, can you ask for anything better?