pitter patter.....

Sorry I have been gone so long, my heart has not really been into keeping up. this picture is from several weeks ago when we went fishing in Sargent,Tx. I uploaded the pictures to the computer last night and figured i would share this one, because OMGosh, can you believe this boy????? I was tempted to clean up his face in photoshop, but figured, it's him, so i left the mess.

I will share more later this week.

glass of water.....

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, 'How heavy is this glass of water ? ' Answers called out ranged from 8oz. To 20oz. The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.

'If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.' 'In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. '

He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. 'If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. ' 'As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. '

So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work/life down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.' 'Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy! '

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
1 * Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
2 * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
3* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
4 * Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
5* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
6 * If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
7 * It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
8 * Never buy a car you can't push.
9* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
10* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
11* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
12 * The second mouse gets the cheese.
13 * When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
14* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
15* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
16 * Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once
17 * We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box. 18* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today .

its official.....

http://www.justlivinphotography.com/ is here!!! This is the main reason I have not been blogging much, it took all of my computer time to get the site just the way I wanted it. So, please take a look and let me know what you think!

You will also notice on the splash page, a new blog. It is a blog I set up special for clients to have a sneak peeks at their pictures before I finish editing all of them.

title change.....

so i went ahead and named my little photo business just livin' photography. i almost have my website complete, so i figured i needed to change the name of my blog. i will put a link to the website soon.......

what am i?.....*update*

okay, this big ol' dude has taken up residence in our backyard. i would really like to know what is making such an equally big mess out of everything under the tree! please let me know if you know what kind if bird this is!!

*Scott contacted a very nice lady on the internet that let us know it is a black-crowned night-heron, common to this area.*

Engagement.....

sorry i have been away so long, hopefully i still have a few people check out the blog.

two weeks ago i had my first session of the year, it was a very nice couple getting married in may. they definitely made the day great, i wish i could go to Kentucky to photograph the wedding. good luck and have fun guys!

Sick day.....

unfortunately my sister, who keeps the boys during the week is sick, so i get to stay home today. It was such a good day, usually these unexpected days don't go very smooth, but today was great!!!

we painted, which lead to a bubble bath, then K wanted a race track! please excuse my poor drawing, but that's what you get spare of the moment!

Sorry for the small pictures, i did not feel like going thru the rigmarole of hosting them in photobucket then putting them here! lazy and i have kids under feet!

bye, bye curls.....

Saturday was rough. we finally made the decision to cut T's curls off. he was headed towards the dreaded mullet stage and as much as i DID.NOT. want to cut his hair, i WILL.NOT. let my beautiful child walk around with a mullet.
i tried to get a cute picture of his hair beforehand, but he has gotten as bad as K with my camera. i did snip off a curl before we left the house, so i have that.
this is the same place we got K's first hair cut, and he sat in the same little car, but this time i cried, you would have thought i would have been more emotional with K, but there is just something about curls on a little boy. and i also know that they will probably NEVER grow back.

choosing a name....

i have been so wishy-washy about choosing a name for my photography business, so i need your help! i have narrowed it down to two, so please vote on the above poll. if you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them here....

if just livin' wins, i will use 'life through the lens' for marketing as well.

Thanks anyone that votes!

p.s. do you or anyone you know design logo's???? i need one!

a tribute.....*update at bottom*

i always look forward to setting up and trimming the Christmas tree every year around thanksgiving. of course, this year was especially exciting because the boys helped. believe it or not we only had a few casualties(the good ornaments were on the top half of the tree!) although by the first of the year i am read to have all the Christmas decorations put away, but i am always sad to put up the ornaments and the tree. so here is one last tribute to our fading memory of the 2008 tree.....


*i had several e-mails and a comment asking how i took this image. thanks to a girl, Bobbi, over at 2peas, i was able to get this image quite easily!

-put lens on manual focus
-ISO around 800
-all lights off except Christmas tree lights
-settings, f/2.8, 1/30th
first i messed around with the focus until the lights were as 'blurred' as i wanted. then i metered the light and took the picture. i know i had a very slow shutter speed, but believe it or not, i hand held my camera for this shot!
my post processing was very simple, i did not do any contrast or color adjustments. i only added a texture(with a border), set on a very low opacity.

lessons....

this being the first year that K really knew what was going on, we really went all out to make Christmas morning magical. oh, boy did we learn some good lessons!

1. never, under any circumstances, will i by dollar spot wrapping paper, EVER AGAIN.
2. buy batteries BEFORE Christmas morning,DUH???(yes, we where the idiots at walgreens on thursday morning buying a gazillion dollars worth of batteries)
3. manufactures packaging, well....SUCKS.
4. one child will only like what the other child is opening at the moment, and fighting will ensue.
5. 'indestructible' toys will break.
6. the gifts you think they will love the most, won't be.
7. relax, nothing will work out like you had in your mind, it will be better:)

we had such a great day! Santa left behind a huge mess, foot prints all over the house and crumbs from the cookies everywhere. he stuffed the stockings and left great gifts for the kids. i made lunch for my parents, then visited with Scott's family. it was a tad overwhelming for the kids and they got grumpy by nights end, but all in all it was amazing! i hope everyone's Christmas was the same. Now, for new years........

top five(or so) of '08.....

the photoboard community i participate in, 2peas, has a year end tradition of picking your favorite 5 pictures of the year. there is now way i could narrow it down to 5, so you are going to get 7, and even this is not all i wanted to include!







these are just a few personal ones i thought i would throw in....

a name.....

okay, so i am getting everything in order to have a real business. i am trying to get a website built and paperwork done to make this photography thing official. but, i am missing one important piece of the puzzle..... A NAME!

so, if anyone has anything good, let me know! if i use the name you come up with, and you live in my area, i will give you your choice of a free photo session or a $15.00 Starbucks gift card. if you live out of the area, you will get the Starbucks gift card.

my full name is Jennifer Anne Marcus. i was thinking of using J. Marcus photography, but i am not sure. i am not opposed to using my name in anyway, but thought i would try and find something different/unique.

hopefully someone can come up with something good!!!!

the 'T' boys.....

this was definitely a learning experience, trying to get 3 very active boys to be in the same vicinity of each other and the camera at the same time, whoo! they are so sweet and very photogenic! the boy in blue DID.NOT. want his picture taken at first, but by the time we finished he was begging me for one more shot and giving me some good poses! can't wait to shoot them again, maybe with mom and dad next!

gettin' the christmas spirit.....

last week i was suffering from the major humbug's. I was trying really hard to get in the spirit for the sake of the boys, so i had a few things planned. we had already trimmed the tree and put up lights outside, and that helped, but i needed more interactive things to do with K & T. about the middle last week we came home and got dinner cooked right away, ate and got started building a ginger bread choo choo. the perfect thing for K! the poor boy could not eat the icing fast enough. T was a little jealous, but he got to spend time With daddy while me and K built the train. it took all of 5 minutes for K to lose interest and just want to eat the candy, that was okay, i still had fun. when we finished with that we bundled the kids up to go drive around looking at lights. we walked out to the best snow storm Houston has seen in a long time!!!! it was a completely magical night! we where able to get a few snow balls, T loved eating the snow and K got to catch snowflakes on his tongue! they liked it, but i think i was more excited than anyone, that helped so much to see the snow and it be the first time the kids got to experience it!