oh hai!

more animals



more animals


If that's not Jingles and Mack. Nothing is.

Gene and I will be gone most of the weekend. We're honeymooning in Gardner. Not really, but it sounds more exciting if I say it like that.

Becky, David and Miss Ester are coming to visit, and we're gonna meet them half way, well, if Gardner is 1/2 way between here and PA. *in my head that works ok?*

A lot accomplished the last couple days. I got the dollhouse all fixed and ready to give to Stephanie. ACK. So much love, attention, TIME went into that thing, but I don't have a place to enjoy it, and I know she'll take care of it. It's going with us tomorrow.

I also got pics edited of both Laura and Sarah. I'm really in the mood to get the engagement session edited, but I need to go to bed early. Read: Before 2 a.m. - it's my new habit.

I have been doing a lot of networking. Considering a bigger bridal fair in St. Joe in March. Kind of expensive, but I think it might be worth it.

Made a new logo and new business cards, which I keep forgetting to pick up. Ooops!!!

Other stuff, that I can't remember, but trust me, it's been a productive week. I probably will not post again until Monday! Have a good weekend

Laura's Session - Missouri Maternity photographer

I shared earlier, some photos of Laura's maternity session. I have finished editing, and wanted to share some of my favs from the day!

I love this photo, even tho it's slightly off focus. It has awesome sunflare, a silhouette and a genuine smile from Laura.

Go Laura.

Laura is kinda conservative straight laced. {that's ok, we like that too} I badly wanted her pic with her mustang and asked Laura to give me something a little on the "hot momma" side. I'm fairly impressed. I can tell you for sure that when I was 7.5 months pregnant, I was not balancing myself on heels up against my mustang.

To be fair, she put her slippers back on as soon as we got in the car. LOL.

P.S. - Laura, you and I need to ditch the men and the kids for a weekend and have a Thelma and Louise. We'll take your car. I'll drive. LOL.

1 Barn + 40 gallons Pink paint = cool!

Remember the pink barn I complained I never got a photo of? Well, when we went down to shoot Sarah's pics, we stopped and took it's pic. I just keep forgetting to share the pic!

I think I'm over my cold. It was a 3 day thing. I feel bad, Gene never seems to get rid of his! It's been like a month!

I needed that....

Today, I got up and decided pretty early on in the day, that I needed to go to St. Joe. I didn't need anything in particular that couldn't wait. Actually, I wanted some foam, to make a separater for my new camera bag that I'm working on (converted rolling laptop bag on clearance), but that could have waited until Saturday.

I listened to Dave Ramsey as I head off to St. Joe, and that's probably the person you really want to listen to before you go shopping, he keeps you in check! I found my foam, and talked myself out of that really cute wild animal/zoo paper stack that I really didn't need - but wanted it because it had glitter. They are onto me. Glitter is the new kryptonite. Kinda like baby socks, kittens and bunny rabbit whiskers... women lose self control.

Hobby Lobby called me, but I really didn't NEED anything there. I bought some yarn. That's it. I think it was a new low for me. Oh. And a feather. No really. It was a hot pink ostrich feather that just practically begged me to buy it. It floated gently back and forth in a hyponotizing manner until I caved. I can't believe I spent $2 on a feather. LOL. I'm going to use it as a prop headpiece on a a willing kick ass rocker type senior photo.

Next stop was Michaels and that's where I lost touch with reality. Awesome cute little chipboard albums for a DOLLAR plus the paper to cover them. I justified buying 15 by buying a couple for amber and some for gifts. The rest are ALL MINE I TELL YOU!

MINE

That was it. Three stops and I feel back in touch with my inner scrapbooker - not that I really lost much touch with it.

But the break was good. I needed that.

Now it's back to reality. I have to clean up the dollhouse to take to Stephanie on Saturday, and also I need to finish editing Laura's maternity session from November!

Something else I needed?
A shot in the arm. Maybe it was a punch in the gut, either way it worked. I told you about my friend the mentor? It's worked out really well so far. She said to me the other day "you seem to have a gift that allows you to bring out the true spirit in your subjects; the genuine smiles, the real laughter, the true beauty."

She said a bunch of other really super awesome stuff too, but that kinda sums it up.

For some reason it's given me a whole new sense of confidence. Instead of hoping that others believe that I'm a photographer, I just know I am and don't feel like I need a confirmation of that fact anymore. My little shot in the arm of confidence that's sent me in the direction of:

• Looking outside of the box
• Working on creative things
• beating the streets for advertising
• reworking my logo
• contemplating new networking strategies
• Reading a new book
• Considering starting a new photographer based blog. A sisterhood of photography type blog. I've not finished working on it in my head yet.

I needed someone that wasn't my friend or my sister to tell me not only do I not suck, but on top of that, i'm good. And you know what. I think I am.

I needed that.

Baby Sarah - Missouri Newborn Photographer

I have finished editing the photos I did of baby Sarah. She was about 10 days old when we did this shoot. Very happy with the photos after all the editing was done!

I had a ton of props I wanted to use, but only had time to use a couple, my favorite being this funny square/diamond basket.

She loved this snuggie, it kept her asleep to take quite a few pics. It's handmade from a thrift store find scarf!

This is Laura's brand new bedroom set that she is so proud of, I couldn't resist the tiny baby vs. the ginormous bed shot!

If you would like to have beautiful newborn shots of your new baby, please visit my website and contact me to add you to the schdule. The best time to photograph the new baby is in the first 3 weeks, so schedule NOW if you are pregnant!

Oh the love of my husband....

Last night, making supper, standing next to each other in the kitchen - I pat Gene on the butt and say "You've got a cute butt."

He responds, "Yours doesn't make me wanna vomit."

Oh what a hopeless romantic he is.

Oh so much training left to (re)do.
*sigh*

Pay it forward.

What a nice, quiet weekend!

OK, maybe not so much "nice" as it was quiet. We went nowhere, did nothing, except buy some groceries on Saturday. I officially picked up Gene's crap cold he has. Probably because he lays on his left side at night, and snores and coughs in my general direction. My days of politely nudging him and asking him to roll over have resorted to *poke poke*. him- "WHAT?" me - "Rollover!" him - grunt/roll.

I didn't get out of my jammies all day sunday. It was nice but you feel kinda like a slug, so when I stayed up late like usual, I updated my facebook page with new pics and info. Facebook is a great way to not only connect with potential customers, but old friends!

I've had a flurry of old high school mates "friend" me on facebook the past week or so. 2 of them are even photographers! Small weird world.

In other news...
A couple days ago, I was having a soul searching type moment. On one hand, you think you're really good at photography, and love your own work, and then the next min, you're reminded by "other ppl" (read other photographers full of themselves), that you suck.

So I wrote a friend of mine. She's an incredibly successful photographer in MI. Not successful in that she's super rich, but successful in that I've never seen a photographer more booked than she is. In fact, I'd venture to say overbooked... and talented... and she has a kick ass hot mole on her lip that makes me kinda jealous, but that's completely unrelated.

Even tho she's incredibly busy, she wrote me back, and gave me a little pep talk, told me that *she* would hire me, and was *honest about it*. That's the highest form of flattery, for one photographer to hire another.

Anyway, after a really long letter, she offers to be a bit of a mentor for me. Not a matter of contact every day, but maybe once a week or so, just touching base. I really appreciate this offer as many times in my life, I've felt like I've slacked in business when I shouldn't have been. I've never worked harder at a business as I have this one, and I feel like I could improve even more, and networking with peers is the best way to start.

So that's my exciting news. I know it's not terribly exciting to others, but I feel like it will be the thing that takes me from this level to the next. It's also where my word of the year comes into play "Dedicated". I am keeping it at the forefront of my mind, and when I feel myself slacking in any area, I just remind myself that I'm *dedicated* and it's a little self kick in the pants.

I spent the day cleaning the house up, I have a college student coming here today to interview me for her communications class. She wants to be a photographer when she "grows up"! So, maybe, I can pay it forward.

I know. I'm a drag.

I feel like lately I've not had much exciting stuff to share. Like I'm slacking off - forcing to think of something interesting to share besides scrapbook pages.

Sorry. I guess I've just had my mind in a boring place lately. I need to get back on track... whatever the "track" might be.

I do have some interesting news, I'll share tomorrow or Monday. I just want to vacillate on it a little longer before I share.

In the meantime... another wedding page. This one about how we played croquet. Not my best work - actually it was a complete scraplift - and everything single thing was old product - but it's done.

Go me.

{Sticky Wicket}

We are Berry Good Together - Pink Paper bag album

While cleaning my scrapbook room, AND giving a pile of stuff to Amber, I realized I had so many mini albums, or albums in progress, that I needed to be more commited to, or maybe "justify" lol.

A couple *years* ago, I bought some pink gift bags with the intention of making a paper bag album. After moving things around, and almost just sticking them in the gift wrap box, I decided that making this album would not take me long.


If you've never made a paper bag album before, they are super easy, and pretty fun. There's a ton of variations on this theme, but this is my version.

With each bag laying flat, I cut off the thick end that normally would be the bottom of the bag. To make it more interesting, I made each back progressively longer than the next - a stair step effect.

Some of my new fav paper is the berry line from K&Co. I bought it in a stack at Michaels. complete with glitter. yay glitter! :) (fyi, I like K&Co glittered products because it doesn't come off!!)

I cut a strip that was approximately 3 inches wide. I then folded that in half lengthwise and folded it over the cut off end.

I then sewed along the seam making it stronger. Do this again for each page (I have 5 pages).

I have my own binding machine, not a Zutter, but a good old office binder I bought years ago, before it got so popular to bind your own stuff. Sheesh I always knew I was on the forefront of this industry... why aren't I rich dammit? I wire bound the book, but you could also use notebook rings, ribbon or sew across the edge to bind it together.

*anyway*

I then made pages that can slip out of the bag pages. I used flowers that matched the berry paper as a "pull tab" to pull out pages.





I'm using this as just a book with random pics of Gene and I. I suppose it will be an add as you go book as we don't have a *ton* of pics together, and with the inner pages, front and back, you have about 15 places that you can add pictures!



Viola! Scrapbook album for around $3-$4 worth of paper and materials!

Page 4 of the 365 scrapbook project. I sat down yesterday and did 6 days at once. Oops. I let myself get behind a bit. I'm trying to do 2-3 days at a time. This one snuck up on me. The blog helps remind me what I've been doing!

I don't know how I found this cool link today, but it looks fun.

Fusing plastic bags to make a cutable/sewable "fabric". I am going to try it, and make some recycled plastic scrapbook albums, and I think also some grocery bags totes - which I need to remember to do more!!

I always have a ton of bags and hate to throw them away, but never remember to recycle them!

Amanda and Sean - engagement photographer - Missouri

I promised this yesterday, but since my computer took NINE HOURS to transfer files from one computer to the other, I accomplished very little on the computer yesterday. Well, except for transfering said files. :p

I did clean tho. Go me.

So here's Amanda and Sean's shoot. We went to 3-4 different locations, starting at the Kissing Bridge at the college.

We put a bit of a "spin" on the kissing bridge, and made it the "Suppa Hawt Making Out Bridge". {Sorry Sean/Amanda's Grandma if you're seeing this - it was all my idea.. really.}

My favorite brick wall of all time, that everyone wants!

Out at our house in the dried grass/flowers/field behind the house.

{my fav of the entire shoot}

And yes, we even went to the laundromat.

You know what's funny? Not one person even looked at us when we were there... like "dude I see weird stuff at the laundromat all the time. A camera? Bit whoop." LOL

They are fun, and really open minded so their wedding should be a blast!! I have more pics that are wonderful, I'll try to share them soon!

Humpday!

Yesterday, I woke up to this:

{some snow has been added for dramatization}

It was soft, light, fluffy snow that took forever to fall. In fact, if the wind blew even in the slightest, it would blow up.

It didn't last long. An hour after these photos, it was completely gone, and the sun wasn't even out.

Back in nineteen-dickety-two, I shot film 35mm. *like everyone else*

I had (have) a couple nice metal body cameras - which btw, tangent, put my back out *for years* carrying it around chicago. Anyway, with those cameras I had some *ok* lenses.

Cool thing is, you can get adapters to attach old film lenses to your fancy new digitals. And they are cheap, think like $3!

I had an old super wide fisheye "lens". I say that in quotes because it screws on like a filter and not an actual lense. I bought some filter adapters and viola! I have a superwide again.

Here's some test shots so you can get an idea:

{what the original scene looks like}

{with the super wide - at it's narrowest}

{with the super wide - at it's widest}

I think it'll be fun, if just for some gimmicky/different/unusual pics.

Speaking of which, I have some uber hawt pics of Amanda and Sean to share. I'm going to try to post some this afternoon, BUT, I have to set up my new computer today so I don't get my arse chewed out *again* about it.

Yes, I've been putting it off. I really hate setting up computers. *a lot*

Add to that, Gene is sick *again*. He's a bundle of joy.