New Look...

As you can see, I have changed my blog a bit. Now my blog matches my website and logo colors (blue and brown)!

I also created a splash page for my website! I am excited about this. For a couple of months now, I have tried and tried to create my splah page with no such luck! Last night, it just clicked with me and I was able to create it in a matter of minutes! And to think I was going to PAY to have one created for me. haha!

Let me know what you think about the new fresh changes! Do they work? As always, comments very much welcome! :)

Cheers

Where does the time go?

Gallery link at bottom of post! My little ladybug is turning four in just under 3 weeks. It seems as if just yesterday she was learning to crawl. She is growing into a beautiful young lady right before my eyes! Where does the time go? Gaby has a mind all her own. She has intelligent thoughts and reasoning. She quietly prays to God every night that her baby brother can be healthy and that doctors can soon figure out what is truly going on with him. She is a sweet, beautiful, tender girl. She is shy and emotional. She is loud and energetic. She talks non-stop. She laughs at her own jokes. It's all of those things rolled in one that makes my baby girl so special.

Every year, I take Gaby out for a special photo session right before her birthday. Today was her 4 year birthday shoot. I was shocked at how well she did! She actually LET me take her picture today. I did have to slightly bribe her with cheetos and a new pair of flip-flops though! Oh, but the $10 I had to spend on her bribe was sooooo worth it! I think these are THE BEST photos I have ever taken of her! I am even using one of them to make her birthday invitation with!

There were too many photos to post them here. So you can view them by clicking on the gallery link below

Cutie in a cup :)

I bought my teacup a couple of weeks ago, and I am just now trying it out with a baby. This adorable little 5 month old boy is my cousins baby. He is so sweet. I just love little babies! I was amazed at how much he had grown. The last time I had seen him was when I did his newborn session. This little guy is a fighter. He's had a rough start in this world, but he is getting better. The tiny wire and tape is a feeding tube.

He loved my teacup! Maybe a little too much! This was the only shot I could get of him looking up. The rest of the time, he was looking down playing with his toes. Little stinker!

Thinking Differently....

I think every photographer sees the world differently. We each have a different "eye" for composition, color, lines, etc. When I pick up my camera, I try to photograph the unique. I try really funky and wierd angles. Sometimes that means I am laying in the dirt to get the image I want. That's fine. I'll take the sacrifice of dirty clothes and people looking at me like I am a nut job if I can capture what *I* see through my lens.

The following images were shot last weekend. I challenged myself to go out and look at some of the more ordinary objects around me and photograph them differently than what most other people I know would. That night I uploaded them to my computer and I got busy with some other things and forgot about them. Tonight I felt motivated enough to edit them. I was quite surprised at what I got.

Fire Hydrant. I loved the rich colors and texture to this.

Gaby's Fisher Price Basketball Goal.

Gaby's funky old basketball.

Gaby's Barbie trike. I know there are some blowouts on this,

but I kind of liked it like that!

Reflection of my stained glass backdoor

against my garage floor.

Vintage signs on the side of a historic Tennessee

soda fountain and drug store.

Photographer's Kid Syndrome

This syndrome really does exist. Just ask my 4 year old! She is becoming ever so difficult to photograph these days. Last weekend, I had been talking to Gaby and preparing her for a photo adventure I wanted to take her on. She seemed so excited to go exploring in some new places for mommy to take her pictures. So we get all dolled up and we go out for a drive. Gaby was still VERY excited to go on this adventure with me. Once we arrived at the location (a small historic town about 20 minutes from where we live) her attitude totally changed on me. It was like watching Dr. Jeykl and Mr. Hyde! I start to shoot. All of a sudden, she loses almost all eye contact with me and will not sit still. She makes crazy faces at me and the only smiles I got out of her were those "cheeeeeese!" smiles. Yuck! I shot almost 150 shots of Gaby in various locations in the small town. And this one image is the only semi decent one out of the bunch! And even in this particular shot, she is making a crazy face at me! Normally bribes of some sort work with her, but not this time! She said I was "stalking" her with my camera and that she's had enough already! I guess that's what I get for "torturing" her with my camera since the day she was born. I sure hope this is a phase that she will soon outgrow.

You Inspire Me

Most everyone has a person in their life they call their "best friend". Well, for me, that person is my mom. Yes, I am a grown woman, with children of my own, and my mother is my best friend (other than my husband, of course!). She is a beautiful and wise woman. I honestly do not know what I would do with out her. She is the first person I call in the morning and the last person I call at night. I look up to my mom. See, my mom has been a smoker for over 25 years. She tried a few times through out the years to quit, but for different reasons, it never lasted. The problem was that she tried to quit smoking because other people told her to. Well, 3 days ago, my mom woke up and said "today is the day". She decided to stop smoking because SHE wanted to (not because other people wanted her to). It was difficult, at first. She had a few temptations, but never gave into them. She stayed strong and she has won this battle. I hope my mom doesn't mind if I share a sentence from an email I recieved from her at 5:00 am this morning. This is what she wrote:

ITS DAY THREE AND I FEEL WONDERFUL I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITH OUT ALL OF YAll"S SUPPORT I THINK I CAN SAY I HAVE BEAT THIS UGLY DEMEON THANK YOU FOR BEING THEIR FOR ME LOVE MOM

Mom, I just want you to know that I am so proud of you! I love you so much. You inspire me in every aspect of my life.

Still Life Series

Before my blog got highjacked, I had a weekly series of still-life photographs that I would post. But, since I have lost all of my old posts, I'm putting all of the series of photographs taken so far in one post. So here is my "Bubbles" series that I started 6 weeks ago. All of the photos were shot using a clear vase and soda water. This has been a messy project, but was so worth it!

But Mama my ears are just so itchy!

The things kids do! Jon-Jon has had an eye infection and an ear infection for a week and a half. We have been using eye drops and ear drops to help him get better. Gaby, being the paranoid little girl she is, freaked out because she thought she would catch her brothers ear infection just because she caught his eye infection! She was unusually quiet and then came to me rubbing her ear. The side of her head was soaked. She then hands me an empty eye drop bottle and says "It's all empty!". I asked her why the eye drops were gone and she said "My ears are just so itchy! I do not want sick like jon!" Gaby had squirted an entire bottle of eye drops in her ears!! I immediately call her doctor to see if she would be harmed by this. As I am explaining what happened, the receptionist on the other end was laughing. She said no harm was done. Thank goodness for that! At first, I did not see the humor in this incident. First, I was nervous. I did not know if she could be harmed by having eye drops in her ears. Secondly, I was frustrated because the tiny bottle of eye drops was expensive. Now that this is all over with, I can't help but laugh at it! My parents laughed and said maybe if we turn her sideways, we can get some of the drops back. HaHa, very funny!

New Beginnings

Man, what a day! Today has been an absolutely horrible day for my family. I can't go into all of the details, but for the most part, my original blog was high jacked by someone and actually deleated from the internet. All of my hard work is gone. I really liked my blog the way it was. So now, I am trying to redo everything I lost. So hopefully, over the next few days, my blog will be back to normal. The thing that makes me the most upset is that all of my previous blog entries are gone. But I am looking to the future and my new beginning with my new blog.