weddings bells are ringing

Today, I photographed my first wedding.

That's right, Amber and Brian finally tied the knot! It feels like just yesterday that we were shooting their engagement photos, but here we are at their wedding day. And I'm very grateful for them for allowing me to get my feet wet with their wedding. I learned a lot, and we got some great images. I'm still in the very beginning stages of editing the images, so the blog is sure to see many more posts about them.

Since we can't have a blog without an image... one of my first of many favorites. All those flower girls, and one mischievous ring bearer.

the anatomy of a tantrum

Claire threw one heck of a tantrum yesterday at the park. Now that I see her mouth today, I think she was just stressed from teething (I zoomed in these photos and actually saw some teeth were breaking skin yesterday... but I didn't notice it then >.<) At the time, I blamed the tantrum on the sun and a really annoying older sister. Really, that still could have been the cause.

Brace yourself for some major photo overload!

...

as told from Claire's point of view

...

Mommy, I am MAD!

Seriously, don't even look at me right now, I AM MAD


HELLO!!! Why are you taking photos of me!?!? Don't LOOK AT ME!


You should really be consoling me.


Why aren't you consoling me!?!?!?!


Mommy?


I'm still mad Mommy. I don't remember why anymore... but I'm mad


I know you're back there Mommy


...Mommy...


Answer me Mommy... you are still watching me right?


...because I'm mad, remember?


Heeeelllooooooooo!?!! Anyone back there?!!?


You're still not saying anything! Is it coy you want?


...Where's Claire?


...peek-a-boo?


*sigh*


guess I'll just go back to playing then

Lets see how long this lasts...

Photographing children can be really tricky. A lot of times it involves bribery and trickery.

Photographing children of photographers is especially tricky. They become immune to the bribes and the tricks.

146 of 365: Olivia, I think there's a bug on my lens

Happy Memorial Day

Yeah I know I'm late, but Happy Memorial Day. We did nothing. Absolutely nothing. But I did dress the girls patriotically. That counts for something, right?

145 of 365: Pretty in Pigtails

oh the bad choices we make...

Sunday was not the brightest of days in my household. I went to the gym for leg day, which tends to leave me sore for so so many days after its done. I wasn't sure if I was doing a photoshoot when I got home, and was kinda relieved to find out I wasn't. I mean, I was way sore. But when Olivia woke up begging to go to the park, good mom that I am told her yes. So many reasons that was a bad idea....

1. It totally and completely looked like it was going to downpour.
2. The park is at least 3/4 of a mile away, if not a full mile.
3. The kids don't walk there... I pull them there in a wagon.
4. Probably all combined, its 60 lbs of crap.
5. Oh yeah, I just minutes earlier got home from the gym from LEG DAY!

So I load the girls up. Of course I take my camera... I take it everywhere remember!

So here's the one photo of the girls I took right before we left


Olivia's obviously geared up to go... Claire is indifferent, but if one wants to do something, they both do something at this age.

So we walk. And walk. And walk. The good thing about the walk is half of it is through a very wooded area. I like those types of walks, which is why I'm fine with walking to the park. I am not so fine, however, when I see water droplets on the ground around me. Of course we are within probably 2 minutes of being at the park... and Olivia knows it. She could have cared less that the sky opened up and just downpoured upon us - she wanted to go to the freakin park!! And she cried about it the entire way back. (In an effort to preserve my camera, I did what any photographer would do... I shoved the thing down the front of my shirt, so that I had some weird protruding tumor thing from my stomach)

Poor Claire in all of this was a good sport. No crying. No freaking out. She did wave to the gaggles of neighbors who were on their front porch watching us when we turned down our street. Oh yeah, it was a shining moment for me, truly.

144 of 365: My poor little drowned rat




I never did get an after photo of Olivia... she was too busy throwing fits about the park *shakes head*

Saturday becomes a bust

I was supposed to drive to Springfield to do a cool session with Destiny... but had to cancel last minute. I hope we can reschedule it for soon, though, because I think it'll be really cool!

Since I was stuck at home, I ended up taking photos of my own roses. They've started blooming, and I think they look the best they ever have. If you know what kind they are, let me know, because I still have no idea!

143 of 365: A new beginning

I should be sleeping...

...but I remembered that I promised the guys at work something...

142 of 365: Cupcakes will make them do it


The easiest way to a third shift manual laborers heart? Food. 100% of the time.

a little lesson in RAW

I was trying to convince Andi to shoot in RAW today, and realized that while I was fumbling with words, I could just show her with a photo... and since I made it, of course I'll show it here. *grins*

So, best I can describe, a JPG file is to a printed photo - as a RAW file is to a negative. There's more information in a RAW file, making it easier to correct exposure and white balance mistakes.

Today I took the girls outside, and I knew an image I took of Claire would be a great example. Totally underexposed. So here you are:

The edit I did was really fast... so I accidentally gave Claire crazy eyes - but it at least shows what I was trying to say. There's just more information in a RAW file, to recover parts of an image. Here's the finished/less crazy eyed Claire.



141 of 365: Hmmmmm


Oh and lets take a moment to speak to Olivia. Olivia darling, can mommy take your picture?


Well alright then.

'Olivia, its time to go inside....'

140 of 365: '...I think Claire's burnt'


We'll know the extent after nap >.<

they can be so annoying

I slept all day yesterday. Literally. It's almost a miracle that I took a photo. Good thing the girls did something to annoy the crap out of me and make me want to snap a photo to remember it by...

139 of 365: What????


The thing they're crushing... oh wait I meant sitting on... is a three foot tall My Little Pony plush doll. It came through a mail order point system. It's worth a decent chunk of change. When its intact. >.<>

the new lilacs are in

138 of 365: the beginning


It looks so little! But look how much larger the other lilac looks next to it... kinda crazy! I didn't get to take any more photos of it, because Claire came at me like this right after this photo...



See the lilac in the background? Guess it was time to go in.

if Claire does it, Olivia will too

So we discovered the key to get Olivia to do anything.... have Claire do it first. Olivia is hesitant to try anything new... even things she talks about wanting to do for days (like slides and baths.) But if Claire does it in front of Olivia, its like she's suddenly the bravest kid on earth, and jumps right in.

We went to Easton yesterday to burn some energy before bed. There's a water fountain there that spurts water, and lots of parents bring their kids to let them run through it. Every time we've gone, Olivia has hung back, and stayed around the edges. Once Claire was comfortable enough with her surroundings for me to set her down, she ran right up to the thing. We kept thinking she was going to run straight through it!

This is the closest she ever got, though... and she hightailed it out of there once she felt the water spurts... so cute!


But with Claire getting so close to the water, Olivia felt like she could to.

137 of 365: Liquid courage?


When Olivia got brave, she actually made a friend. Her and Claire and this little girl just ran the joint for a good half hour. And the little girl... her moms a photographer too! So we got to chat it up while the kids were playing. Got to love that!

with any other name, it would still smell as beautiful

So yesterday, we did the family planting day thing. I of course brought my camera with me to Oakland Nursery, because I figured, where better to get shots of gorgeous flowers! And there were some gorgeous flowers, let me tell you. I did get a new lilac bush for up front... its white, so it'll have some contrast with the purple I already have, but I think it'll look really nice.

I was mostly lured by roses... they're just so dang pretty!

136 of 365: Karens Rose






And all the kids were there... see... I took photos of something other then flowers too :)

the best part is decorating

Since I was placing an order for birthday invites for me, and table toppers for Ambers wedding, I decided to order a couple images big for the studio. No, its not done yet... Jeremy and I actually worked on it some today (all the crown molding is hung, and the door covering the water thingie is doing its job correctly now.) I have to say, I think I've fallen in love with giant images! I want them all over my house now LOL!

135 of 365: Art