Purple Platypus Pictures: Wedding, Family, Senior, Children Photographer in Columbus Ohio

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T22:30:00.002-04:00

Since Easter was right around the corner, yesterday when my sister spent the night at my house, I took her and my girls to my backyard to take some photos in their Easter dresses.

I learned a couple things while taking their portraits...

First - Olivia has become a ham

Oh yeah... that was the first picture I took of her

I did eventually get this out of her though

I also learned that Haley is growing up a little too quickly... I mean look at her!

But the girls still make her crazy...

And Claire... well... she's completely herself, 100% of the time

And I have to say... Look how great my yard looks!!!! It looked like utter crap last year! But a summer of ScottsLawn, and a fall/spring of diligent work, and look at it now! It's green and pretty!! YAY!

I hope everyone enjoys their Easter!!

Happy St Patricks Day!!

2011-03-17T16:08:00.002-04:00

Turns out, if you go to Walmart at 3am on the morning of St Patricks Day, looking for green t-shirts for your children to wear to school so they won't get pinched... the selection can be a little low.

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!!!

Just goofing around

2011-03-06T21:59:00.001-05:00

My sister spent the night at my house for the first time last night. It was an event! I had a lot of fun. We actually took this picture in February, and I forgot about it until today - figured it was a good tribute to our nonsleepover

Love me some babies!

2011-02-26T13:20:00.004-05:00

Kristina came to me when I wasn't blogging, and we had a maternity session. I love Kristina - she's gorgeous and so fun to be in a room with.

See!

This girl didn't even get a stretch mark! She's got some incredible genes!

And she passed those incredible genes to this beautiful baby girl!

Baby Smiles!

Baby girl was much more interested in seeing what I was doing than sleeping - but like all babies, she eventually gave up, and let the sleep take over.

Kristina, she's gorgeous! I'm so glad you've let me into this window of your life :)

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T17:30:00.001-05:00

Daddy got the girls a rose each. Mommy made heart shaped brownies. Claire got in trouble and got her Valentine Brownie taken away for the day (she'll get it tomorrow.) I have to say, I am stunned she was willing to take any pictures!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

let there be LIGHT!

2011-02-05T21:53:00.002-05:00

That's right... I have my studio lights up and running! YAY! I bought the lights back in November because I got a great deal, but I didn't get any of the equipment to make the lights work with my camera. I got to actually use some studio lights while at the conference in Detroit, so that fueled me to finally get the right stuff, and get mine up and running.

So here's how my weekend has gone. Get the stuff Thursday. Try to make everything work together in harmony when I get off of work at 4am. Fail misreably, and go to bed unhappy.

Friday, fresh and determined to make it work, mess around with them for over a half hour without anything working. On a whim, attach my backup camera, which works instantly. Compare the cameras, and FINALLY figure it all out.

My eureka picture:

Yep, its my cat Vash, on top of a suitcase that I should have put away a couple weeks ago. Adjust some settings, and get a proper model...

Well hello Claire Number Two. Yes, that is her name. And we don't shorten it! You must say it all out, or Claire (number one) will yell at you. Although neither of my girls were home... they had gone to grandmas with Daddy. So Claire Number Two made a good substitute.

Just relaxing in her chair. So after a while of shooting Claire Number Two, I decided I needed a better model. Perhaps one that could breathe. So I went trapsing around the house 'Here Kitty, Kitty'ing... until I found my sleeping cat upstairs. Brought him all the way downstairs, and somehow got him to not immediately run away when I set him down.

Whats that Vash? You don't want your picture taken? Tough cookies mister.

joke was on me... he bolted after this shot.

So today, I actually didn't get to play around in the studio until the girls' bedtime! Bedtime, however, did not deter me. Now, the thing with my girls, is at this stage in the game, you have to let them think that they in fact are running the photoshoot. Olivia wanted her pig to have her picture taken.

Thats a mighty fine pig Olivia! Can you set your pig next to you real quick?

Thanks lady! Nice smiles! Okay Claire, are we taking a picture of zebra on a zebra print?

Phew, almost couldn't see him there! Now, can he sit next to you, and you can both smile please?

....

I wish I could say that this is an outtake of Claire. But it isn't. She held this position, while I was doing anything and everything to coax a smile out of her, for a full 2 minutes. Then I gave up, because it was really bedtime, and I wanted to take a few picture of them together before we brushed teeth.

I'm really excited about what this means for my sessions! Opens up a whole world of possiblities, and I can't wait to dive into it!!

Well hello stranger!

2011-02-03T00:43:00.003-05:00

So I haven't blogged in a while. I guess that would be a bit of an understatement! How do you start a post after taking an almost 5 month hiatus? I logged back into blogger, and saw that I had something like 15 new comments, which sounds like hardly any given I hadn't blogged in so long, but in reality, not a lot of people comment, so I was excited to see what I was in for. Turns out, there's cheap wedding dresses out there, insurance, a few websites that sounded terribly innappropriate, and one comment thanking me for helping him with his college assignement. I think I turned off my spam filter somehow...

So what have I been up to for 5 months? Taking a much needed blogging break, for starters! I love to blog, but I think I finally managed to burn myself out on it. It was kind of bound to happen. But I also spent a lot of time learning and spending time with my girls. I went to a conference in Detroit at the beginning of January, which totally helped focus me on where I want to be with my photography career. Definitely good things are happening this year for Platypus ;)

I might end up sharing some last images taken in 2010... but I might just skip those, and move on to 2011. So if blog posts seem out of order for a bit, sorry about that!!!!

I'll end this one with images of Claire. Every year in June, I take pictures of my oldest daughter Olivia in my wedding dress. My youngest Claire's birthday is in December, and wearing a wedding dress in 20 degree weather probably isn't the wisest parenting decision I could make. So instead, I take images of Claire in my fancy winter coat.

The focus actually fell on this closeup (silly fluffy fur caught it instead) but I like her expression in this one so much better than any of the ones where the focus was dead on.

For comparison, here's Claire at one year old

Such a dreary December day...

And then here's her at 2 and a half

She'll be mad at me when she's older, but I missed taking the image in December... I took it last June when I took Olivia's picture. I know I know, she's going to have such a second child complex!!!! I can't help that her birthday falls during the busiest month of the whole year!!! I was convinced when I took these pictures 6 months ago, that when I took her 3 year ones in December, they'd look identical (minus the snow.) But I actually think I was wrong... Claire's grown up a lot in the last few months (or as much as any 3 year old can I guess.) She's so much a 'big kid' and not my baby anymore. She wants to do everything for herself, and she can do anything her big sister can do. Silly peanut!

So here's 'baby Claire' six months ago

and my sly big kid now

Happy Beggars Night!

2010-10-28T14:52:00.002-04:00

Have a happy and safe Beggars Night! These are from Boo at the Zoo a couple days ago :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I'm back! With Sidneys Sneak Peek :)

2010-09-19T20:25:00.002-04:00

In case you didn't notice, I took a hiatis from blogging. It's mostly because I've had a busy month (the girls started school, and I went on a 'vacation' in North Carolina where I got to be a second shooter at a wedding) But Saturday I had a great time with Sidney at Highbanks Park taking her senior portraits.

Sidney takes photos in her past-time too, so we incorporated her camera into some of the shots. My favorite part while doing this? She actually took pictures - she wasn't faking! I LOVE that!

We also did a mini trash the dress with Sidneys last prom dress (which I found gorgeous!) We did some wading in the creek and playing in the playground... it was close to sunset, and I just love the light!

When I saw these roots, I kind of fell in love. Sure its not your typical senior picture type of portrait, but I figured Sidney might like it ;)

I had a blast Sidney! I hope you enjoy them :)

Playing around at Easton

2010-08-05T18:37:00.003-04:00

Easton Shopping Center has what I learned is called a "Splash Pad." When they first built Easton when I was in high school, I think the splash pad was more meant to be a beautiful water art type thing that you could sit and enjoy while taking a break from shopping. I would say within a year, kids started coming and playing in the water. Now parents bring their kids decked out in swimsuits, and they make a day of playing in the water. I used to make fun of those parents. I have learned in my parenthood stage of life, that you should never judge what you don't know. I take the girls to Easton, decked in swimsuits, to play in that water thing all the time. I really should stop throwing rocks in this pretty glass house I'm in.

So, this day we met up with Haley and Karen, and also our good friend Jacqui, who also had family in town. Big 'ol group of us!

Haley was, of course, soaked by the time we got there

Normally, Claire is our water-baby (totally brave and willing to get soaking wet even in full clothes) and Olivia is the scaredy cat. Claire had an off day this day, and really had ZERO desire to get wet... or be set down... it was tiring.

Olivia played her same song and dance where she wants her hands and feet to get wet, but not her whole body, or more specifically, her hair.

Also in our group - Becky, the last bride I worked with! I love Becky... she's adorable, and really is willing to do anything. It had been raining right up to when we went to Easton, so everyone had umbrellas on them. Jacqui convinced Becky to take an umbrella into the fountain, fully dressed, and pose for me. I love people!

I'm shocked I could even take anything, we were all laughing so hard!

During all this, Claire was being a pip. Refused to even be set down, let alone go and play. Frankly she was acting like a little baby, and not like an almost 3 year old. So she got passed from person to person, everyone trying to warm her up to socializing with us.

I always joke that Claire gets her blue eyes from Karen. EVERYONE on my dads side of the family has brown eyes. My mom has blue eyes, so thats where I got my recessive gene from, and made it possible for her to have blue eyes, but its just fun to joke that she favors Karen in the looks department (in reality, Claire is like a mini-Tim)

Oh, finally cracking a smile Claire?

There we go... all better!

Look, at this point she even let me set her down!!

Now we totally convinced Haley that she needed to drag Olivia through the fountain. Up until this point, Olivia had only ran around the perimeter of the thing. But Haley got her up and through the fountain ;)

Haley herself had zero problems going through the fountain. She wanted me to take some images of her walking through the fountain when it was going full blast

And then... we all held our breath... Claire walked towards the fountain

She actually enjoyed herself (somewhat) when Haley carried her through the fountain

And we'll leave on an image of Olivia's standard pose by the fountain

Butt sticking out so only it, her hands and her feet get wet

Here's hoping lots and lots of images can (slightly) make up for my lack of blogging of late. Happy Summer!!

The craziest family I know...

2010-08-01T23:11:00.002-04:00

I couldn't remember the last time my family had taken professional pictures together. The last picture that had everyone in it was taken at Christmas-time, on my grandparents couch, and I believe I was in my early teens. Oh, and my cousin was sticking out her tongue. But that was back when you had to develop pictures before you could see them - so when she stuck out her tongue, we took a second picture. She looked beautful. And half the family had their eyes closed, or weren't looking at the camera. So tongue picture has hung ever since.

I think fate randomly brought my sister AND my uncle to Columbus Ohio. Sure you could point out that Jessie was in a wedding that weekend, and John came down because him and my Aunt were in Cleveland helping her family... I say fate. So we decided (without really telling those two... ooops) that we were going to take family pictures.

The five siblings

There were four dogs at the house this day. Three of them are in this picture!

My sisters and I

We got the images by me setting up my camera, on a tripod, and arranging everyone except me. I'd jump in, and my sisters good friend was kind enough to pull the trigger for us. One of my favorites? Friend John says "Ummm, I think somethings not right... its set up for something different" We start laughing because we know what happened... I took a series of pictures of the three sisters, and then just added my parents in without thinking. Resulting in this:

Nice.

We also did something I had seen done at a Sandy Puc seminar. She took individual images of family members against a solid backdrop, and then spliced them together later in the computer. I thought it looked neat, and was a way that I could individually direct each family member to look their best (Plus it's a neat size, so I know it'll get hung) The result?

And the individual of my sister (who I hate for looking so gorgeous- curse you Jessie!!)

And one final one to share... John yelled out, lets do a silly one! Which I will now do with everyone. Because the silly one is my favorite!

Going to the beach...

2010-07-16T17:44:00.003-04:00

... at least as close to a beach as you get in Central Ohio.

My friend Amber and I took all the kids (there were 5 of them!) to Alum Creek beach yesterday. I brought my new camera along, though I was well aware that the star of the show was swimming, and therefore there would most likely be little photo taking. I was right... my girls have turned into water babies, and when you add in Ambers 3 water babies, you get five kids who'd groan every time they'd come up on the 'beach'

Claire would frequently run from the water, up to the beach, grab one potato chip, eat it, run back to the water...

Get a potato chip

back to the water... up to the beach to get a potato chip

back to the water. At one point Ryan (the only boy in the group, poor kid) was crying in the middle of the water like the got hurt. Not hurt hurt, more like one of the other kids bullied him. We holler to him, and get him to join us on the blanket, and ask what hurts.... and then we were horrified

Notice that his ring finger nail is grey, and the others look normal. That's because a piece of sand (ie:small chopped up Ohio rocks) had gotten jammed under his nail all the way to the bottom. And man he took it like a trooper. Amber and I MacGyver'd up some tweezers (the pointy end of a Capri-Sun straw) and got the thing out. And then Ryan was fine, like nothing had happened.

Here look Heather!

He even smiled with his mommy for some pictures

I was really excited when I saw this picture in the lcd of my camera, because I love Ryans look in it. But I really love it now that I see Amber's face. It was bright out!

Ambers two older girls did a good job mother hen'ing the kids. Here's Zoe, trying to figure out what drink to get

and Fiona looking like the epidemie of California summer

However Fiona managed to look bored almost the entire time we were there. Sure you could argue that she's 8 years older than my kids, and has to play with her siblings all the time, so it's not like this was exciting for her... but still ;) She did have fun... I swear.

HEY FIONA! Hey, look excited for me! Please! Come on we're at the beach

'K thanks there. Good job.

How about you Zoe?

I'm dying to do a photo session with Zoe. Secretly when I was younger, I wished I had her coloring. I love red-heads all alabaster skinned and covered in freckles. I even colored my hair red through my senior year in high school like that would magically transform me into a ginger kid. I do feel bad for Zoe in the sense that she must get a ton of attention for her freckles. Olivia's take on it the first time she met her? "HI!! Hi Zoe! Look at you face, it's got spots! Yous gots some spots on you face! Why you got dem?" I think she'd gorgeous

Oh hey Claire, back for a chip?

So you might be asking, where is Olivia?

OLIVIA! HEY! Are you having fun?? Mommy would love to..

Olivia? Hey... mommy really would like..

and shes gone again. Olivia rarely left the water... but frequently joined other families. If she joined yours, I'm so sorry! She's a little odd like that. Look at those three amigoes though!

They had so much fun! But Amber and I knew it was time to go when, well the clock said it was close to work-time for me, and because of the seagulls.

Personally, I'm not much of a seagull fan. I find them aggressive and scary

So when they started hovering out blanket (can't blame them - we had small kids tracking chips everywhere) it was time to go

I love Alum Creek though. And it's a great place for photo sessions! Just sayin ;)

and I've upgraded!!!

2010-07-15T08:15:00.002-04:00

I have been using the same gear that I got 2 years ago. Well, I take that back... I bought a new lens last year... but other than that, the equipment I used on a photoshoot last week is the same equipment that I used on photoshoots a year ago, and two years ago. I believe in learning your camera in and out before upgrading.

I finally decided to upgrade! My new camera arrived yesterday, and I LOVE it! I'm having some technical difficulties with the necessary Photoshop updates, but I'm confident I'll get those sorted out. In the mean-time, here's my first two images from my new camera... these are straight out of camera, no editting at all (because of the Photoshop difficulties) but I'm so pleased with how the images turn out even straight out of camera. It would not be possible to take images like these with my old camera without some kind of flash because of the low lighting.

I say all the time, it's not about the camera, it's about the photographer... but this camera rocks! ;)

The wedding dress and the coat

2010-07-06T13:37:00.003-04:00

Every year around Olivia's birthday, I take pictures of her in my wedding dress. I saw someone on Oprah do it, and thought it was about the neatest thing since sliced bread. Given that it's July, I'm a little late. Here's a recap of the last 3 years:

2007

2008

2009

2010

But being a month late on Olivia's picture is nothing compared to Claire. I didn't do the wedding dress with her, because her birthday is in December, and I thought a strappy wedding dress in the winter was, well, cruel. So I take her picture with my fancy coat, that I bought the year before I had Olivia. I love that coat. I can't fit in it anymore. It's such a drag! So I took Claire's picture after her first birthday... and realized over the weekend that I never took hers after her second birthday. Why must December be so busy!!??!! So I took her picture in the coat the same day I did Olivia's. I figure having one at 2 1/2 instead of 2 is better than not having one at all.

2009 (really for 2008, but I took it in January)

and 2010 (really for 2009, but I took it in July, yuk!)

and the same picture, just playing around

The Adventures of Bokeh the Ragdoll - Day Two!

2010-06-22T16:16:00.003-04:00

(continued from yesterday, staying in Bokehs voice)

Monday I went to FedEx Ground.

Normally I pass through these places only able to hear them, so this was something different to be able to see it. There are two main areas - the area that loads up trailers in the evening, and the area that loads the vans that get delivered in the morning.

This is me in the area for the trailers. Each set of rollers back up to a door where the trailer is... there's over 50 doors on this side, and space on the other side of the facility for 20 more! In peak times, all the doors are used!

When I went to the area that loads the delivery vans, they let me sit in the drivers seat of a bulk truck.

HI!!

All the packages travel 'up stairs.' They call it that because it's actually up a big set of stairs. The packages travel on the belts really fast!

And they all go through a scan tunnel that scans all the sides of the box at the same time - even the bottom! How does it do that?? Hey, it's me Bokeh, in some bokeh!!

There's all these slides everywhere, to get packages from one place to another. I want to slide down this one! It's really really big!

Everyone has to go through security when they leave. They walk through metal detectors, and anything they brought in has to be put in these buckets for the guards to check. Good thing no one's given me any jewelry yet - jewelry is prohibited!

Does this clock say the time I think it says!?!?! Good thing my eyes are sewn open, or I'd have a hard time staying awake!

In the morning, we got me all packed up for my next stop - Michigan! Passport - check. New socks - check. A platypus to call my own - triple check!

And I'll miss these two!!! Olivia and Claire (and Heather of course) have been wonderful hostesses!

See you Ohio! It's been fun!!

The Adventures of Bokeh the Ragdoll: Day One

2010-06-21T00:42:00.003-04:00

I'm a member of a photography forum... I'm a bad member in the sense that I'm terrible at responding and starting my own posts, but I love the forum because the photographers are all really supportive of one another, and they're a wealth a knowledge. One member created Bokeh. Bokeh is a ragdoll. She's traveling around the globe to all the photographers on our forum... each photographer is adding an article of clothing to her, and then photographing her around their hometown. Once Bokeh's traveled around and makes it back to the beginning, the head of this is going to auction her for breast cancer research. It's a pretty cool project!

Bokeh is in Ohio right now! That's right, I have Bokeh. So, in the bizarre-ness that is me, the rest of this post is going to be from Bokeh's perspective.

So I arrived in Ohio on Saturday night. So far I've been to Florida, New Hampshire, and Maine. On Father's Day, the Nesser family took me to the Columbus Zoo. According to them, Jack Hanna loves this zoo, and it's kind of a big deal.

I got ready, and rode in the car with Olivia.

This is us at the entrance

The big deal right now is Polar Bears. I guess the Columbus Zoo just built a whole area just for Polar Bears. When we got to the polar bear entrance, I saw this sign

WHAT?! Are there polar bears just roaming around?!!? Well, we found these statues. Claire had taken over guiding me around, and her and I rode the smaller bear

Turns out there aren't polar bears just wandering around... but there is a glass wall where you can see polar bears swimming over you. Claire showed me the bears above us, but I was still a little freaked out that they might get me.

The Nesser girls are learning about taking turns, so Olivia guided me to the flamingoes.

Flamingoes are Heather's favorite part of the Zoo, because they're really close, and are always out. I could see why she likes them...

...until the ones behind me started fighting! They get really big, and bite at each other... I was ready to go

The aquarium is the girls' favorite part of the zoo. Personally, I liked the sea horses... just my size!

Claire's turn to guide again... she and I are buddies now.

It was a hot day, and I was ready to head home. The girls wanted to play on these warthog statues. I asked if I could just sit on the bench and watch. Luckily for me, the girls were fine with that.

Day one in Ohio has been a lot of fun!

everybody say AAAARRRRRRRG!!!

2010-06-08T13:47:00.002-04:00

Olivia is FOUR! I still can't really believe it. And she pretty much overnight has become a big girl - she goes to her best friends house (our next door neighbors) pretty much daily, she's demanding her independance, and she wants to do everything herself. She also now flies off the handle at the smallest setting off, which is frustrating! What happened to my good natured girl??

Saturday was her pirate party with her cousin Niko. He turned six. There were about 10 kids at the party, and Olivia loved every second of it. It was definitely a humid mess out, and we were sprinkled on a couple times, but overall I thought the party was really great!

This was actually the second cake I had made... the first attempt was at an open treasure chest, and all was going well, but somewhere in the construction, there was disaster. I got so frustrated with the whole thing that Tim and I just ate what wasn't destroyed, and I made a new one after I got home from work.

Here's the pirate princess in all of her glory

The highlight of the party, for the kids at least, was the bubble machine. They just loved those dang bubbles!

I loved this one would be the kids' bands cd cover

Olivia technically didn't blow out any candles this year, because it was just too windy. She was confused by this.

And here's some more of present opening, and guests...

Thanks to everyone who came out and made Olivia and Niko's party special!!

a long overdue look at the Baldwin Wedding

2010-06-06T10:38:00.005-04:00

I am so excited about this wedding! Becky and Travis were married at the Darby House, which is an amazing venue in Galloway. Right up until the date, there were predictions of rain, but it held off and they had a gorgeous day.

Guests rode in a horse and buggy from the parking area to the venue.

I love how Becky accented her venue with decorations. She went with a nature/bird type of theme. It was clean, simple and elegant, and looked amazing!

This cake... was fantastic!!

I adore Beths ring.

Their actual ceremony was held outdoors on an open patio. The cottonwood trees around us were all letting go of their seeds, which is was bad for allergies, but made for such a romantic feel to the ceremony.

Becky and Travis, you two are so sweet and fun, and I wish you all the best! Thank you for including me in your special day - it was beautiful!!

Remembrance...

2010-05-30T23:38:00.003-04:00

I will be honest... I celebrate Memorial Day by eating hotdogs and cheering that the pool is open. I don't come from a military household. Both of my grandfathers fought in wars (I think) but my Dad didn't, and my Uncle didn't (again... I think?) Obviously veterans, war, armies... all hot topics in my household growing up. So Memorial Day was about... hot dogs... pools... days off of school/work.

My friend Andi and I met a couple years ago through another friend. We share parenting styles, a love of photography and my little pony, and sense of humor. I joke we're cut from the same bolt of fabric, just from different corners. Andi is a military wife. I have to say, pretty much everything I know about modern military life, I know from Andi. And she's not a sugar-coater. When she gets fierce about something, she's fierce. If she wants you to understand something, she'll help you understand. I don't envy her life, but I can see how happy the good times are to her.

Where am I going with this? I woke up Sunday still in poison ivy agony. Even with the prednizone (?) pills, and the three different anti-itch creams I was taking... I was still itcy. Out of my skin itchy. And the rash was spreading, now to the palms, yes folks the PALMS, of my hands. Then Olivia's eye swelled up again, and after a confirmation phone call to Karen that made it ok for me to go to Urgent Care (ony our third visit to a doctor in two weeks) I headed off for a shot of cortizone (?) in my rear. On the way to the Urgent Care, across the street in the fields of Westerville Park, were lines and lines and lines of flags. Because the trip was impromptu, I didn't have my camera. I swore I'd go back when the sun was lower, and the heat less.

The flags made me think of Andi. And of the sacrifices those men and women make for us. The ones that go to war... the ones that stay home. There are 2,000 flags planted in the park, and a recreated Vietnam Veteren wall in the back corner. Each flag has a zip-tied message to them. Some made me cry. I went intending to stay for 15, mabe 20 minutes. I got there at 8pm. I stayed until 10pm. If you live here, you should go see it.

Thank you.

Where have I been???

2010-05-28T17:50:00.002-04:00

So I'm behind on about... mmm... four blog posts. That will get posted in the next couple of days. There was the beautiful Baldwin wedding, which I shared two images from on facebook, but I have a few more I want to show here... The FedEx Nascar car came to my terminal, and I took some pictures of it... we trashed Amber's wedding dress... and Claire got a haircut.

But I got delayed. Here's what's been going on...

I planted a bunch of stuff a couple weeks ago. I planted strawberries, and grew a huge one that I was really excited about. The day I went to photograph it - something had eaten it. I was irked.

Those ones are the ones growing right now. Don't let the image fool you - they are teeny tiny. Smaller then my thumbnail.

I also got a Dahlia flower, and planted it in my Tiki God planter. It look so funny and cool! Waited a couple days to settle, and went to take a picture of it.

I think whatever ate the strawberry also ate some of the plant. All the petals are gone. :( But there are some other buds on it, so hopefully I'll new flowers to photograph.

Really the only thing I've planted that's truly thrived is the bleeding hearts.

Of course they're in the back where I rarely go right now. Bummer.

So then, I developed spots. Everywhere the sun don't shine.

Waited that out until one of them got itchy, and finally went in to a doctor. Found out I have eczema. Excellent. So I'm like a leopard.

Back to gardening. I decide on Sunday to rip up what we call the Back 40.

Oooooooo, scary. It's just weeds after weeds after weeds. Spend a couple hours back there, then get over it and go in. Shower, shop, move on with life. Wake up Monday with some more spots. I (stupidly) assume it's more eczema, and scratch away, because I have a hard time resisting scratching.

A story about me and poisen ivy.... Up until Monday, I was not allergic to it. I know I wasn't because when I was in my tweens (which it wasn't called that when I was that age, but whatever) my mom and sister and I all cut down a stump in my moms backyard. I remember my sister helping because she had to, but I wanted to help because I got to use a very large ax. So the three of us spent an afternoon hacking away at a stump until it was gone. And my mom and my sister both got the worst case of poison ivy ever. I got nothing. Not so much as a hive. Which amused me, because frankly I'm allergic to everything that grows naturally - so I liked having that one thing about me that was different.

Flash forward to a week ago when I develop eczema... turns out, once you have it, your body becomes sensitive to stuff that it might never have been sensitive to before.

So Monday I'm scratching away like and idiot.

Tuesday the rashes are bigger and itchier, and I've figured out that scratching is making it worse. Stop scratching.

Wednesday I want to jump out of my skin because I itch so badly. Get home from work that evening, and see that its now spread to my face. Make Tim call a doctor in the morning.

Thursday go to my second doctors appointment in two weeks, to learn that I have a bad case of poison ivy.

(forgive the fact that I look like crap... I kinda feel like crap)

(on my tip-toes so you can see the tops of my feet)

So I still have the eczema everywhere the sun don't shine... and everywhere the sun does shine, I have poison ivy. The worst places I have it are in the webbings of my hands and feet... my fingers are so swollen, I can't wear any of my rings.

But I'm on the juice now, so baring any 'roid rage, I should be able to update with some pretty pictures.

Olivia's eyes

2010-05-04T01:32:00.002-04:00

When I was little, I wished I had blue eyes. I always disliked my brown eyes. My sister has brown eyes, but her's have flecks of gold in them. Mine don't. They're just brown.

Olivia, like just about every other baby on the planet, was born with slatey grey eyes. I won't lie... I was very excited about that. And I was disappointed when her's turned brown. Because I was one of those people that just disses on brown eyes.

Claire has crystal blue eyes. They're gorgeous. I think Claire is well aware of her gorgeous blue eyes, and she plays it to her advantage.

But the secret of mine... I am in love with Olivia's eyes. They're so brown, so very deep and dark, that I feel like she looks straight through you...

I used to read, like all the time. And one of my favorite books was Alice by Sara Flanigan. Every once in a while, I get a moment to myself, and I typically chose to take a bath while reading old books of mine. While re-reading Alice, I came upon a passage that explains perfectly how I feel about Olivia's eyes.

(the main character has come upon a doe giving birth to a baby) "I looked right into the eyes of the doe and my life ain't never been the same since. How can I tell you what it was like? How can you tell about the end of lightning? How can you tell about the stopping of rivers, or the turning off of the night? What's to say? Right in them big liquid, sad and wise, dark eyes was the story of Life. And the story of God, and the story of Love. I seen a picture of Jesus once. He had blue eyes and I remember thinking it just wadn't right. The eyes was blank and pale and they didn't know nothing. And right then, right there in tthem quiet woods with the gentle sounds of nature all around me, I knowed if I could paint the eyes of Jesus, they would be just like that doe's."

sneak peek: Blake

2010-05-02T01:25:00.002-04:00

So I got a call on Friday afternoon from a mom looking for senior pictures for her son. Pretty normal. Oh, he's a senior this year? And the pictures are due for the school on Wednesday?? :) I like a challenge, so I was game! And I'm glad I did, because Blake is actually a really cool guy!

We went up to Three Creeks park, which is where I had done some of Jeremy's portraits. Now, the weather, it was not on our side. Threat of rain was at every corner (and it actually started sprinkling at one point, but lucky for us stopped.) I hope you enjoy your pictures Blake, it was great to meet you!

Last Day to Give!

2010-04-24T13:50:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow's the walk for the March of Dimes... shirt is washed and clean, camera gear all set... we're ready to go!

There's still time to give - donate on my March of Dimes page:
http://www.marchforbabies.org/h1908700

Marching for Babies

2010-04-20T16:29:00.004-04:00

I'm walking with the March of Dimes this Sunday, (which, did you know they're not the March of Dimes anymore, but actually March for Babies? I never did understand that Dimes part anyway.) This is the second year I've walked... last year I raised around $125, which I was thrilled about. This year, I've dropped the ball on letting people know early, but I'll gladly take any donations here:

(nice it didn't show... sorry about that)
http://www.marchforbabies.org/h1908700

The March for Babies is something close to our family. My nephew was born a micro-preemie. Here is an image (that I did not take) of my nephew Niko, holding onto his fathers finger. It was insane how little he was.

Niko's turning 6 this year! At the zoo this past weekend, I tried to take some photographs of him, just for this blog post. Of course, he never cooperates with me :P

Oh well, I tried.

I'll be taking pictures at the walk again, so watch for those. The girls might also come along with me. Should be a great day! Thanks for your support!

goodbye dear Violets

2010-04-12T14:24:00.002-04:00

Our backyard is a field

weeds - bugs - crab grass... anything bad, it's happening in our "yard." We finally decided to do something about it, and called Scotts to come out and fix it.

But I'll miss the violets

If I could convince them to destroy everything else, but leave the violets, I would

They've had a good run, but they are slowly taking over the whole yard.

She has... a mullet

2010-04-11T20:06:00.002-04:00

Olivia does not like to have her hair touched. She will agree to pony-tails, but only after giant crocodile tears have fallen. So when she got out of the bath, curled up in my lap, and let me pull on her hair - I was stunned. Obviously Olivia's hair is curly, but it's just baby curls. Her hair has never really been cut, and we know once we do, her hair will be straight. So I'm putting it off.

But while I was pulling on her hair (seeing if I could get it to dry straighter then the springy curls she gets straight out of the bath) I had the notion to try to use a straightener on it. Got the straightener hooked up in the study (where we were watching tv), got Olivia back up on my lap, and started straightening. After two swipes, Olivia was trying to get down, but once I told her it was making her hair nice and shiny, she stayed put. Child of my own heart... we love some shiny hair.

If her hair were all one length, I'd love it. But it's not. So it's a mullet. I cut Claires hair in the first place to avoid mullets. Thankfully, a little misting of water in the morning, and the curls will be right back.

Lets all go to the Zoo!

2010-04-07T14:31:00.002-04:00

My family is definitely getting our bang for our buck when it comes to our zoo pass this year. This week alone we've gone 2 times... the month of March we went four times. I'm pretty excited about this (I love a bargain - and going to the zoo tons of times with a pass is most definitely a bargain!)

This was the longest time my girls have ever spent at the zoo. We went with Grandma Karen, Haley and Jessica was in town for Easter. We ended up meeting up with the neighbors, so all in all we were a big group. And we were there for over five hours. That's right. Five hours. I knew ahead of time it would be a long trip, and I worried that the girls wouldn't make it - but they did really surprisingly well!! I'm a little proud of them!

Before we left, Jessica braided Claires hair. I (selfishly) with Jessica lived here and could braid Claires hair every day, because it was incredibly cute, and kept her hair out of her eyes all day long!

This trip was definitely the most exciting for the girls in a while, and mostly because the animals were so active! I don't know if it was the heat, or the fact that all of Columbus was at the zoo that day, but the animals were out and moving around like crazy!

The first big animal show... the tiger. Normally the tigers aren't close to the glass. They're far away, lounging below rocks. Today the tiger was pacing the line of the glass, like he was mad about something. He'd periodically dunk himself into the water, and then go back to pacing. He was so big, and so close, that Olivia got completely freaked out, and stood behind me bawling until we left. Claire, however, thought the big kitty was cool.

Thats the tigers head, next to Claires head

The next big exciting place... the flamingoes! Even they were super active - fighting amoungst each other, and coming really close to the fencing.

Jessica and Karen were practically hanging over the fence to get pictures of the flamingoes (Jessica got the best picture ever - I'm very jealous) until a docent came up and warned us that that flamingoes would, in fact, take your phone from you.

Look how close Karen was!! This was when the docent came up to us.

Of course the aquarium was awesome as always. I got a cool shot of seahorses

I have way too many photos to share, but if you fan me on facebook, you can see them all. At this point we all took pictures with Hannas green glasses... they're some funny pictures :)

We ended with the gorilla's. Now I'll be honest... the girls have only seen the gorilla's one other time. The gorilla's are in the back of the zoo, and I hate walking back that far, especially given that the girls never ask to see them. Though that'll probably change now... Claire LOVES the gorilla's. I had bought her a stuffed manatee back in the aquarium, and she showed it to all the gorillas. She and Donna went around to all the windows, just looking at them all.

And when I came up to take a picture of Claire with a gorilla, I couldn't help but laugh at how pleased as punch she was so be in a picture with him

Before we left, we got some Dippin Dots. This is, by far, my favorite picture from the day. The girls had been so good, and here's Claire, obviously incredibly hot, just chillin with her ice cream.

And of course, this was the scene when we pulled up in our driveway. Claire with her manatee, Olivia with her new platypus

Everyone should get out and enjoy the zoo!! Polar Bears are coming in less than a month!!

nothing says Easter...

2010-04-04T22:21:00.001-04:00

...like candy corn called Jesus Seeds!

Hope everyone had a glorious Easter! :)

the first wedding of the year: Kelli and Kyles sneak peek

2010-04-03T23:18:00.003-04:00

So Kelli and Kyle were the first wedding I attending and photographed this year! I had a great time! Both the bride and groom were great to work with, and were willing to do everything I asked. It was so much fun! I'll do a separate post to show some of the reception (which was so cool) but this one I'll focus on the stuff we did outside.

Kelli with her father

Congratulations Kelli and Kyle! Thanks for including me on your day

all because I wanted to show off Claire's fashion sense...

2010-03-31T15:16:00.003-04:00

Olivia's been picking out her own clothing for almost a year now, so we're used to the weird combinations she comes up with. But recently, Claire has joined in on voicing her fashion sense. And let me tell you, the girl can pick one fancy outfit!

I started out just wanting to get a picture of Claire's outfit. I love the lighting the side of our house gets mid-afternoon, and closeup, you can't see all our junk...

Claire hamming it up

Olivia not so into the whole deal

But before I could really get to documenting the beauty of the outfit... WAR breaks out! To set the scene - Claire is using a random stick from the yard to play music on the two trash cans we have. Outfit of choice for this - Blue jackets jersey type top, ruffly tweed skirt, lace socks, and polka-dot shoes. Olivia wants the stick. Olivia will have no part in finding her own stick.

Olivia tries to rationalize with Claire. Loudly and up in her face

Claire pushes past Olivia to get to the other dumpster (and away from that crazy chick)

Olivia shoves Claire down into the concrete

Claire is unhappy with the whole situation

Olivia's in time out

Mommy's done with being outside, and tells the girls we're headed in for lunch. Olivia puts up a small fight, but goes in. Claire wants to stay outside.

Hope everyone is enjoying the outdoors as much as we are!!

we have a Fan Page!

2010-03-29T11:17:00.002-04:00

I made Purple Platypus Pictures a fan page on Facebook! Become a fan to see my latest work, and to hear about specials I run. I'm pretty excited about it!

IT'S SPRING!!

2010-03-28T21:08:00.002-04:00

It's spring, and time for the winter blahs to leave the building! The girls and I have been spending tons of time outdoors - I've been photographing everything and everything I can - and hey, last night was our first wedding of the season. YAY!

So, to celebrate spring, here's Olivia's big achievement. She did this at the park on the last day of winter... went straight to this ladder, and climbed it all by herself. Now we can't keep her off of it.

Happy Spring!!!

Hoping your Valentines was Sweet and Sticky!

2010-02-14T23:57:00.002-05:00

The girls' sure was!

I love photographing in the snow

2010-02-07T21:47:00.000-05:00

...it makes a wonderful reflector!

Realizations about myself

2010-02-02T00:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in forever. It was a needed break. I'm burned out on blogging - not on photographing! Just blogging. And I have a confession to make. I don't want to share all of this years 365 day project on the blog. I know, I know - but if I blog it all, I'm just going to get burned out again. Plus, while I enjoy this 365, it's a little boring. Heck, my kids aren't even changing clothes anymore!

I have a bad case of the winters. I mean, it is one heck of a case! The girls are cooped up, which of course makes me batty. I can't get outside to photograph as much as I like because its so cold. And January/February/March are just bad months at the job.

So I've been bored. Bored and burnt out. Last weekend, in an attempt to get out of the house, my sister-in-law, Claire and myself all went shopping. It was great to get out, and complain about how much we hate being cooped up. I had a bit of an epiphany about myself while we were at Kohls.

So we walk past the shoes. I have a new love for shoes. I love heels. They have to fit well, or else I hate them, but when they do I just love them! And of course never ever wear them. So we're at Kohls, and I'm coveting a pair of heels that I would barely wear, when Wendy says to me "I could never be one of those moms that chase after their kids in heels." I sighed and said "I'd love to be."

Fact is, I would! I mean, heaven forbid I ran into anyone I knew that day at Kohls! I was wearing an ancient sweater thats all kinds of stretched out; baggy jeans; and my hair pulled back with one of my kids ponytail holders... I was a sight! And I hate being like that.

I was never the kind of girl growing up to care about how I looked. I could give two sh... well you know... about what other people thought about how I looked. I still can be that way. But I'll be honest, I do that because I would hate to put the effort into looking nice, only to have it not be worth it.

Well, I decided in that Kohls in that moment, that I wasn't going to be like that anymore. On TLCs "What not to Wear" they say to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Well I'm dressing for the life I want.

First on my list - stop biting my nails. That one sucks. A friend recommended just getting acrylics to get myself out of the habit. Its not a bad idea (if I could just get over the dang prejudice I have about acrylic nails - sorry, I just find them a little frivilous)

Next - I want to try wearing my contacts again. One thing I covet more than shoes... sunglasses. I've never owned a pair that I could wear. I've bought some, just for the fun of it - but I can't see without my glasses, and prescription sunglasses cost too much. Now, I don't really like how I look without glasses. I've had glasses for 20 years, so I kind of identify myself with them. So most likely, I'm going to be taking a lot of self portraits, to get myself used to seeing myself.

For now, I'm going to try to blog weekly. Any time I have a session, that will go up, in addition to a weekly post. But I'm not blogging daily again for a while. Probably the first few will be self portraits... any maybe some Valentines of the kids ;)

Since I hate having a blog with not pictures, here's some pissy pictures of me. I glammed myself all up to take boudoir photos, only to realize I couldn't find the remote to my camera. So I got mad, took a couple snapshots, and then took a shower and went back to normal.

Man I wish my kids wore clothes...

2010-01-10T02:16:00.002-05:00

Some day, when they are old enough, those girls are going to want to kill me for doing this project, and showing off the pictures. And I'll tell them, 'You were the ones who wanted to be naked all the time'

Lots of Olivia...

...and lots of Claire

Just hanging around the house

2010-01-04T13:45:00.002-05:00

...watching TV and playing on the computer. Good Times.

Yes Claire has worn the same thing in every photo. No it doesn't mean they were all taken on the same day. It just means Tootie and Candy Canes (the old 'it' outfit) has been replaced by 'Dora Shirt' (a nightgown of Olivia's that is 4 sizes too big for Claire) Although she does ask to be put in Tootie and Candy Canes still... its just Dora is winning.

bath crayons: good and bad

2010-01-03T22:57:00.002-05:00

So my actual new years resolution that has nothing to do with photography, was to bathe the girls at a minimum of two times a week. It doesn't sound like much, but I'll be honest - we can go almost a month between baths. We still scrub the girls down every night with washclothes (or babywipes...) but the girls throw fits in the bathtub. Aunt Wendy gave the girls bath crayons, and Olivia loves them. Claire loves them too... as long as she's using them from outside of the tub (which is against the rules in this house) Obviously, I must have forgotten to put the crayons away after last nights bath, because Claire walked up to me with blue all over her face. Olivia was just puzzling away.

They switched places

2010-01-02T15:01:00.002-05:00

Claire was bugging me, so I took her picture. Olivia, well, I asked her if I could take a picture, and a tantrum ensued.

I haven't decided which picture of Claire I like better, so for now, here's both

A new year, a new project

2010-01-01T15:32:00.003-05:00

So last years 365 day project had only one rule: no on board flash. But I could photograph anything I wanted.

This year, I'm adding a challenge to myself - I must photograph the girls. Still no on board flash, and the girls can be doing anything - but the photo should be of the girls.

Olivia is excited by the project

Claire is not

Three hundred and sixty five days ago...

2010-01-01T00:30:00.002-05:00

... I thought this project would be easy

... I concidered myself an awesome photographer with little to learn

Three hundred and sixty five days later I have learned...

... that every time I take an image, I improve

... that I can see a project of this magnitude to completion

... that a small mishap like missing a day won't completely deter me

... that I love photography

I started this project on January 1st, 2009 with this self portrait.

and it comes to a close today, now officially January 1st, 2010 (image taken on the 31st)

365 of 365: a new year

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project. Today starts my new 365 day challenge... yes I'm going to do it all over again. If I grew this much over one year, imagine what could happen with another.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

348 - 364

2009-12-31T23:33:00.002-05:00

It's the home stretch! Almost there!

348 of 365: Pretty Lady
I took portraits of both girls this day, and this is the best portrait Olivia I have gotten to date. She's so pretty.

349 of 365: nudity
Yep, the girls no longer where clothes. You're more likely to see them naked than to see them clothed. Please don't judge us.

350 of 365: self portrait
Taken at work, in one of the Christmas balls I hung all over the place

351 of 365: Santa baby
Look! Both girls sitting happily on Santa! I never thought I'd see the day!

352 of 365: beat
taken after a long long afternoon of last minute Christmas shopping

353 of 365: magic
These are Olivia's ornaments (I buy her one from this set every year) and I was playing around with bokeh (the circles in the background)

354 of 365: let me sleep
Vash laid down in this baby bed I use as a prop for newborns. Olivia's the one that covered him with a blanket - so he wouldn't get cold during his nap.

355 of 365: pensive
perhaps worred about Santa?

356 of 365: sugar
the day I baked sugar cookies until I was buried in sugar

357 of 365: chocolate
the day I baked chocolate chip cookies until the package of chips ran out

358 of 365: Not a creature was stirring...
Christmas Eve, right after Santa had dropped by. I must have been on the computer and just missed him ;)

Lets break in the 365 to talk about Christmas. Firstly, I hope everyone enjoyed theirs. We certainly enjoyed ours. This year Olivia truly understood Christmas... she understood that she was going to get to unwrap a whole lot of presents. We'll work on a better message for her later ;) So for Olivia, every time she was done with a gift, she would point to a new wrapped present and say "Owivia open nother pwesent mommy??" She was always very polite about it. Claire wouldn't open her presents, but she would sit next to you while you opened it, screaming "WHAT IS IT!??????? WHAT! IS! IT!!!!!!!!!!!!" I just died laughing.

Christmas day we started at our own home, then we drove to Upper Sandusky. In upper, Tim and I quickly realized that we had forgotten sippy cups. Olivia can use a real cup, but Claire can't (though she can use a straw) To substitute, we gave Olivia her juice in a disposable coffee cup. Hilarious!

This image of Karen pretty much sums up all of the adults feelings of Christmas by the end...

From there, we came back to Columbus, and went to Tims parents house. We attempted a picture of all the grandkids together, but it didn't go so well...

359 of 365: presents

360 of 365: Generations
Three generations of men in Tims family. Oh and Claire. Because she manages to weasel herself into many pictures

361 of 365: snow now??
We had no snow over Christmas. It actually felt very Halloween/Thanksgiving-like in the weather department. Of course it snowed 2 days after Christmas. Thanks a lot Mother Nature!

Since it snowed, the next day we went over to my parents house to visit Haley and Aunt Sue, and play in the show. Got to love a bundled kid.

I asked Haley to throw snow, since it was such fluffy snow, and looked so cool when it was thrown.

362 of 365: SNOW!!!

And Haley tried so hard to teach the girls how to make snow angels. Claire was really the only cooperative one in that attempt, and even that probably had more to do with the fact that she could barely move in her snowsuit.

363 of 365: dropped
Claire has now stopped napping. In her crib. She has, however, taken up Olivia's method of just dropping to sleep where-ever she is. Only Olivia won't leave Claire alone. So here's Olivia sitting as close to Claire as possible, while watching tv and picking a wedge. Love that kid.

364 of 365: snuggie
I love all my presents that I got for Christmas, but it's the snuggie that gets the most attention. I love that thing. Probably because it's zebra print.

Lets go to Chuckie Cheese!

2009-12-31T13:34:00.003-05:00

For Claire's birthday party, we had a Chuckie Cheese party. It was definitely worth it! The girls LOVED it! I started out trying to take 'good' pictures, but quickly realized that I was going to fret over pictures, rather then enjoy the party. So I threw the camera on auto, and just enjoyed the day. So outside of the 365 day picture, these are just any old snapshots anyone could take ;)

347 of 365: roller coaster!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Karen's probably going to kill me, but Olivia just loved this basketball game, and I think her favorite part was that Grandma was playing with her.

I was out of piping icing, so I cheated on Claires cake, and just make a giant 2 out of sprinkles

Chuckie Cheese himself comes and crowns the birthday kids, and they get a medal too (Claire took hers off)

Haley and Karen wanted their pictures with Chuckie too. Karen, I think this should be your new facebook picture!

more Olivia and Claire

2009-12-31T12:49:00.002-05:00

342 of 365: fit

The 9th was Claires second birthday. She got a 'Melmo' block sorter. She loves it.
343 of 365: Birthday Girl

344 of 365: bruise

345 of 365: looks like 80s makeup

346 of 365: tree

The girls have a bad couple of days

2009-12-31T01:20:00.003-05:00

Tim's birthday was the 6th of December. He wanted the afternoon to himself (he wanted to play bloody video games that I don't allow when the girls are up) so I took the girls to my parents house to play with Haley.

Claire was acting very sleepy. Which wasn't like her.

Olivia and Haley were acting rambuncious. Which is very much like them. At one point, while Olivia and Haley were chasing each other around the downstairs, Olivia ran into a wall. Well, not really a wall... one of those ledges that stick out and visually divide a room, but other then that serve no purpose. Well other then to stop Olivia dead in her tracks.

So Olivia's crying and carrying on, and I'm getting her and Haley set up on the couch, and Karens getting a boo boo bunny out (which Olivia asks for frequently now when she falls at Grandmas) and Haley yells that Olivia's bleeding. She wasn't - she was bruising. She banged up the bone above her eye pretty badly, but we were hoping it would just pink up, and then go down.

During this, Claire is just laying around. She was glassy-eyed during dinner (which I made her eat) and just overall... limp. It wasn't until I picked her up to put her on my lap after the whole Olivia wall incident that I realized she was BURNING UP! Turned out she had a fever of 103.5 degrees. Way to make me feel like a bad mom!

So we packed everyone up, and ruined Tims birthday.

340 of 365: poor girl

We woke up Monday morning, and was greeted by Olivia's shiner. It was impressive. Better then the black eye Claire had gotten a few months ago.

341 of 365: Shoulda seen the other guy

Is it possible to catch up 32 pictures in one day?

2009-12-30T22:37:00.003-05:00

I don't know, but I'm going to try! In roughly an hour and a half, it will be December 31st, which is the last day of my 2009 365 day project. And I want to finish on time. I really do. So there might well be a blitzcrieg of blog posts over the course of this day, so that I can have a proper finish.

Our first day back from NYC, I decorated our Christmas tree. I had put the tree and lights up before we left, but saved the ornaments for when I got back. Olivia helped me (for real, not air quoted at all!)

333 of 365: Mommy's Helper

The girls' favorite gift we brought back from NYC was their taxi cabs. They're the kind you can pull back, and then they spring forward. The girls had a ball with those.

334 of 365: TAXI!

I love the game Pikmin, so when we went to the Nintendo store, we bought this bulborb doll. Technically for me. We knew a child would take it. Shoulda figured it would be Claire.

335 of 365: its a fwog

If you got a Christmas card from us, you should recognize this picture. If you didn't, it's either because you're not on my list (sorry) or because it's sitting here on my counter without an address on it (even sorrier!!)

336 of 365: Christmas Cuties

It's really sad to me that Claires winter coat is a hand-me-down from Olivia. Not because it's a hand-me-down... but because it was Olivia's FIRST coat. Olivia wore it when she was 6 months old. Claire is two.

337 of 365: Baby it's cold outside

What can I say... Tim loves Vash.

338 of 365: Save me

Awww, our completely decorated tree!

339 of 365: Silent Night

25 to go!

Our last day in NYC

2009-12-30T22:31:00.002-05:00

It was actually a really short day. We got up, finished packing, and headed out the door... it was that quick. One final look at my sisters room, where we slept for a week.

332 of 365: Some place cozy

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is menus in NYC. In the airport, I took a couple pictures of the menus. If a restaurant is a chain (more then 3 of it exist) they are required to put the calorie content with the name of the food item, and the font size must be the same as the font size of the price. I think it's ingenius, and wish they did that here in Ohio! It's incredible how many calories are in things!

And so, goodbye Jessica and New York City. It was amazing, and we loved it!

all about Rockerfeller

2009-12-30T16:00:00.004-05:00

Friday was Rockerfeller day. Jessica has talked up going to the 'Top of the Rock' pretty much ever since she's moved to NYC. It's just like going to the top of the Empire State Building... except you can see the Empire State Building! I was sold. Like before, by this point in the trip, I had this feeling of if we didn't get to Rockerfeller, I wouldn't mind. And then after doing it, I couldn't imagine not doing it. It was that cool. You can buy one time visit passes, or you can get morning/evening passes, so that you can go up twice in one day. We went with the morning/evening.

The cool church from a few posts ago

The front desk people had warned us that it was overcast and cloudy, and might not be the best day for viewing. But I love how the clouds turned out in the pictures, so I was fine with it (though I agree that it was quite a bit hazy up there)

331 of 365: limitless

The Statue of Liberty looks so small from here!

The New Years ball never comes down (which I never knew) so I got a shot of the 2009

I loved the actual building facade of the Rockerfeller

I loved Rockerfeller Plaza, only because now I can say I stood where the Today Show does their outside segments, and where those wide shots for Saturday Night Live are taken. We didn't end up going to a Today Show airing (way early, plus the regulars weren't there) and we didn't ice skate (long long long long long lines) But it is so neat!

The Plaza is lined with Flags. I found Ohio!

These weren't at Rockerfeller, but how neat are they??

We went shopping after our trip in the sky. We spent more on this day then we did if you combined every other day on the trip. We went to Tims two favorite stores in NYC: The official NHL store, and the Nintendo Store. The NHL store was a bit of a bummer, only because there was very little Blue Jackets stuff. Though it's to be expected, given how bad of a team we are. I saw the cutest ornaments, and if they had had it in Blue Jacket, I would have gotten it in a heartbeat.

And there was a motorcycle in the front window. I took a picture of it so Tims dad could see.

After shopping, we headed back to the apartment to drop things off, eat, and rest. Well Tim rested. I photographed the apartment. And Pretzel. Pretzel is my sisters Chiuaua. He is the best dog. According to Jessica, he was an utter spaz for about 2 years, but he's great now. Tim adored Pretzel, which is something I never thought would happen. He's just not a little dog kind of guy. But he talked about stealing Pretzel away in our luggage many times on the trip.

Pretzel loved when Tim would nap on the couch

So we met up with my cousin Stephanie when we went back to the Top of the Rock at night. Even though she's been living in NYC for a few months now, she hadn't gone to the Top of the Rock either. I have to say, night time was really cool, but I honestly enjoyed day time better. Which is SO NOT what I predicted I would feel. But I didn't bring a tripod with me, so in the beginning, all of my shots were looking like this...

Oh, here's Steph and Me

I did finally wise up and started resting my camera on ledges. After the first shot, I realized I had my camera far to back on the ledge...

...so I pushed my camera right up to the very edge of the ledge, just holding on to the strap. It made both Stephanie and Tim very nervous. But I was confident my camera wouldn't fall.

Lets have a PARADE!

2009-12-30T02:40:00.004-05:00

The whole purpose of going to NYC when we went to NYC was to see the Macy's Day Parade. Of all the fun/famousy things that happen in NYC (the Macy's Parade, lighting of the Rockerfeller Tree, the New Years ball, etc) this was the thing I WANTED to see! To warn in advance, this post is going to be FILLED with pictures!

So we got up early, and headed to Central Park West. We landed at 64th and Central Park West, which is closer to the start of the parade then the end.

More of me attempting myspace-ish type pictures

Here at our spot was where we had our one and only encounter with a famous person. Randy, from Say Yes to the Dress, watched the parade from the ledge directly behind us. Of course, I took two not so flattering pictures of the guy.

I actually heard him before I saw him. He has the best voice ever. I didn't say anything to him, because I figured he just wanted to see the parade like me, and there was no reason to get all weird about it. I say this right after I show you guerrilla-style photos I took of him, so sure I am being a little hypocritical. Shoot me!

So when we first got to our spot, I thought it was crowded. We were in the back row of about 4 rows of people. But the start of the parade, we were pushed up to the second row of about 10 rows of people... sardines man! We knew the parade was starting because the tv helicopters started circling, and people started craning over to our left...

Okay the floats aren't going to be entirely in order... sorry about that! I do know that this one float had mirrors all along the side of it, and Tim poked me and said "You should try to get a shot of you in the mirror." The girl next to me (who I think was also a photographer like me, and was definitely not from New York) was trying to get the same shot too. Both of us were convinced we missed it, but upon further inspection when I got back to Ohio...

Full shot

Hey thats ME! Right in front! With my new Parade friend. And a guy looking at us like we're idiots....

My favorite people walking around were the ones on stilts. Love those guys!

The energizer bunny actually would stop and spin around periodically. Genius!

Hey there's Cyndi Lauper!

Jimmy Fallon

Some band... I think it was Boys like Girls? Something like that... I just liked that they were taking pictures of the crowd

Awwww Sesame Street

This confetti was all over EVERYTHING! We ended bringing it to Ohio with us!

Some random older ladies called the Ohio Purple Peddlers. I don't know of them, but apparently they peddle

DORA!!!!

The people holding down the balloons wear these smocks, and I loved the Dora handlers, because they had Backpack on their backs. So awesome! (a note on those people - they yell to the crowd too... we were chanting for Spongebob)

I think this guy in the fireman float had the BEST seat

Oh Gabba..... YO GABBA GABBA! I'm not going to lie, I got SO EXCITED when I saw their radio in the distance. And editting these pictures were hard, because the girls would get upset when I'd change to a picture that wasn't these guys...

330 of 365: Dj Lance Dj Lance DJ Lance ROCK!

So there were kids at the parade (not just me) and this one little boy... he was so cute! Blonde, blue eyed, sweet as can be. He just couldn't wait to see Buzz Lightyear. He had his Buzz Lightyear shirt on, and his Buzz Lightyear toy... his dad was worried he wouldn't stay awake long enough to see Buzz, but the kid made it.

I loved watching the balloons as they were leaving, since everyone's looking at whats coming ahead.

Loved this float too... it would rock every time she stopped

Papa Smurf, give me a "what what"

I love this santa balloon... I might print this up to use as a decoration at Christmas time

Awww its Santa! Which means its over! But how cool was his sleigh??

And now it's time for the masses.... the shear amount of people at the Parade is just staggering. The street is barracaded off, so you can't cross the street at any point. There are officials who follow he end of the parade, moving the barracades in so that people can move again. And its just a SEA of people.

Tim and I crossed into Central Park to sit for a minute, before heading off to China Town. The ultimate goal was to get to Little Italy, to see if anything was open to eat. We weren't going to have Thanksgiving dinner until late late into the evening, so we needed to eat a lunch now. In China town, we got lost. I mean LOST! Here's a couple random things I decided to photograph.

So, like I said, we got lost. Like super lost to the point of going home. Tim at one point said "Man if I only had a map." So there's a series of pictures like this one on my camera. I literally went down into the subway, and photographed small sections of the map from where we were to where we wanted to be. It actually worked out really well... I just looked like I was checking my camera constantly.

We found an open restaurant, had lunch, went back to Jessica's, slept, and got ready and went to her friend Johns house. She and John made a fantastic dinner, and there was just so much food!!

I didn't take many photos, because I wanted to actually be at the party, rather then photograph the party, but here's what I did get. I love how Tim looks bored to death - he wasn't, he actually enjoyed himself more then he thought he would. I thought it was fantastic, and was sad when it was all done. Definitely a great way to spend a holiday!

*phew* that was one heck of a post!

as precious as you can Imagine | Purple Platypus Pictures: Newborn Photographer

2009-12-28T01:10:00.004-05:00

Baby Imagine made her appearance this month. She is adorable in every way, and she's got a gaggle of boys that are going to protect the heck out of her. She was my first newborn, and it took some patience, but I'm very pleased with what we got. Welcome to the World little girl!

Thanksgiving Eve

2009-12-28T00:17:00.002-05:00

I woke up the day before Thanksgiving with one thing on the brain: "I must see the Statue of Liberty before I go." Up until this point, I was just happy to see what I saw, and so didn't really weigh in too heavily on what I wanted to see. But I knew if I didn't go see her, I would be so upset with myself. Just her shear size - I know she's small compared to just about everything else in NYC, but she's a STATUE! Someone created that! And Liberty is just HUGE when you think about that! So I was determined to see her.

But first, Jessica cut my hair! Well before that we had to find her salon. Which involved taking a different train then we were used to. So Tim, being the navigator of the two of us, talked to Jessica on the phone to find out how to get where we were going, and off we went. About 30 minutes later we came to a cool bridge. I even took a picture of it.

After we crossed the bridge, we realized we made a grave mistake. We were walking into the Bronx. The total opposite direction we were supposed to go. So we called Jessica, turned around, and proceded to walk the entire width of Manhatten island that morning. But we eventually made it to the salon. What I find cool about where my sister works - its right next door to Tom's Restaurant. If you don't know Tom's Restaurant, then man you need to watch some late night re-runs! Here's a memory jog.

We didn't eat there, because the food sucks, but HOW COOL!

And then Tim played photographer when I got my hair cut. Sure non of the pictures were in focus, but look how flat my hair was!! I've never seen my hair so flat and wonderful! It didn't last because it was foggy/misty/rainy out, but man it was gorgeous while it was there.

So we headed off to the Statue of Liberty. I made us take a ferry out to see her, because I was not going to be satisfied with seeing her from the dock. I mean this is the view you get of her (which I'm sure is nice when its clear out, but even if it had been clear I would have wanted to go out)

I mean this was as close as my zoom was going to get from Manhatten

I've determined NYC makes taxis out of everything

On the ferry, I went out onto the bow to take pictures. Tim, well he sulked inside (he was so not interested with going onto the island)

329 of 365: Lady Liberty

I don't blame Tim for being a pain that morning... it was nasty out

So Tim offered to take my picture with Lady Liberty. I was thrilled, handed over the camera and hopped up onto the grassy area. Tim takes a picture, and I look at it...

He chopped her head off!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, he says "But you can see you alright, and you know it's the Statue of Liberty" Okay okay, but I know what I look like, and I wanted all of her in the picture. During our spat, I took an image of Tim, which is now my favorite picture of him ever...

Amazing. But he did take a great picture of me with the statue right after.

Even love the composition! Nice job Tim!

Back on land I took a few more pictures...

cool buildings

wreckage from the World Trade Center

And then my camera died. And it turned out, my backup battery... dead also. Seriously it was like barely one o'clock in the afternoon, and I had no camera. It was lame.

But I have to tell you about ground zero. When we got off the ferry from the two islands, Tim and I just started walking the direction of shrouded buildings. So when we saw ground zero, we didn't see the 'official' ground zero. We just walked up from a random street. And, while I know it annoys some New Yorkers when tourists take pictures of it, I was upset that I couldn't. Because it is so impressive and scary. So incredibly destructive, even after almost a decade. I mean its still just an empty space. A hole. And I've said before, that New York uses every avaliable space, which just makes ground zero that much more breathtakingly horrific. It's so scary to think that someone hated us so much to cause that kind of devestation.

So from there, we headed back to the apartment. We were both drained, and I wanted to charge the batteries to my camera. My sister had left for her friends house where we were going to have Thanksgiving dinner, and she invited me along. Let me tell you, her friend John lives in the most incredible apartment. He swears he got a great deal because of the economy, but I think he had someone killed for it. It's big! It's as big as apartments in Ohio, and thats saying something! But I have a few snapshots of Jessica and John prepping for dinner the next day. They were so cute!

The next day was the parade!!!

Has it really been this long!!?!!

2009-12-27T22:22:00.003-05:00

Wow the holidays always get a little frantic for me, but I didn't realize it had gotten as bad as it had! For starters, from our family to yours, we hope you had a wonderful holiday! We're about to celebrate the new year - which means one big thing for me... 2009's 365 day project is almost done!! I can't hardly believe it! I say 2009, because I almost have myself convinced that I'll do a 2010 365 - this time focusing completely on portrature of my daughters. Almost. We'll see ;)

Until then, lets talk some more about New York, since I'm barely half-way through my trip! Tuesday the 24th!

So Tim and I started the day by going back to Times Square by ourselves. We wanted to see it during the day, and my sister (along with every single other person who lives in New York that we met) vowed not to go back there after showing us the once. I guess the crowding and the tourists are just no fun to people who live there. I equate it to going to Walmart for me.

We stopped at a bakery place and got giant cookies

Poor Tim and having me next to him all the time...

At the center of Times Square, there's these giant red bleachers. We decided to eat our cookies there, and that way I could stand still and take pictures without getting into a local persons way.

I attempted many times this trip to take pictures of myself. At this point in the trip, I was actually changing lenses, so I had the right one on to get the shot... only I manage to make myself look terrible every time I try to take a shot like this! I just don't know my angles, I guess. But I love how Tim looks, so I can just look crappy (heck, he looks like crap in plenty of pictures I take)

Lets see, from here we wandered around until we got to Central Park. Amazing park - if I lived in NYC, I could see myself hanging there in my free time. We didn't go to deep into the park (its actually really huge!) just stayed around the edge.

Statue when you go in

Two of my favorite parts of the park... 1. all the bedrock. I saw a dad with his kids (or maybe a manny? who knows!) letting the kids slide down the rock like a slide. So fun! 2. the buildings circling the park. I just loved looking up and seeing both the tree and the crowdedness of the buildings. Nice contrast!

There was this kids park that we stopped at, and let me tell you, my kids would tear this park apart! Its just different levels of concrete... nothing crazy or out of this world, but everything a kid needs. I wish my kids could have been there for it!

Poor Tim again

We ended up wandering to Rockerfeller. We didn't stay, because we knew we were going to come back, but I did get some shots of the tree all full of its scaffolding.

So after talking to my sister on the phone, we started our way to Grande Central Station. Jessica had told me when we first got in that some of the best times in NYC is when you get 'lost' and stumble upon things. That happened to us many times, and she's so right, its so exciting when it happens. I saw this from accross the street, and made Tim and I take a detour just so I could photograph it. Took FOREVER to get a shot without someone else in the picture (apparently lots of people put kids in the L... Tim wasn't about to get in for me... shocking LOL)

We also passed by this really cool church, and I got my favorite shot of the day
328 of 365: hustle and bustle

details from the church

And Grande Central Station. Yet another thing that prior to seeing it, I was all 'ehh' about seeing it... but once there I couldn't believe I might have passed it up. Its so big and gold and and... grande! We actually ate dinner there (not in the expensive nice restaurants up top, but pizza named after Seinfeld characters in the lower levels.)

There's frescos on the entire ceiling, of constellations. Of course I took a shot of pegasis

And if I didn't already have a fav shot of the day, this would have been it.

Nov 23rd: part two

2009-12-14T01:42:00.002-05:00

As I said before, the big news about Monday was that Tim and I had a hockey game to go to.

Now we live in Columbus Ohio, and being that Tim is a major hockey fan, he obviously likes the Blue Jackets (though the team is sucking... like a lot...) Tim and I planned our NYC trip back in June. JUNE! I think it was in September or October that the game schedule came out. Tim had planned on going to a NYC Rangers game if one played while we were there, regardless of who the Rangers were up against, but neither of us thought this would happen. Oh yeah, Blue Jackets played the Rangers on Monday! So off to Madison Square Garden we went.

Walking up to it, I had no idea how to get in. I think we went to the right. It's not very big, which I guess at this point we should have expected.

I thought the inside was neat. It's definitely a very old stadium. Yes the seats were those colors - I did not enhance them! It was also really closed in. I think Tim said it had the same number of seats in it as Nationwide Arena in Ohio, but had we had the same seats in Nationwide, we would have been so high, it would have definitely qualified as nosebleeds. In Madison Square, I would not have called our seats nosebleeds... it was actually a great spot to me!

Tim, obviously, was in heaven

During warm-up, I realized that people could go down close to the ice to take pictures. I'm dumb and had never really thought to do that before. I ran down there, but missed Nash (Olivia's favorite player.) The usher actually moved me so that I was like right there on the ice - look how close my pics are!

I didn't take too many pictures during the actual game. I'm slightly mad at myself, because the Blue Jackets actually played a good game for almost an entire period! We were up 2-0 and were way up on the Rangers in shots on goal. That's impressive for you non-hockey fans! I should have taken a picture of the dang scoreboard!

Now what I loved Loved LOVED about watching the Rangers in Madison Square: It's people my age who love and understand Hockey. You have to hear where I'm coming from. Ohio is a football town. Always has been, always will. I've accepted that. So when you go to a hockey game at Nationwide, the crowds aren't the same as true through and through hockey fans. Don't get me wrong - there are those people there (believe you me every single person in my husbands family falls in that crowd) but the vast majority of people there are just people curious of what hockey is and have a free night, or they won tickets somehow: either through work or whatever. So the jumbo screen gets a lot of action. Lots of people paying attention to the thing - clapping along with the thing - looking to the thing for it to tell you what to do. Not so at Madison Square Gardens. You might as well have taken the thing down. Everyone knew what to do. And when their team was sucking (like when their team let such a crappy team as the Blue Jackets be up 2-0), the crowd boo-d the team until they played better.

Thats right, they BOO-D THEIR OWN TEAM!! OMG it was so cool to be in! Tim actually warned me ahead of time that it might happen. I think he was reading the crowd better than me, and he leaned over and said "Just so you know, this isn't like Ohio. This crowd won't let their team suck like we will." And let me tell you, the boo-ing lit a FIRE under the Rangers... they scored 7, yes SEVEN more goals, and then we scored two final more before the end of the game... us losing 7-4. Man it was a great game! And we got HECKLED! Sure, I brought it on myself, but all in good fun. Oh and I got a Free Rangers Santa hat with my $10 Cotton Candy.

After the game, we took our time getting back to the apartment... partly on purpose, and partly on accident. Lets talk about the Subway

I think I love the Subway. I would give up my car in a heartbeat if we had a subway system like NYC in Columbus, I love it that much. It wasn't as dirty as I thought it would be. Though, there was that one that was ick ick ick, but Jessica's roommate Matt said it was a weird train for us to have been on in the first place (we were lost, and took a J train) so really every train we were supposed to be on was cool. Most of them were packed, much like this.

Tim posed for this picture in front of a train we thought wasn't ours, and realized afterwards that yes, in fact it had been ours, and now we had to wait for another. Some trains are express trains, and some are local, but then after hours only a local runs but it was the express train... I don't know, it gets confusing to me. Tim and I never did find out when "After Hours" is exactly. NYC most definitely lives up to it's 'the city that never sleeps' hype.

I've joked with a few people that I want to make a small book for myself titled "Tim's bored in New York" because he looks so dang bored in every photo I took! It's not his fault, he just photographs that way, but its hilarious!

Cool mosaic wall in the subway

Tim bored in front of cool mosaic wall in the subway

I wish I had been able to get a shot of my sister like this... I terribly wanted an image of someone waiting for a subway, and for the person to be in focus, and the train to be rushing past them. In my head it looked so cool. Tim, well, he's doing some weird thing with his chin - but the shot is still kinda cool

Want to know how much I loved the Subway? I still have my metro card in my wallet! I realized it yesterday that I never took it out. I'll probably keep it in there too, just as a reminder. We lived in the subways for that whole week!

Nov 23rd in NYC: part one

2009-12-13T23:39:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the slack again. I have to start breaking the days down into smaller bits, or each post is going to be hella long! Even with it broken down, they're going to be long!

The big news about Monday was that Tim and I had a hockey game to go to. More on that later. So the morning/afternoon of Monday was more for Jessica and I to shop, and obviously more sightseeing.

Up until this point, Tim had complained about the lack of video game stores in NYC (and honestly, there really is a lack of video game stores... what up with that??) But on shopping day, we found a building that was spouting steam, and below it, a Best Buy! Jessica and I did not go there - we went to Filenes Basement (which I probably butchered the spelling of) and got some fabulous dresses (me for Thanksgiving, and her for her birthday extravaganza that we missed by one day)

Everyone keeps asking me what my favorite part of NYC was. Its a logical question, but my honest answer? There's just so much to photograph! I honestly could just wander forever and not get bored. Like here, random picture of a cool building with a clock, and some dude selling hotdogs and fruit

LOVE IT! Want another cool building with a clock??

BA BAM!

Okay enough silliness... but in all honesty, loved that part. Really the only thing I managed to not take a picture of that I meant to was of the Brownstones. They're neat. And there's a couple different types (I think Jessica said it had something to do with when they were built) and we saw them practically every day, and I managed not to photograph them. Sucks. They remind me of Sesame Street.

Big neat building of this day? The Flat Iron Building. Its cool! Now, if there's one thing I learned about NYC, its that there is NO WASTED SPACE! I mean literally, if they can build a structure there, by god there's a structure there. So it seems like every building rounds a corner, or at least cuts off around the corner. But the Flat Iron Building is by far the most impressive. We came up from behind the building.

I could tell from there that it was the Flat Iron! So cool!

Oh another thing I didn't get a picture of? This entire building top to bottom in one shot. It would have required me to change lenses. I know I know, you're saying to yourself "Heather! But why didn't you just change lenses??" NYC is overwhelming, and at the beginning of the trip, while it dawned on me that I should be changing lenses and taking as many images as possible, I was afraid of missing out on something by slowing down. I got over that by the end of the trip ;)

Oh but look closely at this shot - its the Flat Iron up close and personal. The Sprint ad is right inside the rounded glass window of the front - you can see the sidewalk going down the other side. I could wrap my arms around the building if I wanted to!

Another big thing we saw that day? The Empire State Building. Okay, I'm going to admit it... I wasn't all that into the Empire State Building. I don't really have a reason why, just wasn't. But I love the shots I got.

We had to walk down fashion district to get to Madison Square Gardens. I have to admit, I literally squeeled, and turned around to Tim and squeeked "ITS PARSONS!!!!" Jessica hadn't even had a chance to point it out. I watch too much tv LOL!

Bryant Park was neat. There's a carousel that was really neat inside. No, we didn't ride it (shoulda dang it!)

And there were a couple neat statues on the way. I remember studying the dude that made the needle and button. I swear, mom-dom has ruined my brain, and I can't remember the guys name, but it was impressive seeing it in person

You can see this guy sewing in the other picture, but here's a closeup

And lastly, my pic of the day for this day. Its out of order - I can't remember when we saw it in relation to the other stuff, but its from the New York City Library. I need a lion for my doorstep dangit! So regal and wonderful

327 of 365: Lions and Libraries

to be continued....

my sister, a ham for the camera

2009-12-07T13:04:00.003-05:00

I love when people aren't afraid of cameras. These were all taken in Little Italy where we had dessert.

Gotta love my next door neighbors!

2009-12-07T12:36:00.002-05:00

My neighbor mentioned once a while ago how she wanted to re-create images of her kids that she had done about 3 years ago. I was all for it! We figured while we were at it, we'd go ahead and take some family pictures to use in Christmas cards. So here's a break in my NYC adventure to give you the K Family!

Went back to my roots for this one ;)

My kids love their kids... and their youngest is just a ham. I love that girl!

Sunday in New York

2009-12-06T20:40:00.002-05:00

I'm not going to lie - I'm getting overwhelmed from all my pictures of New York City. Mostly because we'd do so much in one day! It's just such a big place! But then, it would seem so small, because you could get everywhere by subway. Just weird.

Anyways... Sunday. Tim and I wandered around in the morning before meeting up with Jessica.

326 of 365: Changing the phone to NYC

When I say wandered around, on this day, we essentially just walked really slow to the theatre my sister works at. We weren't comfortable with truly walking around and getting lost yet.

One thing I found cool - the long term parking lots. In Ohio, its just a parking lot. With a dude who takes your money (or those mailbox looking things you add money into) Apparently in NYC, if they know that you're going to be gone for a long period (like all day) they put your car on this elevator thing. It makes it so the parking lot is actually 3 levels high, without actually making a parking garage.

I was kinda surprised there weren't more pigeons around. And I was surprised they would not even remotely hold still for me. It's like they knew I had no food on me.

We went to see the show 'Toxic Avenger' at New World. I liked it a lot (the guy that plays 'Black Dude' is hilarious) Tim found it loud... theatres never been his thing... he did like it otherwise. No cameras allowed in the theatre, but I thought the outside of it was cute.

From the show, Jessica took us to China Town and Little Italy. China Town is one of my absolute favorite places in NYC. Sure, its mostly because I got a lot of cool props for like no money - but its was so neat!

Lots of outdoor markets... full of fruits.. and fish *gag*

Jessica took us to one of her favorite restaraunts. Got to love the random ingrediants (I had chicken)

On our way to Little Italy, we kept running into what Tim and I dubbed the infamous 'Go wait don't go!' signs. It's not a photoshop trick - both lights would stay lit when the go part would come on.

We had dessert at a great little place. There was a guy singing to us in the restaraunt. I took a picture of glasses for some reason.

Whats funny about Little Italy, is theres matr-di's (I know I butchered that hardcore) that wait outside, and offer you seating as you walk past. Jessica and I were walking next to each other when one man offered us a seat. We said we'd eaten already, and the guy looked to Tim, who was behind us, SNAPPED his fingers and said "You sir, your seat is HERE!" I about died laughing.

So this is where my memory gets foggy. I know this arch is famous and is called something, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is or why its there. But its pretty and probably historic!

Lets (finally) talk about New York!

2009-12-03T14:52:00.002-05:00

So Tim and I went to New York for seven days. We stayed with my sister in Harlem, and we had a lot of fun and saw a lot of stuff! To make blogging slightly easier on my sanity, I'm going to post days at a time. So lets begin with day one!

NOVEMBER 21st - Saturday

So we arrived in NYC around 3pm. We got to my sisters apartment, dropped our stuff off, picked up her roommate, and went off to see Times Square. Apparently if you live in New York, you avoid Times Square with every ounce of your being. It's crowded, and filled with tourists. But Tim and I, being tourists, couldn't wait to see it. And let me tell you, it's a sensory overload! You come out of the dark subway station, and are just overwhelmed by lights. You practically don't even realize it's night time, its that lit up! I didn't take many pictures on this day, mostly because I was settling in, and also because I was getting frustrated with my camera (I'm not used to taking images at night) But here's my favorites.

random Times Square

the American Eagle building, which had no real walls - all the walls were LED screens

Hersheys Building

giant lcd M&M outside of the M&M building

Toys R Us giant Ferris Wheel, and the MLP cart

325 of 365: CHRISTMAS!
Some mall we went into

My sister Jessica. Isn't she beautiful!

There's definitely more to come - but this is at least a start!

the blog I was supposed to blog before leaving for NYC

2009-11-30T08:01:00.003-05:00

Hey we're home from NYC! It was a lot of fun, and I just have gigs and gigs of photos to go through (I filled an entire card just at the Macy's Day Parade!) But I have one last post that I should have made before leaving, that just didn't get done. So here's 11 days before we left.

314 of 365: I'm mad!
I wonder how many 'I'm mad' images there are this year - I know at least two, maybe more!

315 of 365: to be three again
I love that Olivia will cozy herself up wherever she wants.

316 of 365: to be a cat
If I come back, let me come back as a housecat

317 of 365: how do I get that out??
I ended up leaving it for now... it might end up being the only tree that I have to hire someone to remove, because I know it can't stay there.

318 of 365: gift bag one
This gift bag was at Danielles Baby Shower, and I thought it was cute.

319 of 365: gift bag two
This gift bag was coming with me from one of my Aunts to my sister in NYC.

320 of 365: seven eleven
I think I had a reason to take this image over two weeks ago, but I've since long forgotten.

321 of 365: pretty evergreens
It was late, and I took a couple images of these bushes next to Taco Bell of all places. I had others that it was obvious what was there, but I just love this image.

322 of 365: Are you Excited Tim?

323 of 365: Are you Excited Claire?

324 of 365: Are you Excited Olivia?

So we left for NYC after that. I don't even know how I'm going to pick my daily image... really I don't even know how I'm just going to go through all these images!! But we're glad to be home.

Going to bombard you with images...

2009-11-16T11:53:00.004-05:00

...because I need to get caught. I don't just want to get caught up... I need to... because I'm leaving for vacation in five days, and I don't need images hanging over my head. So sure, my next few blogs will be long with images that don't always go with one another - but it means that next week when I'm in NYC during Thanksgiving Week (Oh yeah, Macys Day Parade folks!!) I can blog while I'm there, and not have to come home to show other images out of order. So without further adeu, I give you eleven days in a row.

303 of 365: Candy

304 of 365: Aren't you going to feed me?
Poor fat Jo

305 of 365: Stallions
Found this neat statue while taking Ellens senior pictures. Its the mascot to the school who's track we used for some of her images. Not her mascot - actually a rival school. I should feel bad for using this as my day - but I think the statue is cool.

306 of 365: Witch!
I love after Halloween sales, because you get cheap stuff to use as dress-up. This year the girls got witch hats. I was kinda dozing on the couch, and Olivia walked up to me with a dress-up dress she hadn't worn before... I put it on her, she scampered off, and Claire appeared in my face with a dress of her own. The actual outfits are old dance costumes of one of Tims cousins. Curious, I went to see what the girls were doing, and found them brewing some witches brew with their hats on. Too cute!

307 of 365: Fall
I'm going to be sad when Fall is officially over. It's my favorite season

308 of 365: never ending M&Ms
Tims dad works for Mars, which means we can have all the M&Ms we want. And we sure got a ton for Halloween. And they were good!

309 of 365: burnt
I think I burnt the chicken because I was too busy taking photos of the smoke coming up from it. The smoke was pretty cool!

310 of 365: sick
I wonder how many images there are of my couch? I slept for 20 hours straight this day. I woke up feeling fine, so whatever it was that made me feel terrible just needed sleep to go away.

311 of 365: outtake
Wendy got me this great lip gloss, so I was going to photograph just my lips to show it off... I think Olivia had just run outside and was asking me what I was doing or something, and I looked off at her... so even though this isn't the great photo I was looking for, I like it better then the rest.

312 of 365: What was that??
If you have cats - don't you hate it when they startle, and then stare into the distance. Creeps me out!

313 of 365: My Family
It was really nice out, and I wanted to try to get some family portraits of my own family. Most turned out ehh. I love this one. Since I've started doing this with other families, I've been wanting one like this for my family... I'm glad I was able to do it.

Trick or Treat... almost a month later

2009-11-15T23:21:00.003-05:00

Okay so I have this weird obsession with wanting the girls match at Halloween. Last year, when Olivia was a pirate, Claire was a parrot. This year I searched out forever to find the perfect matchy outfit again. And what did I determine??

...

I'd rather the girls not match in favor of neither of them looking slutty. What happened to Halloween?!!? I'm all for college students and older wanting to look like sluts at Halloween. Heck, I guess I can look the other way when a high schooler does it. But my three year old?? Does a lady bug really need to be a skimpy top with a tutu?? Should Dorothy's dress really hit that high above the knee??? Really??????

So this year, the girls were both animals, and thats about where the matching ended. Olivia was a tiger, Claire a bunny, and they Trick or Treated with Aunt Hal....I mean Michael Jackson.

Now Michael Jackson kept putting her hand on Claires head, which made Karen and I wish that maybe we had dressed Claire has a Monkey (Bubbles anyone?) or worse, a little boy (I know, boo hiss, but admit it you at least chuckled)

Oh lordy I gave Claire creepy eyes in this one... not intentional mind you!

We got lots of people who though Claire was Eeyore. I guess I can see it - she's blue with floppy ears, but check out the rump people - totally a bunny!

Even Nubie got in on the dressing up. Cracked me up!

But the girls did really really well (especially given their Boo at the Zoo experience) They walked a pretty far distance, and had no real candy meltdowns. We headed back to the grandparents for some milk, pizza, and of course, lots and lots of candy. It was the first time I really got to see the girls have a major sugar buzz going. Impressive. It's just a snapshot, but the two of them hopped on sugar at the end of the night

302 of 365: Spooooooky

I have to say though, thank God that's all over, and the candy is gone and the decorations are down... I can only take Halloween for so long. Now bring on Christmas!

Those silly girls

2009-11-11T15:28:00.002-05:00

My kids love leaves. It's unfortunate that we have no trees to produce dead leaves in the fall for them. When we go to my parents house, though, there are tons of leaves. My dad just happened to be outside raking one Sunday when we went over. I let the girls out in the yard, and then sat in the kitchen and laughed with Jacqui at the results. Those girls just made a mess of his pile! Dad was very patient with them, but after about a half hour, I did have to save him from the girls.

297 of 365: Don't just throw them ANYWHERE!!!!!

And then we have a few days of fun girls

298 of 365: those out of bath curls
Nothing beats the curls on Olivia's head when her hair is slightly damp. Just so pretty!

299 of 365: DINOSAUR!
My mom brought the girls gifts of dragons. But my girls call them dinosaurs. And get very perterbed with you if you even slightly imply that their dinosaurs just might actually be dragons.

300 of 365: towers
It never ceases to amaze me the things my kids will do to entertain themselves when I'm not paying attention. This awesome tower happened while I was watching some tv in another room.

301 of 365: volunteer
Olivia actually ASKED to take a bath! No kidding! And the princess spent over a half and hour in there!

like day and night

2009-11-10T17:23:00.002-05:00

So I have this beanie baby. He's a seal, though a lot of people assume he's a platypus. Ty gave him the name 'fins' but we've called him Vince ever since I got him as freshman in college. I tend to own popular cars in popular colors, so Vince comes in handy when I'm trying to pick out my car. For some reason, I felt the need to prove the whole 'I go to work on one day and come home on another' point, so Vince became my subject.

295 of 365: 5pm

296 of 365: 2am

the great outdoors!

2009-11-09T10:40:00.003-05:00

Featuring the premiere movie event by an up and comer producer. It's epic.

But first...

This all started because we've been working a lot outside. Now that the inside looks nice, we want an outdoor area that looks equally nice. The girls ask daily about when we're going outside. Olivia paticularly loves to help garden. And by garden, I mean dig a trench right next to my azaleas >.<

292 of 365: Got my gardening shoes on

293 of 365: not so scary
First came getting the front weeded. Then I tackled the scary side of the house. You can now walk from the front yard to the back yard without something attacking you!

When I walked outside the next day, I was greeted by this...

Our wonderful next door neighbors gave us their old swingset. It's not much, but its perfect for the girls right now!

294 of 365: I can swing!

After they were done swinging, I handed the flip over to Olivia, and let her shoot a movie. It's funny in a three year old kind of way, but there are some disclaimers.

1. I look like crap. Keep in mind I had gardened all day, and came inside to change into something comfy before starting dinner and getting ready for work.
2. Olivia shot this. Therefore, it is very Blair Witch Project in in its style. Lots of shakey camera. Low to the ground. Slightly nausiating
3. Olivia has a bit of a speech impediment right now. We're looking into how to go about getting her to cut it out. But for your sake while watching, if you just ignore the 'rrrrrururrruurrr' parts, she talks in clear sentances. Olivia just feels the need to add sounds to make the sentance longer.
Get some popcorn and enjoy the show!

the start of halloween fun

2009-11-08T15:00:00.002-05:00

Yeah yeah yeah, I'm behind again. It happens. Thanks for sticking it out with me though ;)

289 of 365: Getting into the Spirit
I have this pillow by my computer desk, and since Boo at the Zoo was the next day, I wanted to try to get into the Halloween spirit

290 of 365: family fun
Yeah Boo at the Zoo was less than fun. Olivia didn't have any sort of sleep, and it showed. Claire was just cold, the poor thing. And they both got their first taste of Trick or Treating, and the candy was more then overwhelming

291 of 365: BUTT!
Some people look for the perfect shape of pumpkin. One that will make a great face. I manage to find the weirdest pumpkins, and have to get them. This one made me laugh - if only because it sits on our kitchen table.

Ellen's Sneak Peek! | Columbus Seniors Photographer - Purple Platypus Pictures

2009-11-05T16:05:00.002-05:00

I am very excited about this session! I pretty much took the entire month of October off from clients, to give myself some breathing room with work and everything, so Ellens session was my first in a while! She was great; open to anything and all smiles. And Ellen, I just realized that yet again (I did this on a previous session too) I put '09 as the year instead of '10. Sometimes I don't know where my head is. I promise it is fixed and will be correct on any orders.

Ellens dad and boyfriend (who you should recognize) both came along for the session, and they were both a ton of fun to have there. Ellen and her dad have such a great relationship, and were so cute together.

And if you ever wonder, how can I get great shots with fall leaves when the leaves are so high??

The answer is to have a boyfriend who's taller then six feet ;)

Thanks Ellen for a great session!

two posts, so lets do the 'boring' one first

2009-11-05T15:53:00.003-05:00

And by boring, I mean it just doesn't excite me. Eh, when you take an image every day, you're bound to have a day (or a week) that's just.... ehhh. And I have a great sneak peek to show, and I want it to be the first thing that shows up when you click on the blog - therefore boring must come first.

287 of 365: All the pretty colors 2

288 of 365: All the pretty colors 3

Can I just say that I can't wait until the toys made primarily of primary colors are mostly gone from this house. I thought most had gone away, but once I stood back and really looked... nope, still a ton there!

One fancy lady

2009-10-25T22:41:00.002-04:00

I have a slight obsession with petti-skirts, and the beautiful images photographers create with little girls in them. I have a fancy petti-skirt on the way, but I saw cheapo Halloween costume ones at Wal-mart. They had 4 colors, and I picked up 2 of them (for $5 each, I couldn't pass it up!) And while I'll use them on sessions for sure, I don't feel bad about keeping them in the girls' dress up chest. (for the record, the fancy one will never go in that chest)

286 of 365: One fancy lady

Olivia actually started the dressing up, but disrobed before the photo taking started. Claire actually posed for photos, and then let me take video of her! So here's a Claire video debut on the blog!

remember that wicked berry weed?

2009-10-25T22:40:00.000-04:00

285 of 365: Here's its root

Nasty!

Oh how the time passes

2009-10-25T19:19:00.003-04:00

I had a set in my Flickr account from last years adventures at Circle S, but I had to dig around in my storage to find our very first trip in 2007. I'm glad I looked, because I can't get over how small Olivia was!!! Time just goes by too quickly! And since Circle S stays pretty much the same every year, I have a lot of images that are similar to one another (which I LOVE!) So here's a fun comparison!

First, the one thing that's the same every year...
2009

2008

2007

Gotta love Olivia's obsession with Chickens

There's tons more, and I'm sharing it all!

Even though Claire's only been twice (and the first time she was stroller bound) she even has one thats similar! Look at that face!

The year and a halfers have a similar hay throwing style

The lighting was almost identical!

Dumb luck that it was the same cut-out!

Love that the girls look equally pissed off in both images

And while there is no other image like this one, I had forgotten about this pic, and I love it

Hope you enjoyed the flashback!

One heck of a blog about a day at the farm

2009-10-25T16:09:00.003-04:00

Brace yourself, because I'm going to show a ton of images! But I can't help it, it's about our day at the farm! We love Circle S Farms, and I love taking photos there (I'll probably have another post just comparing this years images to prior years images)

We always have to do the 'How tall this Fall?' sign. Tim actually had the hardest job of wrangling the girls to even get the shot. Neither was very interested this year. Olivia did, however, find a different cutout that she did want photographed with. I swear neither Tim nor I put her there, she went there all on her own.

It was only a matter of time until the girls found the chickens. Actually, I'm not even sure these are chickens... they don't look like traditional chickens (which doesn't mean they couldn't be some fancy breed of chicken... maybe the farm is branching out) I'm waiting for the day the farm help tells us we can't let our children torture their chickens. Until then, it drains a lot of energy!

Other random farm goodness..

At this point, everyone knows I love a good behind shot while walking through the suflower maze

The highlight by far this year was the hay barn. This was the first year Olivia actually slid down the slides. Claire would slide down with me (but not by herself.) Olivia just had a ball in there, and would fight every time we'd leave it (we went in many times)

284 of 365: sisterly love

And my favorite 'face' shots of the day. Sure I could photoshop Claires giant booger out of her nose, but where would the blackmail pictures be then??

And it all ended after the tractor ride to the pumpkin patch.

Thanks Circle S!

a short one so I can post a long one

2009-10-23T13:55:00.003-04:00

Only two in this post... but the next one is our day at the farm, so its going to be ridiculously long!

282 of 365: Thai
Okay so that's not Thai, that's Vash. But sometimes Vash reminds me of my parents late cat Thai. He's recently started being a hybrid between indoor and outdoor cat, and will whine at this window when he wants to go out. Really, like whine. It's insane!

283 of 365: BOO!
I love to decorate for Christmas. I would love decorating for Halloween, except I always seem to forget about it (plus I just don't have anything for Halloween) At Meijers, I found two of the cheapest decorations ever, and went ahead and got them. For a grand total of $3, our driveway is lined with ghosts, and our front window has this pair. Perfect!

And Olivia takes center stage...

2009-10-22T13:45:00.003-04:00

277 of 365: COSTUMES!
Did you know, if you want your daughter to look like a whore for halloween, you have about a million different options - but if you want your three year old to look cute and like a three year old, you've got a hunt ahead of you?? We broke out old Halloween costumes in the house this day. Olivia can actually fit into every costume she's worn except the bunny costume (it has built in feet, which doesn't work well with her lengthyness) We decided Claire is actually going to be the bunny this year for Halloween. She's adorable in it, and I love the costume (Slug gave it to me - I can't remember if it was her mom that made it - but its adorable!) We finally found a non-slutty tiger for Olivia to be, but this day she was wearing her frog costume from 2 years ago. Ignore the hand on the mirror - I've given up on keeping that thing clean.

278 of 365: happy
What do you get when Olivia's hiding from the camera, but tricked into looking at you?

279 of 375: Thats not yellow!!!!!!
Three year olds are very picky. And they change their minds. A lot. Olivia wanted milk. Pink milk. No wait, yellow milk. But the pink milk was already poured, so pink milk it is. Tantrum ensued.

280 of 365: white
wait, thats not of either girl! Every once and a while, I try to do assignments from the various photography boards I'm a part of. That weeks assignment was 'white.' I think I might need a macro lens, because I am loving macros!

281 of 365: Good Night Olivia
If you look at the data on this image, technically it was taken on the 9th, and not the 8th (which is when day 281 is.) But it was taken when I got off of work at 2am, and since I hadn't slept yet, I'm going on the technicality that the day hadn't changed yet. It's not the most technically correct image I've ever taken, but it is what I see every time I get home from work. Go to bed Olivia!!!

not a single girl in sight

2009-10-20T16:48:00.002-04:00

272 of 365: fail

273 of 365: all the pretty colors- one
In later days, I've taken images of other super brilliantly colorful toys. They're so obnoixious!

274 of 365: killer weed
This thing was HUGE! And weirdly pretty. And very very deeply rooted. The root is coming up in a week or so ;)

275 of 365: organization
or lack there of. When I cleaned up, I straightened up the dvd case. But I didn't put anything in any sort or order... just what was near me was thrown in. I think its still semi-in alphabetical order

276 of 365: theres actually a desk under there
I can't tell you the last time I could actually see my desk properly. Now there's more stuff on it again, but you can still see the surface of the desk, so its not half bad!

finally getting somewhere

2009-10-19T13:14:00.002-04:00

This is shocking (especially to me)... but after I click 'publish post' on this blog, I'll be just about up to October! Which means maybe, just maybe, I can start posting about days that are happening in the same month we're in now! crraaaazzy

269 of 365: you can't make me like it
I don't know why my girls hate baths so much. And I don't remember how I managed to get them both bathed without too many tears this day. Which is a bummer, because that could be useful information right about now.

270 of 365: smells like... pancakes?
Two years ago around the holidays, a box of candles broke at work, and the entire beltline smelled like pancakes. I found out where the candles were originally sold, and bought one for Tim. We burnt it about as low as you safely could, but didn't throw it out. Now with kids, we rarely burn candles. Karen suggested getting a candle warmer, and Aunt Ellie got me one for my birthday. I LOVE IT! I wasn't sure I would (honestly, before using one I thought they were kinda dumb) but they're so convienent, and no flame!

271 of 365: another ER visit for Claire
So the house was(is) clean, and I was in the living room picking up stray toys, when I hear Claire give out a scream. It's a normal 'Olivia hurt me' scream, but I always check on those, because she might actually be hurt. We meet up in the hallway... Claires head covered in blood. I mop her up, and realize the cut is pretty darn deep, and won't stay shut. Claire, trooper that she is, thanked me for cleaning up her head, and went off to play again with Olivia. I dressed myself and Olivia, and packed us up for the ER. Four hours later, Claire's glued back together. Tims concerned about scarring, but so far its healing really nicely. We think she tripped in the clean study (must not know where to step now that there's not a pathway) and hit her head on the base of our computer stand.

you would think I love Claire best...

2009-10-19T00:18:00.003-04:00

Because most of this week was of her. Oh well, it happens.

Once upon a time, before I had kids, I knit everyone in the family scarves for Christmas. I think I knit something like 35 scarves that year. I hadn't traditionally knit again until this day (I have, however, used a loom. I really wanted to make a knit burrito thing I could use when photographing small babies. I made a few, I just haven't had small enough babies to use them on)

263 of 365: the next generation
I dropped in at my parents house sans children, and Haley showed me this 'learn to knit' thing that I think Jacqui got her. She was planning on waiting to see Aunt Ellie to learn how to use it, until I mentioned that I knew to knit. She picked it up really quick!

264 of 365: an armchair for me
Claire used to have giant baby-block style shelves in her room. We weren't really using them, so I moved them to the studio to use as props, and in its place put in Claires barka lounger. She loves it.

265 of 365: whooooooooo
I love odd things. Karen got me this owl made from tin and a rock. I love it.

266 of 365: tantrum
when is it okay to show an out of focus image as a finished image? When its an image of an awesome tantrum of Claires silly!

267 of 365: the end of summer
I think its rained at least once every week this month. I was taking images of the rain on the windows of my car, when I looked up and saw my sunroof. I just like how the water was collecting.

268 of 365: nap where you can
I should be like Claire, and head off to bed now. It's mighty late!

and when I don't take images of the girls...

2009-10-11T23:53:00.003-04:00

...I take images of random things.

260 of 365: just can't keep a nice pair of pants
One of the random perks of the newer position is that I can wear nice clothing without it getting trashed. Or so I thought. I did the right thing for the customer, but my pants sure suffered for it.

261 of 365: the last day
*stands up* Hi, my name is Heather, and I'm a recovering hoarder. Okay so I wasn't quite to hoarder status yet, but my house sure always looked like someone broke in and ran-sacked it. One day about a month ago, I just decided enough was enough... I had lived 28 years in clutter, and I was ready to grow up and have a nice home for my family. And today if you just happened to drop by to see us... the house is still clean.

262 of 365: sky
Would you believe I did nothing to this image other then resize it!? Sometimes we can have some gorgeous sunsets!

Claire and Olivia

2009-10-11T15:21:00.001-04:00

258 of 365: Blankie

259 of 365: so close
what you can't really tell is she's sleeping on the floor right next to her bed

oh baby

2009-10-10T02:32:00.002-04:00

There are some milestones that are celebrated among parents... First steps, first words, first haircut. There are personality traits that come out that you adore... the funny things kids repeat, their wit that they use on their own.

And then there are milestones parents never talk about, but seem to hit each kid. Claire has officially moved into what we like to call in the Nesser household, the 'hoarding' stage. If you recall, we literally just broke Olivia of this not even six months ago... and yet here I am telling you that Claire is doing it. She wants Blankie. And Baby. And doggie and kitty and foofa and brobee and pinky and mr. guinea pig and you get the idea.

But, just like green and purple pus are the important toys to Olivia, Blankie and Baby are everything to Claire. What I find so amusing is that Claire picked lovies that are so much bigger then her! Baby is half of Claires height! But she drags her everywhere. What a good mommy she is!

257 of 365: Family Portrait
Ahhhh just like the classic

and a lovely aray of Claires love for Baby. I love how their heads are almost the same size!!

now for a little hodge-podge

2009-10-08T16:39:00.002-04:00

I'm trying to avoid making posts with only one image in them, because then it would make the catching up process darn near impossible. Because of that, not all the images will relate to one another so well, other then the fact I took them all. Sorry about that!

253 of 365: her fathers daughter
Olivia is a clone of me, and Claire strongly resembles Tim. But she's not an exact duplicate of Tim the way Olivia is with me. But Claire has mannerisms that are just so Tim. I was taking her photo for something else when she made this face to me... a face Tim makes ALL the time. It kinda weirded me out!

254 of 365: endless
I wanted to take an image of a pattern... try to be abstract. (its the speaker to my mp3 player)

255 of 365: Let them eat cake!
Alicia is a client of mine, but I consider her mom a friend. So for Alicia's baby shower, I made her a diaper cake. I love those things!

256 of 365: with these hands
The next day was Aiden and Nikos session. Olivia came along, and behaved very nicely. I tried to get a shot like this with Aiden, but he was far more interested in putting his face in the water LOL!

A couple things I shouldn't eat...

2009-10-07T14:16:00.002-04:00

...but did anyways. Why is it when it tastes good and is fast, its the most unhealthy thing possible?!

249 of 365: dusk

250 of 365: chocolate

And then this was the week that I spent half my days at one terminal, and then would have to drive to the other terminal to finish out. It was tiring, and frankly sucky.

251 of 365: laugh
This rock is on my desk. The drawings not anymore, but it was something the girls did when I took them in (yes I even took the girls in one day to try to get work done.)

252 of 365: crash
I've slept more on my couch this month then I have the entire rest of the time we've owned it. I just can't seem to stay awake when I'm on it.

and now a bunch of the girls

2009-10-06T13:41:00.003-04:00

It seems that when I'm busy and find I need to take a photo quick so I don't miss a day - I capture the girls. While I love having tons of images of the girls, it's kind of stuck me in a rut. I'm hoping to be able to pull myself out of it. Until then, though, here's a series of them.

244 of 365: When are you due?
For someone so petite and tiny, Claire sure has one hell of a buddah belly!

245 of 365: Congratulations
Ahhh, the 'Yay you used the potty!' sticker wall. The girls' newest habit is to rip the stickers off the the wall after they've been placed for days and days, leaving one half of the sticker still stuck, and the other half ground into my carpet. It's really a fantastic habit.

246 of 365: who needs a bed?
I get off of work anywhere between 12am and 5am now. Olivia is almost always awake and waiting for me at the door. I guess this day she just couldn't stay awake.

247 of 365: lets talk about schools
I can't believe that we're at that stage where we have to start talking about schools for Olivia. Preschool right now, obviously. Olivia has a weird way of talking (she adds random noises to fill in sentances) and she's terrible at sharing and taking turns, so Tim and I figured it was time. We're still looking... my goodness its pricey!

248 of 365: Light and Dark
I was sitting in my armchair while Claire was playing in the window, and I just loved how the light was hitting her. I don't know why... I just did.

What to do when the last 365 imgae posted was from August....

2009-10-05T10:51:00.002-04:00

Especially considering now is October. Ouch.

Well all you can do is post post post post post.

241 of 365: A beautiful day

242 of 365: A creepy day
(I need to get back to that tree... I took this shot from the car passing by it after my stepmom took me to see it. I think it's neat - I just haven't had the time to do something creative with the location)

243 of 365: time ticks on

Anna's peak!! | Columbus Children Photographer - Purple Platypus Pictures

2009-10-01T17:32:00.003-04:00

Anna was the very first baby I ever photographed (see her first peak here ) She has gotten so big!! Big sister Rachel got in on the mix with us, and she was just adorable and pleasant to work with. I love what we got, and Mickey I hope you do too! Thanks for letting me steal your girls!! I'll have the rest done for you here soon :)

Alicia's baby shower! | Columbus Maternity Photographer; Purple Platypus Pictures

2009-09-29T17:00:00.003-04:00

I had the privilidge of attending Alicia's baby shower. Her family is just awesome and inviting, and I had a great time! It was so colorful and happy. The best game by far that they played was the 'Guess the baby food by its smell' game... who knew banana's smelled so bad to people! And practically no one got peaches correct! Thank you Alicia for inviting me in!

Boys will be boys | Central Ohio Photographer: Purple Platypus Pictures

2009-09-26T22:05:00.003-04:00

So the rest of the images of my nephews!

Like I said before, this was by far the best session I've had with the two of them to date. Aiden was a little charmer... just laughing and playing with me the whole time. And Niko found that green wall, and just circled the building over and over just giggling his little brains out! So cute! Wendy I had a blast with them, and I hope you love what we got :)

Where oh where oh where have I been???

2009-09-25T14:59:00.002-04:00

Dear Blog,

I have neglected you, and ignored you, and I'm really sorry about that. Please forgive me. I promise to make a big effort to visit you as often as possible.

Love you dearly,
Heather

So I dropped off the face of the earth, and feel I owe an explanation. I think I might be back now :) So my real job opened a new facility, and I actually got to move to that new facility. Exciting right? Well yeah, but also incredibly stressful! It's surprising how much you need to do and order when you're starting an office/warehouse from scratch! The hours I work also changed - from true third shift to a more second shift/third shift hybrid. And that 5 hour difference actually completely changed my routine... and I'm only just now starting to get it all sorted out. But now instead of sinking, I feel like I'm starting to tread water... and am dangerously close to swimming again, so hopefully my neglect will stop.

Oh shoot, I should post a photo!

There we go... thats attractive!

best session with these two to date! {Columbus Children Photographer: Purple Platpus Pictures}

2009-09-14T13:26:00.003-04:00

I always say that my kids are the hardest kids to photograph. And I still stand by that. But my nephews notoriously have been the next worst. Until yesterday! Wendy called me up to see if I was free to do a quick session with her youngest Aiden, and it turned out I was. Sure Olivia had to tag along, but she loves her cousins (and her Uncle Eric!) so she did really well. I haven't had a chance to go through all the images yet, because I saw this one and had to work on it that second. I just love it!

Our little men!

I'm a post-whore today!

2009-09-08T12:06:00.003-04:00

So here came a string of photos of the girls. Technically the next photo in the set is from Claires haircut, but since we've seen that, we'll continue...

237 of 365: How do you like your hair, Claire?
She'd just grin. For a while she would pet her head (she's since gotten over that) I love it.

238 of 365: size nine
Actually she's in a nine and a half. She's going to have crazy big feet like me. Olivia, honey, I am so sorry!

239 of 365: play
I lost the focus on every image of her facing me, so enjoy this photo of the back of Claires head.

240 of 365: such a goofball
Really Olivia, you are a piece of work

walk Cody, WALK!

2009-09-08T09:19:00.004-04:00

Tim surprised me on our anniversary. We went horseback riding! I love horses, and I love riding. Tim found out when I was blabbing about all that stuff when we were at the fair at the beginning of the month - and he remembered! We went to this ranch outside of Marysville, and they just had fields and fields full of horses. It was beautiful. We went on an hour trailride through the hills of that area. I loved it. Tim... well Tim was happy I loved it.

235 of 365: field of dreams

So there were kittens all over the farm, and signs that they were for sale for $10. Man I love a kitten, but my cats are making me crazy, so none came home with us. This one followed us all over the place though (he was an older kitten, there were smaller ones there too)

As well as having horses, the farm had all sorts of regular farm animals... and reindeer!

I rode Cody. Cody apparently has won awards for his jumping. He would not win any awards for walking from me... I had to constantly nudge the poor dude along (another rider joked that his name should have been eeyore) So I spent most of my ride yelli..I mean talking to Cody and coaxing him along.

Tim road Solomon, and he spent most of the ride running into bushes. Solomon enjoys eating on his trailrides, and doesn't really care what that puts his riders through. Look how happy Tim is to be sharing this moment with me :)

I love you Tim, and thank you for a great anniversary!

is that corn??

2009-09-08T09:14:00.002-04:00

232 of 365: country in the suburbs
Tim noticed a while back that the crazy next door neighbors were growing something... now we're pretty sure it's corn. The view from my kitchen.

233 of 365: Hanging to Dry
I made a second backdrop the day before Kristins Senior session. After it dried, it ended up having more white in it then I wanted, so the day of, I dyed it more... and managed to dye my hands purple (I wore gloves the first time, and forgot the second time)

234 of 365: go on without me
I wanted Kristin to walk away from me on the railroad track, because I wanted to see what would come out if I set my camera down. I think she heard me, because she looked back and was kinda like 'what are you doing??'

away to Cleveland

2009-09-07T16:38:00.004-04:00

So if you remember far enough back, in the middle of August I had to travel to Cleveland for some training at my other job. I was so thrilled for the two nights by myself in a hotel room. Honestly, I think every mom should do that... spend two nights away at a hotel - no computers, no work, no children, no husbands... just do whatever you want for yourself for a couple days. What did I do? I read and ate chinese. And that was about it. And I loved every minute of it.

229 of 365: Sookie Stackhouse, where have you been all my life??
I read the first two book and about half of the third book in the Sookie Stackhouse series while in Cleveland. I've since read the seven I had in my set, and now need to go buy the other two to read them. Its like crack!

230 of 365: You call that a reciept!?
I could expense everything I ate while in Cleveland. But the only food around was a Subway next door, and a Dairy Queen across the street. I drove around forever the second day to find anything different... and found a hole in the wall Chinese restaraunt. That proceeded to give me that as a reciept. So much for expensing that.

231 of 365: Happy Birthday to Me
I drove home on my birthday, and was greated with a rose. I'm 28 now... in case you were wondering ;)

no rhyme or reason when you're catching up

2009-09-07T15:51:00.003-04:00

The worst part about being behind in the 365 you ask? I have the worst time tying everything together into a neat and tidy blog. And I hate to make 600 posts in one day to catch up and keep everything seperate - so you get a hodge-podge blog. Again.

225 of 365: Who you lookin at?
That cat just lives on Tims lap

226 of 365: pretty princess
Claire had just started dressing up and pretending with Olivia more... both girls were princesses

227 of 365: sharing
Ask a three year old what she did that day. The answers can be funny.

228 of 365: in the name of beauty
It was hot during Jeremy's senior session. I mean HOT. Like 90+ degree heat, tons of humidity, and hiking around in the wilderness. We were nuts, but we're both pleased with what we got.

A couple of my newest favs from my seniors {Columbus Seniors Photographer: Purple Platypus Pictures}

2009-09-07T15:24:00.002-04:00

Since I just got these two wrapped up, these are my newest favs from their sets. Thanks again Jeremy and Kristin!

Danielle's Sneak Peek! {Columbus Family Photographer: Purple Platypus Pictures

2009-09-02T10:06:00.002-04:00

I met up with Danielle at Alum Creek to take some maternity/family photos for her. She is surrounded by some gorgeous boys I tell ya! Sorry I was behind Danielle! I hope you love them!!

lets start playing catch-up

2009-09-01T11:31:00.003-04:00

If you follow me on facebook, you've seen that I'm editting like a fiend! I really am too - and making a huge dent in all the sessions I've had, plus the 365. I can't believe how many days I have to post from that (to give you an idea, today is day 244... remember that when you see what number I post today!) Well talking about how far behind I am isn't going to catch me up any, so here goes!!

218 of 365: Lets go to the zoo

One of the photographers on a message board I belong to happened to come to Ohio (she was visiting from Wisconsin) and we met up at the zoo. It was a lot of fun, though my kids melted down at the sight of everyone elses food. I shoulda seen that coming though.

219 of 365: Don't even try to cheer me up

Claires napping badly. Don't come over around 1pm.

You saw 220 in the last post.

221 of 365: Pretty Portraits

Why oh why do I attempt to have sessions with the girls?? Cookies... tongues... a rubber sheep... yep makes for a great portrait of the girls.

222 of 365: Now thats a portrait!

I wanted to practice before Kristins senior session (where I knew she wanted studio pics) and for whatever reason, Olivia cooperated. Sure she was in pj's, but when the opportunity knocks, by golly you answer that door!! Here's another from the session

223 of 365: Oh what sleep deprivation does to us

Not sure why I took this image, but I do remember that I snapped it right before going to bed.

224 of 365: Thats some mean hair Lady!

Obviously from before the haircut. Luckily her hair doesn't really do this anymore.

Their Golden Year

2009-08-31T11:08:00.003-04:00

I'm so far behind on posting, it is almost rediculous (Tim pointed out that I have less then 10 blogs posted for the month of August, which really is pretty lame - I'm so sorry!)

But I had to include Mema and Pa's anniversary in the month their anniversary is in. So without a single day to spare - Happy 50th Anniversary Dick and Thelma! Here's my favs from the day...

We ate at Woodys, and the food was excellent!

The happy couple

220 of 365: Say Cheese!

Can you see the foul language on those M&M's! Completely innappropriate! Oh wait, that's Pa's first name you say? Oh, well then I guess you have to call customer service to convince them that his name isn't lewd and it's ok to have it printed (I won't have that kind of language in my home, so I made sure to eat all my M&Ms before getting back!)

Happy 50th!!! Here's to fifty more! ;)

Kristins sneak peek! {columbus seniors photographer: Purple Platypus Pictures}

2009-08-25T15:12:00.002-04:00

I met up with Kristin on Saturday for her senior portraits. This was the third time I've photographed her, and she's always fun to work with. Kristin actually got to be the first person to be photographed in my studio, so thank you for letting me experiment on you! Here's some of my favs (though there's many more!) Hope you enjoy them Kristin!

Thanks a lot!

Claire got a haircut!

2009-08-24T14:13:00.003-04:00

I think every mom struggles when it comes time to have their childs first haircut. Or maybe I just do, since my kids were baldies. But in any case, Claire was getting quite.... mullet-like. Very Joe Dirt. So we got her hair cut today. And even though I'm not caught up on the 365 on here (again) I'm going to show today's anyways, because its awesome.

We went to a place called Cookie Cutters. If you have small children, and have one near you, it is so worth it to use them! Cool chairs, televisions at every chair, and a treehouse in the waiting room. Definetly a kids dream! Claire picked the 'hairplane' chair. Her hairdresser proceeded to spray Claire down.

And then she got out the scissors, and I got the best picture ever. Keep in mind, Claire is silent. No yelling, no crying, no screaming (ever the whole time!) but when she gets surprised or excited by something, she drops her mouth open real big. I think the cold scissors on her neck had surprised her.

236 of 365: ITS COLD!

But she went on the rest of the haircut pretty uneventfully. Olivia played in the treehouse, and Claire just happily sat and watched Go Diego Go!

She even let the lady blowdry her hair! Maybe Claire is more of a prissy girl then we give her credit for (Olivia of course hid in the treehouse the second the blowdryer came on)

And she's all done! Pretty little lady... no more Joe Dirt!

one big family! {Columbus family photographer, Purple Platypus Pictures}

2009-08-24T11:13:00.002-04:00

Two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to take family images for a branch of my husbands family. There were a total of ten people and three generations. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun too! These are my favs. Thanks a lot guys!!