Finally Fall and a Few of My Own....

It feels like an eternity since I shot anything for myself and blogged anything for myself.  I've missed my photog walks.  The weather here has been so horrrid, dry and crackly dead that I have been rather amiss in my desire to even enter the abyss know as "Texas Summer".

We have finally gotten some drenching, refreshing rain and along with it, some glorious temps!  It's finally fall :D

One of my favorite things about this time of year is our local pumpkin patch, "Sweet Berry Farm".  This is a simply glorious place to do family photos.  In the fall, they have beautiful patches of zinnias to pick, pumpkins to buy and paint, haystacks and goats, and the fav.... face painting!  My daughter enjoys this job and does a fabulous job.  She and the other facepainters she works with get to paint each other to show off their talents to the hundreds of parents and children that visit.

I blogged about one of my all time favorite designs Hannah showed up with one year, here.  Today she came home with some asian symbols and I just had to take some pics :)  Finally!  I shot something for me and actually blogged it the same day!!!  Shock of all shocks, I know.  It sure feels good :D

(Courage, Love, Dream)

Little steps to BIG dreams :)

I find myself in a grocery store MANY times a week it seems.  Whether purchasing food, getting refills on water (which we go through like it's water!), or picking up some kind of craft supplies; we are there constantly.

We are usually in a long line (20 items or less isn't a category I fall into very often) so I take a moment to browse.  Browse for what you might ask?  NOT the gum, candy or trinkets you ALWAYS find (especially at kid level) NOT the gossip mags, not even the diet mags (which I probably should).  My eyes are continually drawn to Better Homes and Gardens or any kind of food/product/craft magazine.  I'll even check out Martha Stewart (while I'm not a huge fan for several reasons).  Why these?  The pictures!!!!!!!  I LOVE looking at and evaluating the pics :)  I love trying to decipher "how'd they do that?" and making mental notes.  Sometimes, I'll even purchase a mag (*GASP*) and take it home,  in an attempt to replicate it of course, lol!

One thing I have noticed is that they always seem to have the main light source coming either from behind or from the side of the item/food.  I decided to play with the zinnias that we had picked at Sweet Berry Farm, and see what I could come up with.  After about 30 shots, here's the result.

Someday, my ultimate dream(?), to be featured in BHG.  Now that's a BIG 'n!  Just gotta keep taking those small steps toward that BIG dream :D

Marble Falls, Texas, Sweet Berry Farm; Stanley Family

Her smile lights up a room, his lights up hers.  They are a precious couple that have recently added a sweet little one to their family.  Some of you may remember the baby shoot that I had the EXTREME pleasure of doing just a few months ago.  Well, we decided to do some family shots this time and WHAT a BLAST we had :D

Big brother is adorable and HYSTERICALLY funny, little brother, is cute as a button and sooooo squishable.   Sunrise, the wildflowers at Sweet Berry Farm, and fall weather..... it was HEAVEN!


I LOVE capturing people in "natural" mode.  Being themselves, enjoying life, the essence of who they TRULY are.  I guess you could say I'm not your typical, studio-style, pose 'em and shoot 'em, kinda photographer.  THIS is my truest joy....

Another attempt....

I know that I will eventually understand how to set things up here. I did finally figure out how to get a pretty background, lol!!! All I need is time right? So much happening, so little time it seems. Time is drifting away... just like my precious spring flowers...... AKKKKKK!

I just finished one of the largest orders I've ever placed. It took 3hrs to upload to the print company. That's just insane! I am also finishing up processing my first paid wedding session. I was so blessed to have a precious friend offer to assist me. We had two cameras set up. One with the kit lens and one with my 50mm prime :). So far I'm pretty pleased with the way things turned out. A total of around 1,000 shots were taken! WHEW! Better to have too many than not enough :D

There's still so much to learn about all this. I'm really not a techno-babe by any stretch of the imagination and with me, everything is self taught. That translates to..... "everything takes a really looooooong time to get done!". Soooo, orders take me hours to process, hours to upload and lots more gray hair. This is the part that isn't as fun. I REALLY love shooting everything! It's just the time it takes to turn the fun into print. I don't believe that computers will ever take over our world, too inefficient. They just can't match our God-given FAST brains :)

Since it is now 12:18am (EARLY! hahaha!) I probably should shut things down. Early day tomorrow. We get to PLAY! Hoping to also be able to blog the latest thing that's affected our lives. Key word.... VAN!