Details

Weddings are a great example of how important it is to photograph the details. I love photographing the details. They make beautiful photographs as well as memories. To me, they help complete the story.

This first photo is a close up of the brides dress. I put text on it so that I can use that as a background slide when I do their slideshow. It will also make a very nice first page photo in their album.

This is the brides dress hanging in the dressing room before she put it on.

These are the brides shoes. I think this is an important detail because it's often overlooked but important to the bride. She took great care in picking out the shoes she would wear with her wedding dress, they deserve some attention too.



This is the brides hair piece before it was placed in her hair. This is another detail the bride took great care in choosing for her special day.

Along with her own hair piece, the bride also chose the hair piece that all of her attendants would wear.

Don't forget the cute little flower girls. Their dresses were different from the bridesmaids but this bow unified them with the other girls. Besides, the bow is so cute and when else can you get away with wearing one like this?!

The programs are also a nice detail to document. I photographed one in front of the vase holding the bridesmaids bouquets before the ceremony.

And last but not least. Can't forget the rings. I placed them on top of the guest book for this photo. The shallow depth of field really makes the rings stand out. This is another photo that would make a nice cover photo or even a last page photo.

So even if you're not a professional photographer, when your taking photos don't forget the details. They will enhance the storytelling of your albums.

Expressions

Today's wedding photo just goes to show you how facial expressions can say it all.

Even though you cannot see my aunt's face, you can clearly see her expression.
What do you think they are communicating to one another?

Love it!

Wedding Traditions

So one wedding tradition that a lot of couples still do is the bride and groom don't see each other before the ceremony the day of the wedding.

Well with EVERYONE having cell phones these days, I'm kinda thinking we need to start a new tradition. The bride and groom can not communicate by cell phone before the ceremony the day of the wedding. Or at least limit their calls to each other.

This is a cute photo. But it wasn't the first time she was on the phone with her groom that day. And it probably wasn't the last either. It did make for some cute photos though.

I'm In LOVE

I'm in love with the UPS man.



Well actually I'm in love with what the UPS man brought to my door this morning.

Ta Da!

Isn't that the most beautiful thing you have ever seen? It's the canon 5D and it's my newest camera. I am so excited, my kids are actually a little tired of hearing me say that and seeing me dance around the house.

I'm off to play!

(wedding) Photo of the day

I did make time today to go through the wedding photos. However I am FAR from being done. I had to make a change to my schedule because the UNMH NICU called for a baby, so I headed down there.

Anyway, here's the (wedding) photo of the day...

I just love this photo! This was taken just before the ceremony started. My cousin is peeking through the window at her guests and groom before sneaking past the door.

Love it.

Volunteer Work

O.k. I know that I should be careful about how much volunteer work I do so as not to take away from my own family or from building my photography business. BUT.... I had to do this one. My Grandfather was in the Army, my parents were in the Air Force and my husband was in the Navy. Actually my Uncle let me know that I have at least 15 family members who served in either Army, Marines, Navy or Air Force. Wow! Anyway, on Memorial Day (perfect, right?) I signed up with Operation Love Reunited.

http://www.oplove.org/

As a participating photographer, I will book FREE sessions to military members who have orders to deploy without their families for a long period of time. I can do sessions before they leave with their spouse and/or children OR I can be there to document the reunion OR I can book a special session with the newborns upon their return. How exciting is that?!

Now let me post a few pics before I continue...

WARNING Poor, low res images below. Yuck.

It's the content that matters in these, people!

This is my husband and our oldest son, who is now 10 years old! The bib reads "Sailor In Training"


These are some signs that one of the other wives and I worked on when our husbands were scheduled to return from a 6 month cruise. They were posted at the main gate on base.

This is the carrier that my husband called home for 6 months straight, along with many more months at other times!

This is the reunion for my husband and daughter. She was only 4 months old when he left so she wasn't quite sure who he was.

Yeah, I finally have my husband home! This was a very exciting day. If you have never been to a military homecoming, even if you don't know anyone coming home, you should go. There's nothing else like it. Incredibly emotional. One thing I loved, even though my husband wasn't one of them, was that they let all the "new daddy's" off the boat first! So sad that they weren't there for their babies births but what an incredible reunion.

This is just one month after my husband returned and he was leaving again. He was trying to have fun with our son so he wouldn't be so sad that he would be gone again.

Anyway, those are some of my experiences. Now I can be there for the families who are going through it now. I'm so excited to have signed up with them.

Wedding

I've been pretty busy; I haven't had much time to start on the wedding photos yet. My goal is to devote as much time as needed starting tomorrow until they are ready for online proofing.

I pulled this one out to start the week with a daily "sneak peek" of the wedding photos.
Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

This is cute little "Miss B". She's turning ONE. I did her session yesterday.

I just love this one. She wasn't in the mood to smile. She just wanted to suck her thumb and hold big bird. So I snapped this one when she finally took her thumb out of her mouth, too cute.

We went outside to do a few too. Her dad had just pulled her thumb out of her mouth.

Enjoy the sneak peek. :)

My nephew

These photos are of my nephew. My sister is not the best at sending out photos of her kids. SO my Mom asked if I would take his photo when we were all together in Dallas this past weekend. She wants lots of photos of her grandkids, and considering that I have half her grandkids and the other two practically live with her she has plenty of photos of them. But not this punk.

So oldest grandson punk and I went around the hotel to find some good spots for photos. This is close to our room in the hallway near a big window.





The rest were done outside on a patio. So these were some that I liked. We'll see what Grandmom thinks. :)

I'm back!

Well I'm here physically but I'm not so sure about mentally. I think it will take a day or two to get back to my routine and feel "normal" again.


I was in Dallas for my cousin's wedding. I have barely started to look through the photos that I took. So I just pulled out a couple of the kids to share today.

This is my baby in our hotel room. She was the only one of my kids that I took with me.

This is the oldest of my Aunt's grand kids. She was a junior bridesmaid.

This is my niece in her crib at the hotel. She was trying to tell me to put down the camera and rescue her from the crib.

This baby boy is a cousin's baby, he has the same name as my oldest son! I wasn't the only one who adored our grandfather. :)

The last photo for today... another cousin's kid. She was getting her hair done because she was a flower girl.

Did you notice all the blue eyes?! Cute kids.

Just so you know, it will take me about a year to go through all the photos I took so who knows when you'll see me again. :)

Howdy Y'all

I'm here in Dallas today! So I'm sorry but there won't be any new posts or photos until I return home next week. See you then!

My gifts

I thought I would share with you my Mother's day gifts from the kiddos. I got to leave the house for a few hours so they could work on their gift. I did a little shopping, then I got a pedicure and then I came home to four wild kids.

In this first photo you can see the projects that the two older kids made at school. Very nice. You can't really see in this photo, but on the right is a dolphin statue that my daughter gave me. It's actually hers that she has had for a few years. I guess she thought quantity over quality! :)

The little tubes in front are lip gloss from Bath & Body that I bought for myself last week, handed it to my husband and said "Here, give me this for Mother's Day". I don't know if any of you do that, but if there's something specific I want, that's what I gotta do.

This is the gift that the kids had to work on. Daddy took all 4 kids to the grocery store, ha ha. They bought some fruit and made me an edible bouquet. So cute. They used the elephant that came with my edible bouquet I received from my parents after I had the baby last year.

It was all my daughter's idea. Hubby even bought chocolate dipping sauce for our fruit, so smart. Needless to say, the edible bouquet didn't last long.

Thanks Hubby and punks! Love Ya!

More cuteness

These photos are from Saturday's session. I had to post some more, they're such cute kids. This little baby girl is so pretty, she looks good in my sepia toned too!


This one she was struggling to lift her head but I thought it was cute anyway.

He looks like such a good big brother doesn't he?! Oh, and I love those bare feet! No need to get cute matching shoes for my sessions. I'll just take those shoes off anyway. But this was a smart Mommy, she didn't have shoes on them.

I love this photo and I thought it looked really cool with the vintage effect. What do you think, the original or the vintage?

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there. Especially my little sis, Mo who is having her 1st "human"(sorry Callie) Mother's Day. She's 22 weeks pregnant, that counts!

This is my mom as a baby. I didn't take the original photo and I also didn't do that painting. But it is my mom, Happy Mother's Day!

Cute kids!

These kids are so cute! I have barely started to go through their photos but I just had to post these. So I'm sure I'll have more to post later this week.
Little "E" was so good with his new baby sister and was so cooperative with me, they were fun!



Can you just feel the love?!

Enjoy the sneak peek Mom and Dad! Thank you for inviting me over. :)

Beautiful

Happy Birthday G!

I photographed a birthday party this past weekend for 14 year old , "G". (above on the left) She had lots of guests and quite a few of them wanted their photos on the backdrop that I had set up.

Well I've been working on getting those photos ready for proofing and I came across this one. I did not pose them so when I saw it, I loved it! They should be models right?!

Enjoy the sneak peek, your galleries will be up soon!

Having Fun

Just having some fun today with my baby! We were at a park near our home. I got a new filter for one of my lenses so I wanted to try it out. She wasn't really interested in being my "model" though. That's o.k., I like what we got!

How does that grass taste?

She loved exploring on the grass but the payground was WAY more fun for her.