Feeling lost...

without my cell phone AGAIN!!! Yes, a few days ago Jack put my cell phone in the sink while he washed his hands. It is COMPLETELY FRIED! So, because of our plan... we're waiting til saturday(oooooh that's tomorrow)to replace it. If you've tried calling or texting, I'm sorry. I'm still pretty good at answering my home phone and emails though. :)

Miss "J"... Class of "09!

Yup- I'm still squeezing in those last minute senior shoots before the yucky weather gets here. This one was so fun... She was such a natural infront of the camera which made for an easy night for me.
Thanks J! Enjoy your sneak peek!

From the Weekend....

in beautiful, WARM, Arizona!
besides the shopping, eating, chatting, laughing, crying, and just hanging out with Holly... it's just soooo much fun having a full day to hang out with a bunch of women that share the same interests as you.... 15 other women with their camera's around their necks just ready to dive into anything photography. It doesn't get much better than that.
oh... but then... there were the beautiful models.... Such a fabulous way to end the day :)







Thanks for a Wonderful weekend everyone!

How Cool is this???

Okay so I'm pretty much a dork as far as trying to decorate my walls and stuff. I NEED help. So... I found these awesome wall display templates HEREand I LOVE them! Not only are they helping me pic out pics and sizes for my own walls, I think they'll come in PERFECT for my clients!
Thanks Melissa! I love em!

and yes... these got ordered yesterday.. I can't wait to hang them on my wall!

Did you know....

that I have 4 children??? AND.. did you know that I don't have ONE SINGLE Photo of all four of them together??? Sinful isn't it?!? Yes, the last time that we had family pictures done was at Target (shhhh).. (before I knew what an SLR was and knew how to appreciate great photography) over 4 years ago and 2 kids ago. Bella was not quite 18 months old. How sad is that. I have 1 picture framed of my 3 oldest kids that I took shortly after I got my first slr.....
(taken september, 2006)

I was pretty proud of myself for getting a picture of them all looking at me AND getting them in focus. The conversion is another story, but because i knew nothing about NOT EDITING THE ORIGINAL, the photo stays as is because the quality is shot after series of re-edits.
SOOOOOO... This weekend, while Cliff was gone hunting with his dad, I decided that I would try to get a picture of all my kids together. I knew it might be next year before I would get one of ALL of us, but I had to try to capture atleast my kids. My real hope was to capture something "canvas-worthy", which by what i'm about to show you, you'll see didn't happen. However, I think I got a few worth framing atleast. So here they are.... my little four....
(lots and lots of them... )



for this one, I should of put numbers on their chest. It reminds me of a police line-up and bella has been asked to turn to the left for a profile view... :D

karen - guess where these few were taken?...











We went out to this AWESOME location that i will definately be re-visiting, but let me tell you the pokey goat-head weeds were OUT OF CONTROL!











and the last one... can you tell how un-cooperative they were???

Now I gotta get some of these ordered for the wall.. Anyone wanna help me decide which ones to blow-up??? :)

It doesn't matter....

how old they are, they're still your sweet peaceful baby when they're sleeping...

Autumn...

has got to be my favorite time of the year. I love the colors and the smells of autumn...The changes in the weather...The chance to put new clothes on my kids and on myself...looking out the window at the chilly world from my cozy warm house...Baking ANYTHING...burning autumish candles (my favorite right now - Yankee spiced pumpkin)...
There's just so much that happens in the fall that puts a smile on my face.
Happy Autumn everyone!

B and some different PP..

I'm still messing with my make-shift studio which definately requires different processing than my usual. I tried to warm these up a bit more and added a little more pop...
Hmmm.... we'll see if this workflow sticks. :)
What d'ya think???

Just one...

...from a quick little re-shoot last week.

He told me....

..that he was a Pirate....and then he asked me to take his picture. How could I resist? :D

Yet another...

Senior girl!
We travelled up to boise for this shoot and had a fun time exploring different locations. I think we might have caught the last of the warm weather though! Nice timing "A"! I hope you enjoy your sneak peak!

Zoo Boise...

Yesterday was the annual first grade fieldtrip to the zoo. Jack was soooo excited that I decided to tag along and take him with me. And Bella... Soooo excited! This was her first trip on a school bus... and what kid doesn't look forward to that ?! We got there and it was so cold. I was glad that I had remembered to pack little jackets for the kids. I did however, forget a jacket for me, so I spent most of the day freezing. Oh well... it was still a good time. :)
We went in the reptile building to check things out and one of the zoo keepers had taken the boa constrictor out so he could clean it's cage. The HUGE snake was just hanging out on the floor. To my surprise, my kids LOVED it. Bella couldn't get enough of petting the big thing.
yes.. that's her petting it!

and check me out being so brave myself!!! I shot this with my 50mmm - so you can imagine how close i had to be for this shot. I'm like the "snake charmer" on the discovery channel :)

bella and one of her best little buds in a play egg shell - and sorry, but i can't remember what animal it's supposed to be from.


Last year when Haley's class went the zoo workers told their class that the penny's they had saved had helped the zoo be able to build a habitat for a giraffe and that they would be getting one soon. Well - it's finally here and the kids were so excited!

Jack's only request while we were there was to ride the merry-go-round. Well.. the thing only runs every hour on the hour so we had to sit and wait for them to come back before we left. Here he is proudly waiting with his very own dollar...

Finally! - and so happy about it!

And my favorite part of the day.... I had to ride the merry-go-round with Jack cuz he wasn't tall enough to ride himself. So... I sat carson on one of the animals just to let him sit while we rode. OH. MY. GOODNESS. I have never seen that kid so happy! He was jumping out of his pants with excitement. I had to hang onto him by the hood of his jacket so i could scoot back far enought to try to capture the look on his face.
Not the greatest - but these pictures will forever bring me joy! i LOVE them!

until next time....

St, St, St, STUDIO...

okay - so not really, but with winter just around the corner, I had to see what my new house had to offer. I tried creating a Natural-Light studio in my living room (or as Cliff likes to call it- The Ping-Pong room). We set up the backdrop stand, threw on some blankets, got a couple kids dressed and gave it a try. This house is more than twice as big as our last house, but I have to say... It does not have great light. Overall... it seems pretty dark in here. So No.. not the best light... but it will do for some rainy, snowy, windy days that lie ahead.












Maybe we'll try out a different room tomorrow with the other two kids. Wish me luck! ha!