Monday thoughts

Back on schedule!!!

For some reason, I have every intention of taking it slower on Mondays since my weekend is usually packed full. But somehow, Mondays end up being just as busy. This weekend was no exception, and this Monday isn't either.

Just to recap the past few days:

-Thursday - had a photoshoot with Jac for a presentation I'm doing in September at the Woodlands Photography Club. To keep it short, the shoot started off weird because we had a visitor that decided to stay with us the whole time. It really threw me off, but whatever. It's over. Jacquie did a great job and she was such a great sport through the whole thing. Here's the crew, including Susan, who helped me with lighting and documenting for the presentation.

-Friday - Met up with Emily and Raul to do a session. They were soooooo great to work with. So incredibly sweet and encouraging the whole time. I really had a great time with them and I was able to try a few things with them. I'm so sad because I remembered that I wanted to get a picture with them before the night was over, but then I forgot to do it. :(

-Saturday - This was a crazy day for us. I'll talk more about the actual wedding later when I post the pictures, but we had our own issues. I dropped my lens on the tiled floor right as the ceremony was starting (I was in a room adjacent to the ceremony, but I'm sure they heard it.) During the pictures outside, a wind blew over our light and we broke the flash. And other such incidents that made it so crazy. I think we had our highest highs and lowest lows all in one day. One of the bride's friends came up to us and wanted to get a picture of us for us. How sweet is that??? That's never happened before. So here is our picture from the craziest wedding we've put ourselves through.

-Sunday - A long day, as usual. Went to bed really late on Saturday night and got up early for church on Sunday and then I had two sessions that day. Thankfully, it worked out because they were both in the same area. The first session was for baby Lydia. She was so sweet but I don't think she was too happy that we woke her up from her nap. Poor little thing.

Then I headed out for an engagement session that started in the heights and really changed course and we ended up in downtown up in a parking garage.

(Disclaimer: Don't look too close at those two pictures because they're both out of focus!!! Oh, you'd think I'd be able to pull off an 'in-focus' picture. But for the second one, I will say that the camera was on the corner ledge of the top floor of the parking garage so I couldnt' really see through the viewfinder to focus it. For the first one.............I have no excuse. :( )

Ok, a few other random things (I feel so chatty today!)

-I have been cleaning out some things because I got a new desk and furniture and such, so it's interesting to see what I find. I found this little doohicky. It's a remote control for my laptop. Sweet! So now I can watch episodes of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' on my laptop and not get up to change episodes. As if watching tv or dvds isn't lazy enough.

-I get on food kicks. This has been my snack of choice over the past two weeks. It's an apple cut up and covered in cinnamon. So yummy! You can get fancy and pour some honey over it, or maybe just dip them in peanut butter. A few years ago when I was in Greece, for dessert we were served granny smith apple slices with honey poured on top. There may have been cinnamon, or maybe that was my own twist on it - can't remember. Yummy!!!! I highly recommend it. And the more cinnamon, the better. It has some nutritional benefits, just can't remember what. But, does it matter? Something about antioxidants or something, not sure.

-Back in February, Ashley and I headed to Dallas for an all-day workshop with Mike Colon. I've admired his work for a little while now so I was excited to hear that he was coming to Texas. During the course of the day, he would use people to just pose for him while he took some pictures to show different things, like settings or whatnot. Just to show the differences betwen one thing and another. Since I was sitting right in front of him, I ended up being on the of 'oh-so-lucky' people to have pictures taken of me and then broadcast on the very large projection screen in front of a room of about 100 or so. Nice.......... Well, I figured people were getting bored with the same old pictures so I started making faces when he took the pictues. Seriously, I don't know why i did this. I don't have a copy of those pictures, but afterwards I got a picture with Mike and asked him to humor me in re-creating the silly face I made. For those of you that know, does this really sound like me? To actually want to have my picture taken? Don't think so. And this is the face I made in front of the entire room that was then shown on the large screen. Why, oh why???

-I'll be out next week as I'm heading up to College Station for a week long class at Texas School. I can't wait to study with Bry Cox for the week and learn some stuff.

Ok, I'm out for the day. I have so much to do and half the day is gone already. Oh, and not sure if you've noticed, but I made a few small changes to this layout. Can you find the changes? :)

Christy and Malcolm's wedding day - second half

Ok, so here are the rest of the shots from Christy and Malcolm's wedding. These were all shot at the Hotel Derek. There were several non-traditional parts to the reception, including not having a bouquet toss, not having a garter toss, and not having an exit. So it gave people more time to just party and boogie.

Take more pictures

This is an article from the magazine 'Real Simple' that I found on someone else's blog. It's a great read and I wholeheartedly agree, but not just for monetary reasons. This is the reason I do what I do. It's important to preserve those memories for your grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on.


Note To Self
Get Professional Photos of Your Children


I’ve never forgotten an invaluable piece of advice that I heard from an older friend right after my first child was born. She told me, “One of my greatest regrets about my children’s childhoods was that I didn’t have more professional pictures taken.”

“You didn’t take many pictures?” I asked.

“I took tons of pictures,” she said, “but the fact is, professional photographs are so much better than even the best snapshots.”

I absolutely agree—professional photos are better. And keeping her advice in mind, ever since my daughters were born, I’ve been zealous about getting their photos taken professionally at least once a year.

While it’s a lot of fun (and also a pain) to take pictures myself, it’s terrific to have some pictures that are truly excellent. These photos don’t take the place of the on-the-spot pictures that I take myself—I still take scads of photos at birthday parties, first days of school, on the slide, with a popsicle—but these pictures memorialize my children’s childhoods in a different way.

Plus they make great family gifts. I can never figure out a good present for the grandparents and great-grandparents, but they always love to get a really great photograph—especially the relatives who don’t often get a chance to see the girls in person.

Also, research shows that one way to boost your happiness is to reflect on happy times, and looking at photographs helps keep memories more vivid.

It’s a splurge, of course. Professional photos aren’t cheap.

However, I figure that the money I spend on these photographs will strengthen family bonds, enhance happy memories, and capture the fleeting moments of childhood. They give me more pleasure than practically any other purchases that I make. That strikes me as pretty good happiness bang for the buck.

A friend’s family had another great photography tradition. For her whole life, at every milestone, her parents took a picture of her and her brother sitting exactly the same way on their front stoop. It’s fascinating to see them change through the years. Along the same lines, the artist Nicholas Nixon took a photograph of his wife and her three sisters once a year for 33 years. The collection of these photographs, The Brown Sisters, is riveting.

Getting professional photos take is a great example of the tiresome fact that happiness takes thought and effort. These photographs are easy to arrange; in the scheme of things, not terribly expensive; contribute greatly to our family happiness—and yet it probably never would have occurred to me to do it if my friend hadn’t suggested it.


Rubin, Gretchen. REAL SIMPLE. http://simplystated.realsimple.com/life/2008/03/unforgettable-a.html
Mar 3, 2008.

Christy and Malcolm's wedding day - first half

We' d never shot at this church before, the Co-Cathedral Sacred Heart in downtown, so it's always an exciting adventure. We have to figure out where everything is, what the rules are, etc. One thing we discovered is that the bride's room is the size of a small closet. So this was kind of........different.
Christy and Malcolm keep it real. They're so laid back and easy going and it made for an easy night.




I'm not sure if you can tell how small this room is. To my immediate left is another bridesmaid and the bride, and that's it.

Oh, isn't he just darling?

Moments before the ceremony. The bridesmaids and the flowergirls were waiting for the ceremony to start. The bride is still in the room with her maid of honor, waiting to be called out.

Meanwhile, the bride and her sister are hanging out in the bride's room. They seem to be calm......

I wanted something a little different of the ceremony. The glasses had some beautiful stained glass on them, so I wanted to try and use them. I wish the opening was just slightly bigger, but it works anyways.

More to come..........

Wednesday Chit Chat

Missed Monday's thoughts again. Oh well.

I fixed the link to yesterday's link about another's misfortune. Thanks AK for pointing that out.

I went shopping today. It's the kind of shopping where I'm buying things with money that was returned to me because I returned another item, or using gift cards and such. I don't let those things go to waste. No, sir.

After leaving New York and Company, I realized that everything I got fell in the neutrals category. Or earthtones. What's the difference? Educate me.

Browns, blacks, and beiges.

I also had a tendancy to go for drapey things. Lots of drapey stuff. Loose and drapey.

I can see it now: at them most unsuspecting moment, Stacy and Clinton from 'What Not to Wear' are going to pounce on me and starting breaking down my wardrobe.

"Do you think you're a greek goddess or something with all this drapey clothing?"

Good grief, I can just see it happening.


I had dinner with some friends tonight, and dagnabit! I just realized I forgot my camera! Seriously, I'm a photographer??
A&B just got a new dog so I had to go meet her. And also catch up with them. We had the greatest, simplest dessert. And not bad for you either. It involves meling a fudgesicle, adding peanut butter and cool whip, and stirring. If you put it in the freezer a little bit, it might look like ice cream or mousse or something. It may sound weird, but it was surprisingly good.

Another's misfortune

Aside from it being Tax Day, it seems others are having rough days. Check out this guy's blog. That would really stink.

Read this story

I'm a blog addict, I admit it. But I like keeping up on other people's lives.

This is a good one. Go read Levi's latest blog entry from his tour.

Holy cow, can you believe it??

Catching the Weaver fever!

Ok, I know that's a cheesy title, but I didn't make it up.

Meet Levi Weaver.

Yes, you've heard him mentioned before because he has graciously let me use his song on my website (go take a listen real quick) He's on tour right now so I wanted to make sure to catch him when he came to Houston. Aside from being a fan and a loyal supporter and a avid concert-goer and (insert reason here), I also wanted to go and shoot more low-light situations since I often find myself in such a situation. I'm working on steadiness and lighting and other highly technical stuff that is just waaaay too complicated to even touch upon in a blog (whatever!)

The concert was great, of course, because most of the people there were fans and/or friends so Levi played any song that was requested. He also included stories with each song. I always like when artists tell the story behind the song, either in concert or an interview or wherever. I like to know how the concept developed into the song. Their narration really helps me out because I have to refrain from questioning the artist to death. Inquiring minds want to know, sorry.

And for those of you that are going to go buy the cd (Go to CD Baby now!), there is a song on the first one with my name it. No, it's not about me (thank goodness) and it's generally not a song that you would want written about you. But, as I told Levi, I would much rather have this song than the other hideous Michael Jackson song from the 80's. Don't even hum the tune where I can hear you.

I was just playing around with some presentation ideas. Nothing fancy.

And to help fulfill my goal of getting a picture with each person I shoot, here you go. Holy cow, I'm short.

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