Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Photo Shoot: Alexis & Zayne

Over the past weekend I got to do a photo shoot of my friends 2 kids. We went to Loose Park on Saturday and spent 2 hrs there taking tons of pictures! I really liked this park it was beautiful and a great place for pictures. The kids did a wonderful job and we all had a great time. This was great practice for me and I really enjoyed it. I spent Monday evening editing them and let me tell you this was tons of fun for me. I was up so late working on these but it was worth it.
I'm only posting a few pictures on here b/c if I had to choose many more I would just put them all up....And that would be 128 pictures too many for my blog. LOL







If you would like to see more from this shoot. Please visit my Facebook Page.


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

I Heart Faces Challenge - White

This week over at I Heart Faces the challenge is all about the color "White". No black and white photos but just focusing on the actual color. I was having a hard time trying to think of what I should do for this challenge. When I was out doing a shoot on Saturday I took this picture and didn't mean for it to turn out this way, but once I got it on the computer and bigger I love how this actually looks. I thought it would be good for the challenge this week. So here it is......




Monday, August 29, 2011

Photography Assignment: Trees

Over the weekend our Photography Assignment was to shoot "Trees". When I was out this weekend I was looking for the prefect picture of trees for this assignment.

This was taken at Loose Park.

I did a photo shoot this weekend at Loose Park. This was my first time at this park and I was amazed how big it was and  very pretty. I got some greats shots here. I will be posting later once the editing is all finished!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Let the Weekend BEGIN!

I hope everyone had a great week, but now it's time for the weekend to begin! This week has been alright but I'm sure glad it's Friday. We actually have a pretty booked weekend but it should be fun.

Let's see what we have on the agenda for this weekend.......
Tonight we don't have much going we had a few errands to run but other then that a night at home.
Saturday I'm doing a photo shoot with a friends kid then that night we have a birthday party to attend.
Sunday we are getting up and heading to the The City Market. Neither Shane or I have been there so I'm very excited to go and check it out. During the afternoon I'm taking my nephew out and doing a photo shoot for this 5th birthday picture. Then we are heading to the T-Rex Cafe to celebrate his birthday. This was our gift to Lexan to take him to explore the T-Rex Cafe. It should be fun!

I'm really looking forward to both my photo shoots this weekend. I hope I do a good job. Please watch for pictures as I edit and post them.

During the weekend I will be on the look out for things to do for the photography assignment and challenge.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Lexan's 5th B-Day Party

My nephew Lexan turned 5 on August 23rd. It's crazy to thing he is already 5, wasn't he just born yesterday! LOL. Last weekend was his birthday party at Chuck-e-cheese. He had a lot of fun there! My sister asked if I would take pictures at his party, well of course I will! I had fun getting pictures of his birthday. It was super hot in there with me running around and just a lot of people, my face was so red and I was sweating (it was gross!). But I survived and had a great time and got some good pictures of his party. I took over 100 pictures but I wanted to post just a few on here to share.

This weekend I'm going to take Lexan out and do a photo shoot for his 5ht birthday! I'm very excited to do this he should be such a ham and have fun too. After the photo shoot Shane and I are taking him to the
T-Rex Cafe to celebrate his birthday. This is our gift to him. I wanted to do something different for him rather then buying toys or clothes. This cafe looks like fun and he loves dinosaurs so he should have fun!

This was his balloon for his b-day table.
Lexan & Taylor just came down the slide together.
                                     He was having a blast on this! I love his face in this picture.
                                    Yes he did this face just for the camera. He's such a little ham!
Make a wish birthday boy!
Birthday Boy!

                      He wasn't too sure about Chuckie. But he did good and got a few pictures with him.
What is a party without cake on my nose....LOL  
       Lexan & Mommy in the ticket machine getting lots of tickets. I believe they got over 1,000 just in there.
Playing games
                                  Present time! Look at his face! He was so excited for that game.

Lexan had a great birthday and got lots of goodies. It was a fun day for him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXAN!!



Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Photography Challenge: Shoes

Over the weekend our photo challenge was to shoot "Shoes". I was thinking a lot about what shoes I could use for this challenge. I thought that all my shoes were boring and would be no fun to shoot. So while at my nephew's birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese I looked down and seen my sister had some bright crazy shoes on. I decided to take a picture of those and use that for this shoot. She is one to wear all kinda of bright and crazy shoes.

So here is the photo for this challenge!

I look forward to seeing what new things I can shoot this weekend!


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Photography Assignment: Joys of Childhood

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope every ones week started out great. My week started out slow...I was so wore out from the weekend and had no energy to focus on anything. Today is a little better so hopefully the rest of the week will be good.
Over the weekend our Photography assignment was shooting "The Joys of Childhood". This assignment was perfect for my weekend b/c I was spent Saturday around kids all day long. We went to Chuck-E-Cheese for my nephews 5th birthday party....I took lots of pictures (will post later this week). Then after that we had another friends birthday party and there were 3 babies there! I love taking pictures of babies they are so fun!
So with all the pictures I had taken over the weekend of children the one that I had to submit for this assignment was just so adorable!

                                         This is Harper and her smile in this picture was just amazing!
This is a great picture for this assignment. Capturing baby smiles are priceless and will always be a joy to look back on!

Our Challenge for the weekend was shooting "Shoes" stay tuned for that post.

Also I will be posting pictures from our funfilled weekend so be on the look out for those.


Monday, August 22, 2011

I Heart Faces Challenge - Pets

I decided to starting entering more Photo Challenges so I can practice more of my Photography. I found this site off a girls blog I read daily and thought I would check it out and see what fun things I can do for these challenges.

This week at I Heart Faces is all about Pets.

This photo was taken a few weekends ago of Kira dog. She was so sleepy and this position that she was laying in was very weird. So I had to capture a picture of her!

I thought this picture would be perfect for the Pet's challenge. 





Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Photography Challenge: Toys

Last week our challenge from my online photography school was to shoot Toys. We don't have toys just laying around the house so I used Shane's Bobafett action figure he had. This was actually a pretty fun challenge taking pictures of toys in everyday life. Shane actually was having fun with this as well he ended up taking some pictures and giving me ideas on what to do.
I look forward to doing this weeks assignment and challenge that they give us. This is going to give me lots of practice and that's definitely what I need to get better.






Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Book: Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories

I have decided to give my House of Night Series a little break. I did finish Hunted and it was really good!
I decided this because I need to focus on my wedding book because I have a wedding shoot in October. I need to focus my attention a lot on this book so I can learn lots of new and fun things for the wedding, and if I'm reading my series that WILL NOT happen b/c I love those books and can't put them down. So this week at the store it was very hard for me to not buy the next book in line, but I did it!

A little about the wedding I will be doing....A friend of mine suggested to someone she knows for me to do photography at her daughters wedding. Of course I was very excited when she asked me to do this but I am also very nervous. This will be my first wedding and I hope I do a good job for her. The wedding is in October of this year and I will just being shooting for 2 hours for her. It's a very good start for me to get into shooting wedding photography and I'm sure I will have such a good time. I'm really looking forward to it but again also very nervous.
When I was asked to do this wedding I started searching for a good wedding book to read and get ideas on what to do for wedding photography. The book I finally decided on got really good reviews so I'm looking forwarding to reading it!


Here's an overview of what this book is about.....
This full-color book from acclaimed professional wedding photographer Glen Johnson not only teaches you how to take memorable photos, it also shows you how to start a wedding photography business. Packed with great tips and savvy advice, this new edition helps you set up efficient work flows, choose camera equipment, manipulate images, make impressive presentations, and launch smart, photo-based marketing strategies to build your business. Best of all, it's loaded with new, superb photos that illustrate photography techniques.
  • Shows you how to set up and capture beautiful photos, posed or candid, in all kinds of settings, for weddings and other special events
  • Offers practical marketing strategies for building your own photography business, including how to build a fantastic Web site that attracts clients
  • Covers current camera equipment and accessories, post-shoot digital darkroom techniques, digital editing software, and how to print your images successfully
  • Gives you invaluable insights and tips from the author, who is one of the country's top wedding and special events photographers
Capture better pictures of some of life's most memorable events—and build a successful photography business—with this indispensable guide!

Stay tuned for wedding pictures in October as I shoot and edit them. I'm looking forward to seeing what fun ideas I can do for her special day!

If anyone has any tips or ideas for me for this wedding please feel free to share with me! I need all the help I can to make this a wonderful photo shoot for the bride and groom.


Monday, August 15, 2011

Photography Assignment #1: Silhouettes

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a great weekend and I played around with my first assignment for Photography. I mentioned last week I wanted to start being more involved in Assignments from the Photography School I signed up for.

So here's the first one.....

This weekend the assignment was Silhouettes. This was challenging for me but I got one down I could share that I was happy with. I do plan on practicing more with this technique as it could be very fun once I get the hang of it!

                                                   Here is my photo for my first assignment

As I was playing around with this technique I took some other pictures that I thought came out very nice. So I thought I would share those as well with everyone.

Kira dog enjoying looking outside

This was taken Sunday evening. I thought the sun coming through the trees was an awesome look!

I still have a challenge to do from the weekend assignment of photographing "Toys". I'm planning on doing some pictures tonight of that. So stay tuned for a post of those!



Thursday, August 11, 2011

Photography

I have mentioned before that my goal this year it to get more practice with Photography. This has become a huge passion of mine and I really would like to pursue this farther as a career. Right now I'm not able to afford classes so I'm going to do my best learning things on my own, reading books, getting tips from people....anything that can help me!
A while back I signed up for a free online Digital Photography School. I haven't really done much on this site expect look around. They send me weekly stuff with new tricks & tips and lots of other things. One thing they do send me are assignments and challenges for the week/weekend. I have decided I want to start doing these so I can learn different things. As I do these assignments and challenges I will be posting on my blog for everyone to see and yes I would love feed back on them. The first assignment I'm going to try is called Silhouette, which is is, a darkened featureless person or object in a picture. With the proper use of light, they can make striking images. Remember, this is silhouettes, not shadows....and the first challenge I'm going to try is shooting "Toys"....yes toys like in little kids toys. I don't have any toys at home but I'm sure I can come up with something for this. They also said you could use your Hobby or Sports. I'm sure something around our house will do..I'm sure Shane has some Star Wars guys around I can take shots of.
This should be fun and interesting to see what new things I can do and experiment with. I'm really looking forward to doing more with Photography. I love pictures and everyone has to have pictures they are the best memories!
For more practice I have friends with kids that I can take out and do shoots with. Little kids can be so much fun to shoot. I do have a few shoots this month I'm going to do. It will give me some practice and I will love doing it! One shoot is I'm going to take my nephew out and do his pictures for this 5th birthday! Little man is growing so fast. Another shoot is a friend of mine I'm going to take her daughter out, she is 8 and she will be a lot of fun to take pictures of. Please watch for these pictures to be posted as I take them.
I also thought I trying to find some blogs that do photography stuff weekly like photo challenges or anything other stuff and getting in on those. If anyone knows of any please let me know. Any and all practice would be great for me!

Please be looking for new pictures post as I play around trying new things!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Mexico Time Coming.....

I don't think I have mentioned yet that in September my husband and I are heading to Mexico for our 1 year wedding anniversary.....Holy Moly I can't believe it has almost been a year!

I'm so looking forward to this vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We currently leave in just........

39 Days!

We are heading out on Sept 17, 2011 and will return on Sept 23rd........I can't wait!!! 
This vacation is much needed for both of us!


Friday Storm Rolling In.....

I know I know I'm a little late on posting these. I'm not sure what happens to my time it just gets away from me so fast these days.
I'm not sure if everyone got to see the storm that came rolling in Friday morning around like 7:15am.....It was pretty crazy seeing the storm clouds and how fast they were moving. I took the dog out like I do every morning and made her come back in so I could grab the camera and capture this storm coming in. It was just too cool not to take pictures of it. From the time I went out and the time I came in which was just a few minutes the storm had covered our area it was just crazy how fast it was coming in. It obviously didn't last long I think by the time we got to work at 8am it was gone and the sun was shinning. Here are a few pictures that I took of  this storm. I personally thought the clouds look neat. Plus see the sun shinning and the dark clouds rolling over it. It's just amazing how weather can act. :)

Something is a brewing.....


 This I thought was crazy it looks like a blanket getting ready to cover the blue sky up.