. . . my sister Debbie and her sweetheart Bruce were married! A big congrats to the two of them and their beautiful family. They have always been a tremendous example of a solid, strong, devoted couple. Each of them brings something unique to the table, and they really balance each other out. Way to go, guys!
It is no secret that photos are important to me. Perhaps my photography obsession in began the day I realized how few baby photos exist of me. I’ve got 3 from the day I was born, and about 2 or 3 more for the rest of my first year. There are more images of my older siblings . . . I think they must have used all of the Polaroid film up before my I was born. At about 8 years old I acquired my first camera and I’ve been making up for lost time ever since!
My Dad recently traveled to his home state of Texas. While there, he reunited with a brother he hasn’t seen for . . . hmmmm, 20 years (or more?). I have only personally met two of his siblings, and this particular uncle is one I have yet to meet. He also met a distant relative who is a lifelong photo enthusiast and genealogist (he also happens to be 91 years old and still driving!) This relative gave my Dad a disc of family photos of many generations of anscestors. Priceless!! So upon returning home, my Dad received a surprise package in the mail sent by his brother Frank. It was a family album, put together by my Grandmother! (I only met her one time before she passed away, and never really had any relationship with her). I didn’t know she even kept track of us, and yet here was the proof.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to look through this photo book with my Dad . . . there were so many images that were new to me (most of them before my time). I was floored to discover this little gem:
{Could this really be a baby photo of me? Yes! That is me at 6 weeks old with my cute 5 year-old sister Kim}
Along with many treasured photos, there were even a few homemade cards I had sent my grandma when I was a child. Wow. This photo makes me think: 1) My own babies were chubby like this at 6 weeks. 2) I always thought I was a bald baby and this photo would suggest otherwise. My babies were born with tons of hair . . . I never knew that was from my side of the family! 3) The serious-furrowed eyebrow look my kids give me can be traced back to me. 4) My Grandmother cared more about me than I thought she did. What a treasured photo!
Family is the essence of why I am a photographer. I feel such the sense of urgency to document and record life through my lens. Which images captured now will be treasured decades down the road? What stories will be remembered from the images I create? Hopefully plenty of them! Too many to count . . .
Alive here . . . and well. Sorry about the lack of posts. I have written many in my imagination, and just haven’t had the time to make them real. I have restructured my day a bit, and it means less time on the computer during primetime-kiddo-time. So far it is going well, but it means that during my work time I have to get down to business, and there’s not a lot of time left for blogging. Anyway– I have been SO excited to get these pictures of beautiful P. up here . . . enjoy!
{The front side of her postcard insert- part of her graduation announcement}
{ . . . and the reverse side including P’s favorite quote. I enjoyed designing this card.}
{Isn’t she radiant? The breeze picked up JUST as I clicked the shutter. }
Thanks to P. and her lovely sister assistants- her mom and sis . . . it was such a great shoot, and I am thrilled at how many stunning images we created! Good luck with graduation this upcoming week!!
Technical stuff: all of these shots were captured with a canon 5d, 70-200 f/2.8L, in natural light between 7-8pm (most of them in the shade with the use of a soft gold reflector to bounce a little bit of light back into her eyes). Yes, I am in love with the new lens–it is a dream. I have quickly forgotten that it weighs 3.5 pounds. 
~Amy
D. was pretty excited about turning 18 the next day, and about going to prom the day of our shoot. He was all decked out in his black tux–but he left his tie at home for a bit more dress-casual look. Then again, maybe he just forgot it? 😉
So we set off on an urban adventure. The shoot even included a few images with his lovely camaro. One really fun thing about seniors is that they are ready for an adventure, and they don’t usually have a notion of how a shoot is “supposed” to be. It makes it all the more feasible to create unique images for them, all the while allowing their individual personalities to shine through. This was certainly the case this day.
{one of my favorites: no left turn}
{Congrats D. on your upcoming graduation!! You really are a neat guy–and I appreciate your willingess to have a little fun on your shoot!}
She is young at heart. Beautiful.
She used to carry me on her hip.
I quickly grew to be five inches taller than her.
She is an only child.
I am her seventh child of nine.
She is a grandmother to twenty-two.
Great-grandmother to one.
She is an artist.
Mom allowed me to get messy with paints, pastel chalk and fabric.
She allowed me to find my way.
Encouraged me to pursue my dreams. Still does.
She managed to find patience with me and all of my sassiness.
We’ve grown closer since I’ve become a mother.
I’m beginning to come to an understanding.
I still wonder how she did it.
So glad she chose to be a mother.
Thanks Mom. I love you.
You may recognize this familiar face, as I have photographed him a few times. He just turned 2 and it was a lot of fun to document this milestone. Can’t get enough of those curly locks!!
{His big brown eyes are like melted chocolate! So sweet–}
{J. feeding the goats at the farm}
{I love this one- and the great bokeh from the new lens adds that lovely background blur!}
{Big brother is there to help extinguish the flame on candle no. 2}
{Happy Birthday big guy- thanks for allowing me to tag along on your bday no. 2!}
Busy week. Two birthdays- neither of them mine. UPS delivery. Big box. New lens. I promise to share it with DH as there is enough glass here for the two of us. Heart flutters. Shutter clicks. Bliss. Meet the newest addition to our Canon collection:
{add this baby to my camera, and the whole outfit weighs as much as a small child! I tell you, I’m going to get some major biceps toting this thing around! It is one of those lens with “zebra stripes” that mounts directly on the tripod rather than your camera on the tripod.}
And of course I did break it out of the box (within seconds of it being delivered!) and here are a few test shots:
{flowering pear 1/1250 sec at f/3.2, 200mm, 100 ISO}
{For some fun in the garage: try an impomptu photo session with the garage with the door open and your subject angled towards your new lovely light source. You’ll notice a flattering source of indirect light, and a nice reflection in the eyes!}
{Birthday mail from a beloved Uncle M & Aunt D–you made her day! Notice the new rollerblades– evidence of a recent birthday. More about this in the next post. I promise!}
{My darling A. in the kitchen. This lens works great indoors if you have enough room to move back and/or a full framed sensor. I love the bokeh (background blur) it produces! Now I’ll never have to clean up my house before taking photos!! Hah! It handles low light especially well.}
So my 5D was showing a bit of dust and I read up on how to clean the image sensor. It is a bit intimidating to attempt cleaning it, as my camera manual lists about 3-DO’s and 10 DONT DO’s for this procedure. I heard of people using those little snot-suction things (intended for infants’ noses) to blow air on the image sensor as part of the cleaning. A $2 snorter sounded like a much better deal than a $25 kit. So, I bought a NEW snorter and proceeded to clean the image sensor inside my camera. The fam knows that THIS snorter is not to be used for noses–READ: FOR THE CAMERA ONLY.
A few minutes ago A. picked up the camera snorter and offered it to me kindly, saying, “Look . . . can you snort YOUR nose?” Aaacck! Do I need a snorter of my own? Hope not! Hope I never do! It just made for a good laugh.
{Silly girl.}
So about the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point . . .
For the last few weeks I’ve been daydreaming of the arrival of the beautiful tulips, flittering butterflies and the sweet smell of lilacs on the breeze. Truth is, springtime around here has been a slow poke. One day it is 80 degrees, the next day 40 and snowing. Yikes! For good reason, the tulips have been delayed– and I am no horticulturist, but I understand that it just isn’t prime tulip season. We only have one tulip bulb in our yard and it just bloomed. It was a tulip left over from the previous owners about 4 years ago. (Go figure?) Lacking in tulips, we rely upon the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point to fill that need.
So we waited all of last week to allow a little more time for the tulips to wake up. Friday was gorgeous weather and we could wait no longer. The receptionist at the gardens said the tulips were at about 19 percent. I figured that 19% of 250,000 bulbs still adds up to quite a lot. So we went.
There weren’t a whole lotta tulips YET. If you can imagine, there will be tulips by the bushel in a week or so. I did manage to get some fun shots nonetheless, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. My mother was in town and helped to keep the kidlets in one place, allowing me to shoot away.
{My little photographer’s assistant: capturing her own piece of the tulip mania}
{Each one facing a different direction. Counting me, we’ve got the north-south-east-west covered! This is what I call “lack of posing” or “not willing to hold still.”}
{Thanks Mom for this shot of my handsome little guy and my wind-swept hair. I love M’s expression here!}
{My cutie pies at the fountain inside the secret garden. A. made a wish and plopped a coin into the water. S. did too- though her coin toss was too fast for me to capture! She asked me today with a tone of dissappointment, “Why didn’t my wish come true?” I urged her to be patient, as some wishes take a long time.}
{Welcome to the secret garden . . . I can’t show you everything inside, as it wouldn’t be a secret! I can say that I dream of having one of my own some day!}
{Mmmmm. Springtime.}
{M. crawling down the steep grassy hillside. Most kids rolled sideways, he just met it head on. Atta boy!}
{Grandma won M. over on this trip . . . he’s known for being quite the Mama’s boy, so it was a nice break for me!}
{Sweet girl- love this one!}
. . . I would run right through the door of this castle and live happily ever after. However, if I were a child I probably wouldn’t have been hired to design and paint this castle in the first place. Nevermind.
I have painted murals for about a decade now. This is my “other” job, that somehow intertwines with my photography. I do play favorites at times, and I would say that my photography is a growing business and my mural art is an established business. I think I’m just happy that the two can be coexist peacefully!
So here is the castle of all castles– I have painted many a few of them. This one was for a wonderful client- I’ve done many, many projects for them and I couldn’t resist getting my hands a bit green for this. I just finished it this past week. I drew up a design when the house was being framed and then the finish carpenters built it “just so.” Slapped (or fervently brushed) some paint on it and it came to life.
{note the mini-dragon on the coat of arms}
{My motto is: “paint the world as you’d like it to be.” For me- green grass and blossoms on trees are just right. Where we live in Utah it is just becoming green- it has been a long awaited spring!}
{opposite side of this large bonus room: this cozy corner and built-in shelves + tv cabinet}
{BEWARE THE CAVE}
{We all know that inside every cave lives a . . . }
{Practically my favorite part of the whole thing- the family’s newest pet!}
