The summer has officially begun!

And I'm starting it with wedding edits.

Here's one from just last evening when I was supposed to be just a guest. (But I, of course, can't help myself but crawl out onto the rafters to be able to get the shot I REALLY want.) *Psssst! Grammy! This is the one I was taking when I was just about climbing out of the loft during the first dance!*

And then there is another wedding that I actually was the official photographer at...

I tell ya, when you work in weddings, it kind of makes you feel all lovey-dovey and romantic-like. Not a bad perk for the job, eh?

Happy 3rd birthday, Miss A!!!!

I saw this type of thing on other people's websites/blogs long before Miss A was even a thought much less the bouncing and bubbly three year old she officially is today.

The idea is you sit your child down and ask them a series of questions - I suppose they should be the same questions every year but it might not end up like that for us - and then you record/observe their responses. It's supposed to be a little bit "Kids say the darnedest things" type of thing as well as really encapsulate who the child is at the moment in their lives when they are giving you responses that you would mostly never even think to anticipate from them.

Anyway, here is our attempt at the birthday video. I don't know what my expectations were but I think we turned out exactly what we were capable of. If anything it certainly is entertaining! Please pardon the bad video editing - a videographer I am not! I'll stick the the stills of weddings, portraits, and freelance work. ;)



Happy Birthday to our Miss A!!!

Would you like some cheese with that?

Yesterday D and I had the great delight to finally see the school pictures Miss A got taken weeks ago. Now, being that I've been in professional photography for over a decade at this point, I knew not to get my hopes up and had (what I feel) were very realistic expectations and hopes. Miss A might not cooperate and much less crack a smile for the photographer. She might look a little disheveled and her hair might be messed up. She might even have her picture taken right when she was mid-sentence and waxing on about the "spider-bugs" that she saw last week at our house or the "mean guy" from Toy Story that keeps popping up in her dreams at night (and landing her in D and my bed *sigh* - my poor girl!). Well, I must say... the pictures are far better than what I ever thought they would be...

We got enough prints for everyone we know would want one to have one and despite the fact that I was completely OK with and actually excited about getting a real portrait and snapshot of Miss A in all of her stained t-shirt, chatty, disheveled hair, three year-oldness, I can't say I'm anything less than pleased with the portrait that actually was turned out. I guess three years of me shoving a camera in her face and ordering her to "CHEESE!" is paying off because apparently she was one of only two kids in her class of twelve who was able to get their picture done. Way to go, Miss A!

Remember us?

This morning I decided to change things up a bit and start my day in a different way. Despite the fact that school officially ended for me last week, I'm still working at school for this whole week and then next week I'm working from home and then the weeks following that, I will be - you guessed it! - working in the most mobile way one could imagine. Anybody that tells you teachers have it easy doesn't know two things about three!

Anyway, because my days are filled to the brim and go-go-go all the time, I've been trying to reevaluate my workflow. Hitting the ground running is great but it's possible to be moving so fast that you don't realize the ground has fallen out beneath you until you believe you've traveled miles but you actually need to return to square one! I'm trying very hard to slooooooooooowwww dooooooooooooowwwwnn a little. I believe if I can do this, my overall work quality will be better versus more. So this morning, I started with a walk in Miss A's flower picking garden.

For as much as D and I really love some good landscaping, we simply don't have the time to do the fancy-schmancy stuff that we both really REALLY love. We need something that is very much no frills and no fuss. But Miss A just LOVES flowers! Our solution? Those big bags of butterfly flower mixes that they sell at home improvement stores for, like, seven bucks a bag or something. And for all of the time that we don't have to do gardening, the butterfly garden flowers don't need any of that anyway. Last year we tried it out and it worked pretty well by the end of the season and earlier this year we just added more to the mix and everything is now in full bloom! Miss A has flowers to pick for days if she wants (and she definitely does!) and we don't have to fuss with the acidity of our water or special trimming instructions. All we have to do is sit back and wait for things to be in bloom every morning! And, of course, there are always the fat little bumblebees that we have to get out the way of. They're just so cute...

It's the final countdown

If you can believe it I'm less than three weeks away from finishing out my school year!! Yahoo!!! D has a few more weeks than I do and Miss A will be continuing on with her preschooling through the summer in the three year old room. Until then? Well, I just did my first wedding of the season this past weekend and I have another one at the end of the month in addition to a painting party and all of the events of graduation for the school where I work. *BIG sigh* To say that I'm exhausted would be putting it mildly.

But just because it makes me feel just a little bit more accomplished, here are some snaps I just posted elsewhere on the web for my photography business. I have a couple hundred (yeah. seriously.) more to go but it's customary to post "teasers" for your anxious customers. They didn't turned out half bad, eh?