Wyatt's 1year photo

I had the honor of photographing some great friends and their adorable one year old son, Wyatt.  The location was at the grandparent house with a pond, willow trees and lots of leaves.  I couldn't have asked for a better location.  They are a beautiful family and Wyatt is a natural!

I loved all the photos and I hope Tracy & Brian love them as much as I do.  Here are a few of my favorites of little Wyatt of course in my new chair!

New Photo Props!

I am always on the look out for photo props.  Today I snagged two great props.  The one on the left is a little baby cradle I guess I'll call it.  I have some cool ideas with this for babies and I can't wait.  I will be painting it in the next few days to dress it up and I'll post photos when it is finished.

The rocking chair has been something I've been looking for, but it had to be something that caught my eye.  This one did it.  I love the stain on it and I really do not need to do anything to it.  This litle guy is actually going to be put to use tomorrow on a photo shoot I have scheduled.  Picture this cute chair, with a cute baby boy in the middle of fall leaves!!!  Lovin it.

Morning Frost on a Fall Day

This morning as I arose from my comfy bed and ready to get the day going I saw it....  I looked outside and everything had a thin sheet of frost on it.  It definately was beautiful, so I walked outside in my robe and tennis shoes (now that would have been a photo) to take a few pictures. 

As I was snapping away I could actually hear the frost melting on the leaves as the sun was warming things up.  It was just so pretty! 

Little Mocha and her Toy

Our little Pomeranian is already a year old and just loves playing with toys.  This is her new toy of the month and it's just her size.  She will actually throw it in the air and it's cute to watch.  Of course, she is still driving Ella crazy!

The Office (No not the TV show)!

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was working on my new office.  I am excited to show you my new furniture.  Now, your sitting there asking yourself, "where did she get that beautiful set?"  Well, a funny story, my neighbors were renting out their house and the couple were in the process of moving.  They had this office furniture (which weighs a ton) in their home office.  They were moving rather quickly and did not have the time to disassemble and take it to their new home.

So my neighbors came over the other night and asked if we'd be interested in taking it on one condition, we had to move it.  So, me being the aggressive person I am with the plans in my head said, "YES, I want it!"  Then I proceeded to look at my husband and said, "You can move that honey, right?"  Of course, my wonderful husband looked at me with such love in his eyes and said yes, but I know in his head he was thinking how the heck am I going to get this moved.  You see it is three pieces and it must weigh about 300 pounds or more.

The next day my brother-in-law came over to help and they disassembled the set and proceeded to move it to our garage.  I come walking out and said, "oh I already have the room cleaned out so you guys can move it upstairs."  If you could have seen them, they both looked at me and said, "that X*#& weighs a ton there is no way we are getting that upstairs."

So little miss resourceful started brainstorming with the guys and decided to call, you know.....Two Men and a Truck!!  They were wonderful and arrived that day to move my simple three piece desk (2.5 hours later) upstairs to my office.  Actually, they were very thankful my husband was home because it took three of them to move the hutch upstairs!!

So here is my new desk that I am absolutely loving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blue Eyed Boy

If you know me I LOVE taking photos of my grandbabies.  Aidan is 19 mos old and is such a little cutie.  Today he was just so great with me and my obession to take his photo.  I must admit, I did have to bribe a little with graham crackers and tootsie rolls.  I'm thinking a future GQ model, what do you think?

Ready..Lights....Action!!!!

That's how I feel today, I'm one week closer to purchasing my photography strobe lights.  I am SO excited I can't stand myself, well not really!  I've already cleaned out the corner in my basement where I will be setting up my studio so when the lights arrive they will have a home.   I also went out yesterday and purchased some material for a baby girl backdrop along with a matching headband and flower.  Now all I need is a baby girl to photograph.  The mission begins......

Lake Erie Park

Yeah for vacation days!  Today we went to Lake Erie park because it is known for the migrating birds.  September is really the best month and you could see thousands of hawks migrating.  As a matter of fact some of the bird watchers there said they estimated 194,000 hawks the other day flying over!  What an amazing site that must have been.  If you know me and my husband we love bird watching,  no we are not old!!!  Anyways, we are going back in November when the Golden Eagle is suppose to be migrating over Lake Erie, can't wait.

Even though we didn't see any birds today (well we did see an Osprey fly over) I did manage to get some beauiful shots of nature.



A live Bald Eagle they have at the nature center.



Studio "Before" Video

My dream has always been to have a photography studio.  I have decided to utilize the space in my basement to make this dream come true!  Now this is no easy task, my basement is a mess.  The attached video is to give you some perspective of what I have to work with.  I am sure as I start laying out how I want the studio to look that I will change it over and over until I'm happy.

If you have any ideas and would like to share them with me I would greatly appreciate the help.  Boy how I could use Extreme Home Makeover, Trading Spaces or Design on a Dime at this time!!

Thanks for endulging me!

 

More Fall Colors

Today I took another drive to capture some more beautiful fall colors.  It was so nice cruising in my car, listening to satellite radio "Love" station and carefully watching for "that" tree!  I'm sure some of the drivers that were behind me today we thinking to themselves, "get out of the way."  In Michigan these abundant colors don't last long so I want to photograph all that I can this season.

Best Pie Place In Town!!!

Fall Colors

I love this time of year when all the colors are changing.  It's a nice reminder that life is all about changes and we can either choose to accept the change or fight it and be miserable.  Change is all about growing and learning and I believe we are better for it.  That's how I feel as a photographer, if I'm not changing with the times and technology I'm not growing.

What's the most recent change you've gone through that you felt has helped you grow?

"Framed"

For those aspiring photographers out there here is an awesome web site http://www.framedshow.com/ to help you learn and grow.  I'm addicted to it as I'm sure you will be once you start viewing some of the videos.  I'm like a sponge, soaking up as much information as I can to be a GREAT photographer.  I know you will love "Framed"

HDR Image

I've always been intrigued by the HDR images I see on the Internet.  While vacationing in Florida I ran into a fellow photographer on the beach who was shooting HDR images for a magazine.  This enticed me even more to find out what this whole HDR process was about.  There is a great video that Corel has shared on HDR:  http://youtu.be/O2LBy9tBid0

So after watching this video I decided to take a journey to my backyard and see what I could shoot.  After a few attempts this is the one I liked the best.  I'll be venturing out later to try it with a tripod next.





 I also had this idea when I took a trip to the cider mill.  There was this very large tree and the roots were growing above ground.  I really liked the look of it and thought it would make a neat HDR image.  I think it is pretty cool!

These are some other cool HDR images I captured this evening.  Love them all!!!!!

 

Giveaway

Shuttermom University is having a giveawy for Dreamy Baby Props, a beanbag prop.  You definately need to enter.  Wish you all the best of luck!!


http://www.shuttermomuniversityblog.com/2011/10/giveaway-from-dreamy-baby-props/

9th Grade Homecoming

Tonight was my youngest step-daughter's homecoming.  Can't believe she is already in 9th grade, my how time flies.  I hope she has a great time with her friends and she looked just beautiful.