Pet Photography

 I've started something fun, 

it's a little different, and I keep thinking, "Am I really doing this?"

Pet Photography

We are renting and can't have a pet in our house, which makes me sad. 

Super sad. I want a dog SO bad, so does Kelsey. 

Doing this gives my "pet thirst" a little quenching. 

Check out the cute pups. 

Morgan

Oreo

Taya

SO cute!!

Delivery Pictures

 My friend asked me take pictures of her delivery. 

It was such a fun experience. Especially since I haven't delivered for awhile. 

(Did you know we are trying to adopt?! Read about it here) 

I was in contact with my friend all day, she was progressing slowly. Which made it hard to figure out what time I should get there. The hospital were she delivered was about 45 minutes away, so I really had to plan. 

But I got there in the perfect amount of time. 

Enjoy!

Lazy Sunday

We had a lazy Sunday a few weeks ago. 

Kelsey and I had some fun.

I am realizing how big my little girl is getting. 

I love her little freckles.

I seriously love her.

We had a great time taking these. I want to always remember her little self.

I have been doing some beaded embroidery which has been fun. 

I made the headpiece, along with other ones. 

It's a fun new craft I'm trying out. 

This is my true little girl. 

Macro Tubes

I was watching Sarah Striplings creativelive broadcast

(If you haven’t heard of creativelive, it’s awesome and you for sure need to check it out!)

She is a wedding photorapher and takes amazing pictures of the wedding rings.

She had a question about macro tubes to take place of a macro lens. I remembered I had macro tubes!!

($15 macro tubes. They are so fun!)

My orange tree is in blossom and smelling amazing, which I am appreciating as well as the bees.

All of these pictures  are barely edited. I lightened them up, that’s it!

The macro tubes I have need to be manually focused,

so it is difficult. But fun!

The above is my favorite.

Seriously, it was so fun taking these.

Michael and Branae

My friend, Amy, asked me to be a second shooter for a wedding.

It was so fun to take the couple bridal pictures. 

The wedding was super stressful, but we got rewarded with soft serve ice cream...

totally worth it. 

Enjoy a little tidbit of Michael and Branae. 

These are my pictures, 

Amy, has so many more amazing shots. 

Go check them out, then hire her!

Wedding Shoot

Here are some shots I got of these two love birds.

I am learning so much and hopefully improving

These two are a super fun couple

Wedding

I have been helping a friend take pictures lately, 

we have been having a blast together. 

I have been learning a ton. 

She gave me the opportunity to help her with a wedding. 

Of course, I said I would help, 

even though the ceremony was outside and it was 110 F. 

In no particular order:

THE WEDDING 

I have decided I am not a big fan of shooting weddings, 

because of the stress involved.

But I still had a great time.  

Brooke--teen shoot

I had the opportunity to take pictures of this sweet little lady. 

Yep. 

She's 13. Just barely graduated 8th grade. 

We had a fun time together and I hope to be able to take more pictures of her soon. 

Portrait Thursday

I am trying this new thing. 

I want to take better pictures. 

Not just in general, but me. 

I want to learn how to pose and become more photogenic. 

My sister, is super photogenic, this is not a family trait. 

I do have, apparently, this chronic disease though. 

I close my eyes, almost every other picture. 

I will call it the 

Chronic Eye Shutting Condition.

or CESC, for short. 

But hopefully, on this journey I will over come CESC. 

Starting with this picture, 

one can only grow right?

Photography Hack

I think many of us are aspiring photographers. Just admit it. 

But let's be honest, 

who can really afford a backdrop?

Seriously? 

They are like $100-$300. 

That's just for the backdrop, don't forget about the flooring, 

and the baseboards, and the lights, blah blah blah.....

The list is long....

Well, to make this long story short, I was at the dollar store the other day, 

and well I found these...

Contact paper! Apparently, people use this for lining in cabinets and such,

but the clear stuff, I use for laminating. 

There is so many uses for contact paper!

I have seen wood print contact paper at WalMart too, but $8...

GA! I'm so cheap. 

Anyway, I saw this and my brain got turning. 

I remembered I had this roll of paper.... I know!

(Oh you guys are going to love me!!)

I'm going to make some backdrops. 

Oh yeah!

I stared with the edges, and lined it up as best as I could. 

If you just leave the contact paper on the roll and pull the flimsy white stuff off slowly, 

you shouldn't get any bubbles. 

Just go slow and a few inches at a time. 

Then I went down the center.

All done! 

Here's the rundown:

12 rolls of contact paper

White Paper on hand

which made 2 backdrops

and 2 flooring drops

Total: $12

I just saved myself over $500!

I call that a win.

Here are the backdrops in action!

Please excuse what my daughter is wearing and her hair, oh, and the rubber band.

I let her get dressed by herself, and I was too lazy to tame that wild mane!

See how awesome! I don't have any baseboards, but I just couldn't wait to show you!

Looks pretty good right?

If you look closely you can see where the pattern doesn't line up, but come on $3??

There is a downside to them, 

but I think it would be the same with professional backdrops, 

they need to be completely flat. 

As you can see by my daughters feet, 

that is where the tile changes to carpet, so there's a tiny bump. 

I don't find this a huge deal for what I paid for them.

Also, the light green backdrop, 

if the background is in focus, 

you can see the lines, where is over laps. 

Again, I don't find this a big deal, I'll just blur the backgrounds!

Easy!

My 1st Portraits

You might remember this post about my new lens:

Well, I got to take some portraits the other day, 

and I had a blast! 

I think she did too. 

I heard Sheri talking with her sister, 

saying she looked hot in the pictures. 

So I guess, job well done!

I didn't get paid, for this, I am just learning.

I am just experimenting with this new lens, 

and gaining experience. 

Here are some before and afters:

 

I really didn't do much editing, 

I, personally, am not a big fan, 

of extremely edited pictures....

At least for portraits. 

So what do you think of my first try?

No I have not dropped off the face of the earth. 

I was doing this...

We had a great time and I think the girls did too!

p.s. I am also working on getting inventory up for a huge show. 

p.p.s I am working on Halloween costumes!

Is it that time already?!

p.p.p.s I have some other awesome things to show you!