Beth & Blayne (in the snow!!)

So... Beth had the day off today and asked me to hang out, which of course meant that it was the perfect chance to do a photo shoot of the two of them in the snow like we've been talking about for two months!

We started the day off with lunch at Baxter's (a warm Ruben... yummmm!!) and then headed to Elizabeth Park (in Trenton) to get some cute photos of the two of them playing in the snow.

It was sooooo funny watching Blayne (or Aniken Skywalker as he called himself today) try to walk through 1 foot+ deep snow that was even giving us grown-ups a workout! He would usually walk a few steps and then say "hold you" (in Blayne language that means he wanted us to "hold him").

He had a blast for the first 30 minutes or so. He threw snow, climbed on logs, walked up the bridge, etc. Then we moved to a new side of the park, and he was good for the first 10 minutes or so there playing hide and seek with mommy, but when we changed him into his snow suit, an already tired Blayne got cold and started crying, and when we asked him why he was crying he would just say, "I don't know." (I guess being sleepy and cold would make anyone cranky... even happy little Blayne)

Despite our little guy being tired, we did manage to get some cute pictures of him and Beth making snow angels.

Over all, we had a blast and got some nice pictures to remember it by!

Cowboy Blayne

So as many of y'all who are reading this will already know, I watch my friend Beth's little boy Blayne (a.k.a. Batman) from time to time, and we are BIG buddies! He is SOOOOO adorable, and of course he is my favorite subject to photograph!! I've taken pictures of him playing with playdough, painting, sweeping up pine needles, and anything else he was doing. Did I mention that he's adorable?

Anyway... around Halloween, my church up here does an outreach called "Trunk or Treat" where people from the church sign up to decorate their car trunk or truck bed with a theme and park it at the church and hand out candy to the kids that come by. People go ALL OUT... for real!! And the community knows it so this year over 8000 kids showed up!!! It was crazy!

So my life group (or small group) decided that we would do two cars and our theme would be "cowboys and Indians" since Blayne had already announced that he wanted to be a cowboy this year.

Of course I brought my camera so I could get some fun pictures of our trunk adventure. We dressed Jim's truck up like a covered wagon and Dave and Janet's (our life group leaders) truck up like an indian teepee. And all of us groupies dressed up as either cowboys or indians.

I caught some supper cute pictures of Blayne (despite the fact that he was kind of cranky, which is so uncharacteristic for him.) You can't tell me he's not the cutest kid ever! ENJOY!

Chris and Heather

These were taken during my first official photo shoot. Heather is a friend of mine here in Michigan. Her boyfriend was here visiting her for the weekend, and they were kind enough to be my guinea pigs! I was so nervous going into this because up until then, I had only done nature shots and candid photos of friends and family, but I think it went well. Heather really liked several of the pictures, and if the client is happy, I'd call it an overall success!

It was 10 degrees that particular morning, so we were all freezing, but I think it gave a nice rosiness to their cheeks!

This was such an awesome experience because I was feeling so nervous and uncertain before we left, but I prayed for confidence and creativity before heading out, and during the shoot, I kept getting great ideas for neat angles, closeups, backgrounds, etc.

Chris and Heather were great subjects too because they just acted naturally. They joked with each other, laughed, smooched, smiled, hugged, and goofed off as if I wasn't there. This made for great, natural looking photos that I am very pleased with!

Heritage Park (in Southgate, MI) is an awesome spot for photos, and I highly recommend it to any photographer in the Down River area who likes to set up shoots out of doors!

Hope you enjoy browsing these photos, and as always, I welcome your comments!

Winter Shots

I think my skill has increased a lot since my first try with the fall shots. These were taken at the same park, but at sunset. Most days up here during the winter are overcast and can be just blah, but this particular Saturday the sky was clear and a gorgeous blue! Gracias Dios por lo que pintaste!



So I have to tell the story that goes along with these pictures. Id' been dying to go out and get some pretty winter shots for over a month now, and I just hadn't had a chance with the miscarriage, the holidays and Morgan's death. So I was determined to go out last Saturday. Well... Jim and I spent most of the day going to Cabela's and Bass pro looking for a winter coat for me and some other stuff he needed (They are both about and hour from our house and not right next to each other so we spent most of our time driving!)

Anyway, when we got back it was about 4:15, and I quickly grabbed my camera and was about to head out when I felt God tugging at my heart. I hadn't spent any time with Him, He seemed to be telling me. So I wrestled with Him for a few minutes because I was afraid there wouldn't be any decent photographing light left if I didn't leave soon, but I finally gave in and read a little in Ruth and then journaled. In my journal entry I thanked him for the way He had allowed photography to be a distraction from the pain of losing our baby, and asked that He would "help my abilities and confidence to increase... and [allow] my photos bring glory to [Him] in some way."

So I headed out, and changed my mind about which park I would head to because of the little sunlight that would be left if I went that far. The whole way I was praying for enough light to get a few good shots, and... WOW... did he deliver over and above! When I got there the sun was beginning to set, casting its magnificent light through the trees and across the snow. I started shooting and ended up with some AMAZING shots! And to think, if I had left when I first wanted to I would have gone to a different park, started much sooner, and been finished shooting before the sun began it's beautiful journey down for the night! GOD IS GOOD and works in misterious ways!

Looking through these photots, I think you will agree that they do bring glory to Him for the beauty that only He could create! Enjoy! And please let me know what you think!! God bless!

P.s. Of course I had to include one of my favorite bridge! Check out the cool way the sun is reflecting off of the bottom of it! God is the master artist!

Fall Shots (my first success!)

Here are some of my favorite shots from my first outing with my camera. I took these back in the fall right after I bought my Nikon D60 (which I LOVE!!!) Enjoy!

This is one of my favorites because of the angle and the beautiful fall colors!

Check out this bridge! This is my favorite spot to photograph!!





Same bridge, different (FUN) angle!







Isn't this a neat photo of this church? It had ivy growing up the side and was just begging to be photographed!