Outing to the Detroit Zoo

It has been a LONG time since my last post because I have not had any real photo opportunities since then. (Winter in Michigan after the snow melts leaves a pretty bleak background for pictures!) In the meantime, I finally saved enough money for my zoom lens, and today was my first chance to use it outside!

Today was Blayne's 3rd birthday, so Beth, Blayne, Kristin, Collette (Kristin's sister), Anna (Kristin's niece), Titus (Kristin's nephew) and I went to the Detroit zoo to celebrate. We had such a great time! I got some precious pictures of each of the kids and some great ones of the animals too. Like always I had a hard time picking the pictures to post, so I am posting SEVERAL of them. Enjoy!

Blayne had a blast pulling his wagon!

I thought this was a cute one of Titus trying to run off at lunchtime.

This is Anna. Isn't she precious?!!

I LOVE this one of Beth and BLayne!

Titus is checking out the llamas... I mean humpless camels... what?!! They sure look like llamas to me! (Sorry you had to be there.)

Another sweet shot of Anna.

Titus and Blayne both wanted to pull the wagon, and finally decided that they could share. Isn't that cute?!!

Blayne is explaining to me that the donkey (left) says "he-haw."

I must have gotten 30 photos of the peacock while we waited for him to finally spread his tail feathers. GORGEOUS!

You should have seen this peacock follow us. Beth chased it away several times. (I think he wanted Blayne's popcorn!)

In the arctic exhibit, there was a tunnel that lead under the seals' pool.

Titus could not get enough of watching the seals swim over our heads!

The Prairie dog exhibit was neat because you could go down in the the tunnels and stick your head up right next to them! Blayne really enjoyed that!

This might be my favorite one of Anna!

Titus was not about to get too close to the geese- they might bite! (He was right!)

WAR EAGLE, HEY! Shout out to Dad and Emy who are at orientation this weekend in Auburn!

Of course I had to get the tigers too... I mean I did graduate from Auburn!

This is for my Michigan wolverine fans.

Emily and Leah (continued)

Here are a few more pictures from the shoot with Emi and Leah that I just had to share! ENJOY!

Emily and Leah

Last Thursday I got the opportunity to go out with Emily and her friend Leahto McClay Gardens (Goodwood didn't work out) to get more mock senior portraits, and I think they turned out great!

It was all very much a God-thing because, we found out at the last minute that McClay Gardens closes at 5 (just the actual garden). Due to our schedules, we weren't able to get to McClay until about 4:30, so we thought we'd only have 30 minutes to shoot, which stinks because it's $4 per person to get into the park. (If you're not familiar with McClay gardens, it's huge and requires some time walking from spot to spot to get good shots.)

But when we asked the park keeper about it, he said that he was the one closing that day so he wouldn't run us out of the garden until sundown when the park gates are closed! How cool! So we ended up shooting until 6, and got some great shoots. (Although some were a little grainy... blah!)

We definitely got our money's worth, and now I've got a great location that I'm familiar with to use if I do senior portraits for homeschoolers in Tallahassee this summer!

If you are ever in Tallahasse, I definitely recommend the gardens because there are lots of beautiful trees, brick paths with flowers and hanging moss all around, a relection pool, a lake, a walled garden, a secret garden, a small pond with a beautiful stone bench, Japanese magnolias, and so much more!

Hope you have fun checking out these fun pics! We sure had a great time shooting them! :)

Emily

Emily and I have been planning to get "Senior Portraits" of her for a while. She had beautiful ones taken by another photographer in town when she graduated last year, but unfortunately she didn't get the copyright to her pictures so she only has a few prints, and she wanted to be able to get a couple of enlargements or have extras to make a collage.
So... the long and short of it is that I told her I would take her out again to get some pictures that she could use however she wanted.

So technically she isn't a senior, but she isn't far removed from it, having graduated less than a year ago, and I needed senior portraits to add to my portfolio. (I think these will do nicely!)

We have planned to go out several days since I've been here, but something has come up every time. Wednesday, we finally went to Lake Ella (a park here in Tallahassee) just determined to get some pictures, and we had been there 15 minutes when it started raining!! Blah!! What luck!

But we didn't let that stop us. As you can see we still got some cute ones (some before the rain and some under a tree during it), and then Friday we are going to Goodwood with one of her friends and hopefully shoot several more nice pictures. (I'll post those too after the shoot!) I think you'll have to agree with me that she is gorgeous and very photogenic! What can I say?

I love my sisters and think they're awesome!

Enjoy!

Fox

Well, I am still in Tallahassee teaching mom's classes this week. Yesterday I went to Killearny Park with Michelle and Fox and got some really cute pictures.













It was definitely a challenging shoot because my subject was FULL of energy and didn't want to stay in one place very long, which meant I had to shoot fast!



I did get some great experience at getting the hard shots though! Thanks, Fox! :)

We only had about 20 minutes before he was ready to go home (it was almost naptime), but we got so many different shots-we walked (or ran rather) up the hill, played on the play ground, climbed on stumps, looked for sticks, and did other "boy" activities. :)

What a cutie! I particularly like the one by the fence and through the bars, but there are so many good ones that of course it took me forever to pick which ones to share. Have fun browsing through them!
And please post comments because they are always soooooo much fun to read!




God bless!

Charlie & Sarah

So I'm in Tallahassee, FL for two weeks visiting family while Jim's in the middle of the busiest part of the plant construction project. Last Sunday, I got the opportunity to do a shoot with some precious kids from my church down here, Charlie and Sarah. Thanks to their mom, Lisa, for loaning them out to me for a few hours to get some amazing shots!

We had such a good time, and they would do anything I asked! We rolled down hills, played in the fountain, climbed trees and frences, swang on the swings, and tons of other fun stuff!

Thanks also goes out to the Hallam's for letting us borrow their GORGEOUS yard for the shoot, which really made for some beautiful backdrops for our photos. All in all it was a great shoot, and I have had a REALLY hard time choosing which photos to post because I have sooooo many wonderful ones! (And I'm sure I won't be able to resist editing this post when I get home and can edit my photos.) Hope you have fun browsing these, and...

For those of you in Tallahassee, I'm here for the next two weeks, and I could use some more practice (and a little more mula to add to my zoom lens fund never hurts either! ;) haha!

ENJOY!!

Jenny- Bridal Portraits

Last Friday I got an awesome opportunity to expand my portfolio! Emy (a photographer friend who has taken me under her wing) invited me along to do a Bridal shoot for one of our other friends IN THE SNOW!! Emy has been wanting to do Bridal Portraits in the snow for forever ,and our friend Jenny, who was married last December, offered to put on her dress again and brave the cold so we could get some AWESOME pictures!

We left Emy's studio at about 11:30 AM and went from Park to Park shooting pictures until about 4:00 PM. Jenny was a real trooper through it all. She would tromp anywhere we thought would make beautiful pictures (even if it meant climbing through 2 foot snow drifts dress and all!) We made some in the woods, in two separate fields, and at Lourdes College (a Catholic convent/school). She was even willing to go around in her strapless dress without her fur stole to cover her bare shoulders.

Near the end, she had chill bumps all up and down her arms and her chin was quivering so much that she almost couldn't smile, but she was beautiful through it all, and, consequently, I have many great pictures to add to my ever expanding portfolio.


Muchas gracias to Jenny for being such a willing participant, and to Emy for letting me tag along and learn so much! I had a blast, and I can't wait until my next Bridal shoot, but I sure hope it's a little warmer then!