Wedding in Frisco

Kimberlea Bass (Kimberlea Bass Photography) asked me to join her in photographing a wedding in Frisco, TX this past weekend. She told me that the wedding would be featured in a 6 page spread in "The Knot" magazine. I thought that was way cool! Anyways, I just love Kimberlea so anytime I get to work with her it always ends up being so much fun. Kimberlea told me this wedding was going to be a huge wedding. Well.....huge is an understatement! Just look at the pics! WOW! It took my breath away.
Overall, the weekend was great! We had P.F. Chang's on Friday night. We got to see the reception hall transform into this wonderland of 10,000 roses! Oh the smell! The smell was wonderous! The entire night was perfect.
I also shot some film. One roll of film will be cross-processed - meaning the colors will be all "crazy" and fun!

Anyways I did get a chance to shop at IKEA while I was in Frisco. Love that store! I bought a bunch of Christmas presents at Ikea. Doug & I want to make a trip down there to shop!

The light was constantly changing:






Check out the dance floor!


That's a lotta shrimp!


The lighting "god" - he was the mastermind behind the lighting. His nickname is "Oz" - makes sense!! ;-)


This is the mom of the groom. Love the light!


The wedding guests were having a blast!


One of the lead singers in the band got down with the crowd and really got them excited! Love this capture.


Some of the wedding guests got on stage with the band "Icehouse" - yes some of the wedding guests were a little "happy" lol!


Kimberlea and I cannot be at a wedding and not have fun! We are doing the "water sprinkler." Yes, we are nerdy photographers but do we care? Nope! We are having fun!!


I love this pic!


This is the furniture for the cocktail hour. It was custom made for the event.


All of the tables had huge floral arrangements!


Look at all these food signs!! That gives you an idea on how much food they had!


The bathroom stalls!


More bathroom decor!


Even the towel holder was decorated!


Bride & Groom - just married!

Homework.

Sometimes it's hard to get homework done when you have kids. One of my friends from school, Duane, asked me for some help with "finding light" for our photo I class' homework. So.....I told him we could run to my studio and just play with all the lights in there. Since we both have kids and going to Dickson street is out of the question - we goofed at the studio. I took out my alien bee and we used the honeycomb grid and just played with the power on it, etc. We also found my little Lowe's clamp on lights and goofed with those. The kids were SO hyper so we dressed them up as angels. Good and bad angel. HA! Anyways, Duane took those for his class project. I had my digital camera so I snapped a few. Too cute! I love the light!

Sexy shoot, updates, life!

So I did some sexy Halloween photos on Friday night. It was a blast! I love the red wall at the studio - sooooo hot!!! hot hot hot!!!

My eye is healed.......FINALLY! I thought it would never heal up!

Today was a wild day! I went to class, worked on an article for a local magazine. Meeting with another magazine tomorrow to work on more photo projects.

Booked another wedding through Janet Hudson-Schroeder for May 17th in Ft. Smith. I'm all excited! Love shooting weddings but love working for other photographers :-)

I'm changing my entire website to feature boudoir work only. I may have a miscellaneous section on the site. I photographed a boudoir this last Sunday and booked another one. I've had 2 more inquiries as well. Word of mouth is great! Keep passing my name along ladies & gents! I LOVE to photograph the boudoir and I have such a blast photographing it! Too much fun!! YAY!

This week has been hectic already and it's only Monday! Midterms this week and next. I have more dark room stuff to do. This week I'm making 8x10's of the texture project that we did. I'm having a hard time with this "basic" stuff but it's teaching me patience and making me re-think shooting and the process it goes through. Thank God for digital because if the world was still entirely film - I might scream! lol!

My sweets took me out to eat tonight and I had deep fried corn nuggets that were so out of the world, I'm ready for more!

I'm FINALLY getting my hair done next week with Missy. She's an amazing stylist and my hair needs help!!! We're doing color and cut. I love & hate my curly hair so she's gonna help it! She gave me an awesome consult. She waxed my eyebrows today and that needed to be done, too! Whew - I'm so behind on everything! :-)

Showed my sweets his other anniversary present that is in the making and he loves it! I'm designing a wedding album for us and he loves it!

This thing called life.

I was looking thru old photos. I have found all kinds of stuff! Here is one of my friend Kristen. Crazy what you find when looking thru old folders and discs.

I need to print up several huge prints for the eye doctor. I told him he needed something to hang on his wall - there's nothing on his waiting room walls!

Tonight is the ONDA photoshoot. Sexy Halloween chick. Should be fun! I can't wait! It's been a whole month since the last shoot. This is down to the wire - last minute!

My eye is about 85% better. It's almost completely healed.

I have to do dark room stuff tomorrow. I guess I'll be on campus for awhile. I also have to study for World Lit and Geology lab mid-terms. Sigh.....

Dog needs to get to the groomer tomorrow before I start spraying Febreeze on her! HA HA!!

I got to see Doug for lunch today. I brought him Braum's. He was so happy to see the food and to see me!

I went to David Adams jewelers today to get my wedding band and engagement ring saudered (how do you spell that?!?) together. I'm thinking of having stones out of some old jewelry of mine placed into other jewelry. I may bring my old stuff for the jeweler to look at and give me estimates and ideas on new jewelry from the old stuff!

I need to get my ears pierced. I did some trade out with Dustin at Brainstorm Tattoos and I need my ears pierced. There's some diamond earrings I want for Christmas. *hint hint* Doug! he he he he.......well actually Doug was showing them to me.

Amelia gets to celebrate Antonio's birthday today at his bday party. Oh my gosh - I need to go buy a present! lol! I gotta run and do that!

Anniversary & more.

Colleen & I at Strutt for a Mutt

Strutt for a Mutt

Strutt for a Mutt


So Doug and I will celebrate our 1 year anniversay on October 7th.....we exchanged anniversary gifts already! I have to be out of town for our anniversay, shooting a wedding that will be featured in the Knot - cool huh?

So I bought Doug a Kenneth Cole leather jacket. It's nice. Now I want one! HA HA! Doug got me a diamond wedding band with 7 diamonds in it - almost 1 carat. It's gorgeous! So I'm wearing it and dancing around the house. I can't wait to take a picture of it and post it. I'm still working on another present for him but it may turn into a Christmas present instead. My sweets & me have had a great year. Too much fun!

Colleen and I shot some photos for "Strutt for a Mutt" last week. It was really fun to see. The lighting was very difficult.

My eye is healing. I had to miss school today but I'm getting used to using 1 eye. My left eye is almost back to normal so I thought I'd jump on the computer and throw a blog up!

I didn't do much today but sleep, trying to heal this eye and seemed to have worked along with the eye steroid and antibiotic. My eye doctor is needing photos/artwork for his wall so I'm going to print some stuff to hang in the waiting room since it's empty.

I'm taking some portraits this weekend for a couple in love and a fun boudoir shoot. I'm so excited to shoot some different stuff this weekend!

Amelia's cousin is having his 8th birthday party this weekend so she's excited about going. I need to buy him a birthday present!

Things.

Colleen took this at Farmer's Market.


Picture Colleen took at Farmer's market.


Me & Colleeeeeen!


Left eye - top layer of cornea has been torn. OUCH OUCH OUCH! Thank God I am married to an optician because he helped me getmy eye fixed.

Amelia cooked dinner.....and it was AWESOME! Doug helped her with the stove but she measured and poured everything. I was asleep in bed because my eye HURT so bad!! So I had to sleep a bit because of my pounding headache!

Nikon presents 28th annual college photo contest. I've asked one of my clients permission to use her image in the contest. Winner gets $1000 scholarship and brand new camera. It would be a great addition to my resume - Nikon's Emerging Photographers hall of fame!

I devoloped 2 rolls of B&W film at school today. It's such a LONG tedious project. Got an A on my pinhole photos.

I'm in the sculpture club. I love art! I saw the poster for "Art in Rome next summer" again. I want to go so badly but I just cannot fathom being away from Amelia for 4 weeks in a row!

I got a ride from Haley & Jing Ying today. They saw me waiting for the bus, they picked me up. Thank you!!!!!!!!

Duane made me laugh in class again. Turd butt.

Colleen liked the dracula towel! YAY! I can't wait to find her more spooky & ghoulish Halloween things! YAY!

I need a vacation. I don't see it happening until spring break! I'm ready to graduate already. But nooooooo.....I have to major in something that will take me forever to do, that's ok! lol!

I have a lot on my mind. Too much lately. Feel like my mind may be on overload - BIG TIME.

Communication can be a powerful thing.

I’ve done a lot of reflection in the last several months. I’ve done a lot more today then ever before. Things happened today that were weird to me. I think I probably experienced most emotions a person can experience all at once. I was truly sad, happy, anxious, nervous, upset, angry, and relieved. It is amazing how a person can go through all of those emotions at the same time. The human mind and body never ceases to amaze me.
Something happened today that made me cry. I’m unsure as to why I cried. I do not know if it was because I felt that there was a chapter closing in my past. Maybe it was seeing someone being hurt, but I didn’t cause that hurt, they caused it on themselves. Maybe it was a lot of memories that surged back all at once and it was overwhelming. Seeing someone that was helpless in their situation and reflecting back to the past was hard. I don’t know if I can say the person was helpless because they could have helped themselves with the powerful way that communication works.
I do not want to go into details on a public blog because I really have pity for someone right now. I have this pity but at the same time I can’t stop saying “you reap what you sow.” When you do something wrong, it will come back to bite you in the ass. It’s a life lesson some people learn and some people never learn.
I want to say that communication is so important & vital in life. It is the one thing that I have probably learned the most in my last 32 years of life. Communication is key to everything. I want to learn communication even more but I have a pretty darned good grasp as to what it is nowadays. It is what keeps Doug & I together and strong. I still screw up with some communication but I learn from every single time I screw up communicating. It’s such a hard thing to learn and to perfect!
If people would communicate they may not get themselves into certain situations. I’m a very reasonable person and would have loved the opportunity to speak to the person that was hurt today. It would have been so simple to have a phone conversation to work out a resolution to the original problem. I offered many times but to no avail. Sometimes people may want to communicate but then they have outside influences that will prevent them from making a mature and smart communication decision.
Another point I’d like to make to those that read my blog, is to always listen and believe in yourself. Don’t listen to others and make decisions based on them. Get opinions, listen to your friends & family but YOU have to ultimately make a decisions regarding communication.
It is unfortunate that this person has refused communication and let it get to the point that it has hurt him. Honestly, I do not want to see anyone get hurt. It’s not fun to see. It’s not nice. It’s quite sad.

More old photos - grade school/high school

1985. That would make me 10 years old in this pic. We had a fantastic garden. My hair was ROCKING out! yeah baby!

I think this is 1992. This was a "going out" outfit. Check out those shorts! HA!!


1993. Senior year. I had 3 dates because we were all good friends. My dress was a size 3.....sigh.....I remember those days! And the dress was so big on me! Look at my stockings - I was so way ahead of my time. LOL!


1993. The day we got our caps & gowns.


Halloween. 1992 or 93. I am the clown wearing white.

I worked at the local grocery store - Twiggs IGA. Started there when I was 16 years old. I worked there for 5 years.


1993. Poodle hair. Me & Beth Nix.....we pushed the senior float.


Oh my. 1992. Look at that dress. Look at that hair! I was so little back then. Size 8 dress - GIRLS - not junior, not misses....GIRL. I will never forget being so upset about that. Now....I've gained a lotta weight. Eeek....but ya know....I would never trade in my "fat" for anything because my "fat" is from being happy!!! I need to go back to the gym.

Remembering the old days

Lots of kids at the orphanage. Too many. I vowed back in the 80's that I'd go to Guatemala and adopt a child one day. It's still on my mind.


This is a photo of me opening a bag for some orphans. My brother is wearing the green shirt and my mom is in brown. It's an experience I will never forget!


This is a photo of me at one of the many Mayan ruins we visited. You can see how HOT and tired I was. Look at that hair!


This is my tio Guto's store in Zacapa. I'm standing next to my cousin Claudia. My tia Letty is in the photo along with her employees.


My grandmother is now buried in Guatemala. This is her grave. I am wearing the pink shirt and black pants.


This is a photo of my dad in his younger years and my grandma Concepcion.


This is a photo of me, my brother, cousins Ricky & Roberto, cousin Claudia, tia Letty...and I'm not sure who! This is in Esquipulas, June 1986 is what it says on the back of the polaroid. So I was 11 years old.


This is a photo of me, my brother and our cousins Ricky & Roberto. We are in my tio Guto's front yard of his house.

My mom has been re-modeling her house and I went by to see all the new rooms and decorating she has done. I went ahead & grabbed a handful of photos while I was there so I could scan them in.

Some of you know that my dad is from Guatemala and I have been fortunate enough to have gone 3 times in my life. All 3 times we drove the long trip down thru Mexico all the way to Guatemala city and then to Zacapa where my dad's family is. On one of our trips we took 2 pick up trucks full of toys, clothes & food to the orphanage in Guatemala. I remember how we had to use some of the toys in the trucks as bribery to get through the check points in Mexico.

Anyways, the year is either 1985 or 1986. I was either 9 or 10 years old in these photos.

I am in awe.

I would share more photos but they are too personal in nature. I just wanted to share my feelings on this.....

The husband used my other camera to take some photos of new baby and he grabbed one of me. My face says it all.


Fresh baby! :-)

I was truly blessed to experience/witness a birth last night/morning. I got the call at 1am that my client was indeed in labor! I drove to Centerton and was so worried about "missing" the birth. I got there and she was starting some heavier labor. It is the 1st time in 10 years of taking photos that I was actually very nervous. I've never witnessed a birth before. I do have a 7 year old little one but she came to this earth via c-section, so this would be my 1st birthing experience. She chose to have baby at home and it made me even more nervous because I'm a worry wart- thinking of all kinds of things that could go wrong.

She had a midwife there and she was so awesome. She gave me a bit of a back massage because she could see how tense and nervous I was. That broke the ice for me and it helped me relax. The room was dimly lit and had 3 candles, which can cause lots of blur so I had to really set a high iso on the camera and shoot as wide open as I could. During the labor, many moments were still, so I was able to take advantage of the stillness of the her labor. It did get more intense but I was still able to capture it. After she spent some time in the big tub she did finally move to the bed. After her water broke she moved to squat on the floor and that is when I witnessed her son being born. It happend so quickly and I got some of the most amazing shots of his birth. All the photos were taken in black & white which really set the mood.

Everyone in the room cried. I did, too. It was the so emotional, beautiful, and inspirational. I saw life happen in the real sense. The emotions were so raw, so real and it was an experience I will never ever forget!

I got home at 6:30am, just as the alarm clock went off. Amelia woke up and I was purely exhausted. Doug took care of getting her breakfast & taking her to school which I am so thankful for having such a loving & supportive husband.

The experience really changed my perspective on life. What it means to be here. To love one another. I dont' want to sound cheesey or corny but I felt so close to God at that moment and it wasn't even my kid :-) I don't know how to put it into words but it truly was amazing.

....now I want a baby....... !!

...but my uncle has a nice camera....

...sigh...

I talk to a lot of photographers and it's happening to all of us. Bride contacts us, she's excited in our work, save the date for me and I'll send a retainer, a week later we hear "my uncle has a nice camera so he's gonna take pictures at my wedding."

It's the newest trend in wedding photography. Why hire a professional when Uncle Bob just spent $600 on a good ol' camera from Wal-Mart?

Oh man....there's a lot of good reasons why you don't want your uncle taking photos at your wedding! Does he have back up equipment? What if his brand new "fancy" camera malfunctions at the wedding? This happens WAY more often than you think! I take 3 cameras with me to each wedding. You can never be over-prepared! Does your uncle have a variety of lenses? Does the lens go down to 2.8 or 1.4? He may not even know what that means. Does he have an awesome flash and back up? Does he have back up batteries? Does he have enough memory cards? Ok, so that just touches base on the subject of equipment - there's a lot more to it!

Does your uncle know anything about composition? Did he take a photography course back in 1975 and that automatically makes him knowledgable? You don't forget how to take pictures? Right? I mean....right?? Will your uncle know how to capture the moments that are happening? Wait, he's family - he'll want to mingle, socialize, eat, sit around.......he's not getting paid so who cares if the flower girl just stuck her face in her cake.....he's not thinking he should get photos of that funny moment! This again, just barely touches on the subject of weddings.

Wedding photography is much more intense and harder than people think. Just because you bought a nice camera doesn't mean you have the experience or knowledge of the fast paced wedding! There's a lot to do, think, take in as a photographer. You have to be on 100% of the time. It's not a family portrait shoot, it's a wedding and it happens just that once. You can't screw it up.

I hear from so many people that I run into about how their family relative took photos at their wedding and it was a disaster. They wished they hired a true professional but it's too late....the wedding has gone and they have nothing to show but maybe a handful of snapshots that Uncle Bob took with his nice fancy camera from Wal-Mart.

You decide. Leave your memories to your uncle? Or to a professional.

I'm addicted to the fair!

I am addicted to the lights at the fair! Kimberlea Bass & I went to the fair with these 2 pretty girls and took a BUNCH of photos. I'm working on a particular photographic project for school and this is part of it! FUN!

YEOW BABY!

Ok, so I did the September centerfold for ONDA OK magazine.....we came up with a HOT photo for September. I think everyone will enjoy it!

Commercial

he he he....Check me out in this commercial:
My friend JP that owns ONDA OK magazine asked me to pose in a few dresses for a commercial for L.A. Expo clothing store in Rogers. Funny! I look so young!

http://www.ondaok.com/magazine/videoads/laexpo.wmv -- ok the video embedding didn't work - but there's the link!

I survived the 1st week of school.....

School started last week and I am enrolled full-time. This semester I have Geology (yawn - I'm just not into it!), Geology lab, World Literature I (I have the best instructor ever!), Art Survey I, and Photography I (ha ha ha)! I like all of the classes but I'm really bored with Geology....it's a drag but I needed 1 more science to complete my core. All that I lack now is World Lit II for next semester and all my core requirements should be done! I am applying for the BFA program this fall.

So the 1st week was pretty hectic, trying to get Amelia and I back into a routine has been hard. We loved our lazy summers so much!!! I miss the swimming, hanging out and giggling and her little slumber parties. Now it's back to "business." I'm really looking forward to this semester but dread the Geology tests. YUCK! This semester can't go by quicker! HA!

Ok, so I'm in Photography I - it's a requirement for my degree. So last Wed and today we worked on photograms which are fun. Basically you take objects and put it on the photographic paper and stick it under the enlarger....zap it with light, throw it in some developer and "ta-da" you have a photogram. Next week we start taking pinhole photos. So I bought a Nikon F5 film camera for $200! Back in the film days this camera was very EXPENSIVE - nowadays it's film - it's "outdated" but I'm really looking foward to taking some B&W photos at some upcoming weddings and going to the dark room to make some beautiful film prints for my brides.

Anyways, I scanned in 2 of my photograms. The others are drying at school....once I have them back, I will scan them in because the ones I did today are way cooler!

Fun at the Fair!

I had so much fun shooting at the Grape Festival! Thank you ladies for being my "victims." I finally got to do some 1 second exposures on my tripod....I need a cable release! The Washington County fair is coming up and I have several shoots planned for the week of the fair. I can't wait!!!!!!