THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

I know this sounds silly, but when I got in the carpool line to drop GTO off at school this morning, it suddenly hit me that it was the last goodbye kiss from my 1st grader. Today is the last day of his 1st grade career. How can it be that he could be going into 2nd grade already? I know that I have this shock and realization every year, but every year seems to fly by faster and faster. I got teary eyed as he kissed me this morning. I told him it was the last kiss from my 1st grade boy which made him smile. I felt better when he said, "Well in that case, I will give you SEVEN kisses." He always knows how to make me happy.

And coming to work and seeing this made me smile. This girl is a MESS!

SPIKE - 9 Months

I know his parents call him Bear, but I can't help myself...I will call him SPIKE from now on since he got his first big boy haircut, and he looks so stinkin cute with his first spikes! I met this sweet baby boy when he was only three months old and have taken his pictures almost every month since. I can't believe he is standing and in a few short months, he will be running from me and my camera. It has been fun to watch him grow and to capture all his "firsts" on camera.

See you next week for your 10 month photos!

Corbin - 6 years old

I am a little behind on blogging my client sessions, so I will be posting several over the next few days. I love when I get contacted to photograph a child for his/her birthday pictures. Every child should have a few professional shots taken at each birthday to document each year. I have one 8 x 10 photo of each of my kids' birthday pictures hanging in our hallway. I leave them up all year and keep the previous years' picture in the frame so that when we take new photos to display, the kids can see how they have changed each year.

I met Corbin for the first time a couple of weeks ago. He was such a good model, and I think he actually liked posing for my camera. He has the cutest grin!

A little photography lesson....

Bokeh (derived from Japanese, a noun boke 暈け, meaning "blur" or "haze") is a photographic term referring to the appearance of point of light sources in an out-of-focus area of an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field.[1] Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

If you follow my blog, you know that I LOVE Bokeh, especially in the images above and below. (Captured with a 50mm lens at f/1.2)

I also love that coy grin, and the fact that Corbin is not looking directly at the camera.

I love when moms bring a change of clothes. It helps to change up the setting even though we are in the same location. He looks very good in orange.

You also know if you read my blog, that I have an orange and black rule. The rule being that I will NOT post orange and black affiliated with that one school that is 45 minutes northeast of me. LOL! Corbin's mom told me that he is getting a makeover for his bedroom. It will be a sports themed room focused around one certain team. Did I mention that the Cincinnati Bengals are also orange and black??? Corbin must be a HUGE fan.

Em - I hope you liked all your pictures. I think you have a model on your hands.

IT IS FINALLY HERE....

...Friday, that is. Never have I been more excited for an extra day off work. I am so ready to spend the weekend with my two sweeties, soaking up the sun, tanning our ghostly white skin, fishing off the dock, star gazing, morning boat rides, and snuggling up to watch movies after we have had a full day of fun.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Picture of the Day

THE GLOVES ARE OFF

"DO YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?"

IT ONLY TAKES ONE...

...adorable little boy and his teddy to melt my heart!

Be My Little Baby Bumblebee

HUBBY TAKES THE STAGE

Dance Recital 2009

We just got home from the dance recital. GiGi had a lot of fun and shook her little bee stinger like crazy! It was so cute. I will try to post video later this week.

Hubby participated in the Dad's dance this year. They did the Justin Timberlake SNL spoof of Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies." It was hysterical!!!

At the end of the dance, the daughters got to join in. GiGi was happy to wear her Beyonce leotard and dance with her Daddy.

TAKE TWO...

Three costume changes is a little much for one recital, but GiGi did look really pretty in her fuschia ballet costume. I tried to get some pictures from rehearsal last night, but the fluorescent stage lights didn't work well with my camera. I will try again on Sunday, and I will probably post video too. I am ready for the season to be over, but a little sad as well knowing that she doesn't want to go back next year, and this might be her last dance performance.

I don't think her gymnastics pictures will look this pretty next year. BUMMER!

Watch out for that BEE!

I am about to leave work to go pick up my cute little bumble bee for recital rehearsal. I can't wait to see her class perform. I am thinking GiGi might have some of her own dance moves again.

REMEMBER LAST YEAR???

And here she is this year showing off her bee stinger which she loves! I am sure you can imagine the booty shaking that will take place in this costume.

THE CUTE KID CONTEST

Congrats to the EVER so beautiful Little Bit for winning the cute kid contest! I would like to think that my photography played a part in it, but I think Little Bit can take all the credit. She is so stunning! You can check her out here. And her Mommy submitted the photo that all of you voted on, so I guess we all played a part in her winning. :)

Wordless Wednesday

The Expressions of Miss Gracie...4 Month Pictures

The rain finally broke enough last week for me to get a few minutes outside with Gracie. I can't believe she is already four months old. We had fun seeing all of her expressions, and GiGi was a big help getting all these cute faces out of her. At four months old, she can now laugh...

Look mischievous...
Use her big brown eyes to get what she wants....

And look as sweet as pie...

I can't wait to see what she will have in store for me at 5 months. We love this sweet girl!

SUCCESS

I get so frustrated trying to get photos of GTO. He is always so good for pictures once I get him out the door, but I struggle with glare on his glasses. I never imagined it would be so difficult photographing glasses, but I finally got a couple of shots that I am satisfied with.

He is trying really hard to grow his hair out (AGAIN) so that he will look more like the rock star that he aspires to be. I think we will get him a new pair of retro style glasses to go with his new look. And speaking of rock star...this guy has been amazing me with his piano skills. He has really learned to jam out some tunes the last couple of weeks. One day, I will have to post some video of that on here. And speaking of jamming, he has taught himself to play The Star Spangled Banner on the harmonica. It is a lot harder than it seems...I know because hubby and I both tried and failed. :)
I photographed the below pics just for GTO. Yes, my son is named after a car. Hubby is hung up on initials, and when I picked out his first name that started with a G, hubby said we have to have a T middle name. It worked out good, and now GTO has quite a large car collection in his room. It is fun to hunt for GTO cars to add to his collection. I actually picked one up yesterday at the store. (BTW, GiGi was going to be EGO until we changed it right before she was born. :)

I hope he doesn't want to drive one when he turns 16.

No time to write today...GiGi is still sick, but I thought I would post a couple of pics that haven't made it on here yet. Trying to post daily is hard work. :)

"BE STILL MY BEATING HEART."

It's Monday...

The week just started and it is already proving to be a tough week. GiGi woke up sick, I have three photo shoots that need to be rescheduled due to all the rain last week, and we have a dance party, recital practice, and piano practice to attend on top of working a full time job which seems impossible to miss lately, and trying to get our house organized so that packing for a move will be easier in a few weeks. I am not one who stresses easily, but these past few weeks are proving me wrong. I do like a good challenge. WISH ME LUCK this week.

Before and After

I am not a photo editing guru. At times I wish I was better at it, but I really don't want to rely on editing software to achieve a beautiful image. I would like to think that I can pull great images straight off my camera with minor tweaking and be satisfied with the end result.

Today, a co-worker of mine at our corporate office in TN e-mailed me a picture that he had taken of his beautiful little girl. He asked if I would edit it for him, so I thought it would be fun to share the before and after.

Below is the original picture... And the same image after a little tweaking...

Thanks L.S. for allowing me to post your image, and thank you for being a regular visitor and commenter here.