Headed to Chicago next week...

So, I'm headed to Chicago next week. If you're in the area, and would like to schedule a portrait session (gee, would that be a coincidence or what?) Shoot me an e-mail! Arriving Monday afternoon, leaving Friday night... but that's all very flexible.

Gratuitous Bug-and-Flower Time!

After shooting a portrait session for Joey at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, I did what I love to do-- ran around the place scouting for pretty flowers, lovely bugs, and all things tiny to capture with my fabulously wonderful macro lens.

Sweet like candy to my soul is the macro. There are literally tiny things EVERYWHERE that we never get a chance to see up close, and the macro lens allows me to find those things and share their beauty with you. I squeal inside with delight when I see a butterfly swirling around a bright flowery bush, because I know that with enough patience, that bug will land and I can get a picture of its fantastic wings. Dragonflies and bumblebees are worthy targets as well... or any other bug I happen upon that doesn't scare the daylights out of me.

Don't even get me started on flowers. I wish I had 900 frames, and could line my walls with macro floral shots... but alas, I don't live alone, and not everyone has the high bright-popping-color-tolerance I do...

So I keep on snapping away, and rotate the prints out now and then. One of these days... ONE OF THESE DAYS... I will have a room devoted to nothing but the insanely fascinating artistry of nature. God's hands at work.

Sweet little Joey, 2 years

Joey is one of the babies I've been photographing since before he was born-- I had the privilege of photographing his Mommy's maternity portraits, and was invited back shortly after he was born for a truly beautiful mother-and-child session. As we were buzzing back and forth about all the cute pictures from this session, Joe's mom recalled how happy she was to have had that "lifestyle" session when he was first born... capturing the brand-new intimacy between the two of them. His tiny head in the palm of her hand, the way she looked down at him as he nursed, and all of the little details she had prepared for him in his nursery... even a hand-knitted animal from a dear friend.

It's so hard to believe that two years has passed already, and Joey is becoming a little boy. Walking (err, running), talking, obstinate, snuggly, curious, independent, angelic, handsome, joyful... he is ALL that being two is about.

Since his birth, Joe's family has moved to Fort Worth. I was happy that we were able to arrange for this session at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to capture the boy that this precious little guy is growing into! I'm also very happy that his Mommy and I have remained friends across the distance. Thank heaven for modern methods of communication!

While he definitely had his *moments* during this session (hot morning in the great outdoors), he also had some exquisitely precious moments. Enjoy : )

I'm out!

Hey everybody! The blog has been a-buzzin' lately and it makes me happy : ) I just wanted to drop a quick note that I will be out of the office (in the country, with unpredictable cell phone/e-mail service) until Tuesday.

Have a grrrrrreat weekend, I hope to bring you more beautiful images next week as I work on Jennifer & Robbie's wedding, Tracey & Ed's wedding, Heather's gorgeous yet experimental artsy maternity portraits... and maybe even baby Hailey!

Thank you all for the wonderful comments, and for supporting me in the work that I absolutely adore.

Have camera... will travel!

Jeanette and Alec, who will be getting married in the very near future, live in Chicago, but will hold their wedding in Houston... and what do we do when we have busy clients who live out of town but still want portrait sessions? Why, we pack up our bags and travel to a location more convenient to them! In this case I lucked out in that it happened to be one of my favorite cities to visit, and one of the best times of the year to do so.

We met in Lincoln Park shortly before sunset, and I was thrilled to see Jeanette show up in this stunning plum-colored little number (have I mentioned that I love color?). I had the pleasure of meeting Alec and his charming mother (who came along to handle Jeanette's coat, since it was a little chilly with the sun going down). I knew I liked Alec's mother when I asked her what type of album she wanted after the wedding-- her answer? "I want something beautiful." No problemo!

We walked from one end of the park to the other, starting at the zoo and working our way down and back around to a lovely skyline-at-dusk-on-the-water shot to close it out. I can't WAIT to see them again on their wedding day!

Austin!

We're back!

I took a short spring break trip with my son and nephew to Austin. We saw the sights, visited the Capitol Building (thanks to Monica for the VIP tour!), saw "Horton Hears a Who", visited The Oasis on Lake Travis and the AWESOME 80,000 square foot Whole Foods on 6th Street with Auntie Gale, and closed out our visit with a walk up to the Visitor's Center where we boarded an interesting vehicle for an "Austin Duck Tour". Soooo many kids quacking their little duck-caller-quacker things... FUN!

The weather was icky Monday and Tuesday, but turned out to be absolutely beautiful and cool on our last day. I'll post more pics later, but here's my favorite... it just goes to show that you don't need clear blue skies to get yourself a nice pretty picture of the Capitol Building... and it will always remind me of the boys skipping around town with those big, bright umbrellas-- just being the silly little guys that they are.

Salem, Lexington, and Maine

(See previous blog entry for part I)
We were staying outside of Boston in Chelmsford, which meant I had to do some exploring in the areas outside the city. I was determined to hit Salem and see all the witchy witchery sice it was so close to Halloween.

I visited Minuteman National Park on an crisp, unbelievably clear fall day. After walking Battle Road for a bit and reading all of the placards along the way and imagining what it must have been like for this half-trained militia of farmers and back-country people to defend themselves against the redcoats... and walking down the path and seeing the site where Paul Revere was captured by the British... I looked up at the flag flying over the visitor's center and I can honestly say I have never felt more patriotic in my entire life. It definitely made me feel a deeper sense of appreciation for our founding fathers and those who put their lives on the line, literally on a daily basis, with the odds stacked against them... all for the opportunity to live free and lay the foundation for America's future.

Next was Salem-- I made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in New Hampshire before making my way over to Salem (thank Heaven for our patient Bostonian friend Rick, who guided me via cell-phone to Salem). Upon arrival, I was ecstatic to see the cobblestone streets and witch and pirate souvenir shops, because after all, kitschy is cool! I made my way over to the Salem Witch Trials Memorial which was a lot cooler than I had expected. I guess I had somehow always tucked that whole time period away in my mind as a work of fiction, after reading "The Crucible" and watching silly movies about witches. I had forgotten, or not made the connection, that these women and men were literally killed by their society because they didn't fit the norm.

The memorial is very understated-- words of the accused (from their trials) on a concrete slab that "faded" into the dirt of a reflecting garden with tall shade trees... and along the walls of the garden are 19 benches, each with the name of someone executed during the Salem Witch Trials. Some names, like Giles Cory and Sarah Goode were recognizable. It was a very odd expereince, made you wonder what on earth could make a community turn against its citizens with such hate and paranoia that they felt hanging them or pressing them to death was a good idea. Later I toured the home of one of the judges of the trials... to think that his wife and children sat home spinning, sweing, and cooking while he condemned their neighbors to death? Eery. Especially since it is surrounded by Salem's burying ground with the Halloween-ish slate headstones and some old wooden buildings.

The last picture is an old house in Maine... it's not a significant house or anything, I just loved the tree in front of it and the blue sky. To this southerner, it was typical New England!

Boston

A couple of years back I had the opportunity to visit Boston, Massachusetts while my husband was there on business. We went up a few days early and made a wedding anniversary trip out of it since I'd always wanted to see a "real" autumn and hey... what can you say? We're history buffs. Once my husband took off to work, my mother flew up to join me, as she had never been to New England and really wanted to see the sights.

Boston is just teeming with historical places and as a city, was home to many of our nation's founders, figureheads and revolutionists. The Freedom Trail is a footpath through Boston, and you can take a self-guided tour of some neat places and really immerse yourself in the history. You're in walking the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere and Samuel Adams and *ooh* the British soldiers. You're standing on the Boston Common where they had public hangings for witches, pirates, and heretics! Where Amelia Bloomer spoke out publicly against women having to wear skirts and dresses all the time... You're looking up at the very tower that our early revolutionists looked for the "One if by land, two if by sea!" beacon from Paul Revere on his midnight ride. You see the graves of people who came over to America on the Mayflower.

And oh, the graveyards with their gorgeous slate headstones with the ornate carvings... I could have milled around all day looking at the images and script carved into the headstones all those hundreds of years ago. I also could have spent my whole trip touring the old embellished churches. That is a whole other story!

ENJOY! Next I'll post more from the surrounding areas like Salem, Lexington/Concord, and Maine.

p.s. the pumpkin pics are from the Bostom Common, where they were trying to set a world record for most jack-o-lanterns lit at one time. They didn't set the record, but it was one heck of an attempt!

The first image in the bunch, a photo of the inside of Trinity Church, won me an award at the Texas City Art Show in 2006... I lovingly refer to it as my "award-winning" picture.

So I'm back from vacation...

Well, my husband, the kids and I took off for Walt Disney World on Christmas morning. The trip had been postponed several times, but finally we made our way there and had an absolutely wonderful time. After allll that anticipation, Disney lived up to our expectations!

I wanted it to truly be a vacation and be an enjoyable time for all of us, so I didn't drag any of my usual cameras and multiple lenses and tripods along to the theme parks... Besides, I'd never enjoy a roller coaster wondering if my camera and lens were safe and sound in the "cargo bag" of my coaster (have you SEEN those things? no way!). Everything here was shot hand-held with my trusty Sony Cybershot that my husband gave me as a Christmas gift four years ago-- and it still performs well after all the abuse and bottom-of-the-purse life it's lived.

What you'll see below are several of my favorite memories from Disney World's Magic Kingdom (Cinderella's Castle decked out in holiday lights!), Disney MGM Studios park (the crazy Main Street USA Christmas light spectacular), and our hotel staff-- who lovingly created a friend for my daughter's "Bunny", and tucked my son's Stitch and Stitch Jr. in with "Blankey" each time they made the beds (We can't say enough wonderful things about Disney's Contemporary Resort and the staff there, especially Kristin from Jupiter, FL who calmly and happily helped us out in a particularly difficult situation when we encountered a computer glitch with our reservations). That green thing is a Sea Monster made entirely of Lego's (Downtown Disney)! Last but not least... one picture from the Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center.