Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A Little Eye Candy

I have not posted in a lil' bit since I have been miserably sick and am just now feeling back to normal. I was randomly looking through all of my photo folders and came across a few gems previously untouched and thought I would share them.

This first one is another shot of my best childhood friend that you may remember from here and here if you have been following me for any length of time. I realize that it is not your conventional composition but I like it for some reason.
What a smile. I would love to travel to California to photograph her and her husband. They are definitely what you could classify as "the Beautiful People" through and through.

Second is this dear little gorgeous southern girl that I will be adding to my site once I ever get my software back up and running correctly. She is the daughter of the lovely lady to the far right on my current banner.
Speaking of my banner. . .can I get some feedback on my banner? Not sure I am 100% thrilled with it and would like some thoughts before I go changing it yet again.

I have more to post and more to say but my dear husband is asleep on the couch next to me yet again and he doesn't go to bed until I do. :) So it is off to bed I go, for his sake if not for mine.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Music and Cajones

I've always thought it great how a song can transport you back in time. It's something my dad and I have in common. We both can hear a song and tell you in detail what we were doing when he first heard it and so forth. For example, I am now in 1994 making the long drive from Selma, Alabama to Macon, Georgia for the zillionth time as we move cities for the first time in my life. The song: "Linger" The Cranberries.

Another one that stands out in my mind is "I’ll Stand By You" by the Pretenders. I am 15 years old again and attending the coolest party I think I have ever been to and dancing with this new guy that I totally hit it off with.

Here’s a good one. "I’m the Only One" by Melissa Etheridge is playing at Express in the mall and I’m 17 shopping for an outfit to wear to a graduation party where my ex-boyfriend will be and I want to make sure I look H-O-T.

"All Along the Watchtower", the one and only Jimi Hendrix, the opening riff of the song was my ringtone for 2 years. I loved it…never got tired of it. I LOVE my iPhone more and more each day but I sure do wish it was easier to get new ring tones.

Speaking along the lines of music, that reminds me of a conversation my dear love and I were having on the way home from errands tonight. I was talking about cojones and how I have had to grow them since I have married him and we are so much alike that we both hate conflict or the possibility of conflict or of anything that resembles anything that required guts or gumption. Of course he disagreed with me. We then proceeded to get into a play fight about who had the biggest "ahem" cojones which involved me asking him if he would ever sing karaoke in public without the assistance of alcohol. That stopped him in his tracks. VICTORY! I had done so! And because I am trying to live more without the fear of how I may look to others or worry about how silly I think I look...I will post the zany pictures of my singing here for all the world to see.

Wow, could I look any...hmmm...what's the word...odder?
Only a few months after I got married, I went on a business trip with my new job to Orlando. It was an incredibly fun time and we got to stay in this amazing hotel right in Disney. On one day after we got an amazing VIP tour of the Kennedy Space Center we came back to the hotel bar to do a little karaoke. I will admit it took me a while to get the nerve up to actually get up there but...I did. Can you tell what I am singing?
I LOVE ROCK AND ROLL! It's funny how you don't realize how hard a song would be to sing until you're up there.
Ahh. Gotta love how into it I got.Funny, you see pictures like this and you wonder if you always look this "funny" dancing or if it's just the fact that you were frozen in time.
Okay, here is me looking normal. Or at least my face looking normal. Makes me miss my long hair to some extent. To the far left is my gorgeous aunt-in-law. Ahh good times.
{{Edit: I refuse to take this post down, I am turning a new leaf, although I am realizing afresh that horizontal stripes suck and I am never wearing them again. :P }}

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Engagement Session

I was going through some of my digital files the other day and I came across some fun engagement photos that I took right after I first got my Canon 30d. I thought I would share them here.

It stinks trying to find images to show from before my getting a digital camera because it is quite a process to get negatives scanned at the quality needed.


It's kind of weird thinking of the time when I couldn't see the images I shot until way after the fact. I resisted going digital for quite some time. I was one of those people that swore up and down that digital would never replace film and digital was crap. I still love film. Someday I'm going to get out my old Yashica TLR and just concentrate on the more technical aspects that I have gotten away from. One of the things that I like most about digital is that it really is more cost effective. My first real job at the age of 17 was at a cool local camera lab and I almost went broke getting rolls of film developed. Even with my employee discount. Now I am free to take SO many shots without the fear of what it is going to cost me. On the downside, that also means that I am not as careful as I used to be when getting the shot I want but it also opens up the opportunity to not miss anything. I used to dream of having my very own darkroom in or off of my house. Know I just want to get a great digital back up camera. {{sigh}} There's always something to wish for I guess.

Well that was my little trip down memory lane. Hope I didn't bore you too much. :)

Playdough

I was talking to Spencer some time back about how difficult it is for me to sit down and play with Liam because my imagination does not run the same path as his and I get bored too quickly. Then I had a revelation. Play with him the ways that we can be together, play together, but I don't have to pretend that I am getting eaten by dinosaurs over and over again. :) First off we made pizzas. Then came our flowers. He loved my little caterpillar so much he had to duplicate it. Then we made faces.

Can you tell which are his and which are mine? LOL. Liam tried to tell me that mine were better than his but I explained that they were just different. After all I have quite a jump on him in the experience department. I think he did pretty darn good for a 5 year old.
At the end, as I was deconstructing my face, I decided to have a little fun with "my" lips. Hope you enjoyed these as much as I had fun creating them with my little man.
Two footnotes. 1. Sorry for the not so great qualities of the photos. That's what happens when all you have on hand is your camera phone. 2. For those who are curious: the toppings on the pizza are pepperoni, green peppers, and red onions. What can I say, there is only so much your imagination can come up with to create with limited colors of playdough. ;)

Saturday, February 7, 2009

42 Years

About a month ago, my family and I got together in Atlanta to celebrate my mom and dad's 42nd anniversary.

First we went to a park across the street from the Georgia Aquarium so that Liam could have fun. I have noticed that I don't have nearly enough pictures of Liam with my parents so I decided to remedy that on this trip together. My first one is one of my favorites.Here are three of my favorite men being boys. :) I thought it was funny seeing my dad get in this swing.



I absolutely LOVE this picture of my dad. I love how happy he looks. After all, he is with his favorite people.

Mom and Dad watching Liam have fun.



Mom herself got in the swing at one point until a little boy requested that he have a turn. I had to help her up. :) Isn't she beautiful?

Following are the pictures I got of Liam with my parents. I am quite happy with the results.



I could not decide which I liked better. They both have an appeal.

I do love this next one quite a bit but I think I may have overprocessed it a bit. I still like how it turned out, though.

And then there is Liam and Dad. The boy my dad never had that he finally got when I had Liam. I think they have a special bond because of that I think.

My dear men.


I will post more from the anniversary trip later.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Cuteness is Definitely a Factor Here

Well, I wanted to put up a post and just thought I would share with you my stalkerazzi tendencies. We went to the children's museum in Atlanta the other week and there were these two adorable girlies playing in the water and I just had to capture that cuteness. Here is the one that seemed to be having the most fun. . .and got the most soaked. :) I love the earnest look of concentration here as she joyfully endeavors to splash as hard as she can.

It seems here, that she may have caught mommy's eye and the resulting look was not necessarily one of approval. Oh well, it was raining outside, she would have gotten wet anyway, right?