Skye

Thirteen going on...well, I don't know? But, she is a beautiful girl for sure!

I did senior pics for her big brother so we decided to snap a few of Skye too.

Kelly Family

I had a great morning photographing one of my oldest (as in, time of friendship) friends. Emily and I have been friends since right around 4th grade. We spent much of elementary school side by side. Even after high school we were able to be in each others weddings and have remained great friends. Although our time spent together is not nearly what it was before..or even what it 'should' be now, when we DO get together it is always a fun time! Between each of our crazy lives and a little bit of a distance, we find it hard to get together often. It doesn't affect our ability to pick up right where we left off though!

I know I had fun that morning...but with a husband who doesn't exactly enjoy his picture taken and an active four year old, we tried to work quickly! I think we got some great shots in the end...I'll choose only a few of my faves from the day.

Frida

Frida is Shawn and Karen's foreign exchange student. She hasn't been here long, but seems to be adjusting quite well. I can imagine she finds herself quite overwhelmed when, what seems like, the whole world shows up at her house each week to watch football. She's catching on to the rules of the game..and the rules (save seat, seat save) of Shawn's house!

Again, a VERY quick shoot...

More catching up...

I was also able to take some family pictures of one of my best friends and her family. We only had a little bit of time before the Patriots game started so we tried to work quickly!









I like this one. There is just something about a picture when everyone is doing something besides looking at the camera that appeals to me!

I have fallen behind.

It has been a few weeks since I did a photo session with Lj, but for some reason have yet to post about it here.

Lj is someone I have known for quite a few years. She has recently been asked to do some motivational speaking engagements in order to share her testimony of life with an amputated leg as well as the recent loss of her father. Lj is awesome. She is rarely seen without a smile on her face! She needed a few pictures taken for her promotional brochures. I was happy to help her with this.

We had a fun afternoon visiting, taking pics and getting to here more of her testimony!

Here are a few pics from that afternoon...the rest are on my website.

Hospitable?

Hospitality seems to be the theme lately. Papa (otherwise known as Pastor Roger) spent the last two weeks preaching on hospitality, we had a "hospitality" themed small group gathering and today my daily devotions were on, yep...hospitality. I think it is clear that He is trying to tell me something here!

It has been very interesting to look at hospitality from different angles. Learning the difference between being hospitable and entertaining. Learning that hospitality should start in your own neighborhood. Learning how to pray for your neighbors...but to pray with "your eyes open", meaning, listening and paying attention to the needs of your neighbors and trying your best to help fill those needs. Learning where hospitality (particularly to our neighbors) fits into God's plan for the mission of the Church. Each one of those 'angles' on hospitality could easily be their own separate blog post. Hospitality is important.

In my devotions this morning the angle was a little bit different. It skimmed the usual hospitality ideas, but this devotion was focused on being hospitable to our own family!

I don't know about you, but I am guilty of this. When we are having guests over we tend to go 'all out'. We get out our 'good' plates (in our case, this means the NOT paper kind!), we make a real dinner (not just chicken nuggets), we make sure the house is clean...etc, etc. The kids know when we are preparing for guests. They can tell, even if we didn't say anything about it.

What kind of message are we sending our kids (and husbands!) if we are always 'putting out our best' for our company, and on normal days we skimp? My devotions today were reminding me to continue to make things special for our kids, to continue to be hospitable to our own family!

And trust me, I know that there are many days when chicken nuggets, paper plates, and a dirty bathroom are what our families are going to get. There are just some days (or weeks!) when there is not time for a nice meal and a specially made desert. This goes back to the "seasons" post I wrote a few weeks back. But...even during the crazy seasons of life, we do tend to have a few (or maybe just a couple) of days each week when we 'could' make them special for our family.

I plan to seek out those types of days, and try to use them as opportunities to be hospitable to my husband and kids!

And just so that I don't leave you with a pictureless post...here are some soggy fall leaves on my back porch. It has been very rainy here for the last few days. I am hoping that all this rain doesn't cause the leaves to fall before the peak foliage season hits!

"EPT" #2 (Easy Photography Tip)

Having a good quality camera is VERY helpful. There are things about higher quality cameras that makes life for a photographer (or even just your everyday picture snapper) much easier. Whether is has to do with the ease of the menu's or the type of glass inside the camera itself, to the mechanics of the the camera...there are reason's why an expensive camera is, well..expensive. Does an expensive camera guarantee you great pictures every time? No.

But! At the very same time, does an inexpensive camera mean that you will never get great pictures? No!!! The reason for this is simple...and yet, takes a lot of practice to figure out.

The key is finding the right light. Whether or not you have an expensive Nikon, or Canon or have a less expensive point and shoot....if you find the right light, you will get great pictures. So how do you find the right light? It is pretty much a trial and error process, although there are a few things that can make this trial and error process quicker.

First things first...natural sunlight is best, but it is important to avoid direct sun. (you'll know, because your subject will be squinting!). Shadow's are bad...your subject hiding in a shadow will make for one big ol' shadowy picture. Finding that perfect shady, but not shadowy and yet sunny at the same time spot can be difficult. Sometimes you are in the right spot, but just a small change in position will make a big difference. I go by the eyes...the second I see the subjects eyes light up (from the sun) I am sure that I am close to a good spot!

A few examples:

This picture was taken with my cell phone. While the picture is slightly "oof" (out of focus), you can see that the exposure was good and that his eyes have that nice reflection in them. I like this picture of Ethan alot! Not great camera, but good light equals a decent picture.


This picture is a good example of good exposure. This is "neighbor Owen" standing in our driveway. The sun is directly in front of him, but he is just slightly shaded by the tree's behind him. Getting him to look up just a bit made me catch the crazy amazing color in his eyes. This, taken with my Nikon (which is only an entry level not super expensive camera), is another one that I love.


This is a picture of Luke taken outside of the Church. This time, a morning on a pretty cloudy day. He is standing under the entry way roof near the front door of the Church. Again, the sun is in front of him and he is slightly shaded by something behind him.


There are tricks to use when you can't quite find the right light. I will use this picture of Elijah (taken over a year ago or so)...

We had just returned from a walk and the sun was bright. He was being happy so I was trying to grab a few pics. In this picture he is facing away from the Sun...the sun is behind him. He is also in a stroller with the canopy up, so not only is he backlit by the sun, but he is in the shade. If I had turned him around the sun would have been way too bright in his eyes and he would have never looked up at me, so instead, I used our white garage as a, sort of, reflector of the sun. I rolled the stroller over and faced Elijah towards the garage and I stood between them. This allowed for some good light in on his face and eyes. You can see that he is still a tad dark, so if I were editing this picture now I would do a very small bump in the curves just to lighten his face a bit. (I also would have fixed the white balance...which is just an example of how much you can learn in a year!).

What happens when you just can't possibly find the right light? Take the pictures anyway!! It's not always about a perfectly exposed picture....it's about capturing a moment! As you take more and more pictures, looking for these lighting situations will become like second nature for you and you will find yourself still being able to capture the moments and at the same time get properly exposed photos!!

Practice, Practice, Practice!!