Ramblings...

I was testing my camera/lens....

I still have to take them out for a real test!

But it did seem to be better than it was.

BTW, Romeo might look innocent - but he is soooo naughty!

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So...

my decision to close White Rose...

I was doing good with that decision - really I was!

I was even excited about the 'next step'.

But to be honest,

I'm not sure how long that decision will last.

I miss it so much already!

I even made up some new business cards:

Front:

Back:

But then I thought about it....

I'm pretty useless without lights!

So I feel rather stuck.

And anxious....

And wonder how long I can 'hang in there' and wait.....

I hope that wasn't too depressing! :)

Yuck!

I've got a whopper of a headache and I just want to sleep.......

Slideshow

You can check out Ashleigh and Kevin's wedding slideshow here.

PHEW!!!!

One handsome guy!!!

The good news.... I finished enhancing the wedding pictures!!!!! The slideshow should be up in a couple of days.

Other news.... White Rose Wedding Photography is officially closed. I'm okay with that and will still do photos on the side for anyone that would like me to. I will also continue doing stock photos and maybe some fine art photos. And who knows, I might open shop again in the future!

Lovely Family

On again, off again...

Brett managed to bandaid my computer the other day and I was able to get a few more wedding pictures done... but now it's not working again! Hopefully he'll get it going again tonight. Or better yet - the part will come and we'll get it REALLY fixed!!!

More from the Wedding

Well... I'm having problems with my laptop now. *sigh* Brett is ordering a part that will hopefully fix it! Until then, it will be more difficult for me to get to my blog and email.... I've also had to hand some of the wedding editing over to Beka. So... until then, I will leave you with a few more pix from the wedding...

The flower girl was just too cute!!!

Still in Love...

Ashleigh and Kevin

Well, we are back from NJ and working our way through the over 2000 pictures we took! But what fun we had meeting Heather and her lovely family! They were sooooo good to us!! Treating us more like honored guests than hired help. We were truely blessed and honored to be a part of their special day!!!!!

Heather shared with us that Ashleigh was a flower girl when she was 2

and she carried this same basket!!!

We had fun with the glamor shots!

What a time we had getting Ashleigh up on that bed in her wedding dress.

hahaha!

But she was a trooper!

The girls had different dresses and a variety of shoes too!

The lovely bride....

The church was BEAUTIFUL! All decked out for Christmas.

And finally, the happy couple!

Heather had everything so organized!!

Every detail thoughtfully planned out.

Thank you Heather and Alan and Ashleigh and Kevin for a wonderful time!!

May God richly bless you all.

And to the newlyweds - may God bless your marriage!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

On a Roll...

Keira

I had a session with this cutie tonight.

More Practice....

Well, it''s late (or should I say early?) and I should be sleeping... but I was pretty excited about what I'm learning and that usually makes for a restless night. So, rather than toss and turn, I thought I'd come down and blog a bit.

In my last post I shared some photos I had taken with my flash. I was happy that I managed to take them and still capture the lights from the tree... BUT, I knew that I needed to do better still to do the kind of job at the wedding that I want to do! Some of my photos were just plain unacceptable and my success rate was probably 1 out of 3 or 4 photos. Not good enough! Plus I couldn't get enough depth of field in my shots for more than 1 person. So... I did a little more research to learn how to do this with my strobes. I won't bore you with the details about how this shot was taken (unless someone out there really wants to know!).... BUT, I can now take a picture, capture the lights in the background, and be confident that it will come out sharp even with a moving subject and get the depth of field that I will need for a larger group! YIPEE!!! I still have some practice to do and testing with different scenarios. But I'm making huge strides and getting way more confident that I can get the photos I want to get. :)

Very fun!!!!

***EDIT*** For anyone that is interested in the 'technical details' of this shot you can visit my other blog here.

Practice Makes Perfect!

We certainly have a wide assortment of ornaments! Be My Valentine????

It's been fun to see the kids pick out an ornament each year and watch how their tastes change. And it certainly makes for an interesting tree!!

I took these pix mainly to practice for Heather's daughter's wedding... I need to be able to capture the lights and still get a nice exposure on the people. So, rather than use a tripod, I used my flash. Using a flash will often totally overpower the lights on the Christmas tree or candles... but of course there are tricks to getting around this! Using a slow shutter speed allows more ambiant light in and the flash freezes the subject. Without a flash a tripod would have been a must!! Anywayz, I certainly haven't perfected it yet! Hopefully by the beginning of January I'll have it down pat. :)

I also purchased a starburst filter for one of my lenses. Don't you love the effect it has on the lights????

The Christmas Rush

I've been busy, busy, busy with Christmas portraits....

This was probably the hardest shoot yet - except of course weddings!

Because it was so tough I learned a ton!

Which is always a good thing.

And it's causing me to research a bit how to improve my photos technically.

So, in the end I am thankful it was such a challenging shoot!

I'm sorry I haven't been around much....

Joshua...

I'm almost done with the pictures of little Joshua! I should be done by tomorrow!! But I thought I'd post a few more for everyone....

Josh really didn't like stripping down for us. And decided to get even all over Mom!

Mommy Kisses...

I finally got a chance to meet and photograph little Josh. We actually took pictures on Thursday and then again on Friday cuz he just wasn't in the mood on Thursday! I will have more to share later... but I wanted to get something up today!!

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And if anyone else decides to add this to their blog - please let me know! Sure would make checking up on everyone much easier. (hint, hint!!!)

More Babies...

I took the proofs over to mom today.

She nearly cried when she saw this one....

After we did the black and white ones she wanted some high-key color portraits.

She was so happy to be standing and climbing.

I quickly snap, snapped, snapped

and decided we'd better get her dressed for some more 'formal' shots

before she lost interest...

Maybe she was mad that we interrupted her when she was having so much fun?

But I couldn't resist taking a couple of crying baby shots!

Thankfully mom was able to distract her for just a couple more!

And then she was DONE for good!

I always try and include a couple of collages with all my portrait shoots.

It was so fun to do portraits again!

I have 3 more photo shoots coming up in the next 2 weeks.

How exciting!!!

Plus a stock shoot.

Busy, busy, busy!!!!

BABIES!

I had a photo session with this cutie today. Mom wanted high contrast studio photos. And she loves black and white as well as sepia. I haven't finished processing/editing yet.... I'm hoping to get those finished up within the next couple of days. Then I'm off to photograph little Josh! :)

One nice thing about this session.... Mom told me exactly what she wanted! She kept apologizing for being so particular... but if you want a photo a certain way be sure to tell the photographer! Better then ending up with photos you just aren't happy with!!

My prayer for every session is that somehow my photos would bless the client....