Happy Christmas

Hello all! Here are a few images that Jeremy & I did just playing around with Christmas lights. I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas. Blessings!

Dustin & Colleen

I have had so much fun getting to know Dustin & Colleen and feel so honored to have been a part of such a special event in their lives. They are the cutest couple and so obviously in love! I LOVED the look on Dustin's face as Colleen was walking down the isle...so incredibly excited and proud to become her husband. The wonderful Joseph Elliott (www.josephelliott.net) helped to crank out some fabulous images for Dustin & Colleen. He was great to have around that day and I'm incredibly grateful for his hard work (especially when we were in a time crunch)! I love how all of our images turned out and wish I could show them all to you! Here are some of my favorites from their day...super cute flower girls, a little bling, some smooth timeless black & whites, the happy couple, and a little cake! Enjoy.

Victoria . Part 2

A few more of my favorites from Victoria's session. She was a ton of fun!

Victoria

I can't believe how old Jeremy's little sister is now (she's 15 and has her driver's permit)! She has turned into such a beautiful young woman and really seems to have her head on straight. She is such a good kid...other than giving her mom attitude from time to time, lol. Victoria has become our go-to babysitter, too, which rocks. Anyway, she missed ordering any of her school pictures this year so my mother-in-law asked me to catch a few. I thought Victoria wouldn't really be up to it but she is GREAT in front of the camera. We couldn't go outside b/c it was icy and freezing so we just shot in my house. Here's my favorite from our little mini-session. I'll post more in the next couple of days!

Future First Lady

I had an exciting opportunity on Saturday. I was invited to photograph Janet Huckabee, the wife of Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, at an event she would be appearing at here in Amarillo. Mr. & Mrs. Huckabee were invited to Jack Sisemore's annual Christmas party. Governor Mike Huckabee was unable to attend but Janet flew in just for this one event. I was there about 15 minutes early to see the house and familiarize myself with the place I would be shooting at, as I do with all events. Janet was already there so I got to chat with her for a little bit. She was so incredibly down to earth and such a joy to be around. The press was not invited to this event so I was the only photographer in the house (other than some guests taking snap shots with their cameras). It was truly an honor to be invited to do this! Janet was so gracious to stand and be introduced to everyone that attended the party (and I swear there were like 500 people in that house!). I had so much fun and wanted to show a few great photos I shot of Janet. These really show the kind of woman she is...truly excited to meet and talk to everyone and so incredibly nice. The other two pictures are of Jack Sisemore who hosted the event at his lovely home and Mrs. Sisemore, Jack's mother and the hostess of the Christmas party. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of such a fun night! I hope to have some more images from the night up soon. If you're not familar with Governor Huckabee and his campaign please take a moment to check out his offical website and see what he's all about, www.mikehuckabee.com.

Storyboards

I'm getting a lot of new EXCITING products together that my studio will be offering in the new year! Storyboards are perfect to display images from senior portrait sessions and especially great for displaying images from your baby's first year. You're definately not limited to just seniors & babies though. Storyboards are great for any type of session. I will be offering them in a huge variety of sizes with custom colors and text. The storyboards below are 12x12 on double weight matboard and are absolutely FANTASTIC! Stay tuned as I'll be unveiling more new products soon!

Christmas Cards

Just a quick post while I'm taking a break from editing. Here are a few of the Christmas cards Jeremy & I got to do this year. I think they all turned out so great!

Tyler

I shot one last family session for the year on Monday. It was a last minute thing for my Aunt & cousins. So we just did a very relaxed, t-shirt and jeans type of shoot downtown. We, of course, had fun! I'm quite a bit older than Taylor & Tyler and used to babysit them so we were really close at one time. I haven't seen them in a few years though. :( In fact, they had never met Ella until Monday. It was really good to see them and hang out! I miss the crap out of 'em. I'm too tired to fight with this thing to try to upload a bunch of images from their session so I'm just going to show you my favorite. I LOVE this one of Tyler b/c it's a little chaotic with the graffiti in the background and the harsh late afternoon sun beating on the side of his face...but the shadow of his profile looks so perfect. I really really love working with shadows. Let me know whay you think. It's always great to hear other people's perspectives. Blessings.

This is FABULOUS!

To all of my couples: I HIGHLY recommend doing this at your wedding.

My Lovely Family

I'm home! After 2 weeks of too much turkey & pecan pie, 1000+ pictures shot of the same 3 children, 1 trip to see Santa Clause, a few too many throw-downs between cousins, not enough editing accomplished, and 1 trip to Rapid-Med....I'm home!!! Lol...ok it wasn't as bad as it sounds. In fact it wasn't bad at all. I LOVE my family and LOVE staying with them. I was so sad to go. I was definately ready to get home to my husband though!

The best part of our trip had to be the very last day we were there. Ella & I were ready to leave at 10a.m. on Friday morning. We got about 20 minutes out when I decided to turn around to take Ella to the doctor. Here's the story. At about 8:00 that morning Ella picked up a Thomas sippy cup...William's Thomas sippy cup. Ella was showing me that it was in fact Thomas when all of a sudden Wills lept across the table to take back what was rightfully his. At some point during that fateful leap he managed to scratch Ella's cornea. LOL. Ok, I know it's not funny but she's totally fine. Apparently that is really painful so the doctor gave Ella some strong pain meds and eye ointment and we were again on our way home...at 3:00p.m. My mom and I had a good laugh as I was loaded Ella in the car one last time b/c Ella became very loopy and was looking at my mom saying, "hee-lllooo-ooo". Then she spent the first 2 hours of the ride home playing with the tag on her blankie. And I swear she slept with her eyes open at one point, too. When we got home at about 8pm (oh yeah...I totally cried myself out of a ticket, too) I found a spotless house, a bouquet of flowers, and my husband who I love dearly waiting for me! True story.

Here are some pictures I took of my family on Thanksgiving. Peace.

Giving Thanks

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!! We're in Dallas right now having a fabulous time with my family. I am thankful for my wonderful family, our new house, and my great clients!

I've been shooting a lot of random photos...something I hardly ever get to do anymore. This afternoon I had the camera turned aound on me for once, too! My lovely sister Sarah used my camera to shoot a few pictures of Jeremy & I. We haven't had our picture taken together in years (probably since our wedding). I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Shalom.

Ella & Wills

I just had to share this photo that I took of Ella & her cousin Wills today. So cute!!!!!!

Colleen's Bridal Session

I have been waiting (not very patiently I might add) to post these. Colleen & Dustin got married last night so I can finally post some of the images from Colleen's bridal session we did in October. We had so much fun! Colleen was such a trooper and so awesome for letting me take her all over Amarillo to shoot these. She is so great in front of the camera! Their wedding was so pretty and I'll have some images from it posted in the next week or so. Well, I'm off to Dallas for the next couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll post again in the next few days so check back! Peace.

Thoughts

This post has nothing to do with photography really...just some random thoughts. I was watching 60 Minutes the other day and they were talking about "Millennials" (people who were born in the 80's). I was born in 1982 so I would qualify as a Millennial. Except that I don't want to be known as one. On 60 Minutes they were talking about how Millennials are a bunch of whiney, lazy, want everything handed to them on a silver plater, still mooching off of Mom & Dad, absolutely NO work ethic, losers! They expect to be able to go to work at like 3:00pm and still be off in time for happy hour. Their only concern is whether or not they'll be able to hang out with their friends and oh yeah we can't forget about their ipods, iphones, ithis, ithat, etc... They say that the reason Millennials are like this is because they grew up in a world where their parents (mothers especially) were too doting, they had competitions where everyone (even the losers) got a trophy or ribbon, and they were told from birth how very special they were even though they had not achieved anything extraordinary. Now I don't think that's totally wrong or bad but there's a happy medium here. I believe in working for the finer things in life. Of course it would be nice to win the lottery and never have to work again but I don't see how anyone can live in a world where they never feel that satisfaction from finally being about to buy that house, car, or whatever b/c they worked HARD for it.

Watch the 60 Minutes spot here : http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/113/millennials

Anyway, while watching this I realized that I don't really know anyone like this nor am I or my husband like this. Jeremy and I have both been working since childhood. My Dad would take me to his business on Saturdays and I would sweep, organize, and I'll admit play a little. Jeremy's first paying job was on his Uncle's ranch when he was a boy. I got my first "real job" on my sixteenth birthday at OldNavy. I remember (very vividly) spending my first year out of highschool taking a full course load at AC, working fulltime as a legal assistant, and not to mention planning my wedding. Since then the only time I did not have a job was for the 1st year after having Ella. And Jeremy has the best work ethic of anyone I have ever met. He works 6 days a week usually 10 hours a day and you never hear him complain. My sisters are the same way. I remember Leah working at a friend's pizza parlor in highschool and Sarah is rapidly working her way up at the bank she works at dispite not having a college degree. Their husbands are REALLY hard workers, too. I'm glad that I had parents that raised me to work hard and to appreciate every single thing that I have. It's sad that the world is so jaded now. I pray that I'll raise Ella to appreciate the things she has and to work hard at whatever she is doing. Well, I'll wrap this up and leave you with a couple of verses on the subject. I want to hear your thoughts, too!

Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."

II Thessalonians 3:10 "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

Now you know I can't very well leave you without an image of some kind. This is my GORGEOUS sister, Leah. This picture was taken with my camera but not by me...my 2 1/2 year old nephew Wills took this fabulous picture of his mommy!

My Weekend

Hello to all of my blog stalkers! I had a pretty busy weekend. Josey & Chance's wedding was fabulous...loved the flowers, candle light, the bridesmaids looked fantastic, and of course Josey looked absolutely GORGEOUS! (images will be up shortly) I enjoyed seeing and catching up with all of you Trinity folks, too! Thanks to Courtney for all of your help in spite of the trip to Urgent Care, speed breast-feeding (it should be a sport) between the ceremony & reception, and all that throw up (LOL)! I LOVE YOU! I'm super exhausted (probably not as exhausted as Courtney) but don't have much time to recuperate b/c I have another fabulous wedding this week then I'm off to Dallas. Colleen & Dustin, I can't wait for Friday!

Today I shot some photos of Ella for our family Christmas card. The pics turned out great...totally Ella. We shot them in our front yard. Here are a couple that didn't make it onto our card but are super cute! Comments are always appreciated.

Kevin & Lara

I had a busy October. Well, that's kind of an understatement. It was INCREDIBLY SUPER DUPER BUSY!!! I'm not exactly sure (I'll have to look in my book) but I think I had something like 20-25 family sessions in the month of October. That's more than I've had all year! I wrapped up the editing on my last session tonight. Kevin & Lara are really good friends of ours that we lost touch with for a little while but am glad to say that we have started hanging out again. The first time I shot Kevin was in 2001 when he played in a band called Nevaeh with my husband. I'll have to dig that promo shot up and post it on here. The guys look hilarious! Anyway, how HOT does Lara look in this first photo?!?!