Picture of a picture

It's a bit silly I know, but I wanted to share this one and am not near my laptop where it is stored.  I happen to have this picture of the picture on my phone oh thank goodness for all the technology we are blessed with (or cursed, I'm not sure which sometimes)  :)

The sweet little guy is Mr. Matthew Holden he blessed us with his presence back in October.  And the amount of love for him is amazing.
I was asked to take his first pictures (and lots more in the future i hope) of all the shots I took and printed this one was my favorite. 

The set up for this shot was quite simple, I used a couple of yards of black flannel for my seamless background a couple receiving blankets under the flannel for a bit of padding for his little body.  Grabbed a couple of childrens classic books from my daughter and set it all up on top of the dryer in the laundry room.  Using my speed light pointing at the ceiling.  Not hard at all.  And every time I look at it I can't help but smile. 

I don't know if I can say it is my favorite photo in the house, but I can promise it is in the top 100 (that is pretty awesome considering the thousands of photos I take per year)

I was just with this little guy(and Miss Kashly) again this past week and the photos are still on my camera waiting to surprise me with their awesomeness.  I can't wait for my next day off so I can play with them (crop, edit, print and such is my kind of play) 

I must go for now. 
Until next time, keep your shutters fluttering!

Have a great day
tc

Why do I do this anyway?

"This"  this what?  And why?  I ask myself this all the time, and I'm not sure I know the answer.  The photo is of my camera Stephen bought it for me for my birthday when the d60 was hot out of the factory.  I love taking pictures. That is what "this" is today and well the why...that's still got me a bit puzzled.   All I really know is I like to take them.  I like going back years later and sparking that memory trigger of the time and place.  Now the picture my be a silly little flower growing in the sidewalk crack, but what I will remember from that photo is a trip with my whole family(mom dad brother his family and my own) from the second we stepped onto the beach to the emergency trip to walmart before getting on the road to come home.  Most every picture I take is like that. I do enjoy taking posed photos for my dear family so they have their own memories but my favorites are the unplanned spur of the moment shots collecting on my phone, cameras, computer and of course my walls.  so the "this" I'm doing is collecting moments.  The "why" for now is for reflecting on when my girls bring their babies over I can say to their grandpa (it'll be fun to call Stephen that one day) "you remember when..."  to which he will undoubtedly answer with a "yup" or and "uh-huh"

Thanks for reading the crazy rambling
Until next time, have a great day

Go collect some memories to reflect on later :)

tc

Ladybug

This is Ladybug, she belongs to my sweet little Britt.  I was out in the yard with the camera a few months ago and she was so curious that she didn't mind the snapping of my camera at all.  (She is a pretty calm horse anyway).

I love how if you look into her eye you can see the shadow of her, and her eyelashes wow!  Britt keeps asking me to print this one for her and I keep forgetting.  Maybe I will get to it this week.

I like taking pictures of people but my favorite things to shoot are landscapes, flowers and animals (nature) because they are never worried about posing just right or if the smile was perfect or not.  I just shoot and I get amazing print worthy photos. (love that part)

Anyway, it had been forever since I posted on this blog so I thought I better get one up before all of my followers (all 3 of you) forgot who I was.  I am going to try a bit harder to post photos more often.

Grab your camera and go out and shoot something.  It is so relaxing.

Thanks for stopping by, please come back soon.

Happy Easter!

Moving on

I have been having some issues with the photos I post.  I cant see them.  No I am not blind.  The photo is there while I am creating my post, but the when I publish...its just not there.  Oh there is a spot that means there is a photo that should be there, but it never loads.  I have no idea what I have done differently than all the times before and I have changed it with different file formats a couple of times.  But still it will not load right.  So instead of stressing over the silly thing I am making myself move on and forget it.  If it loads for you wonderful, I hope you enjoy the pretty colors on that silly duck as much as I did.  If it wont...well welcome to my world and I am sorry you are having to miss it, he really was quite pretty (for a duck)  So I will be sifting through my photos again in the next day or two to figure out which story begs to be told.  Thanks for reading.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Hello down there

This photo makes me giggle.  Meet Joey, he is my 9 year old paint.  For as far back as I remember I had always wanted a paint horse.  The reason is silly, I was a little girl and I thought they were so pretty and they were super cool because a paint horse was the kind of horse the Indians rode.  And of all the photos I have of him, this one is my favorite so far.  It looks like he is smiling for my camera.  He is a big guy so he really does stand this much higher than my eye level, this photo makes him look 10 feet tall.  And the nose and outer edges of his lips and the chin is the softest parts of a horse.  I love petting him here.  If you ever find yourself out in the pasture with some horses you trust, pet one right there on its nose.  I promise you'll love it.

Anyway, thanks for reading.  Enjoy your weekend J

Tail feathers

Well I guess this is proof I have made it to being a real "country girl"  because who else other than a country girl would think that a bunch of chicken butts was photo worthy.  I know it's silly, but there was just something about the way they couldn't have cared less that I was in their space snapping pictures of them...all they cared about was the feed I scattered on the ground 15 minutes before I decided to take some farm photos (this is just one of many from that day)  I love the whole farm life thing I don't have a lot to share about this photo, but I loved it and wanted to show it off.  I do believe that when I get to do the chicken coop remodel in the spring I may just have to print it and hang it up for them to enjoy (i know, crazy...but hey, its OK)

Thanks for visiting.
Have a wonderful day!

ps.  don't forget to check out my other blog
tlcsrandomlife.blogspot.com
there is going to be a giveaway soon!  :)

My go at senior pictures

That's right, I got a real chance to do senior pictures and what better senior than one that don't judge me about my ability(or lack thereof).  This was so much fun for me, a photo shoot a full year in the making but fun nonetheless.  I hope to get the chance to do senior photos again.  I will say that as outgoing and head strong as she seems to you she is quite shy when it comes to being in front of the camera.  Now maybe she isn't like that with everyone but she was with me.  I not sure really why she was so tense sometimes because my only request was that she just be herself.  Most of the time it only took a few clicks of the shutter when she wasn't paying attention to get her to relax a little(some of my best photos of her are when she wasn't trying to pose)  We did photos for all seasons except winter...not sure why she wouldn't go out tromping through the 15+ inches of snow we got last February with me to get some winter shots.  Anyway, we started with summer shots at the lake, then I got a new point and shoot camera that takes underwater photos I jokingly mentioned we should do some underwater shots for fun.  I didn't think she would really want them as her senior photos but she did.  Now I love everything about this photo.  The green is green, the blue of the pool just pops, her hair(I love the color of her hair) EXCEPT that silly truck in the background!  I hated that it ruined my favorite shot (she loved that part about it-her and her momma both)  Most "real" photographers would say "oh no that won't work" there is garbage in the background, the light on her face is too splotchy there are too many shadows or some mess like that, but you can see her reflection in the water and the waters light on her pretty face is awesome.  In this photo, I don't recall just what she was looking at, but it was one of those moments that she wasn't paying me any mind and I was clicking away and captured "just Nikki".  As it turns out this photo has wiggled it's way into my favorites file.  I don't know why, honestly, when I first previewed it before printing I hated it, but every time I open it up I see how all the things I love far out weigh the one thing I hated about it. 

Thanks for reading, have a great day.