It's Here, It's Here! (yes, I'm jumping up & down)

I am so excited about this bad boy! I saved all Summer to get this plus a couple lenses. Unfortunately, I had to use all my savings towards a down payment on my new Mercury Mariner. I really needed to unload my car, it just wasn't a good vehicle choice. If you ever plan on getting a Pontiac G6, let me tell you. . .DON'T! I hated mine. Anyhoo, I was rather depressed even though I got a new vehicle, I was really longing for the D300.

Well, my DH decided that I should still have it. I worked hard all Summer with Seniors and he really wanted me to have it. He also explained that I would have all Winter to practice and become familiar with it before another busy season of Seniors. Well with that kind of advice, how could you not take him up on it right ;)

So I jumped online the next day and ordered it. He almost fell over. You see it takes me months to make a decision to spend a large sum of money. . . not this time honey, not this time!

The screen is much larger than on my D70s!

Where am I????

I'm home . . . patiently waiting (well that's a lie) but I am waiting for the UPS Man! He has my D300 on his truck. Tracking says it's on the truck and will be delivered today! UPS message center called me this morning to say it will be delivered between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. WTH!?

So here I am, at home, if you need me. Call me, text me, IM me . . . yah . . . I'll be here.

It's me!

I was bored and surfing the web. Another photographer mentioned this site, Polyvore so I went and checked it out. Very cool! You can add all kinds of things and make great little collages. The possibilities are endless. Go check it out!

Find me on Polyvore

Snowboarding

Schyler got a snowboard this year. Luckily, Hunter brought his for the weekend. They both couldn't wait to get up on the hill and try them out. Of course, they liked each others boards better so they switched. I did not do well with my focus this morning. I can't decide if I'm out of practice shooting moving targets or if I was shivering too much because it was soooooo cold up on the hill. Nonetheless, I still wanted to document Schyler's first snowboarding experience. She loved it! She actually will start skiing through the School's Ski Club the day after New Year. There were a few crash and burns but for the most part they did well. My sister, her fiancee' and I laughed more than anything.


Even after crashing, she has time to give me the peace sign LOL!
Yah, Hunter hit hard here but he was a trooper and got right back up and back on the board.
Isn't he cute? He will officially be my nephew September 19, 2009.

Check out the air here! :)This is my soon to be brother-in-law giving the kids a show. They loved watching him.

Snow romping. . .

Piper is 10 months old now. We figured when the snow hit we would have problems getting her to go out for the bathroom. We were wrong! Piper loves the snow! She's usually very easy to photograph but not outside when there is snow. I had to tell her there was something in the snow just so she would be still so I could get a few shots. Then she kept burying her head in the snow. JRT's are know for going to ground and love to dig. She either smelled something or believed me when I said to get it because she kept digging and digging LOL!

Our visit

I dare say this is my DH's first visit back to the cemetery where his dad was buried this past July. He doesn't talk too much about his feelings but I know he misses him a lot. So on my way home from work, I stopped and picked up a cemetery blanket (very similar to a wreath). We got a lot of snow on Friday so the cemetery was pretty much buried this morning when we got over there. Grandpa doesn't have a stone yet, but was buried next to his parents. We didn't have too much trouble finding the spot.

Tonight my DH sat down next to me and said, "thank you for doing that it was really nice". I knew it meant a lot to him. It will be very different this Christmas without Grandpa Lee.

Some real hang time. . .

Piper is 10 months old now. She never cared for her pacifier too much as a baby but now she loves it. She will keep putting it in your hand so you'll play with her, but she won't let go of it! So this is what happens when you try to get it from her. She loves doing this! Even while hanging she'll try to shake it out of your hand. I don't know if this is too safe for her teeth but she does seem to enjoy it.

Love the spots all over belly in this one.

Lindsay's Beauty Birthday Bash

My niece had a beauty birthday party at a hair salon. The girls all got manicures, upd0's and then makeup. I only stuck around long enough to work on some indoor shooting with my speedlight. I also shot in raw which I normally don't do. I'm never really happy with my shots in raw for some reason. I think it's because they always look flat. I plan on shooting all winter indoors to get a lot more practice with my speedlight.

Here's the birthday girl getting her manicure.
While they're getting manicures, the other girls were looking at books picking out how they wanted their hair done.
Niece #2 and goofy DD
Niece #3 was sooooo excited about getting her nails done and she made sure to choose pink to match her shirt.
All the nails were done, onward to hair do's. This was an all day project. I feel for the hairdresser she must have been beat when she was done. There were 10 girls!

Running off Thanksgiving dinner

Piper hasn't seen Jaeger since we watched him overnight back in September. He's definitely gotten much bigger. Piper took 10 strides to his 1 but that didn't stop her. She continued to try and keep up with him. I know these aren't technically correct but I had fun shooting and watching them play.


They both turned in the same direction here.

This was my favorite of them all.

Here they come. . .

there they go.

Collages with styrene

Here are two collages that have been mounted on styrene. You can use them on an easel for your desktop or table or you can place them on shelves. Product photographer I'm not, but hopefully you can see what I've described. Hope this helps!

The other 1/2 of her session. . .

I finally got the chance to proof the rest of Schyler's mini-session. She wanted to go to the field that I did a lot of my seniors. Of course it was full sun, but I didn't mind because it gave me a chance to work on backlighting. I still really need to get that down.


Love the little pine cones on that tree!

I love when she gives me this look, reminds me that she is still just a little girl even though she wants to be older.
So I got all the shots I wanted and now she gets to do what she wants. She pulled out the BIG ole' shades and that's what she went with. Like I said she wants to be so much older.