Mira's Photos

On Saturday I took some photos of my friend Mira and her dog, Kaya.  I took their photos last year as well and was really excited to have the opportunity to photograph them again. This year was a bit easier and I am sooooo excited about how the pictures came out. Mira looked gorgeous and was such a great sport as I bossed her around to get some good shots.  Kaya did a great job sitting and eating treats!  Her ears make all the photos look so cute.  Here are a few that I absolutely LOVE. I hope she loves them too!

New Location? New Light?

I finally received my camera back from the shop and it is as good as new! While it was away I was scouting out some new places to take photos. Different locations with different feels, backgrounds, and light.  There is a small park in town that I wanted to check out because it looked earthy and the light in the morning always looks good. I dropped James off at preschool and headed over to this park for some early morning photos with Emma.  The weather was perfect, cool and sunny. The trees in this park are beautiful and color coming through them was awesome.  The hardest part of today was getting Emma to sit somewhat still so I could get a good photo.  She did pretty well after I promised her that she could have a cookie!  Next time I need to bring some yummy snacks or props to occupy her and put her in a cuter outfit! Here are some photos that I love from our 15 minutes in the park. 

 I know they have some sun haze but I think it makes the light in them gorgeous and you can even see a tiny rainbow in one of them if you look closely.  A few more to come in the next few days, with haircuts, cute clothes, and props!  I am also taking photos of my friend and her dog this weekend and we have some cute ideas up our sleeve.  Hopefully I can post those soon as well.

Shutterfly Holiday Photos

I have already started looking at the Shutterfly Holiday Card choices for this year.  I love Shutterfly and use them for lots of my printing needs.  They do one hour photo to Target which  I like because I am at Target 3 times (don't laugh!)  a week or so and can easily pick up my photos.  Anyway, they have some awesome selections this season and I know I can find some designs/sizes/number of photos that will go with my holiday photo. I love that I can choose what size card I want, how many photos I have, and colors and it will narrow down all the choices they are offering.  Makes my job of creating a card much easier!

I am hoping to have a simple but modern card that focuses on the photo. Here are a few I am thinking of purchasing...

.http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/gifted-tag-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&fa=2&storeNode=93480&fe=4

I love the simple colors and beautiful fonts. I also love making my own Christmas tags and this goes right along with my love for tags!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/joy-peace-love-holiday-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&fa=2&storeNode=93480&fe=4

Again, simple fonts and colors.  I can decide after I choose outfits, locations, and do my photo editing.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards/blue-ribbon-holiday-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&fa=2&storeNode=93480&fe=4

This is my last choice but I love the colors and that you can actually write a message!

The other thing I love about Shutterfly is that you can choose matte or glossy photos for cards and I love my photos to have a matte finish. If you have a blog and post about Shutterfly they will give you 50 free holiday prints which is pretty cool too!  Go here http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/ if you want to give it a try!

Update on my camera:  In addition to having my sister's camera to use I busted out my old 35mm SLR film camera and am going to attempt to that.  Look for how those photos turn out!

Holiday Photos!

So my camera broke last week and I had to take it to the camera shop and have it shipped to Canon to get it fixed. They told me it would take 2-4 weeks to get it back.  At first I was ridiculously upset because I have some exciting photo ops coming up that I don't want to miss but someone awesome saved the day! My sister, Nina, is sending me her camera so that I have something to use in the next few weeks to take holiday pictures. Thanks Nina!  You are the BEST!

I am looking forward to taking pictures of James and Emma. I have a bunch of ideas brewing around in my head. I really want to do something fun and a little whimsical. Hopefully there will be pictures to show in the next few weeks.  I am hoping that I can send out holiday cards early this year. I am not always the best at that. I have created a few templates for cards so I am not sure if I am going to make my own or just use a standard from Shutterfly.  Will post my ideas soon!

I am also looking forward to taking some holiday photos for friends in the next few weeks. A few more ideas are running through my head for those as well.  Can't wait to try out some new things and experiment with locations,  props, etc.  Yay to my friends for letting me practice on them!

And because it is getting colder out I wanted to share two recent photos that warm my heart. Love these people, these pictures,  these memories :).  It makes me so happy that my children can know my grandparents.  It is obvious to me how happy they are to be with Emma and how Emma clearly knows they love her (even though she doesn't see them that often).

Attempting a Blog

Can I do it? Start a blog of my family, photography, daily life?  I don't know but I am going to give it a try. My goal is to post two to three times a week with stories of our daily life, photography, and activities we are up to.  I am going to try to make it interesting and stay focused!  Let's hope for the best and I hope you follow along!