MeRa Koh SOAR! scholarship entry

I did it again... I applied for MeRa Koh's SOAR photography scholarship. I figure I really don't have much of a shot at getting it... but if I didn't apply, I REALLY wouldn't have a shot, right dad? You can click on the SOAR site here & see my last-minute video (and of course you can leave a comment on it if you feel so inclined!). I hope there aren't many more applications that got submitted - right now there are only 116 entries, which gives me almost a 1 in 35 shot!
There are some amazing women out there applying & the camaraderie & cheering-everyone-along of the women is pretty incredible. The group of ladies that attended the workshop in May - well, they are awesome. We still keep in touch & are always rooting for each other with our photography & life in general. If you can... save your pennies & go to one of these workshops. It will do amazing things for your photography & your confidence & your vision & you will build a network of awesome loving sisters who love photography as much as you do.
The video is half of the application, the other half was written. It had to be between 90-120 seconds... which is hard! If it seems choppy, it's because it is! I had to go through & erase all my "ummmm"s & pauses to shave seconds off.

So sweet

My daughter's birth mother got married yesterday. I love this image I captured of the two of them. It looks better pre-blogger. Oh well.

6 Star Filter

We went to see the Christmas lights tonight and I brought my new 6 star filter to play with. I think this one turned out kind of cool.

Pregnancy Photos

Check out these photos to know what to avoid in taking pregnancy shots.

Getting Ready for Christmas

I just Love all the decorations this time of year!!!!

emailing you the posts

Hey! I just set it up so that you will get an email in your inbox when someone posts.  I know this will help me know when to check for new posts.  Anyone not want to be emailed?  Let me know and I'll take you off.


And since this is a photography blog, here's a picture.

N. Topsail Beach - the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was so nice.

personality.

Catching personalities on film is one of my biggest goals as a photographer... What better way to freeze in time the way your kids (or your clients' kids) are now?! I feel the best time for this is in the in-between moments, when they think you're just checking your camera settings...
I love this picture because of the Littlest One's face - she is totally not going to laugh, even if the big kids do! I also like how you can see the motion in Big Sister since she is throwing her head back laughing & made herself slightly blurry. And can't you just almost hear Brother's big belly laugh? Don't you wonder what is so funny?? So - no, it's not a "perfect" all-3-kids-smiling picture, but heck, I like these better anyway! More interesting. More personality.

SmugMug

Hey, do you all know about SmugMug? I love it for sharing photos. Totally worth the price. I have never ordered prints from them, but it's possible as well. My girls were both adopted so it is really nice to take a bunch of photos and send a link to their birth families. Here are the photos I took of my baby today. They probably need more editing. Click on photo to see the whole album.

Maybe I am too eager on this site. Let me know if I start to post too much :).

Helen

Hi new friends! I have only recently become interested in photography. Last year I injured my shoulder and after surgery couldn't play sports for 6 months, so I decided it was time to learn a bit more what my camera could do. We have a canon rebel xsi that had never been taken off of the automatic setting. I had no idea what all the buttons were. So, I started by reading my users manual and experimenting with shooting in manual. Then, I read the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It was such a great help for someone new to photography! Then, I paid a little money for a one day workshop held by a friend of mine, Mandi Nuttall. I knew she would be nice to me even though I was totally green. After the workshop, I invested in my only nice lens, a 1.4 50 mm. I love it! I hope to add a nice zoom lens and a wide angle to my collection sometime. Any recommendations?

My passion is children's photography, especially of my own. But, I am most proud of this photo that I took of my niece, Ruby. I wish I had edited it, but I had my friend Mandi do it. She added more grass in front and did some sort of faded action. I love it! I work in Photoshop Elements, and I shoot in RAW. I do very limited editing, and when I have a nice photo worth printing, I just pay Mandi to do it for me.

Thanks for letting me join the club! I am excited to learn from you!

Oh, and my favorite photography blogs to stalk are Peekaboo Photos, Heather Gibb Photography, Nuttall Photography, and Meredith Carlson Photography. Mandi and Meredith are friends of mine and I think Katie and Heather just rock at photography.

welcome new friends!

I just invited two more people to join us here.  They are in our facebook group too.  My friend Karen - who lives in Virginia and is just starting up a photog business.  And my cousin Helen - who lives in Utah.  It's her daughters that I posted last.

I'll let them do an introduction post when they accept their invites!

Karen and Helen - go HERE to read the intro questions.  You can also read all of our intros HERE.

PS - Shayna! What have you been doing the last two months?  We need your intro too.  Just go put that 2 month old down and get on it! ;)

AND - do you guys want to get an email when someone posts here? It will go straight to your inbox so you know when there is something new to see?  I think we can also have comments emailed too.  Just wondering what your thoughts are on that...

fall images and then some

I'm afraid I missed the best leaf taking days.  I always saw some gorgeous trees and thought to go back, but never made it.  Here are a couple from the tree in my backyard.  (That is now totally naked!)

and these aren't fall related, except that I took them of Maggie last month on the day of her 6 month checkup...

this one I edited (can you tell? j/k, I hope you can!)

and you know what I've decided I really like doing?  Taking pictures of stuff.

There you go Haylee.  It's your fault I overloaded you all with pictures now!  Just kidding, I know I've been negligent.  :)