Photography Sale

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve posted an announcement about my photography business sale of prints on Pebbles of Joy. They would make great Christmas gifts, so please check it out!

Absolutely In Love

I am in love with these pictures of some lovely people who are very much in love. They are my favorite engagement session ever. (I can say that because they are the first) Please check out their post at Pebbles of Joy and leaves oodles of comments!

Aimee and Mike

Ever After

My Montage 7/20/08

Coming Soon…

Jenny and Brian ~ July 19, 2008

And they lived happily ever after…

Do The Next Best Thing

There have been many moments of my job where I feel useless. These people aren’t coming here to get beautiful, artistic, meaningful pictures. They are settling for less, and they couldn’t care less. At times when I’m acting like an idiot trying to get an obnoxious brat to smile I get really upset. These pictures will mean nothing to these people. They are just another picture, to send to another relative, or to hang on the wall.

One of my most difficult little boys was spoiled rotten. He jumped around, off the table, around the room, and constantly yelled “nope!” He desperately wanted to make his “mad face.” After 20 minutes of trying to get him to smile we settled for your basic portrait minus the smile of an obedient child. I dreaded the thought of having to go through this process 6 more times. So when I set up the next picture and he shouted “I wanna make my mad face!” I promptly responded with “Fine.” Other moms have made me (and other customers) wait for over an hour so they could feed their baby in between shots, while they screamed at their other children running rampant all over the studio.

But within the last week there have been two different families that have made it seem worth it. They made me realize that for some, what I do really does matter, and these pictures are priceless. I’d like to tell you about these two different instances.

One mother came in to make an appointment, she was really pleasant, and even was excited when I called to remind her the day of her appointment. She arrived with her little baby, and while I was trying to figure out if it was one of those babies that will never stop crying, I saw something that stopped me, and made me instantly ashamed for creating stereotypes without knowing the circumstances. She wasn’t your average four month old, there was something special about her. She had Downs Syndrome. And I fell in love with her. Finally the husband arrived, and we started on what was my most meaningful session I had encountered yet. I realized only halfway through the sitting that this was their first family portrait. Somehow that thought sobered me. I did my best with that precious little one, and the family was so gracious and grateful. During the sales portion, I asked if it was their first family pictures. The father looked down at his gentle baby, and softly said “yes, she’s been sick.” That encounter chilled me, because I realized that for some, this might be the only or last picture ever taken. These pictures were going to remind them of their precious gift, that they didn’t expect, but were so very grateful to have.

The second, and most heart-changing instance happened just tonight. I had advertised our packages to a shopper, and was able to set up an appointment for the very next day. She came in with the cutest little baby ever, who smiled at me if I just looked into her big brown eyes. Although that was not the norm (most kids are very difficult to get to smile), there was something much more unusual about each picture I took. Everytime I would take a picture, capture that precious smile and those big brown eyes, the mother would gasp, cover her mouth with her hand and start crying. At first I thought maybe she had only gotten horrible pictures before and was just grateful to have a good one, but I soon realized there was something else to the story. The mom quietly asked me if she could take a picture with the baby. I said sure, and then watched as she slowly walked to the mirror. She gently took off her scarf, and it was only then that I realized she had very little hair. I realized the scars on her body were from radiation. She was fighting a battle I could only stand back and respect, I could never understand. Taking pictures of those two together changed something in me. Maybe she would win the battle and look back on these pictures as a testimony of what she beat. Maybe she will lose the fight, and that little tiny baby will one day treasure those pictures. I wanted to say something, to ask if she had given up treatment to have this little baby, to tell her to keep fighting. I wanted to wrap my arms around that mom and daughter, and take away the pain. I wanted to do so much. I did the only thing I knew how to do.

I took pictures.

Photoshop

Tragically this is so me.

A Day of Pictures

Is this wise?

On top of all my ministry responsibilities, numerous meetings, new job, family obligations, future school projects, let alone keeping in touch with all my friends, I decided I needed another blog. I’ve been wanting this one ever since wordpress came out with the amaaaazing monotone photoblog. My word. It is delicious in it’s amazingness. The pictures are huge, and the blog changes colors based on the first picture of your post. How unbelieveably cool is that?! For someone who likes changing the little things often but screams inside at the thought of extreme change, that is very very nice. Very nice. It is exclusively a photoblog, and I will be keeping this one up just as regularly as I always have. (Haha). So without further ado ladies and gentlemen, my photoblog:

Pebbles of Joy

What is a pebble of joy you might ask? Well, it is quite a long, but funny story. Once I met this amazingly tremendous girl named Sheila, only she was the Sheik to me. One day we were shopping with our moms when we came to a parking spot. Hmmm…sounds pretty ho-hum to me you say? Well, you know those parking spaces where that have open spots in front of you, and you can just pull through, and altogether avoid the whole backing up trial? Well, this was one of those spots. As we were pulling forward Sheik goes “Oh goody! A pebble of joy!” I promptly responded with a look like, what in the world are you talking about? She said “oh, you know, a pebble of joy is just something little that makes you happy! Like green beans!” Ever since that day our family has frequently talked about pebbles of joy, and I always knew I wanted to start a blog called Pebbles of Joy. But when I decided to start this blog there was no doubt in my mind about it’s name, this was not to be Pebbles of Joy. But the time has come, the moment is now. Yada yada, go look, come back often, and leave mucho comments about your pebbles of joy.

The Other Side

My family members are not the most cooperative, spur of the moment subjects for a photoshoot. So when something strikes my fancy I do something with my hair, and then do my best to come up with interesting shots with one arm (or tripod) only. My favorite/most inspired shots are those that have interesting natural lighting. Can anyone guess where I am in this one? And how the lighting is accomplished?

Work, work, WORK

For those that haven’t heard yet, I GOT MY JOB! I was tremendously excited and then began to panic a little. I’m a worrier, and I never believe in myself as much as other people. So far it has been good. The first day was a little crazy and I was a little freaked out, but then the next morning my manager acted like I had already learned all the computer junk. (Except for special things). So today I started learning how to change film! She showed me how the day before and I really wasn’t sure about it, and then today I made myself practice once while not looking at it, and then she stuck the stuff in the dark bag and I got to change it in there. It’s sooo hard because you can’t see where any of your stuff is, where any of the tiny slots are, and if everything is good, and you MUST NOT OPEN THE BAG until your film is firmly in the canister. I did it very well though, and she wanted me to change the real roll tonight but we didn’t have time. Next Saturday though! YIKES. I will be so glad when they move into the 21st century and get digital. Good grief. EVERYONE went digital YEARS ago!!! Anyway. That’s one of the many things I don’t understand about this job. That and the fact that they STILL USE DOS. How insane is that? Windows has been around since before I was born. Ok folks? We are now in the 21st century. MOVE ON. Haha, sorry, I had to rant a little there.

The hours have been…much. Which is fine but just looong when

• You haven’t worked in almost a year and:
• When you did work it was THREE HOURS A WEEK. (Which was why I no longer work at the Horrid Chicken Place)

I got to move on to the picture taking portion of the training! That was cool. My manager showed me how to work everything (it is the easiest part of the job…I think if a job is that easy it shouldn’t have so much paperwork and codes and blah blah blahs! Hehe, another vent there!). She assigned me three shots of a “non-sitter” (baby who can’t sit up), three “sitters” (baby who can sit up), and one whateva’ shot. So it was my job to practice on a teddy bear. Absolutely fun except I made the mistake of doing a cute pose for the package and so that makes less in the optionals that people would pay the big bucks for. (I could majorly vent about that one!) My manager said that when I was done she would “tear the pictures apart” and tell me what I did wrong. But when we looked at them she was really impressed and said that I could definitely pose. Woohoo! I almost asked to buy the pictures of the teddy but decided I didn’t want to pay that much money. All in all it’s been fun and today was not as stressful as I thought it would be.

The things that have made me smile after a long day at work are:

• Friday: Knowing I made Kaysie’s day
• Saturday: Watching this video: