I've been a terrible, terrible blogger...

I know, I know. I get it. I'm guilty of leaving smart comments for some of my favorite bloggers (Michael) about needing to update their blogs. And, well, here I am receiving my own smart comments.

It's just that I haven't taken ANY pictures lately. Seriously. I have nothing fabulous to share at all. In fact, I have a seriously embarrassing photo to share. How 'bout that? Will that make everyone feel better about my lack of posting? If I share a terrible photo?

Here's the story... we bought tickets to a Dave Matthews Band concert a couple months back. Curt's always LOVED Dave Matthews, and I've always been a fan, as well. We bought one for D.Brown before we knew he was moving to Ohio or Indiana or wherever the heck he's living now. He flew back for the concert. His mistake. Haha! And, Curt's sister Cara bought one, too. We thought, oh, this'll be a fun night. Yeah. Not so much.

The traffic should have been our first indication that the night was gonna be TERRIBLE! I mean, who likes to sit in traffic for an hour INSIDE a parking lot? And, who likes to pay $15 for parking only to have to walk a mile to get to the venue? Sheesh. Once we got there, it only got worse. WAY worse. In fact, I'm pretty sure that there's NO WAY the Smirnoff Center could be complying with the maximum capacity bit. It was, like, shoulder to shoulder in the lawn seating. I've always enjoyed concerts in the lawn at that venue because you can just kinda lounge on a blanket under the stars... it's nice. But, not that night. My gosh, it was OUT of control.

I really thought that the place would be filled with older fans, too. I just don't hear much hype about Dave Matthews Band among the teen scene. :-) Well, no. I was wrong again. I would say it was at least 90% teens/young college kids. That would be fine if I were a teen/young college kid. I'm not.

To start things off, I "smuggled" D.Brown's camera in my purse. Yeah. That's against the rules. I, of course, got caught. Apparently, though, smuggling in pot, maryjane, weed, reefer, ganja, hash, dope, cannabis, Acapulco gold is NOT against the rules. (Yes, I used a thesaurus to emphasize my point.)

Anyway, they told me to hold on to the camera but don't use it. Ummm... okay. Because, let me tell you, I'm gonna get some STELLAR shots from eighteen miles back in a sea of teenagers & smoke clouds. C'mon people. We only wanted it to take pictures of our experience together. You know? I just wanted pictures of US hanging out.

Whatever. We finally found a place to sit out in the lawn. I'm not sure if the guy next to us was alive or not, honestly. Someone dragged, dropped & left him there. Alone. Like, what happens to people like this AFTER the show? I'm pretty sure he either came alone, or his friends ditched him. No one seemed to care about this guy next to us. If it weren't for the occasional involuntary jerk on his part, I would have been REALLY concerned. The "security" guards even came & checked on him. They walked up, walked a circle around him & then retreated back to the back of the venue where they could stand & chat with their fellow security buddies. Seriously lame.

So, yeah. We stayed for a few songs. But, then we left early. There is NO WAY we were going to sit through the traffic that would have been if we'd waited 'til the end of the show. No way. Plus, I was gonna be REALLY mad if I took an innocent blow to the head from the guys behind us that were on the verge of a fight the whole evening. I just KNEW they were gonna end up in a huge brawl & we were going to be the casualties. Ugh. Not a fun evening.

But, I managed to snap off one completely blurry photo of Curt & I at the concert with David's P&S camera. (I'm a rebel, I know. Using that camera even after being asked not to... man, what a rule breaker.) I'm pretty sure those are nervous smiles on our faces. Haha!

What's going on with the focus & depth of field here? I mean, seriously? Oh well. The quality of the photo matches the quality of the evening.

Man, I love my garage.

Yep. It's true. I think today is the beginning of a long love affair with my garage. You see, up until recently, our garage has been home to a pool table & a bit of clutter. But, finally, the hubster decided to get rid of the pool table, as it was only used for... umm... storage. Haha!

Well, as I'm sure many of you photographers know, garage light is INCREDIBLE! I've been reading about it and seeing awesome pictures produced in garages for a year+ now. But, I've never been able to try it out for myself because there's just been too much stuff in there.

Today, though... today I decided I hadn't taken many pictures of Emma lately. So, I pulled her into the garage for some shots. Test it out, you know? I tacked a green flat sheet to the wall to cover the world map the hubster has up there currently & started shooting. I had NO idea how much I'd love it! Man, the catchlights are A-MAZING! For you photographers out there, if you haven't tried this, you SHOULD!

Before I get to the pictures, I need to give credit where credit is due. I was inspired to set the shots up the way I did because of some that Brenda had posted of her daughter on her blog. (See it HERE.) I just always love the spunky shots she gets of her daughter. Plus, I thought her outfit was cute, too! Haha! Inspiration down to the outfit. :-) More inspiration from Brenda for this shoot can be found HERE. I love that Brenda's portraits are often so simple & clean, yet packed FULL of personality! Awesome!

Here are the results of my effort today:

So, yeah. Fun stuff. I love when I do something different (for me) photography-wise. I also love that this location is literally right out my door! And, I can use it (hopefully) pretty much any time of day. :-)

For anyone wondering, I did post process these differently than I normally do. I thought the colors called for a little more muted look, although they look pretty good full color, too.

I've learned my lesson...

So, Maya's got a pretty simple hairdo. It's basically a bob. That's it. It was getting pretty long, so I thought, "eh...I could just trim that up myself." You can see where this is going right!?!

I'm thinking, how hard can it be to just trim around her head in a straight line? Well, I sit her down and start cutting. I start on one side & cut around the back to the other side. I'm kinda proud of myself. Then, I step back and look at her straight on. Ummm... one side is like a full two inches longer than the other side. At least. How does this happen? I mean, seriously? And, well, the shorter of the two sides is INCREDIBLY short. But, it's the shorter of the sides. It's not like I can add more hair to the short side, so I was forced to cut the rest of it to match the short side. Ahhhhh! So, the kid has some SERIOUSLY short hair right now.

One of the first things Curt said when he saw it was, "well... it'll grow back." Gee, thanks. He says he only said it to make me feel better. I then informed him that I never felt bad. Until he said it. Whatever. She's actually getting multiple compliments on it a day, so I'm thinking it's okay. :-) Maya really does manage to pull of the short 'dos pretty well.

Of course I had to take her out to snap a few shots to share with everyone. These are from Monday (the day we cut it.) The first three are from BEFORE I straightened it up. This is still crooked. Haha!


Bwahahaha!!!! Look at this one. Sheesh. How could I cut it SOOO crooked!?! Poor pouty little thing. I'd be pouting, too, if my hair looked like that! She was probably just embarrassed because she KNEW these photos would end up on the blog!
And, these last three are from after I evened it up. :-)

Yes, I own a pair of heels. No, I don't wear them. At least someone does...
So, yeah...that's that.

Anyway, I had a fun day yesterday! Maya & I got together with a new photographer & her kiddos. :-) I've known Chelsea for several years now, but living in different towns, we've never really gotten to know each other. But, she's recently become interested in photography, so what better excuse to get together, right!?! I can see that she has a real passion for photography, and I love that! It reminds me of me. Frankly, I think there are a whole lotta people getting into photography but many of them don't have the passion.

I've totally seen awesome growth in Chelsea's work! That's so cool to me! That's one of the reasons I LOVE photography... it feeds my need for instant gratification. You take a picture, you can look at it right away. You see something you need to improve, you read up on it & try again. It's like, the rate of improvement (when you have the passion for it) is insanely encouraging.

So, yeah, we got together. I brought Maya, and she brought her three sweet little ones. I didn't get any good shot of Maya. It's not that she wasn't being cooperative... I just didn't get anything good. Also, I only got ONE single shot of Brianna (Chelsea's three year old) and it was out of focus! Haha! She was a quick one! :-) Next time, though. Next time I'll be ready for her!

I got a few really sweet ones of the baby, Alexis. She can't crawl, though, which is AWESOME for photography! Haha! I SOOO wish I'd been into photography when my girls were immobile. Here she is:


And, the four year old, Samuel, was a little ham! He was really, really cooperative, so I got lots of fun shots of him. :-)Check out the way cool snail he found:


I think this is my favorite of him:

Anyway, it was just a really fun morning. I'm glad we were able to get together, Chelsea! :-)

Well, that's it for now, I suppose.

I told you I had more to share...

So, ummm... remember, like, a month ago when I mentioned that I had more pictures from China to share with you all? Well, I think the time has come.

I've been INSANELY busy with school starting back up & all. It's just a whole new dynamic for our family. Fun stuff. Nonetheless, it's kinda taken me away from photography some. As much as I thought I'd hit a plateau with my photography, looking back, I think August was a great photography month for me. I just feel like I've got several shots from the month that I LOVE. That makes me happy.

But, now we're into September, which, in and of itself, is CRAZY busy for our family every year. There are a billion birthdays in September. No. Seriously... a billion! At least it seems that way! Haha! So, we're running around most of the month going to parties, you know? Then, throw school & preschool in the mix... ay yi yi. I've been terrible about everything. I just can't seem to get anything done. My email correspondence is suffering, BIG TIME. Sorry Mom & Craig. (And Chelsea, too! Wednesday will be GREAT, by the way! I'll email you!) My photography & post processing is suffering. My blogging is suffering. Obviously.

Anyway, tonight I was sitting around thinking that I MUST get outside & take some pictures. I was gonna force myself out. But, Curt & I were watching an episode of The Office (an absolute RIOT of a show. Stanley is my FAVE - so cynical, so serious, so blah... LOVE it!) The guys had gone to Benihana for lunch. There they were sitting at a table where the chef just cooks it all up right there. It made me think of China. Annie took us to a fabulous restaurant one of our last evenings there...just before the girls set out for the $2.50 foot & back massages! (Did I tell you about those? Yet another thing I miss.) Anyway, I had taken pictures of the chef, and I realized I hadn't done a THING with them. Well, there are HUNDREDS of pictures from China that I just haven't touched yet. I want to. It's just...the task seems insurmountable. I'm SUCH a procrastinator when it comes to tasks like that. Plus, we've been busy.

Inspired by The Office, (has that show EVER inspired ANYone to get ANY work done? I can't imagine that. Whatever. I digress...) I sat down at my computer to check out the pictures from that restaurant in China. You know... see if there are any gems in there? Well, there weren't really any fantastic pieces of art in those pictures, but there were some fun ones. I just processed two quick, though, before I was sidetracked & pulled away by the wedding couple, Julie & her husband! (More on that later.)

So, here's the two from the restaurant...the restaurant that got me to sit back down at this computer & work on some pictures! Finally!

And, once I opened the China pictures folder... well... there was no looking back. At least for a while. From the restaurant pictures, I moved on to Julie & her husband. We took LOTS of photos that day, in the rain. And, well, I haven't processed many of them AT ALL. They are such a fun, sweet, gracious couple...why haven't I gotten this done before now!?! I had the BEST time photographing them. Anyway, here are a few more from their day. :-)

I wish the big ol' red banner wasn't running right smack behind them. Oh well. What can you do?





There are more, tons more, just waiting to be processed. Slowly but surely, eh?

And, well, remember way back when... I said I would have more pictures to share from the second day in the villages? Yeah... I never shared those. I've had several more finished for a while, I've just not shared them. Well, lucky, lucky YOU! Haha!

Remember the sweet, sweet little girl in the pink top? Seriously...eyes that are full of life? Remember her? Well, I'm finally getting to share a bit more of her & the special moments we were able to share with her & her family. See, Heather & I... well... we like flip flops. What can I say? I mean, honestly, I think there's no better shoe to wear whilst trucking yourself up the side of a wet, muddy, ROCKY mountain. Right? (I know many of you agree. Flip flops at all costs... that's my motto.) No, really, though, we were wearing flip flops the first day we went out to visit with them. The little girl who I'll refer to as "A" (because I can hear her name in my head but I have NO idea how to spell it other than it sounds like it might start with an "A") spotted our polished toes. It is AMAZING to me that it's just, like, a natural occurrence that little girls are drawn to girly things. It's just part of the natural progression, I guess. You're born, you hold up your own head, you sit, you crawl, you get teeth, you walk, you like nail polish... that's the way it goes for little girls, I swear. At least for my little girls and little miss "A."

So, we visit, she warms up to us, we go back to the hotel for the night. They'd invited us for breakfast the next morning, so we get up & get ready to go. I toiled with the decision to wear flip flops or sneakers. (Love that word. Sneakers.) It was painful, but I decided to go with sneakers. Heather, did you decide to wear sneakers, too? I don't remember. Anyway, "A" saw the polish again...either Heather's toes or fingers. She loved it. It occurred to me that I actually HAD the polish in my makeup bag in the car. I mean, who DOESN'T bring polish with them to the villages in China? (I'm making fun of myself here. Just sayin'.)

Craig & I decide to truck back down the side of the wet, muddy, rocky mountain to the car to fetch the polish & then head back up. Heather sat down to paint her little fingers & toes, and I perched myself behind my camera. It was such a sweet, fun moment to be able to share something so simple with her. And, yet, it made her feel great! You could tell... she took it VERY seriously, just admiring her painted fingers as Heather finished up her toes. Someone told her in Chinese to let them dry, and, BOY...she took that job SERIOUSLY! My girls... yeah, you can count on them accidentally smearing the polish off at least 3-4 toes out of the ten. Not "A," though. She was so, so sweet & dainty about the whole thing. It was another of those moments. Those moments where I was smacked in the face with how blessed we are... how much we take for granted the little things...

Look at her & tell me she's not perfect. I think about her a lot... wondering what she's doing. I think she captured a bit of my heart.


I think she won over someone else, too. They played together for a LONG time. They both loved it, I think. :-) She was sad when it was time to leave...it broke my heart. I've got to say, I can't wait until he's back here, playing with my girls like this. They miss their Pa. They spent ALL of lunch questioning us about when Grandma & Pa would be back to fill the two empty spots at our table. For some reason, they're CONVINCED those spots belong to you two. :-)

Her sweet Aunt, who was also recently married. She sings little "A" sweet songs. :-)
And her grandmother... She wasn't feeling well while we were there. I hope she's doing better now? Mom? Craig? Have you spoken with them lately?
And, here's a random one from around town that I thought was fun.

On our drive home from the villages, we spotted the most vibrant, beautiful, full rainbow! Really... just gorgeous!

And, well, that's all I've got for you right now. :-) I just... I'm so grateful for our trip. It's impacted me in more ways than I could recount. I feel a sadness in my heart just thinking about everyone... I miss them. I miss the way being there made me feel, and I miss the freshness of the impact. That probably makes no sense...