A few more from the Stockyards...

I've got more to share from the Stockyards. And, we actually stopped at a cute little location just before going to the Stockyards. It was an art school for kids, so it was really fun & colorful. Here are a few from there (when Maya was being a bit more cooperative.)


And, one from Curt that I love:
Some after thoughts from the Stockyards:





I'm reposting this picture of the girls because it occurred to me that I could swap Maya's head & love it even more. Ha! :) So, that's what I did.
A couple from Curt... because I don't know that he'll ever update his blog.

Okay, Brandi, I owe you one.

So, a while back... like, maybe over a year ago, my oldest friend Brandi told me about a location. (And, when I say oldest, I don't mean age-wise, though, she is pushing 31! Ha! No, Brandi & I have been friends for 19 years! NINETEEN years!!! Brandi - can you believe it!?!) Anyway, she told me a LONG time ago that the Fort Worth Stock Yards had some neat areas for pictures. Today, Curt & I decided to take the girls out for a little shooting. We headed to the Stock Yards, and OH. MY. GOSH. I'm in love.

I'm not much of a country girl nor a Texas history buff, so I actually have no idea what the Stock Yards are exactly. All I know is that it's tons of corridors with brick paths & old wooden walls. The lighting is so beautiful. It could be only slightly more beautiful if a lot of the lighting wasn't coming from above, but whatever. It's nice either way. Think garage light, but with awesome floor & walls, as well as some seriously awesome lines. Oh, AND railroad tracks that you're ALLOWED to be on! :)

Anyway, so, we took a ton of photos. Maya wasn't really very cooperative, unfortunately, because she was hot. The kid basically shuts down in the heat. Seriously. It's ridiculous. Does she know she lives in Texas?

Emma, however, was a real trooper. She let us take countless photos & had a great attitude the whole time.



Here is one of the few photos of Maya sans pout. And, I'm pretty sure she was telling potty jokes or something. Didn't I give birth to two girls!?! So, why oh why do I hear potty jokes ALL. THE. TIME!?! Sigh...
I'm sure there was more of the same humor with this shot.
And, probably my newest favorite of the two of them. I just love it. :)

Me. Irritated.
Curt. Just before he "broke his feet" upon landing. Nerd. I told him not to do that. He says his heels are bruised, and there's "something seriously wrong with his ankles." Yeah, it's called being old. Actually... he was fine after this jump. It was the next jump that did 'em in.
A quick family snap. I wish I'd brought my tripod. Man, when am I going to learn to start bringing that thing along?!? We had to find a little ledge that I could prop the camera on (with help from my wallet positioned just under the lens to keep it from toppling forward - GHETTO!) I also had to be able to get behind the camera to focus & all that jazz. There were not too many options. This would not have been my first choice for location, but whatev. This isn't too bad for the setup.
And, ummm... this next one... I probably shouldn't be sharing it. The occassional "funny face" picture was the only way to get the girls (in other words, Maya) to cooperate for a couple more family shots. Good times.
The moral of the story? If you're in the Fort Worth area, go to the Stock Yards TOMORROW! They rock! :) (Thanks for the tip off, Brandi!)

Sharing some more photos from last week...

Thanks, guys, for all the nice comments about the family photos. I really did have such a great time with them. I'm sharing just a couple more from their shoot.

A more traditional family shot:

And, one of the super sweet, gorgeous kiddos:
Do you think they'll be my guinea pigs? Aren't they the perfect family for practicing!?!

Okay... the night before I took these photos, I photographed a couple other little cuties. Do you remember Ashley... she & her husband modeled for our Lab workshop? To refresh your memory & just for fun:
Anyway, she'd asked me a while back if I would photograph her niece & nephew. We FINALLY got a chance to go out last Monday. They were SUCH cute kids! Little Miss M reminded me how QUICK two year olds can be! Whew! She did NOT want to slow down. At. All. Haha! We made it work, though. It's like, she would only look at me every now & again but only for a split second. I had to be ready to roll all the time. Keeping me on my toes, I guess. :)

One of them together:
Six year old big brother:
I think this is my favorite of him. :) I was getting ready to take a picture of Miss M, and he stuck his head right in the frame. Too cute!


And, here's Miss M:
LOVE this one, though it's not tack sharp. :( She was SO quick. Haha!
This one is probably my favorite of her. She's just a doll, isn't she!?!

So, Ashley, I hope you guys like them! :)

So, I wonder if I'm post processing too late?

I mean, it is almost 3am, after all. The later I stay up, the more out of my element I'm getting with my post processing tonight. I'm not sure why that is.

I went out on a shoot of sorts with my friend Misti and her sweet, sweet family. Her husband, Jeremy, happens to be the pastor at our rockin' awesome church Stonewater. (If you're in the area, you should definitely check it out. Love, love, LOVE it!) Anyway, I can't really recall the last family shoot I did. They always make me terribly nervous. I'm a wide open aperture kinda gal. Families freak me out because of all the people & getting everyone in focus, you know? But, with shooting such a young, gorgeous, FUN family, I thought I better relax & go for it, right? It's not often that you get a family like this (in small town Texas, anyway) that sees eye to eye with my shooting style.

We hit several locations that I've never hit before. Can I just say that I'm IN LOVE with a new little alley way? It's an alley, but it's an alley with charm. Must. Go. Back. There. :)

Anyway, so, I post processed all of these the way I normally do. But, then I kept at it. It's LATE, so if the processing is whacked, I'm blaming it on the hour. Okay? Good.



Maybe my fave:

Revisiting some old photos...

Okay, so, I'm being forced to go through my pictures from the past couple years. Forced probably isn't the right word, but whatev. I don't really want to go into it... it stresses me out. Ha!

Anyway, so, I've got, like, thousands. At least. I can hardly handle it. I can't throw anything away, and yet I take an insane amount of photos every year. I started looking through 2007. That's as far back as I want to go right now. And, well, I only got as far as January 17th before I decided, "hmmm... I could do a WAY better job post processing that now." See where this is going? I don't think I'm physically capable of looking through my old photos and turning a blind eye on the crappy post processing. Ugh! WHAT am I gonna do!?! I cannot re-process all my photos. Plus, there are countless hidden gems in there, you know? Just because I didn't love the photo upon my first glance through, I just discounted it as not really a keeper. (But, heck... what does that mean, anyway!?! It's not like I throw out the "non-keepers.") So, yeah, I'm also finding... say... a zillion new old photos that I want to work on. Oy.

I'll say it again. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Ignorance is bliss. Right? Maybe I should step away from the files. If I don't know there's a gem in there, there is no pressure to fix 'er up, right?

Anyway, I found these next three photos hidden in the masses. I took these on Maya's 3rd birthday, so a year & a half ago. I remember being less than thrilled with the photos I took of her on that day, so I discounted them as non-keepers. (I kept them, though. I know, I know...) And, now, I like them. :) It's funny how my style has changed. And, it's funny how Maya's chubby cheeks have changed! Haha! My gosh, that girl was a chubby little thing. And, she'd even slimmed up quite a bit by this point.

Hopefully we won't have too many more posts from memory lane. If we do, it means that I'm not getting anything done. I mean, "anything" being things I NEED to get done.

You can thank my power for these.

So, yeah, we randomly had a power outage this evening. No storms. Nothing. Just a power outage. With nothing to do inside, the girls & I headed out for some play time & picture time. There's nothing great about these... just some fun snaps.
Talking. Because the girl NEVER. STOPS. TALKING.




That's all I've got for you tonight. :)

Good times.

Man, so I get all sentimental on the Fourth. I just can't help it. I don't realize that it's creeping up on me, and I don't expect it. But, by the end of the night, I always find myself full of gratitude.

July 4th is my gramma's birthday. So, every year, the whole family gets together to celebrate her birthday, as well as partake in all the Fourth of July festivities. The thing about my family, though, is that we get together for EVERYone's birthdays. I mean, party after party after party. In September, there's not a free weekend. Seriously. I always enjoy the time we spend together, but there's just something special... something extra about the Fourth. I guess it's because it's the Fourth, eh? Genius, aren't I?!?

Anyway, it's like, we sit around for HOURS upon hours... lazy day. We swim, we eat, we have a Yahtzee good time, you know? With mosquitoes & sparklers & sunscreen & berries... embarrassing the teenagers of the family with the Thriller dance... It's just too much fun. And, then after we've passed enough time & the sun has set, the fireworks get going. We all sit gazing silently at the sky. Together. You know how silence can be so awkwardly blaring most of the time? But, then, when you reach a certain level of comfort with someone, silence can be so... so serene, so peaceful. And, it's in the silence of the Fourth that I suddenly find myself feeling so overwhelmed with gratitude. It's like my family, my big ol' crazy family, embodies a feeling of camaraderie in that moment. Nothing has to be said or done or whatever... I just know they're there. I'm sure it all makes no sense, but I get it. It's the best I can do to verbalize it.

From there, I move on to feeling so thankful that my family is afforded so, SO many freedoms because we live in America. I look around at my family & my daughters & realize that life is good.
My most favorite time of the night is when we're in the car headed home shortly after the fireworks show. I love the traffic. I call it the if-you-build-it-they-will-come traffic. (Ask Curt. I say it EVERY year. And, no, he doesn't get tired of hearing it, either.) I just love knowing that everyone else is out celebrating the same things as me. I love having the drive time to reflect on it, watching the sky all the while knowing that I'll see at least 20 more random fireworks on the way home. Good times.

















These last four are nothing super fabulous. I didn't come prepared... no tripod, no nothing. I just wanted to capture the numbers...