Day 121 of 365, Had a Great Mother's Day, Yesterday!

I was too busy, then too tired to post last night when we got home.  So, here are some family pics that we captured yesterday.  This is my family.  Kayla, Terry, myself and Karmyn.  I am so glad that we were able to get this picture.  We hardly ever get a picture of our family together.  I handed my camera to Mom and she took this for us.  Cheese!

I set up the tripod and self-timer to capture the pictures above and below.  Above is a group pic with my parents.  Below is a group picture with Terry's parents who we visited with later that evening.  We took the picture below at around 7 pm. I love that golden evening sun.  Best time of day!

I hope all Moms everywhere, had a very blessed Mother's Day Yesterday.  I felt blessed indeed to be able to visit with my daughters and my mother and mother-in-law. 

My daughters made me feel very special today.  I hope our Granny and MawMaw felt special too.

It was also my Daddy's Happy Birthday yesterday.  He was very touched and sentimental when the girls gave him a beautiful and meaningful birthday card.  He is tough on the outside but all soft hearted when it comes to the love of his family.  God Bless you Daddy.  xoxo

E-Session with a Gorgeous Couple!

Saturday, I did an Engagement Photo Shoot with a wonderful couple.  Kristin, Michael and I had a blast together.  They were willing to try all my crazy ideas!  They trusted me and we came up with some fun, some romantic and all together amazing portraits of a very happy couple in love.  If you want to check out their images go to:  http://michellesibley.smugmug.com/.  They are my featured gallery.  You will see a beautiful picture of the debonair Michael kissing his fair damsel's petite hand.  Directly under that image, you can view a slideshow that will automatically run.  Or, go down to the galleries and click to enter there.

Here are a few of the many gorgeous images  You can see the rest if you follow the link above. 

Originally, we had scheduled for last weekend which was a rain out.  Now, I am glad that we did because this day couldn't have been any nicer.   I heard from Kristin a few minutes ago and she said she LOVE's them too!  That makes me very happy.  We have the Bridal Shoot next.  I sure hope we get some gorgeous weather for that day as well.  Can't Wait!

My message of gratitude to my mentor, Me Ra Koh

If you have been following along with me since the beginning of my blog, you will know that I submitted a video and paricipated in a scholarship challenge that was presented by one of my favorite photographers.  I found Me Ra one day and began to follow her blog postings.  She has such a way of encouraging people to feel confident about their photography.  Because I trusted her, I took some steps that were outside of my comfort zone in the beginning.  Like I metioned, I participated by creating a 2 min video where I share my passion and desire to be a better photographer in hopes of earning the privledge to study under her and other amazing leaders in the photography biz.  I really had no expectation to win.  I can honestly admit that.  I was just sooo proud of myself for participating.  Well, anyway, I wanted to share with Me Ra my appreciation for her and the inspiration that she has provided me through her blog. 

If interested, you can read my message to her by scrolling down her blog post and find my name in the Comments Section here:  http://www.merakoh.com/2010/05/07/watch-lifetime-televisions-balancing-act-at-7am-this-morning/#comment-232915

Day 118 of 365, TRIANGULAR Reminders of Childhood

Today's photo challenge was TRIANGULAR. This is my interpretation. After walking around my backyard, the only inspiration I had was, perhaps, a spider web. Don't they have some kind of triangular shapes spun into the web sometimes? Anyway, I saw one spider web but it looked pretty busted. Nah,...that wasn't doing it for me. Besides that, maybe I should leave the creepy crawlers in peace. If I don't bother them, hopefully, they won't bother me. I walked back inside and I began to think about and wish that I had some baby blocks. You know the shapes that fit into the corresponding shape like a Square peg doesn't go into a round hole...You get my drift. As I thought about children's games, it dawned on me like, "I coulda had a V8!" Chinese Checkers!!! Heck yeah, that ain't nothin' but triangles. Yeehaw. I knew we had this game stashed away. It used to be a favorite pastime for me and my cousin, Barbara Jean who I would spend weeks at a time with during summer break. We had so much fun growing up together as first cousins. Wouldn' trade one day or one memory! Ok, right now, I wish I had a Chinese Jump Rope. Me and Barbara used to love that too. Oh, yeah, and tether ball...oh, my goodness....tether ball for hours and hours...Oh, yeah, and lemon twist, ooooh, we could lemon twist across the front yard and back....Oh, and remember the pogo stick? Speaking of sticks, how about pick-up-sticks?.....!

Day ? of 365, I have missed so many days...gotta catch up!

I feel so bad that I have missed many days away from my blog.  I have been quite busy photographing lots of projects for other people.  I helped mom do a pretty large project.  It was fun but it took alot of preparation and blocks of time.  We have it accomplishd now and we were very happy with the results.  She has traditionally been the photograher for her home church directory.  This year, she asked me to give her a helping hand.  I was happy to do it for her.  She does so much for me.  Plus, I know and love the people in her congregation. We enjoyed setting up studio lights in one of the classrooms so that the families could swing through and get their portraits taken following morning worship.  The portraits are going into an updated directory of contact information for each family.  They loved their images and Mom and I were thrilled.  It was a pleasure to do this as a favor to Mom.  Every one of the family portraits turned out great.  This one makes me smile. Just look at the happy baby! 

What a joy!  

Cinco De Mayo, Olé~!!!

Terry and I met with family for a Cinco De Mayo night out at El Rancho Restaurant.  Julie called me yesterday and we yapped it up for, oh, probably a couple hours!  Julie is my sister in law, married to Terry's brother, Nelson.  "We need to get together...."  is what we mention to each other and then time goes by and just never do.  :(  We enjoy visiting, laughing and talking and in the moment, we invariably say, "There is NO reason we don't get together for girl's day out."  I know yall can relate, huh?  Anyway, I was happy to hear from her when she called.   She mentioned that she and Nelson planned to go out to dinner at a local mexican restaurant, she asked if we would like to hop along.  Well, let me seeeeeee... OK! She didn't have to twist my arm too tight.  I called Terry and he was up for it as well.  Julie said that Ronnie and Tracie were going to come too.  Tracie is Terry's sister.  Plus, Julie's mom and daughter would be there along with another couple of friends.  So, I knew we were going to enjoy the evening of food and festive atmosphere.

Terry rushed straight home from work and showered and changed.  He called me when he arrived at the restaurant to see how much longer I would be.  He knew I was not far away doing the photoshoot with the gang.  (posted below)  I was right on his heels.  When we walked in, our irises had to adjust from coming out of the bright light and into the dimly lit restaurant.  My ears got an adjusment too.  We opened the door and..."la,la,la, La Bamba" sang the Mariachi Singers.  I thought I was walking into Mexico City as one of the music men was teaching a little girl some salsa moves. She was so cute.  Man, I wish I would have worn my flamenco skirt, shoes and scarf!  If so, I could have been a glamourous flamenco dancer in the spotlight!  Well, if not on stage, then in my own imagination. I really don't have flamenco dance attire nor do I know how.  But, I love that music and it sends me to that wonderful fantastic and romantic place in my spirit.  In my imagination, my neck was lengthned as my nose and chin are fashioned in that high and haughty posture of the flamenco dancer. I have my hands over my head, clapping out a syncopated rhythm to correspond with my dynamic foot stomps and heel taps.  Oh, and I must mention how I looooove swishing my bright flamenco skirt that creates sweeping and flambouyant circles around me most expressively in great fanfare. 

Ah, when we walked in, the sound and pulse of the music took me to Barcelona or some other exotic place.  I wonder if Terry thought he was the suave, sophistocated and courageous Matador of every spanish girl's dreams?   hmmmm... (big sigh goes here)

This is a self portrait from a while back.  I called myself Senora M.  She is my alter ego.

A Mother's Day gift from the kids :)

Below is the beautiful Allison, Ben, Adam and Calli.  Allison called last week to schedule a photo shoot for their mom for Mother's Day.  This was a wham bam project pulled together after school and work for Allison, Ben and Adam.  Calli had to leave from the photo shoot in order to go to work.  Remember, today was Cinco De Mayo.  I was due to meet with Terry and a big group at El Rancho's for dinner.  Even though we did have a short time together, I love the images that we created.

Brother and Sister, Allison and Ben are pictured above. 

Their Step brother and Step sister are Adam and Calli pictured below.   

Don't ya think Mom is going to flip? I'm pretty sure she will!