Oh please Mr Postman!

My little Jr camera is making it's long awaited voyage home today. Unfortunately I am stuck at work on this beautiful sunny day, but I have been checking Jr's progress via the lovely tracking package option. So far, he has not returned.


via Octoferret on flikr

So please Mr UPS man, bring me my camera!!!

sometimes you just want to hit things....

I am so annoyed and frustrated and OVER IT!!!

the only thing I can do is present a pleasing bowling picture, because who doesn't love bowling!?

Miss me?

You've probably heard, "Planning a wedding is stressful!" You may have even heard me say it. That's what I've been doing these past few months.

...

Wait. No it's not. Ha! The stressful part is that I haven't been planning it! I daydream, gather ideas, and procrastinate. That's why I'm stressed! Sigh... Well last night and today I have finally started putting pen to paper and product to shopping cart. I've crossed at least 4 things off of my to-do list and am THIS close to finishing the invitations! Whew! One of tonight's projects was narrowing down the centerpiece idea. In doing so, I was playing around with this lovely IKEA vase and michael's fake gerberas.

I love it. However, the vases are $10 a piece and needing 35 of them? Well, that idea is out. While I was photographing this lovely failed idea, this little guy decided he wanted some of the action...

Meet Chester, my first long haired cat ever. Chester is the bane of my existence. He is the reason nothing stays on coffee tables or desks. He should have been named Dennis because he is a MENACE! He leaves his fuzzy static-y gray hairs all over the place. As soon as company comes over, he uses the litter box (number 2!!) He constantly bothers his big brother, Crackers. He thinks he can beat up Roxy, the dog. He eats until he pukes, then goes back for more. He sits right in front of the computer screen whenever I sit down at my desk. He is the most rambunctious, annoying, frustratingly ...adorable creature I know.

And tonight, he decided to attack my failed centerpiece idea...

got hit in the head with fake flowers, then decided to take a more reasonable stance about ten feet away.

(and of course, less than three minutes later, he knocked it over again. Sigh...)

Learning every day

Concert photography is totally different from other forms of photography. I've experimented with all sorts of lenses, settings, flash or no flash, exposures, etc. Last week, on the day of the great Verizon FAILure, my boys played a show at a local bar, Frankies. The lighting was interesting, and while I was shooting it, I thought everything blue, red, and green was going to be crap but...

I'm enjoying this photo of Blue Brady.

And this one of the rainbow guys.

However, the easiest, most crisp light was right after the blue, when it was ALMOST normal coloring. I had to time it just right for these images but I think they are pretty neat. Again, it's just all about learning more and more with each shoot. Can't complain though, great music and a chance to get some new photo experiences - plus being the groupie that I am, I got in free. :)

Hip hip hip happy Christmas

Hope you are enjoying the time leading up to Christmas! The boy and I just finished a long, strenuous afternoon/evening of shopping, and we are SPENT!

I am really getting excited for the time spent with family and friends next week.

SO, wishing you a merry Early Christmas!

Love,

Eric, Roxy, and me.

Finally...

If you've been around my blog since July-ish you will probably remember this photo:

And the promise that came with it - sharing of the details of the Save the Date project... Well the time has come. Some of you may have received the postcard in the mail so this is old news. I still want to show it off though!

There it is! Front and back. :) It's printed on 'pearl' paper so it has a glittery, glossiness to it.

But our all time favorite part of the whole project was the video (which not everyone has seen!)

Oh I love it. I still watch it! We've had good feedback so far from both parts of the Save the Dates. They were so much fun to make & send out. The whole process took us a couple hours on the 4th of July. The video took maybe another hour. We got the postcards printed through Blossom Publishing and made our own address labels with our inkjet printer. Altogether, not too much work!

P.S. While I was attempting to photograph the postcards, I was interrupted:

hehe :)

Stopped in my tracks

I was just trying to have a lovely impromptu dinner with the boy tonight when all of a sudden I noticed that I could not see all of the letters in the word on my glass. I thought "uh oh..." and then proceeded to test out my vision by looking around at different details.

The I was missing in Miller.

The O was missing in Sports.

The pepperoni was missing on my pizza.

Then sure enough, I started to see the little lights.

Remember when you used to be able to turn your tv to channel 99 and see nothing but static? Or 'dancing ants' ? Now, it's probably just ESPN7 but you remember what I'm talking about. Well, picture that in bright colors. Now picture it right in the center of your vision, completely erasing what SHOULD be seen.

Now imagine it growing larger and larger within minutes until your entire vision is fuzzy, cloudy, and quite disturbed by the dancing colorful ants.

Welcome to my migraines. If I were an artist, I'd draw a picture to better describe. However, I'm not. So... I google image searched migraine auras. Interesting finds:

This shows the progression of the aura as it grows and then finally recedes. Blah.

Ugh I can't even look at this one.

A lot of people will say that even looking at or imagining the auras will bring tears to their eyes. I think the craziest part is that the aura doesn't bring pain at all. It's just the knowledge of what comes next. Check out this description I found here :

Migraine headaches may be preceded by a visual "aura", lasting for 20 to 30 minutes, and then proceeding to the headache. Some people, however, experience the aura but do not have a headache. This visual aura can be very dramatic. Classically, a small blind spot appears in the central vision with a shimmering, zig-zag light inside of it. This enlarges, and moves to one side or the other of the vision, over a 20 to 30 minute period. When it is large, this crescent shaped blind spot containing this brightly flashing light can be difficult to ignore, and some people fear that they are having a stroke. In reality, it is generally a harmless phenomenon, except in people who subsequently get the headache of migraine. Since migraine originates in the brain, the visual effect typically involves the same side of vision in each eye, although it may seem more prominent in one eye or the other.

Some people get different variations of this phenomenon, with the central vision being involved, or with the visual effect similar to "heat rising off of a car". Some people describe a "kaleidoscope" effect, with pieces of the vision being missing. All of these variations are consistent with ophthalmic migraine.

Yuck.

Pictures found: here , here , here, and here

Lucy & Sadie

I know it's been forever since I posted and believe me, it's never far from my mind. I need a fresh inspiration for daily posting! Until I get back on my blogging feet, I hope this will hold you over. Yesterday I had the honor of photographing my dear friend's little one, Lucy. She was such a delight, and I must say, quite taken with me. Hehe

I think nurseries are so adorable. Lauren and Jon have created a wonderful space for Lucy to grow up in.

She's so stinkin cute!!

I also recently was able to photograph my friends Nick and Laura with their newborn, Sadie! Seriously, I am completely intrigued with baby photography now.

Brings a smile to your face doesn't it? Babies may not be in my future for quite some time, but I'm certainly enjoying getting to hang out with my friends' little ones! :)

The Welker Family

Sue and I work together every Friday at the Y front desk. The first thing I ever heard about Sue was "Oh you work with Sue? She has 5 kids." I remember thinking, "Wow.. that's all I'm going to hear about. What in the world will we have in common!?"

I was wrong. We've become great friends! And her kids are seriously some of the cutest. She has Chase, followed by Kirsten, followed by twins Maya and Alana, and finally Corbin. Oh and her hubby Chad.

Chase was such a good sport! He was horribly ill but managed to bear with us during the shoot.

I love this last one - Corbin is looking back at me. What a cutie!!

The Boy's Band

I just have to shamelessly brag on my fiance and his band... They just got signed! This is a very exciting time for them, and they oh so graciously agreed to let me photograph them (and even use my photos on their new myspace and possibly the new album!!)

The shoot was slightly stressful but one of the most successful shoots (in my opinion.) So anyhow, congratulations to Southbound Fearing on signing with Red Cord Records! :)

I've been shooting a lot lately. Mostly small projects for friends and such, but it's been educational to say the least. For some reason, I get super nervous right before every shoot. So nervous that I start thinking of reasons to cancel! This feeling doesn't really shake until about fifteen minutes into the shoot. I even start thinking about how much I DON'T want to be a photographer. Where is this nervousness coming from?? And how do I CHILL out!?

After I relax and get into the flow of the shoot, I realize that I love what I've been doing lately, and I really hope I continue to shoot every weekend (at least!) We'll see...