Out With the Old and In With the New!

Regarding 2011…
2011 is one of the most significant years of my life due to the loss of my father. There are not words adequate enough to define how iconic, generous, fascinating, loving, exceptional, intelligent, disciplined or remarkable he was. He is the single greatest man I’ve ever known and I physically ache from missing him. On a lighter note, I have many fond memories of the past year including the launch of this business. (Ironically my very first blog post is about my father.) It is from him that I learned to love art, and I am grateful for the opportunities I was given as a child to explore and create. Photography has always been of interest to me and I have had a camera in hand so long that I can’t pinpoint how long it’s been. (I still have negatives of photos taken as an adolescent and I treasure them dearly.) In my parents basement there are shelves of photo albums; my entire life in pictures. How could I not be inspired to continue this tradition? Once I had children of my own the camera simply became an extension of my body and the rest is history. (Please note – I have read a vast amount of information, sought mentoring, practiced daily and I learn something new every time I shoot. Shooting “professionally” is still scary sometimes and the decision to do so was not made lightly. I am committed to creating photographs worthy of your memories.)

In respect to the holidays, we had so much fun I was concerned that my children would literally die from excitement! We adopted the ever popular “Elf on a Shelf” and he was quite a little character. One morning we woke to find him in the Barbie convertible with his arm around Barbie. (Who knew that elves were sexy?) He also got into stockings, the pantry, light fixtures and the cookie jar (please see below).

In respect to projects, my daughter constructed two gingerbread houses and I am going to duplicate one of the ideas again next year. At her school, they used empty milk cartons as the foundation for graham crackers – genius! Christmas trees were upside down ice cream cones and powdered sugar provided just the right amount of snow. We also tried an idea from Pinterest using oil pastels and water colors but it didn’t work as expected. The goal was to trace and color her hand with the oil pastels then paint with water color overtop. The oil and water should have repelled each other to make a neat effect but it wasn’t as cool as the example I found online. (FYI - We are going to try again using canvas paper instead.) We also made a swag (another idea inspired by Pinterest) that was created from punched out paper that had been decorated and written on. The example shown is mine and I wrote down all of the things I was thankful for this past year. I like how the words aren’t quite discernible to others but very significant to me. Lastly, I cooked my brains out over our Christmas break and I tried some awesome new recipes. (There is a cake in our refrigerator that is so good you would gladly eat it off the floor.) I also made what my daughter now calls “Taco Cupcakes”. The photo isn’t fantastic but I thought you’d like to see why they were given this very appropriate name.

Regarding 2012…
Be on the lookout for some unique photo shoots, new products and the further evolution of e photography. I constantly think about the fundamentals of photography, composition of photos, lighting, subjects, spaces and places to photograph, editing…truly this list is endless. I only hope to have the time and technical skills to physically create everything that I see inside my head. I am excited to share my journey with you and I appreciate the opportunities I’ve been given to help you preserve some of your greatest moments. During my school year I am not able to devote the time I would like to this endeavor. Please do not mistake my lack of posts for lack of desire or lack of business. It is simply a lack of time that tethers my aspirations. (Maybe my resolution should be to cut loose the things I do but do not need to do so that I can do more of what I want to do.)

In closing, I hope to see more of my old friends this year and meet some new friends along the way. Until then…Happy New Year!