another business card.....

I wanted to share another business card that I have created.  It is for the wonderful Heather Sons of Heather Sons Photography.  Check out her site and leave her some love on her blog.

say hello to my little friend!!

Look what I found in my driveway this morning.......

To my surprise as I was going around my jeep to take my son to daycare, I almost stepped on this little guy.  We've been getting quite a bit of rain lately and I think this little one came up from our pond behind our house.  I guess it needed to be a bit of a land lover for a bit.

Living in the south you can come across some neat things.  We have seen our share of alligators.. there is a pluthra of turtles and egrets... and I have seen my fare share of snakes that are poisness.  This little guy though seems to top it all!!!!

45 minutes

This past weekend I have to gloat on a milestone.  No it is not mine, plus I can't even remember when I had this one.  Hmmmm?  Well... While hubby and I were putting together our new grill, oh by the way.... you really should have Lowe's or the place you by it from put it together.... don't get me wrong, it wasn't hard, but when you seem to mix up the nuts and bolts you appreciate the "already assembled" theory.... Anyway, our little man decided to ride his bike.  Now that might not seem too exciting, but it is when after months and months of getting him to grasp the concept of feet moving forward results in bike moving, it's pretty exciting to us.

He did it all on his own.  No mommy and daddy showing him, not even grandma, grandpa, or Mimi showing him.  I guess it holds true to the idea that someone other then next of kin should show a child how to do something.  They never seem to listen when you tell them what they should do.  He must have listened to his inner self and figured it out.  Stubborn stink he is!!!

Now that he is riding his bike, I have the wonderful idea of going for walks.  It's more my agenda then really his, but he gets to benefit from it as well.  And today what I thought would be a quick little 15 minute jaunt really turned in to 45 minutes.  I wasn't expecting to be out that long or that far really.  But to top it all off, I was not wearing the proper attire.  I mean really, I love me some flip-flops.  Wear them everywhere and all the time.  But walking on hot pavement in the middle of the day chasing a child who has just learned to ride a bike is really not the time to do it.  Oh and I have to mention that we went the equivalent to a mile.  Might not seem long to most people, but remember that it's eternity when you are wearing flip-flops.  Thin wonderful Reefs flip-flops!!!

Maybe some day I'll learn.  How about tomorrow?

Well, I didn't take my camera along with, although right now I wish I had.  To get his first long bike ride.  But I'll share another photo with a little processing that I am stumbling across.  Lately you have been seeing moody type of processing, and while it has taken me a while, I think I have figured it out without having to purchase actions.  I am sure to many of you, it's really easy and you probably think I am lame and dumb for just now getting it, but that's ok.

Here is what I have, and I am going to do some tweaks to it, and then I'll post a little tutorial on how I did it. 

Have a good Monday. 

Disclaimer: Now I know there are so many technical things wrong with this.  But I just loved his face and his expression especially after playing in the water.  And I felt this type of processing worked with this image.

mr. i | vera

I feel as if I have neglected this place in a while.  And for the most part I have, but it's only for good reasons.  So many things lately have been keeping me from here.  Paperwork to do, designing, all kinds of things.  And to make it more difficult, the little guy is only in daycare part days which makes for a long day sometimes.  Ya, he can play on his own just fine, but that doesn't excuse the fact I feel bad for not playing with him when I am trying to get work done.  It's that whole balancing act that mothers have to do.  You know be everywhere and anywhere at once.  Multi task!!! 

Here he is at his finest.

(This was image that was part of an assignment, and I loved it so much I had to post it here!)

On to another topic.  I received in my email the other day a promotion.  I was kind of excited because it's something that I love getting.  Well, a little history.  Many women know about it.  It's been around for many many years and the styles just keep getting better and better.  The coolest part is it's based where I am originally from, Ft Wayne, Indiana.  And they do amazing things.  And I am not talking about creating bags, or luggage, or even house wares.  They, well I mean She, does quite a bit for breast cancer research. 

I'm sure you have figured it out by now, but just in case you haven't, I am talking about Vera Bradley.  All I have to say is I have many pieces, probably not as much as some people.  But this one was really fun.  The promo they sent out was for their new lunch bag.  Yup, she has created a lunch bag design.  Well $10 off their lunch bag.   It's very cute!!

I was hoping to find other colors, but since I already had some pink pieces, I thought they would blend nicely.  Sorry guys for the girly post.  I just couldn't help myself!!!

lemonade & spearmint | color

Each time I am in the grocery store, I find myself going towards the magazine aisle.  Don't get me wrong, this selection wasn't anything to boast about, but I did find myself there.  I like to thumb through the pages and see what kind of things pop out at me, artisitically. 

Even though I am happily married, have been for eight years which I am still trying to figure out where the time has gone, I picked up a bridal magazine.  Well, I can actually say that I can still pick it up since my sister is getting married a little over a year from now.  Gotta get her some ideas!!!  On to the real reason for picking it up... They always have great images or designs.  You can get great inspiration from someone's weddings, whether it be a theme or style.  And while all of those really jumped out at me, it was the photography and the color inspirations that it gave me.  They talked about the color trends that are really popular right now.  The one's that can go with each season.  They all seemed gorgeous, but for some reason my eye kept going to lemonade and spearmint.

I mulled on it for days.  Trying to think of something that would be interesting.  Something that could make for a great design, until i sat down again with that same magazine and saw elements that just screamed out to me.  One's that would be great to incorporate.  And along with that came these colors.  Finally I decided to scetch what I was seeing and thinking, and believe me, I hate scetching out designs.  I would rather jump to the creating then the brainstorming anyday.  You can ask my prof's from college, that's of course if they still remember me?  But for some reason this time it worked.  I was able to plan and idea of what I wanted.  A basis for a complete thought. 

And here it is!!  It's a 5x5 promo card for someone who is just starting out and wanting to build their portfolio.  This is just one piece in a large marketing collection that I have in the works.  And just for the fun and the preview of it, the first 25 comments 50 comments on this post will be able to get this template FREE!! 

Now kids, I'll be out of town starting tomorrow afternoon, but I'll be back Sunday night.  I'll send you the file within 24 hours of your post, but if for some reason I take longer, well I'm sorry and I hope you understand.

Here's the front if you would like to see it better:

Here's the back:

It may take me a little while, but as I said earlier I am in the process of creating a large marketing packet.  Business card, pricing sheet, you name it.  And speaking of naming it, I would love a little help in ideas of the things you can't find in a marketing packet that you would like to see.  Who know's, I may just give you that item free.  Oh, and don't forget to fill in your email addy.  I have to know where to send the template too!!!

scooter boy |cheeky smiles

Each time I try to get shots of the little guy, he always gives me this cheeky grin.  The one where his eyes squint tightly and you see all of his teeth.  I think he gets that from me always telling him to say cheese when I want to get a shot of him!  Well, on my quest for finding some light (which by the way, I found it in my garage!  or maybe yet, I forgot about the garage..) I had him do little posing for me.  He seems to get into it a little bit more now which in turns helps me out.

Here's what he gave me.

I know, the first one isn't too cheeky, but the second one gets closer.  He really know's how to ham up the camera!!!!

billowing smoke | storms | clouds

I really believe that mother nature is having words with us this year.  And actually my thoughts on that really hasn't changed from year to year, it just seems it is more pronounced at different times.  Like for instance right now the tornadoes and storms that have been popping up seems like a cry for us to sit back, evaluate our lives and remember to be humble.  Now for the weather channel, I just believe for them it's just another excuse to create drama and pandemonium.  I mean really, V2!  And don't you find it kind of funny how every one of them always seem to have a smirk on their faces, like "this is great, I want the whole world to end due to this catastrophic storm converging, and blah, blah!!!"  And you better believe that when I see Jim Cantore anywhere near where I live and they are predicting some catastrophic storm, my butt (along with my family!!) will be heading out of town.  Because really there never really seems to be any good when he's in the area...

Last night we have a little storm come through, and yes it scared me a little.  It's not the rain and such that scares me, just the lightening.  And the sad thought of it all was this little turtle who seemed to be out roaming the streets while this is all happening.  But I have to say he/she was a smart little one because it seemed to either follow the side walk or the curb where ever it went.  Like a mother, I kept my eye on it as long as I could before it went out of site.  I was worried, and I prayed that little turtle would find a safe haven.  Away from the passing cars and the lightening.

Right at the end of the storm, my husband had to show me the clouds.  And I am glad he did.  I had never seen such clouds.  They were like billowing smoke from a burning building, all fluffy and light.  And the sunset accompanying it was just spectacular.  I only wish I had been at the beach to capture it with the ocean, but my back yard will have to do. 

Here's what we saw.

Template

Today I have been trying to come up with a template.  I think I have been wracking my brain all week of what I would really like to make.  And so I come up with this ( an idea I found searching the net) :

If there is interest in it, please let me know.  I may have it available if there is enough interest.

Mother's Day..........

I have to say that becoming a mom has been the most gratifying jobs.  I always knew that some day I would have little tip toes walking through the halls and giggling with excitement just at a funny smile.  They seem to brighten your day, even though it may have seemed at it's worse. 

While I still was very blessed to be able to spend it with my family, mother's day this year will always be remembered.  I will count my blessings everyday, and remember that as each year passes generations are lost and all we have are but memories. 

But good memories at that.

These are the flowers I recieved from my little guy.

Here it is.....

So I have finally taken the time to post some images from my session I had over a week ago.

I have to say that I had a fun time doing this as mainly when I would shoot it would be practicing on my little guy more than anything.  And while that has been great for me, learning exposure and all the other technical stuff, it really hadn't given me the opportunity to see what I could do in a real setting.  I know I have a lot more practicing to do, what with posing and all, I can't wait to see what I can do now.  My confidence has gotten built more and more and this really helped out.

Now, this is my friend Heather with Heather Sons Photography.  She had been wanting pictures for her business and so I was thrilled when she wanted me to take them for her.  And I have also had the opportunity to rework her logo for her and I'll post that maybe tomorrow.  But for now, here are a few shots that I had gotten.  I have to say that I think I have become more of a portrait oriented photographer rather than a landscape oriented.  Something that I'll need to work on.

A sneak peak....

So the past couple of days I have been working on my first ever session.  I think I have been more scared then anything to initially start it, but I think I did decent.  There are things I probably could have and would do different, but for the most part I am pretty pleased.  

Now I'll only show one image for a little teaser.  When I get the remaining finished, I'll post them. 

This is of my good friends Heather who is also a great photographer.  She has been requesting shots for her business and I was more than thrilled to do them for her.