Miss Lily is One!

That's right, I know you've seen the party but you don't think we could let this little girl turn the big O-N-E without a proper photo shoot do you?  Get out your awww's and oooo's because this is about to be a whole lot of cute!

First of all a big shout out to The Cup in Bearden for letting us do the first half of the photo shoot there.  It was perfect for Lily's intimate birthday celebration and I can't say enough how awesome the staff was (and the cupcakes!). 

We met early and a very very cold Saturday to do the photo shoot.  I was so glad we were inside and sipping coffee when we got started. As previously stated, we met at The Cup and got out the balloons and party hats.

And what's a birthday without  cake?  Especially a yummy cupcake?

After we had our fill of cupcake and balloons, we headed over to the L&N for a few more shots of the beautiful birthday girl.

Thank you to Freddie and Lindsey for letting me be apart of this exciting time in your family's life.  I have enjoyed getting to know you two better and you beautiful daughter.  I think you would both agree that its been an exciting and wonderful first year for Lily!  Happy birthday Lily!

Still Moments 1.27.14

 

It's been awhile since I've contributed to the Still Moments series that I've been collecting.  But this moment hit me the other day. What is more still and than a quiet house and a cat appreciating a sun beam?  I don't know, there's just something about it that is peaceful.  Pets themselves bring so much comfort and peace to our lives.  I try to keep my crazy cat lady tendencies to a minimum but it doesn't mean that I don't appreciate our pets.  There are times when they drive me nuts but at the end of a bad day they can also be a great comfort.  I know many of you feel the same way.  So enjoy a cup of tea (or maybe something stronger) and cuddle up with that pet today.  Here are a few of the "runners up" for the still moments for this entry.

Lily's 1st Birthday Party

That's right, this little lady just turned one!  Can you believe it?  It's hard to believe that I've been photographing Lily for a year now.  She has grown faster than I could have believed.  It was so much fun to celebrate with this little girl and her family.

Lily's parents threw a Lady Bug themed party and it was ADORABLE.  They had everything from Lady Bug cake to a color coordinated tutu for the birthday girl.

The party was an intimate gathering of family and close friends.  You could just feel the love coming out of that room!  Freddie, Lily's Dad, smoked the pork bbq himself and we had a small feast.  Instead of cards for Lily, they had everyone sign one of her Cat in the Hat books so that as she grows up she will be able to know everyone who was at her first birthday party.  So sweet!  However my favorite moment had to be watching Lily discover her cake.  I say "discover" because she didn't smash it, she just investigated it more and more.

Happy Birthday Lily!  You are a beautiful and sweet little girl.  I can't wait to see you grow more!

Mann Again

As I have mentioned in previous posts (see Mann: Keeping Inspired) and will likely  mention in posts to come, I'm a big fan of Sally Mann.  I love the rough quality of her work and at the same time the mystery of it.  I particularly love her wet plate photography series like Deep South, and her newest series Proud Flesh. Her latest series Proud Flesh is done in the same wet plate style, although unlike many wet plate photographers, Mann prefers her glass negative to be imperfect, as well as her camera for that matter.  Proud Flesh is a series of portraits of her husband Larry, whom she has been married to for 40 years.  The series not only reflects on the closeness and intimacy between Larry and Sally, but of the deterioration of Larry's body from Muscular dystrophy.  The result is a heart wrenching series, that is honest and intimate, and will bring tears to your eyes.

I highly recommend checking out the link below to NPR's interview and a video of Sally Mann with her husband Larry.  There is also a HBO documentary on Mann titled What Remains.

Sally Mann: Proud Flesh

Holiday Cheer

Holiday Greetings boys and girls!  It's that time of year.  Everyone is recovering from Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.  But maybe you didn't find what you wanted? Maybe you didn't feel like braving the crowds or logging onto your computer?  Not to fear citizen.  I've got the perfect gift in mind for you, for any friend, family member, or coworker. Nothing says Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, or just I'm thinking of you while I eat a lot of Christmas cookies today...like a beautiful photograph.  So if you've had your eye on a photograph for awhile, now is your moment to snatch it up.  Maybe even keep it for yourself, I won't tell.

Here's the low down.

5x7s-$10

8x10s-$15

11x14-$20

Send your requests with the image# and the post name in a comment at the bottom of this post.  Once I receive the comment I will contact you through email for your shipping address and payment options.  This deal is only good through December 10th!  That way we have time to get everything shipped.  *Ahem, side note.  Unfortunately I cannot guarantee getting it there by Christmas since it depends on how busy the company I print through is.  But I will do my best, cross my heart.

Having trouble remembering what posts had those super duper pictures you are thinking of?  Here's a little jog:

For the Cow Lover in your Life

The Retro Lover

Kitty Lover, Again, and Again

And for all you nature and landscape enthusiasts, lots and lots and lots to choose from.

But I suggest just taking a little bit and look back through each post, that way you can decide what you really want.  Remember this is only good through December 10th so hop to it!

Caro's Senior Portraits

Finally!  The wait is over dear friends.  You may now spend hours gazing upon these photos, and you probably will too...there are a lot.  I had a great time at the UT Gardens with Caro.  She survived the camera being on her at all times, graffiti of people with lots of eyes, and even an encounter with a coffin...it was quite the day.   She was a great sport and the pictures turned out fabulous.

Sneak Peak

Because I know many of you are waiting with bated breath for the unveil... Because I'm a nice person...

And because I really really love these photos...

I'm giving you a sneak peak of the senior portrait session I just did with the lovely Ms. Caro.

Shelbi's Senior Portrait Session

A couple weekends ago I had the privileged to take some senior portraits for one of Speed Racer's cousins, Shelbi.  She's an ambitious high school senior with a great laugh and a gorgeous smile.  I really had a wonderful time working with her.  We spent most of the shoot at the gorgeous UT gardens, and then headed off to the Worlds Fair Park with a couple props that Shelbi had brought.  It was a blast, and the pictures turned out great.  Usually I like to add a little more artistic flair to my photographs, but the colors in the pictures were so vibrant already that I barely touched them.  Thanks Shelbi for letting me document this time in your life, I hope you have a fantastic senior year.

On being Alone

Speed Racer often travels for work, and as soon as he's gone I hear "What do you DO while he's gone?" "Aren't you afraid to be by yourself?" "But you're ALONE!"  So I thought I would show just a few words of wisdom and insight on being alone. Being alone is always a hard thing.  I try to stay tough but I have to admit that when I'm in the house I lock every door...even ridiculous ones...like the closet...just in case.  But when I'm not being neurotic, I try to stay busy.  I can't even imagine how hard it would be to be a single Mom.  I don't have kids but it takes a lot more to keep the house running and the kitties fed when Speed Racer isn't around.

But when I'm not super busy, here's a list of things I do to have fun and keep entertained.  And to keep the "missing Speed Racer" thoughts away.

1. I take funny pictures...mostly of myself...and the kitties.

2. I watch lots of girlie movies.

3. I eat

4. I dance around the house, weirder than usual.

5. I talk to the kitties...alot...not just like "Hey pretty kitty.." but more like "Woah! Did you see that? I saw that..that was crazy...crazy."

6. I hang out with friends

7. I don't watch scary movies, I can't handle them on my own.

8. I sleep in the middle of the bed...I only crowd Speed Racer's side a tiny bit more than usual.

9. I try to do chores.

10. I miss Speed Racer...alot.

I know Magic

Levitation pictures can be really fun, or creepy, or elegant, or whatever floats your boat.  And if you have photoshop or another editing system, they are surprisingly easy to recreate. First you want to start off with two pictures: *side note you will definitely want to use a tripod for this.

Picture number one should just be a picture of your background, whatever that may be.  Now here is the super important part.  Once you decide on a background, angle, etc that you like, do not move your tripod, or you're going to make life a lot harder on yourself.

Picture numero 2:  A picture of whatever you wish to be levitating in the foreground on a stool, of some kind.  You ideally want something that isn't too elaborate.  It's hard to tell in this picture because the bench I used was very similar in color to the background, but the subject is laying on a bench.

Next in photoshop you are going to open those two photos and pull the foreground photo on top of the background photo and line them up so they are exactly on top of each other.  If you're having some problem doing this you can lower the opacity of the top layer so you can see the one beneath.

Next, create a layer mask on the foreground layer (you can do this by clicking on the icon of the square with a circle in it at the bottom of your layers menu) and using your brush start to paint over the stool, or bench.  You can see here that I went a little too far so I'm losing some of the subject's leg, that's no biggie!  Just switch your brush color back to white so you are adding back to the layer mask.  Work with it until you no longer can see the support feature.

Do a little tweaking with colors, etc to make the picture as eerie as you would like, I mean we are getting close to Halloween after all.  I think they are a lot of fun, and I hope you will try these out as well!