Oh Christmas Card....

I contemplated maybe not doing a holiday card this year for pure lack of creativity. I didn't have a cute pic of Ryan and I, we don't have precious children that make holiday cards sparkle with cuteness no matter what they're doing in the photo, among many other lame excuses.

I decided though to embark on a little holiday card photo shoot adventure with our dearly beloved yellow labrador, Mr. Wyatt. While he was wiggling and avoiding me just enough to not be able to capture the perfect shot, toward the end I have to admit I think he was enjoying it. The amusement with mommy snapping the camera at him though wasn't enough to get him to look at me and make a cute "holiday card material" face.

Yesterday I was disappointedly browsing through the photo shoot pics and decided to play around with one in Photoshop. After several hours of tweaking and editing, I accidentally stumbled upon a final product that I have to admit I was kind of excited about. I hestitantly showed ryan, because I knew if he didn't like it, it might diminish my chances for a 2010 holiday card. O.k. I exaggerate a bit...let's be real here, guys don't really have a say in these matters! :) Anyways, he was kind of impressed and agreed we could order them. Woohoo!! Below is the final product. This was all by pure chance and luck that I was even able to come to this somewhat acceptable rendition of our 2010 holiday card. I'll post instructions on my post-processing steps soon. It may take me awhile to remember exactly what I did. :)

BEFORE

AFTER

Others from the photo shoot - hehe I love all of his holiday outfit changes :)

Seriously mom, get the camera away from...

DPS Weekly Assignment - Repititions and Patterns

So as some of you may remember from older posts, one of my fave photography resources is Digital Photography School. They send out a daily newsletter with info on products, post proscessing (editing), various photographing tips on tons of different subject matters, etc. They have a weekly assignment and I ALWAYS say I'm going to do it for practice. AND, of course, I never do. This week though the subject is "Repitition and Patterns" and I had a photo I took over the weekend that I thought would be fun to post to the weekly assignments forum. Not to be confused with any sort of contest, because this gal's photos are not ready for anything along those lines. But it's fun just to post pics, view other posts and maybe even get some feedback and tips on my photos.

Sooo...FINALLY, I submitted a pic. It was a crisp fall Thanksgiving Day when I took this so it gives me a fun fuzzy reminder that fall is in the air. Which is my absolute favorite time of year. You can check out comments and other posts for the DPS Weekly Assignment at: http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/digital-photography-assignments/139928-assignment-repetition-patterns-nov-17-dec-1-a.html.

Baptismal Affair

Hooray for double blog posts for the Meserve family! I had the priviledge of attending AND being their psuedo "photographer" for darling Carter Meserve's Baptism over the weekend. A huge thank you to Kaylen for letting me capture such a sweet moment in their precious baby boy's life, and practice my photography skills all at the same time.

I rented a lens for the baptism and was thoroughly impressed, not necessarily with my photos, but with the ease of the lens, the local shop I rented is from and the lens they picked out for me. I'll add a post soon on all the lens deets soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the precious Meserve family!

The Meserve Fam

The Baptism Ceremony

Annie helps out during the ceremony

Godparents, Ryan Parker and Annie Salem (of The Now Stylebook) and The Meserves

The Meserves with Monsignor Zimmerman


The Meserves and McCurrys

Kaylen and Annie and an I'm over this Carter :)

It's a Boy!

Who doesn't love a fabulous baby shower with decadent treats (homemade cupcakes at that!), ohhhs and ahhhs over super precious baby gear and gadgets and lots of fun girlie chatter? I sure do! Here are some pics from my friend Kaylen's baby shower. Congrats to all of the fabulous hostesses who helped throw Baby Carter a shower prior to his arrival.

Most fabulous mantle ever - I love the understated and chic decor the girls put together

The hostesses with Kaylen and the amazing Tiffany's present they got for

Baby Carter.

The theme of the shower was Tiffany's and was tied in

by the adorable gift and teal hanging paper bouquets

Kaylen with Hostesses Annie and Katy

Bebo and Amy

Amy and Kaylen's Sweet Grandmother

Peter Lik Landscape Photographer

While strolling the Lahaina art galleries in Maui this summer, I came across my FAVE new landscape photographer, Peter Lik. I could spend hours in his cozy yet breathtaking gallery analyzing every focal, dimensional, color and balance detail in his photographs. Peter is an Australian photographer with a true gift for capturing beauty in our natural surroundings in a creative and inspiring way. Being an astute businessman, it was difficult to find his images online, but here are a few to give you an idea of his style. I'm obsessed....I mean these don't even look like real places!

More Hawaii Pics - last ones!

Here are a last few Hawaii pics as promised to some of you who asked for them. So sorry for the LONG hiatus as well. I've been traveling like a crazy woman for work, and a little for fun too! Now that the weather is fab and my bags are unpacked until 2011, I promise to post new photo updates so stay tuned!

my sweet hubby!

ahh the Kuaui beach - I so miss it!

A sweet dad and his little boy taking a walk at sunset

our heli ride

me

Ryan

Hawaii - Part II

Without further ado, below are some photos from Hawaii. My beginner photog skills couldn't come close to capturing the beauty of the two amazing islands we visited (Kauai and Maui), but hope you can use a little imagination to envision this paradise of a place. This is a random collection of photos from our different activities, places we visited and hotels (which were AMAZING). There are still so many more photos to edit, so stay tuned for more.

Welcome Kauai.

We were lucky enough to land at Lihue Airport and make the 40-minute drive to Princeville as the sun set. What a breathtaking drive through winding roads, cliffs and the most curious assortment of plants, trees and flowers. Because it receives a great deal of rain, Kauai is able to sustain many different kinds of plants. Below are a few snapshots of our drive to Princeville.

These Aspen-like trees stand tall against the blue sky and are complimented by many, many other kinds of beautiful tall trees.

Welcome to Princeville!! What a perfect welcoming into Princeville, a semi-private collection of homes and resorts.

One of the best and worst parts of traveling West is jet lag will get the best of you at night, but it lends for some bright and early mornings leaving plenty of time for fun adventures, activities or pool-side drinking (yes please!). I did a sunrise photo shoot the first morning which was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Makai Golf Course

Just a few random pics from my big day riding in a golf cart. Who says you can't have fun on a golf course even if you're not golfing. :)

This was a mystical little path that I found intriguing...hey I was riding in a golf cart with nothing to do...wouldn't this seem intriguing to you too? :)

I decided to practice my macro (close up) photography. This was kind of a fun random shot!

And look at these cute little guys! Ducks, geese and chicken roam freely on Kauai.

Welcome to Maui.

My absolute favorite part of Maui was the hotel. The Wailea Four Seasons is AHHmazing. Besides the celeb spotting and delish meals we indulged in, the property is just incredibly relaxing and over the top.

Tiki torches decorate the property and each evening there's a hula torch lighting ceremony. A male and female hula dancer perform a ritual to light the torches. Unfortunately we missed it both nights, but we heard it was definitely worth grabbing a drink at the open-air lobby bar and watching.

The fabulous Four Seasons pool - I just love this place!

Hawaii - Part I

Aloha!! Ha I'm such a nerd. I just couldn't help myself. We just got back from a 10-day vacation in Hawaii. What an AMAZING trip! We visited the islands of Kauai and Maui. Kauai was by far the most breathtaking place I've ever visited. I couldn't imagine a more beautiful place. The island was a combination of giant lush mountains, monstrous orange canyons and brilliant blue-water beaches. It felt like Ireland, Fiji and the Grand Canyon in one INCREDIBLE island.

Each afternoon, momentary rain showers blew in leaving behind the most striking and brilliant rainbows imaginable. It almost felt like you could reach out and touch them. I have to admit, this trip exceeded my expectations in a very weird way! Needless to say, it was a fabulous place to practice my photography skills.

In preparation of our trip, I rented a wide-angle lens from borrowlenses.com. After researching landscape photography and pros and cons between telephoto and wide-angle lenses, I opted for the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8. It had impeccable reviews and essentially legendary status in the wide angle category. With a price tag of nearly $2,000, borrowing a lens before you make this kind of purchase is a fabulous idea (not that I could afford this bad boy anyways!). Not to mention, Borrow Lenses made it such a convenient and pleasant experience. I highly recommend lens rental.

The Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G Ed AF-S

For the non-photog readers, the wide angle lens aims to provide a larger depth of field than a standard lens (i.e. "kit lens" - the introductory lens that comes with your camera). The larger depth of field means more sharpness and detail you can capture from corner to corner. This is a recommeded lens for landscape photography since you are usually trying to capture every detail in the photo. For instance, if you're taking a beach snapshot you probably want to capture rays of sun, the texture of sand, and the brilliance of the water. Where if you were taking a picture of a person, likely you want the attention to be drawn to the person and not necessarily background details (street lamps, a neighbor in the yard, a dog in a park, a fire hydrant, etc.). Of course there are many different ways to do this, and this is just a very elementary explanation.

Since I’m a newbie, I'm shouldn't be giving photog tips so check out my fave photo resource DPS for great articles on landscape photography. Here is a very basic landscape article: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/photographing-the-perfect-landscape.

Back to the Hawaii trip! I came home with nearly 1,000 photos. One thing about a photography hobby is there is A LOT more to it than just a fun snappy snap papparazzi sounding cam. It's way more difficult than taking photos with a point and shoot (at least for me it is :). It requires me to stop before each photo and think about the light, clouds, colors, focal point, depth of field and so on. Which also means a lot more editing when you get home from your relaxing vacay.

I have a boatload to learn about all this photog funness! So.....you’ll have to come back soon for pics of Hawaii....only so many fun hobby hours in a day. :) Here are just a few teaser snapshots though.

Cliffs overlooking the Na Pali Coast taken from a helicopter ride.

This pic still needs help but I just love the colors

so I wanted to give you a sneak preview.

The Waimea Canyons in Kauai, Hawaii.

I'm making updates to this one to - just a little pre-editing peak!

A few mornings ago we woke up to let our little fur ball out and found the most beautiful, warm sunny morning imaginable. It seemed our happy-go-lucky yellow lab was also enjoying the perfect morning as he dawned his ear-to-ear smile. I just couldn't help myself, so I grabbed my camera to take advantage of such a sweet morning moment.

Here are some pics of our little puppy Wyatt...o.k. well he's not a puppy anymore, but he will always be his mommy's little boy. :) It's tickling to see these curious little animals develop such distinct personalities. Wyatt is quite the curious, gregarious and lovable companion. We can't imagine our lives without him.

While my photography as always still needs improvement, I did learn that natural morning light can lend for the perfect mood when trying to capture intimate, tranquil and natural portraiture shots. Fortunately and unfortunately, I caught these by chance, but I will definitely remember this for all future portrait photo shoots!

Precious Little Sweet "P"

Last weekend Ryan and I participated in the most incredibly special event of the year. We witnessed the sweetest little man ever, Patrick McKittrick Jr., get baptized. What a precious little sweet "P" and a very, very special honor it was to be a part of such a beautiful moment in not only baby Patrick's life, but our dearest friends Sarah (from Bless This Nest) and Patrick Sr. To top of it off, we were also Baby Patrick's godparents. What a fun weekend and event to be a part of!! Being a first-time godparent, it was an incredibly special honor that I will take seriously every day of my life. I will hold Baby Patrick in my prayers always and hope for a wonderful, safe and happy life for him.


Here are some snapshots of the sweetest, most precious little baby ever. Entertainingly enough, at four months old he is the biggest ham in front of the camera - great job mommy Sarah for teaching your little one the bestest lessons ever - always smile and look adorable in your pics. Haha!!

Sweet Baby Patrick at his Baptism.

Ryan, Patrick Sr. and little Patrick.

Ryan adoring his sweet godson. Too precious!

Beautiful mommy Sarah and little PMac.

Patrick Jr. posing with Patrick Sr. What a sweet photo. I love Baby Patrick's

tiny hand grasping onto his daddy.

BEST gift of the day - a "Future President of the United States" t-shirt...too cute!

Look at Sarah's face, she's the cutest thing on this planet.