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.

C’est la vie

With a heavy heart, I want to take this post to honor my late grandfather, Marcelino Borges. On June 18, 2010, he passed away. While very much different than the unepxected loss of Marcel and Zach, it was nevertheless a humbling and heavy experience.

I was lucky enough to make a trip to visit him a few weeks earlier. My grandfather was diagnosed with cancer in February, and after a successful and almost painless chemo treatment, things somehow took a turn for the worst. My amazing husband urged me to visit him, and he even agreed to drop everything and come along with me for a 24-hour trip to NYC.

While we can never expect to be priviledged enough to know when God will take us for himself, it was comforting to feel that my grandfather somehow knew his days were few. While my mother and I briefly stepped out of the hospital room, Ryan left to console my sick grandfather, who whispered in his earshot "C’est la vie. It is my time and I am ready." My grandfather was always a better Spanish speaker than English, but he delighted in tossing his limited French vocabulary into stories and jokes spicing them up with his heavy Cuban accent.

On the day he passed he had been taken home and was in his favorite chair surround by his dearest loved ones, my mom, aunt and cousin Lissette. He motioned the sign of the cross and peacefully closed his eyes.

If I could choose to live a life like anyone, I would choose to live mine like my grandfather's. I will miss him dearly and hope that his generosity, diplomacy, love and respect for all will be remembered always and passed down to our family members who were never able to meet a man who left such immense impressions on so many. Here are some special pics of my grandfather.

Grandpa in his younger days.

Grandpa with my mom and aunt Francis, who we call Tita.

My grandparents and me.

My grandfather, Marcel and me in California.

Me and grandpa in New Jersey.

Me giving grandpa a kiss.

Grandpa, Ryan and I at my cousin Lissette's wedding.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

As many of you know, "Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez," meaning let the good times roll, is a well-known Cajun phrase celebrating the "joie de vivre" (joy of living) attitude that pervades southern Louisiana. Ryan and I recently ventured to New Orleans (or better known as Nola) to visit my good friend Allison and her hubby Sanders, and attend Jazz Fest.

Ryan and I decided to take the early flight in that Friday morning, so we could have time just the two of us to do touristy things that I can only imagine Al and Sanders get a little tired of with all the visitors they graciously entertain. Upon arrival, Al kindly chauffeured us from the airport to the French Quarter. She and Sanders, along with their precious Jack Russell Harvey, were the best hosts ever. They were incredibly accommodating, entertaining and hospitable, making it such a perfect trip.

When Al dropped us off on Decatur Street, you can take one guess where our first stop was. Yep, Cafe du Monde! I could eat beignets every day of the week (yum I LOVE beignets!).

We walked around the French Quarter and luckily I was able to snap some pics of the cathedral and other fun passerby, art, and eccelctic scenes before it started pouring. Regardless of the torrential downpour, visitors and locals alike continued their Friday afternoon festivites, as did we! We walked around staying as dry as possible and snapping pics of the amazing (and very old) architecture.

I can never get enough of cities like New Orleans where you can look at the 100+ year old buildings and imagine life long ago; so much different than today, but in many ways, very much the same. Ryan and I got married in Charleston and that was one of my favorite parts about the historical city. You can almost find yourself pretending to be a Southern belle with a hoop skirt gown and ringlet curls surrounded by horse-drawn carriages and men with top hats. Haha so much different than the gladiator sandals, skinny jeans and aviator sunglasses I was sporting.

We had such a fabulous time on our trip! Without further ado, here are some of my pics from Nola. My photog skills are still a major work in progress, but it's a fun journey getting there.

Food Photography Techniques and Tips

So I've made some leeway on my goals. I'll be posting April's goal results soon (shutter speed and capturing movement). I also have some NYC and FL beach pics to share soon too!

In the meantime though, I came across a really fun food photography post on my fave photog blogs, Digital Photography School. The article inspired me to have my own food photo shoot, which was sooo much fun!! Since I love baking, it was a blast to combine my two fave things (baking and photography of course!). I made my hubby's favorite dessert, key lime pie. See my two favorite pics from the food shoot below.

Here's the first one without the pretty garnishes.

Here's one with some great natural light flooding in from the kitchen windows.

There's a glare above the plate that one day I'll hopefully know how to fix, but I thought I'd share since it has a good side view of the yummy crust.

I absorbed a great deal from the DSP post, and I also learned through the practice shoot that natural lighting seemed to be the most effective for capturing the natural colors and texture of the food making it more life-like and appealing. Mmmm I love desserts and photogprahy! The article is posted below in case you get inspired to do your own food photo shoot.

Food Photography Techniques and Tips

Today food photographer Jonathan Pollack shares some wonderful food photography tips (and some positively mouth watering photos. Also check out our previous Food Photography Tips.

The food photography techniques in this post are ones that I use in photos I take for both a local food magazine and my wife’s cupcake blog. I’ve broken these techniques down into a few areas that give some ideas and suggestions to help you photograph and showcase your food.

Styling Your Food for Photography
I’ve never had the luxury of working with a food stylist; if you aren’t well-known, you will most likely take on this role yourself. While I lack the massive collection of props that a professional stylist would own, I do have at my disposal some place settings, backgrounds, and typically some degree of control over how food is presented. I don’t tend to use stand-ins or other tricks to get the results that I want, but remember that those are available if you need them. Whether I am at home or out shooting at restaurants, I am always challenged to use my on-hand supplies and creativity to create the right mood and draw the viewer in without distracting them. Getting started in styling food is not as difficult as you might think:

- Place solid or simple patterned papers (available at a scrapbooking store) as a background.

- Figure out what works and does not work in terms of contrast and similarity.

- Also, make sure that you have enough paper to completely cover the entire field of view.

Make-A-Wish

Second times a charm! This past weekend we were invited by our fabulous friends Katy and Kyle to a charity event function, with live auctioning included! This time, though, we made it out with no surprise auction bidding. :)

The Make-A-Wish foundation did a tremendous job with the charity ball, incorporating wish kids who performed and livened up the ball with their sweet faces and enthusiastic performances. We had such a great time dressing up, being with our friends and celebrating all of the precious children who are hanging in there with such immense strength and grace. Wish I would have been able to bring the Big Fancy with me into the ball, but unfortunately it was too big of a beast to lug around with a long gown on. Here are a few pics of our fabulous night.

Our bestest friends, Katy and Kyle Miller

Sarah and Mike, most adorable couple ever!

Christa and Chad, ummm stunning duo!

Annie The Photographer - always takes THE BEST pics EVER!!

Blog Schmog

So sorry for the shoddy blog...i promised a makeover and you have seen none. Also, those teeny, tiny, mini photos in the canton blog were kinda hard to see. I promise, this tech-challenged girl will figure out all of this technology stuff and maybe even learn how to post large file photos on my bloggy blog without it taking the better half of a million years - stayed tuned!