Just the Guys

The groom, the groomsmen, and the ring-bearer were awesome at this wedding!
Loved to get their photos taken!

The ring-bearer was my favorite!

He was all like, "get your act together, guys!"

And his jacket was so hard to unbutton! He needed help!

So, we went with the unbuttoned GQ style.


There was a whole lot of laughing going on!


The perfect place for photos!


Probably my favorite picture from the entire wedding!

Mobile Shots at the Ranch

We were at the ranch just before sunset tonight. I wish I had my camera there because the light shining through the trees was wonderful. Oh well. Cell phone photography, here we go! The above picture is of Sawyer - with his face in a feed bucket, as usual.

This is Gus, Mark's bad boy. He's actually behaving better lately, so I can't complain.


Rascal. Kali's horse. Kali is coming home in a couple days. I imagine seeing Rascal is going to be one of our first stops!

This or That Thursday, 11-17-2011

I'm trying something new this week. It's This or That Thursday, which you can find here, or by clicking on the box above.
You post photos of this or that, I am guessing from your week. So, this is what I did earlier in the week.

For the past couple months, I have been teaching a photography class for a group of local homeschoolers.
I teach a lesson, then we do some hands-on shooting to apply what we (hopefully) learned in class that day.

This week we worked on animal/pet photography and we had some special guests with us for the day to be our models.

There were two beautiful little pygmy goats that belong to one of the students.
They were so sweet, and were happy as long as they were getting treats.


"All this posing is hard work! Hey! How about a treat for me???"

We had some beautiful little dogs visit with us to have their portraits shot.


We also had a chicken, a fancy foo-foo black and white chicken with awesome feathers, BUT I neglected to get a photo of him. So sad. :( Sorry. I love my students! They are becoming awesome photographers! You can check out some of their work on Facebook, by liking the page "Photography Rocks".

To check out more This or That, or to post your own shots, please visit here.

Pet Edit

Original photo. I took this picture a couple days ago during a hands-on portion of a class I taught on pet photography. I've been working with a group of wonderful homeschool students this fall. We've been studying the basics of photography. On this particular Monday we studied pets and animals in general. Several of the students brought pets to be our models. This sweet little puppy belongs to one of the students.

All the students know to watch for background distractions, but due to the circumstances of our shoot, some distractions were necessary. I used photoshop for my edits. I brightened, I sharpened, and I used brushes to take out the owner's legs and shoes in the background. This is a relatively new technique that I am trying to perfect and I am happy with the way it really makes the animal stand out. What do you think?

Hope Haven, Gonzales, Louisiana

Recently I was in Louisiana and came across this memorial garden.

Located in Gonzales, Louisiana, I absolutely loved the statues located around the gardens.

Hope Haven Memorial Garden. Primarily a mausoleum.



I found the gardens as I arrived in Gonzales. I went looking for it the next day, so I could take photographs.

It was beautiful!

They have one thing we don't have in my home state - above ground burials. Much of Louisiana is covered with water or close to sea level, hence the above ground burials. I had a fairly interesting visit at Hope Haven.

And Baby Makes Three

This was a really fun photo shoot! Ginny works at the office that I retired from twelve years ago.
Well, Ginny's all grown up now and has a family!

Meet Will. He was nine weeks old when we shot these pictures.

And Will is definitely his daddy's boy :).

Daddy's hands.



Ginny and Paul are crazy about this little guy!


What a sweetie! This is one of my favorite shots from the day.
That one and this one.

Daylight Savings

The Palm Project - Embracing True Beauty

Have you ever struggled with self-esteem?
Regardless of the age, most women struggle with self-esteem at some point in their lives.

Meet Madeleine and Emily. They are from Texas. Madeleine struggled with bulimia and with the "need" to be perfect, because that's what the world tends to expect of us.

Emily struggled with a speech defect and sat on the edge of anorexia.

Then both girls learned that they were treasured, that they were sacred, that they were loved.
They believe the ONLY standard women should hold themselves up to is the Word of God. We are made in the image of the creator and He deems each of us beautiful! As Christians we are being perfected daily into His image.

This past Sunday, just 5 short days ago, Madeleine and Emily started The Palm Project on facebook. They seek to inspire girls/women to embrace the fact that they are beautiful - because they are God's creation!!! It isn't the things of this world that make us beautiful. It's true inward beauty. Madeleine and Emily are using the Palm Project page to be an encouragement, and to be an encourager. They ask you to share your testimony, post links of encouraging blogs or videos, post your own "palm picture", or share scripture!


Even us older women need encouragement. I have struggled for years with weight and low self esteem. It's important for even me to remember that I am beautiful because I am God's.

It's been 5 days. The Palm Project page already has 450 people watching, sharing photos, and sharing encouraging stories of self worth and beauty. Please take a minute right now to go to www.facebook.com and look up The Palm Project. Be prepared to be encouraged, inspired, loved, and understood.