This and That

My days have been filled with shooting, editing, and butterfly rearing lately.  God has really blessed me in those areas which has left little time for blogging.  But I thought I'd pop in for a moment to share a few pics.  Okay, maybe more than a few.  :)

August consisted of:

A lot of this ...

And this ...

And this ...

And lots of this ...

And let's not forget my lovely assistant on several occasions ...

But August wasn't ALL work.  We did squeeze some family fun in too.

We spent a day at Idlewild.  Nick is missing from this pic because he refuses to ride the Loggin' Toboggin.  :)

We visited our local farm show and the kids rode some more.

The kids and I visited a new-to-us state park.  We hiked and swam and explored.  It was a great day!

Keira and I finally donated our hair.  We each got 10 inches chopped off!

The kids went back to school on August 27.  I will share their back-to-school photos another time.  You're welcome.  :)

Then September came.  Which brought with it this beautiful baby girl ...



And these lovely teens ...


And most recently, this polite young man ...


I have four more sessions scheduled this month.  On top of planning a 16th birthday party, helping with children's ministries, and PTO.  And let's not forget homework with the kids, the never-ending piles of laundry, keeping the house somewhat presentable, trying to spend at least 5 minutes here and there with my sweet husband, and making dinner most nights.  Why is it my kids think they need to eat supper every. single. day?!  

I think maybe I'll sleep next year.  :)

Despite all that, we are trying to squeeze in at least a little fun this month.

Alex was excited to be old enough for the Young Eagles plane rides this year.  He looks so small in that plane!


The kids have next Friday off of school, so we are hoping for nice weather so we can do some more hiking/exploring at a nearby park.

We also had more of this ...

Let me know if you see her (or any of the others I have tagged - TLA 175 - 183 so far).


My last caterpillar got into its J form yesterday ...

And went into chrysalis today - shortly after this handsome male emerged from his chrysalis.


I'm sad to see this year end, but it has been a remarkable year!  If the last four make it to adulthood, I will have raised 156 Monarchs this year!  WOW!  156 miracles happened right here in my office over the past 3 months!  Praise God!  Planning for an even better year next year, God willing!

Lastly, Keira is taking a photography/graphics art class this year as an elective (which makes this mama very happy) and needed to create a collage.  She chose to do a butterfly collage.


Isn't it spectacular?!  All of the photos are mine except for the white dots around the edges.  Apparently I don't have any photos of white butterflies.  :)  The only requirement for the project was that she included at least one photo of herself.

The template was cut out using the Silhouette machine - each wing section is about 10 inches.  She cut each photo out and placed it all on a black foam board.  Once it was all stuck down, she cut around it with an exacto knife.  Needless to say her teacher was impressed.  :)

Well, I need to get back to editing.  I hope to blog more about each session and my Monarch journey this summer soon.  Hope you are having a great day!

Linking with Kim today ...

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This girl ...

who just turned 15 eleven days ago ...

and went to her first homecoming dance on Saturday looking years older than her age ...

got these roses from her non-date/friend named Steve ...

and found out that she made 1st violin - 3rd chair in her school orchestra!



I'd say it's been a pretty good couple weeks for her.

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Alyssa ~ Teens/Seniors

Alyssa is someone I have wanted to photograph for a while now.  She's a natural in front of the camera and actually has dreams of someday becoming a model.  She's also talented in other areas ... she plays guitar (self taught) and sings, she has a great eye for photography (I'm teaching her how to shoot in manual), and she's athletic.  Honestly, she's one of those girls you would love to hate but you just can't, because she's sooooooooo sweet!  ;)

Recently she agreed to go with me to try out a new location and we had a blast!  Here are a few photos from our session.

   

Alyssa is going to be a senior in high school this year.  She is cyberschooled and said she will be taking college-prep classes starting this fall. 

     

Just look at those eyes!  Isn't she gorgeous?!  I can definitely see modeling in her future.

We had such a good time at this shoot that we are already brainstorming ideas for another shoot.

Thanks, Alyssa, for letting me shoot you!  I had a blast!

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Week 41 & 42 in Pictures

Hi there!  Remember me?  I'm finally back in business now that my new laptop is here. I ordered it on Thursday evening after finding out from the computer repair guy that he could not fix my Gateway.  Well, that's not entirely true.  He could have replaced the processor.  But after spending around $300 on parts and labor, that may not have fixed the problem.  So I opted to have him not fix it and we bought a new laptop.  An ASUS.  It shipped on Friday and was delivered on Saturday!  And I didn't even pay for expedited shipping!  I was glad I didn't since it came so quickly anyway.

Of course it didn't come until around 4:05 p.m. when I was planning to leave at 4:15 to go to my friend, Laura's, for a girls' night filled with hot soups, fresh breads, games, and fun.  So I ended up leaving a few minutes late 'cuz you know I couldn't leave without at least checking it out first.  :)

I spent most of Sunday getting it ready to run.  Burning recovery discs, updating Windows, installing Photoshop Elements, etc.  It felt good to be able to edit some photos today but it took a while to get back into my normal routine.  I had to re-do a couple because I forgot a step or two.  I'm blaming that on my cold which is making my head sort of foggy.

Anyway, I hate to overload you with pictures, but since I didn't post last week's pictures, you get two week's worth in one post.

{Sunday, Oct. 7}

I had taken this for the October 14th Scavenger Hunt prompt "water drops", which I ended up not participating in because of the laptop.  Or lack thereof.

{Monday, Oct. 8}

Woke up to a foggy morning.  Glad I didn't have anywhere to go.

{Tuesday, Oct. 9}

I had the pleasure of photographing Anna at her family's beautiful farm.  We had a great time!  Here are more photos from our session, if you are interested.

{Wednesday, Oct. 10}

My not-so-great attempt at foodtography.  :)  I was excited about making homemade dinner rolls and tried to capture that.  Obviously I need more practice.

{Thursday, Oct. 11}

Alex had helped me try out a new location for photo shoots.  We took Nick's little pumpkin along since Alex's is huge.  I truly have no idea what he's doing in this picture.  I do know that we had fun though.

{Friday, Oct. 12}

My sister-in-law, Terri, had asked me if I'd take Jordan's school pictures this year since the ones you get at school aren't so great.  We had a good time.  I even managed to get Terri in a few pictures.  More from this photo shoot will be coming soon, now that I can edit again.

{Saturday, Oct. 13}

My friend, Lindsey, asked me if I'd take some family photos for her.  It was challenging but fun - trying to get four people (including a 4 year old and a 9 month old) to look at me and smile at the same time.  And I just love the color combinations she chose!  More from this shoot coming soon also.  (Yes, I will be an editing fool this week.)  :)

{Sunday, Oct. 14}

Pretty grass.

{Monday, Oct. 15}

While out running errands, I stopped at a local park to see if it would be a good place for a photo shoot.  While I was walking around, I happened upon this mama deer and her two fawns.  Notice that the mama only has three legs.  It didn't seem to slow her down though. She grunted, snorted, and stomped at me a few times but eventually ran away when she realized I wasn't going anywhere.

{Tuesday, Oct. 16}

A friend asked if I would take her daughter's senior pictures.  Natasha was so easy going and would do just about anything I asked.  This photo isn't my normal style, but I thought I'd try going for the hazy look (in camera, not in processing).  I like it.  More of Natasha's photos coming soon also.

{Wednesday, Oct. 17}

Sometimes I just walk around in my yard to see what I can see.  This day I saw this wasp.

{Thursday, Oct. 18}

Doug found another stick bug while he was cleaning out the flower beds.

{Friday, Oct. 19)

The leaves are just so pretty this fall.

{Saturday, Oct. 20}

You'd think I would have taken a photo of my new laptop since this is the day it arrived, but I didn't have time.  In fact, I didn't take any pictures this day.  I even took my camera to Laura's for girls' night but never got it out of my bag.  So instead, I give you a cheat picture of the mums Keira bought me.  I just love the soft pink/purple colors.

     

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking in there with me!  Hope you have a fabulous week!  I plan to be back to my normal posting schedule soon.

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