Training with Scott Jarvie (Thanks!!!!)

Suzanne and I were lucky enough to have Scott Jarvie offer up his time

to help us with our photography skills.  We went downtown with my sister

and Suzanne's boy to do a shoot.  For having never met each other

they did great and made for the BEST models!  What a nubie little couple they

are.  Thanks again Scott, we had a fabulous time!

Seriously! Don't you want to kiss those cheeks?

I had so much fun with my sister last night.  I got so many cute pictures of 

her little M.  Maybe cause I wish she were mine, I just kept going and going.

I have a million nubie pictures of her that turned out this cute!  

Cutest cowgirl I've ever seen!

Oh my goodness!  CUTEST, SQUISHIEST, little nubie in the whole world.  

I'm a little biased being her Aunt and all.  I seriously would steal her if 

I thought I could get away with it.

I keep going through the pictures and finding more and more that I LOVE!

I have to add this image.  It started out great with smiles, but then we 

pulled off her sweater and shoved her back down inside the barrel and

TOTAL SADNESS!  So cute though!

Okay, last one... okay two... for now anyway! :)

She's adorable!

So I went with my sister to the pumpkin patch and 

my kids were EXHAUSTED and at their WITS END.  I got nothing 

but complaints, whiney, sad faces.  It being Friday and late in the day it was

to be expected.  So rather than bug my kids even more by trying to take

pictures of them, I shot pictures of my ADORABLE niece.  

My sister seems to think (should I even say this) she's not 

photogenic and even said, "If you can get a cute picture of her, you're a great

photographer," (I'll delete this post before she learns to read).  WELL, 

I don't think I have to be a great photographer to capture this nubiness!  

She screams, "squish me and kiss my cheeks!" don't you think?  Every 

picture I took of her turned out ADORABLE!

I was just having fun with textures again.  Trying to find ones I like.

Old oak tree...

So Suzanne, here is the tree we found yesterday. The light and shadows are harsh

but, this is what my image looks like.  I know we wondered how blue the sky would look so 

here it is.  Is this how you remembered it?    

Hillarious hat!

A friend of mine borrowed a tu-tu to put with this hat she had.

When she brought the tu-tu back she brought the hat to let me borrow.

Sky tried it on today.  She didn't want to do anything but hide under it, 

so that's what I took.  

My baby sister!

I love this kid!  She is my little sister, but is more of a sibling to 

my own kids.  I am 22 years older than her.  There are less years

between me and my mom than me and my sister.  She's so sweet to my kids

and always comes up with the cutest, most clever little games to play

with them.  I'm so lucky to have her and I'm always happy when there 

is a school holiday, cause it usually means she gets to come hang out with us.

Love you Megs!

Funny, but I think the first picture makes her look older than she is 

and the second reflects the young, adorable 10 year old that she really is.

My blue eyed boy!

This is THE ONLY PHOTO I got of him HOLDING STILL!  

The others are of his behind (seriously) cause he just wanted to crawl, 

climb, jump, throw rocks... anything but look at me!  I love this one though 

and I'll treasure the one moment he looked at me!  

Okay here's one more where he's looking, but I wasn't ready for it

and so his hands are chopped off and I don't like where he's at in the photo, 

but I did like the bright colors... so there you go. 

Okay one other.  When I went through the images the first time, I thought 

the focus was a bit off on his eyes, but I like it enough to post.  Not sure how 

I got this "model pose" out of him.  :)

Better with texture?  Just playing and practicing the new challenge given this month.

There was already good background texture, like I said... just playing.

She's FIVE!!!

So after going Photowalking to Gardner Village 

with my friend Suzanne she found this amazing new location!  

She insisted we go take pictures there on Sunday. How could I resist 

(even though when she called we were still in our PJ's).  I threw 

some clothes on Sky, fluffed her hair and ran out the door... 

camera in hand!  I LOVE this photo of her and

 think she is just the sweetest little girl!  I wish she'd stay little forever.  

(She's little in size, but she's growing up in spirit and I hate it). 

This location was amazing with the awesome red train in the background.  

TOO BAD IT"S GONE!!!  UTA is using this track and turning it 

into a TRAX line so the train is gone!  I'm so sad!  I really wanted to use this 

location again.  Oh well, I'll keep looking...

This pose was unprovoked.  Not sure where it came from! :)

She and brother love to play super heroes and so this might

be a bit of the SUPER coming out of her!  I think it's SUPER anyway!

And one of the two girls (mine and Suzanne's).  

Photowalking Utah, Gardner Village

I joined up with a group called Photowalking Utah through Flickr.

They have an event each month and this month happened to be 

at Gardner Village.  I decided to go since it's only around the corner

from my house.  I met up with a few "groupies" and they helped me

with a couple things.  Things I hope to try out soon...

Photowalking Utah, Gardner Village

Texture challenge...

So this month, Carin's challenge was to find and apply texture to a 

photo.  I chose this one, not because I thought it would make it into 

an amazing photo, but because I wanted to see the before and after.  

I love this image of my daughter and so I applied the texture to it.  I 

added two textures, added noise, and this is what it became.  I noticed 

that it really changed the dof and I'm not so sure I like that, but it was

fun to play with and learn how to do.  Thanks Carin!  I'm sure this 

won't be the last of my texture-ing.  

Just tall enough...

We took the kids over to Gardner Village Sunday night after Conference and 

dinner to see the ducks.  The ducks there are SO OVER FED!  We brought bread

and they didn't even want any!  We walked around and looked at the witches

and the pumpkins.  It's always decorated so cute for Halloween.  The kids had

a great time.  It's always so quiet and peaceful there on Sunday evenings.  There's 

never anyone there since it's closed and to walk down the path of the little closed

shops is nice.  Little Brookey was having a blast of a time walking around knowing 

we wouldn't chase after her much without anyone around.  She felt free.  This is

one of the pictures I captured of her exploring.  

A beautiful day at Gardner Village

another lesson learned...

Yeah, I figured it all out!  SIZES of pictures so that I can post them larger than

what blogspot allows but smaller than the HUGE ones I just posted.  I'm 

GETTING IT! 

Comparing