Day 2~ Our Beautiful Life

Day 2: Today we had many errands to run, and we were all racing to get ready. I came around the corner and saw this... You with your pants around your ankles, 1 shoe, singing and dancing looking out the back door. I couldn't help but laugh and run to grab my camera.  You always know how to make me smile. 

While we were out we went by the shopping center because your Grandma told us they had horses and pony rides.  You were of course excited to see the pony.

After all our running around, it was so warm and beautiful out so we tried out the new sprinkler we just got.  You both had a blast with your friends playing in the water. All the squeals and laughter were pure childhood enjoyment.

Until tomorrow... xo

Shooting for Me

I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately about this love affair with my photography.  I am more obsessed than ever with it.  I have been searching for my style, for what makes what I photograph unique. I don't want to shoot the picture perfect studio style portraits all the time. I want to shoot for me. I want to shoot art. I want to capture my life. The more I read it all comes down to 1 thing. Shoot daily. Shoot for myself, and the rest will fall in to place. So that is what I am going to do.  Shoot daily for me. Some days I'm sure I'll shoot much more, but for now it's a start. I'll plan to share here every so often and I would love if you follow along in this little piece of my life.

So today May 23rd is Day 1 of Shooting for me.

This morning when Mat and I left we saw the peonies. They are my favorite flower. So we cut them so I could enjoy them. I love the smell of them and how many layers they have.  So on the way home from dropping him off the sun began to rise and I thought how I wanted to capture these little beauties.

I even took a quick minute to attempt freelensing them. I love the way this looks, but I am still trying to improve and learn how to get better with this.

So, It was a long day... Mainly with work and traffic trying to commute home... Tonight the kids were exhausted too. They played outside, ate dinner, and were crazy cranky.  So bed time it was... Oh boy did Mariah fight it.  She always fights sleep, but tonight was worse than ever. So after her fit got unbearable we finally worked it out and she calmed down and crashed out.  I couldn't help but run in and see her sweet face look so peaceful. I love how she has twirled hair since she was a baby. First she twirled my hair and now her own to fall asleep. 

So this was day 1... Let's see if I can stick to this and keep up with it... I hope you follow our story in photographs. Until next time... xo

Feeling like it's 1994...

This afternoon I came out to the living room and I heard my husband playing guitar on our back deck.  For those that know him, he is a unique soul.  He goes against the norm on most levels and lives life in his own way.  When I see him though, I see 1994, we were 15 and 17.  He captured my heart back then and even when we parted ways for many years, I am certain he still held a piece of it.  When life (fate, destiny, god) brought us back in to one another's life it was instant magic.
Well... as these years pass I must admit I still look at him like that school boy crush that I had back in 1994. So when I heard him outside playing, I immediately grabbed my camera.   I saw this story last week of a photographer, the man was in his 80's I believe.  He spent his life photographing his family, but he photographed his wife in a way that was so beautiful.  You could see his love for her through his photographs of her.  He captured her. So it inspired me to capture Mat the way I see him.  I want to capture the reasons I love him.  I want to look back when I am 40,50,70, 80, and know that I can see how he evolves or remains just the same. I want to see him being him, doing the things he loves.  He had no idea this is what I was thinking of when I was snapping away as he was playing the guitar.
So this is Matthew, he still wears flannels, tshirts, and has messy hair all of the time. I love it though. I love every tiny detail of all of it.   So here are the shots I got of him this afternoon.

Until next time... xo

30 Minutes in the Life ~ March Edition / Warrenton, VirginiaPhotographer

This month we were so excited about day light savings.  Did I like losing the hour of sleep? Not so much, but I am so thrilled to have that extra hour of daylight in the evening. It means getting out side to play a little longer. So on the first evening, we decided to take a little walk and enjoy the gorgeous evening light. It was nice because I got some one on one time with my daughter.  I hope you enjoy, and be sure to check out the lovely Allison Wheeler, Oaklahoma Lifestyle photographer by clicking here.

Until next time.... xo

Conor and the Comic Shop ~ Culpeper, Virginia Lifestyle Photographer

For those that follow along on my journey, you know I live to photograph my children and what is near and dear to them at the moment. For my little 3 year old Conor, it is super heroes.  I am not sure if this will be a short lived phase of his childhood, or the beginning of a love that he will cherish for his life. My husband has collected comic books since a very young age and still has so many of them and cherishes them greatly. Although he hasn't really shared much of his passion with my son at this point. So, as I see this side of my son, I can't help but wonder if this is a part of my husband that is some way passed in to my son.  Conor lives and breathes super heroes every day.  He wears a costume of some sort, he sleeps in a cape or super hero pajamas. He wants us to call him either Batman or Superman depending on the day.  I want to remember this part of him. This is my last boy, and I want to soak up these adorable moments because they go by so very fast. I want to remember all these little details and hope that one day he will love that I documented and cherished this little part of his childhood.   We recently had a comic book store open in our town, and initially I really wanted to take my older boys there.  I thought Conor would like it, but I didn't realize quite how much he would love it. I thought he would be disappointed there were not really toys there. He wasn't at all. He loved looking at all the comics and seeing them all together. He is the smallest little guy in the place, yet it seemed in some way all the 20-30 people in the place saw a small part of themselves in there. It was hard to get a lot of shots today because there were many people in the store, but I wanted to share a few that I got of his new favorite place to visit.

Until next time.... xo