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My Inbox is Funny?

I have been getting a lot of laughs about my inbox.  I will be re-organizing it today and then I will catch up on emails...I promise.  If I have not gotten back to you, I will do it before midnight tonight.

Anyway, my make-up artist friend Katy, along with several other people have laughed at the way I organize my inbox.  It only has 2 folders...IMPORTANT and BILLS.  Katy says thats my artists brain.  My emails have gotten out of control and  the folders IMPORTANT  and BILLS need new friends to help them carry the load., so today I really have to sit down and organize not only that, but also my address book.

Here's to a new, organized inbox.

Christmas Cards

If you want to book a session for Christmas Card photos, you may want to start booking now as I am starting to fill up for Sept, Oct., and Nov.
As of now, I will not be booking any Christmas Card Specials since I don't think there will be time.

I will be offering  custom Christmas Cards you can choose from to go along with your photos.  I will post examples of those soon.

The Way to Go

*Edited to add:  I think I need to come back and redo this post. The photos are too large and are getting cut off. To see the entire photo, just click on it.  I will fix this later.

When you are considering ordering an enlargement of your photos, I say canvas wraps are the way to go. I recently  redecorated my teeny half bath and needed something to hang in it, so I decided a canvas would be perfect. 
I love the way the canvas wraps around and adds continuity to your image.

I also think the bigger, the better.  This image is 20 x 30.  I love how it turns a portrait into a piece of art.  I feel like I can hang very non-traditional photos of my family on my walls in any room of the house because once it is printed as a gallery wrap...viola...ART!

They also come with a backing and very sturdy hangers already attached.  All you have to do when you get it is hang it.  No looking for frames, no going to the frame store, no glass to cause glare on your photos.  The extra money they cost is totally worth it since you would end up paying more for matting and framing.

I did my new canvas in a brownish tone (darker than sepia) so it would go with the new blue walls and brown accents in the bathroom.  Here it is against the wall (not hung yet).  It is a very small bathroom with poor lighting, but I did the best I could to take a photo  in the squishy space I had.

I have more canvas wraps on the way, so I will post again when I get them.  I am so in love with them.

Now I gotta run...I'm having lunch with some of San Antonio's coolest, most talented Photogirls.

R.I.P. my sweet shoes

                                                                   2007-2008

Dear Asics TN660/3093,

Thank you for being am amazing pair of running shoes. You have gotten me through miles of training, many 5 and 10 k races, a half - marathon, and even a 10 mile trail run.  Through all those miles and miles of training, you never let me down.  I used you for longer than I should have.  I should have let you go, but I loved you so much I always thought..."Please God...just one more race!"   But it couldn't happen.  You tried to tell me you were tired when you started hurting my toes, but I didn't listen.  Finally, a few weeks ago, you gave me shin splints, I knew it was time to let you go.

I bought a fresh new pair of running shoes and they are doing a great job, so don't worry about me.  Asics, you can let go now.  You got to experience the glory of many finish lines.  I will always remember how you let me run you for miles on hot asphalt, stomp through mud, and spill water, Gatorade, and Heed on you. Thank you Asics. 

You will be put to rest in the Running Shoe Hall of Fame located in my closet....I will miss my best running buddy...sniff!

Face Lift

My regular website is undergoing a mini face lift this week...new colors, new photos...maybe soon, even a new website...we'll see.

Low Shopping I.Q.

Does anyone out there wanna help me shop for clothes???? Anyone????? I am terrible at shopping for clothes for myself. I can pick out great outfits for everyone else , but I SUCK at shopping for my own clothes.  With the help of my great husband, I managed a few hours of alone time today.  I need new clothes, so I decided to use those hours for shopping.  Shopping for my own clothes makes me very nervous, so I avoided it by going to Barnes and Noble.  I bought a butt-load of books and magazines.  Then I decided that I was thirsty, so I killed an hour with my coffee and the latest issue of Runner's World at Starbucks (did you know that running skirts are in????? weird!).  I continued to procrastinate in Academy while I browsed running clothes.   I was running out of time, so I grudgingly dragged myself to look for some real, grown up, stylish, big girl clothes....hmmmph!
I looked and looked and looked and only came out with a blouse and a casual dress.  I went clothes shopping for a whole day and that's all I got.  Here are the reasons I am TERRIBLE at shopping:
1) I am cheap when it comes to myself.
2) I hate trying clothes on...put it on, take it off, put it on, take it off...ugh...I hate the monatiny of it all.
3) I only like comfy clothes.
4) I hate to iron and it seems like all the cute clothes have to be ironed.
5) I see a lot of clothes I love, but where would I wear them...to HEB, to scrub toilets, in the school pick up lane??????
6)All the clothes look like maternity clothes these days...I'm sick of maternity clothes and do not want anyone to mistake me for a prego.
7)All the shorts have a 3 inch or less inseam...seriously people...I am not in the business of showing off my hooo-haaa as I bend over to get the bottled water from the bottom of my grocery cart.
8) 3 words:  hooded tank tops?????
9) Horizontal striped shirts and dresses are in....I am 5 feet tall, I don't need help looking shorter
10) Who invented the high waisted skinny jean?????  Great... I lurve it when my legs look like they have been stuffed into sausage casings while the high waisted-ness make my butt appear 4 feet long AND like I have another butt in the front.  Good going Mr. High Waisted skinny jean designer!

So, as you can see, I need major help.  Anyone up to the challenge?

Stop working and read me!

This Ken Follett book, "The Pillars of the Earth"  kept calling to me "Stop working...come read me...find out what happens next...don't ya wanna know??????"   YES YES YES...I will stop everything I'm doing and read you..but only for a few seconds, minutes, pages, hours, chapters. 

It was such a busy week...I had 4 days straight of back to back sessions, I lots business-ey type clerical stuff to do, I had sessions to edit, birth announcements to design and order, and my own children's session to edit (which I will post soon)...but the book kept beckoning me and I kept running back to it.

It is incredibly written...I could actually feel the dust, heat , and cold.  I could taste the beer and bread.  It got my heart racing and my blood pressure up.  I found myself cheering out loud, crying, and laughing at some characters, but also seething with hatred for others. Look, I loved it so much that it had it's own photo session and blog posting.

I am passing this book around to my friends and recommending it to anyone who listens.  Now I find out there is a sequel that takes place 200 years later.  So today, in between mailing packages to clients, changing diapers, driving kids to summer activities, and editing photos, I will be making a trip to the bookstore to buy "A World Without End".

I'll let you know if it's good enough for it's own photo session.

The Miller Family

Are you wondering why I posted a picture of veggies for a post about a family session.  It's because that is what my sweet friend Jen (the mom of the Miller's) brought me straight from her garden to our photo session.  I love gifts from anyone's garden.  It's the best.  I can assure you that those veggies were eaten by the very next day. 

Jen helps me with my accounting and tax stuff when I have no idea what I am doing.  I still have a lot to learn, but she patiently talks me through the process.

Check out her girls....they are beautiful!  Her oldest has such beautiful. long, blonde, curly locks and her littlest one has amazing eyes and lips.  Not only were these girls beautiful, they were so sweet and well behaved. It was so much fun to photograph this family. The time just flew by.

The Harrison Family

This family was here visiting San Antonio all the way from Tennessee.   We had planned on doing the session outside so that the boys could run around and burn off some steam...well that didn't quite work out.  The week they visited San Antonio was the only week it has rained all summer...arggghhhh.  We made it work inside the house. Due to the cloud cover, we did not have the natural light that I hoped for, so I pulled out my light kit.   Once I got that all set up, I realized one of my lights was not working properly.  I had just checked it before I left home, but it decided to spaz out on me during the session...but I was able to work with the light I had available.
The 2 bigger boys were all for being in front of the camera.  They loved hamming it up for me, especially after I told them that they were allowed to act silly. They cracked me up. The 2 year old wasn't on board with the whole thing.  It took him a long time to warm up, but even then, he was still very cautious of me.  They all said it was not his normal personality.  It turns out that he was running a 102 temp and had tonsillitis and and ear infection, but it hadn't been discovered yet.  I always feel bad when my kids are acting cranky and I don't realize they have double ear infections.  Poor guy...and poor mom.  Why does that always have to happen when you are on vacation?
By the end of our session, it had stopped raining, so we decided to try a few outside. The humidity was killing me (imagine the fog in the ape house at the zoo).  It was so humid that my lens kept getting built up with tiny little droplets and when I wiped those off, my lens would fog over.  Everything looked great as I snapped the pictures and viewed them on my camera, but when I got home I realized that each picture had a grain or a haze due to the humidity and fogged up lens.
Anyway, despite the broken light, the rain, and a very sick little 2 year old, we got some great shots.
Harrison family, thanks for being so patient.  Hope you love your images!

Castillo Family

I was very lucky to meet this great family a couple of weekends ago.  They are all so beautiful and totally made my job easy.  Their home and property were gorgeous, so it was easy to find places to photograph the family.  We were having trouble getting the baby to smile during the family shots, so Dad (Tony) called Grandma so she could work her magic.  She not only had the baby laughing, but I was afraid that none of my shots would be focused because she had me rolling.  Her bird calls were hilarious and she had more energy than I have after several cups of coffee...and this was before 9am!!!  I think she mentioned that she was ready to go on a bike ride afterwards!    Here are some of my favorites from the session.

This might be my most fave.  If it were mine, I would print this on a large canvas wrap and hang it right above the bed where that wreath is.

This is the big brother Ryan. He looks so much like my own brother did at that age.  He  loves skate boarding is an aspiring photographer who already had mad  Photoshop CS3 skills...and it's not so easy.

This beauty is the big sister.  Is this what twelve years old looks like????   I was not this beautiful when I was 12.  She is amazingly sweet and said the sweetest phrase to me in Tagalog before I left.  Hey Toni, mahal kita!

Cindy, thanks so much for calling me and trusting me to photograph your family!