#29-Jan. 29th

It was a beautiful busy day!  Work all day, and then a small mini party for our doggie, Harley May Berd as its her second birthday.  The only chance I had to grab my camera was during my afternoon lunch in the sun on the balcony at work.  

#28-Jan. 28th

Today's photo is just a snapshot from my phone while out on a ride.  It was such a beautiful day and just as nice of an evening.  I got to ride over to Shreveport to enjoy dinner and a pro photo group business meet up.

#27-Jan. 27th

Today was the second to last game of the season for the local high school soccer team, but it is the last game I will be able to attend as tomorrow night I have a business meeting.  Blake did an incredible job.  He played almost the entire game which blows me away as he still isn't feeling 100% since being sick last week.  He played hard though and it showed.

#26-Jan. 26th

Beautiful weather, motorcycle ride, and a soccer game= a wonderful day.

#25-Jan. 25th

Today ended up being a lazy Sunday and I needed that.  Hoping tomorrow I will find the motivation that I have apparently lost.  I need to decide a direction and move.  Today, though, was not that day.  I woke early with the dogs and Cole, but my plans for the day got sidelined so I napped instead.  I did still manage to spend some time in my garden pulling weeds.  I have a long ways to go before it will be ready to plant for this season.

Today's photo is the steam and frost in the backyard early in the morning.  The steam always comes up from the creek behind the house.

#24-Jan.24th

Today we took most of the kids and did a day trip to Dallas to go to the International Motorcycle Show.  When we first got to Dallas we were lucky enough to meet up with a long time friend, Traci, at Braums for lunch and dessert.  We haven't seen her in over two years so it was so nice to get a little time to catch up and meet her adorable one year old son, Grayson!  He was a doll!  Then to the show where we got to sit on numerous different bikes, see what ones we might like to get next, get kids sized for helmets, and watch the Stunt Show.  It was such a wonderful day together!

#23-Jan.23rd

At times the past two days I thought our house might float away.  It is so rainy, luckily by the afternoon it was mostly misting and the weekend forecast is looking nice.  Today's photo is of a sun catcher that our wonderful office manager, Paula, has in her window.  It was my view of the rain since I wasn't about to go out in the cold in it...

#22-Jan. 22nd

As I was leaving for work this morning I was so happy with the fact that I was going to be about ten to fifteen minutes early, perfect time to make a hot chocolate for this rainy day.  I was pulling out of our housing area are the scene reminded me of the movie, The Birds by Hitchcock.  Birds were EVERYWHERE.  I had to pull right over and in the drizzly rain grabbed my camera.  I got a few shots just to try to show the sheer number of them.  This is definitely something I hope I never take for granted as it isn't nearly as common in the north and it is a beautiful sight.  Oh, and I still made it to work on time, not early but at least on time.

#21-Jan. 21st

Our two Jack Russell terriers love their racquet balls!  They will fight tooth and paw to keep it when they catch one.  Shelby will play catch happily for hours if we were willing to keep throwing the ball that long.  Angus on the other hand will grab the ball and just sit around chewing on it but he wants no one else to have it.

#20-Jan. 20th

OK, so today is a photo of me at the park. ;)

#19-Jan. 19th

I have been taking Cole to the park so he can get time out to play.  I think if I didn't he would stay inside just glued to his iPad all day, totally content.  He loved the park though and even played hide and seek for a while.

#18-Jan. 18th

We have had some beautiful weather and really enjoyed getting to go out and enjoy the sun!

#17-Jan. 17th

We have made a common practice of going to the Boardwalk to enjoy dinner as a family one night each weekend.  Since we got there later than we usually do we actually had a wait to get a table but we used that time to enjoy the wonderful weather and stroll around on the water front.

#16-Jan. 16th

So lately I have been doing quite a few head shots and in studio professional portraits.  They are really a lot of fun and it is so nice to get to meet so many nice people from the local area.  The image for today is a silhouette I made of one of the portraits I had to do for work this week.

#15-Jan. 15th

I love when I get to spend time with my favorite person at work.  Dan came in to have lunch with me and stayed to help me set up for a head shot I had to take.  He was willing to be a stand in for me while I tested the lights.  I truly love how sweet and helpful he is.

#14-Jan. 14th

More shoots for work filled my day today.  A shoot with the local popular 2Johns was because they won a national level award.

#13-Jan. 13th

I think that for every time I feel like I am comfortable with my own work then a situation arises that makes me realize I need so much more practice.  I had a wonderful shoot today at the local community college, BPCC, and then my second shoot at a local restaurant that made me feel like I wanted to pull my hair out.

 I swear I need to start setting up two hours each week to try shoots or situations that stress me out until I feel comfortable with them....anyway, today's photo is from a cute model at BPCC, Megan, who was a ton of fun to work with.

#12-Jan. 12th

It is by far one of my favorite things to spend time in my kitchen baking up goodies for my family to enjoy.  They love when I get in a mood to just bake.  The past week I have wanted to so badly but truly haven't had the time and this week won't be any better.  I have work all day long with a variety of shoots, and the evenings are full with scouts, dance, and soccer games for the kids.

I am actually counting down to this weekend to get to do just that, bake...we have no plans for Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon and I hope I can get in a few batches of banana bread to have for breakfast next week.  In the meantime I have to be contented with a photo I shot three years ago of some of that delicious bread.

#11-Jan.11th

I have to say that I have realized one of the best things about my jobs is the absolutely wonderful, sweet, and fun people that I work with.  This is an associate photographer I work with, John Linden, allowing me to test our lighting before we start shooting.  He keeps it fun. :)

#10-Jan.10th

I have been so busy the past few days and expect it won't lessen up anytime soon.  I have been behind the camera much more, which I love, and I am scheduled to have three more shoots in two days next week.  I hope to spend more time working on some of my own fun and creative ideas too.  Time to decide what paths to take....

#9-Jan. 9th

Today was my final and longest day on set at Salem.  Today was my day to shoot the cast as Neil was on another shoot and finishing up other work before he leaves on Saturday.  I shot a ton of incredible photos of the cast but all are to be destroyed as they were contracted for internal use of the producers and cast of the show and to be shown no where else.  Instead I can show an image of the harsh lighting that kept capturing my eye inside the stage set of John Alden's home and a photo of my set up for my shoot.

#8-Jan. 8th

On day two of being on the set at Salem.  It was a much longer day of helping Neil shoot cast members.  In between a few of the shoots he shot a quick panoramic of where we were with his phone.

I took a quick photo of the outer lamp on the door at John Alden's house on the set.  It is just an iPhone pic of something I was seeing all day long.

#7-Jan. 7th

Today's photo is literally a quick snapshot from my iPhone.  I spent the entire day on the set of the tv show Salem.  Neil and I were working together on a photo shoot they are doing for internal only use images to verify proper hair and makeup for the cast for season two.  So I got a photo real quick of our set up in the middle of the sets prior to our starting to shoot.

#6-Jan 6th

It felt so good to get back behind the camera in a studio shoot.  Today I went on location with John Linden Photography as we teamed up to do a photo shoot for a Susan G. Komen fundraiser that is in the works.  I had such a blast and need to definitely do more shoots like this.

#5-Jan. 5th

First of all a huge Happy Birthday to my mom, Cheryl!  Today's pic is of my daughter Kati.  She is growing up so fast.  Since she has been on winter break she has come to work with me a few different days to spend time painting while at the studio.  It was nice to have her there and she was willing to be a stand in for me when I had to do a lighting check.

#4-Jan. 4th

So over a year ago now, last Christmas, my awesome husband got me a Lensbaby lens.  It has rarely been on my camera as I know it is a lens that you truly need to practice with.  A side goal for me this year is to make sure that I am practicing more of the things I am not proficient at in this craft, with this lens being one of them.

#3-Jan. 3rd

Over the last decade it has been a tradition at my work for the office manager, Paula, to pick up Holiday Cookie scented candles for the office.  They small so delicious and the best part is that they last most of the year so the office smells nice year round.

#2-Jan. 2nd

This morning my day started with a photo shoot at a local diner, Allen's Grill, with my boss and work associate, Neil.  I was assisting on a food shoot for their new updated menu.  The food looked and smelled so good.  It is definitely a nice place to go for a home cooked style meal if you are in the Shreveport area.  Then the rest of the day was editing images from yesterday and today's shoots.

Today I have two images to post, the first was shot while on my lunch break.  I brought out the macro lens today to try to play a bit.  I really want to spend some time trying to shoot textures and patterns with it.  The second image is a typical family snapshot from my phone...

Since dinner was not on my mind.  Dan and Trent suggested we take the kids to Chuck E Cheese for dinner and games.  It has been raining for two days straight and has at least one more to go so this was a perfect way to help them let out some of their pent up energy, plus it was just plain fun, even if Blake did beat me at SkeeBall.

             

#1-January 1st First Image of the New Year

So once again it is the beginning of a New Year, the time when people challenge themselves to start over, to change, to meet new goals.  Of course I have the most common-to get in better shape, lose weight. Blah, blah blah...my true goal this year is to spend more time doing things I love. Enjoying life with my loved ones. Doing things that make me a better person inside and out.

I also know its been just over a year since I graduated from school with my Bachelor's Degree.  While I am working in my field on a daily basis I know that there are aspects of my love of photography that I have let slide, and that is doing personal projects.  I know that is how I will grow in my craft and how I will keep my love for this art alive.  It is also why for the third time I will push myself to do a Photo Of The Day (POTD) blog.

This first image isn't one of any creative genius, as I am sure I will have a lot that aren't throughout the year, but it shows one of my new tools in the trade.  Santa must have thought I had been a good girl this year as he brought me this new pink Instax Mini camera.  It is an old school Polaroid type camera.  I loved the look on Cole's face as he watched it shoot out the blank piece of paper.  I told him it was his photo, but he had to watch for the magic to make it appear.  I plan to make a small collage of these images for a space in my office.  They make me smile.  Remind me of how it felt when I first started taking photos.  Loving preserving those little pieces of time for history...