Nothing to do With Photography...But Still Good!

As most of you all know, unless you have been living in a cave for the last week and a half, the Olympics are here...and they are incredible! Another thing you all know (because most everyone who reads this blog is either a family member or close friend) I am an athlete, always have been, always will be. One other thing you also know, I am NOT an Olympic calaber athlete...shocking I know! As I watch each and every one of these athletes compete in their respective sport, whether it be water polo or beach volleybal, it amazes me! The dedication they put into every aspect of that sport, their physical strentgh, their health, you name it! As this summer got into full heat swing (mid to high 90s, sometimes 100s) I have tanked when it comes to my running. "Why?" one might ask, well because 1) It's stinkin hot outside! and 2) I hate, let me repeat HATE, running lond distances on a treadmill, I get so bored, I need the changing elements of running outside. This "tanking" has led to some serious side affects, mostly an enlarging waste line, along with the tightening of my pants in my thighs, all because I couldn't suck it up and run outside on my off days of wellness at work. Now, back to the Olympics, as an athlete watching top notch athletes perform, I became very upset with myself. Again, I revert back to my previous statement: I am NOT an Olympic calaber athlete, but an athlete none the less and should be pushing through, not sitting back because something is hard or too hot. I went running, for the first time in months, on my lunch break a couple of days ago and, yes, it was hot! But, also, it felt so incredibly good! Throughout my run these athletes, who bring tears to my eyes when watching them particpate in their sports, kept streaming through my mind. When my calves would start to get tired and burn, what would I do? I'd just keep running! These individuals, no matter the country or sport, are such an inspiration and something I will continue to stream in my mind on those days when I'm too tired, it's too hot, it's too cold, or I just flat out don't want to do it. I'm an athlete dang it! Just like those incredible individuals participating in the sport they love for the country they love!

One of my favorite shots my dad took of me during my college softball years!

Inspiration?...Me?!?!

I had a close friend of mine tell me earlier today I have inspired her...what?! me? inspire someone? I can probably count how many times I've heard that in my life on one finger! Maybe no fingers! This friend of mine is a writer who has gotten away from her writing for many reasons (simply stated...life got in the way). So this message she sent me today was so encouraging and made me feel all melty inside, she said I inspire her by the way I have continued to charge forward with my photography and that has given her the drive to take a giant step out and start looking into some different writing options out there (just as something on the side and something to give her a creative outlet.)I have taken so many HUGE steps with my photography and have been terrified with each step! There were many times I could have just stopped and said "Nope! Too much time away from my husband and son. Too much stress, too much this, too much that, etc." But, with each opportunity I have embraceed it with somewhat timid, but very willing and open arms, and have come out a stronger person and a stronger photographer. This simple statement from my friend will stay with me for a long time and be one of the many drives I have to continue on this journey and see how far it takes me. If it simply takes me to the end of this year and nothing more, that one year will always be treasured as the year I took a leap of faith to do something I love to do and challenge myself in a way I have never EVER done before! Thanks "Friend" for your warm and wonderful words! Don't give up on what you want to do and what you love to do!

This is a wonderful shot of a wedding I will be blogging about very soon!

Heather & Juan

I had the opportunity about a month ago to be the second shooter for a wedding of an incredibly fun, loving and beautiful couple! I have a photography friend who has his own photography business and does some incredible stuff, check out Val's website: http://sites.google.com/site/valarmstrongphotography/ for more of his work. This was such a fun experience, being a second shooter; I was able to enjoy the day in a different way than if I were the first shooter. I was able to capture the beautiful moments from the wedding, but didn't carry the entire weight and stress of the day as being the first shooter. Heather and Juan had a small backyard wedding and let us take some time after the festivities were almost over to go to a local park and have some fun capturing their love and some incredibly fun moments between the two of them!

Thank you Heather and Juan (and Val) for the opportunity to capture some special moments of this special day!

A Few Bucket List Thoughts

I've never actually written down an actual Bucket List, but I have a mental list going on and wanted to share a few of those things I have added to my mental Bucket List... -I would love...ABSOLUTELY LOVE...to watch a movie being filmed! I don't want to be in a movie, I just want to be behind the scenes on set, watching how such a well oiled machine works. -I want to be on a season of Survivor, not sure if this one will happen since I haven't actually sent in a video to the people at CBS and I'm sure they're getting close to the end of the show (just a speculation of mine, nothing I've actually heard.) -Since I'm a huge Lord of the Rings buff, my ideal vacation would be to visit New Zealand, it's a beautiful country and to be on the grounds where my favorite movies have been filmed would be a dream come true! -I saw an online article documenting a photo shoot with Robert Downey Jr. that was so creative and fun looking. I really respect him as an actor, and as a person, because of the demons he's faced and overcome and I think he would be so much fun to shoot! So my wish would to have the opportunity to photograph RDJ.

This could be a continuous post, depending on how many more "Bucket List moments" pop into my head! Have a wonderful Hump Day!!!!

Boudior Shoot

A few weeks ago I was given the incredible opportunity to do a boudoir session with a close friend of mine, and let me say, I was so nervous when she first asked me to do this for her!!!!! 1) I've never had a shoot like this before, 2) We're good friends but the thought of, "Are we really there yet?" kept coming to mind, 3) Another thought of, "I don't have the right equipment!", I could probably get all the way up to 20 reasons why I was terrified to do this type of shoot, but I decided to jump in and do it. I was blessed about one month before the shoot with a new external flash, which is a MUST when shooting something indoors. Leading up to the shoot, my friend and I were bouncing all kinds of ideas off each other and were getting super excited and when the actual day of the shoot came the nerves in the room were palpable!!! We were both so incredibly nervous! But, she put on some jams, and I literally mean jams (we listened to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, etc.) and it completely loosened us both up and I was able to capture some incredibly beautiful shots! The shoot was so classy, including cute lingerie, some costume necklaces, etc. Unfortunately, due to the privacy request of my friend, I'm not going to publish any of those pictures, but felt the need to share the experience of this first time opportunity.

Alexis Senior Pics

Alexis is a beautiful young woman who will be graduating high school this month...WOOT! We decided to go to the UNM Duck Pond because Alexis wanted to take her pictures in a place where we could capture the spring flowers in bloom...what an awesome location it turned out to be! We had such a great time, Alexis was so easy to photograph, she gave me such incredible opportunities to capture her beauty. Congrats Alexis on your graduation and thank you for the opportunity to capture these moments before you enter into the new journey of your life!

Adriene + Don Engagement Session

I don't think, no...I know, I haven't had as much fun with a photo shoot as I did with Adriene and Don and they're ADORABLE 10 month old!!! Adriene and Don met while they were both going to school at Oklahoma Central University, and were together while they were both going to school, until Adriene decided to move back to her home town of Albuquerque, NM. It didn't take Don long to decide he wanted to move to Albuquerque in order to be with Adriene and, to coin a famous phrase, "We'll now tell you the rest of the story."
Adriene and Don are getting married in July at Nature's Pointe in beautiful Tijeras, NM and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to shoot their wedding. Here are some of the shots from their incredible engagement session!

Racquel and Jeff = A Beautiful Couple

Jeff met Racquel while on a trip to the Filipins and was immediately hooked. Throughout the next couple of years they would make trips to visit one another, until Racquel decided to move to the States and start a new life with Jeff. I had a wonderful time with this couple, the love they share between one another is so palpabal it made it incredibly easy to capture some very touching moments on their special day.
They were married at the San Felipe church in Old Town, NM ( a place I love to shoot at!) and the ceremony and the atmosphere were both beautiful! Thank you Racquel and Jeff for letting me be a part of your very special day!

Racquel, you are gorgeous!!

Dreamstime Submission Acceptance!!!!!

I finally have an acceptance on dreamstime.com! A big thanks goes out to my friend Val for helping me get this photo ready and accepted! Here's a link to the picture. http://www.dreamstime.com/father-and-son-image22508021
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

A New Challenge...In the Works

I have come to a realization, I am not spending as much time as I would like/need to on my photography! This realization came when Aaron and I were rearranging our office and he found a hard cover portfolio he bought me about three Christmases ago to put print outs of some of my best shots in, and it was empty. And not just empty, but collecting dust, cob webs hanging from corners empty! I felt awful!!! It was with this incident and me submitting some pictures to a website, www.dreamstime.com, that allows one to sell their pictures and my pictures were rejected, that I realized I want and need to spend more time on my photography. I decided, then and there, starting the beginning of the year I am setting a new challenge for myself and my photography. The details are still a bit sketchy in my mind, but it will consist of forcing myself to wake up earlier, Keurig coffee and post processing my pictures. The sketchy details also include of submitting a certain number of pictures per week/month to dreamstime.com and having a higher number of pictures accepted; it also includes printing out the pictures that were accepted and placing them in my hard cover portfolio my wonderful husband bought me. If anyone has ideas on how to fill in these sketchy details I'm all ears!!

Here is a sample of pictures that are accepted to the website and is my inspiration!

A Little, Little More...

For those of you who read my previous "A Little More..." blog you would've read I grew up playing softball as a catcher, playing college ball, etc. The part I left out in that information is, while playing ball, I HATED running! Being the catcher, I wasn't one who A) ran fast or B) liked long distance running. The times our coach would make us run two miles after practice or the mornings we would go to early trainings only to hear we were being timed on our miles invoked wishes and prayers that God would temporarily break my ankle or send me a really bad ankle sprain or pulled muscle, only for that particular point in time, nothing permanent cause I still wanted to play the games I just didn't want to run!!!!!
Well, being out of college for about six years, and done with softball for about five years, I have come full circle and am excited to say I really enjoy running now! Can you believe it?!?! The girl who wished temporary pain upon herself to get out of running actually enjoys it now! I've come to find out running really allows me to open my mind to anything I want to think about. Anything from: "What am I gonna cook for dinner?" "Man, this hill is long!" Singing to my favorite band from my high school year...*NSYNC, etc. Running has become one of my challenges I love to tackle, much like softball was all those years ago!

My new concrete companions!!!

A Little More...

I wanted to post something, sans pictures or "advertisements" about my pictures, more about myself, who I am, what I'm about. As this blog makes perfectly obvious, I love photography, I love everything about it, from seeing something special, capturing it and then post editing to try and make it the best shot it can be. But, besides photography, I'm a person who loves life, loves my Lord and Savior and next to Him, nothing is more important to me than my husband and little boy. I'm an avid athlete, I played softball for 13 years of my life, and am an incredibly competitive person. I would rather be outside than anywhere else. I love movies, any movies!!! I have a goal of one day owing a MASSIVE movie collection, like the one in "The Holiday" with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, and a room specifically for watching movies with a movie theater setting. My all time favorite movies are The Lord of the Ting trilogies, sometimes you can catch me quoting the "go get em" speeches being made before the big battle scenes! I think I have an unhealthy relationship with shoes...I can walk into Shoes on a Shoestring, or any shoe store for that matter, and hear the Hallelujah Chorus singing. I thrive on challenges and overcoming those challenges through hard work, and sometimes sheer stubbornness. There's quite a bit more about me, but that's all I can think of divulging at this time. Stay tuned for more...

This past week my wonderful dad bought me a set of macro tubes I've been wanting for a couple of months now...aren't dad's great?! These tubes are simple extensions I can add to any lense I want to shoot with and it, in turn, makes that lense a macro lense. I've always been interested in macro photography and love some of the pictures I've seen this type of photography produce, so when I saw these tubes I HAD to have them! I spent the majority of my Saturday this weekend squated down really low near flowers or hunched over desks with very small objects placed on them. All in all, I had a great time with my new accessories and can't wait to use them more! The pics below are a small sample of what I shot...enjoy!

Enlightenment!!!!

Today was an excellent day! Not only did my husband and I have a great day of worship and heard an wonderful message from our pastor at church, but I had the opportunity to shoot the baptisms of seven members of our church! I saw the opportunity about one month ago, when there was an email sent out asking for anyone with photography experience who wanted to serve in taking pictures of special events that happen at our church campus. I responded to the email and, to make a long story short, with a couple of back and forth emails sent I was able to shadow the baptisms today. I think I have found what I am supposed to be doing with my photography. God has given me the desire to shoot and capture special moments in peoples' lives and what better way to do it than to help further His kingdom?! I will still love to shoot pictures for friends and family, but my primary focus will be this new ministry I have been called to take part in. I will write a post after every special event and share the special moments that were captured. I'm not sure if I will be able to post the pictures because I haven't gotten the word if those pics will belong to our church or if they will be considered mine and I can do with them what I want.
In the mean time, here's a picture I captured of my eight year old cousin walking down the road at the Fourth of July Campground in the Manzano mountains. The colors of the leaves were beautiful and I felt like I was in a completely different world!!

To Newly Painted Bedrooms and Incredible In-Laws...CHEERS!!!

Two years ago, when Aaron and I first bought our house, every single wall in the house was white; I felt like I was living in a very large hospital room! It didn't take long, maybe half a second, for me to decide I wanted to paint the house, make it more home like. Now, when Aaron and I bought our house I was about three months pregnant with our son and once we were in the house my first concern was to paint the living/dining room, the hallways and our son's nursery. It took a while to get all that done and when it came time for us to  our bedroom I was way too pregnant, fat in other words, to expel the energy to get the job done. Because of my lack of energy, and size, our room went unpainted for over a year. Jump ahead about another half a year when Aaron and I got a Christmas gift from my in-laws of a free day of painting our bedroom. The reason this gift came from my in-laws is because I love the way they have their living room painted and have told them ever since we bought our house that's what I wanted our room to look like. Now, jump ahead another half a year and I came home from work one Friday afternoon to find this...

Aaron had planned for my mother and father-in-law to come to our house earlier that Friday morning to paint our room and I absolutely love it! I now feel our home is complete and feel so comfy and cozy in our new room.

Good Coffee+Good People=A Great Morning!

Whilst I was making my morning drive to work this morning I got a very large craving for a Starbucks coffee. Now, I try to stay away from Starbucks for two main reasons...to increase the thickness of my wallet and to decrease the thickness of my waist! Their coffee is absolutely incredible but extremely pricey and calorie laden! But, today I thought, "Hey, it's Friday...throw all caution to the wind!" Once I ordered my Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte and pulled to the drive through window, check card in hand, I received some surprisingly great news...the gentleman in the truck in front of me had paid for my coffee! It's so great to know there are people in this world who will sacrifice something of their own for the happiness of a complete stranger, even if it is a $5 latte on a Friday morning!
Happy Friday!



I thought it appropriate to post a pic, all be it a cell phone pic, of the small cup of joy I received! :-)

Bailey Family

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity of having a photo session with the family of a lady I work with, and I must say it was one of the best times I have had at a photo shoot! The love this family has for each other is absolutely incredible and the energy they express can be felt all over! Heidi and her husband, James, had so much fun together, they were making each other laugh with personal jokes between the two of them  and made the whole experience that much more enjoyable! Thank you, Heidi, for allowing me to capture the love you and your family share with one another!

Happy Easter (Better Late Than Never)

With Easter passing and the, somewhat, warmer weather coming to Albuquerque, I figured this post would be appropriate. Aaron and I, including our little one, went up to our grandparents' house in the mountains the Saturday before Easter Sunday and had a big Easter fiesta, as we do every year. The teenagers of the family go outside and hide the eggs for the little ones and the parents inside the house are doing everything they can to keep the little ones away from the windows and doors to prevent cheating. As soon as the door opens all Easter Egg Hunting craziness breaks loose! The kids are running left and right, all over the yard, diving into bushes, climbing trees and picking up rocks to collect as many eggs as they can and doing everything they can to be the first to find the coveted "Lucky Egg". Said "Lucky Egg" is a larger plastic egg containing money, of an undisclosed, larger amount and the kids nearly kill each other to find it! Each kid also gets quite a large amount of gifts from their aunties and uncles so Grandma's entire kitchen table is covered in pastel colored gift bags. Next to Christmas, Easter is the best holiday in the kids' opinions! Here are just a few pictures captured from the day. Hope everyone enjoys!

Location is the Key

Over the past few months there has been something about Downtown Albuquerque that I have been completely drawn to; I don't know if it's because I see it as our own little metropolis set in the middle of the desert, the architecture of both the new buildings and the historical landmarks or the excitement of the side street shops, cafes and the people milling about. Aaron and I took a drive yesterday and went down Gold, a street I don't normally drive down, and there were two buildings that I absolutely fell in love with! One of them is a newly renovated hotel with beautiful old English style architecture and awesome steps leading to the main front doors and some on the side of the building, a perfect location for natural light. The other location is one of the banks downtown, but it's not a newer high rise style of a building that goes straight to the heavens. This building has gorgeous arches and beautiful cream colored stones and some incredible large windows that will allow for a splash of awesome reflected light. I nearly knocked Aaron's hands off the steering wheel pointing out these two locations and jabbering on about how great it would be to take some shoots at these two buildings. The only thing I need now is subjects to shoot!!! Anyone wanting a shoot, let me know!

Details, Details, Details!

It never fails, every wedding photography blog I read and every website I visit, the photographers talk so much about being able to see the details in the weddings they have been privileged to shoot. The rings around napkins on a table, the small strand of beads draped off of the table's center pieces, the candles placed on the gift table, etc, these are the pieces of a wedding that, at times, can be the most beautiful part of the day. Don't get me wrong, pictures of the bride and groom, the wedding party and the overall venue are beautiful and an absolute must, but the details provide such an in site into the couple being married and can tell such an amazing story. Last weekend I went to my cousin's wedding in Lubbock, TX that was held at the Baker Building in Downtown Lubbock and it was absolutely gorgeous! I've posted some pictures below of some of the small details of the venue that spoke to me and, hopefully, tell a bit of a story themselves. Enjoy!