Photography

Rainbow

I had a super busy week at work and then I was allowed a break on Saturday to spend time up in Helen with family. I worked most of Sunday and a good portion of Friday but I am so close to wrapping up my photography work until August!!!! It’s going to be like summer vacation just working around 40 hours a week. LOL!

When I think of rainbows, I think of the promise of something better.  Driving home Saturday, wishing I had the time to actually spend the night with my family.. we ran across this rainbow. It was so beautiful I made my brother pull over at the nearest, non-wooded gas station.  This silly little phone picture doesn’t do it justice. Just staring at it for a few minutes refreshed my soul and I carried the happiness with me the rest of the day. :)

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Photography

Head Down

I’ve been working hard on some photographs these last two weeks! I did have somewhat of a mental breather this weekend where I didn’t do much except see family and friends. :) Here’s a couple of photos from the last few events/sessions!

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Wallpapers

Clean Bandit

 

This song makes me feel all sorts of romantic. I’m working on the New York city photos here and there but my priority is the wedding I shot last weekend.  I’m really busy, guys. But not in the SIGH MY LIFE IS SO BUSY way. In a good, wow am I living my dream? kind of way. I’ll update, soon!

Photography

Off Camera

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally went ahead and bought some extra flash guns. The cool part is that these are completely radio controlled. I love the dramatic light I can produce now and really look forward to using my new off camera techniques at my upcoming weddings! They’ll get plenty of use as I have three weddings to shoot between two weekends right after we return from New York.

I still have plenty to learn but I am thrilled with all the new light possibilities that have opened up to me. This is the first real photograph I set up with the external flash directly shooting at this old Kodak I have in some shelves. The detail in the shadows is because the flash on the body also fired. I went pixel peeping and there was nary a grain on the photo. Normally I’d be firing and bouncing off a wall to the left or right to get a similar effect but have to shoot at something like ISO 400 to make sure I got the exposure I wanted.

Anyway I’m really excited!

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Photograph taken with 2x Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT

Travel

Tennessee River

Last Sunday, Jeremy and I took a day trip with our friends Val & Sam to Chattanooga.  Towards the end of the day, we stopped on the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge and enjoyed the waning sunlight.  The Tennessee River is flanked with some pretty white cliffs, and the Delta Queen is stationed for the evening at the shore.  KD2A1210-Edit-X3

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Tennessee isn’t what I think of when I consider a vacation getaway but I’m changing my mind. On this trip, we happened to wind up in the art district and it tingled my visual senses. Awesome art pieces had been installed among a mishmash of building styles. There was also what appeared to be an art museum on the cliff in the photo above. I think a coffee and art tour of the city would be really fun. Next time, I think that’ll be our plan!

Life, Photography

Takin Care of Business

April sure was a busy month for both Jeremy and I! Both of us have large workloads at our jobs, have been taking care of several photography clients, and trying our best not to pull out our hair as we make improvements around the house and plan some upcoming travel. Last night we finished off two bottles of wine and laughed fairly uncontrollably at Blazing Saddles and two episodes of Futurama and did not a shred of work.  It was glorious. Despite how busy we are, we’re thankful for all the things that keep us busy. It’s all positive stuff! We’ve really enjoyed our clients lately. I want to share two with you, a pretty senior and a great Ethiopian couple.

Jazmyne’s mom reached out to me in early April after seeing some of my work with one of my colleague’s daughters.  Since daylight hours extend well into the evenings now,  we chose an evening session. Best decision ever! Golden hues everywhere, and cool weather just made this shoot perfect. Plus Jazmyne was willing  to try some new things with me. I loved it.

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Nia and Ibrahim are a really fun couple with some urban preferences! I love it when couples ask for city styled shoots because that means I get to shoot in the heart of my favorite city. We chose the park around the Millenium Gate, Westside Market, and Tech Campus. Nia is a photographer herself and just came with oodles of poses ready to go! I barely had to tell them to do anything! They just fell into pretty poses for me! She’s a software engineer too so I really liked her!!! Ibrahim was a fun personality and it was so obvious he loves Nia A LOT! :)

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I’ve been having a grand few weeks!
On a slightly less happy note, I have been referred to a nephrologist since I’ve been having renal issues for weeks now. We hope the symptoms are just a side effect of a resilient respiratory infection I’ve been battling but we will know after they do some more tests! I feel pretty great so thankfully it’s not getting in the way of my life or anything but it is a little nagging thought in the back of my head.

This weekend Jeremy and I are shooting a party at the local Hilton and then heading out to Chattanooga for another wildlife tour and cruise with our good buddies Val and Sam! I am SUPER excited about hanging out with them. :)

Books

The Fault in Our Stars

the-fault-in-our-starsI don’t usually have a lot of time set aside for reading but I’ve been picking up a few more books lately. The fault in our stars was recommended through GoodReads and looked like a short read. This is terrible, but what the cover of the book looks like heavily influences whether I pick up the book or not. By the way, I like chalkboard text. :)

The story follows two teenagers struggling with terminal health issues as they fall in love.  Romantic, I’m not, but this book had me tearing through the pages while trying to really soak in this relationship. The hard truths of reality mixing with the effervescent emotions of young love made for a gripping contrast.

I enjoy the read, to the very last sentence and nearly fell in love with Augustus Waters myself. Don’t tell my husband. Do pick up this book. :)

Life, Photography

Easter

I had a wonderful Easter weekend, although it started crummily. I contracted some sort of disease from a coworker and it kept me home for two days last week.  It was completely inopportune considering how much collaborative work I needed to complete at the office.  I’m on some strong antibiotics, which always seems to mess up my entire digestive tract. On the flip side I have some really sweet friends. Friday night Sam & Val came over and we consumed an Argentinian themed dinner and watched Frozen together. We had a small adventure where a large outdoor cockroach made it’s way in and climbed up my body. That was fun and screamy.

Saturday, it rained and my morning e-session rescheduled. I enjoyed sleeping in. I met with two wonderful clients later in the day once the sun broke out. I’m looking forward to June, when I am packed with weddings! On Sunday night my BFFs Sana and Ami came over and brought me food, cheered me up, and then watched Frozen with me. :) I love them so much.

Sunday we headed to Easter service at 9am, which surprisingly wasn’t much more packed than normal church service. I admit I was glad since I expected to slowly roam out of the parking lot over 45 minutes amidst hundreds of Easter service attendees.  We were out in 10! Sunday afternoon we met with my entire mum’s side family for Easter lunch. I really enjoy my family, they are the best.

We hung out with my brother and his buddies at a coffee shop in the evening and I saw this pretty mockingbird in the trees.  Spring is here. The weather is still throwing some cold curveballs now and then but I’ll take it. Yesterday while standing outside Thousand Hills and trying to figure out what to do we realized it was 7pm! It felt like it was 3pm the way the sun was shining.  I love that so much.  :)

Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend too!

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Photography

Missed

Shots like this just kill me. The bird is in position, just waiting for you to take your awesome shot and then BAM as soon as your finger makes it to the trigger, it shows you its butt.  There’s a life metaphor in here somewhere.

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