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Yikes! I am just squeaking by with my month #5 family photo!   This photo was taken yesterday, on Caroline’s 7th birthday!   I am always so excited to celebrate another of Caroline’s birthdays and prove, yet again, to all the experts that the so-called experts can be oh-so-wrong.   Caroline is seven and she is happy and healthy and still going strong! 

So, what is going on this month of June?

Well, it is the first month of summer vacation so I have EVERYONE home.  Every. Single. Day.  Usually that is OK, but some days it can get a bit much.   I definitely know why my own mom used to get so excited for the first day of school.  Summer is NOT a vacation for mom.  I have more kids, more meals, lots of snacks, more messes, more fighting, and a lot less quiet time.  Oh well, I also know these days of little ones go so fast and before I know it, I will have an empty house all the time :(.   So I am also enjoying these days as much as possible.

June has been a good month.  We had a family vacation last week to the mountains of Tennessee.  Caroline stayed home with her grandmother (Mimi) which really was so nice.  Tennesse was definitely not a vacation for Caroline.  We went boating, horseback riding, swimming and some relaxing.  She would have liked the relaxing part, but not the driving, boating, swimming etc.  We missed her so much, and it was really strange not to have to think about her schedule for feedings and meds her for 5 days,  but we know she was SO much happier at home.  And it was nice to have so much more freedom to do things with the other girls.  The vacation home was wonderful – clean and comfortable with an amazing view.  I am planning on blogging more about the vacation later. Actually, I have a LOT to blog about, and should have many new posts very soon! 

Christina is back into summer swim team.  She also spent a week taking golf lessons this month and her Dad is quite excited to get her out on a course this summer.  Hopefully she will enjoy it as much as he does.   Christina is also, as usual, living life to the fullest.   She is my party girl, she loves to have friends and family over to visit or to go visiting, she will stay up as late as absolutely possible, she will only sleep if forced to, and she is usually the first one up in the morning.  She never wants to miss a second of the day.  I wish I had just a tenth of her energy.

Kallie turned 5 this month.  She is as crazy as ever and continues to be our comedian.   She is also becoming quite the skinny minny.  She grew about 1  1/2 inches over the last 6 months…and lost a pound!  She definitely is enjoying having her sister and dad home for the summer.  She loved her birthday party this month and her favorite gift was probably a purple lizard her Mimi got her from the dollar store.  She is such a goof and has developed a love of lizards.  She carries the thing around all day.  He even sleeps next to her in bed.  Kallie also has decided to assume the role of  “Superdog” this month.  She puts on her swim goggles, and crawls around the house.  She has been playing this role for about 3 days now.   She insists that Christina must play Superdog with her, but Christina, understandably, has no idea what Superdog is and how to actually play it!  Fortunately, Kallie finally let her in as to how the game is apparently played and Christina has nicely played along with her crazy sister.

Caroline is doing so well.  She enjoyed a month off from school, but will be back in school in July.  She is also having a good time at horseback riding.  She goes to a handicapped horseback riding program once a week.   She has been going for a few years now.  It is such a wonderful program and Caroline actually seems to enjoy herself.  Caroline also has been enjoying her pool this summer.  She got a pool through Make A Wish a couple years ago.  We have a float rigged up that fits her just perfectly.   She can sit and kick and float around the pool and she absolutely LOVES it! 

Eric is enjoying his summer vacation.  He is helping at the Y with the summer swim team and is doing odd jobs around the house.   I have a few projects I hope will finally get started now that our family vacation is done. 

Well, that is it for now, this 29th day of June!  Until next month!!!

That is Sweetie Pies, plural. 

I have two little ones with birthdays only 5 days apart so we always have done their birthday celebrations together.  Kallie will be turning 5 next week and Caroline will be turning 7. 

I can’t believe my “baby” is 5.  I mean, that is school age!!!  Although we have decided to hold her back and let her enjoy another year of preschool before throwing her into the trenches of the “public school system”.  School is so different and so hard nowadays that I feel giving my kids the advantage of at least being older when they are forced to deal with some of the harder and some of the more awful aspects of the school years. 

And Caroline, she is turning 7!  For a child who was deemed most likely “not compatible with life” and given a prognosis of “less than one year” and predicted will live life as a “vegetable” – she is doing pretty damn alright.  

And next week, we are going on our first family vacation!!!!  We have been on many vacations before, but we always go with extended family members.  This year we are packing up the girls and heading to a lake house in the mountains.  We are SO excited!!!  Caroline is staying with Mimi (grandmother) so it is just the four of us.   We are planning on just relaxing by the lake, doing some boating, some hiking, and some horseback riding.  And also doing lots of nothing!  We will be [almost] completely out of touch with no cell service and no internet (yikes!).  But that is OK, a few days of being unplugged would probably be good for me.

Since Kallie’s actual birth date will be when we are gone, we celebrated Caroline and Kallie’s birthday this week with an early pool party/birthday party.  We invited the crazy cousins and everyone had a blast.

And Caroline seemed to have a good time – rocking out with her new shades!

Well, I better get back to my packing and planning and laundry and shopping and editing and…….until next time!!!

I just got back from shooting a wedding and am in the process of downloading all the images and then backing them up.  However, I am not often known for my patience, and I just loved this photo and, I couldn’t wait.  I just had to immediately do some quick editing so I could share!

Other than the fact that it was about 99 degrees with 99% humidity, - it was a picture perfect day!  Much more to come!!!

Meet my littlest munchkin. 

She is the [craziest] and the pickiest eater EVER.  She survives on cereal, spaghetti, peanut butter, waffles, bagels and the occasional banana or apple.  She won’t touch a vegetable to save her life.  I have tried almost every trick in the book, nothing seems to work.  I have finally decided to try not to care, make sure she gets a few healthly items in her diet, and hope that she will grow up and feel a little less adverse to trying anything new or different.

However, in the meantime, I do have a few sneaky methods up my sleeve.  Like throwing the occasional carrot into the spaghetti sauce.  Or serving her this:

Nope, that’s not your average gooey, chocolatey, frosted brownies from a box. Those, my friends, are homemade brownies filled with 2 cups of wonderful, green, shredded zucchini!!! And my little munchking is none the wiser!!

Just one of my [few] ways to win the war against veggies!!

Two weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to attend a workshop hosted by Amy Wenzel.  I have been interested in attending a workshop for a while now.  I spend a ton of time reading anything and everything photography related – books, blogs, articles, websites etc.  But I felt that a chance to learn, in person, would really help take my work up to the next level.  And when I heard Amy was hosting one in May, I signed up right then and there.  I have admired Amy’s work for a while now and have heard amazing reviews about her workshops.  I thought it would be an amazing experience. 

And, damn, I was right.

I first have to say, that attending this workshop was a HUGE deal for me.  For one, it is not like we are swimming in extra cash-ola.  So the cost of the workshop, the accomodations, the car rental, my meals on the road etc, was a bit of a challenge and a little scary to be honest.

But the other issue was, as the mom of 3 little girls, leaving for a couple days can really upset the daily routine.  And if you know kids, you know they like routine and they don’t like when mom isn’t home for any length of time.  My girls have no problem leaving me for a day or so.  But they like knowing that I am home IF they need me.  My oldest, Christina, had the hardest time.  She was pretty weepy the day or two before I left.  Her statement “you can’t leave, because, um, you are always here!” pretty much summed up the kids’ opinion.  But between my husband taking a few days off and with my MIL’s help, I was able leave for the 2 day workshop knowing everything would run fairly smoothly at home.

But I dropped Christing off for the bus in the morning (with only a few tears), got my stuff together and set out for the almost 7 hour drive to Grand Rapids MI.  It was a perfect drive – perfect weather, no traffic, no problems whatsoever. 

Amy was very sweet, very organized and very willing to share absolutely everything and anything.   There were 14 attendees at this workshop, which was so nice.  I loved having a small group!  The other ladies were all sweet and I was so glad to learn, not only from Amy, but from them as well. 

Amy discussed everything that goes into preparing for a shoot and gave much more confidence in how to choose locations and find the best light.  She discussed posing and interacting with clients.  She even spent a good deal of time talking about how important wardroble selection really is.     

She also talked about developing your business.  One topic was how important finding your niche is.  If you are a photographer of everything and anything, you may be very good.  However, this approach really isn’t going to allow you to truly become a master.  As they say “jack of all trades, master of none”.   Amy only photographs children and senior girls.  And she gets many people who get a bit irked when she refuses to shoot senior boys or older children or older families.  But she knows what she loves and she knows what she truly excels at.  And, when you do what you love, you will try your hardest and do your absolute best work possible.  I know there are certain types of shoots I love to do more than others.  But I feel that this year I will continue to try many different opportunities to truly see what I love .  But I also now have the goal of defining my own niche by the end of 2010. 

In the afternoon of our first day, Amy brought in four models and we made our way to an old industrial area in town.  Amy talked us through exactly how she chose the location, looked for the light, posed the subject and set up her camera.  She even explained which angles she chose to shoot at and why.  And then we all had opportunites to try our hand shooting her gorgeous models.  They were all so professional and accomodating.  Even the adorable 4 year old who, understandably, got a bit overwhelmed with the sea of cameras, performed like a pro.  Here are just a few of the 862 photos (no exaggeration here) I took!

The second day was spent going through post-processing in great detail.  I feel that I am pretty well versed in Photoshop and Lightroom, but Amy gave me so many little tips and ideas that have improved my post processing and really helped improve my efficiency.

We ended our second day with a discussion (and pep talk) about pricing and marketing.  Pricing is definitely one of the hardest parts of a business.  But if you aren’t priced properly, there is no way you will ever have a successful business.  You will either just, obviously, run out of money and be unable to continue pretty much your current course of breaking even (or worse, losing money).  Or you will burn out and get tired of spending hours and hours in front in your computer, out on shoots, scouting locations, and having almost nothing left to show for your hard work.  This is something I knew long ago, but have been very nervous about doing.  But I have been working for a while on a new price structure and finally implemented it as of June 1.  I also added new products and purchased new samples to be able to offer more to my clients and help them make better decisions on what products would work best for them.

I have to say that attending this workshop was one of the best things I have done for my business thus far.  And I am inspired to continue to improve myself by attending more workshops and seminars in the future. 

If anyone is thinking of attending one of Amy’s future workshops, I do have to say that I would recommend it without any reservations.  I really feel it would be beneficial to almost any photographer, experienced or a novice.  And feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

One other note – I finally published my Facebook business page!  More workshop photos there!  Please stop by! 

 

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