Second Chance Prom!

My friend Cara had an awesome idea to put together a Second Chance Prom as a fund raiser for Mishawaka Relay for Life. Here is some information that I promised.

Who: Ages 21 and older
Where: McKenna Hall at Notre Dame
When: Saturday, April 19, 2008 from 8pm-12am.
Why: Because all money raised goes to the Mishawaka Relay for Life

There will be a cash bar and some snacks
Formal wear is encouraged

To get your tickets please call Cara Newman at 993-2271 or email her at CaraCMNS@aol.com

Chris and I will be there photographing. So, come have fun, get dressed, and get some "Prom" pictures taken by Guided Light Photography.

Hope to see you there.

Michelle

Yesterday, I had an old friend come over for a maternity session. It was so nice to catch up and talk mommy talk with her. Her pictures came out beautiful and we had so much fun taking them. She was really up for anything so we did some fashion pictures and some tooling pictures I've been dying to try. She was a good sport, considering her big belly.

Blocks

I was feeling inspired to be creative. I've been looking for a way to let my creative expression fly, but I couldn't figure out what to do. My sister gave Bryce a bunch of blocks a weekend or two ago. I decided to arrange them to spell out his name and the date he was born. I would eventually like to get it printed as a 10x15 or something like that and then frame it or something. Here they are.





I'm still not sure which one I'd like to print for him. I may redo them with his initials or with just his first name. I'm not sure. I want to do something for Josie's room too, but I think blocks are a little young for her. I will have to think about that one.

Scooter!

Bryce has decided he's going to start to move. He scoots backwards when he's on his tummy. I've caught him scooting under the couch and today he was under the old TV stand. I was trying to finish up with the office and he was content watching Chicken Little (he was glued to it) so I left him there. I heard him crying so I went to get him, but I couldn't find him. I didn't know where he was. I looked over by the front door and saw a little arm waving under the old TV stand. Poor little guy. I think he bumped his head. That would explain him crying.

I was asked to photograph a Second Chance Prom on April 19th. It's a fund raiser Cara Newman is putting together. I can't remember what organization it's for. I'll have to get some information from her so I can post it to let everyone know that might be interested.

Saturday is Kayli's Sweet 16! surprise party. I sure hope she hasn't found my blog, because that wouldn't be cool. If you do, SURPRISE! Chris and I are photographing her party. I'm so excited. Her birthday is February 29. Technically, she'll only be 4, but she's 16 too. The theme is Rock 'N Roll and Rubber Duckies. Tim had a BRILLIANT idea to mix the two together. Chris and I saw the decorations Sunday at my parent's house. This is going to be a fun party. I can't wait to photograph it.

Bryce is waking up. Time to tend the little scooter.

Feeling Creative!

I am so anxious to photograph. I have a maternity session on Wednesday, but it seems so far away. Chris and I attempted to go downtown to photograph yesterday. Mom took Bryce and gave us 2 hours, I think we only used 30 minutes or so. Downtown was VERY windy and it hurt both of our ears. We took some pretty cool textures though. I'm excited to use them.

We spent most of Saturday afternoon/evening and into Sunday afternoon watching Martha Stewart's Complete Weddings DVD. WOW! 800 minutes of AWESOME and creative ideas. It made me want to add wedding planner to my agenda. I think I'll stick to photography.

Chris and I are in the process of writing our "About Me" section for our website. I was reminded why I wanted to be a photographer. I am so fascinated with faces, nature, and details. Noses and bone structures on faces are so amazing to me. My desire to be a wedding photographer comes from the excitement of the day. There is so much love radiating off the bride and groom that you can't help but feel emotional. I love capturing that emotion. It's memories you can't help but photograph.

My parents will never let me live this one down. When I was little, I stole all their wedding pictures (and I think some of my brother's baby pictures) and pretended they were my own. I really loved looking at my mom and how pretty she was in her dress. I threw away all their pictures because I knew I would get into trouble for taking them. Not a smart move, I got into more trouble for throwing them away and get continue to get laughed at to this day. What can I say, I was destined to be a wedding photographer.

Excitement!

I'm starting to get really excited for this wedding season to start. March11th, I'm heading up to Detroit for a seminar with Jerry Ghionis, one of the 10 wedding photographers in the world. It's called "How to be a Complete Wedding Photographer of the 21st Century." Since I really like the high fashion styles that you see in Vogue or other fashion magazines, I'm really excited about hearing his tips on making his subjects look glamorous, yet natural.

Our new lens is finally here. After having a lot of fuss with the vendor, we finally got our lens. YAY! It's a 24-70mm f2.8. I am so excited. This baby is HUGE! It's not as heavy as I thought, but it's heavier than what I'm used to.

We now have 3 weddings for this year. We are waiting on the deposit for the 4th and waiting to hear back from what sounding like a very promising bride. I'm so excited. Chris and I didn't think we would be where we are today. When I started my business in 2005, I wasn't as serious about it as I am now. It took a lot of pushing from Chris and a few friends (okay, just one) to push me in the right direction. For our first year, we are booking our calendar rather quickly. I am thrilled that we decided to have me stay home with Bryce and work Full Time on the business. I have been able to be there for milestones in Bryce's life and I'm able to be working on the business. I used to get ideas while I was working, but by the time I got home, I didn't have the chance to sit down and work on those ideas, or expand those ideas and now I can work on them until I turn blue in the face if I wanted to.

Aden

I had my nephew last week for a few hours. He was slowly trying to go down to his diaper. I decided to be proactive about it and took him into the studio. This is the final product.

My Little Tumbler

Bryce has finally figured out how to roll over from back to belly. The only thing is, he's not much of a tummy baby anymore. When I put him back on his back, to his tummy he goes. He thinks it's a game.

We went into the studio last night with him. I wanted some skin on skin pictures with him before he got too big. We really should have done this when he was a little younger (like when he was a month or younger), but that's ok because these pictures turned out to be a lot of fun. Chris did a really good job.

This one cracks me up.

My little angel.

Aww. I love his smirk.




This is probably my favorite picture.
This is too funny.

Needless to say, we had some fun.

We have 2 weddings on the schedule for this year. We are currently waiting on two brides for their down payment. One of those is in Chicago for a park wedding. I'm excited for that one. We have a consultation on Saturday for a bride that sounds pretty promising. The day after her wedding, another bride is looking at another Chicago wedding. We're not sure about the second Chicago wedding yet. First of all, it's on a Sunday. Second of all, we would already have two weddings, two weekends in a row, let alone two weddings in one weekend. That's a lot of processing. We haven't really had a chance to talk about it yet. One of our weddings for this year is on our anniversary. We decided to do it because it would be a good experience for us, and it's only our first anniversary. The gran-daddy of all weddings is one that I'm second shooting for with my friend Christi in May. It's in Myrtle Beach. That is going to be too much fun.

Well, my little munchkin is having a whinny day. I'm thinking there will be a first tooth report here really soon.

Congratulations Chad and Amanda!

I was so excited to do Chad and Amanda's wedding this weekend with Josef Samuel. It was fun to see what he came up with too. Different photographer's produce a way of looking at things and I had fun seeing what he saw that I didn't. I can't for Chris and I to do our first wedding together. As of right now, our first wedding is July 19th for Jesse and Heather. I am very excited for their wedding.

Without further ado, I put a few of their pictures in a slide show. Enjoy.

Fast Paced Weekend

My weekend flew by. Friday night I had a wedding rehearsal for Amanda and Chad's 2-2-08 wedding. It was at New Life Baptist Church in Osceola. Beautiful church, a photographer's dream location. Very bright, vast, open spaces, and everything is the sanctuary is brand new. We went to Sunny Italy for dinner afterwards. Yummy! I love Italian food.

Saturday, of course, was the wedding. I was reminded why I love weddings so much; the love of the couple permeates the rooms and makes everyone happy and giddy. It made me thankful for having such a wonderful, devoted husband. When I hear love stories, I can picture everything about it; their feelings, emotions, the surroundings, etc. I started to visualize how/when Chris and I fell in love and as a reminisced over my own love story, I fell deeply in love with my husband all over again.

Sunday, we weren't feeling up to par. We stayed home, except to take my dad's car back to him (thanks again, dad!). The day flew by and I felt like I missed out on time with Josie. I only got to see her a little bit the first few days, then Sunday went by so fast. She helped me bake a cake (double layer chocolate cake). When she cracked open the egg and it squirted at her, she decided she needed an apron. So, she helped me make an apron for her. It's leopard printed with black lace to tie in the back. She felt so above herself it was cute. I have to make a pocket for it and then it's done.

I've been going through 1600 pictures from the wedding, deciding on keepers. I'm excited to start editing them now that I'm done going through them all two times. Okay, I only went through the keepers two times, not all 1600 of them. YIKES! That would've been interesting. I was so excited to help Joe with the wedding and I can't wait to photograph again. I haven't photographed a wedding in 2 years, I've missed it so. It'll be exciting when Chris and I start photographing together.

Bryce should be waking up soon, I will post a few wedding pictures when I finish them.

Not Oatmeal, Bananas

Oatmeal cereal? No, Bryce wants real food. But that's okay because I know what's in real food, for the most part. Bryce had his first taste of real bananas this morning. He liked it at first, but didn't want much of it. He's been acting as if he's ready to start food. So, Chris and I thought we might give it a whirl. I mashed up bananas for him and starting letting him try it. Chris documented so I wanted to share these cute faces.

Yummy!
This one is my favorite. Look at that face.
He wasn't sure if he liked it anymore.
Look at that glare.
Those are my homemade diaper cover wraps. They don't work very well.
Bryce is trying to roll over here. He rolled over yesterday, for the most part.
He loves munching on his toys.
His hand is his favorite. He gave that wrist a hickie. Poor thing.
Tummy Time! Bryce likes tummy time.