Sunset Beach in B/W

I truly do love ocean shots in B/W.

I took a TON of pictures on our trip to the coast. Rather than bore you to tears with a post of 40 pictures I'll just sprinkle them in here and there.
It'll keep the memory of this great trip fresh in my mind.

Tomorrow starts the 30 day photo challenge I've decided to embark on for June!
I'm excited that some of you have decided to take the challenge too!
It's fun to see each artists interpretation, and yes, you're an artist.
Even if you're creating with your camera phone you're creating!
I might reach out to some of you participating to post some of the daily shots in a group.

Yay! Fun!

Jumping for Freedom!

Thank you to all who sacrificed.

30 Day Challenge

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it might be fun to try for the month of June. I often fail at these pic a day challenges, but that won't keep me from trying! Who wants to join me? No fancy camera, blog, or professional photography skills required. Just a fun way to get the creative juices flowing. Come on, you know you want to! You can post your pics on facebook, flickr, or just email them to me...I'll post them for you. ;)




Hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

Growth can be risky

I'm finding that as I try to grow, become a stronger Christian woman, be a better mother, and "put away childish things," some people from my past will have to remain there. I'm not better than anyone. I'm just not that girl anymore....

and that's ok.





"No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies
your right to grow." - Alice Walker

Sun has set on another great trip

We're home from our extended weekend on the coast. Sigh.





Great trip, I bonded some more with my boy and my 35mm 1.8. Lot's more pics to share soon. To say I'm eager to take another trip to there would be a HUGE understatement.

Huge.

From A to Z

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the mommy n son shoot I did last weekend. Little man was NOT on board with our plan that day, but with a face like that he was gonna have to try extra hard not to make great photo's!











I finally spent a little money on some PS actions and had a lot of fun playing around with them while editing these. Do you select one look and apply to all the shots from a shoot for a uniform look or do you search out the best one for each individual photo? I tried to stick to the same look but the fact is the same action can do amazing things for one shot and completely screw up another. Especially with different skin tones.











We're headed to the coast for the weekend. Really looking forward to a nice getaway. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet boy!

I hate shopping....

...For camera equipment. Seriously! I've saved up my pennies and I want to buy a new lens for my upcoming trip to Africa and I can not decide! Every time I think I've read enough reviews and done enough comparisons I ask a photographer friend and I'm slapped back to square one. And lens shopping always leads to the question of do I upgrade my camera or not? I bought a Nikon D40 over 3 years ago as my starter camera into the land of digital SLR's and it's been great but it has limitations that I feel I am ready to stretch beyond. Do I bite the bullet and skip ahead to an FX format? It's just so much $! Am I kidding myself with even considering that? It's probably more camera than I can handle. Do I accept the fact that I'm not making enough with side portrait work to justify a purchase of that magnitude? Then there's the lenses...I want 300mm but I'd like a zoom, I know you get what you pay for so I'm leery of those under $200. Reviews are all over the place. I was looking at the Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 but the price... ugh. I can't tell you how many times I've added a piece of equipment into my "cart" on Amazon only to close the browser and exhale in frustration.

I need help, a Nikon photographer guru to be my mentor, any takers?

Aaaand we're back!

Blogger was down for me for nearly two days! Not that I had some big news to share, just wanted to pop in and say hi and couldn't. :(

I spent my day off today with some much needed "me time." Hair color, pedicure, a lil shopping, and finally a fun photo shoot with a friend and her lil boy. I snapped these before the shoot:


Our golden tower bridge shinning in all her glory.







And me, in my car, enjoying a lil A/C before I headed back out into the heat.




HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Lil miss Daisy

My Auntie brought a new member into the family. She's so tiny and so cute!

Welcome to the family lil miss Daisy!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

The house is full of flowers and I've been reminded why I love being a mom.

Great mother's day.

I hope all the fabulous mommies spent the day feeling
extra appreciated and loved!


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Juicy Slice of Summer

It's not technically summer yet but with two days in the 90's I have a feeling spring has sprung and summer is showing up to the party a tad early. We enjoyed one of our favorite summer treats tonight after dinner... how about a sweet, juicy, red slice of Watermelon?

There are only two rules to eating watermelon at our house,
it must be eaten outside and lot's of slurping should be involved.

My weekend starts tomorrow and I am SO READY for some sleeping in!

Checking in

Two things have kept me from the blogosphere this past week one being work:
Insanity. Crazy. Busy. Stressful.

The other being family visiting:
Love. Support. Laughter. Proud.

Next on the agenda is to plan a lil something for E's 4th bday. It's really snuck up on me this year. He'll be happy with some of his buddies, cake, and a song. I better take advantage of these times the simple things are enough.




Sorry I've been MIA and haven't stopped by your blog to say hi. I'm in need of inspiration and chuckles so I'll swing by soon.