new year's deep thoughts

watching kids grow in photographs is an excellent way to accept just how fast time flies. the boys and i played in the yard today: well, they played and i toted around my camera...just like i always do. it was just a beautiful day-sunny with skies of dark azure that i have only come to know here in colorado. the boys were playing on their sleds wishing for snow. i watched them and watched them and just reflected on how fast the time has passed. they are almost 5 and almost 3. amazing. i can still remember sitting in that very yard crying because we just couldn't manage to get pregnant. then i recall photos of baby aaron in my arms in the summer sun, and baby casey in my belly. seems like just the other day i was complaining of something related to having a 2-year-old and a new baby.

now our days have changed to two brothers zooming around in the backyard with their treasured plastic toy trucks from target, zipping down the little slide auntie shelley and uncle tim bought for aaron's second birthday (three years ago!). these are the days to remember.

i grabbed the camera and started shooting with a large depth of field and trying different shutter speeds and ways to work with the light. the boys both have such beautiful eyes so i tried a couple of shots to showcase them. and, for a few short minutes they were actually cooperative.







finally-their interest in being photographed all but disappeared which is not unusual for my poor boys who are constantly staring at a camera. i resorted to my favorite source of bribery--chocolate! so i will end this post of reflective thoughts with a fun one--aaron showing off his well-earned reward for all that posing! (casey ate his way too fast to be photographed--that boy is just like his momma--he LOVES candy!)

happy new year one and all. and if you stopped by to read this--please leave me a comment. i treasure the thought that these posts are visited and enjoyed.

a story with no words...

dashing through the streets of littleton, colorado...

i was asked to do some photography work for a local restaurant (bet you can't guess which one?!#) this weekend. the restaurant hired two horse carriages to ride folks around the beautiful light display in downtown littleton after (or before in some cases) a wonderful meal. the weather was a bit frightful (single digits and, at times, below zero) but the ride was so delightful!

joe-the owner of sampson, the poor 2200 pound little guy hauling 6 passengers in the back and he and i in the front, offered to share the view with me in exchange for the photos for his web site. how could i refuse? it felt whimsical to be driven down main street in a lovely carriage. the lights were magical and so was the evening.

thank goodness for my new d 700 (and it's high ISO capability). without it i wouldn't have gotten images even close to these!

challenging light-fun family!

this family could only meet a 1 pm this past saturday and we'd been trying to schedule a session for a while now. with her husband's job and his travel-it was very challenging. i agreed to do the session at that time as it was a very overcast day so light didn't seem like it would be a problem. as soon as i arrived at the location the sun was out in full force. i walked around the park/lake searching, desperately, for some shade and even-lighting. i walked for 20 minutes and found nothing usable. i encouraged the family to drive to downtown littleton in search of better light. they agreed and suggested another park. the light was not great but usable. they requested several spots around trees but the sun was way too high and too strong. we finally found some shaded spots downtown by some buildings. i learned quite a bit about this shoot.
1. NEVER try to outsmart the sun.
2. NEVER do a shoot with a new camera (I used my brand spankin' new nikon d 700)
3 Repeat #2 OVER AND OVER (I had the camera settings way off! it resulted in lots of stress and even tears while editing the images.)