Feeling Blessed...

I was editing some of the photos from the first weekend of baseball season in our household. I love baseball season. It's so....AMERICAN, I guess. :-) I came to realize that my boy, at the ripe old age of 11 is one of the "big guys" out there. It's fun to watch the t-ball players looking up to the older ones with such respect.


It's also fun to watch the boy t-ball players trying to impress the girl t-ball players. It's times like that when I wish I had a video camera in my bag.


I also love the old fashioned values....taught by all the parents to all the players....


Remove your hat when saying the pledge....

Always take an opportunity to provide instruction and encouragement....


Be enthusiastic.....



Give it your all....



Congratulate a job well done!

Yes, there is a lot of reason to be concerned with the goodness and safety of the world sometimes, but then again...there's a lot of reason to be thankful!

The Imperfect Necessity

I get a bit wrapped up sometimes in getting "professional" shots. Ones that have some value for potential customers. I find that I sometimes forget to get the day in and day out snapshots. I sometimes take the shot, but then don't feel they are "technically correct" enough to share.

Today, I'm sharing from our weekend. Just some snapshots. In imperfect places with imperfect lighting, and typically zero time to prepare.

At the Blue and Gold Banquet....some of the Cub Scouts visiting with my father-in-law, inquiring about his patches.

My boy getting recognized later in the same banquet.

It was a big day for him....Here he is "getting some leather" from the Baylor catcher after he threw out the first pitch at the first baseball game of the season for Baylor Baseball.

Here he is on Saturday evening. After the above events AND a church lock-in, he was tuckered out!

Perfect moments deserve to be captured. Perfectly or not!

Cookbook

For Christmas, I wanted to do gifts that had a bit more meaning than usual. 2009 was not the greatest of years in our family, so I really wanted to make it special.

My daughter has taken a great interest in cooking. At first I felt guilty, because I thought she was just helping cook dinner because her mom was tired and grumpy. (Who? Me?) Then she started experimenting, and I realized that she REALLY enjoyed it. So I thought that might be one inspiration....

Then there's the relationship my daughter has with my Granny. I say "has" even though Granny passed away in 2001, because Heather, like my mother and I, believes in "Pennies From Heaven". The thought that when we find a penny on the ground, it is a message from Granny, sending us her love. With this past year being as it was, we found it surreal that there were pennies every time we turned around. (And once, she sent me a dollar...while I was filling up with gas at the gas station!)

So that was a second inspiration!

When we cleaned out Granny and Grandpa's house, I brought home a recipe box. I honestly was looking for a specific recipe, which I never found. (Jalapeno pickle recipes are always appreciated, by the way)

Here is the box....

I knew there were more recipes that I had brought home, but couldn't remember what they were in. The very day I was planning on starting on the cookbook, I cleaned some shelves I have in the dining room. Lo and behold...there was an old 3 ring binder full of recipes and notes from Granny. I was about to casually take it to my office when I flipped it open to a random page...

There, in Granny's handwriting, was this:I literally RAN with the binder to my office, tears running down my face. Now I KNEW this was the right gift to make for my daughter.

So this is what I put together:

I had to add the "and such" since I have a whole "chapter" of Granny's clippings from newspapers and random notes she had written and thought enough of to keep in the binder. I also threw in a few pages of photos, of course.

The recipes are scanned, so that they retain the original "flavor" of Granny's recipe box. Complete with grease stains, gravy drops, and an occasional correction on a recipe.

There were even a few surprises. Granny is my mom's mother. But mixed in her recipes were some from my aunts on my dad's side:

and one from Backflip Johnny's mom (who is my aunt's sister-in-law.) Backflip Johnny is a rodeo clown that my family has enjoyed watching at small town rodeos around here for several years. One day I posted a shot of him on Facebook, and my cousin responded with "HEY! That's my cousin!"...From the other side, of course. Heather loves thinking that she is a "cousin-in-law" to Backflip Johnny, and was therefore excited to see his mom's recipe in the book.

When I present a family with their photos, I know I've done well if there are tears. Well, in this case, Heather cried....and so did I.

Thanks for letting me stretch a bit on my "photo blog" by capturing a different kind of moment.

Cowboys And Indians

I hesitated for a long time to write anything about the Cowboys And Indians January issue...thinking at first that I might curse it. Then, just got very busy.

For starters, I have been reading Cowboys and Indians for quite a few years now. I think I read my first one in the Dr.'s office. Then I bought one with Robert Redford on the front. I've always liked the photography in the magazine, all the way from the ads to the featured photographers that have 10 page spreads. I've looked forward to the January issue, which features the photography contest.

I've entered 3 times now. And this year, one of my photos got chosen as a finalist, and therefore got printed. I was very thrilled!

Below are the shots I entered this year. The last one, of my son Garrett, is the one that made it to the finals. Already working on ones for next year.

A Few Reasons I Love Being a Photographer...

While driving home in the VERY dreary, VERY gray weather today, I found myself looking forward to getting home and getting at the computer, and.....playing with flower photos! I know by the calendar that Spring is just around the corner, but it doesn't make it any easier on dreary days like today. So that got me thinking about reasons I love taking photos.

There's one! You can pull this up and gaze at it when it is 43 degrees out. Soon enough I'll be out "chasing wildflowers" every chance I get!

During a stressful day, you can pull up a photo like this.......

....and remember how peaceful that morning was at Lake Brownwood with good friends, good stories, and the whole day of laughter to look forward to!After every event, where I've served as the official or unofficial photographer, and everyone is saying what a great time they have had and we need to do it again soon....I am usually feeling lucky because I WILL get to relive it again by going through the photos one by one!

Enjoy the MOMENTS...

Basketball

I am happy that the gym that my son plays in this year has better lighting than the elementary gym. Still not the greatest of lighting situations, but not too bad. Thought I'd share a few pics from Saturday's game.

This is Ben. Seems like I've had him in one shot or another since we moved here to Lorena. Great kid! Great parents!

I love the determination on this shot.

And, of course, my boy! I had to throw in some special effects for him.

My Grandpa

Still creating new photos out of old photos. This is my Grandpa. He passed away 9 years ago this March. When I shot this photo, he was at a stage where he didn't want me taking his photo. He always thought we were "wasting film" on him.

So for this shot, he and my husband were sitting on the front porch, with the dogs all around on a lazy hot afternoon. I had just pointed the camera at him, and he fussed at me, so I pointed the camera at my husband and said, "Oh, Grandpa, I'm taking a picture of Mark, not you!" Took the shot of my husband, then quickly turned and shot the one of him above. In the originals, you can actually line up the door frame behind them, and you have a great image of two men chatting away the day!

Here is the shot of Mark the same day.

Always take the shot! Even if you have to be a bit sneaky to do it! These may be my most cherished photos!