a new piece

So this week has been kind of an awkward week.. Lot's of strange things happening. Anyways, so inspired by the weirdness of the week, I drew some inspiration and finished a new piece that has been tempting me for some time now. I think that sometimes when a person is kind of frustrated with different emotions -- something interesting can come out of it. I don't have a name for it yet... but I will soon. Anyways here it is..

In the trees

Playing peekaboo around these two trees, Charlotte just kept smiling and smiling. I would chase her in circles around them, she figured out how to start climbing them too! She is so much!

Few more from Janesville

These are a few more pics from Janesville, of Charlotte, the small dog Carley, the large dog is actually a DINGO with one brown eye, one blue eye, named Maggie... and my Maternal Aunt Terri, and her house.

Janesville Family Shots:

here are the first set of family pics from the trip:
They are of Charlotte and my maternal Grandmother.

The Rotary Botanical Gardens- Janesville

pics from my trip :)

so... went back down south for a few more days, did a little bit of house hunting and job searching and spent some more time with the relatives of course! Anyways we found out that Janesville, WI (about 30 min from Madison) has a beautiful place called the Rotary Botanical Gardens. Well I took my camera in there and had a ton of fun, it is 20 acres of pure nature... just beautiful scenery. Silly me, in my hurry to get back down south I forgot a memory card and my charger so in the first 20 minutes at the gardens, my camera battery dies and I miss the best shots :(. I will be back down there though, hopefully in the winter to get some snow shots at the gardens! Alright so heres some shots from my 2nd trip :

Charlotte... (we had to stop for lunch on the way down there) (its a 4 hour drive) and a "shortcut" took us 2 hours longer than it should have been... note to travelers: most states have DETOUR MAPS at their traveling INFO places... pick them up before you find a "shortcut" that turns out to be a pain in the ***. :)
So here is Charlotte eating a sandwich in her diaper... (we had a diaper change and she refused to put her pants on before we started eating..)

Water-Baby

From the State Convention

Take the worst lighting situation you can imagine, and multiply it by about 10... then put yourself about mmmm 75 feet away from the people you have to be photographing and you'll put yourself in my shoes for the weekend. I was shooting at ISO 1600, with a non IS lens... and was so far away I couldn't even fire my flash to make a difference. The photographers and press were at the back of the room, the 8th CD, my district, was also towards the back and on Friday evening, when the speakers started.... I was very concerned when I looked at the lighting and the areas where I could be shooting from. Needless to say, these are not the best photographs at all... but I dealt with a horrible situation to my best ability. Pictured above is Joe Wineke, the Charmian of the entire Wisconsin Democratic Party. I will post more when I have time, as of now I am off to another Democratic event to photograph... the reincarnation of the 7 foot Donkey.... Don't ask...

My little Angel

Little Miss Sunshine at the beach... a lot more to come...

Mallac

I went to the beach this afternoon (the one behind our house) with my husband and our daughter and a friend's daughter... While sitting up under the shade of a tree with my husband and my camera in hand.. this small little boy, probably around 3 years old sat right down beside me. My husband said.. "Look at him, he has got a cigarette in his mouth"... granted I am sitting there with a cig in my mouth as well... and for some reason never noticed it.. (AND NO IT WAS NOT MY SMOKE HE HAD!!!)...
So anyways, I said "hey little guy... lets take that out of your mouth, you don't want to walk around with that old nasty thing in your mouth"... he just glared at me and said "NO".... so I talked to him for a good 5 minutes about why he should take it out (his parents were no where in sight at this time).... he just looked so sad sitting there by himself with this cig in his mouth but he refused every time I told him to take it out of his mouth so finally I thought well I'll grab a picture of this little stinker. So.. after I shot a few pics of him, I had a good idea.. being a mom, I know that children take bribes so easy! So I gave him Charlotte's beach ball... I said listen, if you give me that cigarette, then I will give you this ball. So he got all cheered up and said OK... and grabbed the ball and started playing with it.. Mission Accomplished I thought...
Well his parents finally show up and yell at him to come over near them, and start telling him not to come near me and my husband and that the ball wasn't his that it was ours.. even though I had given it to him... but they were very nasty about the whole situation so that was the end of talking to the little guy. I did watch him for a little while after that, since his parents didnt care too... they were busy chatting with their friends and he sat on the beach, all alone... just sad looking. I really felt sorry for the little guy :(. Anyways, I found out while his parents were yelling at him that his name was Mallac... (I think this is how it is spelled...) And here is the youngest kid I have ever seen with a cigarette in his mouth:

Self Portrait

I go through hair-changing moments... for the most part I stay blond... but when I need to change something... it's usually my hair. So.. for the time being I am now a brunette :).

Unity Picnic

From the Unity Picnic yesterday... more to follow soon.

Why being involved matters...

Involving yourself in activities and groups or organizations can really help your business. Today was the Marinette/Menominee County Democratic Parties Unity Picnic. They always have a silent auction and I decided I would give away my photography services to help out the party (even though I already do the photos).. So I placed two items in the auction, both for a portrait session with 1 8x10 and 1 4x5, the winner is the highest bidder. Both of them had bids and now I have 2 new photoshoots booked. So, helping other's by donating my services is also going to help me and my business. Being involved in different things produces many opportunities to help you and your company grow!!! :)

Bad weather...

So we went for a drive yesterday.. I wanted to go up to Crivitz and visit the area, it's a good small town with beautiful fields and forests. Lot's of county parks and since this is the waterfall county capital of the US... of course, lot's of waterfalls... On our way there, the weather changed... we ran into this huge wall cloud with a funnel forming on the base. I was more scared than prepared to work with camera settings, so the pictures are not the best... But, needless to say, I didn't make it to the waterfalls.. I was driving about 65 in a 25mph zone, the storm was moving so fast.. when I would think we would have gotten ahead of it.. I would stop and take a photo. It seemed like every road we took would curve and lead us right towards the funnel again.. it was very scary and I didn't know my way around the roads. But.. it was a good adventure. We had I think 10 tornadoes up in this area a week or two ago...so no surprisingly, we ran into this one forming :)

The first photo is my favorite part of storms... THE END!!! Because... the best light comes after the end of storm.. the sun starts to stretch it's rays out over the land again..