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..

Thoughts of the night...

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
- Voltaire

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.
Katherine Mansfield

Tunnel Vision

I have a thing for reflections and mirrored images....
Something about "seeing double" inspires me... so here's a new piece of mine:

Let me introduce someone...

So I have started to get sick of myspace... and decided to actually USE this blog..
I have been editing it this evening, deleting old posts that I had from a while back. Starting out new!!!
So let me introduce someone that you will see a lot of here... my angel, my inspiration... my Charlotte!!!
Charlotte is my "best friend"... as she likes to say! She is 2 1/2 years old, and the light of my life. She loves to dance, enjoys wearing tu-tu's, staring at clouds, painting, and learning new things.
Since she is such a big part of my life, you will see a lot of "Charlotte Posts" :)

The beauty of flowers

As a woman, of course I have a good appreciation for flowers! But as a photographer, I find them cliche... like sunsets!! Everyone shoots them... it takes something special to make them unique..
So today I found myself staring at flowers.. with my camera beside me I decided to take a few shots.

A walk in Michigan

The other day I had time to cross the bridge and visit the Michigan harbor that we usually spend a lot of our time at. I told my husband I wanted to just "walk along with my camera and give myself a chance to see things differently".
It is interesting how we can pass so many things daily.. and never take the time to appreciate them. I have grown tired of Wisconsin/Michigan, everything looks the same sometimes so I needed this walk to remind me that there is beauty in the norm :)>