Animals and why we love them

Ahh...I think I used a shot from this shoot in my last I Heart Faces entry, but here's another one! One of these days I will post something from a shoot OTHER than this one, but it was just a blast, I'm still hung up on it majorly. Horses are such noble creatures, you can't help feeling connected to them when you are around them.

Check out a bunch of other magnanimous furry faces shots at I Heart Faces!

Fairy Tale

Once upon a time two people fell in love. And then they promptly called me and asked me to take engagement photos for them, to which I, in my barely budding photography days, readily agreed. I mean, who wouldn't want to take pictures of these gorgeous people?
Well, then time went on, they got married, and then one day I got another message asking me to take maternity pictures for them. SHAH!!!!!
And I don't know what happened that day, but my camera sort of levitated from my hands and started taking some of the most glorious pictures it's ever produced. Just...magically...I can't...just wow. With permission, I post some of them for your eyes to gam off of for a while.

These first few are of her horse flown here from Denmark. A very gentle creature and we almost didn't take the photos with the horse...so glad we decided to.









Every pregnant woman's envy, right here. :-) I wish I looked half this good when I was pregnant!

Baby Bear

I love December. Every day is Christmas as far as I'm concerned. I wish I could say that I loved it so much that I had all our Christmas decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, but we have yet to pull everything out. Every night our kids look out the window and see all our neighbor's houses lit up so pretty, then scorn and shame us into feeling like scum of the earth because we haven't put our lights up yet. We'll get there. Hopefully the snow melts quickly so Craig can get on the roof without killing himself this weekend. :-)
Happy first day of Christmas.
We are going to be putting together our 12 days of Christmas calendar here pretty soon- each day we do something together as a family to celebrate. Make cookies, do secret santas to friends and neighbors, it'll be the first year we'll do all 12 days since I'm at home and not too swamped with music programs to put it together. :-) HOORAY!
Tell me what some of your Christmas traditions are, we're in the "building lasting memories" experimental stage of our family, I'd love to here them. :-)



Ahhh...tis the season.

Be on the lookout for some holiday hats upcoming. And some more family pictures. And all the catchup from what I haven't posted yet that I should have.
PS- did you all eat lots of turkey???

OOF!

Yeah, that's how I feel.
I don't think I've stopped feeling full since yesterday morning. Thanksgiving, love everything about it except standing on the scale the Sunday after. Yeah, that's where that OOF comes in, right?
Please be kind, Mr. Scale. Let's be friends this year, shall we?
Little late for Halloween, but monsters are cute anytime of the year. This one was for a friend from my teaching days- monsters and boys fit so well together. :-)

Imagen Backdrop Giveaway/ 20% off for you!

Hello there blogoids-
Just a couple of quick really fun and exciting things to say to you and then I will be on my way!
First off:
I love you.
Second:
Because of that true, unending, and devoted love, I have a special gift for you through this weekend! I just posted a bunch of hats lying around my house into my shop for immediate shipment. They are ready made just for you. And if you order one now, you can save 20% until Saturday at 10 p.m. mountain time. What else says true, unending, devoted love like 20%??? Click HERE to check out the shop and see what's cookin'.

Third:

These guys are amazing. AND they are hosting an incredible giveaway with TONS of stuff. AND I am giving away two newborn hats in this giveaway in one of the collections! I have to say that I was browsing through all the really cool stuff they are giving away and I'm a little bummed I can't enter. However, if you refer to the first announcement, you'll understand why I am sacrificing my entry for you. :-)
So click on the picture above and follow the instructions to get as many entries as you can! Giveaway starts November 17 and ends at midnight November 24.
Have a fabulous day.

Back on the Train

Oh blogging...
How I miss thee.
Time just escapes me sometimes, sheesh! I'm actually backed up in my blogging- starting to understand what it's like for "real" photographers who never have time for blogging. Better then the alternative, where I'm scraping the barrel for something to write about. Not that I, uh...was ever uncool enough to do that....ahem....

This family was SO easy to work with. All of the kids were just smiley and sweet and the parents just the same. That is until we tried to get from point A (the oval on CSU campus in Ft. Collins) to point B (an old hotel maybe two or three miles north of there in downtown Ft. Collins) at 5:30 in the afternoon. First we got stuck behind a 15 min. train (seems a lot longer while you're sitting there waiting)- let me just say whoever runs the train schedule is a madman. Who in their right mind lets a train THAT long block traffic during rush hour in the busiest part of town??? Madman train scheduler, that's who. Then we got stuck in a section of downtown at a light that changed at least 4 times before we moved an inch. Yuck. When we finally started moving, we may or may not have made an illegal turn to get to our location out of sheer frustration from being in traffic so long.
Don't tell anyone.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun and I love some of these images. Fall. The Oval. Beautiful warm weather. Beautiful family. The next day was the megga snowstorm that smashed all the trees to pieces all over town (including our backyard trees....poor old friends, they hung in there, but it was ugly...), and The Oval definitely looked much different after that.
Stay tuned, got more a' comin'...

I heart faces photography challenge- Black

Okay, I know that the horse is actually white, but there is black in this photo! This was a shoot I did not too long ago and is likely one of my all time favorite maternity shoots I think I've ever done. She decided not to do pictures with her horse (a European horse, no less- this love-bug was flown over from Denmark, where she is from) initially, but while we were out at their ranch her husband suggested that we just take him out for a few pics since I was there. Let me tell you, I am SO glad he suggested it. The shots of the two of them were incredible. Sunset, mountains in the background, open range...couldn't get much more glorious than that. I just love the intimate moment in this capture.
Check out some more amazing photos incorporating the color black by clicking on the button below! Creative challenge this week for serious. :-)
Love

Caps for Sale

Anyone ever read that book? It was a children's book written by a Russian author. When I was student teaching, my amazing host teacher taught this adorable little song with orff instrumental accompaniment to do for first graders that I did with my first graders for three years in a row. We even performed it once at a Barnes and Nobles book fair. Sometimes I feel like that man who didn't carry his wares on his back, but on his head. You know, if I actually wore my hats...or something...
I actually have a lot of commissioned work right now with my hats. Yay! But I have to warn some of you who are thinking of using my services. I am completely open for business, but if you are looking to use me for Christmas gifts this year, all orders need to be in by Thanksgiving. Or I'll never get them done in time. Just sayin'. :-) I have some very cute creations upcoming, stay tuned...
Like this little charmer. Ordered for a little wee girl, this is the "baby bump" hat. (HAR HAR). I know, I kill myself...I just LOVED scaling this one down to itty bitty size. Anything made itty bitty size is better. Except for chocolate. No use for itty bitty sized chocolate around here, that's just irritating.

It's all about the pose

Hello Lovers.
I have done nothing but take pictures for the last 4 or 5 days!
It's been amazing. I have others to edit right now, but per request of a very anxious junior in high school, I decided to post a couple of these right now. And also because I just think they are grand. Seriously, this shoot made my morning! She and her wonderful, keenly eyed BFF accompanied me around down town Windsor and we had a blast! And can you believe her sense of style? Amazing. For serious.
And time for bed! Hope you all enjoyed the nice weather today (totally meant to take the kids to the park today and just didn't get to it...so sad!), it's supposed to get chilly. And possibly snowy. ICK.