The Hunter

During the summer this bird made an appearance every morning around 8:10 for at least a week. One day instead of just watching it I took a few quick images. I always knew when it arrived because all the small birds would start chirping like crazy and flying around in packs. This week I kind of feel like a hunter of time and images. Time always flies by when I work on a site redesign. And since I am working on a site redesign and a new blog design, well you can imagine how fast my days are going. I am also trying to update all my galleries with new images which means I have to go back through all my portrait sessions and all the games. It would be smart to grab a few images when I do the proofs instead of having to go back through everything. Maybe in the future I will do that. So to a true hunter I admire your patience and persistence.

My Husband

Today is Mike's birthday. I have already ordered his favorite doughnuts and will be picking them up for his breakfast. He even has the day off of work so I will get to spoil him all day. If you get a chance feel free to leave him a birthday wish and I will pass it on.

Veteran's Day

I would be remiss not to honor Veteran's Day. I really appreciate everyone who has served this country. Not only do I have my freedom but I also have the ability to pursue my dreams. Thanks to all.

Vote

I voted today. Did you?

Yes, I am not good at that holding the camera out and taking a picture of yourself thing.

Images of the Day

Okay, really images from vacation. I feel like I have been on the go since I got back so I thought I would actually take a few minutes to look at the images I took on vacation. Here are just 2 of the over 500 I took. And I wasn't even going to take my camera. Silly me:) I am sure I will share more at a later time.

I am back

I am back from vacation. Thanks to everyone for being patient while I was out of town. All the orders have been uploaded to the lab and should go out by Monday morning. Still digging through the emails but should have everyone answered within the next day. I hope everyone had a great week.

The Moon

Last night I was a football game for some very specific images. Once I had those I stuck around to play. I rarely get a chance to play around at games so it was nice to have the time do so. Gave me a chance to try new positions and some different camera settings. It was definitely a beautiful fall night. The moon was a crescent and I could not resist taking a few images. Which made my husband laugh when he saw the proofs over my shoulder while I was working on them after the game. All these game images and then a random moon picture. By no means are these amazing images but I liked them so I thought I would share.

Early in the game.

Later in the game the bare trees were in front of the moon and the coloring was a bit different.

I will eventually share some of the game images. You can see them now through the Game Proofs link on the right.

Birthday

Today is a very special day to me - it is my birthday! Though I have no special plans for the day I am still excited about the day. Even though I asked for better weather I am okay with what I got.

The tv was on for noise today and I heard this great quote that somebody said because their 40th birthday was approaching. I wish I caught who initially said it but I was only half listening.

"Aging is God's way to tell you that you have no time to waste"

I think I got that mostly right. I think that is great quote. I do believe in living your life the way you want and making sure you enjoy it.

I hope everyone enjoys my day:)

Season Premiere

I am hooked on the show Bones and the season 4 premiere was last night. Since I work a lot of nights with games I had to record the premiere to watch later. So now I sit here debating on going to watch the premiere or being good to wait for my husband. He is hooked on the show as well. Though probably not to the extent I am. We have seasons 1 &2 on DVD and I watched them while I was forced to bed when my back decided to act up a few months back. (this is after at least watching them once before on DVD and not counting watching them during the season) If I have time to watch tv and there is a re-run on I will typically at least flip to it even if I find something else to watch. I tried to watch an episode we recorded without my husband once and pretend I did not see it. That did not work so well as when we did watch it together I gave myself away. So I continue to resist the temptation to watch it without him and will wait until we both have the same free time to watch it together. Hopefully it will not be too long in the future.

Anniversary

Today is a very special day for me. It is my wedding anniversary. We have been married 9 years now. It truly does not seem that long. Mike, I love you and am incredibly thankful everyday that I met you. Here is to many more years.

Broken Washer

Yesterday did not start out so well. I was on my second load of laundry when a horrible noise started coming out of the washer. After some investigating I realized the inside of the tub would not spin. That is when the noise would start. As luck would have it the soap had already dispensed and all the clothes were soapy and sopping wet. A quick call to my brother turned up a free washer. I was able to complete the washing process at his house which was so great. No way did I want to have to try to get the soap of the clothes myself. All was really not bad though. That was my last load of the weekend so we have all clean clothes right now. And for some reason I actually bought the extended warranty and they are coming to service it on Thursday. Hopefully they can fix it and everything is covered under the warranty.

A Pepper

It seems like I have been waiting forever for my pepper plant to start producing. It is still pretty small but has a lot of buds on it. This morning I noticed that I have a really small pepper growing. Very exciting! So here is hoping that it continues to grow and no animal takes it:)

A Great Quote

I saw this quote in the newspaper on Sunday. It is from Markus Rogan an Austria swimmer talking about the new Speedo racing suits.

"I tested it. I threw it in the pool and it didn't move at all, so I'll still have to swim."

I do not really follow professional swimming but I have heard of this new suit that is suppose to help swimmers go faster in the water. What I love about the quote it that even though you may have a great piece of equipment you still have to know how to use it. It is just nice to know that similar comments are made across all professions. I hear this comment a lot - "That camera takes great pictures" Why yes it does, because I know how to use it. What angles to use and how to make on the fly adjustments. That is the end of my soap box for the day:) Enjoy another day of great weather here in southern Ohio.

Anniversary Of Sorts

Today marks the one year anniversary of my giving up a steady paycheck in an attempt to make my dream come true. After working part-time getting my photography business up and running for almost 2 years I made the leap and quit my full-time job. I love running my own photography business even with all its ups and downs. Thanks to everyone who has given me encouragement, listened to my ramblings and fears, gave me constructive criticism and always believed in me. A special thanks to all my customers who help make my dream a reality every day. I hope I continue to improve my work, grow my company and meet new people as the years go on. And to my husband - thanks for never letting me give up, willingly changing our lifestyle and continueing to be my rock. I love you more and more as our life together goes forward.

Where I Was Today

What a beautiful day today! I luckily had an outdoor portrait session. You could not ask for better weather. Then an outdoor wedding reception. (as a guest) Hopefully this nice weather continues. I hope everyone got to at least spend 5 minutes outside today.

Concert

Thursday was one of those days where I felt like I ran around all day. All my appointments were scattered throughout the day leaving me an hour or two between them. But it was all worth it by the end of the night. My husband and I went up to Fraze Pavilion for the James Otto and Gary Allan concert. We met another couple for dinner and then headed over in a light rain. A little more rain just as the concert started and then it was dry. A great night for an outdoor concert and both acts were amazing. It was a great crowd and it was sad to have it end. So glad we spent the money for the tickets and carved the time out of schedules. If you get a chance to see these acts in concert I highly recommend it.

Motorcycle

My husband has wanted a motorcycle forever it seems like. Finally he wore me down at the beginning of the summer. He actually sat down and figured out how long it would take to get our money back out of it. Given that he was driving my truck which gets at most 12mpg and the bike gets close to 50mpg it was not going to take long. So here is the bike he got which happened to be used. Which made it even quicker for us to break even on it.

Do not try this at home. Always drive with both hands:)

More From Saturday

I found some time to play around with the images I took on my Saturday morning walk. Trying to get better about finding some "me" time. I love to learn new things but taking the time to sit down and try things is hard to do. There are always business things I should do instead. Here are some images I played with.

This is a family graveyard that had some really old headstones in it. The oldest we found was 1846. Some you could not read though and I am guessing they were older.

I am fascinated by this old silo for some reason. Course the best angle is standing in the middle of 747 which I did to the dismay of my husband. Told him all the best spots are in places that are potentially dangerous:) I made sure there was no traffic coming and kept one eye on things. Plus he was there too.
A close up of the ladder.
I really love this barn too but it is on private property so I settled for a long distance shot.
There are some hay barrels there in the distance. Click the image to see it bigger.

Road Trip

A short road trip but a road trip just the same. This morning I got up at 5:20am so I could get ready to head to Georgetown, KY. That is the location of the Bengals training camp. Last year I really wanted to go but could not make it so this year I made it a point to put something in my schedule. My dad decided to join me on the trip which just made it all the better. Not sure he was that thrilled to have to be at my house no later than 6:30am but he was up for it. It was not a bad drive down but the parking situation was a little unorganized. They practiced on the field outside the stadium. We spent the first part of practice standing by the ropes and watching the defense. From there it was really hard to see anything else going on. We ended up moving to about midway up the hill and had a great view of the entire field. There is so much going on at one time which made it hard to pick what to watch. It was great seeing the team in this environment. I had a lot of fun and it was worth the drive. Here are just a few images from the camp. I really did not take many as I was more interested in watching and spending time with my dad.

The familiar #9

Linemen battling.
Of course I had to get a quick image of Chad. He came over to the side to ride an exercise bike for awhile to stay loose. The crowd pretty much converged in that area as soon as they realized where he was. It was kind of funny to watch everyone migrate to him and then away when he went back to the field.

Unusual Image of the Day

Last night I told my husband that I was going to walk up the road to take some pictures in the morning. There are things I drive by all the time that I wanted to photograph. Since up the road is really route 747 I wanted to go somewhat early before traffic got too bad. He told me to wake him up and he would go with me. Unless I minded. Hmmm, somebody going with me so I do not look so strange. Sure, why not. I felt bad getting him up too early so we did not head out until 7:30 which is about an hour later than I would have gone by myself. While walking to one location we passed a mailbox with an unusual item inside. I thought I would share it with you. Images from my walk to follow another day.