2011 Homecoming Session

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing three fun teen subjects before their Homecoming. They looked so beautiful and handsome dressed in black.

Oh the memories... it feels like my Homecoming was yesterday. We all know that's quite a big stretch from the truth, but they made it feel like yesterday. The girls reminded me of all the great times I had with my best friend in high school. Those were the days!

I have to say this was absolutely my favorite photo session yet. Thanks for all the laughs, silliness and banter.

Here are a few of my favorites from my session.
To view more from this session please visit my flickr page.

Pet frog for the day! Yay!
 
Not so much for me, but... for my boys it was like reaching into a treasure chest (our sprinkler meter valve box) and pulling out a prize.  They found this frog hiding out, for good reason, and nominated him pet for the day.

He wasn't quite happy at first.  I've never seen a frog jump so high.  I could have swore he was almost 3/4 of the way up our fence trying to escape four little hands chasing him.

After awhile it wasn't such a bad thing for this little guy.  He had his own mini-yacht floating in some nice cool water, which is very hard to find around here these days.

Here are a few photos from their adventure with Mr. Frog today.

One-on-one time calls for a trip to visit some horses

Last week before preschool starts! I've really enjoyed this one-on-one time with my 4 year old, despite the challenges that come along with "that age".  I'm grateful he enjoys my love of photography and doesn't throw a fit as soon as he sees my lens aimed toward his way.  Wasn't so long ago, he was running the other direction.  Now he enjoys my sometimes irritating paparazzi(ish) tendencies.

Monday morning we went to the Houston Mounted Patrol Barn with some friends to hopefully capture some great memories.  So glad my little guy is fearless.  I can't imagine how much larger these animals look from his viewpoint.  He tends to treat these massive, 1000 lbs animals like dogs.  Innocence is bliss at that age, but not so blissful for Mommy.  I had to keep reminding him, that he couldn't just run up to them, poke, prod, hug and kiss their heads off.

Fortunately, these horses have been in more stressful situations than dealing with my 4 year old.

While we were photographing these beautiful animals, one actually got out of his stall and snuck up behind us.  Guess he thought he'd get preferential treatment and receive our bag of carrots and apples all to himself.

Here's that little sneaky horse!

I'm a city girl, born and raised in Southern California.  I don't know anything about how to get this animal back to where he belonged.  Ironically, when we needed someone to come assist, we couldn't find anyone.

Lucky for us, the horse decided it was much easier to get some feed in another stall, which gave me the perfect opportunity to shut the gate and then find someone to put him back where he belonged.


Our lives are full of surprises.  I enjoy them all!  Here are some of my favorites from our morning at the Houston Mounted Patrol Barn.

One-on-one time calls for a little baking project

My six year old was at school enjoying (okay maybe that's an exaggeration) 1st grade.  I'm was home with my 4 year old, who has finally acquired the patience for baking.  The perfect distraction to help me from loosing "my" patience.

Usually, when I attempt to do this with boy boys, it becomes a crazy, messy, not-so-fun event.  There's a little arguing, there's a little tit-for-tat, and a recipe that usually takes 30 minutes tops, ends up taking almost all day.

Since it would be hard to actually help him while taking photos, I just let go and went with the flow.  I was quite impressed ... no flour all over the floor or egg shell pieces in the bowl along with all the other ingredients.  My little guy wasn't so little anymore.  Bittersweet!

Here are some photos of our session baking a recipe out of our WIlliams-Sonoma Kids Cook Book - Cheddar Corn Bread Wedges.

Puppy LOVE! A great (photography) inspiration.

Yesterday, I drove four hours (round trip) to pick up the sweetest Blue Heeler, 11 week-old puppy.  My youngest son and I packed up and drove South to Bay City, TX, weaving through farm land and not much else.  I figured why not!  It was for a good cause, right?

My husband wanted to get a companion for his Dad now that he finally settled into his new home here in Texas.  This little guy is the perfect for his Dad.  Well behaved, gentle with his teeth (our labs were not at that age), follows you on a walk without running too far, and didn't whine all night to get out of his confined headquarters (make-shift bed using our recycling bin).  I just wished his stay with me was more than 18 hours, most of which I was sleeping.  At least I get to visit him once in awhile.

Eight years ago it seemed so much more difficult raising puppies.  Maybe because we had two?  Or is it because I've had two babies since then and those are definitely harder to raise.  Well... even if it was short lived, I loved every minute, except for watching my Labs get jealous.  I'll make up for it today!

Emmie, our 8 year-old,86lb Lab, illustrates how little Smoky really is.

Thank you "Smoky" for inspiring such a great session.  I'm sure this is not the last.  You are too cute!

Want to see more from this session?  Visit my flickr page.

A piece of heaven - blue water, white sands, sun, fun and family

We always look forward to our trip to the Emerald Coast of Florida, typically referred to as Destin.  We also decided a night in New Orleans would be a good stopping point in our 10 hour drive.  Great excuse to enjoy the good food, beautiful architecture and interesting night life.  "Boys, close your eyes!"

This year was the first year we had to visit during the heat of Summer and that we had a guest (my French Canadian cousin) along for the ride.  We finally got to try a Beignet at the famous Cåfe du Monde, that my husband had been bragging about having for over a couple years.  It was so delicious we had to order seconds.

The not so good news about going during the heat of the Summer?  It was Algae season (June-July) and we weren't expecting it!  Don't worry ... we actually found beaches lacking the greenish slime you'd typically find on Nickelodeon. The nicest surprise was being able to catch the Blue Angels flying, front row, on Pensacola Beach.  Perfect way to end our travel!

Here are some favorites from our trip.

Like to see more photos from this trip?  
Feel free to visit my flickr pages:
New Orleans
Pensacola Air Show

Daddy's Day

Daddy's Day was great for one reason... Daddy was home!  The past couple years, it seems he's been able to miss quite a few special days, because of work.  Not this Father's Day!  We enjoyed our day with a 200 mile cruise from our house along the coast of The Gulf of Mexico.

Living most of my life with no more than 8 miles between a Southern Californian beach and my home, I became spoiled!  We've visited the Emerald Coast - Florida every year since we moved to Houston and now are spoiled with the powdery white sand covered beaches.  The Texas beaches are not quite like any beach I've been to or wanted to visit until today.  There are a few new spots, we'll be spending quite a bit of time on this Summer.

Here are a few photos from our tour of The Gulf Coast.

Summer interupted

So we had a great start to the Summer. We enjoyed a couple pool days and then... my younger one got sick, and put a halt to all of our plans. A week in the house with two bored boys will definitely drive any Mama bonkers.

I'm happy to say yesterday was the first day of better. I brought out my camera for a little fun. My youngest one received a candy/fruit roll-up at my oldest son's Soccer game last week, which he finally enjoyed today.  Here are some photos of the sticky happy session.

Senior Session

A little late posting this one, but it has been a crazy month! 

The weather was not cooperating and despite postponing our session a day, the gloomy weather was here to stay.  Most, if not all of my sessions depend on the assistance of natural light.   Push come to shove, out comes my dependable Speedlite and Umbrella to save the day!  Quite a different look than you're use to seeing from me, but I'm quite pleased with the results.

Temperamental weather, some extensive retouching (Acne), made this an exciting and rewarding challenge.

Here are a couple of my favorites!

A detour from our usual...

So we were suppose to visit Brenham, TX with our photo group to romp around in all the beautiful abundant wildflowers, especially the sought after Blue Bonnets, but had to take a detour this year.  It has been so dry in the South that before the wildflower season could get started, it was over!

So I had to figure what to do instead!  Hey... why not learn some Texas history while visiting The George Ranch Historical Park.  It was almost an hour closer and being a city girl, I'd take any chance to see some horses and open farm land.  I know... my husband thinks I'm silly to be so fascinated by it all, but he was around this sort of thing.  At one point he lived and worked on a farm.

The George Ranch Historical Park is located on approximately 498 acres.   George Ranch is actually made up of more than 22,000 acres of land.  Now that's a lot of land!!!  It has two original homes and two replica homes in the Park. The 1830s Jones Stock Farm dogtrot cabin and the 1860s Ryon Prairie Home are replica homes and the 1890s Davis Victorian Mansion and the 1930s George Ranch House are original homes.

Cowboys work on the ranch, share it's heritage with it's visitors as well as the important legacy of the George Ranch.  One cowboy truly stuck out in the bunch, Eric Callies.  He was very knowledgeable, passionate, kind hearted cowboy.  He not only wanted to tell you the history and stories of the cowboy, but wanted to show you.  He didn't hesitate to demonstrate how they maintained a horse's hoof, when I questioned him about it.  He walked into the barn, gathered up his tools (with my boys following him, of course) and came back out to "Red" - the horse they were using for show and tell and began to show us all.

These images only illustrate a very small glimpse of what can be seen and experienced while visiting.  So worth the trip with little ones or even without.