Chosen and Featured!

I recently joined an online community for photographers at iheartfaces.blogspot.com.
It's a place where photographers, both amateur and professional,
can come together for ideas, inspiration, and lots of sharing.
Every week and month they have different photo challenges,
sometimes for the prize of being featured on their website
and sometimes for other grand prizes (like new lenses!).

Last week one of their challenges was about flowers.
I usually don't win at many competitions or drawings.
So normally I don't even try.
But I had just taken some pictures
of our beautiful flowering bradford pear tree in our front yard.
And I was inspired by a friend to do something with it. So I did.
And what a beautiful surprise to open their email this morning
to see MY picture chosen as one of the pictures displayed!

It even got published on their website!
Want to see which picture was chosen?
You can see it by clicking here on this link.

Thank you, Lord, for this unexpected surprise that has put a smile on my whole day!

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Haven's 1 yr pics and birthday invitations

We liked our owls from Valentines so much that we kept them around for Haven's invitations (and they'll be at the party too!).

This was some green photography, let me tell you! It's still way too wet and cold outside to get any good pictures, so Jon brought home some old posters that our church uses to advertise message series and some from the recent Priceless girl's retreat, I flipped them around, taped them together, and voila! a white backdrop for pictures! (I only had to touch up a few seams in photoshop afterwards...)

Enjoy the pics!

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Evan's 3 yr pictures

ince we were already about a month late trying to get a better six month picture of Haven after all the crabbiness from teething, we figured we'd go ahead and get Evan and the both of them as well. Let me tell you...a 3 year old is a MUCH easier subject than a 6/7 month old! He can at least understand directions (not that he always followed them), he has a better (not by much) attention span, and an easier sense of humor. :)

Most of my favorites turned out to be pictures where Jon got him to laugh by being silly. Somewhere, someone taught Evan to say CHEESE (a photographer's worst nightmare). I've been battling it ever since...because you know when he says CHEESE, CHEESE is what you get in the form of an awful, unnatural smile...But I digress...

Here are some of my favorites. To see the rest, visit my facebook album by clicking here.

S

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Lora's Senior Homecoming

I was so honored to help my baby sister with her hair, make-up, and pictures for her senior homecoming. Haven and I took a trip down to Red Bud. Haven got to spend time with Grandma Tindall, Evan and Daddy got some bonding time (they were waiting for Papa Palmer to arrive...he is going to the Rams/Packers game tomorrow with Jon).

Lora's hair was finished right before the rains arrived. Bummer! We got some pictures out on the porch, and then headed over to the high school to get some pictures of the group of EIGHTEEN girls in front of the decorations that they put up yesterday.

By the time we were done getting some good individual shots, the rains had let up, so we headed over to the convent (yes, I said convent) in Ruma to get some pictures in front of their beautiful landscaping. The girls rented a big black party bus to escort them around for the evening. What fun! I wish going to homecoming with a bunch of girls (instead of a date) was cool when I was in high school! (or maybe I wish I would have just been bold enough to set a new standard...)

I had a lot of fun getting some pictures of Lora. Some of them will double as her senior pictures. She's so pretty! I'm so proud to be her big sister!

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Wedding Weekend

So our trip to Rockford was for Jon's aunt Chris' 2nd wedding. She was divorced shortly after we started dating, and for about as long as I can remember after that, she started dating Doc, a wonderful man who has been so good for her, so patiently waiting to make her his bride, and so good for her kids! It was a pleasure to witness their union!

It was also a bit of a surprise to find out the night before we left that she didn't have a photographer for her wedding. Well, I couldn't let that happen, so with her blessing, I took some pictures so they would have something other than a video to remember their special day. I was glad to be able to help!

It was a really laid back wedding, no real wedding party other than the kids who were all witnesses, and the boyfriends who were the ushers. The poor bride and groom both had laryngitis before the wedding, so pictures were minimal because the bride especially wasn't feeling well. But I hope I was able to capture enough moments to give them some good pictures to remember it by!

It was also an exciting weekend because we got to introduce Jon's extended family to Haven, Evan got to "jump in the water" at the hotel's pool, and Jon got the ipod he's been dreaming of as a birthday present from his mom and dad. :)

After the wedding, Evan went home with Mama and Papa Palmer for the week. We're driving up to northern WI for a vacation next Sunday, and with all of the things we have to do to get ready to move, we appreciated having one less child to look out for during the week. :) Thanks!

To see more wedding pictures, visit my album here.

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Give Away!

I am giving away a $50 gift certificate to lmtphotography! Visit my blog www.lmtphotography.wordpress.com and leave a comment to enter to win! I will announce the winner on Monday, July 13!

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Faith Lutheran VBS 2009

We got back late Friday night. Jon came home late Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning he had church, and then youth on Sunday night. And Monday morning he took off for a 2 day MO district convention (not that our church is malicious...it just so happened that he was the only pastor who could go to vote for our church).

And for us, Monday morning was the start of VBS. I was the photographer for the week, so that meant that Evan AND Haven both got to go to the nursery for the morning. It was a fun week at GADGET's Garage (God's Always Doing Great and Exciting Things). The 400+ kids and 200+ adults had a great time, and I was pleased to be able to capture some of those precious moments on camera. :)

Evan had a blast playing in the "Bob room" (that's what he calls the church nursery since it's decorated with Veggie Tales), and Haven didn't misbehave too much. I only got called once. :)

We were glad to have Jon back with us for his birthday on Tuesday, and by Friday we were all pooped! It was so hot the last three days of VBS--I ended up with some heat exhaustion and dehydration that knocked me out Friday through Sunday. Ick. But I'm glad to be feeling better now, and my body's a bit more glad that I didn't have to be at the VBS this week for our Columbia site since it's been above 95 every day this week. :)

Here are the three albums I posted on Facebook if you'd like to see the "keeper" pictures.

Days 1 and 2

Days 3 and 4

Day5

Otherwise, here are a few of my favs:

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Pictures, Pictures

My photography business is well on its way to "booming"...well, for a part time job anyhow. :) I'm even now looking into a real website (instead of just a free blog) so I can offer online proofing (which will eventually be more cost effective than printing proofs for each session). I have a lot of senior pictures lined up for this summer, a family in the late fall, and even a one-year-old in September. I don't post those pictures here anymore since my photography business has its own blog, but feel free to check out my work at

http://lmtphotography.wordpress.com

Enjoy! :)

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My Baby Sister--All Grown UP!

I know I'm biased, but I just have to tell you how special my little sister is. I am SO proud of her and all that she has accomplished! She won the Ms. Hustle for her softball team (beating out all of the seniors, might I add!), she had THREE A+s thus maintaining her 4.0 and sealing her seat as one of the 2009 junior marshalls, an award bestowed upon the highest ranking juniors as a preview to the next year's valedictorian (s). Not only is she athletically gifted and super smart...she's also beautiful. And I had the privilege of capturing her beauty in the first round of her senior pictures. Lora, I'm SO proud of you, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for your future! :) More of Lora's senior pictures can be seen HERE.

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lmtphotography blog

I'm working on a website for my new business, but in the meantime, I have at least started my own blog for the business. I won't be posting anymore photography updates here, so please check it out at www.lmtphotography.wordpress.com 

 

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I love Adobe Photoshop Elements 7!

I am so thankful to have a thoughtful husband who gave me such a great gift for Christmas! The timing was perfect! I gave the proofs to the N family today, and they had a tough time choosing pictures that had both a good smile on their daughter's face and a good look on their dog's face. So they told me which faces they liked the best, and my program worked some magic...check out the results! I'm in awe! :)

They liked this picture of the family...

...but this picture of the dog...

so this is the final product! :)

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lmtphotography

I have always used my initals to sign my art, my songs...anything creative I've ever done. So I thought I would keep it as an all-encompassing name for my photography and the crafts I've been working on. I'm still experimenting with procedures and just the way I want to do things, but I've got a great start, and my husband's job is the perfect thing to keep me busy this spring with senior photos! I plan on resting for about a month before and after the baby is born, but I already have another shoot lined up in April. It's all so very exciting! I'm so thankful that God has given me this opportunity to support my family in this way! :)

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The N Family

In case you haven't heard, I've started taking pictures professionally as an extra side job to bring a bit more income in to the family...I really enjoy photography and photo editting, so it hardly feels like work! :)

Yesterday I had another photo shoot with a family from church. They wanted a picture for the Christmas cards this year. We took these pictures after a VERY long day (neither one of our 2 yr olds had naps!) and a very COLD day (with temps hovering right around 30 degrees). The lighting wasn't horrible, but it wasn't the best either. But all in all, we got everyone, including their rambunctious boxer, Meshak, to cooperate for a few good shots.

I am particularly proud of this last picture...we decided to take a few in their house just incase the outside ones didn't turn out due to the circumstances. I thought their couch and wall made such a great backdrop...one small problem: glossy wall paint reflects the flash. Big time. So the original picture has this big, shiny flash light right in the center of the picture on the red paint. Thankfully, I have a husband who loves me very much and gave me an early Christmas present of the newest Adobe photo editting software so I could fix it and save the picture. It looks so much better now! And what a great looking family! :)

I'm working on a new blog for my photography...can't wait to share it with you! :)

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Eden Photoshoot

On Thursday, God blessed us with beautiful and warm weather, minimal wind, and great lighting, so we moved up half of our Eden family photoshoot to get some pictures of their four kids. I learned a lot about taking group pictures of four children all under the age of 5...mostly that I can't do it alone! I was grateful to have the help of their mom to keep their attention and catch their smiles...and to dish out the smarties to bribe smiles out of them... :) Monday we'll finish up the shoot with the addition of their parents--and thankfully we'll have some extra help for that day too (and lots of smarties on hand)! :) Here are a few of my favorites...to see the rest, visit my album here.

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Evan's 2 Year Old Pics

I haven't taken Evan's pictures (formally for prints) since he was a year old. Yikes! So it was about time...I have quite a few to choose from, so I'd appreciate any feedback! :) (just tell me the picture number in the album if you check it out through FB...)

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