Wedding Photography

I can't believe it. I haven't posted in months, but here I am posting twice in one night. I wanted to update on all the family stuff, but I also am very excited about a new opportunity I've been given. The previous owner of Scrapdango, Carrie Leavitt, and now owner of Camera Art Photography has asked me to help her in her business as a photo journalist photographer at some weddings this summer. As you all know if you follow my blog at all, you know I am passionate about photography and I would love to do it professionally, but taking that leap has always been a scary prospect. Taking photos at weddings seems especially daunting because who wants to be responsible for messing up the photos at an event that cannot be repeated. But this was the perfect opportunity because I would be a 2nd photographer in charge of the "extra" side shots, getting different angles and closeups, while the main photographer is responsible for all the traditional formal shots. I'm getting a couple weddings, including my first this past Saturday, to "train," so I was actually a 3rd photographer, which took a little more of the pressure off. It was a LOOOONNNGG wedding. We were there from 1:30 to 10:30 pm, but it was a great experience, and I am really happy with what I ended up with and learned a lot about what worked and what didn't. It was a great couple and wedding party to shoot, and these were some of my favorite shots I got. I'm going to do another "training" wedding May 14th, and then I will get a chance to be on my own as the photo journalist. I'm really excited about where this may lead. I just may make it as a professional photographer yet someday.

All photos are property of Camera Art Photography

Playing Catch-Up

Wow, how did it get to be Spring Break already and the first week of April. My last post was in January, so I am waaayyyy behind. Dale keeps asking when I'm going to post again, so that he can get caught up with what's going on in the family. Ha! Ha! It is spring, which unfortunately means typical spring wet weather around here. All the cherry trees are beautiful with their pink and white blooms. I just wish we could get a little more blue sky to go with them.

We are heading to the Oregon Coast later this week, so really hoping for a little break in the rain, although even if it is rainy, it doesn't keep us from the beach.

Besides school stuff and all the other normal activities, there hasn't really been a lot going on since our crazy January birthday month. We did make our annual trip to the snow with our friends, the Downs, to their cabin in Snoqualmie pass over Presidents' Day weekend. We were a little worried about there being enough snow but thankfully the week before our trip, they got more snow and then actually the day we left, it started snowing hard and ended up dumping quite a bit. We even got snow here and actually had a snow day.

The kids, as usual, had a great time playing out in the snow. Owen did well last year but really got into it this year and could be outside just as long as the big kids. All the kids are even at the stage where they can get into and out of all their snow gear without any help, so it was nice that they could just go out and play while the adults relaxed in the cabin. We did make a couple treks over to the sledding hill where the thing to do this year for Hannah was making long sledding chains with Jayden and Grace, which usually ended in a pile up. Justin did a little snowboarding and fast sledding while Owen liked to do solo sledding, as well, and even catching a little air.

Hannah did another session of Christian Youth Theater, CYT, with her friend, Maya, and cousin, Katelyn. They did Voice 1 classes and performed songs from the Broadway version of Mary Poppins, which we are going to see this summer, by the way. She of course got chosen to be a jack-in-the-box, so I had the joy of tranforming a regular box into a jack-in-the-box. She ended up looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

Here she is with Maya

Cousin Katelyn was the dalmatian

Next up for the kids' activities is Spring soccer. Justin's first game with the same coach and team from last fall is this Saturday. Not sure if I'm ready for the wetness of Spring soccer. Really hoping things dry up quickly.

While we were going about our lives, Dale's parents spent most of March in Ecuador. They went down there with a group from Purdue and studied Spanish while there and had a chance to see and do some amazing things it sounds like. I know they're probably shocked how quickly it went by, but we are glad that they are home safely. While they were away, Hannah and Owen did this little diddy, which I had hoped to send them while they were down there, but that didn't happen. Here it is now, though--Hannah and Owen's shout out to Grandma and Grandpa while they were in Ecuador.