Last night my husband, Dave, was full of energy and told me to come up with something creative. Since he's been bragging about his artistic skills, I thought we should have a photography contest. We limited it to our home and were allowed to take any three photos with our Canon Power Shot point and shoot camera. We decided to post the photos so that we could find out who the winner is. No photoshop, no cropping- just as taken. Leave us a comment on who you think the winner is. If you like his photos better than mine, don't leave a comment ;)

Here is the first set of three:
And the second set:

And here is one last one that I took this morning as a bonus- no part of the photo contest:

Thanksgiving

As I wake from what seems like hundreds of gun shots outside my window from hunters who apparently are into FRESH turkey, I lay in my bed and think of all the things I am thankful for on this day.I have two wonderful children and the most amazing parents. I have a job (x2) that I love. I can say that I'm proud of who I am and the way I live my life. I've never been hungry, always had clothes on my back and a roof over my head, and I'm very healthy and so is my family. I'm also thankful for wonderful friends and clients. It's always a new and different experience when I photograph. Haven't met a bride I didn't like and I get to enjoy moments like you'll see in these photos that just make you laugh.

Here she is mimicking what her dad is doing to get her to smile. Classic.

Looks like the silly faces worked to get smile! Their parents really know how to work the crowd!
Cute as a button.

This one cracks me up to. It's as if she's saying, "Daddy, you're the apple of my eye".

I leave you with a photo that I put a little of the Totally Rad Actions on. Among other things, I used "grunge rock". Love it! Looks like a Christmas card in the making ;)

How could I not be thankful for a job like this and getting to experience moments like these? Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Enjoy the time with your families. Good luck tomorrow moring if you're going out for Black Friday shopping! I'm still thinking about it...

Wedding Family

Here are the photos I took of the Wedding family about two weeks ago while the leaves were still haninging around. This stream is so pretty.

Here is my favorite bridge. I just love how it frames people and the reflection of the water.

We had to untwist some wire because they are doing demolition in this area, but I'm glad we got through because we got some really beautiful shots of the Weddings here :) See what I mean? I love the blowing breeze supermodel look in Carla's hair.
Thanks guys for coming out on an adventure with me. I had fun!

Van De Walle: Family

One thing I love about my job is meeting new people. The Van De Walle family was no acception. They have such fun together (as you'll see from their photoshoot).

Such great smiles...Due in part to moments like these.
The youngest daughter was definately full of life and loved to play with dad. Here he was trying to get up from the ground pose we had just done when she attacked him.

If you haven't scheduled your family or Holiday photos, call or email me! 215-2874 If you schedule in the next 2-3 weeks, we can still get holiday cards and prints made for presents in time for Christmas etc. Photos are a great inexpensive gift to give grandparents- and it's always something they want. I'm making an awesome indoor set up with presents full of surprises- like puppies! I'm running a special as well. Ask for details.

The Gray Family

Could this family be any more photogenic? Another neat fact about the Grays is that they also speak French. Oh la la, je parle Francais aussi :) They were so great and looked good in every shot. No weird expressions and only 3 blinks during the whole session. Incredible.

Always a pleasure to capture beautiful families!

Jason, Tasha and Ava: Family

You may remember Ava from the very first blogs I created. She was my inspiration to start blogging :) Now she's sitting up on her own and even has her ears pierced. So grown up!

Fun with mom- bring the smile!

There's that happy face :) Show us those earings!

Hopefully we'll see these guys again when Ava turns one!

Little Stinker

It was the afternoon of Veteran's Day, just after their son's long and peaceful nap, when the Nicolle family decided they would give this family photo thing ONE LAST SHOT. They had tried a few times before to capture the family together on their own using a tripod and friends, but it seemed like every time their youngest son saw the camera, he would start getting upset, really upset. Mom joked that after two bad experiences, he would begin to panic simply when she would get out his photo clothes.

Check out this cheeser! All ready to go...

So I gave it a shot. Sure enough, right away there was screaming and crying. But don't think it was a failure quite yet! I had brought my kids on the shoot with me, hoping they would be of some help in getting a 2 yr old to smile for me. And I was right. AJ started sitting in the chair I brought for photos right next to me and he started purposely falling out of the chair. This was a big hit.

A really big hit!
We also had some fun with leaves and a cool moment when mom found a lady bug.Lady Bug!!

All in all, a rather successful outing.