What The Heck Are These Things???

My neighbor and I were outside gardening yesterday, when she came over and said, "You have to come these "bugs"!" I said, "Should I bring my camera??" "YES!", she said.

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Well the "bugs" turned out to be these beautiful mothy-butterfly thingies. Neither of us had ever seen them before in our lives. You can see how big they are! And so colorful! And sorta fat and furry.... what could they be??

Look at the cool "eye" on their wings. The ones on top sorta remind me of a human mouth - like puckered lips. The other two are transparent - perhaps on the wings underneath.

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Check out these antennae!! They remind me of a combination of bunny ears and ferns! Cool!

Beautiful texture and color.

There were, in fact, two of them! They were, ummmm .... "joined at the hip", shall we say. For a few hours, in fact!! My neighbor and I spent about 20 minutes observing and photographing them from every available angle. Nothing like having an audience while you're "joined at the hip", eh??

Love this last one. Just can't over the antennae! I've just never seen anything like it!!!

If you know what these things are, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease leave me a message and share your knowledge!!! It will drive us bonkers until we know, too!

My Artistic Side

I am a very artistic person - always have been. One of my very favorite things to do is take a photograph and just play with it a bit. Change the color, crop it, tilt it and get a whole new perspective. Sometimes just a little playing can turn a ho-hum photo into a work of art!

I absolutely love eyes! A beautiful eye can really make a portrait pop! They are, after-all, the windows to the soul, so why not highlight them every now and again.

The Cooperative One

Now that I've ragged on how bad my kids are about sitting for photos, let me say that my oldest is usually quite cooperative. She sat for a few inidividual pics for me after the other two were done. I'm so glad that someone appreciates me!

Things were going so well....

... when suddenly this dog appeared on the scene! She seems to have the same affliction as the other two kids!!!! She just can't sit for a photo without acting up!!! Maybe it's something in our water...

Photographers' Kids

Yep, these are mine. Gotta love 'em.

Poor things. They've had a camera stuck in their face their entire life. Now that they're older, they tend to be a little rebelious when asked to sit for a "quick shot". Can you tell????



Geeeeeeeeesh, it's not like I asked them to swim the English Channel, or climb Mout Everest ... or even pick up dog poop for Pete's sake! I just asked them to pleeeeeeeease sit for a nice shot of the three of them.


Now, let's get a closer look at the expression on my dear son's face, shall we.

That's my boy!

FINALLY! A decent one! They're all looking at me AND smiling at the same time!!! Now, really, was that so hard???



But not for long.



I call this one "Mutiny on the Bounty". Just look at them ... probably planning to make me walk the plank or something...

I've decided to enlarge and hang this one over the fireplace. This is probably the most natural shot I got in the few minutes that we were outside! They don't believe I'm serious. Won't they be surprised when they see this looking down at them every day! Sweet revenge. :)

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So, please, don't EVER worry about how your children might behave (or not behave) when having their photos taken by me. As you can see, I'm completely experienced in these kind of matters. I have the patience of a saint - well, sort of - with everyone, but my own! hah!

Just 2 Weeks Old!

My first newborn!! And isn't she a doll! This is Little Miss "R". She's the new baby sister of Little Miss "T" and Little Miss "S" that frequently appear on this blog. (Hey, I just realized that their names begin with R, S & T! I wonder if they planned that???) Anyway ... Missy "R" is just 2 weeks old and what a wonderful baby she was for me. She just snuggled down into her little basket and was quite content.

I am a "natural light" photographer, no studio lights, no flash. However, it was very rainy and gloomy here today, so we had to make do indoors. I had to end up switching my camera to automatic and use a flash (gasp!) But, I thought these pics turned out pretty good despite the nasty ol' flash. How could they not with such cute subject matter!

See you again soon, Miss "R". Maybe next time we can get your two big sisters in the picture as well!

A New Blog

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've created a new blog called Hooves and Hocks Photography. I will use this blog to post my equine clients' photographs. I may still post a couple here and there on this blog as well, but I don't want to confuse new clients looking at my portrait photography site with a bunch of pictures of horses!!

So if you want to keep up with the four-legged beauties I've been fortunate enough to be involved with of late, hop on over to http://www.hoovesandhocks.blogspot.com/
I've just started the blog so there's only one picture so far, but I will be adding lots and lots of gorgeous photos over the next few days. My next equine adventure (that I know of so far) is a trail ride on May 24th at Blake-Cliff Stables. Now, mind you, I WILL NOT actually be on the back of a horse! Nope, not me! My job will be to keep my two feet planted firmly on the ground while trying to capture the flavor of the day in photographs. Should be lots of fun, so make sure you check back from time to time!

Kids and Animals ...

They just go together ...

Like peanut butter and jelly.