A night to remember.  Boy, does that title sound like a cheesy prom name!  But maybe that fits, as this story reminds me of when Steve and I were young.  In college, I won the big scholarship for the art school.  The next year, Steve won it. The gentleman who funds the scholarship was so taken by the fact we were married.  Everyone loved that.

Fast forward 13 years and something similar has happened again.  This year, I won second place in photography at the Blair County Arts Festival.  Steve won third place.  When we were called to accept our awards, they asked if we knew each other and everyone laughed and clapped when Steve explained that we were married.  It felt like old times.

We met in an art class and fell in love while creating art together.  It was affirming to both win that scholarship years ago and reaffirming to both win awards in the same category this year, being that we still work together as photographers.  We have a friendly competition when we photograph weddings together to see who can capture better “moments.”  Both winning at the show this year kind of evened the artistic score.

Two of my three photographs that were accepted in the exhibition featured my daughter.  She is the subject of most of my personal work and I wished that she could have been there last night.  So many people inquired about her, what she thought of being a model, if she enjoyed having artists as parents and everyone asked if our other children were artistically gifted as well.  They are.  In fact, our children all have work on display at the children’s exhibit (even the three year old), so this year the BCAF is a family affair.

There are many hats that I wear throughout any given week.  I am a mother, soccer mom, a wedding photographer, a teacher and a family caregiver.  Longer than any of these though, I have been an artist.  It felt refreshing and like coming home to be seen as an artist last night.  To talk about my series of personal work, to explain my artistic process and to be affirmed that I am good at what I do.  I am thankful for the gifts that God has given me.  They provide me with so much joy!

Another award winner was our dear friend, Yong Sook Lambert, with me below.  She is an extremely talented painter from Korea who we have enjoyed knowing for the past 11 years.

The night was filled with inspiring work, good food and meeting of new friends.  I even ran into some of my past photography students, whose work was on display as well (so awesome!).  So in the end, the title really does fit the story.

This is what I saw from our back patio this morning.  I think we have one of the best views around.  Maybe I am a little biased, but after waiting 12 years to buy our first house, I deserve to be in love with our view.

One thing has been missing though, was place to sit on the patio to enjoy the sights.  I have been looking for a patio set since we closed on the house last fall.  This weekend, my in-laws found the perfect set at their church sale.  5 chairs and a beautiful square table.  Armed with the flyer for the super sale I saw advertised at Kohl’s this week, I am a proud new owner of a sassy umbrella to complete the set.  

A little piece of heaven just for us.  I think it is amazing that God cares about things like patio sets.  I have had my heart set on one, but could not swallow spending $1000 for something that would sit outside all summer.  I have known my God long enough to learn that when there is something that I need, He will provide it.  I just have to wait.  So many times I was tempted to just buy one, but I held off half heartedly.  In His timing (and just when the weather is staying warm), the perfect set appeared.  As I sit at the table, under a beautiful umbrella, looking out at a view I never would have thought I would have, I am humbled by the fact that God loves me so much that He gave me a patio set.  What a sweet God I serve!

Doesn’t Elizabeth look amazing?

This is my best friend, Elizabeth.  I love her like a sister.  The kind of sister that you get to chose.  There is so much that I could say here, about how much I love her.  How happy I am that she found Derek.  How blessed I am to have her in my life.  How beautiful she is.  However, when there is so much to say, I think it is best not to do it on a blog.  Instead, enjoy these images of my soul sister and her new man.

When I teach photography, I have often told students that I am a photographer in part because I can not draw.  Well, I have proved myself wrong, as I am a pretty decent drawer.  I think my rationale has now been replaced by the fact that I can express myself much better in pictures than in words.

When I am at a wedding as a photographer, I am feeling the wedding.  I see it and translate the emotion, the moment, the sentiment into an image.  I could not say what was happening, as my mind delays in finding the right words quickly, but I can feel it and wordlessly put it into my camera.  When I am photographing a family or a couple, the same thing.  It is a unique (to artists) way of connecting and relating.

Sometimes even later, I can not articulate a certain photo.  I look at it and feel it so deeply that trying to apply words would take away from what I was trying to say.  One of those photographs I shared last week here.  When the mother of the little bean flying in the air asked permission to use the photo on her blog, I knew exactly what she would write.  The very thing that my heart was screaming when I pressed the shutter.

Please enjoy her beautiful story and eloquence in putting words to what I could only photograph.  You can find her blog post here.

This last image is from that same mother’s wedding, but I will save the full story behind this final photograph for another day.

My oldest gave me a card that I could barely handle.  He made it for me in school.  He said that most of the class made an anagram from the word “mother” but he wanted to write a letter instead.  After I read it, I excused myself to the bathroom where I cried my eyes out.  I thought of him as a brand new baby, as a toddler and the sweet, sensitive child that he is today.  He has a way of knowing exactly what you need to hear.  His letter blessed me more than I can put words to.

The night before, Steve prepared an unforgettable dinner.  All on the grill.  Since buying the house last fall, he has wanted to grill a lobster.  In honor of Mother’s Day, he cooked us two lobsters, a steak, two pork chops and grilled asparagus.  Having never purchased lobsters before, I can assure you that a video documentary on the experience would be quite amusing.  The baby visits the lobster tank every time we go to the grocery store, so bringing them home to eat was a bit shocking for him.  He refused to eat “those lobster’s hands.”

For a couple who was told that they would never have children, God has blessed us immensely.  I could not ask for three better children to call my own or a better husband to raise them with.  God is good.

Bookmaking and binding is one of my hobbies, so I know what to look for when I see a hand bound book.  Steve and I visited multiple album companies – in person – when we first started offering albums because we wanted to see how they were made and understand the entire process.  That said, we are very confident that you will absolutely love our new line!

Photographs don’t do these bound works of art justice.  Once you hold one in your hands and turn the pages, you will want one of your very own!

As they lay with their favorite blankets, I snuck around the yard photographing the Supermoon through the apple trees and around the towering pines.

My daughter then took a few photos to enter in the arts festival at the end of the month.  It was a good evening.  An evening for the Moon Jumpers.

After we came in, I looked through the photographs and thought how they looked very much like a sun rise instead of a moon rise.  I even captured a little bit of “moon flare” – see the red in the tree in the last image.  It was beautiful to be out in the yard.  To listen to the geese and frogs from the neighboring pond.  To hear the crickets create a symphony as a huge glowing moon rose above the trees.  How great is our God.

I enjoyed getting know know Shane and Dana in the months leading up to their wedding and really seeing who they were at their engagement session.  Knowing their past made watching them walk up the aisle hand in hand husband and wife all the sweeter.

One of the things I learned about Shane is that he is the kind of guy who will always be there for you and makes decisions with his whole heart.  I was really touched when I saw him sitting all by himself in the front of the church before the ceremony.  Just thinking.

The wedding ceremony was held just around the corner from the Casino at Lakemont Park in Altoona.  For their portrait session, we went into the amusement park that is right next door.

The reception was held in the Grand Ballroom at the Casino at Lakemont.  Surrounded by family and dear friends the party ran late into the night.  The next week I received an email from Shane thanking us for being their wedding photographers.  He apologized for being short, but he was about to go up in a hot air balloon.  Attached was a photo from the sky.  I smiled as I thought of them together in the air.  Best friends, now husband and wife.

My Intermediate class spent last week getting hands on experience photographing people.  We had several children (including that little cutie above) and an aspiring model there to provide lots of opportunities to gain experience.

One of the things we will be discussing in class this week is how to cull a shoot.  I make a point of providing a set of unique photographs to our clients.  I make the choices for them as part of my service.  I do not send a client a gallery that includes 20 images that all look alike with only slight variations.

With digital photography, it is easy to take hundreds of pictures during a short session, thinking over shooting will produce better results.  The problem is that back at home in front of the computer you are now faced with making the decision as to which ones are the winners.  Knowing how to properly cull and shooting with the end in mind is key to producing quality work for both yourself and those you are photographing.  In a culture where more is better, it is important to learn the power of a single image.

Here are the out takes from the shoot above:

Chairs!?!  Who knew find the right chair would be so hard?  I have purchased 6 different chairs from 2 different stores and none of them have worked out.  I am a little picky, but I want them to be right.  This is the place where I sit for hours on end creating.  I need to be both comfortable and inspired.  It is times like this when I wish I could just run up to New York City for the day to try out and find my perfect office chairs.  I am sure they are there – the big table was.

So far, the walls are painted and most of the artwork is on display.  The furniture (minus the chairs) is in place and that has made a huge improvement over the moving box storage system I had to use for a short time.  My dear friend, Rachel, drove me to two different IKEA stores across three states to help piece together the modern buffet that graces the wall under the framed prints.  She doesn’t know that I also had to make a third trip to yet another IKEA the following week, because some of the parts we bought were damaged. The risk you take when you live 3 hours away from their nearest store!

So today I give you a sneak peak of the main display wall.  More updates to follow, up just one photo for now.