It's Overload Time!

Day two of the SYNC conference (Seniors and Youth National Conference) for photographers is over and I think it's time to order me up a new 4 GB memory external hard drive. That would be the 'gray matter' kind of memory, i.e. brain power. Just not sure how to plug it into my brain. You see, there are meetings from 8:30 a.m. 'til 10:30 p.m. and I've been taking notes like a court room stenographer!

At these meetings, I keep a running "To Do List" going so I can make sense of all the information I've collected for when I get back home. It's a routine I adopted long ago when attending conferences in my previous career. Well, let's just say that my to do list seems to be about as long as the Master's Thesis I wrote years ago! OK, I exaggerate for effect, but I think you get the idea.

I'm excited about the changes that will come! The new sets I've planned for my kids and seniors portraits are going to bring energy and excitement into this new year! The new designs for Senior and Newborn Books are awesome! Lots to be excited about. So while I'm a bit brain dead tonight, I'll be ready for more tomorrow morning.

As for the image, on my first evening here, I strolled the beach in front of the resort at sunset time. There's nothing like facing the sun when it's done for the day; taking in it's last rays of warmth. I was making images of the rows of beach chaises and saw this man, sitting alone. When I made the image I thought I'd jokingly blog about how he was missing the snow and bitter cold from up north. Then today I realized that his body language emulated how my brain felt tonight! Every brain overload needs a brain dump. Good.n..i...g....h.....t.

Sweet Bundle of Joy

It's been busy the last few days, as I'm getting ready to head to SYNC Conference (senior portraits) in FL tomorrow. But before I haul out the suitcase and pack for a warmer climate, I had to share the morning I had with Ekko, her M & D and grandmother Barb.

At 4 months, Ekko is one of the most happy, easy going babies I've had the pleasure to photograph! (Of course, morning time is the best for these amazing, little humans.) We did some family shots and then is was all Ekko. First with her dress, then in the stacked containers, and finally, we ended up on an actual Baby Scale from 1957 that I just got on eBay! What a fun morning!

As I was editing their shoot, I came across a number of images that made me burst out laughing. Some close ups of her face with various expressions and some like the one above, where she spread her arms open as if to welcome the entire world into her arms.

I really like to photograph children with a bit of realism, and of course, some humor. Ekko loved 'finding' her feet today. She spent lots of time checking them out. I only wished I had her flexibility in my hamstrings! More yoga, Peg. More yoga. And remember, enjoy the feet!

Shredded 'Tweet' for Breakfast

This winter's been hard on me visually. Cold yeah, but where is the snow? I'm visualizing a nice snow storm that I can go out and chase for a few hours, and then a cold front to move in and give me those beautiful, blue skies. Last weekend I was up in the UP of Michigan, hoping that we'd get that kind of weather. No deal - not even on my birthday. It was 30 degrees and heavy clouds that made everything flat.

"So find something else to photograph!" I told myself. "Make it happen." So this morning I thought about doing some flowers in the studio when I was called to the French doors that look out to our backyard. Perched atop our bird feeder was a smaller Cooper's Hawk enjoying some breakfast sparrow. I made this shot through the 3 layers of glass (1 double pane window and 1 storm door) and thought "thank god I cleaned them before Christmas."

This hawk hung around and actually let 3 squirrels feed at the feeder's foot, a mere 6 feet from where the Cooper's Hawk decided to perch for some post-prandial rest. I thought for sure that I was going to get a real 'kill' shot but the hawk just sat on the fence (no pun intended) and waited for more birds to come to the feeder. A few sparrows did a 'fly by' but saw the hawk and kept going.

When my postal carrier arrived, I shared my hawk story with her. She told me about another resident on her route that calls what happened at my feeder, a 'Shredded Tweet.' Now THERE's something to really 'tweet' about on Twitter!