Sunkissed

M and I went scouting for a new location to shoot at last night. There's a gazebo where her daddy works and so we went there. The sunset lighting was beautiful as was the gazebo. She twirled around inside and seemed to daze off into her own world.

She starts school next week on Tuesday. She's very excited and looking forward to it. It will be strange to have her gone during the days and our homeschooling will be so much more less now. It's like she's graduating from my class and moving up into another school and teacher. A sweet sorrow for us both.



And some news. We are now Girl Scouts! :) We think we may have found our new troop and I plan to take part as one of the co-leaders for this troop. I do have my own troop # at this point and am already a leader but since we are so new here and there is this terrific group of girls in an existing troop we plan to join them. We are looking forward to the fun times ahead.

I'm off to get started with the day.
Happy Thursday and Labor Day Weekend!

Hard Working Lil' Guy

For weeks we have been digging out a pond behind our house and our 4-year-old son has been a huge help. Every time we go out to dig he follows along with his work gloves and very own shovel, just his size. He works the whole 1-2 hours and is covered in sweat and dirt just like his father and myself. It's so cute. He just loves it. I've never known a child to be such a hard worker. He's always looking for projects and fix it's around the house. Today after our morning pond dig we came inside and took our shower and got all cleaned up. After we got dressed I asked if he wouldn't mind going outside for a couple of pictures and he said sure. We played on a tire and went around the house for a few and he went into the garage and started getting into the tools and pulled out a hammer and started nailing some nails into some coastal driftwood we had found a few months ago. I was thinking our picture session was over but decided to play in the side-lighting here and captured this shot. OMG! I love the backlighting going on there from the window we have in the garage. The way the shadows surround him I just love it. And isn't it great that he picked up a hammer? I think it's so fitting. My little worker boy. Always busy. We have nicknamed him, among several others, "busy hands". He's always doing something.

Here's a shot of him sitting on a huge rock in our front yard. It's a rock he and his sister love to sit on and play make believe. He was happy to sit here for one picture.


We've been having some awesome weather this week and we're loving it! School starts in another week. I have been homeschooling the kids and this year our daughter joins public school. She's very much looking forward to it. Though I think we'll continue some homeschool lessons in conjunction. Our son will be homeschooled and I'm so excited to be able to teach him one to one this year. Oh, I think he will work just as hard on his school work as he does out in the field. :)

Have a wonderful final few weeks of summer!

Summer Night

The sunset on Friday night was pretty in pink. We just had to go out and play and enjoy the last few minutes of light in the blushing sky. The sunsets come earlier these days and the sun seems to slip down behind the horizon before you know it. And now as the summer winds down and the school days quickly approach it is the time to dance in the evening light to the lulling sound of crickets, grasshoppers, frogs, and many other bugs that sing a merry little tune throughout the night before they tuck themselves in for the long winter months just ahead.



Our home on the orchard is progressing nicely with one of the newest and prized additions to our property - the pond! The pond began as a smallish pond, more of a puddle really (the first puddle you see at the bottom of this next photo). We dug this pond in early July and it sat empty for no rain hit for 2-3 weeks. Well, rain hit and within 5 minutes our "Puddle Pond" was full and overflowing! We had learned that a creek bed, once dried in the earlier part of summer, was actually a creek bed and the orchard waters were rushing down our backyard straight into our tiny puddle pond. So, we decided to repair the creek bed and dig it deeper so all the water would channel that direction and into the puddle pond and not pool up in the lawn or up against our house. Well, yesterday we dug puddle pond #2 and by 1pm the thunderstorms rolled in and dumped about 1 inch of rain in less than 20 minutes! The puddle ponds were both full within the first 5 minutes of raining! They were bone dry before that! Amazing! This morning as I type this (12:44pm) the ponds are half full and the creek is still flowing into them. So, we were out there again today expanding the puddle ponds even further. We're hoping to dig a nice size pond say 30 feet long and perhaps equally as wide. Anyway, last night I took this shot during the pink sky because we had discovered that we have our first new resident - a bull frog! This photo our daughter was first shown the whereabouts of our new guest. Oh yes, and she has my little P&S camera that she loves to play photographer with lately. She took some images of our new guest. This morning we discovered three frogs were in the pond! Fun!

A summer blueberry pie that my dear sweet hubby whipped up yesterday. Yum yum! Made with the local berries we picked a half-mile from our house.

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace

Peaceful and graceful and green. My processing is leaning towards the greener side of things for some reason. Anyway, I listed a lens that I have for sale today and took this as a test shot for my listing. Have a buyer already for the lens.

Today we have sun and a beautiful summers day. It's nice. Miss M has a rehearsal tonight for her play and she's having fun with that. I've always known she'd like the limelight.

Anyway, have a peaceful and beautiful day....

Morning Light

M and I went out into the orchard this morning to play in the awesome sight of sunshine! Yup, it's sunny here today in Maine - finally a summer day returns to us! The wildflowers had many little beads of dewdrops and they were calling me. So, I quickly asked M to put on a dress and meet me outside, morning hair and all. You know, when your 7 you can pull that off! I was drawn to this shot above the others. Something about it. Anyway, it was calling for a sepia process. And so there you go. Just wanted to say we have sun! :) Have a beautiful day.

M & L & G too!

So here's some more shots from yesterday's shoot. My daughter and her BFF. :) Yup, she told L yesterday that they are friends forever now. Not sure what sealed the deal but so be it. All day these two were playing and having so much fun. Neither was particularly interested in posing for me and were hard to find and took oodles of convincing for some shots but then at the end when I was pretty much done these girls come out dressed up and having been in my prop bag. Look what fun things they dug out. These two got really silly and pulled the petti's clean up to their chest and tied the boy around their necks. They looked liked super mini dresses then. Too funny. Anyway, here they are. We had fun playing with you L! And M is looking forward to the upcoming sleepover!




Beautiful L. I loved processing this one. :)





Oh and this one.....



And now for G. I was so happy when he said yes when I asked if I could get a couple of shots of just him. He had fun playing swimming with the girls and our son and he was so gracious to let them push him in the pool numerous times. Aw such is the life of being the big brother to three younger sisters! Thanks for posing G. You did awesome.




G. you did so good with this shot. Love the way you held the board and have your fingers. So balanced. :)



Thanks for stopping by! Nite!

Sneak Peek - "M" Family Session

Today my family and I went up to the mid-coast to visit some of our good friends. We had a fun time and enjoyed great weather in a much needed break from the rainy weather we've been having. The kids enjoyed swimming and eating black berries fresh from the bush. I got to play for several hours and got to take some pictures of the cutest kids. It's late as I type this and I've just finished uploading the images and wanted to process this one because it is just too cute. So, here's an image from our session today. Just a sneak peek. I'll post the rest in your online gallery M family. And thanks so much for playing with us today. We had such a great time. And our little Miss M. hasn't stopped talking about a sleepover with L.

New Biz Cards

Introducing my new biz cards. :)

My Guy

me.

Ok so I had to try to take my self portrait again and let me just say, this is really hard to do! Really really hard for me anyway. I took soo many OOF images of myself that I liked to toss my camera into the bag for good. I tried focusing on all kinds of things but I think my camera was being stubborn and just didn't want to take my picture. So, after a zillion attempts I got a couple posters. This being my fave shot. Boy is it hard to look natural in front of the camera when I'm holding the trigger and trying to keep in the focal range. :) Anyway, there you have it. I'm going to work at this more and boy do I need a new hair style.

Have a great day!

Smile + Color

I've been talked to about the photos that I am making of my kids by a certain someone. About how I always post pictures of them "frowning". Well, I won't mention any names, but mom, this one is for you. ;) I get a lot of smile shots when I take pics of the kids however artistically what I find most interesting right now are the moments that I capture of the kids in their natural and relaxed selves. To me, it's like looking deeply into their eyes and seeing their true selves. Of course I appreciate the beauty of a smile as well and so here you go. Oh, and yes, processed in color per the request of someone as well. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stormy

Things have been, well, stormy here. With rain, thunder and lightning almost every other day if not more. Our lawn is green and our newly dug pond is full, refilling daily. We've been inside the last few weeks more often than not and we are, well, going stir crazy. Wishing for our sunny summer to return. :)