Hint of Color

I saw the photo challenge this week for Paper Mama and knew exactly what picture I wanted to enter.  I LOVE this picture of Tyler from the 4th of July a couple of years ago. 

Check out the rest

I Heart Friends

Do you remember my last post with the pictures of my friends? Well, Lisa is such a good friend that she has been showing my pictures to anyone who will look and already got me so business! I have had a busy week. Her friends wanted pictures done and since I am leaving on Friday and will be gone for 2 whole months so it was NOW or wait two months. SO we met up Tuesday and had a shoot. Check out how cute there blue eyed, blond haired girl is

Here are some more of this little cutie pie

Adorable right?!  Here she is with her and her Mommy and Daddy

And my two favorite of the night.  ( because I couldn't pick just one, they were both so adorable! )

I had another photo shoot this week but I am not sure if I will get the pictures up by Friday before we leave for Utah.  I WILL be in Southern Utah and if you are in that area and want to book a shoot with me LET ME KNOW!  Leave me a comment here or contact me at katiesclicks@yahoo.com 

Friends

Doing photo shoots for friends is always so much fun! For some reason the stress isn't as bad as doing them for people who are paying ( for obvious reasons ). This particular photo shoot was stress free because I know Lisa is NOT picky at all and would have fun with it. Lisa is actually my friend through marriage. I was good friends with her husband Jason. He has a slight part in my husband and I getting together. Which is a funny story that is only funny to Jason and I so I will spare you. So here are some of my favorites from the evening. I have this love hate relationship with the sun. I LOVE sun flare but yesterday the sun flare was NOT my friend. I wish I had noticed more how bad it was so I could have adjusted accordingly. But in some of these pictures, it makes the picture for me. Go figure.

My favorite one is where Linc is trying to pull Jason away from kissing Lisa! :)
Lisa brought Lincoln's halloween costume and we took some picture of him in it! Such a cutie. He REALLY wants Tyler to be Woody again so they can be the Toy Story people. :) How cute would Kayla be in a Jessie costume?

So I am "self taught" in photography. I have never taken any classes. I think for me I have an eye for what makes a good photo but as far as working my camera goes, it's like a foreign language. I have read articles, studied my manual and it still just doesn't make sense. Usually I just leave my camera on AUTO and occasionally I will adjust things manually, but not often. I got a DVD that was pretty good at explaining things and I have started to TRY to work my camera myself instead of doing everything in AUTO. I know photographers who would be so annoyed when reading I shoot in AUTO but I don't think a good photographer HAS to be someone who can work the camera great! In fact, it kind of makes me upset when people take crappy pictures but know how to photo shop the crap out of them to make them look good. I know photo shop is an art so it shouldn't be annoying....but for me I think I am a good photographer because I have a good eye. Well, I have an announcement! Yesterday was my first time shooting ONLY in manual! WOO HOO No auto here for me. It was a great experiment. Did my images turn out better? About 50 percent of them turned out a lot better. The other 50 percent were grainy, blurry or too dark. Dang! But I am learning and that is the important thing. I was having some serious issues with the sun as I mentioned earlier but I think overall, I did a good job with it being my first time and I have been getting better and better everyday. Utah here I come baby! Watch out!!! :)

Smirk

I saw the I heart Faces theme for this week which is SMIRK and I new instantly which photo I wanted to enter.  My boy is KING of the Smirk.  I have a million pictures of him with one of those smirks on his face but my favorite would have to be THIS ONE

I have this one framed in my bed room RIGHT by my bed so I can see it all the time and smile. I LOVE it! I also love the story behind it. He is actually totally naked except for the scarf and cowboy hat and he is actually on the potty! hee hee Now go check out the rest of the smirks over at iheartfaces and have a laugh! some are pretty funny.

Pregnancy photography

SO my sister and her husband have been married for almost 7 years and have not been able to get pregnant.  That got some great news recently when they found out they got picked by a birth mom to be parents.  SO exciting for everyone and I can't imagine how exciting for her and her husband.  Since meeting the birth mother they have become friends with her through the process and have decided to do some maternity pictures with each other.  I get the pleasure og photographing them!  YEAH!  However, my sister and I are kind of stumped on ideas.  So far we have ONE picture planned and that would be the typical hand forming the heart over the belly but it will be with one of my sisters hands, one of her husbands and obviously it will be over the bith mothers belly.  I think it will be very sweet.  Other then this idea we got a whole lot of nothing.  Any one have any ideas?  Just curious.  I will be posting this on all three of my blogs so if you read more then one of them you obviously can ignores this on the other ones and only have to comment on one.  But seriously ANY ideas would be nice, even if you think it might be dumb, you never know. 

Thank you in advance!  I get to take these pictures at the baby shower on the 16th in Northern Utah and I couldn 't be more excited!  WOO HOO

The Punk Rock Mom

i just found this blog this morning.  It's called  The Punk Rock Mom.  I have been looking for blogs that are similar to my taste and have different photography challenges or contest.  This one has one going right now and the theme is "Story Time"  She wants the pictures to tell a story.  I LOVE doing this.  I often will take 10 pictures in a row of my kids doing something just to get the whole story behind it.  That actually makes it more difficult for me to share some because I had SO many of them in my head I knew I could use.  So here is what I finally decided to do after searching through some of my folders.  It is from a year ago at our church Halloween celebration.  Tyler had never done a doughnut eating contest like this and in fact, I am not sure if he had ever had a doughnut!  haha  BUt he took the challenge and had fun.  It was funny because half way through it he looked at his cousin right next to him and with chocolate ALL over his face, pointed, laughed and said, "Madison you have chocolate on your face!"  Classic

We finally called it a draw and let them use their hands. After this last picture was taken they busted out with the GLAZED doughnuts! Um, where were the NON-chocolate ones when our kids were doing it?! :)

A First

So I did a photo shoot on Friday for a couple who are expecting a baby in November. I hadn't met them yet. We had only talked through emails but I was REALLY excited to do the shoot. My friends at church have this GORGEOUS little farm that I went to for the first time a week before we planned to do pictures. I asked them if I could use their yard to do pictures and she told me no problem. YEAH! I was really really excited. I had lots of first for this shoot. It was my first time taking pictures for someone I had never met, my first time taking pictures at this location and my first time laying on a fire ant hill to get good pictures! haha The couple were funny and when they were getting letters out to spell their future daughters name they couldn't agree on how to spell it. finally the husband looked it up on his phone and then hid his head in shame when he realized his wife was right. haha It was a good thing she was right too because she already had their daughters name embroidered on a diaper bag!

And now for one of my favorites! I ALMOST picked this one as my "blooper" from my previous post. The couple had made a face at each other and I happen to take the picture right then! I bet they didn't know I got it! haha

And for those who didn't see the previous post with the blooper in it, here is another favorite from the night

makes me laugh every time!