My adventures

Time has just been flying by lately. It's been great of course but I have to slow down every-once-in-a-while and remind myself to appreciate the moments of silence in my life. One of those moments came Sunday as I found myself driving my mother's car across the state of Kentucky for the third time in a few days.

You see, I'm trying to finish up my master's thesis. It's certainly been an interesting journey and I'm very much looking forward to being through with this chapter of the project.

Here's a photo of the Berry's sunflower garden. It was so pretty!

I grew up in Kentucky knowing about the author Wendell Berry and all that he's written about conservation and farming. Before I was born, Wendell wrote an essay about my father. The book was eventually published in a book called The Long Legged House. I've had a copy from 1971 in my collection since I was very young. Several months ago my dad mentioned to Wendell that I'd like to interview him for my thesis (more about the project in another post). Wendell said he doesn't do interviews anymore but he'd consider it if I wrote to him. And thus began the journey.

After writing back and forth (letters not emails folks, he does not want anything to do with technology), Wendell finally agreed to a reading of the essay and to talk about the time of the writing (the 1960's).

I booked a quick flight back to Kentucky and visited Wendell and his wonderful wife, Tanya, at their home in Henry County, this weekend.

I flew back to Florida yesterday a.m., but hope to share this project someday. It was truly a unique opportunity to interview Wendell and I'll appreciate it always :)

And here's my tattered copy of The Long Legged House. I'll carry this book with me forever.

Last month we took the trip of a lifetime rafting down the Grand Canyon. It was completely amazing and made me want to move to the woods. The trip itself was guided by the Grand Canyon Expedition Company and we were really lucky to have wonderful guides. We went on several beautiful hikes and spent a lot of time just watching the canyons as we floated by. I can't wait to go again!

I also put together a slideshow from our adventure with images I shot with my camera and with Hank's camera as well. Please click on the link to watch the slideshow. It's ten minutes in length :)

I am working on a few things right now. One is a slideshow from our recent vacation. I'll be sure and share more images here when I finish that up. I'm also working on a few large postings from Claudia and Mickle's wedding a few weeks ago. Finally, I also just finished up designing an engagement signature album for a wedding this summer. I CANNOT wait to share images of the book. It was my first time designing this type of album and the printer I used called me after I submitted it to tell me how much they love the design. It's going to look so good!

I wanted to leave you with an image of what I did on my vacation. Yep, staring at canyons. It was breathtaking.

This website project started over breakfast in a greasy spoon in Murray, Kentucky while volunteering at the Mountain Workshops. My friend Chad and I were discussing his film project and the need for a web presence. Being from Kentucky, and a lover of mountains, I really admire Chad's work and what he's trying to do. I think the issues with strip mining are so complex and scary for the future of Kentucky and West Virginia. I certainly also think the people who are employed by Massey and other companies are in a precarious situation with their livelihoods and I wonder what their future holds. Regardless, by destroying the mountains everybody's future is bleak, both financially and environmentally.

Anyway, please go check out the site. Great luck to Chad, Bob, Robert, and everybody else who is involved in this important issue. I look forward to following the blog, site, and film and seeing where they take the project.

A few weekends ago I flew to Birmingham, Alabama to be one of eleven hostesses for Kelly's recipe brunch at my mother-in-law's home. I affectionately call my in-laws house the Campbell Motel because we're always checking in :)

Simply put, Kelly has wonderful friends and family. We had such a fun time that morning putting together all the dishes and helping Paula arrange things. We even tackled the Mocha punch with frozen ice cream :)

Here are a few images of the day. I hope you enjoy!

This was my favorite arrangement. I loved loved loved these gerbera daisies!

Everybody was asked to bring their favorite recipe on a card to fill this recipe card box with. Soo cute!

The flower girl and ring bearer made an appearance!

Emma Hartman was up to her usual funny self.

Kelly gave us all gifts.

The hostesses :)

On another note, I leave for vacation on the Colorado River next week. I won't be available via email or cell phone for 8 days. (I'm still not sure how I'll survive). I'm going to try to post a couple more times before leaving so you'll have pretty pictures to look at :) If you're a current client or prospective client, please be patient with me. I'll be back soon!

I'm glad to finally be able to share this story with you. I've been working on this project for the past few months for tampabay.com. This is a very sad story about the demise of the Florida panther. Please take a look at this project if you get a second.

I also had a website launch this week and a gorgeous engagement session. It's busy, busy, these days for me so check back!

Ok, so in my career as a journalist I've been published in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time magazine, Newsweek, and a bunch of other well known publications. Since starting my wedding photography business, this is something I had never done. Until today!

I'm excited to share this blog with you, Every Last Detail. Lauren is a great blogger with an eye for detail :) I actually had the pleasure of meeting Lauren in February and let me tell you, she's every bit as sweet and endearing as the words on her blog come across.

Make sure you hop on over to her wedding details blog and leave her some love!

Thanks!

I suddenly realized that I have not shared this website that I helped create with my great friend Brandon Flayler. Brandon is an amazing web developer and teacher. I've learned so much of working with Drupal through him. I can't wait until our next project!

This site was created for my husband, Hank. I cannot believe that in such a short time Hank's grown his business so fast. He's such a great coach and husband. He made a real sacrifice to me when he went with me to Ohio for me to go to graduate school. It was a tough year for us because of the fact that we were living in the poorest county in Ohio and jobs were scarce for Hank. He did everything for me, including cleaning the house and bringing me dinner every night. I am so thankful and know that I couldn't have made it through school without his support. So, for me to be able to help return something to him like this website, it's definitely a very special thing. I am so excited for where he's taking it. He's got some cool things cooking right now that I can't wait to share!

This spring I'm having to take care of the amount of work I have committed to because of teaching and working on my thesis. I have some gorgeous weddings coming up of course and a few trips planned for shooting. I can't wait to share those.

I also have another web project that I'm working on with a super friend that has me so incredibly excited. I absolutely cannot wait to share that one!

One of the cool things about this site is the rotating picture. I have shot all of these images over the years from attending Hank's races. I have quite a stock portfolio of sporting events :)

I have realized that I haven't shared any of the great albums I made last year for wedding and portrait clients. So please check back because I'm going to be sharing those very very soon!

*****UPDATE****
Ericka Walters of All About Me Spa Parties won the gift certificate I donated to the party. Congrats Ericka! I can't wait to photograph you and your son in a portrait session in April!

I was fortunate to attend the Wedding Professionals For A Cure fundraiser on Wednesday night at the Quorum Hotel in Tampa. The fabulous ladies from Elan Event Studio know how to throw a party!

There were so many fabulous vendors including Doug from Grant Hemond, Lifelong Studios, Andy from Just Let Go Photography, and of course the gorgeous flowers and pink decor were by MMD Events! There were a ton of other vendors but I couldn't begin to list them all here.

I enjoyed getting to know a ton of new people. I even got my picture taken with the ever cool Lauren Grove, who has such a great blog, Every Last Detail!

I made my good friend James from James Ostrand Photography pose for a picture with the go-go dancer. Do you think he was uncomfortable?

I am so humbled to announce that I won another award with the Wedding Photojournalist Association. The image came in sixth place in the dancing category in the Q3 competition of 2009. This image was shot at Laura and Bobby's wedding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on a cold snowy day :) Their reception was held at the Soldiers and Sailors Hall & Museum .

I absolutely love this image. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it and just fyi, it's actually a color image that I converted to black and white.. I shot it with a borrowed lens and have promised myself to buy the lens this year :)

If you get a chance, go check out all the other images in the competition. There's some great moments!