It's HERE!

I pre-ordered THE Kelly Moore Bag back in mid-December.  The day it was released.  It came in just a couple of days ago and I am thrilled!  I'm SO glad that I got the flashy turquoise croc.  ;)  I can't wait to use it!

It came with a cool tote.  Yay!  My husband said it was a bag for the bag for the bag... since the bag itself came neatly inside a cool, clean, white drawstring bag.  LOVE it.

Play Date

I have had the privilege of getting to know Amy-Rose King the past few weeks.  We have been meeting for coffee and exchanging ideas on everything from life, church, kids, and of course, photography.  She is a real celebrity on Flickr and Digital Photography School.  ;)  She is also a wiz with the camera and with photoshop.  So much so, that she writes and sells her own Actions.  I used many of her actions on these images.  She has an awesome skin smoothing action and also one that makes eyes shine.  If you are a photographer (or have a camera and use photoshop) and use actions for any type of image, you need these! She (and I) were really itching for a little artistic freedom and inspiration and she set up a session with Corina, a gorgeous girl from her church.  And she asked me to join them in the fun.  Of course, I wanted to bring my off camera lighting equip along for the ride and help Amy-Rose with her knowledge of it as well...  I always learn something new when working with it and it's SO nice to have someone like Amy-Rose with which to share the fun.  Off we went.  I was just along for the ride and tried not to shoot ALL the time and let her play.  :)  Corina was an amazing model and such a trooper.  Amy-Rose is awesome at posing and great at not settling for something that looks a little better than it was before just to make the model feel more comfortable.  She pushes poses beyond that and really gets what she wants.  That's something I need to work on.  :)  Thanks SO much for letting me tag along girls.  I had such a great and fulfilling time yesterday...it really got my juices going again.  :)

I have two versions of this one... couldn't decide...

The Dysons

These are our dear friends.  They will be moving across the country very soon to become famous scientists and cure the world.  I wanted to give them a little going away present before the made the very long trip north.  We'll just have to see which "windy city" is more windy.  ;)  We'll miss y'all for sure!

My inspiration.

I look at the sky so much.  I always have.  I even wanted to be a meteorological researcher when I grew up. Really.  But since my brain can't do a lick of math, I had to settle for visual arts instead.  My parents are so proud.  ;)

A friend once told me that he had never seen an ugly sky.  I absolutely agree.

These are SOOC shots.  I didn't even bother to clean the ugly spot off my lens.  Whoops. (not the flare on the right, but the gray one on the left)

Lacey & Kris

This couple was so much fun to hang out with!  We ventured through east Lubbock, then went into the woods near Seattle...oh wait, that was still Lubbock (ok, so it doesn't REALLY look just like the northeast, but we can use our imaginations), and then headed over to the library.  :)  Lacey loves books so I thought that would be a fun, personal touch.  And Kris, you were a CHAMP.  Y'all made my job very easy!  Thanks so much for a great time!

Oh. My.

Just a fun different crop.  :)  (for me at least...)

This was kind of a "happy accident" while editing... I left it...  :)

Kalab-FHS Senior

I love senior sessions.  Who doesn't??  And one of the best things that I hear from anyone right before a session is "Sorry, but I'm SO not photogenic..."  I like to prove them wrong.  Dead wrong.  :)  Meet Kalab.  He's driven, ambitious, super fun, and doesn't want to follow the crowd.  Thanks for choosing me guys!  I really had a great time!

...and a traditional shot for mom.  ;)

Photog gab: I really wanted to pay attention to my focal length in this session.  Sounds like a pretty elementary concept, but since I don't shoot with prime lenses at the moment, I feel like I have gotten lazy with this.  I tended to move my lens instead of my body which caused me to get a little too wide with one of my lenses... Then I would end up with distortion (usually slight) and have very unhappy thoughts.  :/  So I was more intentional with several technical issues of which I felt that I was slacking.  I really like the results.  Realllly.  :)

WINNER!

Thanks to everyone who voted!  It has been great fun to watch the numbers shoot up each day!  I will definitely be having more contests!  And here's your winner for the Best of 2009!

Congratulations Amanda and Dallas!  You'll be getting your prize soon!  :)

And THANKS TO EVERYONE for helping me reach 10,000 hits on my blog!  I know this was aided tremendously by this contest!  There were almost 1,200 votes in this contest!  Awesome.  AND now this blog has more than 12,000 hits.  Thanks again!