Monday morning creativeness

Fun at an Oklahoma fair (or life in a small town in August!)

Well for me it is 1 a.m. (but still Sunday). I've been in overdrive all day Sunday doing non-creative things and away from the computer. So this is my downtime before going to bed. The miserable part is getting up on a Monday and knowing I want to stay home and work on photos, instead going to work and delving into the deadlines of news for the next four days. I know it will be an exhausting week. I've got a story to finish, an interview to do and then write up, paginate daily and we're pushing everything up so we can all enjoy a three-day weekend! Tuesday and Thursday will be constant overdrive. I'm exhausted thinking about it!
But, for all you who stop by here today, here's another from my carnival vault! I'm slowly getting those finished. Gosh, I need to as the next fair is right around the corner and these were from one night last year! I plan on pulling out all the stops this year since these have become so popular. Thank you everyone who has ever given me comments, sent e-mails and told me how much you like them. And thank you doubly to all of you who have bought one, whether it was a 4x6 print or notecard or a 20x30 wall gallery size! whoohoo!
I will be posting some rodeo this week, but wasn't in the mood to resize a bunch of images tonight.
Meanwhile, think outside the box, push beyond your ordinary and do something that you can be proud to say, "I've got this to show for my efforts!"

Rodeo on a Friday night

This night was marked with some sadness, some triumphs and plenty of laughs. Some of the cowboys were 'first timers' (so they said!) like Carl Cramton and Jarred Elroy of Marlow...sure guys! Then there were guys like Tony Dyer of Nocona, Texas who said he hadn't been on a bull in six years...What possessed you man?! A lot of Velma boys who gave it their best too.
The Duncan Noon Lions Rodeo is an annual event held at Claud Gill Arena. Stock supplied by F&F (Frick's out of Marlow/Rush Springs). I'll add more later on this and will post some single images. I chose Buddy Jewell's song Sweet Southern Comfort since I didn't have the songs I thought I downloaded from Itunes, rip off. I paid for them, but they don't show up downloaded!
Enjoy!

She loves peaches, fresh only!

She doesn't like baby food in a jar type peaches, but she wasted no time in going for the fresh ones during a photo shoot! Love this baby! Doesn't hurt she's my granddaughter!
You'll also notice I added Katrina Elam's store at the right, let me know if you can see the entire thing where you can order from it or not. I can't. I can only see half of the screen.

Carnival "Into Blue"

It's been a long time since I added any of my Carnival images. Probably my most popular images to date. I think the Transformers soundtrack kicked in my creative drive because without thinking I went straight to my midway archives and created several new images. These will be available in my etsy shop. I had a couple printed as 20x30s and wow, they were awesome!

The swingset and 10x10s

Creative processing ...

isn't his face sweet? Not quite 2 yet and he's already very independent.


and a couple of my sweet MM. She always keeps us smiling! Soon I'll be adding a third grandchild to the group, these kids need to quit trying to age me and their father! ha!


Well, I was inspired to go find the photos of the swingset that I shot on Mother's Day. My oldest son came over today and was bummed to find that his Dad tore down the swingset. I have photos of the two of them sanding it prior to the orange paint disaster. And I'm in the mood to make a really cool wall display of images in 10x10 size. Tara Whitney did this really neat display of 20x20s, then Michelle Miller has one of 12x12s, very cool. You really need a theme for it to work. While I have my grandkids images picked out, that was easy, trying to find some photos of my sons when they were small, I'm stumped. I have some of them at the county fairs, midway over the years, and then some of them at the natural museum of history here in Oklahoma. So I'm not sure which set to work on. And who knows, that may change in midstream!
Well, here's some shots I creatively processed today.

Outdoor sets

Well really this should be titled, backyard fence is getting repaired! I'll get to the outdoor sets for photos in a moment.
A wind storm knocked down a portion of our fence which was leaning anyway when we bought the house. We wanted the house so bad that we didn't want to push it too much at contract and it needed extensive electrical work upgraded, so we 'ignored' many items that the general inspector pointed out. So last night my husband finally got to working on the fence. He's just happy to have had a real reason to destroy the very old-fashioned swingset that was in the backyard, (also came with house). Our kids had talked him out of it once and we even bought paint to paint it. They wanted it for their kids. But it really was an eyesore (especially after I bought the wrong color spray paint and it was construction worker's orange...ick...and it was taking up valuable, VALUABLE space that I wanted for landscaping for, what else? Portraits!!
So, the swingset is now officially demolished. My husband is using the legs for posts for the back portion of the fence, on the other side, so they won't be visible in my yard! hah! Once the fence is back up, we can start landscaping so I have a wonderful mini park in my backyard to do great outdoor portraits. I can't wait for the fall!
If you think you want to book a session for fall portraits, let me know now so I can get a list going. It will be for little kids and seniors. I'm also working on some cool ideas for senior sets.

Archives of flowers

This first image I shot about four years ago. This is straight of the camera, no adjustments to it, no textures. It was a daisy my youngest son had picked for me. He's 21 now. Imagine a teenage boy picking daisies for his mom! Sweet!
Anyway, I was testing out my D30 when I first got it and wanted to see what I could do with it as far as apertures went and such. Back then, it was just another test shot. Going through my files tonight, I decided that I really like this shot. Kind of dreamy, with that out of focus factor and off-centered composition.

I teetered tonight on what to post, as I know many of you like my cowboy and western images but just as many of you tell me in e-mails that you like the floral shots. Thank you everyone! And please post on the comments here. It's like my guest book and means a lot to me to come visit my blog at the end of the day and see comments about my work. I haven't done much shooting these past few weeks, but have some projects in mind. I bought some peaches yesterday and will probably do something in the morning before I head off to work. Catch the nice light. Which reminds me, I probably should go rummage around in my kitchen cupboards for the right prop for the peaches. Which also reminds me, I still need to get to my storage units and find more props to shoot with.

Floral play

CREATIVE SPARK -- Blame it on Matthew McConaughey and Fool's Gold. I loved that show. Rented the DVD and my husband and I had a blast watching it. But the creative spark started tonight with a photo I shot in Fort Lauderdale, that is now my new blog banner. I added some textures to it and really like it. I may make this image my new self-promotion card (sounds like what it is...a business card). Then I decided to play with some of Joy St. Claire's textures on one of my recent flower shots. Actually, the creative spark began this afternoon as I surfed blogs and was inspired by so many talented photographers.
Not much else to write. I think storms are headed our way. I should be in bed, but then I would just lie there with a million things running through my head. So glad I have a Starbucks frap in the fridge for the morning.

Charlie and Ryan!

Definitely my favorite!





And Amanda, I love this shot of you! Keep that bright smile!

Thank you for letting me be a part of your special day! You are such a cute couple, OK< yesterday I said you were HOT! Charlie, your dress has got to be the most awesome dress I've ever had a chance to photograph! Love it! I've not even begun to wade through all the shots from the reception but here's some of my favorites! More to come and a slideshow this week sometime. Congratulations and I wish you both a long, happy life together!

Cowboy Claude

This post has been long overdue! Shame on me! I shot these photos of this fine cowboy last year following the Oklahoma Centennial's Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive, a 2008 historic 're-enactment' along the same trail pretty much as in the 1800s. The cowboys started out down by the Red River and I met up with this guy as they entered Stephens County (Duncan) Oklahoma. After the first week was over of the drive, I met with Claude and his family to do some portraits of him. So that is what some of these are. I'm still processing cattle drive photos, but these are being printed and I will be giving him a set. I'm only posting a few here, but he gets to see all the best from the portrait work.
I am working on a line of cards and a book, so if you are interested, please post and I will put you on my email mailing list so that when the book is ready, I can send you an e-mail announcement with details. Thanks!

sick. sirens went off.

brief points of this post: sick. tornado sirens. flowers. found a blog to read! photographs interspersed throughout. but you must read my entry!


not much fun being sick. started with a slight headache. morphed into what I thought was head cold, maybe some sinus/allergy issues. that was monday. by wednesday, I thought it would be the last of it. not so. worked extra long day in hopes of either working it out of my system or having everything done so I could slack off at work thursday. I got home, took nyqu-i-l and went to bed. been existing on spr-i-t-e and tea all week basically. some chicken noodle soup, til that was just too salty. (yes, the horrible boxed kind). hot holiday tea, for those wondering. yummy even when sick. thursday rolled in and I barely made it to work. got through deadline, and one hour and a half later, left, did the web check in from home with our fast med place here and by noon was in the office getting the ana-ly-sis. keep reading...

sinusitus. big time. i'm telling you my jaw felt like it was on fire, my head was about to rip open and my eyes hurt. got the z-pac and some other stuff. came home. went to bed, cold washcloth on head. as the day wore on and oddly enough, the dryline moved in, my head was literally exploding. at 9 p.m. in a deep sleep finally after taking tylenol extra strength and bawling like a baby..scared my family. they wanted to take me to the dr. (earlier that day) ... then 9 pm my husband comes in and quietly says, 'honey, they're sounding the sirens'...I sat up like a bolt of lightning (his words) and didn't hear a thing, beginning to think I'm dreaming. then it hit me, whoa, way too quiet, I mean like deathly quiet. now I'm hitting panic mode. I get up see the kids and granddaughter baby huddled in the hallway. I follow my husband outside then hear the sirens in the distance. for some reason ours wasn't working. drats. it was a week ago.
so I call the emergency services and find out it's straight line winds as I was so not with it enough to check the tv. then my oldest son calls and tells me the same. we're just suppose to stay inside away from windows. oddly enough, my headache is long gone. of course, the storm is HERE! well, it finally came but lucky for duncan again, it wasn't much. then I turn on the TV and see that the storm line extended from Iowa, into Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Now that's one long storm!
well, aside from that. haven't done much of anything but lay in bed.


had to drag self out to that mart to get some supplies. that wore me out. still don't feel a whole bunch better. tried to shoot some flower photos this a.m. I like them! shot a pic of my hot tea. pathetic, heh?

tonight, I covered the bed in a box of photos that were years overdue of being put in albums. oh, some were in albums once. took them out and never got them back in. now, don't confuse album work with scrapbook. don't do that much these days.
oh and this morning I got to read a few blogs...found a new one I LOVE ..dispatch from LA! beautiful, enjoyable. I felt like I got a trip overseas with her lovely yummy photographs!

Darling fairy princess!

Enjoy! You can find the fairy art pieces through Jessica Dittmer's Wish You Wells site. She designs custom pieces using her photographs of client's children and more. You can find the details at her site. Now, don't confuse my attempts for her artwork though. But just how cute is this! The second version without the flowers on the wall, a photographer friend said it looked like stained glass, how cool is that?!

Trust

Here's my inspirational image for Sunday. If you look closely in your surroundings, you can find something to photograph. It's there, you just have to look. Trust, it's a powerful word that evokes strong feelings. When that trust is broken, either with a careless remark or in other ways, it can sometimes be hard to rebuild it. But, if you have a forgiving nature, it's much easier. When I was little and even up into my early adult years, trust came easily for me. Then there were some years where trust just wasn't something I gave freely. I believed it had to be earned. Not necessarily a great trait. These days, I have different definitions of trust and different levels of trust. My family, I trust them without condition. Just as I love them.
Well, that's about all on that subject.
Now, turns out the two images below were not such a hit with my sister, grandma of S and A! I got them printed in metallic and they are fun, nothing fantastical. In fact, the online image looks much better than the print. I'm going to try it in a matte finish and see what I think.
And I'm working on some fabulous stuff for my etsy shop that I think will be a big hit! And trying to create a jillion different albums (so that's an exaggeration..hah!) but hopefully I can soon be done with the wedding ones. I'm learning total patience on one of the projects. And that's the way it should be. The album needs to be something the couple is totally happy with so it is taking longer then most. Well enjoy, surf the archives and please post!