New Look!

I've been working on a few things today. My web site is one of them. I love red and aqua, so that's what I went with for my splash page. I had it in pink, but not really a pink person, so red was better. While I liked the black background with the yellow, I just wanted something fresher, cleaner and like the simplicity of white. I also was torn with using the title of my blog in my cover or going with attitude.expression.laughter. Three words I put on my business cards a lot. Thoughts?!

I also updated my blog banner, something I do every few weeks, so that photo was also updated on my splash page. I had a photo of little MM from the car show, but decided to use a senior shot instead since that is where I am pushing my marketing these days. I feel like this morning has been productive. Rainy days will do that.
Now off to start another project -- well finish it really.

American Idol: Danny and Kris

All along I've voted for Danny .... and usually Allison or Adam. This time Danny and Kris got my votes. When I was little, I remember watching Sammy Davis Jr. on TV and enjoying his performances, even if some of it was over my head at the time. My mom, being a musician and having some ties to various parts of the industry, living in California during that era, Tuesday's show of American Idol dredged up some memories.
And Jamie Foxx is a great musician so it was neat to see he was a mentor this week. This was probably the first time that I just really really loved hearing Kris sing. He's a cute kid and has great vocals, but I've had a hard time going, hey, what a star ...until Tuesday! I hope that Allison stays in this week, but I bet Matt is on his way out. Allison is a cute kid with a great voice, but I think what is hurting her is she doesn't show off her personality on stage. She's a star and has a long future ahead of her, I bet.
I must say that I would have liked to have heard more upbeat tunes from these five and Danny really added the flavor at the end of his performance. I think he should have gone an octave lower through the entire piece.
Adam is always good and he'll get a deal. Usually I can make up my mind who I'd like to see win this, but I've got so many favorites this year I can't!

Little Mister B

I don't get a chance to post his photo often, but hope to remedy that as the next few months roll around. This one I posted on my flickr and was shot at the car show. He seemed to enjoy his time there! He has the cutest little guy smile even if he doesn't share it in this shot.

Running and playing

Now isn't that what it is all about?! We actually set out to shoot storm clouds and I spied this setting and the fun was on.
I haven't done black and white in awhile, and am glad I processed these like this. I love the timeless feel it lends.

and only the cutest kid around!





my booth at the car show! after all these years, I actually did a booth.

Cruisin' slideshow

It is long. I'm going to remix and make a shorter version, but enjoy this one! Let's just say there are a lot of cars.

Cruisin', Burnin' and Shootin'

They were cruisin and burnin' and I was shootin'!
These are my favorite shots from the evening. The flames were "just for me!" Thanks Mario and all from Barely Street Legal! You guys rock!
Tammy Johnson, wow-- your hard work paid off!!
Friday night fun on Main Street! It was awesome, but we only stayed an hour or so because we had to get home and get my photos ready for the car show today. It's nasty weather right now and I should be in bed but haven't got there yet. Alarm is set to go off in less than 4 hours. Cripes. But if the weather doesn't clear up, I won't be setting up a booth. So I'm hoping it does clear off because we've all put a lot of work into this.


Us being: me, creative photographer; husband, marketing manager and production supervisor; my kids, production crew; and mya -the best granddaughter in the world, Extraordinaire assistant and 'ahh'...car baby!
Seriously though, this is the first time I've had a booth to promote my photography and wow, it's work!

That ice cream scoop!

Could this mean the recession days are truly behind us?!!!
If you will remember a few days ago I wrote a quick post about an overpriced ice cream scoop. It attracted some attention and it has once again returned to the limelight (by the way, I'm home on lunch, very late, just ate some strawberry ice cream, so appropriate that I find a post on that ice cream entry)..
but, the anonymous commenter said the ice cream scoop SOLD!! So I went to check...sale is PENDING! Wow, good enough for me!!! So anonymous, if you bought it, I'd love to post a photo of you here with your new treasure! And of course, anxious to find out what makes a person buy such an item!!!!

See you at the car show!

Cruisin' The Chisholm Trail this weekend, yay! Friday night is the cruise on Main Street -- think "Car Parade" just cars, cars and more cars! from 6 to 11 p.m. HOw awesome is that!
The older cars are mostly just until 8 p.m. then the newer cars will join in...think young crowd, Fast and Furious! Then on Saturday, all day there will be lots of fun on Main Street, more than five blocks of activity and I'm going to have a photography booth there. I'm mostly just doing it for fun. I'm going to have some of my car art pics on display. I really didn't plan for this, so I won't have my albums on display or anything like that. Probably a few senior and wedding photos too.
Hope to see you there!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Here in Oklahoma it is a dreary day. Noon and it feels like a winter morning as gray as it is. It rained most of the night. That is a good thing being that fires popped back up again yesterday around Velma and pushed the smoke into Duncan. The lightning though was fierce. I was glad that I got M's photo shoot out of the way yesterday.

We hurried, which meant M's bangs were not bouncy since she just got out of the bath. Her bangs are never bouncy right after shampoo! And we've finally given up on bows. She doesn't like them. We'd put it in and she'd pull on it to take it out. So the bow photos are a bit lopsided.

She really wasn't into it, but her mom and I still had loads of fun. I always find the best places to photograph at and this was no exception. I did pick the wrong time of the day, but that was circumstances out of my control. When I noticed the smoke flaring up east of the city I knew we'd have to push it ahead a couple hours. So our original idea was put on the shelf for another day.


I've been wanting a photo of her on old brick steps and finally got it. I may reshoot it again this summer.




And I just love this one. So spring-like and you can tell she was beginning to have fun. That little hint of a smile and her plopped in the green grass just screams childhood memories!

Cruisin's only a week away!

Cruisin' the Chisholm Trail (A Duncan Main Street production) begins next Friday. Main Street will become a pit stop for car enthusiasts from around the region. Then on Saturday is the all day car show, music, vendors, just more than I can list. I'm even going to have a photography booth there. I've got some car photo art to show off and I am so looking forward to photographing new cars, meeting new people and just having fun. I'll post more, with links to the sites online for the event.
Back to bed now.

You're only a senior once!

Uh oh, did you forget to schedule a senior photo session? Now you are panicking knowing that you need some fresh wallets to put in your announcements! Guess what? There is still time. Yet each day that you put it off you lose the chance to capture who you are as an individual and senior just before that big graduation day!
Oh, so you took photos last summer or fall did you? Ummm...really, admit it ... you've grown and changed a lot since then. Do you really want your friends to remember you from back then?
OK< good, now that issue has been tackled...call me ... e-mail me, post a comment here ... something! Time for some fun! Weekends, every other Wednesday and some evenings are available.
Visit my website for a look at more fun senior photos! Click on the photo to the right at the top.

last minute seniors!

I've noticed that seniors around here tend to wait until April to get their photos done and then they want them like asap. well, it just so happens that I will have some available time to do location shoots in April and even May. If you are interested, just post a comment or shoot me an email. You might have to visit my site to use the contact page to do so (tonihopperphotography).
Remember also, April is windy. Last year I had a girl that had to reschedule three times in two weeks. She was from the city and even on the day of her shoot we wondered about the weather. That's Morgan above from last year. I freshened up the image for a repost in case you remember the original one from last year.
You just have to remember to have fun!

debated post

I enjoy watching various youtube videos ... photography, music, just misc. stuff in general. today I clicked on one for a duo. great voices. thought i'd like the clean look of the video, black and white. no. it was awful. it was chester french's 'she loves everybody'
What in the world are we teaching our younger society. that it's normal to get beat up? i'm really appalled at this video after the recent rihanna/chris brown incident and now we have the tables turned showing that it's okay for a girl to beat up a guy. look, it's not okay. violence is not okay. young girls should not be slugging guys and they also should not stay in a relationship where they are getting smacked around. music has the ability to offer such powerful messages and then to see young people exploited through their talents in such a negative manner just irritates me. oh and let's not forget the other more subliminal message this video sends. that it's OK to have sex with 'everybody' as long as he uses protection. whoa. and everybody was shocked to learn that oklahoma's teenage syphillis rates are soaring. no wonder. this is a post that could go on and on. i don't intend to do that. i think i made my point. parents, it's probably a good video to sit down and discuss with your kids. discussion being the key component here. listen to what they have to say about the video. are they taking it serious? hear their thoughts, don't make them just listen to you. a good relationship with your children, 8 or 15 is to let them talk. you might learn something about your child and you might help them keep from making mistakes as obvious as those in that video.

random thoughts at nearly 3 a.m.

saturday was beautiful. opened up all the windows and the warm air really was nice. besides ... after months of not being able to do that, it is good to let the place fill up with fresh air. got all the dust bunnies out from under the bed. love my hardwood floors. takes no time at all to clean. even did some windows.
used my george foreman grill to make some delicious next to no fat black angus burgers. yummy. and you know ...two different onions on your burger is delicious...sweet onions from georgia and mild onions from eaton, colorado. like i said - delicious.
i really should be going to bed. i'm being extremely lazy not using capitalization and all that jazz. it's a bit windy out now and some cold air is blowing .. yes, my windows are closed!
i found some old photos on disc and reloaded them to work them over. they were from 2005 and were never processed, just shot and put on a disc. i need to get them printed now. some were from a camping trip in arkansas and another set was the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks. That place is fantastic. If you can, take a day and go. Great outing for a family. My husband and I went one year after the OPA convention in Tulsa. I'm ready for another visit there.
you'd think i'd post a couple of those photos, but no, i'm posting one of a place i shot a few months ago. just a random shot ... like this post .. no direction or thought in mind at all.

How much is that ice cream scoop?!

I got to come home early today from work and it's a blustery day so I'm staying indoors. Not just blustery, downright, blow the trashcarts around and cold day! So the first thing I did is check my inbox and find Ruby Lane's newsletter (I love it more than ebay, though I don't really buy anything). And the first item, hold on to your bananas folks, was an ice cream scoop for $895. Yes, there is no typo here!
I am thinking I don't care if it has diamonds, it's a flipping scoop people and sorry, even if they said my grandma used it, I am not about to spend that kind of money on an ice cream scoop.
I don't care how 'rare' it is. And with today's recession?/depression, does anyone really think a scoop will sell for that amount? If YOU buy it, I want to know! Because I have a rare somethingornotherfillintheblanksballoon that I want to sell you....
Here's the link: http://www.rubylane.com:80/shops/oh/item/RL-599

Now, on to more fun things....found a photographer's site that I'm looking at a bit closer. I am not sure but I think she's a former Oklahoma girl that lives in Texas. I love her work and will probably add her to my blog roll to watch. That's for all you who live in Texas and need a great photographer. Her blog personality is spirited. In these times, it doesn't hurt to share with others your favorite photographer peers. Forget about being competitive.

There's going to be a lot of "newly-unemployed, I just got a camera and now I'm a photographer" types out there. And just as many will not make it six months much less years. If you are reading this and are one of those 'newly..xxx' people, spend the next year learning and building your portfolio. Don't automatically think you can pick up a camera and become a photographer overnight. It's hard work, tons of time and investment. It can become expensive really fast if you aren't careful.

Now, go get that camera and find something fun to shoot! Don't forget your family! They can be the best, most unwilling subjects and challenge that you will ever have. Hah...