Greetings, from the dark side....

Wow am I ever a slacker when it comes to blogging. Actually, I have been blogging but it's been on the LP blog, which you should check all the time because I've had tons of updates and news. It's my source of news, promos, slideshows and teaser pictures so consider it my main drag now adays.


Slideshow

Since I've posted last I've became an Ikea shopper, purchased a music license, shot 2 weddings, designed 3 albums, adopted a new logo (shown on the photos) signed up for Jan. 07 Bridal Fair in Chattanooga, gotten 2 visits from my out of town friend, Chad, celebrated Summer's 5th birthday, shot a few engagement shoots, and this lovely portrait shoot of Kendra, all the while helping tend to my broken Granny. (talk about a run on sentence!)

As you'll recall, my Grandma broke her knee while on one of her 3 trips to the movies in her whole 83 years of life. She's doing well, however, she's still not able to apply any pressure to the leg and given her already bad hips, makes it impossible for her to walk at all. She's sat in the same chair now for 4 weeks, with the exception of the few mins it takes to hop into her wheelchair and be carted to and from the bed. I'm sure the 'just sitting' is pure torture, and because of that she's been a bit on edge and enjoys the chance to remove the head of anyone who passes her way. Of course, if I hadn't moved in 4 weeks, I imagine I'd have killed some people by now, surely. Because of this Hell, she's been unable to go on her weekly trips to town, which mean no eating out and no buying of the secret stash of cookies and cakes; both of which are killing her. She's gotten to the point of becoming enraged with anyone who goes out and doesn't return with her a hamburger, even though she refuses to ask for one. As I've taken over the duties of shopping, the house is filled with no junk food of any kind and apparently wore her down, because yesterday on my trip to the store she actually asked for honey buns. Actually, she repeatedly mentioned it and even wrote it down & circled it on her list of things to get.

Ask anyone I've spoken to lately and they'll tell you that the one thing I can't shut up talking about is my music license. What the crap is that you ask? Well, until recently I didn't know myself, but I always knew I wanted one. Basically, it's a means of permission to use copyright music on my website and slideshow, meaning that in a few days you'll be able to hear the likes of Norah Jones & Michael Buble directly from my site!!! I'm insanely excited about it, of course it cost me out the nose but money well spent I believe. The site is only just now new and I'm already bored with it, it needs some spice and flare for sure!

Something else I'm totally stoked about is my recent trip to Ikea! I've loved Ikea for as long as I can remember and have been so looking forward to the opening of the Atlanta location for years now. (Why I didn't take my camera I'll never know!) Even though the store has been opened for months, I've just now gotten my chance to pay it a well over due visit. It's way more than I thought it would be for sure! A 15 acre vessel of home funishings and so much more. My reason for going was the search of office organizing supplies and filing solutions. I found that and tons more, I came away with the cutest stuff for Summer's bedroom, poor Logan got stiffed as usual. My friend Chad, who lives way up in po-dunk Shelbyville came down for the holiday weekend to go along with me. Even though he had no clue was Ikea was until I told him, he actually bought more stuff than I did... It goes to prove that Ikea is the bomb baby!

While he was down we went to see the Dead Man's Chest. I'll just go ahead and admit that I didn't really like the first one, even though I can't stop watching it for some reason, I think it's just because Orlando Bloom is pretty... Anywho - wow what a LONG movie, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep at one point. Comparing the 2, I think I liked the first one better. The second one, even though I know this is movie land and anything is possible, was so completely unbelievable that it ruined it for me. Even though I thought the design of the characters and the overall graphics of the film were awesome. Anywho, that's my Gene shallot option.

Summer had a birthday on the 28th of August. She's a whole 5 years old, which is insanely odd to think about. It seems only yesterday she was a baby and we were all wondering what she'd sound like when she talked and who she'd grow up to become. Now, she's in her first year of school, a member of the Wizards soccer team and talks like a grown-up. I gave her the option of getting something or going somewhere for her birthday. She picked the 'going somewhere' and choose to see 'Monster House' for the second time. For some reason, she LOVES that movie! It was the first movie I'd ever seen in 3-D. (yes I know, I'm dull and out of the loop, just shup) It was pretty stinkin cool I must say, if only Warner Bros had the good sense to put Harry Potter in 3-D :o) (by the way, the 5th movie is set to release in July of 2008)

-k

Trip to the Barnyard ended with the ER

My niece Summer has been throwing a fit to go see the movie Barnyard. So seeing as today was her last day of freedom before she starts school tomorrow, I decided to take her. For the first time since the original Bambi was released, my Grandmother decided to come along to the movies. I had a funny feeling it was because the movies were right next door to the Golden Corral though ;o)

Anywho, we saw the movie, which was pretty good, slightly predictable, a little low, but on with the story... When the lights came up and we started for the exit, Summer decided to just keep going down steps and not really realizing that she'd past the exit, my grandma followed. Well, said she didn't see the first step so she stepped without realizing she was going down and hurt her knee. She couldn't put any weight on it and seeing how the joint was empty, I had to get her from the rail by the wall to a chair without killing her or me. She said she'd thought she'd only sprained it and that she'd be alright in a few minutes. I went for the manager, an old lady called for her and said "some little boy here says his grandma bumped her leg." Which wasn't what I said at all, but I guess if you can mistake me for a "little boy" you could mis-hear a thing or two. Well there wasn't a wheelchair in the place and the only way to get her up would be to call the paramedics. When they arrived they told us that she actually hadn't sprained her knee, she had dislocated her kneecap. Needless to say, we went to the ER.

Once there, she was x-rayed only to find that her kneecap wasn't dislocated, she had actually broken her Tibia at the ball joint. Judging by what they saw on the x-ray, the area was already cracked, which is what has most likely caused her pain in her knee for the last year and she just didn't know it. She was fitted with a complete leg splint, sentenced to a wheelchair and told not to apply any pressure for at least 4 weeks and even then, very little. The break should take at least 8 weeks to heal and may require physical therapy afterward to regain mobility. The real fun began when we tried getting her into the car. On the way home we stopped and picked up a roast beef sandwich which apparently didn't settle well and made her sick to the point where she talked to ralph for a while, the poor thing. With zero use of her left leg and very little ability to support herself solely with her right leg, I'd say we could sure use a few bodybuilders to come help us out.

All in all, a horrible night. It's after midnight and I'm plum pooped and I still have to get ready for my trip to Atlanta tomorrow. I have a wedding interview and an engagement shoot, unless the rain decides to call it off.

New Site - New Style

The new Ledford Photography is now up and running. I couldn't be any more excited, I really hope it's as good as I think it is. All new photos, info and pricing... slideshows are coming soon. It's been a long wait and I've been talking about it forever, it's offically here so go check it out and be sure to let me know what you think! www.LedfordPhotography.com

Winning Loser!

What a stressful week this has been, and it's only Monday! I've had a tension headache now for a good week that won't go away, I'm sleeping about 4 hours a night trying to actually get something done because it's impossible to work during the day. I'm about as moody as a person gets, I've got this lovely credit agency calling me every single day wanting some money that I can't give her because I've reached the bottle of the bucket in my checking acct. It's been a hellova few weeks. I've been finishing my website, which by the way is DONE! Thank God! Because I couldn't take it anymore. I've been working with new album companies trying to get prices down for new albums, I've had all new packages to price and design. And did I forget to mention that my computer crapped out at the worse possible time and I had to spend a full day working on it! It's been one of the worse weeks ever.

On a brighter note, as I was typing this pitiful blog, the owner of 'The Rush' called me to say my name was drawn for a free membership. The Rush, by the way, is one of the best workout centers in Chattanooga and the membership fee is insanely high. Other than a CD, 1 free 20 oz coke (which I never claimed because I lost the cap) and a headphone cassette player (which I won when I was 3 at the skating ring for best halloween custume... I was a clown) this is the only thing I've really ever won. How insanely ironic is that, that while I'm 'itchin about my horrible life, I win something....

Life! Humhp...

This just in...

I now have an all new Ledford Photography studio blog. I know you're super excited about it and most likely want to go there now and have a look... so here ya go... http://ledfordphotography.blogspot.com/

More posts to come to the LP blog soon...

Hatred of HTML & a new love for 'babies'

I've spent the past few days working on nothing but my new site. I must say, it looks really nice but if I could figure out the stupid HTML coding i'd be finished by now! It's completely insane, purchase an expensive template from a company that designs for the top wedding photographers in the world because if you know anything about HTML, if you did you'd just build your own site from scratch, and then the template company makes you type in html code! Good grief!! I'm a tad frustrated as you may can see, & if I ever figure it out I'll let you know. I've got all the photos added, the main page finished and all I lack is the prices and info pages. I'm hoping to be finished in another day or two. After that it's back to album design and then more weddings in Aug.

Some promising news came last Thursday though, a pretty well known wedding planner contacting me because she was really impressed with my work and wants to recommend all the brides that come her way over in my direction. I'm pretty excited about it, she does nearly 80 weddings a year so she's pretty popular around these parts. I've spent a lot of time and money putting together some really impressive looking things to leave at her office for her to give to clients. I'm still working on it but it's a whole new image to my company and as soon as the site is finished I'll post more info on it for you to see. It's impressing me so surely it should turn a few other heads as well...

I ordered a new lens that should arrive on Tuesday. A lensbaby 2.0 for my Nikon, I'm pretty excited about it, I think it'll give a new spin on the same ole 'must-have' wedding pictures. If you have no clue what a lensbaby is then no worries, I'll post photos from it in a few days. A basic description of it would be a camera mounted slinky which looks nothing like a lens. I look forward to all the 'what's that' questions from my clients... should be a good time explaining it repeatedly.

til next time...

Tiny People Pictures

Shots of my neice Summer, taken last week. After all the training throughout the years, she's finally got the attitude of a model. After only 15 mins she was demanding a break, a bottled water & a better shooting location out of the sun! Drama, drama, drama...

WOW! It's been awhile!

I've been so busy that I've had absolutely no time to sleep, much less to update the blog. By having no time means that I've been a very busy girl. Most of my May weekends were booked along with tons of shoots during the week. Everyone of my weekends in June were booked with either one of my weddings or a major event and 1/2 of my July & August weekends are full. It's been a long haul getting to this point. I've hoped and dreamed for 'busy weekends' for years now and to actually have someone pay me to do this as a career. Now though, it seems that a busy weekend is a normal thing. I really hope it continues and it gets even busier and crazier as the months pass.

I've already booked dates for next year and with the new website going up this month, am hoping for more dates for the end of this year and next year. It seems that while I wasn't looking, I actually became a professional wedding photographer. Not only that but specializing in a style that is really rare in this city, making it all the more in demand. I can't actually say that I'm making money yet. I'm making bill money and a little extra for equipment so yes, I am making money... However the ole checking acct remains on zero at all times. Even though I've been doing this for years, I'm technically a 'new business.' It's only this year I've actually given this the time and effort it takes to make something happen. The clients I've had so far have already recommended other clients which are already out there talking about me.

I've got lots planned for the future, one of which includes some hard work with my 2nd co-owned company. My friend Ricki and I have joined forces to create a Savannah/Northern Florida based company called 'Shot on the Rocks Imaging.' Basically a company with packages that already include travel and all the bells and whisles + the added fact of a paid vacation. A slick move I thought....

Although I haven't the time to update daily, I am now going to make the effort to update weekly. So, the 3 people who actually read this will now have a reason to live, or to shoot themselves, depending on how you look at it...

Bright & Sunny Gloomy Day

Wow am I ever sleepy today. Because I'm so far behind in my work I'm working at Panera today and wow am I ever sick of this place. It seems I live here, the mere smell is now enough to make me sick. At least it doesn't smell like burnt onions the way it did the last time I was here. I'm really looking forward to having a house of my own one of these days, or should I say, an office/house. It's impossible to work with little kids beating on the door screaming and the sounds of shouting people trying to control them.

For lunch today I ate at this little Chinese buffet across the street, mainly against my will, but at the time I agreed it wasn't sounding all that bad. Well as soon as I saw it I got sick, then I ate some of it and I really got sick. So now I'm sitting sick at Panera smelling what seems to be potato soup, wishing I could take a nap. Good lord is this ever a gripping blog, on the other hand, I may have pms so you should like it and expect more!

Talk about a sunset, all I could see were purples and reds...

If you don't know, I was singing Rascal Flatts. If you have a brain at all, I highly recommend the new Rascal Flatts CD. I bought it the day it was released and it hasn't come out of my CD player since! Bar none the best CD they've ever done and the best CD I've heard by anyone in a really long time. (If you are Rascal Flatts or are associated with them or Lyric Street Records, please note that I do accept checks, money orders, cashiers checks and paypal. Pony up the dough boys!)

I LOVE this picture! Actually at first look I wasn't that crazy about it, but the more I look at it the more I love it. I'm also in love with my handy dandy new remote trigger release, which allowed for this tack sharp image. :o) Thanks little plastic thing!

As it seems, I have far to much to do than anyone should have the duty to do. I have tons of editing and design work that has got to be finished early this week. I'm entering what is by far the busiest week I've ever had since the creation of Ledford Photography, and it seems, I'll only have a short time to complete editing of it before the craziest month I've ever had begins! Just thinking about it, I need some caffeine! I'm busy and I may complain but really I'm enjoying this. I've talked about making this happen for so long, at some point I went from doing nothing to being too busy to realize I wasn't doing nothing. It appears my business is a business and by just having that happen has proven a few dozen people wrong.

A pretty cool feeling I must say!

A 1940's Carnival Ride

I LOVE this picture. This is Lake Winnie of course, I love it, makes me think of a 1940's picture of an old carnival. I'm also loving this tinting, which I've been using like crazy here lately. What's more is I have it set up on a F key command so it's basically no work to do! You can't bet that!

I spent the whole day editing pictures which is what my next 2 days will consist of as well. This coming week is going to be insane. In a 4 day span I have 9 shoots to do! Just the mere thought stresses me out to tell you the truth about it! My 1st Bat Mitzvah is coming up this week, I'm excited and scared all at the same time. I hope and pray it comes off the best I can get it done. If so I can see a lot more jobs coming in from this one. I'm also dangerously close to FINALLY finishing the baby book I've been working on now for a few weeks. For the first time ever, I've developed a complete block. Usually I can think about the images, get an idea for a theme and soon a whole book is done in the matter of a day or two. This one has been tough however, it's of Brooklynn's baby photos along with the maternity stuff I shot before her arrival. I've put so much pressure on myself to make this book the best thing ever that I've totally lost my focus and creativity. I'm nearing the end finally so keep your fingers crossed that it all flows together when it's finished. I feel really bad that it's taken me this long, and it's not from being slack either, I spent a good 3 or 4 days just staring at her pictures without getting anything done, just hoping a idea would come to me.

A real bummer for this weekend - I was planning on going up to Nashville for a few days. I had a few shoots to do up there, one of which was at Creekwood Gardens and I was so excited about getting some really great stuff in the Tulip field they have. The weather wasn't looking so great and it had called for rain on Saturday and Sunday all week, including yesterday. So I cancel the shoots and the trip only to wake up this morning to sunny skies in Nashville until late Sunday night! My Tulips will be long gone before I have another chance to head up there. I've got 1 weekend free at the end of May and not another one until July! A major disappointment, those photos would've looked so great on my new website!

Happy Burfday to me...

Aw yes, the blessed day I arrived on this planet, a mere twenty something years ago, this very day! What a great birthday - I slept late and when I woke up everyone was gone so I had the whole house to myself for a few hours. I laid around and watched movies all afternoon with Summer and we ate chocolate while we watched Willy Wonka. At 6 I had an shoot, which I was really excited about too! Usually that never happens and usually when it does there are no people involved. I took some pictures of my friend Hollie and her pretty husband Zack, whom I only just met today. We've been meaning to do some pictures for years now and have never gotten around to until today. I'm pretty happy with the results though. It wasn't everything that I wanted but it'll do. The place where we shot them closed at 8 pm on a Friday night! I was thinking more like 10! So we went to plan B and shot a few things in downtown. Afterwards I was treated to a b-day dinner. (Thanks for that guys, it was great!)

All in all - maybe one of my best birthday's ever!

Near death experience, kinda....

Tonight my friends Ricki & Erika took me out to dinner at Mellow Mushroom to celebrate me getting older tomorrow. ( Thanks ladies, I had a great time!) Had it not been for the shoot I have tomorrow night I would be talking to you from a hotel room in Atlanta with a belly full of Melting Pot. Be that as it may, I settled for hummus, pizza and a little bit of night shooting in downtown.

A few months ago I was out shooting in downtown and got some really cool stuff up on the roof of a parking garage deck. Seeing as it's now Summer time and the tourist are flocking to our city, a lot more lights are lit up in the downtown area now than they had when I first ventured up on the roof. Ricki, Erika and I drove up to the rooftop and with our tripods and my newly purchased remote trigger release & took a few shots of the cityscape.

As we were shooting we saw lights from a car driving up the ramp to the roof. It was an old beat up car, something like a murdering looney would drive. The car pulls up to the back of mine and stops. Ricki & Erika were actually inside the car and I was shooting some street stuff on the other side of the roof. I had left the back hatch of my SUV wide open so a locked door would've been pretty pointless. With no weapon available I decided to unattached my camera and prepare to go in swinging with my nearly new tripod, which I've really come to love over these past few months. From where I was standing all I could see was the creepy car and hear a guy yelling something that I couldn't make out. Luckily the car pulled away and I didn't have to injury my tripod... opps, I mean luckily Ricki and Erika weren't killed.

Turns out it was the parking attendant informing us that we shouldn't be up there that late at night. GEE THANKS BUDDY, YOU SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF US! Anywho, we were done anyway, so we packed our things and left. He had hung back on the 4th floor to see if we were leaving, or he was planning to come back and kill us, either way, my point is that he wasn't at the gate when we left so our parking was free! Seeing as it's my birthday and the fact that we could've died, I opted for strawberry cheesecake from Taco Mac. The desert actually took longer to get than our pizza but it was well worth it, they have the best cheesecake ever! Had we had someone else joining us, it would've been a scene ripped right from the Golden Girls! (Which by the way, the 5th season is coming out in a few days, feel free to get it for me as a late b-day present!)

Up and Gone - Minus our Cameras

My friend Chad invited me and whoever else I could talking into going, up to Nashville for the CMT Awards Pre-Party today. I had basically talked myself out of going when Ricki signed on yahoo.... Well, long story short, within 10 mins of making up our minds to go, she had called her daughter's school and checked her out for the day and we were all on the road to Ringgold to meet up for our trip. I admit I only half listen to what people say so I assumed that the pre-party was in the Arena in Nashville. Thinking it was in the arena I didn't take my camera because I knew they wouldn't allow a pro camera in a concert. Skipping ahead 2 hours or so when we arrive in Nashville, Chad had to make a 'quick stop' at a radio station on music row to pick up a box of goodies. Our quick stop resulted in me spending more time on music row than in the whole time I lived in Nashville! Granted we had a great time driving around in circles. Weeeee

Side note: If you've never been to music row it's actually a shocker to see. You think of all these huge record labels and the places where music is make and you think big huge buildings... a nice area, right? Well, my friends, music row is made up of a few streets of old houses that are now used as the major dwellings of the top notch labels, publishing houses and studios in 'Music City.' While driving around the area, be sure to roll down your window, if any street ever smelled like money it would have to be that one!

Back to the point, located on the edge of music row is Belmont University. Belmont is the 'who's who' of music industry students and because it's located on the edge of the row, it's full of every opportunity you can imagine, granted it's at a large price, but still. Well we drive away from music row and head to the pre-party, which is in fact on the street at the corner of Broadway and 2nd Ave in downtown. We exit the car and nearly every person in site is holding a big camera with long zoom lenses... Just like the ones we DIDN'T BRING! Yeah I really need to start paying more attention when people talk. Naturally I have no blog photos of the day and I really missed out on some great shots too. Please direct your attention to the illustrated drawing I so lovingly created just for your view pleasure, it's an amazing accurate portrait of the talent we witnessed on our trip. We saw Little Big Town perform among other people I can't remember the name of but the highlight was seeing Cooter with the General Lee. Back in the day boy I would've been all about meeting Cooter... I was a tad crazy about the Duke's of Hazzard.

We left the pre-party and walked down the street towards the arena to scope out the ticket situation only to find that the show wasn't at the arena like I had assumed, it was at Belmont University!! The very place we just came from! It's true, I'm retarded...

Oh well, we had fun anyway, (Thanks Chad, for the tickets!) but next time I'm bringing a camera!

How do you know you've reached the big time?

When a photograph you've taken is tattooed on someone's back! Okay so it's a bit unusual but sweet all the same. Remember a few months ago I did a shoot with Morgan, a little girl around 18 months with blonde hair & blue eyes. Well her dad liked them so much he had one tattooed on his back. I admit that seeing photographs you've taken blown up, framed and hung all over someone's house is always a thrill but I never thought I'd be perminately inked! I told the little girl's Grandma that if I had known he was going to do that I would've tried harder! I just laughed and laughed.... she on the other hand just looked at me funny. HAHA - Oh Well I thought it was funny anyway. :o)

Let the good times roll...

Two times the good times! I've started an offical Ledford Photography blog. It's a work in progress and it hasn't been posted for public release just yet on the site but eventually you'll see it up and running. Here's a peek before it's posted for client view: http://ledfordphotography.blogspot.com/

It'll be customized to match the new theme of the site, which by the way, is going to be awesome! It'll be a few months yet before it's finished, my goal is to have it up by sometime in June. My smugmug site will also change faces to match. I'm really looking forward to it! Anything beats the site I have now!

How sweet is that!

Wow have I been busy! Baby shoots, bridal shoots and engagements. I'm playing catch up now with all the editing and book design. I've also started on a new website layout. This one is from a professional designer, let's just say you'll be shocked! :o)

I returned to do Brooklynn's 3 month portraits. This time we did super natural stuff. Mostly just laying on the bed with mom & dad. Some very sweet moments, as you can see here. I'm really loving these baby shoots, I hope the new advertising that I've got in the works will lead to a lot more.

LOST & LOSING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so I might be a little heated! Do you watch 'LOST'? Who the CRAP do those 'LOST' people think they are!!! Good grief, I've watched this show from the very beginning and I've seen ever show they've ever done. Then tonight we find out that this whole island might not be anything more than a crazy man's mind game. Granted the person who writes this show is an evil genious but I really wish I didnt watch it. I can't NOT watch it now, I'm in the crowd who must know who "the others" really are and just what happens when the 108 mins runs out. The 'guest' in the hatch now says he DIDNT push the code. Then again he lied about his name, life, family, arrival, etc etc... Just who do you trust here!! Good grief it might have been the best and worse episode ever. We're even MORE CONFUSED than we've ever been. You know if Hurley really had jumped the cliff and magically awoke the world of 'LOST' fans would've been the happiest/maddest people on the planet!!!! I'm pretty sure wars have been started over less reasons!! THE PURE MADNESS OF IT ALL, OH THE NERVE, THE HUMANITY! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Out with the old...

I have just realized that I'm nearly out of business cards. I'm not complaining by no means, if only people actually used them for dialing my phone number more often. I've been working on some new designs, I tend to get bored pretty easy so I didn't want to go with the same ones I had. I'm really not sure if I like this one or not, I go back and forth between yes and no. I think it needs something, I just don't know what, any thoughts?

Colorfide Country Time

You can't tell so much on this web image but I had a good ole time changing the coloring on this image. I took this a few weeks ago when I rode out to Lookout Mtn with my Grandma & Mom to put some flowers on some family member's graves. I thought we'd go riding afterwards so I drove down the back road of Lookout and through Rising Fawn. My grandparents lived there way back in the day when their kids were little. My grandma hadn't been there in a really long time and some of the roads we went down she'd never been through. We had a good old time, I really enjoy getting out riding the roads in the middle of nowhere. It's weird, when I was a kid I hated to do things like that but now I just strike off down roads I've never been on before just to see where they go. I've found some really cool stuff before though so it's all worth it in the end.

I can't believe that it's April Fool's day and I didn't play a single joke on anybody. How sad is that! I've never been one for really good April Fool's Day jokes anyway so I guess it's best to just give up. I remember the only one I ever played that made any sense was on my grandpa. We were in the woods cutting wood, well actually he was cutting I was watching, anyway I started screaming and told him I saw a snake by his foot. I was expecting him to yell or at least jump backwards, instead he just said to make sure it didn't crawl up his leg. I kind of lost all hope after that... what a shame.

Cleaning frenzy of a Mad Crazy Woman

If you know me at all you know that I'm a pack rat, a clutter freak and maybe the most unorganized person to ever roam this earth. It's weird that I am this way because I absolutely hate clutter and I love anything that's clean beyond reason. I'm thinking it all comes down to laziness and an unknown need to fail myself. I can never find anything because nothing I own actually has a "place of it's own." Even when I lived alone my life was still one big ball of clutter and dust.

Every once in a while I get the cleaning bug and go completely insane. Yesterday I cleaned my whole room. By that I mean, I actually removed the bed & shelves and dusted, vacuumed and washed everything in site. It was actually sick all the gunk I clean out of my A/C and from the running boards along my wall. It's really no wonder I have severe allergies judging by the state of things.

Time ran out on my cleaning day before I had the chance to go through everything I own and fire up my eBay account. It's actually amazing how much junk I own that I know I will never ever use but won't throw away because "someday I'll eBay that." I have a whole corner of my bedroom dedicated to junk for eBay and a whole back room full of stuff that really needs to be sold. If I worked form dawn til dust for the next 2 weeks I would still have a load of stuff that needs to get gone.

I've written out a list with everything that needs to be eBayed on it so that I can actually see how big of a slacker I am. I'm going to start photographing and listing today and vow not to stop until it's all gone. Surely the money alone will be a big enough motivator to get me really going but if not I have all my adoring fans to rag on me when I fail...

Bookin' It!

I've been working on little baby Brooklynn's album and I seem to be getting some really cute stuff. It's a very slow process thus far because I keep going back and changing things I've already done. When I'm done though I hope this ends up being the cutest book I've ever done so far. I'd like to have a good many extras printed and advertise like crazy with them. I really like doing little baby pictures, no matter what the picture looks like you can't get a "bad picture" of a baby.
You have to love it no matter what! Plus you get that new baby smell happening so I'm okay with that. I don't intend on having kids so I'll just live through everyone else's. :o)

An editing fool...

I've been helping my friend Ricki edit some of her wedding images. This one I shot and for lack of better blog material I thought I'd share it with you. Usually I'm all against yellow overkill in my pictures but for some reason I'm liking it in these. Maybe it's the warm sweetness it creates or maybe it's the 1800 images I've edited finally getting to me.

Speaking of tiny hats, I've been seriously considering going back to school for web design. I've spent the past few months looking into getting a new website but I haven't been able to find anything under $3000 for what I need, which sadly isn't much. I can't even imagine what it would cost if I wanted something creative with a little "wow." I'll keep you posted on if I bite the bullet and do it or not.

Stacked High

My to-do list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. Althrough I have been spending most of my evenings sitting on the porch swinging with the beat of the music blasting from my headphones. I guess I should slack off on that a bit huh! I have a 60 page book to finish that should've been 1/2 way done weeks ago and I havent even started on any of it yet. I have a 25 page signature guest album to build for one of my future weddings, personal invitation cards to design, a 1/4 page ad to design and get to the publisher and countless other things I can't even remember. It makes me wonder why I'm sitting here writing to you with all this work to be done...

Such a view...

Our March trip to Atlanta to shoot a wedding lead us here to this garden in the middle of these huge buildings. It was a really pretty place to shoot. The night before the wedding Ricki and I drove over to check it out and see what we were in for this time. This was actually a tough place to shoot, it had so many beautiful spots that it was hard to decide. That has never been the case before, usually we're panicking because the wedding is at a big ugly Church in the middle of a cemetery or something.

Upbeat with a little bass please...

A hand held, low light, in focus shot of the speakers blasting during a reception at a recent wedding. If you look closely you can see the speaker drum pounding in it's box. During the crazy times during a reception it's also a good time to get something creative that has nothing to do with the wedding or the people in it. :o)

The more I live the more I learn that the 80's disco wasn't just a mistake, people actually like that music. Usually those who tell you they hate it are the ones who secretly hide in the closet at home and blast it on their headphones. I on the other hand am one who truly does not like it, at all and refuse to even give the chance those who proudly love it say to devote. My friend Rachel, who I already knew was out of her mind, announced during our long voyage south that she too had crossed to the dark side and then proceeded to insert such a thing into my CD player. The player hasn't really recovered yet and often times skips during a song I love as punishment...

Against the Wind...

I love the yahoo launch cast "Classic Rock" station. There's nothing like spending a day relaxing in silence with a little Bob Segar playing in the background. However, it does makes me want to watch Forest Gump... :o)

I've assigned myself daily assignments to complete, as if I had a boss who had to have these things finished by a certain time. Hopefully this method works better than the "I'll do it later" attitude I currently have, I'll keep you posted. I have so much to do and no time to not be doing something but the urge to do nothing is always greater, therefore I never have a shorter to do list.
Depending on how you look at it, you could say I'm just slack to conserve the ink in my pen that it would take to mark something out! :o)

Fairy land right dab in the middle of Atlanta

I helped Ricki with a wedding in Atlanta a few weekends ago. Atlanta weddings are always interesting, I've never been to a bad one yet.
This one was on exit 29 off 285E and the location of the photos was absolutely awesome. In the middle of a concrete sea, between huge sky scrapers, lived this beautiful garden with a creek, flowers, bridges, green green grass, fountains and lovely little benches. It's hard to imagine that something like that would've been in the location it was but it really seems to work. The buildings surrounding it really aided in it's beauty because they were so massive and so many that they completely blocked out the rest of the world. I highly recommend that if you're planning a wedding near Atlanta that you really consider shelling out the $100.00 it costs to rent this location for 2 hours!

A big old Happy Birthday to Chrisi, Rachel & Rachel's dad whom I don't really know that well but from the 11,000 times I've been told could pin point his house from a shuttle in space. :o) Have a good one, you bunch of old people. HAHAHA HOHOHO HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

How much is that tiny hat?

So, why don't I live at the beach? I really do love to watch the waves of the ocean crash on shore. I wouldn't mind another free trip to the beach if anyone wants to take me or just send the funds for me to go by myself, that's cool too! :o)

My new "thing" I've decided to make my "new thing" is working the words "tiny hats" into any conversation as much as possible. So far I'm doing a far job of annoying anyone I meet with it but I do feel it could be turned up a notch, for effect and all. Such as... Start off by telling something about your ingrown toe nail and then towards the end of your story, tell them that if it weren't for your tiny hat you would've really missed the prom.. and then walk away leaving them with a blank stare and a mind of "huh's."

Blinded by the light-ening fast speed of the internet

I'm really loving this faster internet connection I have, which I no I've said before but I feel in order to get my point across I should repeat it a few times.

I have just discovered that Logan's Roadhouse has the best grilled shrimp on the face of the earth and if you have half a mind you'll run out and get some now.

Rodney Carrington sure is funny isn't he! I just heard his "Nut Shack" CD and I laughed until I nearly swallowed by tongue. I haven't laughed that hard at an auto-person since Ellen Degenres' "and the funny thing is..." CD, which you should already own, by the way, so if you don't you should log onto amazon.com right now.

Swinging Aqua Blue Reflections

I recently found out that the reason everyone in my area is stupid is indeed the fault of the teaches we had in elementary school. When I was a kid I remember my teacher, who name escapes me, taught us that anytime you put the words "no" & "one" together that you should change the spelling to "knowone." Which I've been doing all my life and not until a few weeks ago did I figure out that was wrong. It makes me wonder just what other things we were taught in school are complete rubbish! (Pardon the "rubbish" talk, I've been watching a lot of movies with English actors.)

At a local cabin resort you can find this small swinging bride hanging over the bluest lake I've ever seen. Just want makes a lake blue? Is it the type of rocks in the soil? I've also always wondered about the first person to ever eat an egg. Do you think they just saw one fall out of a chicken's butt one day and thought... "Hey, lets eat that!" Do they have books on this kinda of stuff or what!?!?!

Lazy Days of Spring Time

Wow, its amazing how much of "nothing" one person can do! It's spring time, the best time of the whole year. Everything is in bloom and you would think someone who photographs things for a living would be outside taking advantage of such a beautiful day, right!?!?! Well, not me. Nope, I'm in side, updating a blog that's nearly a month behind and fighting away heavy eyes.

Do you remember when you were in school, you'd be sitting in class in the one desk that the sun was shining on. The heat of the sun coming through the window and the hush of the room surrounding you. Your eyes would grow heavy, you'd have this sort of a tingle all over and your brain would completely shut down to the state of numbness. The perfect conditions of a nap, right? I use to think, "boy I wish I could take a nap right now, when I get old enough to be out of school I'm going to take naps all the time!" Well of course you grow up and you never take naps, for some reason. What a shame really, that you completely loose all sense of sanity with age!