Abbott Visit

My sister-in-law Lisa and her youngest daughter Megan are in town visiting from Indianapolis.  This weekend Dave's brother John is coming up with their eldest daughter for the long, holiday weekend.  We love spending time with the four of them and just wish they lived closer so we could see them more often.


Lisa and I made our yearly pilgrimage to Birch Run yesterday to shop at the outlet mall.  I went a little overboard as I oft will do.  Give me Loft and Banana Republic and I'm a happy girl (especially when there's great sales, too).  We took Grace with us, which actually went really well.  Grace is going to be quite a shopper, I think. Every time I turned around she was trying something else on, be it  high-heeled strappy sandals, a dress, or earrings and a bracelet.  I just hope we didn't leave with any un-paid merchandise.

Meg and Grace

Meg has been zipping all around on her new electric scooter

Looking forward to a (hopefully) relaxing holiday weekend, full of family, friends and fireworks.

Busy Weekend

I've been going back and forth on what to call my photography business.  I have finally decided on 'Photography by Krysha' (probably the wrong use of the single quote. I struggle with correct punctuation). After making the decision, I'm already second-guessing, but that's just my nature--to decide on something and then quickly grow to hate it.   It would have happened with any name I chose.  That's just me.

A friend has already started working on my website, which will be photographybykrysha.com.  I'm really excited (and nervous) to see how it turns out.   I need to, in the coming weeks, start working on a logo (thanks, Lisa!) and form an LLC. But more than anything, I need to get organized and turn our office into a professional and clean space to meet with clients.  This will be my greatest challenge.  It's such a mess right now.

Although I don't have any other clients scheduled as of now, I had a busy weekend of photo sessions.  Because of the lousy weather during the week, I ended up doing two of them on Saturday.  It turned out to be a beautiful day--not too hot; perfect for photos at Dow Gardens. 

I've realized a couple things that I really need to work on--posing and telling people what they need to do.  I also screwed up my camera setting and left my ISO up too high with my family session.  I'm praying that the prints don't look too noisy.

Despite all these issues (and the fact that I left my last session with a horrible migraine that almost made me lose it during the car ride home), I'm excited to start this business and see what happens.  I don't think I'll make much money doing it, but if I can contribute a little bit to our finances, and pay for some new photography equipment, that will be worth it to me!

Here are some of my favorites from this weekend:

 Our friends, Greg and Eileen, and their little boy, Samuel

 

The Wells family, our friends from church

The One

I've been renting lenses lately.  I'm currently on my second lens, and I think it's a keeper (if only I had $2500 to spare).  I rented it for a family shoot I have tomorrow night.  They have three boys, so I knew I would need a telephoto lens to capture the kids in their element without being all up in their mix like I have to be with my 50mm.  The one drawback (besides the price-tag) is its weight, which does make it a bit harder to maneuver.  The image stabilization on this lens is UNreal...I shot some photos at a shutter speed of 1/25 of a second and they were sharp as can be.  On my lens, the same photos would have been a blurry mess. 

Some photos from the week:

 Grace was excited to try out these

hand-me-down soccer cleats from Hayden

 I see some goals in her future

Fortunately, Hayden has two sisters and is a good sport

What I thought were weeds are flowering!

zoomed dragonfly

Lettuce in our garden

Love these little feet

Sorry, the buffet is closed!

A new umbrella from Aunt Deb

A preparing-myself-for-tomorrow trip to Dow Gardens

Always a lady

Shutter speed 1/25...Crazy!

 Some props from ebay--my new favorite thing

Grace with Emma, another new friend who just moved in

Emma has a kitty

And kittens! 

I Heart Faces--Let's Hear It For The Boys!

Jeremy and Kim, friends of ours from our small group at church, have three of the cutest boys around.  Tomorrow I get to take their photos at Dow Gardens.  I'm a bit nervous.  There's no controlling three boys, all under six years of age.  Hopefully we can all have fun and get some cute shots at the same time.  Lord help me!

This photo is of their youngest a couple of weeks ago at a mutual friend's birthday party.  Isn't he just too adorable? Thought it was perfect for the I Heart Faces challenge this week...

Dad's Day, 2011

I really dropped the ball on Father's Day this year.  No gifts.  No especially kind gestures.  Just my old, grouchy self.  Hopefully both Dave and my Dad know just how much I love them, and that they are both great fathers.

Dave spent the first part of his day painting our dining room.  (Neither one of us really loves the color, so we'll see what another coat brings).   The remainder of the day we spent with my parents, grilling and taking our first boat ride of the season.  Grace had an absolute blast on the boat this year.  I don't think it will be long before she'll want to go for that first swim, too.

They're back...

Well, I guess they never really went away.  We've had lots of frog and snake sightings lately.  Much to my dismay, Grace loves the snakes and picks them up whenever she can catch one.  It's absolutely horrifying to me.  When I was taking these photos, she was chasing me around, garder snake in-hand, laughing at my screams of terror.  I'm already having fears she will sneak one inside eventually.  I can't even stand the thought...

This one is starting to grow on me

Trying to catch the snake

Ew.

I Heart Faces--Bright & Vivid

Maybe not award winning calliber, but pretty darn cute in my book...

Megan & Matt's Session

I met my cousin Megan and her boyfriend Matt out at Dow Gardens last night for a photo shoot. They were so easy to photograph, I really didn't have to give much direction at all.  We had lots of laughs along the way, and left with some really cute captures.

A few of my favorites: