Hi friends. Happy Friday. So glad to have made it thru this past week. My laptop came back from the shop only to have to go right back the very next day. Lovely! The rumor from Best Buy is that as of next week, I'll be going in to pick out a brand new one due to all of the trouble we've had. YAY! I just want a working laptop - that's all. My iphone went down this week too. I lost all of my contacts and phone #'s as well as over 400 photos from the past year alone. It's my fault. I knew better. As a photographer, I'm ashamed of myself for not having backed up those images like I would have on my computers. Bad Angie! Either way, Apple gave me a brand new phone so I'm starting over now. Please email me your phone # and email address if you are a close friend or family member. I lost everything and need to re-update them all.
Kross and I did a little "on the fly" photo shoot together the other morning. He is really turning into such a Ham. Now if I could just get Kenidi to cooperate in front of the camera anymore. I'm planning a shoot with her in the coming weeks but I'm still looking for the perfect ensemble and accessories for it. Stay tuned. I'm gonna remind that little princess of ours how she used to ROCK IT in front of the camera back in the day. Hopefully she will obey and cooperate with me for the session. Wish me luck. LOL!
I had a great time with my girlfriends who came in town from Indy this past weekend. They were here for four days and it couldn't have been more relaxing. I truly loved having them here with us. Such fun. I can't wait to get home to Indiana for those three weeks in July and August so that I can chill with all of my peeps again. I've missed them so very, very much!
On a side note, come take a peek at the photo shoot I did recently for the gorgeous Miss Lindsay. It was one of my favorite shoots to date. Here is a sneak peek...
To see the rest of my favorite images from her session, click HERE
Lastly, for my anonymous friend from Scarbourough/Ontario Canada who loves to drop by my blog and and spend all of her miserable life critiquing my spelling and grammar mistakes, see if you can unscramble this one... ISKS YM SAS!
Gotta' go repent now. Hope everyone has a STELLAR weekend! Love you all to bits!
It's 2:40am and I'm up - wide awake - with a 5 month old sound asleep on my lap, an almost 8 year old princess in the bed asleep with Daddy (keeping my spot warm for me) and a 12 year old in his bed, sick yet again. It's been a helldacious week here in our household and it doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Kross's face in the above photo gives way to the feelings were are spewing in our house these days.
Brennen was home sick on Monday. High fever and vomiting. He went back to school Tuesday feeling somewhat better. Tuesday afternoon while holding Kross on my tummy during my eye-brow arch at the salon (he likes sitting up on my belly when there), he rared backwards, arching his back and hyper-extending his arms as I clutched his little hands. He rared back with such a quick forceful movement that it immediately resulted in this God awful sound. I heard a POP! Not a good POP either. I knew right away what had happened. Two hours and several hundred dollars later, the doctor at the Emergency room had popped his elbow back into place like a pro. It took all of 2.2 seconds which is good considering how Kross was NOT happy about it. Can you blame him? They call it "nurses maid elbow" and I know it fondly because the same thing happened to Kenidi when she was a toddler. She was holding my hand as we stepped off a curb together. She pulled one of those "I'm gonna drop to the ground and make Mommy carry me" stunts as she was stepping off the said curb. By doing so, she went down and I was still holding her hand - which resulted in that same familiar POP. While at the ER with her that time, they told Brent and I it was very common in babies thru toddlers. I guess it happens a lot as their bones are growing and locking into place. The doc here in Naples told me the same thing when we were there with Kross on Tuesday. It was awful. This child never screams but that day - he whaled. I felt like the "suckiest" mom on the face of this earth. There goes my Mom of the year award. :(
Once his elbow was back in place, he was a happy camper again - instantly.
I wish I could say that our night got much better from there but it didn't. While in the ER with Kross, Brent calls to tell me that Kenidi's school had been trying to reach me at home. She was apparently in class vomiting. Needless to say, she came home sick. High fever just like with Brennen the day before. I was supposed to go out with my photography friends that evening but began questioning whether I should just stay home at that point. I got home and no sooner did I utter the words..."Boy I hope Kross doesn't get what you guys have" did little Mr. Kross himself puke all over me. I knew then that it was God's way of telling me..."STAY HOME ANGIE!" And so I did. I couldn't bare to leave Brent home fighting that fire with all three of them sick. I cuddled with my sweet babies and prayed that God would heal them both. Today was a better day for Kenidi. She seems to be on the up and up. Kross has some congestion and a runny nose but no more vomiting. However, que the 1:30am wake up from Brennen as he is making a mad dash to the bathroom because he is vomiting again. WHEW! I'm clueless as to what bug has taken over my kiddo's but I'm praying it exits our household FAST!
I have two of my girlfriends coming in from Indiana this morning. I pick them up at the airport at 9:30am. It's 3am now and I'm still wide eyed and awake. Go figure. It's the Mom in me that can't sleep. I keep going in to check on Brennen and make sure he's ok. Amongst the chaos this week, he's learning how to swallow pills for the first time ever. When he has a headache or has been ill in the past, we always gave him tylenol melt-a-ways. Well they've apparently taken those off the market now. It's no fun trying to co-erse a sick 12 year old to swallow tylenol pills while they are in the middle of being so ill. I tried all kinds of tricks. In the end, he broke them in half and chewed half of them on the way down. Gross!
I'm hopeful that the lysoling I've done and disinfecting I've embarked on will be good enough to rid our walls of the germs before my girlfriends arrive. I definitely don't want them (or me) getting sick too. No. no. no. Speaking of the sickies, my laptop is in the shop because it has the sickies too. It's been gone for a week now and I seriously feel like my right arm has been removed. It won't be back for another week to two weeks so I am basically going into convulsions as I wait on its return. Talk about torture. This is one of those times in life when you really find out what you're made of and how strong you really are. LOL! Just kidding! Ok maybe I'm not. :-) Either way, I need the next two weeks to cruise by so that my laptop can come back home to Mama realllllllll quick! I have photos similar to this one to edit...
Mama likes editing best on her laptop instead of my desk-top even though I realize it's a no-no. Since when have I ever been one to obey the rules anyhow?
For now, I'm off to snuggle with my boys while my princess is resting peacefully. I'm trying to be quiet so that I don't wake everyone but of course we always become a total klutz when we try to traipse thru our houses like mice. Don't we? You know, tripping over the sick 12 year olds shoes and backpack. Dropping silverware in the sink even though you tried to place it in there gently and ever so softly. Let's face it - being up and wondering around any house at 3am is never good for the additional occupants in your home. I'm thankful I have a fan club here and that they forgive me - a lot!
I had the special honor of photographing one of my B/P/F/F the other day. That stands for "Best Photography Friends Forever." It's a fun term that one of our other fellow photography friends coined for our group. This particular photography friend shown here today is one of two who came and photographed Kross's birth for me at the hospital when he was born. Megan is a dear friend, a sweet soul, with rockin' style, and an edge for creativity that is like no other. We share the same photography passion and therefore we have a bond that only few understand. LOL!
Meg is gorgeous and has a fabulous personality. I love how she constantly goes out of her way to welcome others and to make them feel like she has known them forever in their first meeting together. She has a great way of taking the edge off of situations where you'd typically be somewhat nervous. Love that!
Megan needed some professional head shots taken for her photography business. She wanted to use some of the shots within her website. I was honored and humbled when she asked me to do the session for her. Once reality set in though, I began to shake in my boots. I get nervous enough just photographing people who know nothing about photography at all let alone when it comes time to photograph a fellow photographer, a friend, a peer.
Needless to say...as the day drew closer to our shoot together, I got more and more nervous. When you photograph another photographer, they know what you are doing, why you are doing it, how it should look, etc. I wanted to make sure I found the perfect locations for what she was after and I wanted to make sure the pictures ROCKED for her.
Thankfully, Naples has lots of great nooks and crannies that went along with the theme of what Megan wanted. Because we live in paradise everyday, it wasn't hard to find some beautiful locations that were pleasing to the eye and sophisticated in appearance.
I took a ton of shots but these were some of my favorites that I quickly went thru and edited to share. Beautimous Meg! Beautimous!
It's such a priceless gift to have found friends here in Naples whom you can share your same passion, business, and so on with. We are able to bounce ideas off each other, share secrets of the trade, teach one another and learn from another. It's such a valuable relationship that all of us have and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Don't you just love Megan's blue hair??? There are only a select few people who could pull that look off in a classy way and she has done it.
The year round colors in Naples are nothing short of amazing. Everything is gorgeous in the back drops here. As much as I love color in photography, the scenery in Naples really helps add to that must have color that I always search for in my shots.
I had a blast shooting this session for Megan. Lots and lots of laughs were shared. I've got some FAB out-takes of her too. Good times! :)
Thanks for including me in this experience with you Megs! It meant the world to me. Really!
I hope some of the shots will work perfectly for your website project and the goal you were after.
Love ya to bits girl! Thanks for being such a dear friend to me. Hugs, Angie
A CUTE FEDORA & AN EVEN CUTER LITTLE BOY - NAPLES, FLORIDA CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER
Every once you a while, you get a client who gives you a challenge when it comes to collecting smiles during a session. With that said though, every once in a while when that happens, you can still make the best of shoot because said client is just so adorable that smiles don't even matter. This particular shoot recently played out just like that.
We met the family downtown for an urban grunge shoot and found the best stand alone building for our backdrop. It couldn't have been anymore perfect. Following those shots, we headed across the way to a perfect little alley that offered up some great lighting and shaded areas due to the taller downtown buildings. Little Z-man here was so cool and so adorable that him not wanting to smile didn't affect his images at all. In fact, he gave me a more RAD look to work with by not smiling. I love how these turned out given the lack of smiles. It's something about the awesome hair, big gorgeous eyes, pouty lips, hole in the jeans, and the rockin' skateboard that played a significant role in his overall look. Such a heart breaker already even though he's only a mere five years old.
If you have a little one that you'd like to embark on a fun urban grunge session with, feel free to contact me. I've recently located lots of cool new locations that I'm just dying to try out.
