This sweet baby girl is 4 weeks old and weighs in at a whopping 5 lbs. She was born 8 weeks early, so I thought I would give it a go with the posing. It wasn’t very popular. She had her positions and she wasn’t about to give them up just for a portrait. She still did pretty well. She loved the Studio Baby bean bag poser and slept like a champ.
So as I mentioned…we got a little snow the other day. A little bit of about 11 inches.. Yikes. It was nice to finally NOT have to go to work on a snowy day like that. I spent the day chilling out, watching some movies, reading a book, made a pot of soup. I did manage to get a few snow pictures while at the Nicholas Conservatory. Outside that is….
This bench outside the conservatory shows the amount of snow. I think this looks like more than 11 inches but there could have been some drifting. It was pretty windy.
and this!!! I never knew this statue was down at Sinnissippi. I love it. And of course, what else does one do on a snow day but enjoy it with a good book!!
I am not a winter person.I absolutely hate the snow. It’s no secret. Hate it. I mean let’s face it, snow is cold and wet and even a newborn baby knows that cold and wet is not good. Somewhere along the way we’ve lost that basic instinct. Oh sure, its pretty. Most of the time. Well those past few weeks we’ve been bombed with snow in Northern Illinois. Yesterday we got hit with 11 inches. YUCK. I had the day off of work yesterday and was not on call so I stayed in, caught up on my tv and movies, read a book. All the wonderful things one does on a Snow Day. I woke up this morning with the worst case of Spring Fever. I wanted to see grass, and leafy trees and flowers. I wanted to hear birds singing and lawn mowers roaring. I want to open my windows and air out the place. Since I had the day off of work, I decided to take a trip across the bridge to the Nicholas Conservatory. A few years ago they tore down the old Sinnissippi Greenhouse and replaced it with this monstrous glass art sculpture of a building. I miss that old greenhouse. It was run down and quaint and full of charm. AND..it was free. Not so the conservatory. $6 admission and while it was nice and I did get some great shots, I wasn’t very impressed overall. Not a single turtle. No birds. I hope they have plans to bring these back. They were part of the charm. I did get a brief whiff of spring though so mission accomplished I suppose. And some great shots as well……
And probably my very favorite shot from the day. Looks like I wasn’t the only one out in search of a little spring. Hang in there…Spring is definitely on it’s way little buddy.
Things got crazy again for awhile. Some things happened that have forced me to reexamine my life and as always, open new doors. In September of last year, I lost my full time job of 22 years. It’s probably the catalyst I needed to push this photography thing into full gear. Unfortunately, I am just starting out and not going to make a living at it just yet. So, I got a part time job at the hospital that started out with full time hours. So, not really making a big push on the business just yet. It’s slowing down and come spring I think I can focus a lot more attention on that. I’ve done a few shoots though. One of my cousin’s beautiful 6 year old daughter, Rylee.
This picture was submitted and used on Smashbox.com’s live Hollywood Blvd billboard. Rylee’s (and my) Hollywood debut…..
Had a great shoot last weekend with my niece and nephew. Thought I would do some portraits up for my brother. He is a big 49ers fan….
I was wondering how Little D. would do sitting for portraits because he was a challenge the last time. He took to it like a pro tho. I expected no less. He was having a blast sneaking into his sisters shots, or running up to the backdrop after one of her shots and mocking her…
Little Miss Sassy Pants of course was nothing but professional, as she has been since day 1.
As you can see, I am blessed with beautiful children to keep my skills polished sharp as I embark on this new endeavor.
After what can only be described as a winter in name only, and believe me I am not complaining, Spring is in full bloom. I am not an expert on nature, I avoid it like the plague usually, but I would venture to guess we are a good month ahead of schedule here in Northern Illinois. Nature and I do not always get along. I am waiting out an allergy attack as we speak. Small price to pay for such a beautiful shot, wouldn’t you agree?
I once was lost, but now I'm found
I have a confession to make. My faith has been sorely lacking lately. No, not my faith in God, that could never waiver. God does not change. He is who He has always been. The worries and the cares of this world do not change God. It changes us, but not God. My lack of faith to be honest was in my fellow man. It’s so easy to be sucked into the negative mindset of the circumstances around you. It’s easy to be swept away by an environment filled with despair, with gloom and doom. You can get lost in the misery of others if you let yourself. And I think I was. Letting myself that is. Tell me that you’ve had those moments where you feel like, why should I be a good person, why should I always do what is right, when no one else around me does. I try so hard not to let how others behave and promote themselves affect the person that I am. The desire to walk with God and be the person He would have me be is a struggle. I will not lie about that. So, the other day, when I somehow lost that $10 bill at work, I was convinced that I was not going to see it again. I was sure that I lost it at the vending machine when I was taking some quarters from my pocket for a cup of coffee. I was certain that whoever found it was having a smile at their good fortune. Now I know that in the grand scheme of things $10 is not a large amount of money and truthfully, if $10 is all it took to push me over the edge then I had a lot more problems than losing it. It wasn’t about the money. I was more disappointed that whoever found it did not have the goodness in their heart to turn it in. I resigned myself to the loss and hoped that in some small way..God had put it in the hands of someone who needed it much more than I did. Yes, I believe that God does that.
Well God had a plan alright. He had a plan to turn MY heart. Someone did turn it in, someone did have a good heart. When I heard that this person had immediately taken the money to our office manager without for a minute thinking of keeping it for himself, it made me happy. Not happy to have the money, happy that there are good and decent people out there. I needed a reminder of that. Sure the world is filled with negative people, and sure it is easy to find yourself influenced by that mentality, but there are true and good people out there to. People who probably don’t get their due, people who stand in the shadows wondering where all the good people are. Maybe if we all looked harder to find the good, those negative people wouldn’t seem so prominent. My friend Jamy does a blog where she writes about the good things in her life only. I think she is on to something. Look for the good, and you will see the good. My faith has been restored. My faith in my fellow man.
Well my goodness…where was I now? It’s been awhile. First thing I need to do is to apologize to my sweet nephew Little D. Turns out that the little germ factory was NOT responsible for my state of ill health a few weeks back. I had something completely different going on. Something that landed me in the ER and ran up a nice bill with lots of tests. I am feeling much much better now though.
Little Miss Sassy Pants celebrated her 8th birthday last week and had a little party at the bowling alley. Not much in the way of pictures as it was very crowded.
Happy Birthday to you!!
Little D. subsequently had his first bowling experience….
A little help from Sissy!
Valentines Day came and went. The day is bittersweet for me, as I lost the greatest love of my life last year on Valentines Day.
My Sweet TuffyBear!
But I made up my mind not to let the day get me down. I put together some treats for the little sweeties in my life and was so happy that I did. They loved them and it made me feel so much better. Mr W loved the firefly flashing toothbrush the most (and his Mickey and Donald cup. Little D. loved that he got a special treat. When I took out his Mater cup with his treats in it, his face lit up with a big smile and he said…It Mine? So cute.
You can either left life hold you down or move you forward. The choice is yours. Sometimes all it takes is a tiny step to get it going to. A day I could have spent feeling sorry for myself and wallowing in pity and depression became a day of smiles I will never forget.
Still recuperating…today’s picture is a little bit of fun Little Miss Sassy Pants had last weekend at a birthday party. She is an aspiring photographer and so is always wanting me to take pictures of things. She has some pretty good ideas. Her own birthday is coming up in just a little over a week. How can she be 8 years old already? Insane how the time passes.
She is very artistic by nature. Love the addition of the hat.
I’ve been a little under the weather lately so that is why there have not been any posts. Woke up this morning feeling much better. My brother called this morning and wanted to know if Little D. could come over and spend an hour or so with me while he took Little Miss Sassy Pants to the library to show her how a card catalog worked. Considering the little germ factory was probably the one who gave me the ‘flu’ to begin with…I didn’t see any harm in it. I chalk that thought up to delirium. Even feeling under the weather this kid is whirlwind. He has a …lets call it a passion…for moving furniture around. Oh sure, he’s only 18 month old…what damage could possibly be done. Let me just tell you…the boy is strong for his size and age. I tried getting him to sit and play but his attention span for toys is 5 seconds.
I brought Story Time Elmo out for him. He bashed him on the head with a block and kicked him across the room. Sorry Elmo!
Take that Memo!
He’s pretty good with the Mega Blocks…but even these did not hold his attention for long.
building a tower
Then I thought I would get a portrait of him done while he was here. I have one of his sister at the same age in a little white wicker chair in the corner of the room. I brought out the chair and put it on the corner. He was very happy. I told him to sit in the chair. I turned my back for 3 seconds and he was standing in the chair. This kid is going to give me a heat attack one of these days. As soon as the picture was done…he picked up the chair and carried it into the kitchen and put it in front of the refrigerator. Well….every refrigerator needs a chair in front of it I guess. Late night snacks and what not. Right? Then finally my brother called to tell me he was on his way to pick Little D up. I tell ya…that was certainly the longest 55 minutes of my life.
This is my Little J. Isn’t he beautiful? He was born on July 4th 1993 and passed away on Labor Day of 2010. From the moment he was born, he was mine. He was meant to be mine. His parents belonged to my downstairs neighbor and Mama Kitty had her babies outdoors late at night. We searched and searched and finally found Little J and his sister Liberty Belle (Bella for short). Little J’s full name was Little Mister 4th Of July. When I picked up the babies from their hiding spot, I held them in my shirt. Bella stayed put, but Little J climbed up the front of my shirt, crying the whole time, put his head in the crook of my neck and fell asleep. He had chosen me. I didn’t know it until the next day but he had chosen me. You see, the woman who lived downstairs was breeding manx cats. His father was a beautiful Siamese-Manx. His coloring was buff and he had big beautiful blue eyes like the Siamese but his body shape was complete Manx. Big, hind legs longer than the front, short stub of a tail. His mother looked for the most part like Little J. A tiny little gray tuxedo tabby, rear legs slightly longer than the front, short nub for a tail. Little J had her beautiful markings, but he was a big manx shaped boy like his father. Except for one little detail. He was a genetic flaw. He had a tail. And that made him worthless to the owner. She was going to let him get big enough and then give him to her son to feed to his snake. I was mortified. The thought of that sweet little baby being raised for food sickened me. I told her that I would take him. I never regretted a day of it. For 17 years he was my best buddy. I loved that cat like he was my own child, and he was. He was my baby. The thursday before he died, he suffered a stroke. I wasn’t able to see his regular vet so we saw the associate. He told me that it was a minor stroke and he’d “probably” be ok. I knew the next day that the vet was wrong. Little J had been blinded by the stroke and was unable to calm down long enough to sleep. He kept wandering around the house, getting trapped in corners and unable to find his way out. On the following Monday, Labor Day, he started having a seizure. I knew what had to be done. It was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life up to that point. I held him in my arms, and as he took his last breath…he put his head in the crook of my neck and passed away. It ended, just as it had began. And for that I am eternally grateful, he gave me 17 years of joy and love. There is no price in the world you can put on that.
Little J
Urban Expressions Photography 