Can you believe that I have picked up my knitting needles exactly one time in the past 6 weeks? Once! But it is all for good reason, although I sure do miss it. Missing it is made a lot easier when I get to spend time with newborns, babies, and just people in general for Fresh Photography. Photographing newborns may just be the best part of all. I got to meet Cooper yesterday, Kandis’s son and Julia’s grandson. Oh my goodness, is he ever a sweetie! And totally in that complete newborn phase, with the exception of not wanting to sleep. We all hear that newborns are supposed to sleep 17 hours a day or something like that, but Cooper wasn’t having any of it. He did sleep some, but he was awake a lot too. He also “christened” me, so I’m officially a newborn baby photographer now. That’s what I get for making him pose nude for so long - I totally pushed the limit on it!

Knitting time will return soon enough, I’m sure. For now, I’ve got lots of photographs - and more photo shoots - to play with!

In my daily moderation “catch the valid comments that aren’t spam and make the bad spammers go far far away” check, I came across one of the most hysterical sort-of spam comments ever. Well, really - it was the one line that just really, really stood out.

heyyy mai big sexy beast you!!! i love your hot new sponser mai little hot cheeks.. you are as hot as the waffles on mai breakfast plate . i love your hottie hot hot headband . it makes you look even more sexier than you really are!! call meeh
(253)-xxx-xxxx.

ps. will you have 17 kids with meeh

pps. i dont want to adopt!

ppps. i want to do it with you the old fasioned way!!

pppps. mai name is sanfert and i am 57 yrs.old.
how old are you?? i want the young type!!

Uhm, 17 kids? No thanks. Plus I’m happily married, thankyouverymuch. But thanks for the laughs, Sanfert!

I realized that it was simply insane to think I could knit something in a week to wear to MDSW. So crazy, that instead I decided to order two t-shirts from the Pointy Sticks Spreadshirt shop - a “I could go bat-shit crazy, or I could knit. Your choice.” t-shirt and a “Life is too short to knit with ugly yarn.” t-shirt. I’m thinking the first one will be appropriate for the day of my flight in case they try to take my knitting needles away!

I figured that this would be a better option, since the weather can be either hot or cold. This way, I’m comfy if it is hot, and I can toss on a sweater, shawl, scarf or whatever if it is cold.

Feel free to snag a t-shirt too, then we can all wear them and find each other!

In just over a week I’ll be flying east to go to Maryland Sheep & Wool with Mac and Adelle. Off to the land of fibery goodness. And as I plan my trip, I end up feeling the same way I always do before I go anywhere with knitters…

What should I make to wear?

Of course, this is somewhat unreasonable, as I have about a week to make something. The only time during the week that I will have anything that resembles free time is my flight to Philly. Knitting something this fast? Probably not too likely. But maybe you know something I don’t know? Maybe there is some speedy knit out there, the “must have” thing of the spring? You know, like Fetchings were this past winter? I cranked them out fast. Surely there must be something out there? Ideas, anyone?

Would it possibly be cool enough that I could get away with wearing a sweater? I could finish the sleeves for my green Four Play (mmmm… Brooks Farm) sweater and wear that. I could do two sleeves in a week, I think. Hm… I’m definitely going to be wearing one of the t-shirts I designed, so there will be knitting related wear if nothing else. (I’m going to design another one - “Life’s too short to knit with ugly yarn.” Teehee!)

OH! If you’re going - Blogger lunch meetup at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday! Thanks to Chris for tipping me off to that!

Isn’t she a sweetheart? Our session started later in the day than we had originally planned because we were waiting for my new lens to arrive. Of course, UPS showed up about an hour into the session, 20 minutes away from where we were at. That’s ok though - we ended up having perfect light and fun at the neighborhood park! Doesn’t she look like she is offering me a seat on that swing? This was near the end of her crawling days; she is officially walking now, and I can’t wait to see her again! I discovered after our shoot that she has a nice collection of hats, so we’re going to have to play with them next time!

Edits are underway over at the Fresh Photography site, so the details aren’t there yet, but I’m still taking sessions at the portfolio building rate. Let me know if you want all the details! I’ll be in Philly in early May for Maryland Sheep & Wool, I might be able to get in a session while I’m up there even! Have camera, will travel!

I just finished editing and uploading Emma’s photos! Whoo hoo! She is adorable - it was fun to go through them all over again. Now I’m working on Grace’s pictures, and then … oh, heck. I don’t remember who is next at the moment. I’m just giddy that Emma’s are live on Pictage! I can’t wait to photograph her again - she is such a cutie! More photos of her over on Flickr.

Posting has been light this week. It has been a bit crazy around here, and it isn’t over yet. One more week to go, as I wrap up a contract project that I’m loving - it just takes me away from blogging and other things! But I couldn’t let today go by without a public shout out to Jason, who turns 15 today.

Fifteen. Wow. It is hard to believe, and while he still seems like a “kid” at times, I keep reminding myself that in just over three short years he will be going off to college. In one year, he will be legal to drive. He officially has a razor now - the facial kind, not the phone kind - although he is not up to shaving daily. Yet. He is a great kid, and I’m so very proud of him. Sometimes I really wish he wasn’t growing up so fast, and other days I am impressed with the man he is becoming.

We had dinner with my parents last night to kick off the birthday weekend. Today we went to see the Lager Rhythms at Mojo Risin’, and then we came home to pick up his friends Ryan & David. Then the guys headed out for laser tag, and now they are back here playing Xbox and the Wii. It has been a good day!

I’m dealing with the itchy scratchy throat and the weird flush feeling again - it is time for the jasmine in the backyard to be in full bloom! Oh, how my allergies love it.

I wonder if I go and work upstairs if I could at least escape it somewhat. Hm. At least then I would be further away from the jasmine.

Speaking of the great outdoors, I just have to post one of my favorites from the engagement session I had last weekend at Eleanor Tinsley park. We went there to take Houston skyline engagement photos, which I also love, but something about this one just makes me so happy!

Congratulations to Kandis & Rob on the arrival of their new Mr. Wonderful! Julia’s grandson has arrived! Cooper was born last night at 9:22 pm, and when I got the text message from Julia at 10:03 pm I was positively giddy! Yeah, does the kid have a cool grandma or what? She sent out a text message to let me know he had been born! I waited to post about it though, because I wanted her to be the first to announce the big news!

He is so very adorable, and I can’t WAIT to meet him in person for his newborn photos! Congratulations again to the whole family!

600 square miles? Pretty huge area, huh? Guess what - that is how big Houston is. Seriously. And it is the perfect name for the Houstonist’s first-ever photo show. It is a pretty amazing city (remind me of that when I start complaining about the heat again in July), and I am now thinking of what to enter.

It’ll be a juried show that will run the month of September at MSquared Gallery in the Heights — a chance for all photographers, whether they’ve been shooting for years or just picked up a camera, to display, advertise (and sell, if they want to) their work. The theme of the show, as you might have guessed, is Houston; exactly what that means is up to you. As long as a photo has something to do with Houston and was taken in the Houston area, it’ll work.

The deadline to enter is Friday, June 1. All the details are at 600 Sq. Mi.

(I am not affiliated with the Houstonist - other than as a reader - or with the show. In case you wondered. Just want to help spread the word!)

Mike & I went to a wedding a few years ago that had the *longest* and most painful to watch first dance ever. It was bad. What made it even worse was knowing that the couple had spent MONTHS taking dance lessons and working out this “routine” for their first dance. The groom looked so miserable, concentrating to make sure he did not forget the steps and disappoint his new bride.

Ever since then, I’ve felt that there should be a 2 minute limit on first dances. Or open up the floor part way through the song to the guests. Give them something to do. Most importantly - have FUN. Fun is very important on your wedding day. But keep it *short*.

These two videos are making me rethink that sentiment. If you can put this much effort into your first dance, you are my hero.

[Via Anne Ruthman.]

I especially love that other people get into the action on the second one. Oh my goodness, that is FABULOUS. No one puts Baby in the corner! (Or rather no one puts James in the corner, as I learned from the UK news coverage of the video.)

View larger.

I’m gearing up now to go and take formal engagement photos today for this couple, after catching this one just over a week ago down in Galveston. I was at the Tremont taking photos with Shelley when I heard crying/squealing/laughter behind me. I turned around and started shooting. This was the first photo I caught.

He had just proposed. She had just said yes. There were many kisses and hugs after this, and it made Shelley & I a bit misty-eyed. I can’t wait to see them again today!

Surfing through a zillion photographer sites for inspiration, I need the opinions of others to find out what you like in a photographer’s website.

Do you like sites that have nothing more than a pretty pretty picture or Flash slideshow on the home page? Or do you prefer them to have tons of information there too?
Do you like a clean looking site with a simple site navigation with dropdowns? Or a sidebar that is minimalist but easy to find things?
All Flash sites? Or HTML with some Flash included for slideshows?
Music when viewing a photographer’s site? Or no music, ever, ever, ever?

If you need to look at some other photographer’s sites to see what I’m talking about, you can check out the zillions that I’ve bookmarked on del.icio.us.

Basically, I want to make changes to the FreshPhotography site to better highlight the options to hire us for other work. We will still continue to sell prints there too, so the existing functionality needs to stay on the current images. There will still be a photoblog with the option to buy. There will also be information on portrait, wedding, and corporate photography. So a lot of things need to be there, and I want them to be well organized.

Now that my missing notebooks have returned from the depths of the underworld in my car, I have a feeling that site sketches are going to be under way soon!

Much better if you view it large.

Last Friday I made a quick trip down to Galveston to take shots for my friend Shelley’s storytelling website. While we were up on the rooftop of the Tremont, I spotted this cute couple on the other side. I had snapped a photo of them earlier as they sat by the railing, enjoying the great weather we were having.

As I was switching memory cards, I heard her … Crying? Squealing? Laughing? All of the above? I’m not really sure. It was enough to make me turn around though and start snapping more photos of them. I then walked closer to Shelley & told her that I thought he had just proposed.

We both got a bit teary. Yeah, I’m a sap like that. As soon as we had a chance, we called out to them and asked if he had just proposed. When she said yes, and that he had totally surprised her, we then told them that I had taken photos of them seconds after it happened.

It was a happy twist of fate.

We all exchanged business cards, he immediately asked about buying prints, and she asked if he had planned the fact that I was there too. (Not sure what else he had surprised her with!) I told her he had not - but I am still so thrilled that I was there!