Watching this video about John Halcyon Styn and Grandpa Caleb made me teary-eyed. What a beautiful, beautiful thing - I just had to take a moment to share.

Short Version: My life has been reduced to 140 character updates via Twitter.

Long Version: We celebrated our 3 year anniversary on Tuesday! Dinner out at Lupe Tortilla’s - we kept it all pretty low key this year. We had a good time though, and the food was delicious. I posted photos on Flickr in honor of the occassion, but didn’t post here. I think that is a first.

I have a sinus infection that has been beating me down. Blech. I’m alternating between tired from it and wired from the meds I’m taking for it. Now on antibiotics, hoping they help FAST since I’m flying to Orlando on Sunday. Leaving the Houston heat to go to the Orlando heat really does not seem like a vacation to me, but the fact that I’m going to a small photographer workshop (Elevate 2) for 3.5 days, followed by a One Light Workshop for one very long day, totally makes up for the weather thing. I still wish it was being held in some place cooler - maybe Maine? Canada? Oh well, part of it will be spent indoors learning anyways - we should be fine during the outdoor times. It is going to be AWESOME to get a chance to work with and learn from some rather big name wedding photographers. I’m truly psyched - although low-key psyched thanks to the sinus crud.

I’m still proofing the wedding from St. Louis. Since I was not the primary photographer, the proofing is all for me - Stephanie, the primary, handled the proofing for the clients. So I’m setting that aside, as I want to wrap up the photos from Jim & Leia’s wedding last weekend in Dallas before I head to Orlando. Elaine & I have both been posting updates to the Fresh Photography blog, so be sure to check it out!

Speaking of Fresh Photography - we will be at the Yale Street Market this Saturday! It is the first summer show with the evening hours, so it starts at 6pm and ends at 10pm. Come on out and see us!

(My life has been a bit photography focused outside of anything family related - can you tell?)

I think this just might be my favorite shot from the whole session. Newborn photography makes me just a little bit giddy! (I posted it in color too.)

Mike & I both agree, this commercial *SERIOUSLY* rivals the Cat Herder commercial, which for many years has been my all time favorite commercial. Matter of fact, I wonder if it was made by the same people. It is so very fabulous! I crack up every single time that I watch it!

Helping Jason prepare for his Biology final exam, we were looking up information on the human enzyme in saliva. One of the first results on the list? A lab where you can buy AMYLASE, alpha Human Salivary.

We process over 500 liters of human saliva a year to produce tens of millions of units of high purity Human Salivary alpha Amylase for research and the clinical diagnostic market. We can provide Human Salivary Amylase enzyme antigen in any buffer required to meet your specific enzyme requirements.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Jason wants to know how they collect those 500 liters of human saliva. Personally, I don’t really want to think about it.

I always knew I would adore Kandis, Julia’s daughter. I mean, first of all, her blog is pink. Then there is the whole Trivial Pursuit thing at the top. (I was always the winner until I met Kymberlie & Mike. I bow to their wisdom of useless crap.) But the second I walked in her door for Cooper’s newborn portrait session, the deal was sealed.

That big red couch is FABULOUS.

As I was taking photographs of Cooper, I looked at the couch. I knew a photo was waiting there for us. Now we can use it for scale in future sessions. She may not even know that I took this one (as the portraits are uploading to her gallery right now), but she has already posted one of him sitting there, and I can see how big he has grown in a month!

I’ll spare you all the duplicate post this time. More on Flickr and over at the Fresh Photography blog later today!

This week is going to be all about editing photos for Fresh Photography, so hang on - it is going to be a busy time around here! (I’ll probably be cross-posting from the Fresh Photography blog several times, since it will be my main focus all week!)

First up, the Mother’s Day weekend session! The Alleys have been married for 50 years, and since everyone was gathering to celebrate, we set up a big family portrait session for that Saturday afternoon. We met in Hermann Park at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and found a nice quiet spot to set up. We captured all sorts of family combinations while we were there - just the parents, the parents with the grandchildren, the parents with the children, the children & their families, the grandchildren together, just the older granddaughters - you name it, we did it! When Donna contacted me to find out if it would be a session fee for each family, I told her no because that just wouldn’t make sense. A session fee is for 1-2 hours of my time, and since it was all one big family, why not make the most of it? I don’t see any reason to limit a session based on the number of people involved!

Here are a few favorites of mine from the day - the parents and the children, and one of the big group shots with all 20 people in it - and no one is blinking!

Pssst… want to know a secret? We redesigned the Fresh Photography site! It isn’t quite done yet, and won’t be for another week or so as I work up updating the Flash portfolios, but it is getting pretty close! I haven’t made a big hoopla over it yet, but I couldn’t sit on it any longer either! We even set it up to have all of the artistic prints together (under artwork) and we added a blog section too! An easy way to point out all the latest updates as we make them. Now that Elaine is back from her trip to New York (yeah!), she can start posting there too!

Props again are in order for Jennifer of ScriptyGoddess for making it all happen. She stripped it down, rebuilt it all from the ground up, gave us clean and pretty CSS code, a blog to match, and every last bit of functionality we requested. She also built our art print shopping cart system for us in the last revision of the site. I can not possibly say enough great things about her!

I’m cross-posting again from that blog to this one. Seems to be happening a lot lately, but it should slow down in the future. I just couldn’t resist sharing the latest senior photos! I posted one of them already, but as the proof are uploading right now to Pictage, I wanted to share some more. By the way, did you know that if you reserve a session date before now and the end of May, you can get it at a crazy reduced rate? Just book it by the end of the month - the actual session can take place any time this summer! - and you get the session for the portfolio building rate of $75 with a $50 gift certificate for prints! Let me know if you want more details!

I had the hardest time converting any of these photos to black & white - Kenneth has the best deep blue eyes! He was in town visiting for a family event, and he asked his mom (Hi Robin!) to contact me so we could set up a senior session for him. He originally wasn’t going to do pictures for his graduation announcements, but changed his mind she said after looking through some of our other work. What an honor! He was so much fun to work with, and we had a really good time. I loved working with him!

These four shots are probably the more “diverse” of the bunch. There was a nice mix of traditional and not traditional shots, so he has a good selection to choose from. Most of them in color of course, because how could I resist? (I shoot everything in color and convert to black & white post-processing. Gives me more leverage that way!)

One of my favorite shots of the sunset over Manhattan, as viewed from Fulton Ferry Landing at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. So much better if you view it large.

Before I could finish editing the photos from my trip to Philly and New York, I had to wrap up the proofs from the latest engagement session. Amy & Zach were so fabulous to work with, I’m actually using one of their photos in an upcoming magazine ad! Yes, I took the plunge last week, and there will be a Fresh Photography ad in a future wedding magazine. How cool is that?

Next up - senior portraits, newborn portraits, cotillion fashion show photographs, and the family reunion / 50th anniversary photographs from this weekend. My goal is to make it through as many of them as possible this week, then tons of updates to the website! Hang on tight - it is going to be a fast ride!

While I hate the name of it, I seriously want to find someone that is willing to participate in a Trash the Dress photo shoot! Come on … you can’t tell me you’re really going to ever wear the dress again. Plus most of the things we would consider doing can easily be handled by a drycleaner when we’re done.

So? Anyone game? Road trip to Galveston to frolic in the sand? Anyone?

I adore Twitter. I’ll admit it. I liked sending updates from my phone while I was at SXSW this year, and I’m now hooked. If you don’t already follow me on Twitter, feel free to add me so I can add you too! And now, if you can’t get enough Twitter, you can set up Flitter! (For Windows PCs.) The screensaver that lets you see what everyone is doing while you’re not doing anything. (Well, not doing anything on your computer!) I haven’t tested it out yet myself, since I just downloaded it. It looks pretty interesting and has good feedback too! Let me know what you think!

First off, I have to say it. My t-shirt was a big hit. I was stopped by people several times throughout the day about it. Matter of fact, if I gave you a business card and you ended up here looking for the “I can go bat-shit crazy, or I can knit. Your choice.” t-shirt, visit the Spreadshirt store and get yourself one! (Rated G versions and other shirts available too!)

Now for part 1 of the rest of the story:
We (Mac & I) got up crazy early this morning, headed out the door by 6am (5am Houston time, so really early for my body clock), went to pick up Dell from her hotel, stopped off at the Dunkin’ Donuts - something we don’t have in Houston - and hit the road to head down to Maryland Sheep & Wool.

Somewhere around 8:45am, we arrived, and headed to The Fold, to get some of the infamous Socks That Rock yarn. After we stood in a long line to pick out colors, and a second long line to purchase the yarn, I sorted through all the yarns that I had taken to the line and picked out one to buy and passed the rest out to others in the first line standing by me. I was strong and resisted getting 5 skeins or something crazy like that, reminding myself that I could order it online. After getting through the line we saw Wendy for a few minutes, and discovered that there was no Koigu mill ends to be had. Unfortunately, one of the people of the Koigu team broke her foot the other day and they had to cancel their trip. Bummer, but we found other yarns to make up for it.

We then went to shop a whole bunch. We saw a lot of people - ironically, many from Texas! (I’m too tired and all the “outdoor” allergies are attacking me right now. Links & names later.) We saw more people. Animals. Crowds. Long lines and crazy tight booths. I left the Tess booth empty-handed because there was no WAY I could handle that craziness. I also left the Brooks Farm booth empty-handed, not because of the crowds so much as because Mike had told me that it was wrong to go all the way to Maryland to buy yarn that is from Texas. I also still have a stash of the Brooks Farm still waiting for me, so it was ok. I gave everything a nice loving squeeze, but my purchases stopped at lunchtime. I was rather proud of that resistance.

Then, after I spent some time bonding with Brooks Farm, we drove home. We were tired. The temperature had dropped and it was somewhat nippy. We fought a good battle, and we survived. I can now happily mark the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival off of my “things I must do someday” list. It was fun, but if you go - go early. The crowds get a bit crazy by mid-day. Bring lunch. Bring a blanket. Enjoy yourself and the people around you. It really is a good time. I have been informed that I should make sure I go to Rhinebeck too someday. I have definitely taken it under advisement.

Pictures, purchase list, links to products and links to people to come! (First, I need to go find some allergy meds and get some rest!)

As usual, I didn’t sleep well at on Wednesday night. I never do when I travel. But we got to the airport early, the security line was long and sucky because they only had 2 scanners open, and then I had lots of time before my flight. Bumpy ride, bad weather, blah blah blah… only to arrive in Philly to WONDERFUL weather - in the 70s! - a train that arrived minutes after I got to the platform, and just an all around good day.

I ate zucchini & scallops for dinner, and I have to admit, they were pretty good. Don’t tell Mike that I tried “new to me” foods, his feelings might be hurt. I still don’t care for the flavor of green beans though. Don’t know why, just don’t.

I slept well except for the weird dream about being at a horsetrack and leaving my camera bag behind when I went to a different seat. Of course, it was stolen. Weird. Way too vivid of a dream, and when I started to get upset about the stolen bag I actually told myself to wake up. So I did, the dream was over, and all was well again. My camera is sitting right next to me.

We are about to head into the city for lunch at DiBruno’s with Wendy (yeah!) and then I think we must go to the Mutter Museum. Medical oddities? How can a girl resist!?! I see lemon sorbet in my future too. Mmmmmm…

Courtesy of the Houston Chronicle, the latest craziness in our area schools? It seems that a teacher took 22 days off back in February, 10 of them unpaid, to tape “The Bachelor”. Now? Because two parents complained, they are reassigning the Principal for letting her take the time off. The parents complained that the teacher being out was disruptive to the classroom; isn’t it more disruptive to the school as a whole to have to readjust to a new principal? And if the thought is that what she did was so wrong you have to move her, then isn’t it wrong for the people at the other school to end up with her there? I mean, they didn’t do anything to deserve a switch.

My favorite quote of the whole article might just be the last one: “Parent Raquel Flores said it “was very disruptive” to have Alchalabi gone while her students were preparing to take a TAKS test.”

You are not supposed to PREPARE for the test. The whole point of the test is to test the students and see what they have learned, to assess if the school is teaching up to standards. The fact that they teach the test, and that parents expect them to do so, proves that the whole thing is very, very flawed. It all just leaves me shaking my head…