Weddings *sigh*

I adore working with brides... and these two brides?? Just bliss.

Although it's hard for me to keep my mouth shut and not start wedding planning. I just can't help myself!!

An invitation to a fall wedding. The bride will be carrying snapdragons for her bouquet--how gorgeous is that? So I used a snapdragon image for the background and softened it into a silhouette. I want to suggest that she include a packet of snapdragon seeds with her invite. But I will bite my tongue. At least... I'll try.

The next is a Save the Date for another wedding. It was tricky to find fonts and colors that worked with the beautiful brick background, but I think both the bride and I are happy with the final look...

Latest Graphic Designs...

I've had so much fun this week putting together some birthday invitations for darling little boys. As a mom of a little boy, I think that it's hard to find things for boys (from clothes to birthday invites) that are equally appealing to kids and to parents. So many things are sports related, which is fine... if you're into sports. But a lot of moms, like me, maybe want something a little different. I think that these strike a nice happy, medium.

The funny part is that, once I got started doing boy invites, I just didn't want to stop! Now I need to come up with some little girls... hm.

Slow Shutter.

Last night, I decided to play with shutter speed to see if I could capture sparklers on New Year's Eve. This is the shutter speed set to a slow 80.

I love the sparklers, but with that my family was clearer in the shots. I have seen photographers take beautiful shots, with their subjects crystal clear. I think that they must have nicer cameras (that would not be difficult), and are able to set their cameras to much slower shutter speeds.

I will have to google it.

After having fun with that for quite awhile, I wanted to see if I could get some good, dark "manual" shots. (Because I despise the "Auto" feature, for the most part, with it's glaring flash.) So I set the shutter speed at it's fastest, 1600, and went for it--knowing that with the shutter speed that high, they would probably turn out grainy.

This one surprised me by turning out beautifully.

Ainsley

Sister Missionaries...

I love to take pictures of the sister missionaries when they're in our ward. Someone took my picture once, as a missionary, and it captured something. Something of the weariness. Something of the stress. But also something of the "glow" that people claimed I had. So I've treasured it since then. That's why, even though I'm far from professional, I like to try and capture some of that, for them.

Here are a few of my favorites from recent sessions.

This is Sister Holloway. I adore her. She is a wonderful missionary, but also a dear friend...

Sister Holloway kept making goofy faces, but Sister Nielsen managed to keep it together long enough for me to get one decent one of them together. :)

The sun was creating some harsh shadows for Sister Nielsen, but I still liked this one. I hope that when I get better, I'll be better at avoiding shadows like these.

This one is from an earlier session with Sister Holloway and Sister Jacobsen. We were so delighted to find a field of cotton to take a picture in...