12 posts tagged “photos”

My wedding photographer is a genius.  She showed me a couple of pics from the 189 metric buttloads she shot at my wedding and they are fab. 

 

 

 

 

For my Mother's Day present to myself, I went to Mercer Arboretum with the girls.  My girls have all the sudden become girly and are scared of snakes and spiders, but they were very sweet and let me take pictures of flowers "on every aisle" as Allie put it...

 

One of four bugs the girls were not afraid of (the others being a green ladybug, a dragonfly, and a roly poly)

 

 

We had seen a snake very near here, so I couldn't get the exact angle I wanted as Allie was fretting very loudly about the snake jumping up and eating her face.  I was mocking her for her sudden fear of snakes, until I later found out that copperheads are native to that particular park.  Oops!  Mother of the Year!

 

 

This baby fern was my favorite.  So tiny and curly and delectable.  This is the picture straight out of camera, and I love it.  I almost NEVER love pics SOOC.

 

And here she is with a minimum of tweaking.  She's so pretty.  I think I'll call her Fern.

 

 

The standard, cheesy rose picture.  I wish you could smell them... they smelled somehow like raspberries.

 

 

No idea what these are called, but I want to stick googly eyes on them.  Not because of any SNL Christoper Walken obsession, but because they just look like they'd have such personality, right?

 

 

This flower looked thirsty when I first shot it.  I've been reading Blurbomat alot lately though and wanted to post-process it out of reality.  Actually, I just post-processed it into hydration.  Everyone's happy this way.

 

 

I love flowers that look like party decorations.  And I really love pretending I have a macro lens, even though I don't.

 

More to come as I edit them. I got a lot of really good shots.  One thing I love about Texas is that even when it's a million degrees outside (read: 92 with 92% humidity), there is always so much green, so much shade, and so much lushness.  Is that a word?  It is now.  

See what I mean about trying to write?  I'm going to stop that now before anyone puts an eye out.  Instead, lets look at pretty pretty pictures together, shall we?

 

Thursday, Linz and I got to go to an exclusive bridal event at Hotel Derek.  I'm not having my wedding there, but I'm down for free hors d'oevures and martinis.  We practiced different wedding planning related gestures to use while talking about other things.  And we looked adorable and shadowy.

 

We had a couple of martinis and came back to my place to eat dinner before having a girls' night.  Getting ready is always fun.  Beware of flared nostrils.  They are massive and deadly.  Do not try this at home.

 

Ron took the obligatory pre-launch photo.  But Linz and I watch too much America's Next Top Model, so we were doing commercial, catalogue, and couture poses, while giving good neck and - of course - smiling with our eyes.  Shown here is couture.  (Linz is a national sternum and collarbone supermodel, clearly.)

 

Yes we're very silly.  But not quite as silly as Ron who was trying to attack me with a blood pressure cuff.  Sphygmomanometers: As fun to say as they are to play with.

 

We had a fun evening, which was much needed by all. My mom watched the kids for us, so Friday I watched them for her so she could recuperate.

Saturday, the girls and I went to the new park in downtown Houston called Discovery Green.  It's trying to be the Central Park of Houston.  It's usually really really fun, but it was pretty crowded on Saturday, and my little clones were too anxious to play very much.  They were however eager to smile pretty :)

 

We also got to check out these half sphere thingies (their technical name, of course).  Supposedly, one person sits in one, the other person in the other, and through some sort of sound wave trick, you can hear each other using normal voices even though they appear to be very far away.  Once we were there, I discovered the magical trick is proximity, as they're not all that far apart.  I was underwhelmed.  But they make for a nice picture backdrop anyway...

 

 

 

Sunday was church and babysitting.  Linz took Cayden to his first Astro's game and baby Prestyn stayed with us.  I've never gotten to take many pictures of her, so I indulged.  She is at an adorable age where she's just learned to clap and is quite proud of herself.  I love 10 month olds.  If I could give birth and have them instantly be this age, I'd have a dozen more.

 

 

 

 

She also has the prettiest eyelashes.  I'm not entirely unconvinced that she isn't hiding an eyelash curler in her crib matress and furiously crimping away during naptime.  She moves a ton so it's hard to capture the majesty of her eyelashes, but I gave it a good shot anyway...

 

 

 

I'm off to finish my weekend by cooking turkey spaghetti, playing Webkinz with the girls, watching the Simpsons, and trying to not think about all the wedding stuff I need to be thinking about.

Oops #1:  Allie's evening prayer tonight: "Dear Jesus.  Thank you for this wonderful day and for my beautiful family.  Please help Jakey to get better.  Please help Avery to stay in bed.  And please help me to find my library book so I won't get all freaking pissed off about it."  Oops.

Oops #2:  Haven't been able to upload pictures for a couple of weeks because my camera battery went MIA.  I absolutely could NOT find the darn thing anywhere.  I was pricing buying a new battery, but finally found it yesterday.  2 guesses where i found it.  If you said "Camera bag" you'd be right.

Not oops:  Got some great shots today.  For yays!

 

In typical OCDWPT style (That's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with Procrastinatory Tendencies.  Look for it in the DSM-IV in the Spring of 2009!), I planned the girls Christmas dresses, curled and style their hair, and generally just spent so long on getting them camera ready, that I lost any good available lighting and therefor had no Christmas pictures this year.  And on Christmas Eve (when we do our familiy get-together) I almost completely forgot to take pictures.  So I figured that I would not have any decent photographic representations of this, the happiest Christmas ever.

However.  Take 30mg Adderrall, add 44 oz of diet Coke, 2 Marlboro Ultra Lights and then sit in front of Photoshop CS3 for a few hours, and some of the pictures become quite passable....

 

Deceptively cute, aren't they?

 

 

The manic glee of Christmas which sets Avery in constant motion...

 

The pre-teen dramatic Christmas spirit of "Mom, I'm so over this photography crap. Can you get that thing out of my face now?"  (Does age 5 count as pre-teen?  'Cause the attitude sure as heck fits...)

 

 

We love our Mommy because she gives us presents!

 

We love our Gaga because she gives us cookies!!

 

 

My sister and her adorable family.  My nephew Cayden (age very very 2) was even nice enough to stop his head spinning around 360 degrees long enough for this picture.  It was a Christmas Miracle!

 

 

And the lovely Ron.  Dear, sweet, loveable Ron.  His superpower?  Complete inability to keep his eyes open for a picture.  For any picture.  Flash, no flash, posed, candid, anything.  He blinks.  I'm working on an animated GIF for those who don't beleive me.  It's adorable.  Most of the time.

 

And what's the most Christmasy shirt he could possibly ever wear?  Why, the Buddha shirt of course!  (We like it for the style, not for the religion, so you need not have an aneurysm Grandma.  I promise we're at church almost every Sunday...)  It's still fun to antagonize my mom though :)  And yes, even when he's not facing the camera, the eyes are still closed.

 

Hope all of you had a really fabulous holiday of your choice.  I miss you guys oodles and hope to be back in the swing of things by New Year.

Show us one of your photos that you’d like to print out and frame.

These are a couple of my sister's bridal pictures and I think they are possibly the prettiest pictures of any person ever.  I probably biased because she's my sister, but it's really not that much of a stretch.  Technically, my mom took these shots, but I styled and coached.  I don't know why these are the first photos to come to mind. I probably wouldn't print and frame them because hi, that's kind of creepy.  She doesn't even have them printed and framed, so I shouldn't either.  I guess because I never got a "real" wedding with a ring and dress and ceremony, I probably live vicariously through her shots. 

Whatever the reasons, the pics are beautiful and still don't capture her amazing natural beauty.

 

 

Allie started kindergarten yesterday.  I can't beleive she's started school already.  It seems like she was just born a couple of weeks ago.

She was annoyed with me from the get go that morning, as I tried to take pictures of her eating breakfast.  Can't you just hear the "MOooooooooOOOMMMMMMMM!  Stop it!"

 

She was so excited to go to school though.  So excited that she wanted to sit outside with her backpack and wait for the school bus before I had even gotten dressed.

 

Once I was dressed, I accompanied her to the corner so that we could wait together, and so that I could taunt her more thoroughly with the camera.  I don't know why she hates having her picture taken.  I'm doing it constantly. She should be used to it by now.

 

 

 

I especially like it when she flares her nostrils at me.  I'm proud to have passed that ability on to her.  Also, she insisted on wearing her Harry Potter bracelets.  I got them at the midnight release of Deathly Hallows.  Because I'm cool like that.  Don't hate.

 

She finally relented and gave me a cheesy smile, in hopes that I would leave her the hell alone...

 

 

But of course, I wouldn't, so she flared some more and then got all dramatic like Britney Spears in a manic swing, hiding from the papparazzi.

 

 

 

I think she was actually a little nervous, though she pretended to not be.  She gets that from me too.  Where I would chew my fingernails nervously, she worried the strap of her backpack instead.

 

 

And finally, the school bus arrived in all it's yellow screeching glory.  I hugged and kissed her and tried to talk past the lump in my throat to tell her that I wanted her to turn and wave while getting on the bus so I could take her picture.  And as if to taunt me, she did just as I asked, but closed her eyes....

 

She made it home in one piece and loves her school, teacher, and classmates.  She's even found a "boyfriend" named Kevin, who she claims is going to bring her flowers.  There's a nature v. nurture argument against nurture for you.  Glad to see she's starting those unrealistic expecations at an early age....

 

All of my "friend" drama last week felt like the end of the world for a day or two. Luckily, because of said drama, I was able to meet someone whose story helped me to realign my perspective, and for that I thank her.

Trish lost a child to premature labor in 1999.  She has since moved to another corner of the country and is unable to visit her son's resting place.  Come to find out, I live only about 10 minutes away from it, so I volunteered to visit on her behalf and take some pictures for her.  I know that if I were in the same situation, I would want someone to do the same for me, and it seemed a small gesture in the face of such a big loss.

Samuel only lived to take about 2 breaths, and he is buried in what is called the "Garden of Innocence" with all the other children and babies.  It was humbling to be in presence of such loss.  I was reluctant to take Allie and Avery with me. It seemed almost disrespectful to flaunt my healthy children, when there might be grieving parents visiting their lost children.  But we were alone, and the girls were properly respectful and quiet, which I was glad of.

I knew I would cry and be moved, but I was unprepared for the bleak reality of it.  Grave markers with only one date on them.  Others bearing dates only a couple of years, months, or even days apart.  Toys left by family members that had grown soggy and dirty, never to be played with; rusty matchbox cars, sun-faded Care Bears.  A LeapFrog crib mobile still in it's packaging lay on top of the smallest mound of dirt possible.  I found a wet ziploc bag that held a note from a mother to child.  It had been blown astray by the wind and I wanted to put it back in it's rightful place, but couldn't find where that was.  I wanted to take the whole afternoon and put right all of their markers.  Blow the dust out of the crevices, trim the grass from the edges, dust off the grass clippings and brighten any of the dull flowers.  But I only had time for Samuel and Trish on this day, so I did my work for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decorating the shade trees nearby was a collection of dozens of windchimes.  The wind was still that day so I didn't get to hear them, but I don't know that I'll ever be abel to hear one again without thinking of the music they play for the families visiting their children.  I snapped pics of a few of them and for some reason was particularly proud and fond of this one:

 

I didn't know it at the time, but this is the windchime that Trish hung there.  Out of all of them, I was drawn to the right one.  If that's not divine providence, then I don't know what is.

Again, Trish, it was an honor to do this for you.  Thank you for sharing this with me and for allowing me to do this for you.  I'll be back there for his Angel Day and will take with me whatever you want. 

Where is your favourite place to be on a sunny Sunday afternoon? 
Submitted by Rev Stan.

At the Mercer Arboretum, taking pictures of flowers and bugs and other crap that no one cares about.  It is the most relaxing thing for me...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks like an amazing book and I'm going to go request a copy of it from the library just as soon as I finish here.

 

Hopefully I can get a leg up on this stuff and avoid any and all bad things before they happen.  I'm delusional, I know.

Also a good read is this:

 

This ends the weekly feminist in training section of my blog.  Why I'm so concerned about this, I don't know.  My daughters are only aged 4 and 5.   I should probably be focusing my attention more on bubble wrapping them and trying to permanently affix helmets to their skulls. 

Yes, we were in the emergency room.  Again.  Avery claims to have been "walking" in the kitchen at my sister's house.  I was in the other room trying to figure out how in the hell curtain brackets attach to walls (tomorrow: more on the defiant curtain rod and how it is symbolic of my isolation).  I heard a thud, and then that palpably tense silence that most parents recognize.  The volume of the impending scream/cry is directly proportionate to the length of the silence following said thud. (Xaymara, I know you can put that in equation form for me...)  I smelled blood on that cry before she even stumbled into the living room.

I carried her to the double-vanity brightness of my sister's bathroom and cleaned the blood out of Avery's hair as best I could, while trying to simultaneously console her and not make the gushing head wound hurt any more.  I asked for my sister's opinion, but she was too queasy to offer one.  (She, of the surgical technician training and registered nurse aspirations, couldn't handle one measly head wound.  Wuss.)  She found her usefulness in the form of googling and recommended we go to the ER.

Of course, by the time we secured a bed (the same one Allie occupied 2 short weeks ago), Avery was super excited and wanted to talk to ever passing doctor, nurse, and patient to demonstrate her immense cuteness and to proclaim she was "much better and don't need anyone to sew me up thanks".  A doctor finally came, glanced, and determined that she would need at least one staple.  This fazed her not at all.  He came back with a nurse to cleanse the wound, and as soon as Avery giggled that all of this attention tickled - BAM - and it was stapled shut.  Again, a silence twice the length of the one accompanying the injury was following by a scream of volume according to the previously mentioned formula.  But as soon as she was bribed