Blog Award

Emily tagged me for this cute little award! Thanks Emily! and thanks again for introducing me to Black & White Wednesdays :)

Here are the rules -

1. Thank the person that gave this award to you

2. Copy the award and put it on your blog

3. List three things which you love about yourself

4. Post a picture you love

5. Tag five people you wish to pass this award on to

Since I already did the first two....

Three things I love about myself:

• I love that I love myself. does that make sense? I'm just overall happy with myself. And i think that's an important part of life. Learning to love you.

• I love that even if my husband isn't as giving and charitable, that I still feel the need to be.

• I love that I dont let anything stand in the way. I work hard so I can play hard. :)

This is one of many photos that I love. You may have seen it before. near the end of our engagement session with Leslie Spurlock. Hopefully this will make me order this on canvas this weekend ;)

now for the hard part...well... I read most of the same blogs that Emily does. and so I dont have anyone really new to tag. :(

So here's well, four...

Highs, Lows, & Stilettos - April has some great beauty product posts/tips

Bee-Here's the Buzz - another girl in the mustang/racing world

Adventures in life, love, and motherhood - fellow local photographer's personal blog

Behind the Camera - friend from highschool, photographer, follower in Christ

And, ill urge you to go check out (even tho she was tagged already)...

Wifey In Training - Michelle originally tagged Emily. I dont know why i didnt have her saved in my blog roll but I just added her. I found some truly inspirational things in her last few posts.

Black & White Wednesday - Husband & Wife

A week already? Whew... Here's my 2nd week of contributing to Black & White Wednesdays at The Long Road to China. Such a sweet story over there. I'm still reading from beginning to end, almost caught up :)

Today's photos come from my friend Mandie's wedding which took place last weekend. I was particularly happy to photograph this wedding for many reasons...I've been photographing these two since before their son was born. Maternity photos. Luke's 1 yr portraits. His birthday party. Engagements. Her bridals. and then the Wedding. And as her matron of honor said in the toast...well, life is rollercoaster, and these two have just been enjoying the ride, through the ups and downs. I've seen them through the best and worst of days and where they are now is incredible. So here they are now in their first dance as husband and wife.

OCPD much?

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder which involves an obsession with perfection, rules, and organization. People with OCPD may feel anxious when they perceive that things are not right. This can lead to routines and rules for ways of doing things, whether for themselves or their families. (taken from Wikipedia)

I've recently really seen exactly how obsessive compulsive I am with organization on the computer. It's about the only place im organized...and it's Organized with a capital O.

I'm pretty sure if Justin had to go find something on the computer, he wouldn't know where to even start. I think it's self explanatory and quite easy, but then again, I set it up. I just want it my way, and ill spend hours making sure it's perfect. For instance - my itunes library...i wouldnt even let it automatically name and sort things for me. I have over 4000 songs and each file name is artist name - song name. I have the artists names, the album name, the genres...all consistently named. And I hand typed them. All.

I'm also this way at work. We're in the process of setting up a new online storage system of sorts, and I basically asked/begged my boss to let me be the one uploading things to it. I want it perfect. Not that I dont believe anyone else can handle it...but the current system is hosed up pretty bad in my eyes, and I want it corrected. and i want it consistent. *sigh*

Is anyone else like this? What's the method to your madness?!!?

Mine is like this for personal use:

Hard drive
 - Pictures
   - 2009 (for general photos, specific events have their own folders)
     - January 1
   - Family
     - Thanksgiving 2009
     - Christmas 2009
   - Vegas 2010

For business uses it's more like this...

Hard drive
 - AFamily
   - RAW Files
   - Lightroom Conversions
   - High Res Edit
- MBridals
  - RAW Files
  - Lightroom Conversions
  - High Res Edit

and so on and so on for every shoot.

I just deleted 70GB from my 500GB hard drive that windows runs on.
I backed up every single folder on the drive to another internal drive and 2 separate external drives. 8 hrs a piece to copy everything over twice. I think im a little crazy and I think ima need more space soon.

Black & White Wednesday - Family

Ok...so Emily left a comment on my last Vegas post...and it's just habit that i click on the names of the people that comment, even if I know exactly where it's going to lead me, and even tho I had just read her blog the day before. The last post i read was a submission for The Trendy Treehouse. but when i read her blog this morning...i see a new submission, to a new site I hadnt seen before, The Long Road to China. I glanced around there quickly...and now im pretty sure I'll spend the rest of my morning reading it from start to finish. LOL but not before I finish this post... Man. I've been meaning to start doing photography submissions for quite some time... A popular one is I Heart Faces. that's actually the first one i knew of...and i hadnt started submitting there either. Mainly 'cause it looked overwhelming, and I hadnt had the time to sit down and actually figure out what the heck to do with it. So here's to hoping this post sparks me to do that. Back to Black & White Wednesdays... I much enjoy processing in black & white. There's so many techniques to it. After today, I hope to also let you know which techniques I used, and also start posting these on my photography blog if not here also. That's the plan. And it has to start somewhere. (and i realize i posted this on the photo blog already - but im just trying to kick myself in the butt to get this going and motivate me for future weeks, yay!)

This is my cousin Justin and his wife and little boy. I took this Saturday, because Evan's about 6 months old now. He was getting sleepy towards the end. Evan Jeremy Ray is named after Justin's brother who was killed in action in Iraq.

Last Vegas 2010, Best for Last

I saved Terry Fator for the end of my Vegas posts. 'Cause he was awesome! I'm not gonna lie, i didnt watch America's Got Talent, and all I knew about him going into the show was that he was a ventriloquist. I had no idea he impersonated. And sang. and did comedy. all at one time. Wowzers!

Terry Fator is awesome because:

- He's from Texas! (Mesquite to be exact)
- All of his proceeds from merchandise sales go to help wounded soldiers
- He let you take pictures! He also does a meet and greet for free after the show.

Walking into the theater you see the usual vegas show sign "no cameras allowed." Well, it's Vegas. I'm not going to the hotel straight after the show...im going to have a look around, visit the Bellagio, do stuff I want to take pictures of. I have my camera with me. I dare not take it out the bag. Until...

Terry opens his show with Winston the Impersonating Turtle - and he says the rules are... there are no rules! He tells everyone to take as much photo and video as you want because he knows we snuck 'em in anyway. That the flash doesnt bother him and to go upload those videos on youtube when you get home. I looked at Justin with my eyes open wide going really!!?! Realllly!!!!?!?!? It was fantastic. That just doesnt happen in Vegas.

Anyway, the show starts and it was brilliant. A must see for sure.

Winston the Impersonating Turtle(If i read online correctly, this is the new Winston?)


Winston (he likes the Bee Gees) & The Fifth Beatle!


The Fifth Beatle - if you can just imagine the commentary...


This is Walter T. Airedale - i believe this is his oldest puppet. He likes to sing Garth Brooks



This is Maynard Thomkins aka the best Elvis impersonator in Vegas



I wish i could remember this little girl's name...


Here's Wrex, a crash test dummy



And then there's Julius (who i think is also a fresh face that used to look different)



The night we were there, Terry presented two charities with these checks from his merchandise sales!



Duggie Scott Walker (the annoying neighbor) - (by what i can tell online, he's also an old character, but newly designed) He likes rock n roll!



Vikki the Cougar



Maynard makes another appearance


There's also some more skits he performed that involved an audience member, as well as some songs without the puppets.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!