Freebies all full!

Thanks for the speedy responses! As soon as I have my lighting a little more figured out...(max 2 weeks?) I will call-

~OneHM and her 4

~Amy and her 4
~Misty and her 4

~Kim and Colter

SO actually that will be 13 free mini sessions, but I know all these kids, AND THEY ARE CUTE!!! (always good for the photographer!)

After I get these done and posted I will then decide on a price for regular mini-sessions and see what we can get going!

SO, in the next few weeks, OneHM, Amy, Misty, and Kim, be thinking about Darling COLORFUL clothes, Cute hairstyles and bows, and any cute props you might want to use! Also decide what color background you are going to want, because I am only going to do one color a day! (The rolls are 9 feet long and difficult to change without Dave's help!)

Work-in-progress-at-home studio!

Today Jaxon was my first subject in my "work-in-progress-at-home studio" ...and it went pretty well, although I did have to bribe his good behavior with being able to hold Bumble Bear. I am still working on some lighting issues... but anyway, once I get them figured out, I am going to do 10 FREE 15-minute mini-sessions to get a lot of examples and practice. If anyone is interested, I will use the first ten takers! I have blue, pink, and black backdrops at the moment. You can see a slight bulge in the backdrop in some of these... I didn't have a tool I needed to keep the backdrop from drooping down...but have not fear, I HAVE IT NOW!

Happy to have Bumble...

NOT wanting to give him up for a few shots...

WHAT? WHO?

There's the smile I love!

Those baby blues!

Okay, these are the eyes I get to gaze deeply into everyday! Seriously, are you so jealous? This picture is TOTALLY UNEDITED!!! (you can probably tell by the overexposure of light...) Anyway, how beautiful are those babies? They are the reason that a dark haired/skinned and EYED person like myself could have a light eyed baby. Thank you to Dave and his AWESOME GENES!!

(just as an FYI, Jaxon's eyes switch between blue, grey, and green depending on what he is wearing)

This might be it...

...But I make no promises. I just came across these pictures from one of the days at the beach at the family vacation. I just think they are funny because it just shows Jaxon's freakish flexibility and his inability to feel pain. Please note that Dave held him up by his arm for several seconds while the seaweed cleared away, and that Jaxon's arm turned all the way around in the process! Also note that Jaxon was not in the least bit phased.
I think I do the gymnastics world a great dis-service by not signing Jaxon up, he is small, light, ridiculously flexible, strong, and resistant to pain. I just knew some gymnists growing up, and I don't want it to run his life like it did theirs...sorry gymnastics, sorry.

Water and seaweed come in...

Jaxon has an aversion to seaweed, but not being held up by one arm...

All the seaweed sticks to Dad's legs, and Jaxon's arm turns all the way around!

It's the Law at Walmart!

This post is mostly about copyright and stupidity, but I couldn't resist using that catchy sentence that I just heard on the phone a few minutes ago.

Last weekend I took pictures for an awesome Samoan family that is here on vacation. They wanted to have all their pictures printed here before they went back to Samoa, because it's easier/faster/cheaper...(one of those...) anyway, Tala (The mom) calls me from Walmart and says they won't print the pictures because of copyright infringement. I told her, I sell the pictures, there is NO copyright, tell the photo person to check the METADATA (fancy word for info imbedded on the cd for every picture) and she will see that there is NO copyright info. Tala told the attendant that, who had no idea what she was talking about, and then got her manager. The manager came out and told Tala the same thing, no printing without a copyright release from the photographer. Tala called me back, and I was getting a little ticked.

I called the photolab at Walmart and got the ever-so-smart manager on the phone. I explained to her that I was the photographer, that there is no copyright on the pictures, and to CHECK THE METADATA!!!

She said, "I don't know about all this "megadata stuff" but I can't print these pictures without a copyright release."

I said, "LISTEN! THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT ON THE PICTURES! THEREFORE YOU DO NOT NEED A RELEASE! THERE IS NOTHING TO RELEASE!!! THIS IS REDICULOUS!!!!"

She said, (this is my favorite line...)"It's NOT rediculous! Its the law here at Walmart!"

Anyway, I could not make her understand anything, and Tala had to drive here and get a release! I am going over to Walmart to explain a thing or two to their genius photo department as soon as Jaxon wakes up!!! WISH ME (THEM!!!) LUCK!!!

PS- it's 8pm and I never made it to Walmart. Im my defense I was busy from the moment Jaxon woke up, until now...and...I am STILL busy...so, maybe I will just cuss them out a few more times in my head and be done with it!

No Dr. Pepper in the fridge?

We had quite the full day today, and Jaxon was cracking me up as usual. Here are a few of his recent antics...Yesterday at Quiznos, he accidently spilled a full cup of water right down the front of Dave's shorts. (Dave, by the way, was a real trooper and took the whole thing in stride!) Jaxon said to Dave,
"Dat water on your shorts...dats pretty funny!" And then started laughing hysterically!

This evening when we took the babysitter home (new babysitter who he LOVED LOVED LOVED) he invited her to come over after church tomorrow (he even included that she would have to come AFTER his nap) Then in his prayers I prompted him to say "Thank you for MaKenna"(babysitter) BUT he said, "Thank you for Makenna, please come over after church tomorrow after my nap!"

Also on the way home from dropping off the sitter he told me, "We don't have Dr. Pepper in the fridge. We need to stop at 'Donalds to get some more!" WHAT THE HECK??? Where did he get that? I was totally laughing!
We saw -Batman Dark Knight- tonight, I echo what everyone has already said...it was really good, and really dark.
Not much else going on here...Dave and I did an AWESOME project (actually still a work in progress) tonight. We are turning the loft into mostly an in-house studio for photography (I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED TO GET THIS BABY UP AND RUNNING!!!) So we:
1. Totally cleaned out the exercise room, AKA- JUNK ROOM
2. Went through all the stuff on 3 bookshelfs, trashed A LOT and moved the rest, along with the bookshelves, into the exercise room.
3. Started cleaning everything else out of the loft, and actually finding new places for it, and not just stuffing it somewhere else!

HURRAY FOR FINISHING PROJECTS!!!

Many are called, but few are Frozen!

(thank you Tyler for the catchy title!!!)

(Just an FYI- The story is funny, but this picture creeps me out!!!)

As many of you know, Dave is an auditor...this is basically a specialized kind of accountant, and I can practically hear through the computer your gasps of AWE at how exciting his work must be. (READ: dripping with sarcasm) Hey- my man likes what he does, and likes where he works, so I'm happy for him. But! He just recently got put on a brand new client, and it has actually been quite interesting/entertaining...at least for me! Dave is auditing a cryogenic freezing company. Yes, the people that do some fancy shmancy stuff to your body before freezing them in sub-zero temperatures in the hopes that one day they can be brought back to life! Aside from just crunching the numbers, Dave had to actually learn some things about the company (it's good PR) and watch a video about them. I am totally laughing (as if the idea of cryogenics isn't funny enough...) at one of the selling points on the video!

(here is my favorite part of the video)

VIDEO SECTION: MTYHS DEBUNKED

MYTH: Being Cryogenically frozen goes against major Christian religious beliefs

TRUTH: Being Cryogenically frozen DOES NOT go against the teachings of any Christian religions, and in fact, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have been frozen!

Is this funny to anyone else? First of all, who ever heard of using mormons as a selling point? Usually it's the opposite, and while we could use some positive PR- this is not quite what I had in mind. Second- what Mormon would actually do this? I'm pretty sure if you beleive what we believe, than this would just be a waste of a perfectly good $150,000.