Sun Flare at I Heart Faces

This week is a hard one!  I kept putting it off, thinking I would get to it, but, again... I didn't.  Well, I did, but I didn't really like them.  I had taken a few at the workshop last week, but I was hoping that I would be able to do some others in the meantime.  Like I said, I tried, but the kids didn't really want to cooperate, my brother didn't want to cooperate, the sun didn't... you get the picture!?  Oh well, I do love this picture I am going to enter!  It is one of my favorites that I took at the workshop.  I love her expression, I love the sun, I love the trees, etc...  So, here is my entry for this weeks sun flare!  Anyone can enter, and it is so fun to see the other entries!  So head on over to I Heart Faces and join in on the fun!  And of course, who could forget that Becker is the judge this week.  There is really no pressure there at all!

I heart faces whrll story!

Amy and Angie also do a story on whrll... here is the post, I thought it was fun to remember it!  The reason I'm not in the first big group shot is because the car I was riding in got lost, so we missed the first part of the photo walk!

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Dallas, I Heart Faces Workshop

I just took a trip!  “What,” you say? Yeah, I know.  I haven’t gone on a trip in forever, at least by myself!  This trip was all business though.  I am serious.  We didn’t laugh, we didn’t get to know each other, and we didn’t do anything but take pictures and listen to boring… I mean BORING, lectures!  Can you see from the picture below how BORING it was?

I am soooo just kidding!

I HAD A BLAST!!!!!  It was so nice to get away for some me time! Thanks Drew, for this great picture too!  I love it!

I went to this workshop hoping to make some new friends, and to become a better photographer!  Well, I think I did both!  We laughed until we cried (yeah, I know that is a song, but that is what we did).  We made new friendships.  And, we all became better photographers.  We learned a ton!  We met some great photographers, that include D’Ann Wright, Amy Karp, and Pete Lacker.  They taught us so much.  And we had so much fun hanging out with Pete on the photo walk on Saturday.
We got there thursday, well most of us did.  We met in Amy and Angie’s room.  They are the co-founders of I Heart Faces.  We all got together and met some of the other girls who had come in that day!  We got to know each other and talked photoshop, bags, and photography. 
On Friday, we took a van down to the Dallas Arboretum, where we met up with the children that would be our models for the day.  D’Ann Wright was our teacher for the morning, so we followed her and the children around and just took pictures all morning long. 
In the afternoon, Amy Karp, and the model, Kim, met us for lunch and an afternoon photoshoot!  Amy made us shoot in manual all afternoon, which was a new thing for a lot of us!  But, it was a blast, and it was nice to learn how to do it!  I need to start focusing on doing that more often, because I noticed quite a difference in the quality of my pictures!  We had such a great time with her, and Pete Lacker also joined us that afternoon to give us some tips!
That night we went out to eat at Chuy’s, a Tex-Mex place down there.  We laughed and got to know each other, and just had a lot of fun!
The next day we met in the conference room, and Pete came to teach us all a few things!  We learned a lot about lighting, and a lot about photoshop.  He was so easy to talk to, so no one had a hard time asking questions or anything!  Then Amy, Andrea, and Angie taught us some more photoshop tips.  It was so much information, but good information!  We learned a ton!
Then we went downtown on a photowalk and learned some more!  But, first… we got lost, but then we found everyone, but that is another story!  We had so much fun that night.  We tried a real BBQ place, and seriously laughed until we cried.  It was so much fun!
One of the girls flew in from Germany, and she had never had doughnuts before, so after dinner we went down to Krispy Kreme so she could experience a doughnut!  They were nice and hot, and she had such a great time!  We also took her to Wal-Mart so she could experience that great store!
Then we had to say goodbye!  We all wished we could have had a few more days.  We were just getting to know each other and come out of our shells!  But, hopefully we can all remain friends through blogging and e-mail!  It is so great to be able to have this wonderful technology!  It was so awesome meeting everyone!  And… the trip was seriously all business.  NOT!!!!
Oh… and how could I forget!!  The trip was even more amazing… “Why,” you ask.  Because I won a new lens!  A new Tamron 18-200 mm Macro!  WHOOO HOoo!!  I never win anything, so it was quite the surprise to win the BIG prize!  So thanks Tamron.  And thanks Amy, Angie, and all the girls and photographers for an AWESOME weekend!  Stay posted for some more shots from this weekend as I get them edited!

Autumn beauty at I Heart Faces!

It has been awhile since I have participated in a challenge over at I Heart Faces, but I thought I would enter again this week!  I had a great time this weekend in Dallas with Angie and Amy, and 25 other attendees at the workshop!  We had such a blast, and we learned a lot too!

I was wishing I could take the kids out and do some pics before the leaves all blew away, but I didn't make it out.  Now it is too late... snow is now covering the ground!  We actually didn't get too much of a fall this year anyways, it froze too early and the leaves all fell before they really changed colors.  Although, I do love this picture!  We were up taking family pictures, by the dried cattails... I had the kids holding hands.  Madisyn didn't want to stay still, she kept going forward and backward and dragging Brevan and Sydney with her.  Then she fell...  This picture is right after when the kids are trying to pull her up.  She is trying to pull herself up too, so she is concentrating as she sticks out her tongue!  I love how she does that... just like her dad does when he is concentrating!  So.. here it is! 

Head on over to I Heart Faces to see some other great Autumn entries!

Finally!

So my computer died a couple of weeks ago, and we finally have our new one!  Yeah!!!!  I am hoping I can now start catching up on pictures, since I am probably a month behind now!  Also, one of my pics was featured on I heart faces for Fix-it-Friday!  I am way excited to see all the edits on this picture!  It is one of my favorites, but I can't get it right!  thankfully there are lots of people who have helped already!!  Head on over there to see it!

Finally posting for Marjie!

So, this week has been crazy!  My computer has finally died... that being said, I had to borrow my mothers laptop later in the week so that I could even work on some of these pics!  So, I am really sorry for taking so long!  Here are a few of the shots that I have been able to finish, and a few more that I haven't touched yet!  I had a lot of fun with the girls, they kept me on my feet the whole time!  They wanted to pose all over the place and they each had their own fun personalities!

Candid at I heart Faces

This is a fun week over at I heart Faces! Everyone should head over there and check out the fun entries! 

I took some pictures for my mom's friend this week.  This picture just made me laugh!  I loved it when I saw it.  The little girl is only a year old, and her mom was trying to get her to stand for a picture.  She had her apple in one hand (she wouldn't let go of it the whole photo shoot), and was trying to tell her mom she wasn't happy about this situation!  It was hilarious!  We had a good time, and here is my picture for candid week!

Head on over and check out the other great entries!