February Monthly Challenge

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An Ugly Sweater Christmas

I already mentioned that my wonderful husband bought me a brand new camera for christmas this year. When we got to my sister's house for christmas my dad hijacked my camera and took pictures with it pretty much all day. He took quite a few random pictures but here are a few of my favorites he took this year.


I should mention that this year for christmas we had a "ugly christmas sweater" theme. Clearly my cousin took the top prize for her creative and funny sweater.

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January Monthly Challenge

I am so excited to be involved in a monthly challenge with a group of great photographers. This month's challenge is close up portraiture. These photos are of my beautiful niece, Megan.



Be sure to visit my link partner, Sarah
Swing by and check out the other photographers in the group: Ashley, Angie, Caristy, Angela, Maria, Gina, Anne-Lise, Courtney, Megan, Rebecca

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Maternity Shoot

I was so excited when my friend Jennifer told me she was pregnant. I couldn't wait to take some maternity pictures for her. This was my first actual "photo shoot" with a person in it. I am fairly happy with how it turned out. I took this with my old camera that was hanging on for dear life, so I was having some issues with it still. But all considering I think they came out pretty good. One thing I need to really work on is my editing skills. So here is the beautiful Jennifer.

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My New Camera

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to open a brand new camera for Christmas this year. My wonderful husband bought me a Canon 60d which is a night and day difference from my 10 year old Canon Rebel that I was using. I love, love, love my new camera. I have aleady done some exciting things with it this year. I was able to use it to photograph a birth and am excited to do my first newborn session with it in the next week.

I'm super excited about the new year and what it will bring. I am thankful for God's blessings and can't wait to share some of it with you. Stay tuned!

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Film Talk Friday - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

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Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner & Marie-Josee Croze
Director: Julian Schnabel
Screenplay by: Ronald Harwood
Based on the Memoir: Le scaphandre et le papillon by Jean-Dominique Bauby


This week I had the privilege to watch The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I use the word privilege because it was such an amazing and inspiring film. It is a French film based on the autobiography written by Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was a renowned journalist and the editor in chief of French Elle Magazine. Bauby suffered a stroke and went into a coma for almost three weeks. When he awoke he was diagnosed with a rare disease locked in syndrome. With this syndrome his brain was fully competent and functional but he was paralyzed from head to toe. The only function he could perform was to blink his eyes. His left eye was bad and had to be sewn up leaving him with only his right eye. He worked with a speech therapist who worked out a way of communication with Bauby by reciting a frequency ordered alphabet. The alphabet was in the order of the most frequently used letters starting with E, S, A and R. Bauby would blink when the therapist said the letter he wanted and she would put together the words he was trying to express. Before Bauby had his stroke he had a publishing deal to write a book. He decided that he still wanted to write that book. Bauby had his therapist contact the publisher and the publisher sent out a translator to work with Bauby everyday to write his book. The translator worked with Bauby every day until his book was finished.

The film focuses on Bauby’s time in the hospital, his love life and his time before the stroke. Bauby passed away two days after his book was published of pneumonia. The book received great reviews and went on to become very successful. Once I found out this movie was based on his memoir I was just blown away of the determination and will power Bauby had. I am definitely going to go out and buy this book to read. I have a feeling it will be even more powerful than the movie. So if you can stand to read subtitles and have Netflix you need to watch this film! If you do, let me know what you think?

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Still Waiting...

Two weeks ago I was involved in an accident in my car. No one was injured but the lady that hit me had forgot her purse at the local Food 4 Less and was freaking out and in a hurry. Needless to say she changed lanes and didn't see me sitting in the lane next to her. That's right I was just sitting next to her waiting for the light. I have been waiting on her insurance to get my car fixed but because of the holidays it has taken forever to hear back from them. I had to send them some pictures today of the car. The damage isn't that bad everything still works and is driveable. So I am hoping my car will be back to its original condition within the next few weeks. I am thankful that it was only little cosmetic damage and no one was injured. Safe driving everyone!!

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