Orchestrated

My best friend's little sister is getting married!
I first met A when she was in the third grade, and because of the sweet big sister that she has, I remember A playing with us from time to time in their neighborhood growing up.

She has found her match! C is such a sweetie. He is a funny, outgoing guy, but also so cute with her, the way he cares for her, and makes sure that she is happy all the time.

This is their wedding color scheme: pink, orange, & green - Spring!
(They're getting married 3.7.09)

They met while studying across from each other at the UNT library, so of course we had to include that locale in our shoot!
I think the way they met is a neat story, and just meant to be: they had never seen each other on campus before, but after seeing each other in the library the first time, they ran into each other again that same night at a computer lab across campus from the library, and then bumped into each other a third time the very next day while passing each other on the campus sidewalks!
(After seeing this girl for the third time in two days, C realized that he should probably get her number!)
UNT has 35-40,000+ students... I'd say this match was orchestrated.

Congratulations, friends!

Exciting News!

BP has a new Chick!

After realizing that working 7 days a week, and well into the evenings on a regular basis isn't normal.... I decided it was time to hire some help! I now have a new editing assistant, who started with me this morning, and oh, just knowing that she is here is SUCH a blessing! I am so excited to be able to have a faster turn-around time for my clients, and MORE BLOGGING! I know the blog has been scarce lately, and therefore looking like it has not been hectic, but ironic that it's just the opposite! Trying to get sessions out to clients is a little higher on the priority list than blogging, so that's where the time goes.

Anywho... I meant to take a picture of her this morning, but we were too busy working! I will introduce her when I return from my trip this week. I will be out of my office for the next week, but I am going to delay some blogs so they get posted while I'm gone, and then I'll post about my trip when I return!

Off to finish up work and pack, but I'll leave you with another picture of sweet K, from her Arboretum session last week... she needed mommy's help climbing the steps...

Family who plays together stays together!!

Today was an eventful family day for the 'ole Birdseye house.... a FAMILY FEUD day to be precise...

Yes! "Crazy" your thinking?! or "Who actually does that?!" I know! I still can't get over that we actually went through with this and auditioned!
Let me tell ya, it was So.Much.Fun.
Our team was: my mom, my sister-in-law, my little brother (behind John O'Hurley), my hubby, and myself.
My sister-in-law saw that they were having Dallas auditions and got the ball rolling. Before-hand, I was a little reserved, thinking, 'it will probably end up as a nice family afternoon together - most likely won't make the show', but it ended up being a FANTASTIC experience, and to-boot, I think we stand a chance at making it!

Take a look at our enthusiasm, if you will, and be the judge...

We always cheered after everyone's answer and said "good answer, good answer!!!"

We gave high-5's and hugs to each other if someone got the answer right, and if they got it wrong, we still cheered them on...we gave so much energy that it wore us out when we were finished!

Look at us clasping our hands in support of her answer! (We always wanted to look active, we tried to not just stand there with our hands at our side. Oh yeah, we had a strategy!)
:)

It was a room of about 30 families, or so, and two families took turns playing against each other in a mock-game, (you only played once as a family, they just paired you up with a random family.) We were asked two questions, so each family in the round had a chance to play, and our final question was "What is a bird that cannot fly?" It was the other team's turn to have all their players give an answer, which means our family had the chance to steal their points if they did not get all the answers. Well, they did not get all the answers, and so for our steal, my mom came up with "jailbird", and not only was that the correct answer, but the host said no one ever gets that part of the question!
I'm tellin' ya, we did so well!

We were funny, clever, entertaining, and not a bad bunch to look at, if the American audience will have us! It was SO FUN! We find out in a couple weeks if we made it, and I certainly will let you know!
*Oh, so my husband, wearing the Family Feud hat, was 1 of 2 people who got a hat! You only received the hat if you were a fun contestant, and had enthusiasm, and I think it bodes well for us that he was given one! The host of the show liked him because you know how, (if you're a Family Feud watcher), at the end of the round, when the host calls out the answers on the board that were left, as-in the contestants did not get all the answers, and after the host calls out the unnamed answers, the audience repeats what he says in a slow, monotone way. Well, my hubby had that down the whole time we were there, and we had a front row table, while the other families were competing, so we were in the view of the host and talent scout the whole time! It got to where, if there were a lot of unnamed answers at the end of the round, the host turned to my hubby, (we had name tags on), and said "Stuart, get ready, there's a lot to call out!"

AND.... since the Family Feud plays on channel 33 in Dallas, the news crew from that station was there! With us sitting in the front of the room, the cameraman taped us several times, and the camera was in my face, so it wasn't like I didn't know what was going on, so yes, we laid the cheering on THICK when the camera was in our face!

Turns out, we made the evening broadcast!

I am the one whooping my arm in the air yelling "let's go Keisha!" Do I know who Keisha is? No, but she was my co-auditioner, and the camera was in my face:

The screaming, cheering, clapping that is going on in the audience was done the whole two hours we were auditioning!

Fun was had.

Water Baby

Earlier this week I met this 20-month-old beauty at one of my favorite places to shoot.

She was a joy to be around as we cruised through the gardens looking for fun spots to play.

Just say the word "water" and she is captivated! They have large pools around the greenery, and if her mommy wasn't there to hold on to her, she would have dived in!

I think I made a friend.

Kisses Are "A-OK"

Baby A is 3 months old and the pride of her family, (betcha can't tell!)

While her Aunt J gives her kisses, A decided to give the "OK" symbol with her little hand! She just wanted to let us know that life is good with her family around.

It was a windy morning when we met, and A needed a little lovin' from mommy & grandma every now and then to remind her that the harsh, blowing wind was not a form of torture! The poor thing, it took her breath away!

Oh, you may have noticed that she has filled out quite a bit! Her mommy & daddy sure are doing a good job! She has so many adorable rolls, I just wanted to squish her precious thighs!

While I wish I was entertaining enough to be able to claim that my clients crack up at me this much - this hysteria is due to baby A's stroller rolling down the hill, gaining speed, then toppling over in to the Denton courthouse bushes! Perfect timing!

* (I woke up the morning of their session with the thought 'ottoman' in my mind - random! The ottoman that A's stylish grandma is sitting on is my very own from my living room! My husband gave me a funny look as I requested his help loading it into my trunk, but I'm so glad I did! It came out exactly like I had envisioned upon my awakening. Does that ever happen to you guys? Some mornings, when I'm still in a half asleep/awake mode, ideas about my business, or about anything I suppose, will come to me, and they're usually pretty successful! Weird... maybe I should sleep more. Or, in spurts, possibly, so I'd have more of those "waking up" moments more often....anyways, enough rambling!)

Oh. My. Goodness. Do you see that lip? 3 months old! She has me wrapped around her finger and I've met her twice! With pouty faces like that, mommy & daddy don't stand a chance.

We had a really fun morning together. They are a sweet family!
I loved that they wanted to do all different sorts of groupings between the 6 of them. It allowed me to keep the locations spontaneous!

Precious! Rolls, rolls, rolls.
*I played with a different coloring feature that I didn't know I even had! Sort of that vintage/fade/wash look. I like it!

So this is a zoomed-in crop of the original of the picture above. I have never had this happen before: I was looking at this picture, and saw a black mark on her shirt and thought it was a tear. When I zoomed in closer, I saw that it was a bug in flight! What are the timing odds?! Well, like I said, it has never happened to me before! Obviously I took it out of the edited picture, but I thought it was fun, so I wanted to share the original!

10 fingers, 10 toes, 1 miracle

Last week, I was invited to play with 5-week-old Z!

His mommy and daddy consider him their little miracle. They tried several fertility options, and just when they thought they may start a different route, he came in to their lives.
It was sweet to see his mommy's interaction with him. He's here, he's perfect, and she is in love!

*The Shot!!!* We tried so hard to capture this image and I'm so pleased with how it came out!
I happened to arrive as he was waking up from a nap, so we got several awake pictures, but I knew I wanted to try and capture this part of his room, and his mom loved the idea as well, but doing this shot with an awake baby just doesn't quite work as well as when they are asleep and unaware that they are lying on an armoire! (We tried awake in this shot, didn't happen!) It had been a couple hours since my arrival, and we knew he was getting sleepy again, so after we were finished with the rest of his shoot, between Mom and Grandma, they fed him and rocked him off and on until he was finally out enough to make this shot happen!
Not only did Mom want this captured because his room is so gosh darn cute, but because there are several heirlooms in this image. The armoire he is lying on is 60 years old, the little clown doll to the right was his grandfather's doll as a child, and the silver bowl and spoon to the left was also his grandfather's.

Congratulations on your healthy, handsome, baby boy!

July Cover

Have you received your July edition?
(you North Texas locals....and by North Texas, I mean Denton...)

This was a fun shoot! We have been using young children on the cover for a while, so I loved the idea of using teenagers, and even the homeowner's cat showed up! It is very summery, comfy, home-like, Southern & casual. I think it turned out great!
It makes me look forward to snuggling on a blanket while watching fireworks and eating fried chicken, and well, watermelon!

Yay for summer!