Photo of the Month - December 2010

While rain isn't a good thing when trying to photograph a wedding, it's awesome what it does to nature.  After a rainfall, it leaves beautiful texture and a glistening all around.  It almost looks like jewelry.  This leaf caught my eye and I just had to photograph it.  The different lines and textures are so interesting.  I hope you find it as beautiful as I do.  Florida is such a great location to find nature like this.

Photo of the Month - September 2010

This Photo of the Month I chose two photos of this beautiful flower I saw at a botanical garden.  It had rained earlier that day, so the rain drops added another cool aspect.  Then I saw this little bug guy hanging out, so I waited for him to land and captured the moment.  Nature has such amazing “art” all around.  It’s truly beautiful and I love taking some time to be able to capture some of its beauty.  I hope you enjoy these. 

Photo of the Month - August 2010

I was so busy with the Pinups for Pitbulls 2011 calendar submissions during the month of August, that I totally forgot to post my Photo of the Month, which happens to be a Pinups for Pitbulls image.  So here is my Photo of the Month for August.  Hey it's August 31st, but it's still August.  Lol.  I submitted four different sets of photos for their 2010 calendar last year.  I was so excited to find out that two of my images were finalists.  And then super excited to find out that one of them made it into their calendar!  Yeaaa!!!  This is the image that they used for their August 2010 image.  The model is my friend LaQuaisha and the dog is Rusty, owned by my friends Jessica and Justin.  They were both great to work with.  LaQuaisha had never "modeled" before, and look how cute she looks.  So anyone can be a model for Pinups for Pitbulls.  And Rusty was just happy that he got to eat so much ice cream that day.  Lol.  We went through a few cones by the time the session was over.  If you would like to check out the rest of the calendar or purchase one, or to learn more about the Pinups for Pitbulls charity, please visit www.pinupsforpitbulls.com.  They are a great charity that tries to educate people that pitbulls are not these evil dogs that some people think, plus help out injured pits and shelters.  This year I submitted seven different sets of images for their 2011 calendar.  I can't wait to see the images they choose.

Photo of the Month - July 2010

I decide to use one of my favorite Model Session images for this month's Photo of the Month.  This photo has got to be from one of the most fun Portrait Sessions I've done.  Plus most dangerous!  Haha.  I saw some portrait somewhere online with fire, and thought "Hmmmm, that would be fun to try!"  I wanted to glam it up a bit with a fashion model look.  The fire is real!  No editing it in later.  We took some rope made a circle around the model, then drenched it with lighter fluid, finally added the fire with matches.  It didn't stay too long, so my husband had to keep lighting the rope, until it burned away.  Pretty cool!  By the way, don't try this at home.  Haha.  We were in a large open concrete floored abandoned parking lot. 

Photo of the Month - June 2010

Ok, well sorry for skipping a month, I've been sooo busy with portrait sessions, print orders and meetings with brides, that I forget just to show off some of my everyday photos just for me.  For this month I'm going to show off my newest baby, Rocky.  He's very special to me.  My favorite cat Remy who passed about a year ago had the personality of a dog, and was like my best friend.  Since then I've been missing something.  It was time for our family to grow and add a dog.  I browsed online at various animal shelters and learned about different breeds to find my perfect fit.  I didn't want a huge dog that would weigh more than me, haha, but my hubby didn't really want a teeny lap dog either since he likes to go outdoors and wanted a runner.  I had a few dogs lined up to meet, but when I found Rocky online, something inside me just knew I wanted him.  The first time we meet he ran over to my husband and I, licked us, stayed by our sides while we visited, and wanted to go with us when we were leaving.  I just knew, it was love at first sight.  The first night be got him we went to the beach and had a blast.  We've had him about 6 months now and we're so in love.  He's by my side when I'm working on the computer (he's here right now as I type this), loves his walks, is buddies with our cats, so well behaved and loving.  I couldn't have asked for a better dog.  We took him to some training classes and he can do tricks, walk with us without his leash, knows commands, and is great with other people, kids and animals (although he does seem to prefer the ladies over the guys, haha).  He is just so wonderful and has made my life happier.  And he happens to be part pitbull, so for all of you that think pitbulls are "dangerous", you have got to be kidding me. Any dog can be as sweet as you train them to be, or if you're a jerk and train your dog to be mean, then any dog can be mean too.  I'm actually going to use Rocky this year for the Pinups for Pitbulls 2011 calendar submissions.  I'm excited!  Well here is a portrait of Rocky I took while I had my backdrop out for another session earlier in the day and of course wanted to get some portraits of my new child, so decided to do a session with him while my equipment was setup.  This image happens to be my favorite from his lil mini session.  So I proudly introduce you to Rocky.   :)

Photo of the Month - March 2010

For this month's "Photo of the Month", I just couldn't narrow it down to only one image.  But I am a lil bias to this month's subject matter.  This happens to be my cutie lil baby, Riley.  He's the newest kitty to join our family.  After a recent passing of another baby, Remy, I was extremely bummed and missing a kitty friend.  This cutie Riley was at an animal shelter.  We noticed he had no tail at all, which I am partial to, since Remy and 2 of our other cats only have little bobtails.  I picked up Riley and started crying since he reminded me of Remy, and he immediately started licking my tears away.  It was instant love.  So that's how we ended up with Riley.  These are some of his ummm, 'modeling' images.  Haha.  He just sat there perfectly while I snapped away.  Isn't he just cute?!?!

Haha, this one just cracks me up.  Don't be scared, he was only yawning.  I can even see a little hair that was stuck on his mouth.

Riley's shelter was http://www.hsslc.org/index.html Please support them.  They have tons of lovable cats and dogs there.

Photo of the Month - February 2010

For this month's photo I wanted to use one of my still lifes.  I photographed a lot of still life when I was first getting into photography.  Just as portraits can, still life can also tell a story, such as who was here or what just happened, or to tell something personal about a person.  For example when I photograph a bride's jewelry, shoes or bouquet on her wedding day, all of those items and very personal to her.  When looking at those items later on, they will remind her of her special day. 

This particular still life just caught my eye because of the great lines and shadows, and the bold colors.  I moved some of the items around to give it just the look I wanted.  I actually entered this photo into a contest and it won for the Still Life section and was published in a book called "International Photographers".  Yea!  I hope you like it too.

Photo of the Month - December 2009

This photo of the month is a tad late. Oops! December has been a CRAZY busy month for me. Everyone craving new family portraits before the year is over. I've been so involved in them that it totally slipped my mind for December's Photo of the Month. Anyway, I came across this cool photo I took of my hubby and decided to use it. He's a hardcore mountain biker and was bugging me about getting some images of him jumping. So one day I went with him to the park, waited by one of the jumps, and snapped a few shots. This one was my favorite. The park has trees and foliage everywhere, but this spot had some cool sunlight coming in. Plus he's making his 'bike' face, we call it, when he's concentrating on his jump. Haha.

Photo of the Month - November 2009

For this "Photo of the Month" I decided to use this cute little guy. Isn't he super adorable? I'm an animal person, so when I saw him, I just had to stop and take his photo. I got a few kisses out of it too. Recently I've been looking online at animal shelters for dogs. My best friend, my amazing cat Remy just passed not too long ago, so I've been wanting another buddy. This lil guy made me smile. Pugs just crack me up with how they look. So maybe I'll find myself a cute pug that needs some love.

Photo of the Month - October 2009

I'm a Floridian and proud of it. The thought of living in snow doesn't settle well with me. Lol. And to make it even better, I live in east Florida, pretty close to the beach. One thing I don't think we take advantage of enough is Florida's amazing sunrises and sunsets. So this photo is just that. My hubby and I went over to Stuart Beach, right by the Refuge House and watched the sunset. It was pretty awesome that day. Colors vibrant and clear, just enough clouds to add some more depth. And I just LUV that lens flair the sun is creating here in this image. Ahhh, makes me want to grab my sunscreen and a MaiTai. Haha!

Photo of the Month - September 2009

For this month's "Photo of the Month", I chose an older image from a model session I photographed. I really love this image because of the vibrant colors that really catch your attention (and aqua happens to be my favorite color). Plus they really bring out her dramatic eyes. It's fun to bring props into images that help bring it to LIFE (such as the peacock feathers)! I hope you enjoy this image as much as I do! :)

Photo of the Month - August 2009

For this "Photo of the Month" I decide to use this cool photo I took of my hubby, Nick, a few months ago in June. We are Disney World Freaks. We love the place! Everything is just so awesome; the atmosphere, the cool architecture, the food, the beautiful hotels, the fun, the whole 'magicalness' of it, we love it all. And being not too far away, we visit often. So when I had family coming in town from Kansas wanting to go to Disney, we of course said we'd tag along with them. Sneaking away for some 'us' time, we visited the Disney Coronado Springs Hotel for dinner and just to relax and walk around. The hotel has a Mexican theme and has some very cool and beautiful architecture around. Of course I had my camera with me, so we walked around and photographed some interesting shots of the place. I love this one because of the repeating arches and the cool lighting. Since I didn't have a tripod with me, I laid down on the ground and stayed VERY still to capture this image. I think it turned out pretty cool. I hope you think so too. And look at my hubby, all posing for me! What a good 'model'. :)

Photo of the Month - July 2009

Since blogging is a fairly new concept (very new to me since I just got into it), I was not able to post tons of cool images while I was creating them. So in the beginning of each month, I'm going to pick one of my favorite images I've photographed in the past and blog about it. It's only July 2nd, so I'm not far behind. Let's hope I can keep up with this!

This image was done back a few years while I was in college (probably in 2004?). Being a photography major, we always had to be shooting something. The 'model' here is actually one of my best friends, Simone, in her bridesmaid dress for MY wedding. We had recently picked up the dresses and I decided I would dress her up in it, put a ton of makeup on her, and do some dramatic black&white images. Yes, this was back in the film days (gasp!) so I was using black&white film (later put onto a CD). I used one main hot lamp for my light source, and afterwards over developed the film during the process (we had to develop the film ourselves) to give it that very high contrast, dramatic look. The images turned out very cool and she looks super hot in them. We both loved them (and so did the professor)!