Rock the Shot February photo challenge..Love!

This month's photo challenge at Rock the Shot is Love. I thought about this a few minutes and wanted to submit a photo that is a little out of the "norm" Weddings, babies, families...all of these are obviously great ways to show love in photos, but I think most of the entries are going to be along those lines. In my case, if someone asked what I love the most, my dogs are going to be at the top of my list with my family and friends. I'm sure there are many people out there that feel the same way with their pets. :)

In June of last year, my ole girl had a litter of puppies and when they were about 4 weeks old, my cousin and his wife brought their adorable girls to see the puppies. This girls were absolutely thrilled to play with the puppies and I'm pretty sure they fell in love at first sight. :) The image I chose to submit for the contest is of Lily (3), giving one of the puppies a big smooch! :)

The color on the image was slightly adjusted in Photoshop CS5 and has the boho glamour action from Oh So Posh Photography's Bohemian Symphony. :)

www.rocktheshotforum.com

What does a photo mean to you?

Some of our most cherished possessions are photographs. From the time we are born, there is almost always someone there creating a photograph of every special or important event in our life. The day we are born, a photo is taken. Our first birthdays and every birthday there after for years to come. Our first days of school, our ball teams or dance recitals. High school dances, high school graduations, first day of college, college graduations, and from that point you are most likely planning weddings, having babies, going on amazing vacations and celebrating new jobs or promotions. I imagine you get the idea at this point. :)

The funny thing is, with the exception of wedding photos, most people don't put too much stock into the photos at the time they are taken. I have also found after shooting many weddings, that the favorite wedding photos are the candid shots. The posed shots tend to be framed and displayed, but so many times, I have a bride tell me that their favorite shots are the unplanned, natural shots. Those types of shots also usually end up being the photo that is cherished by the family for years to come.

This past week, I lost my Grandmother. She turned 80 in October and we were very lucky to have had a nice party for her and the entire family was there to celebrate. Which was great because we were able to get a photo of the entire family. My Grandpa has been gone 27 years, but Gram, her 5 children, 9 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren (so far) were all there including our spouses.

 

While working on the slideshow, that played during Gram's viewing, I was so happy that we made sure to take lots of photos at the party. There was a bit of grumbling about having pics that day, but everyone made it through and the above was the result. I look at the kids in this photo and hope that years from now, they look back at this photo and realize how blessed they are to have this family that loves them so much and that we all gathered to celebrate their great grandmother.

This next photo is of my grandparents (my mom's parents) on their wedding day in 1952.

The next two photos are of my Dad's parents. They are both still with us and have been married over 63 years. They have 7 children, 28 grandchildren, and so far we are up to 30 great-grand children.  

I am so happy that someone created these 3 photos over 60 years ago. I have to wonder if the people that shot them realized how important they would be all these years later. 

The moral of the story folks is this: TAKE PICTURES! :) 

Save those pictures, pass them on to the next generation and if you have old pictures that need some restoration, have that done too. You just never know how important that photo you take today could be to someone 60 years from now.   

Happy 2012

A new year is upon us! What kinds of fun and exciting goals or resolutions do you have for the new year? I am not one to do resolutins, but for the past 3 years I have made goals for myself that I write down and try my hardest to follow. For the past 2 years one of my biggest goals has been to complete New York Institute of Photography. I have decided to help my self along, I will post my progress on this blog. I have only turned in 3 assignments, so it won't be starting too far along. The next one that is due is portraits. So, stay tuned and I will post my images and the critique I get back for all to see. (hopefully its good, lol)

Happy New Year everyone, make it your best year yet! :)

And just for the fun of it, I attached a couple pics of my new years eve with my husband and some of our friends! :)

Merry Christmas!

Well another Christmas has come and gone. I hope that everyone reading this had as much fun as I did and that Santa was good to you! :) When I wasn't working, I was blessed to be able to get my shopping done early, baking done, decorating done, wrapping done, eating done ;), and of course spending some time with the family.

Several days before Christmas my husband and I traveled a few hours south to my Dads home in Kentucky and we had a wonderful couple of days there. After the dinner and the exchanging of gifts, we all loaded up and headed over to the Kentucky Horse Park for the Southern Lights. They have a nice light set up on the drive into the park and then they have a petting zoo (with porcupines….really), gift shops, food, and all that fun stuff. J I have 2 nieces that are 2 years old and they had a great time at the petting zoo. My 4 month old nephew wasn’t quite as enthused, but he did like the lights. J  

Here is just a small sampling of the some of the awesome lights to be seen at the http://kyhorsepark.com/

Also for Christmas this year I was so happy to receive a gift card from my Dad and Step-Mom to my favorite place to buy camera equipment. I can't wait to start shopping! :) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Last but not least, I have wanted a small point and shoot camera for awhile now. I almost always have my Sony DSLR with me and it can sometimes be cumbersome. Also, I have wanted something to take hunting and fishing with me that I wouldn't worry about possibly getting wet, too cold, or falling out of my tree stand. So, my husband came through for me and bought me this:
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666296230

I was able to use it at Christmas #2 at my moms house and I loved it. The camera is smaller than my cell phone and takes great pics. I haven't had the opportunity to test all the features, but I'm sure I will get around to it soon!

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that you find many blessings in the new year! I've already got my list of goals for 2012 started and I am eager to get started! I'm thinking next post will be goal oriented! ;)

Happy New Year Everyone! Be safe! :)

What to Wear!

Here is the what to wear guide for this seasons festivities! Outfits great for the whole family for Christmas parties, formal Christmas dinners, or new years eve. Of course, we all like to look nice for Christmas photos! :)

Farming and Photos

I was raised in the country surrounded by farms and I was an active member of my high school FFA chapter. Through FFA, I showed hogs, judged livestock, crops, soil, grew crops and participated in a number of other things. FFA was without a doubt the best thing I did in high school to prepare me for the "real world" After having spent so much time hunting on farms and sitting through ag classes and going to farm equipment shows gave me a good foundation to be a farmers wife.

My husband and I are multi-taskers. I am a 911 disaptcher/Photographer and he is a Police Officer/Farmer. My husband and his twin brother have helped their grandfather farm since they were quite young and while their grandfather does incredible for his age (he's 88) they have basically taken over the farming duties. Over the past couple years, I have become more and more interested in the actual farming process. While in college, I would ride in the combine with my husband between classes, but that was more to get a chance to spend time with him then to actually learn anything. Now, I find myself watching weather, something I have never in my life done unless I was planning an outdoor event. I listen to farm reports and check soybean prices. When my husband tells me about a tractor, I am actually interested and not just acting like it to make him happy. ( Don't judge me, I know he does this when I tell him about a new camera (; ) Don't get me wrong, I have always had an agricultural interest, but I tend to be more interested in livestock and small gardening. (My husband's family has not raised livestock in many years.) I guess my point is that Soybean varieties weren't usually a topic of conversation between us until recently. The farm is a soybean farm only. This is rare in Ohio, as most farmers will alternate soybeans and corn each year. So, please don't ask me about corn, all the knowledge I really have on corn variety is sweet, field, indian, and pop! ;)

I consider myself very blessed to have a husband that loves to farm and that this is a lifestyle we enjoy so much. I can't imagine a spring coming that wouldn't be joined by the smell of fresh turned soil and me checking the spray schedule so that my beloved flower beds don't get doused with weed killer carried on the wind from the field that is about 10 steps out my front door. Fall for me always meant deer season and holidays. Now it also means I will find handfuls of soybeans in my washer and dinner will be either delivered to the field or won't happen till well after dark. This year while my brother in law manned the combine, I rode on the side of the tractor while my husband hauled wagons back and forth from the field to the barn lot. As usual, I had my camera and wanted some non-traditional night time farm photos, so this is what I came up! I was pretty happy with the result. God willing, I will have more farm photos in the future! :)

 
Oh and just for fun, here is a site with some fun farm facts! :)
http://www.farmersfeedus.org/fun-farm-facts/

Bad Moon Rising

A full moon is always a good and a bad thing for me. A full moon for some reason tends to make people act a little wild. I work full time as a 911 emergency dispatcher so I know that anytime the full moon is rising, it will be an eventful night at work. Which again, can be good or bad. Eventful can mean many things in the law enforcement/emergency field. The full moon we had last week had us buys, but luckily nothing too serious. It also gave me a photo opportunity. If my friends or family are reading this, they are probably saying, "everything with Hanna is a photo opportunity." Anyhow, that being said, I was very nearly late for the 911 job, because I was standing in a field with a tripod and camera attempting to get a shot of the moon. I had to work fast, but this is the result. What do you think?