Vacation 2012

Ah vacation, the promise of relaxtion, fun, and exciting memories. My vacation in March was all of that! :)

My hubby and I embarked on a road trip to Savannah, GA (for starters). Savannah is a 12 hour drive from our home in Wilmington, Ohio. We made it to our hotel around 6 on a Friday evening. We noticed while driving through the town for our dinner reservation at The Pirates House (http://thepirateshouse.com/), that the town was really busy. We just figured that was normal on an 80 degree night in the south on a Friday and went and had an excellant dinner at a historic Savannah landmark.

This is us outside the restaurant after dinner! :)

The next day we were up bright and early and headed to downtown Savannah. I was convinced that one could just walk all around Savannah and see everything and have a grand ole time, in cowboy boots no less. I was wrong! We did walk a good deal of it and see lots of historical squares and the gorgeous Forsyth Park, but I would not recommend attempting to walk the whole town. They have guided trolley and walking tours everywhere. Those are a fabulous idea. Another thing we found out is that the reason town was so busy the night before was that it was the 100th anniversary weekend of the girl scouts. Wouldn't you know it, we couldn't find a single cookie. If anyone that has influence in Savannah reads this, may I suggest a year round girl scout cookie store. I'm positive it would be a hit. :) We learned while there that the woman that founded the girl scouts was from Savannah. We saw her house. I won't pretend to know anything more about the girl scouts other than that. Here are a few of the pics of the downtown area. 

 Forsyth park fountain! Water was dyed green either for girl scouts or St. Patty's Day. Not sure which.

 This could have been a great shot, but the town was very crowded. :(

 One of the many squares

 Some row houses.

 First monument we came to.

 Hubby and I in front of the fountain! :)

For those of you that area Food Network fans, you have heard of Paula Deen. Well her restaurant, Lady and Sons, (http://www.ladyandsons.com/) is located in Savannah, as well as a store of her items right next door. We didn't get a chance to eat at the restaurant, but we did buy a very cute tea towel and some recipe cards from the store. Of course, I still had to get a pic of the restaurant and the store.

A few miles outside of Savannah is Tybee Island. We headed that way for the afternoon and went to the Tybee Lighthouse. 

This lightbouse is 187 steps to the top. My hubby isn't a big fan of heights to I braved it alone and for the next couple days, my legs didn't want to work at all. lol. But, the view from the top was great and I'm glad that I climbed it.

After leaving the lighthouse, we headed over to Captian Mike's Dolphin Tours, (http://www.tybeedolphins.com/index.html) This is great little trip out into the Atlantic. You get pretty close to the historic Cockspur Lighthouse and you are basically guaranteed to see dolphins. We even saw a little black one that was only 3 days old.

 This is me looking for dolphins, that is also my husband's finger over the lens. lol :)

 Us on the boat, pretty windy out there on the open seas. ;)

 Cockspur Lighthouse. I really wanted to go inside, but it isn't allowed. :(

 Boats

 If my hubby ever gets into the shrimpin business, he has to name a boat Hanna Suzanne. :)

 Baby dolphin

That evening, we had a reservation at a Belford's restaurant (http://www.belfordssavannah.com/) in City Market (http://www.savannahcitymarket.com/) I just have to say quickly, if you plan a trip to Savannah, make dinner reservations early. You would be surprised how quickly things fill up. We got very lucky and had fantastic meals while we were there. The filet at Belford's pretty much melted in your mouth. I still dream of that steak. lol :)

After dinner we had made a reservation for a horse drawn carriage ride through Savannah (http://carriagetoursofsavannah.com/) that was a ghost tour. We really enjoyed this. The tour guide was great, the carriage was cozy, but we didn't see any ghosts. Savannah is considered to be the most haunted city in the U.S. Lots of lots of history and stories there, including mass graves under the city. Many of the hotels, inns, and what have you actually advertise their haunted rooms. Cool stories, but I for one am not brave enough to willingly stay in a haunted room. Non the less, the ghost carriage tour was a great time and probably our favorite part of the Savannah trip (except for the steak) :)

These were the lovely horses that pulled us around. :)

We spent one more night in Savannah and then headed south toward Florida. My mother-in-law lives on the Atlantic coast. We went and spent most the day with her and had dinner and that evening we headed acorss the state to the Gulf coast to our next destination. My cousin and his beautiful wife bought theire first home a few months back and are expecting their first baby this fall. We were thrilled to be able to stay with them. One little bump in the road...

Apparently in FL, they think its ok to have roads completely made of sand. Our GPS actually took us down this "road". It was about a mile from our destination. Thank goodness, because my cousin was able to come and pull us out. Notice the tire in front of us in the sand from the last victim. If you go further down this road, the sand actually gets about knee deep. Sand=1, Volvo=0.

We spent the next 3 days with my family just hanging out and doing a few touristy things. We had a family jam session with my uncles and cousins playing bluegrass and mountain music. I love this, because these are some of my best memories from growing up:

 The taller one in the back with the lighter guitar is my Papa! :)

The fella in flannel leaning on the bench is my big brother. :)

 My niece Amelia (2.5 yrs)

 My niece Gabbie with a lizard (almost 3)

My Grandpa (85), my Brother (31), my Papa (50), and my nephew, Cas (7 months). I was thrilled to be able to get a 4 generation shot of 4 of my favorite men! :)

We checked out Tarpon Springs, which is home of the greek sponge docks. Pretty cool place to visit if you have never been there. :) We went into the small aquarium they have and watched a love shark feeding show.

 Live shark feeding show

 Greeks are good with dessert! :)

 My niece and I

 Hubs and I

My nephew, Cassander! :)

While in FL, one must go to the beach, so we did.

 Horseshoe crabs were everywhere

 My cousin had to be on crab patrol so my niece wouldn't get hurt

 Me playing in the sand. :)

My Papa and my niece Amelia. She loves her grandpa. :)

We also went to Homosassa Spring's. This is probably one of the best zoo experiences I have ever been too. It is all shaded and the animals were out and about the whole time. A photographers dream in my opinion. I could have spent all day there. In fact, I kept having to catch up with the family. They are used to me laggin behind for pics! :) http://homosassasprings.org/Homosassa.cfm

 Underwater viewing observatory of manatees.

 Hippo that is 50 years old. They only live to about 30 in the wild.

 My niece was calling the hippo "here hippo" so cute :)

Amelia and the squirrel. :)

We spent a day boating and swimming in the Rainbow River. http://www.therainbowriver.com/ Rainbow River is beautiful. It is spring fed and is one of the last natural rivers in the U.S. You aren't allowed to bring anything disposable on the boats with you (makes it hard with 2 little girls in diapers) We had a beautiful day for this. We took 3 boats and 20 family members and had a wonderful day! :)

 The water is just beautiful in the entire river. You can see all the way to the bottom and some of the springs are 80 feet deep.

That concludes our time in FL, lots of good times with family, I just love making good memories! 

After we left FL, we headed north with my Dad, Step-Mom, Step-sister, my sister's friend, and our niece, Amelia (they live in KY) On the way home, we stopped at a lovely cabin in Helen, GA for the night. The cabin was just outside of Unicoi State Park. http://www.gastateparks.org/Unicoi.

Helen, GA is an Alpine type town and the Chatahoochee River runs right through it. 

I wish we had been able to spend a little more time in Helen, but we did get to see the Anna Ruby Falls. It is a double waterfall. Its about a half mile hike up a paved path and there are a couple viewing decks built at the falls. Beautiful scenery all the way up. Totally worth going to. :)

http://www.helenga.org/business/anna-ruby-falls-visitor-center.

On our way out of town, we made one quick stop about a quarter mile from the Appalachian Trail and took some pics of the Georgia scenery.

Well, that concludes my preview of Smithson Vacation 2012. I took right around 2,000 pictures. I was able to narrow down my facebook post to about 330 and obviously narrowed that even farther down here. Thanks for reading and have a great day!! :)

February Kocher/Clark Wedding!

I had the pleasure of photographing a beautiful wedding in mid February (I know, I'm terribly behind), at a historic hotel. The lovely couple did a vintage winter type theme and it worked perfectly with the vintage elements of the hotel. Here are just a few photos of the day! :)

Congrats to Melissa and Jason! :)

Baby Olivia: {4 months}

I had the pleasure of photographing sweet baby Olivia and wanted to share some of my favorite images with everyone. I photographed her parents wedding several years ago and I was delighted when they asked me to do a session with their little one. She is a beautiful little girl. Comments and critiques are welcome! :)

 Olivia and her Daddy

 The above one is probably my favorite! :)

 She has such a sweet smile! :)

 Olivia and her Mama!

 Her Mommy found some of the cutest outfits and headbands!



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! :)