Purple and Yellow

In my last post, I posted a pic of my husband.  He had a gray and bright blue hoodie on and was leaning against some bright yellow dumpsters.

 I loved the way the colors worked in that picture.  Turns out, they work so well because blue and yellow are near opposites on the color wheel making them complimentary colors.  Technically the true opposite of blue is orange, but yellow was close enough.  Do you want to know what the true opposite of yellow is?  Purple!  So I decided to go back downtown with a focus on color.  My daughter, Dani, graciously sacrificed her precious time and became my model and what a lovely model she was.  She also happens to own a purple hoodie. 

It's rather fun to pay attention to color choices when framing a picture.  I also had a picture of Dani in front of a red-colored brick and while she looked adorable, my eyes just didn't like it.  Frankly, the mix of her purple hoodie and the reddish brick was considerably unpleasing to my eye and now, with my handy color wheel, I know why.  If I learned anything from this experiment it's that, while it might be too difficult to match what your subject wears with the background, if perchance, I have a subject wearing a certain color, and I see a background in the midst of a shoot that has a very complimentary color, I should use it and have fun with how colors play with each other.   OR....I could ask my client to bring lots of colorful clothing to a shoot so we can experiment!



And while the color experiment with Dani turned out great.  There are always a few shots that I can't resist turning black and white.  The shots below had no yellow in them, but her surroundings and composition were interesting and she was beyond beautiful and I wanted to isolate that.  What better way to isolate your intriguing background or the subject than to subtract color?

Downtown

I absolutely love finding a nice grove of trees or a seemingly infinite field of wheat to take pictures in.  Nature makes a great backdrop, but recently, I have fallen in love with the man-made elements of downtown Idaho Falls as a backdrop.  I like old buildings.  They have so much character.  Downtown Idaho Falls has these little alley ways and doorways and cool building fronts that just add to the feel of a photograph. 

Recently, my husband took me out on a date.  He asked what I wanted to do and I told him I wanted to try out my new lens (17-50mm) and use downtown as a photo shoot location.  He was to be my subject.  It was so much fun.  I love taking pictures of him, even though he'd rather I find someone else as interesting as I find him and the city background was cool to play with as well. 

My Weekend

I got to be part of something really special this weekend.  My aunt Wendy came to town.  I love this woman.  She is very much like my mother, whom I also adore.  She's fun, she's thoughtful, and so creative.  Plus she thinks everything I say is funny and I like that. ;-)  Anyway, Wendy asked me to capture this special weekend.  This was the weekend that she was going to meet her newest grandchild and first granddaughter.  I was thrilled by the prospect.  What's so special about a grandparent meeting a new grandbaby?  In my opinion, that is always a special moment, but it's really special for Wendy because a) she lives on the other side of the country in a land called Georgia.  Break out your maps.  Yeah, it's pretty far from Idaho.  Guess how often she gets to see her grandkids in person.  Not that often.  b) This is the first granddaughter ever!  If you knew my aunt Wendy and what an adorably cute girly girl she is, you'd know how excited she is to finally have a granddaughter. 

Anyway, the photo shoot was awesome.  We took a ton of pictures.  Some of grandma with grandsons.  Some of the entire family.  Some of uncle Danny playing with nephews.  Some of grandma and baby Chloe.  Some of the parents and baby Chloe.  I was exhausted by the end but super excited to see how the pictures came out.  I got to use my new 50mm for a few shots as well as my other new lens, the 15-70mm.  Both lenses are beyond fabulous and now my poor kit lens looks at me from the recesses of my camera bag looking pitiful.  I'm very pleased with how these pictures turned out.  The style ended up being similar to a lifestyle newborn shoot.  What do you think?

That unbelievably gorgeous lady?  Yeah, that's grandma and boy does she love being a grandma.

I love these little fingers wrapped around her grandmother's hand. 

Such an adorable family.  They also have two fantastic little boys.

I think both of these little ladies are in heaven.

She little girl already looks very much like her gorgeous mother.   Little Chloe was getting ready to be fed and so mom had to hold her off for a bit by letting her suck on her thumb.  Too precious. 

Such tiny feet!!

Every mom has to remember moments like these.  Brings back memories of sleep-deprived newborn days and oh how good it felt to snuggle with your little one and take a nap together. 

I love how his hand is comforting her and holding her arms, while his other hand gently holds her foot.  Truly enveloped in daddy's arms. 

He Sings to Me

My birthday was yesterday.  It was a great day with so much love from family and friends.  But my favorite part of my birthday is when my husband sings to me.  I get my own private show.  He always feels a little awkward singing for one person, especially if that person insists on taking photos of him, but he knows how much I love it and that makes me love him even more.  

These were taken in a sort of photo journalistic style.  Enjoy....

I asked him to give me a "shreddin' it" shot. 

More Health and Fitness Comin' at Ya!

I did another session with sweet Rebecca and her family this past weekend.  Click here to see our last session.  She is working on a blog, to be published come April, and needs gobs of photos showing how her family keeps healthy and fit.  She is a Beach Body coach, and from I can tell, a fabulous one at that.  I will be linking to her blog just as soon as it is up.  In the meantime, take a peak of some photos from this last Saturday.  Next time we get together, we'll get to, finally, take the session outside!!

Do I dare say spring is coming?

Based on Saturday and the evidence below, I think spring may be on her way.  How awesome it that?

My Rachel found a ladybug.  My husband edited this one to make the ladybug stand out. 

These are buds on one of my Aspen trees.  So excited for green leaves!

My husband enjoying the emerging green grass and a warm sun.

My Dani trying to convince herself that she does indeed want that $2 for raking the front yard. 

My Other Gig

Once upon a time, I was a teacher.  Well I guess I still am, technically.  I'm all certified and everything, but I have chosen to stay home with kids.  I hope to return to classroom teaching in another 4 years or so as I wait for my boys to hit first grade.  But in order to "stay sharp", I tutor privately.  I'm an English teacher and I often tutor children who are behind in reading.  I was trained as a secondary ed teacher, meaning grades 6-12, but for the last 4-5 years, I've had a steady flow of elementary kids.  It's been a challenge in that I was trained to handle a slightly different crew, but it's also been quite eye-opening to the struggles elementary ed teachers face and it's made me a far better teacher.

Well, I have this one student who I've been with since the middle of first grade.  She is now about to finish 3rd grade.  When I met her, she was struggling quite a bit.  She read at about 15 words per minute and was hating school.  She now reads well over 150 words per minute and is one of the top students in her class.  I'd love to take the credit for that, but it was her.  While Sydney has had a team of people, her mom, me, and her teacher, to be a support crew, it was all Sydney.  She is the one who allowed me to show her how her brain works.  She is the one who refused to give up.  She is the one that kept a smile on her face even though she probably felt like crying.  She is the one who got it and smashed through every state test they threw at her.  If you want to see what perseverance looks like, browse through my photos below.  If you want to see how happy success can make a kid, scroll down.  Sydney has overcome HUGE obstacles.  Her birth mother used drugs while pregnant with Sydney.  She was abused and neglected for the first fifteen months of her life.  Doctors have diagnosed her with issues that should have kept her from succeeding at all.  But with the tenacity of her adoptive parents, especially Sydney's adoptive mother, this girl has bull dozed through all expectations.  Sydney is proof that the human mind and heart, with enough love and support, can conquer anything.

Students like Sydney have shown me more about what makes a good teacher than any of my teacher education did.  Getting to see, one-on-one the struggle some kids go through just to master things that other kids barely even have to think about, is heart wrenching, but it highlights the need for our schools to be manned to the rafters with volunteers, aides, and committed teachers.  Our teachers are overworked, struggling to attend to 25 or more individual learners.  So if you have time, whether you have kids in school or not, go volunteer in a classroom. They welcome the help.  They may just have you read with a student.  They may have you attend to the high kids so the teacher can attend to the low kids.  They may have you do all sorts of things.  The point is, go and do.  Sydney's mom was able to afford a tutor who could give her focused attention.  Not every parent can do that.  Even if you just have an hour a week, I encourage anyone to call their local elementary schools and offer themselves up as a volunteer.  I promise you, it'll change you for the better.

So, I'll step off my soap box now and let you see the photos of my bright, beautiful Sydney.  ;-)

Today, in order to sneak in a little impromptu expository writing, I had Sydney work on writing a letter to another, much younger, student of mine about how to be a good student.  Learning good student skills is a big part of my job.  I think a student needs to know how to learn and how their individual brain works not just what to learn.  She wrote a very good letter.  She's getting much faster at composing her thoughts and getting them down on paper.