Cliff Mautner Workshop

So a few of you know that I have been out of town for a few days. I left Monday to go to Philadelphia, PA for a photography workshop hosted by one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world - Cliff Mautner. The workshop was way more than I expected and gave me a totally new way of looking at light. Anyway, I won't bore you with all the details - we had to pick four of our images to be critiqued on the last day of the workshop. Here are the four I chose.....

And one of Eastern State Penitentiary where we shot at some.
Now - I am pretty much caught back up on returning phone calls and emails. If for some reason I have overlooked one, please let me know! I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween - can you believe it's November already?????

Back Home

So my mama and I made it back from Charleston. Luckily Tropical Storm Hanna wasn't bad at all, which I am very thankful for. We had a good time and I think my mama enjoyed it. I didn't carry around my big camera the whole time, but I did take it a few places just so I could do something I don't get to do that often....take pics for myself. One of the reasons I got started in photography was because I loved taking pictures. It's something I don't have a lot of time for here lately. I picked my three favorites and edited those really quickly. Here they are......

The driveway at Boone Hall Plantation.
Anytime I'm in Charleston, I usually go out to the Morris Island Lighthouse on Folly Beach before I leave. I'm typically there around lunchtime, as I usually visit Alicia or Kelley during that time......but neither of them are in Charleston now and one of my wishes this weekend was to go out to Folly around sunset. I'm so glad I was able to do just that. This is where I captured my favorite images from our trip!
Of course I want to spend more time editing these and blowing some up for the walls in our house. But, I have weddings to edit that come first....sooooo....guess I better get back to editing those now!!!!

Hanging out with Hanna in Charleston

Back before wedding season started I mentioned to my mama that we should take a trip together somewhere for a few days. Well, we never decided on anything until a few weeks ago she mentioned it again. I told her she had 2 options....the first weekend in September or wait until February. My mama has never really traveled anywhere much and decided she wanted to go to Charleston since she's never been. So, we hit the road Thursday morning, stopped in Columbia for lunch and got to Charleston around 2pm. The weather was perfect!!! Beautiful blue skies, a nice breeze.....couldn't have asked for much better! Here's some pics taken with my point and shoot from yesterday.

The Battery....
A sailboat...
A Palmetto tree....
After dinner at Fleet Landing, we walked down to the waterfront park to get a few pics there.
The bridge....
The Yorktown...

Mama kept watching the sun shining on this cross as we were eating.

View from the end of the waterfront park.
Mama didn't think I could get a picture of it before it flew off....got it!
Now the weather today is a little different than yesterday. We were fine until about 1pm when we got drenched from the rain.....I think we are confined to our hotel room for the remainder of the day. A lot of places today closed at 1pm....they have boarded their windows up and put their sandbags out. Only voluntary evacuations have been issued....nothing mandantory. I think we'll tough it out unless mandantory ones are issued. According to the weather forecast the worst of Hanna should come through around midnight until 2am. So hopefully we'll sleep through the worst part. We're staying at the Embassy Suites (where I usually stay when I come down with BI-LO). The building used to be the old Citadel building and has been here for years so I feel pretty safe where we are.

Other than that, my sore throat is now a full blown sinus infection. FUN! Guess we'll be here hanging out in the room the rest of the rain....it's not raining now but every now and then it starts pouring rain. I'll be checking email periodically but if the power goes out, I will not have any internet access. Let's just hope the worst of Hanna doesn't hit Charleston!!!

Yes I'm still alive!

After receiving several emails this weekend and this morning I decided I better post something on here! I am still alive - yes I've neglected the blog...it's been put on the back burner because I was trying to finish editing a session and we've had some personal things going on that have taken up some time on top of me not feeling too well recently. The last 2 or 3 days I've felt better so everyone keep their fingers crossed for me!

I'm getting ready to post some sneak peeks on the blog so you may want to scroll down below this post and see what's new!

Thank you very much to those who have checked in on me to make sure I hadn't kicked the bucket!!!! :0)

July 4th

Well, several people asked what our plans were for the 4th....it seemed strange to actually have to come up with something to do this year - typically we have plans. Anyway, about 9:30pm Thursday night a group of us finally decided on what to do. About 11 of us met at 8:00am Friday morning and drove to Maggie Valley, NC to eat breakfast at Country Vittles. We ordered family style and it was delicious! After that we drove to Cherokee to ride go-karts only to find out that the track had been torn down and another building was in its place.

So, we kept driving around. We stopped to let the kids go through a petting zoo....and stopped again at a trout fishing place to let Noah catch a fish.....Alli had to help him out a little bit - that was a big rod!
After that we went back into Maggie Valley for lunch and stopped at a gift shop to look around some. McKenna found the clearance stuff on the front porch and decided to model some of it for us!
After that we all headed back home. We all met up again later that evening to grill hamburgers. That was honestly about it. No fireworks or nothing - actually I was scared to shoot any this year as dry as it's been. But, we had a good time and it was better than sitting at home doing nothing or working! I hope everyone had a very happy and safe holiday!!!!

Katelyn Elizabeth

At Friday's wedding, I was doing some detail shots and I feel my cell phone vibrate in my pocket. Normally I don't answer it, but when I looked I saw it was the number to Greenville Memorial Hospital (once you have a call from that number in the middle of the night, you don't ever forget it). I figured I better answer it..... Well, it was Charlotte, one of my best friends. She was telling me they were admitting her and inducing her on Saturday morning. Although she wasn't due until July 23rd she had some problems with her blood pressure and they thought it was best that they go ahead and let her deliver.

I told her that we had a wedding Saturday but I should be able to stop by on our way to it. I was kind of disappointed and had already accepted the fact that my visit would probably be before she gave birth. Although I love my job, the one thing I can't do is go in late or call in sick when I have a wedding to shoot.

We get ready to leave our house and her cousin calls me to let me know that she was getting ready to push. Marty and I debated on what to do first....hospital or lunch. So, hospital it was.....and we did good. We timed it just right. Little Miss Katelyn Elizabeth was here and all cleaned up so I was excited that I was able to see her!!!!

All of our gear was packed up in our bags, but I did grab my point and shoot to take in to the hospital with me. So, here she is.... Miss Emily was a proud big sister!
Daddy had to help Emily hold her new sister!
Charlotte, Jeff and Emily...I'm so happy for you guys and so glad that everything went well. I hope you are home now. I've been trying not to call you because I'm sure everyone else is and I know you needed some rest. I will give you a call and check on you....and hopefully get to stop by and see Katelyn again! Congratulations!

A visit to Columbia

Friday I drove down to Columbia to spend the day with my friend Alicia and her son Xavier. I started out by meeting my friend Angela for breakfast, then hit the road. It seemed like I was in Blythewood and at Alicia's house in no time. After a tour of their beautiful home, it was great to sit there talking and catching up while we waited on Xavier to take his nap. We then headed out for lunch at Rush's - I think Alicia knows I always have to eat there anytime I'm in the Columbia area!!!!! We went back to their house and then it was time for me to take some fun pics of her little man - I told her she doesn't have a baby anymore!!!!! Here are some of my MANY favorites.....

I thought maybe we could have some fun with X playing on his mama and daddy's bed. I love the colors....his red shirt matches their room perfectly!

I think he was getting a tad bit sleepy though!
He was soo cute looking at himself in the mirror.
I think he was trying to see how close he could get to me!
Alicia is always taking pics of Xavier so I wanted to get a few of them together - I love these two!
I got a pretty good smile from Xavier as he was trying to climb down from the bed. It was time for snack!

He looks like he is studying is goldfish with a lot of intensity!

Xavier is growing up so fast! He looks like such a big boy sitting at the table.

After his snack, it was time to play a little more. He has a ton of cars and trucks!!!

I only wish I knew what he was thinking!

Making some more silly faces!!!

I don't remember what Alicia was saying to him, but he was paying attention!

Okay, two more - he is just too cute!

Again, I wish I knew what he was thinking - he was really studying his car!

It was great to go and spend the day hanging out with Alicia. I can't believe how much Xavier has grown since the last time I seen him. I can't wait until the next time!!!!

After leaving Blythewood, I headed out to Irmo to my friend Donald's house. We had dinner together and then I hit the road back to Greer. The day went by so quickly but it was good to get away and visit my friends before wedding season kicks in!!!!

Snow Tubing

With wedding season just around the corner we know pretty soon our weekends will be non-existent. So last weekend we had a fun relaxing time with our friends....Saturday night was game night - although it was planned at the last minute we had fun and Sunday afternoon we headed to Hendersonville to go snow tubing at Moonshine Mountain. This was my first time going there and I wasn't sure what to expect. There was no real snow on the ground, but we had a great time anyway.

Now, onto some pics taken with my little point and shoot.....

While we were waiting to get all checked in, Julie decided to model a helmet for us.... I think it's a little too small!!!!
I must say I have to find out who took this picture. I wanted to get a shot of us girls....I don't remember who took it, but I need to know so that I either don't have them take another pic for me or so that I can teach them how to take a picture that isn't blurry!!!!! :0)
Here we are waiting in line with our tubes....the not-so-fun part of the day.....don't we all look excited!!!
Here's a pic of the mountain with Farrah's head slightly in the way.
What I liked was the neat cable that you hooked onto to pull you up the mountain!!!! The people who were attempting to walk up it didn't look like they were having too easy of a time.
Here we are at the top getting into our tubes. It was really fun to go down in a train...usually there were 7 or 8 of us joined together going down.
Even though it was drizzling a little bit while we were there, we had a blast being kids again. Maybe the next time we go there will actually be real snow on the ground!!!!

Church Basketball

I'm probably going to get in trouble for this post, but that's okay! My friend Peyton asked me if I would come to their church basketball games last Monday night to take some pics for him. Well, I get there and it's kind of weird to start with - last season my church had a women's team so I braved it and decided to play. Anyway, it was kind of funny being there to see someone else play rather than playing myself. I got there early enough to shoot some pics of the women's game and was staying for the men's game afterwards. I think I'm bad luck - the visiting women's team only had 2 players show up so they forfeited. :0( However, I did get to watch the men play.

So, I have to post my favorite picture, right??? I was asked after the game if I saw it happen -well, not only did I see it happen, I also captured a picture of it. See, Peyton was playing, and I'm not sure what exactly happened, but one minute he's here.....

And the next minute he's there.....

I'm still waiting on an explaination of how he ended up on the court like that....at first I thought he may have been going after the ball, but as you can see, it's still several feet away!!!!!

I'm sure I'll hear it from Peyton for posting this whenever he realizes it's on here!!!! I had a great time watching the game - it was very much more enjoyable than being on the court wishing there was an oxygen tank nearby!!!!!

Noah's Birthday Party

Last night Noah celebrated his second birthday at Pump It Up in Greenville. I must say that I am not sure who had more fun - the kids or the adults.

Here's Noah and Alli going down the slide - I think it was definitely the most popular activity.
Aunt Julie enjoyed the slide too!Along with Clancy and Chasey - the adults let the kids slide too!
Now before you can go into the arena areas they make you watch a safety video. One of the rules is that only 4 people can be on the slide at any time - 3 on the steps and 1 on the slide. It seems that the adults are the ones who either didn't pay attention or didn't listen very well! Even Mike got to play!
Noah had fun playing air hockey.After the seond arena, we went into one of the party rooms for pizza, cake, and presents. Noah had a cool Cars cake!And as you can tell, Noah thought it was very good!Happy Birthday Noah! I hope you had fun at your party - I know all the "grown-ups" did!!!