Monday, March 30, 2009

Shelby Street Bridge photo Meetup!


On Sat. The 28th, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet some fellow Nashville photographers to do some shooting on the Shelby street pedestrian bridge! Ash went with me, as I had been wanting to photograph her there for a while! I got some great shots, and really enjoyed meeting Dan, Patrick and his lovely wife, and Carl. Here are some of the shots!

















Sunday, March 29, 2009

Backup, backup, backup!!!!!!



So, virtual chaos broke out at my house on Sunday, March 15th. I had my computer defragging overnight.. and when I got up, it was froze. Not a big deal - it is an old computer, but I have always taken good care of it. So when I restarted it and saw the Evil BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH


I was upset. Utterly terrified would have described it more accurately.


So, I did finally get the computer back up, and everything was O.K. Not great... but decent. (I was sweating all of my valuable software, downloads, saved documents, email addresses, etc. My pics are all backed up online at SmugMug ****Awesome site!!**** so that was ok... phew!)


So, I decide- ok, definately time for a new computer!! I have been coveting a laptop for about 2 years, and we never would break down and get one because we didn't really NEED it. Well, now we did!


I am very particuliar (sp?) in what I wanted, and of course I didn't want to spend a fortune on it, so I go on the hunt of a great affordable laptop.


Jump to Wed. 3/18. The computer won't turn on again. Sheesh. Now I don't have time to bargain hunt. The computer is my lifeline, and supports my aspiring buisness knowledge (photography). So I NEEEEEED it! I decide I am going to get an external hard drive and save as much of the info as I can before the pc completely keels over.


Get home, finally get the pc up, and start backing up like a mad woman! The next day, my pc....she is completely dead, & finally out of her misery.... But am I? Oh goodness NO!
Anyone that has backed up thier computer knows that it takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R the first time you back up, right? So I left it running over night, to find it dead in the morning. I had hoped that most of my info had saved.
So on Friday, I went out and got my lovely new Laptop! 4gb of Ram & a 320GB hard drive.. it is Niiiice! I hooked up my external drive to find that only a handful of useful stuff downloaded. :(
So now, a little over a week later, I am finally getting my workflow back! I can edit pictures, which was the most important thing! Unfortunately, my paint shop pro program was lost (as was the original disc when we moved... sigh...) so the graphics are slow going right now, since I am learning to do them in CS now. They will be just as good, if not better, but it is a slow going learning process!
With all that said.. BACKUP your information!!!!! Do it now, update it often.. it is such a mess when you haven't!!!
~M~







Thursday, March 12, 2009

What little boys are doing when they are quiet..

Oh my! I knew having a son would be different from having a daughter.. but I didn't know HOW different!!

My daughter is caring, compassionate, with a flair for being dramatic. And I mean D-R-A-M-A!


My son, is sweet, funny.. and Mischevious! And that is all in capitals as well!


How can this sweet face

Turn into this??


With one jar of Vick's baby vapor rub and 10 minutes of quiet time!


This happened on Valentine's day. We were all having a nice relaxing afternoon, and he was quiet. After 2 minutes of quiet, I asked him, "What are you doing?" He said, "watching TV" which is what he was doing when I last saw him (only 2 minutes before).


It was the next 8 minutes when I should have intervened. I suppose I got caught up doing whatever it was I was doing, and the hubby of course was watching a basketball game and had gone into that zone that men go to while watching sports (you know what I am talking about... the "staring-at-the-tv-mouth-slightly-open-unable-to-hear-anything-except-the-Game" Zone)


I finally realized that another 8 minutes of peaceful quiet had gone by and asked him to come here. He ran into the den and I swear, there were fumes rising from his head! None of us had a problem breathing that day... hahaaaha!


We are so lucky that he didn't get it into his eyes!!! We got him cleaned up.. but it did take 3 days to get it all out of his hair!! I did learn that baking soda mixed with the shampoo helps!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Newborn

This is baby J.. I had the awesome opportunity to photograph him when he was 9 days old! He is such a sweet little baby boy!




Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Little ones...

Here are a few other cuties I have captured!













A few past favorites...

Here are a few of my favorite photos that I have taken while on my photography journey...







Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Welcome! & A little about the gal behind the camera...

Thank you for stopping by the new blog!! I hope you will bookmark the blog and check back often! I will be posting sneak peaks, practice sessions, and anything else I might fancy ;)

Let me introduce myself - My name is Mandy, and I wear a lot of different hats around here! I am a wife, Mommy of 2 little ones, daughter, friend, CCU registered nurse, and an aspiring photographer!!


I am not going to start out saying "I have always enjoyed photography..." because honestly, until about 5 years ago, I didn't really give it a second thought! I HAVE always enjoyed having pictures, though... preserving memories, smiling faces looking back at you for years down the road. I have boxes and boxes (and boxes and boxes!) of pictures from the time I was little through high school and college and beyond. I have carried a camera everywhere with me since I was 9 years old... Spent my allowance and birthday money on film and developing...but I never really thought about photography - composition, etc. I just wanted to capture the smiling or funny faces of my family and friends!

Then it happened... I became a MOMMY!! I took so many pictures of my baby girl that we were averaging a roll or two of film a week for the first 9 months of her life! Then I went digital... I had a 4mp Kodak easy share (one of the highest mp for a point and shoot then!) and I started editing pictures and learning what all I could do with that on my computer.
I was a boutique hair accessory designer and sold bows on Ebay. I saved and saved my $$ until I had enough to purchace my DSLR camera, a canon rebel XT almost 2 years ago. I have been practicing and learning, and reading and studying photography since then!
So here we are! I would love for you to follow my blog, leave comments, and track my progress toward my ultimate goal... of becoming a photographer when I grow up!!
~M~