As I looked for a quote to begin this post, I had trouble finding one. I can’t believe I landed on a Virginia Woolf quote either.  I can’t stand her, I onlt like, “A Room of One’s Own”, which is where this quote comes from.

Well it’s been MONTHS since I posted some pictures on here, I have been too busy shooting to even updat this! Which i suppose is a good thing, but my neglect stops here.

I shot these pictures at the Morton Arboretum.  I have know Crystal, the woman in these photos, since I was 3 years old.  She and her fiance got engaged a while ago and will be getting married in the coming year.  It was a super blustery day out and then it started to rain… but the fall colors sure did show up for us for the little bit we got to shoot.

A few more from that shoot:

I discovered several things while shooting these two young love birds. One: I like the true “photojournalistic” shots much better than the staged ones (shocking I know) but more over I love what is trendily (yes I am using that as a word) called “artistic” editing. I like when they look cool, aside from being good photos and two: I love slow-shutter photography.
So, without further ado and with no more delay. Here are a few of the shots i like the best. The rest will (eventually) end up on my website and/or Facebook page.
Let me know what you think:

Words from the great Yogi Berra.  I thought this quote fitting as I have not posted in a while, but I have been taking some time to perfect my skills.  Hone in on not only taking pictures and using the setting on my camera correctly for the situation or to get the type of shot I want but the post-production side, which needed a lot more time and effort.  I have a tone of new pictures and I have also gone back and retouched some of the more abhorrent of those I thought were well done in the past.  it’s funny how you think that something is ood and then you learn what you are doing and you see how terrible you were at it.

You know what they say about hind-sight I guess.

So anywho.  I am going to have a few posts in the next few days of pictures I have either taken, or re-touched from previous post or shoots and I am going to start with the more recent pictures I have taken.  They are from the 4th of July celebration.

I was out on my parent boat.  And I know that many of you who have seriously shot fireworks are saying, “How the heck did she get any good shots of fireworks on a boat!?”  Well, my answer would be… “Very carefully…”  I wasn’t expecting much out of them, but they turned out beautiful.  The shots of the sun going down, the splashes of orange and dark blues with some purple and red an amazing then the fireworks themselves I was pretty happy with as well.

So, with out further ado and with no more delay.

Here they are, and of course, as always, enjoy.

All pictures were taken on my Fathers boat, on Bangs Lake, in Wauconda, Lake County, IL

These are some pictures I have had a chance to touch up that I took of my sisters kids.  they are both about 1 1/2 and so freakin’ cute it is almost not funny.  I have had a chance to really start working on some different photoshop skills and have learned so much in the last few months.  I feel my photos have been taken to a completely different level. I love some of these, not just because I think my nieces are the cutest little things EVER!

A little bit about my girls.  Both are family namesakes.  Both named, at least partly, after my brother. The curly headed cutie is Andrea Nicole and the other adorable angel is Maggie Drew.  These were taken at the celebration of Maggie’s little sister, Molly Marie’s baptism in Salisbury, NC.

I hope you enjoyed them! I still have tons of pictures to sift through of these little kids, they are just so cute, how could you not have a million pictures of them!

These pictures are from my sisters’ baby shower, when they were both prego with their first (Elaine, the one with curly hair, has since then had a second child…).

Man, am I stayin’ on the ball or what!!?? Since both my nieces are almost 2 years old, I thought I should edited these pictures and get them to my sisters…

So, here they are.  They are nothing special, just a chance for me to work on my photoshop.  I like some of them a lot, they turned out pretty nice.

In the mean time, I just realized that I don’t have pictures of the last wedding I shot.  it was an… interesting, affair.  It was two couples.  One couple was older, both a second marriage and the bride was the mother of the bride of the second couple, who was having a first marriage.  The wedding party included no one but the children of the younger couple… all 7 of them.  Yes, you read right: 7.  There were about 20 people there, 4 of them were getting married and 7 of them were children, who ran the age range from 2-12.  It was, as I said before, interesting.  None the less, I took some pictures for them and it was great.  The ceremony was held at a small, Italian restaurant in Gurnee, IL.  It was small, with a low ceiling an very dark so it was hard to shoot, but I think the pictures turned out pretty nice.  I am happy with them and I know that Gail (the mother/bride) and the rest of the gang we happy about them, too. Which, in the end, is all that matters.

So, with out further ado:

These first handful are of Gail and Allen:

These few are of Shannon & Jeff:

The thing I love the most is that i can tell in my work that I am getting not only better that taking pictures, but much much better at post-production and editing as well as just being comfortable with photoshop.  I’ve never had much formal education on using photoshop, only taking pictures.  And ever that was a completely different field, it was journalism.  Which, was had become the ‘trendy’ catch-phrase to say you are a photojournalistic wedding photographer.  I actually am a photojournalist who like to shoot weddings.  Which I like

I am excited.  I will be adding more album galleries soon to it up I wanted to get it up and running.  Check it out, let me know what you think.  I might be changing it up in a bit if I decide I want a different look… and kinda depending on what people think, too

“What is Normal after your child dies?

Normal is having tears waiting behind every smile when you realize someone important is missing from all the important events in your family’s life.

Normal is trying to decide what to take to the cemetery for Birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, Valentine’s Day, and July 4th.

Normal is feeling like you can’t sit another minute without getting up and screaming, because you just don’t like to sit through anything anymore.

Normal is not sleeping very well because a thousand what if’s & why didn’t I’s go through your head constantly.

Normal is reliving the accident continuously through your eyes and mind, holding your head to make it go away.

Normal is having the TV on the minute you walk into the house to have noise, because the silence is deafening.

Normal is staring at every boy who looks like he is Andrew’s age. And then thinking of the age he would be now. Then wondering why it is even important to imagine it, because it will never happen.

Normal is every happy event in your life always being backed up with sadness lurking close behind, because of the hole in your heart.

Normal is telling the story of your child’s death as if it were an everyday, commonplace activity, and then seeing the horror in someone’s eyes at how awful it sounds. And yet realizing it has become a part of your “normal.”
Normal is being afraid of running into someone from my past who doesn’t know that Andrew is dead and feeling like I’m dropping a bomb on them when they ask about my family.

Normal is each year coming up with the difficult task of how to honor your childs’s memory and their birthday and survive these days. And trying to find the balloon or flag that fit’s the occasion. Happy Birthday? Not really.

Normal is my heart warming and yet sinking at the sight of something special Andrew loved. Thinking how he would love it, but how he is not here to enjoy it.

Normal is having some people afraid to mention my son, Andrew.
Normal is making sure that others remember him.

Normal is after the funeral is over everyone else goes on with their lives, but we continue to grieve our loss forever.

Normal is weeks, months, and years after the initial shock, the grieving gets worse, not better.

Normal is not listening to people compare anything in their life to this loss, unless they too have lost a child. Nothing compares. NOTHING.
Even if your child is in the most remote part of the earth away from you – it doesn’t compare.
Losing a parent is horrible, but having to bury your own child is unnatural.

Normal is trying not to cry all day, to get out of bed and get dressed because you know your mental health depends on it.

Normal is realizing you do cry every day.

Normal is being impatient with everything and everyone but someone stricken with grief over the loss of their child.

Normal is sitting at the computer crying, sharing how you feel with chat buddies who have also lost a child.

Normal is not listening to people make excuses for God.
“God may have done this because…”

I know Andrew is in “heaven,” but hearing people trying to think up excuses as to why a fantastic young man was taken from this earth is not appreciated and makes absolutely no sense to this grieving mother. This is something we will never know until we are in heaven, too.

Normal is being too tired to care if you cleaned the house, did the laundry or if there is any food in the house.

Normal is wondering whether you are going to say you have four children or three children, because you will never see this person again and it is not worth explaining that Andrew is dead. And yet when you say you have three daughters to avoid that problem, you feel horrible as if you have betrayed your dead son. There is also the danger that they ask, “Oh, no boys?”
Normal is wondering and worrying if this thing that could never happen to me could possibly happen again to one of my other children.

Normal is asking God why he took your child’s life instead of yours, but knowing your life as you knew it is gone, too.

Normal is knowing you will never get over this loss, not in a day nor a million years.

Normal is having therapists agree with you that you will never “really” get over the pain and that there is nothing they can do to help you because they know that the only thing that could possibly make it “better” is bringing your child back from the dead.

Normal is learning to lie to everyone you meet and telling them you are fine. You lie because it makes others uncomfortable if you cry. You’ve learned it’s easier to lie to them then to tell them the truth that you still feel empty and it’s probably never going to get any better — ever.

And last of all…

Normal is hiding all the things that have become “normal” for you, so that everyone around you will think that you are ‘normal.’”