My favorite photos - 2008

I could not narrow down my very favorite photos for 2008 to just 5 - or even 10. There were so many that weren't just technically spectactular photos, but also photos that reminded me of this year and the things that happened.

Most of these are in random-ish order.

{It's official}

Gene and my engagement picture. Technically, Tanner clicked the shutter.

{The Midway}
Lights of the midway set against the courthouse during the Nodaway County Fair.

{Torrie's Post POST Bridal session}
Torrie was great to play along, and let me take some photos of her for my portfolio, in her wedding dress, a couple YEARS after getting married :)




{Growing up}
A reminder that I'm getting old, and so are my kids. My oldest is a senior - this is my fav senior pic. You know you're getting old when you have to remind your kids to shave.

{I do not have an A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E!}
Maddie, part of a session we did whil they were visiting. One of my top 3 fav portraits for 2008.




{Sunset Kiss}
Amber and Cole, at a fall shoot. This was Amber's fav pic, and mine too! In fact, I caved and let her have the 16 x 24 canvas I had made of it for a Christmas gift. (with the stipulation I get visitiation rights)






{Grandpa Love}

There's just something about this photo, that I love so much. It's not a portrait anyone would buy, but you can see the love between grandpa and his girl. I also love how happy Gene looks. Have I mentioned in the past few days how much I adore that man? It's my desktop wallpaper at the moment.

{Finally}
I waited months for this shot, and it came at the perfect time. After 1/2 year love relationship with the corn, this was saying goodbye.

{Amy and Zac}
This photo nearly made me cry. Not because we are close personal friends, or it was life altering, it was the shot I was going for. It was the shot that made me realize, that this isn't just an accident, my photography, that I *can* create something that I see in my mind, and this was what I was trying to capture.

{Inspirational}
The weather has been kinda crazy for a year, and we've had many ups and downs from -25 windchill to the surface of the SUN hot. BUT.... I love it here. I love that even when it's so cold you can barely breathe, I can step outside and see literally the entire sky. That things just look different here.



{Welcome to the world little one}
Inspired by another photo I saw, I wanted to capture a tiny piece of life here, throughout the seasons. The tiny sprig, was just an unexpected bonus.


And now a couple photos that I did not take, but were important for our year:


{Goodbye}
This is my Dad back in the 70's. *this is how I remember him most* He died in June. I'm sure my mom actually took this photo, as I remember the polaroid instant camera we had. And I kinda remember the photo being taken, or maybe I just think I do. Either way, it's my fav pic of my dad.




{Mr. and Mrs. Cease}

July 4, 2008, I married the love of my life.

Photo by Jaime de la Cruz (a very lovely person btw) and post processing by me. I owe to Jaime also, the gift of getting me interested in Flickr. It's because of flickr that I have become intensely interested in making my photos better. I study photos i love and try to figure out how they did it, and how to make myself better. If you want to take better photos, I suggest you do the same. Thank you Jaime!



And now.. for my very favorite photo of 2008:

{Dandelion on a Dewy Day}

I have fallen in love with macros. I love discovering new teeny tiny worlds right in front of you. I love taking a photo, then opening it on my computer, blowing it up and exploring a whole new place never seen before. See the full sized version here.

This photo literally made me gasp when I saw it on my computer. And now it hangs on the wall in my living room in 16 x 20 size. And I still sit and stare at it sometimes.

snow snow, go away, sunflare come out and let's play

When you're down about the weather. When your back yard is ice/snow/ice sandwich, when no matter how hard you try, you can't get warm, you can always pull out pics of green grass and bare feet and it makes you feel warmer, at least in your heart.

Here we're playing with light - a nice sunflare across the lens - some people love sunflare, i'm one of em. I also punched up the saturation *a lot* to make the grass much greener and to balance out from the sunflare.

Now, back to looking out my window. Did I mention I'm kinda hating winter?

These boots were made for ass kickin' ....

"Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world"

- Bette Midler

This morning, I got up and around early. The list of errands and tasks was long and the days seem to get shorter, not longer. So I was getting dressed and picking out what I'd wear. Shoes are an issue for me sometimes. I have the issue with the plantar fasciitis still, something that has some support and yet cute and comfortable - not as easy as you might think.

Add to that snow on the ground and the promise of it being kinda slick.


I remembered my boots.

A few years ago, I bought a pair of "combat" boots on a whim. The boys and I were in going to the grand canyon, and I had not really thought ahead about my footwear. See, I have a fear of heights, and really, the grand canyon kills a couple ppl every year. I kinda wanted to reduce that risk and flip flops or platform heels really didn't seem to be the way to go. I dunno, I'm just sayin'.

So I made a stop at Walmart and for some reason I decided that these boots were keep me at the top of the crevasse, and not at the bottom. In theory anyway
I fell in love with them and wore them on a regular basis. I've always felt strong wearing them for some reason. I call them my ass kicking boots - although I've kicked very little ass with them.

I wore them a lot at the beginning. It seemed like when I was down or feeling kinda weak, I could wear them and they made me a little taller, a little more grounded, a lot more *stronger*. I would wear them and think "bring it". I loved that they made me different from your average "girl". I admit I like to "stand out" sometimes in my clothing choices, which usually are my shoes. So that's why this bum foot really has be down.

They are now showing their age, I haven't really worn them since last winter, but something about them tells me that I can't get rid of them. They are special to me because they remind me to be strong, and they help me remember when I wasn't.

So when I suggested to Gene that instead of pretty bedazzled stilettos, I wear my combat boots, it seemed like a logical thing. Him? Notsomuch. Needless to say, I wore neither the stilettos nor the boots. That pesky foot had it's way again. But I did plan on bringing the boots, and having Jaime take my pics with my boots on, and I had one pic in particular I wanted. I got there that day and I'd forgotten my boots. I'll get that pic, if it means I have to drag the dress out, fix up my hair, and drive all the way to Iowa in the spring. Heck maybe I'll be 25 pounds lighter too. bonus!

As the happiness set over me that I had a good excuse to wear my boots today, I started thinking about the power of shoes. Yes - shoes have power. I know that seems strange, but think about how a simple pair of pumps with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, has a completely different feel than a pair of tennis shoes with the same outfit. You see, the simple little shoe, has the complete power of how you feel, how you carry yourself, where your confidence lies in how you're presenting yourself. That simple shoe sets your stage for your day.

A pair of shoes can be full of memories - whether they be happy or sad. They can remind you of where you've been with a simple shoe print in the sand - or in the snow. They can make you feel grounded and strong and supported

That's a load to carry for a pair of regular old shoes, and the secret is, that it's not the shoes, it's how those shoes make you feel, because the real power is in just little old you. The shoes are just a reminder of where that power was all along.

Maternity and Hot Mamma all in one!

My sister in law, Laura is expeciting #2 VERY SOON. On Thanksgiving day, we ducked out for a bit into a super cold park for a few maternity pics. Stephanie (the niece) came along and we took quite a few sweet family/maternity photos.

Now, I have to preface these pics with the fact that Laura is pretty straight laced sorta gal... which is good. Someone out there needs to make up for my misgivings. LOL. BUT, totally contradictory to her personality, she drives a cute little hot yellow mustang. (girl after my own heart). I totally had to feature this mustang to let everyone know that Laura can cut loose with the best of us.

Some old school pics

While digging for a small plain photo album, I found these pics in an older album that I had. I forgot that I had stuck them in there:



Probably circa 2002. I can't quite remember what year, but I do know that the barn is now a John Deere dealership in Maryville. LOL. The soybeans around the barn were all dry, and it was so perfect. I bought these overalls on the internet and had our own little "shoot"

Seth {now 19} I think would be around 11-12, which would make Tanner around 7. I feel old.


This is probably one of my favorite pics of all time. I told Tanner to look down, and for set to bend over and tell Tanner a secret.

All these were taken with film, Sometimes I really miss film, I do think that they are less work in the end, and when you do it right, they just look better than digital.

I've been searching for this pic for about 2 years! I knew I had it, but couldn't find it. I found the negatives the other day, but couldn't tell which pic it was. I'm planning on getting a big 20 x 30 gallery wrap canvas to hang in my house of this pic. I *love* it.

Some of our christmas decor this year!

My antique silver tree. Nothing on it, It's just sitting in the rocking chair, I *like it there*, but completely impractical.

The pink tree. I lurve it. All pink shiny bright balls picked up at a garage sale for a quarter a box (in antique stores - around $5-$10 a box!)

Puddy Tat. cleaning himself in his new bed that I bought on Black Friday. He LOVES it.

Found the garland. The tree is about 95% done. Tanner has to put his ornaments on next week and I have to figure out where I left the angel for the top. Oh, and I have to tote all the empty boxes out to the icky shed for storage.

And above all else, have FUN

Had to share some funny pics of Amy and Zac. I finished their editing on Sunday and made a couple "pic" mosaics that normally would just be trashed. Not really something you'd normally hang on your wall, they are a bit fuzzy, but you can see how fun these two are together.

1. The hip bump. 2. The eye poke 3. Elbow to the gut.

She wins again!

OMG I'm engaged!!

LOL.

When you have your pics taken... HAVE FUN. Sure it's uncomfortable at times to have a camera pointed at your face, but slow down, have fun, act like yourself! In the end, you'll truely capture the real you!!

Need a session or are you getting married?

For those of you that are thinking about having a session done (family, engagement, seniors, etc) but are waiting now for spring, I suggest that you don't discount wonderful winter photos that you can get. Sure, sessions might be shorter ;) but some of the funnest photos you could possibly have will be some awesome snow shots.

Also, if you are getting married, and are considering booking me. Now is a good time to do so as around the beginning of the year, I will be changing my pricing structure. If you want to guarantee the prices that I have right now, you need a signed contract and deposit in place. Please let me know if you would like to set up a consultation.

Lana

Happy Fall Ya'll

Today is a little bit of me day. Here it is 12:30 and I'm still in my PJ's. I decided I was going to do a few things *I* wanted to do. Unfortunately, that still includes dishes and laundry (that gene said he did, but really, he washed his work clothes and left them in the dryer... in his mind, laundry... CHECK. LOL)

Yesterday morning, I had a photo shoot with Denae and Jesse. They were really sweet. He's quiet and she was super giggly. That means lots of smiles, which makes my job easier. Unfortunately it was SUPER COLD. My plan of sneaking into the library to get some funky (different) shots was foiled by the fact that the library didn't open until 9 a.m.!! DOH. So everything had to be outside, but really, even tho the shoot was shorter than usual, we still ended up with tons of awesome shots.

Here are my favorites from the shoot:

She has the most beautiful amazing eyes. I could have taken pics of just her eyes for 20 min easily.

We were lucky and found a tree in a park that still had the beautiful orange leaves on them. Sadly many are gone and things are turning icky and brown. Bleh. Welcome winter. That's why god makes snow, to cover up all that muck.

Meet Riley

We hung out today for a bit, taking pics of Riley and her mom and Dad. We did a combo of baby, engagement, family shoot all in one.

Man was it COLD.


She was a trooper otherwise. Only got bored a tiny bit. Riley was a turtle for Halloween, so they wanted to get pics of her cutie turle costume sans turtle head. heh. This is Riley, getting ready to eat a leaf.

She kinda stole the show. Sorry.

This is Jeff and Courtney - aka - the 'rents. We only had to smack Jeff twice to get him to loosen up. :)

They were fun and sweet - and husker fans. Don't hold that against the poor dears. :) heh.

JK!

Too bad it was so freaking cold.

And I have another shoot in the morning, and it's supposed to be colder. So working on "options" for the long stinking winter.

Look at it this way, we now get 2.5 years of *peace* before we have to start hearing about elections again.

I'm so glad this election is finally over.

Am I happy with the results, no. Am I going to slit my wrists? No. Personally I think both candidates sucked.

Now is just the time to pray for the best. You have no other choice.

It's been so busy here the past few weeks with the fair and the garage sale, and then on top of that some shoots, editing photos, working on the website. I've been working 10-12 hour days (which I LOVE btw). I was editing pics until midnight last night, and wanted to keep going but was so tired I was forced to go to bed.

In return, I've been given a present of a nice cold sore. yay me {sarcasm} I did a little research and found that L- Lysine and Vit C will help reduce the life of a cold sore so I bought a pile of it last night. It seems to be working, it's very small and not very painful. The last one I had several years ago was big, annoying and embarassing.

Today, I met with another bride, Brigett. She is so sweet and her fiance is in Iraq right now. He'll be home in March. I will be doing their wedding photos in September and I'm *so excited*. She sounds like she really wants to do something "different", which is what I'm hearing from brides. The photographers in the area are great, and take nice portraits - for sure, but I think brides with sites like theknot, bridal magazines and TV shows like Platinum Weddings are looking for something out there - something special. *that* is what I'm striving for.

I also need to work on my stock photos today (I have a BILLION to add) OK, maybe 1/2 billion.

Then edit edit edit.

I'll probably share more photos later if I have time!

More Amy and Zac

These 2 were fun! Always smiling and making funny faces. You really can tell that they love each other.

My overly used, classic fav - legs only. I promise you, I will continue to overuse this shot because it's my camera and I'll do what I want :p

This is something I normally do not do. I usually do a little vignetting, color pop/saturation or desaturation... etc. But not the "weird" filters. I got to playing with this filter and made a "sketch" of one of the photos. I really liked it, and Amy is the artsy fartsy type, so I think she'll like it too.

Love this shot... sexy and fun both.

I'm about 1/3 done editing their photos, have the rest of Eric's to edit yet too. When I get done, I will probably add a couple outtakes from Amy and Zac's shoot. I have some really hilarious shots. Not engagement worthy I suppose, but really captured their personalities.

Meet Amy and Zac - Engagement session

This morning, up early to do a sunrise engagement session for Amy and Zac. Such a sweet couple - the smile all the time, game for any sort of picture, even some of their own. Very relaxed and too easy to take photos of!!

This flat out, is my favorite picture of the bunch. (so far). She likes the quirky/out there/ different stuff and had on the cutest pair of green runners. Yeah like I'm gonna miss that!

Funny thing happened. I was taking a pic and she said "oh this is an Elsie shot". I said "Elsie?" She said yeah, my maid of honor's friend Elsie from Springfield.

Me: What is Elsie's last name?

Her: Flannigan.

WHAT!? LOL.

Small world, because I LOVE Elsie Flannigan. She's so sweet and quirky and I read her blog like EVERY DAY. Such a weird small world. I feel flattered and honored that she compared something I did to Elsie.

I'm hoping I get to do Zac and Amy's wedding also, they seem like a fun couple that would an awesome quirky wedding (and photos) :)

System of a Down - Eric's Seniors

Remember Eric?

I did a few of his senior portraits about 10 days ago. Tonight I sat down to edit the rest of his pics. Many of them don't need touched, several need some light editing.

Of course, I got side tracked.

Eric's favorite band is System of a Down. Now to be fair, I'd never heard of them before, not my normal genre, that is, if I have any sort of genre to start with. Can I be honest? I kinda like them. LOL.

{Teenagers everywhere officially declare SOAD *not cool*}
hah.

Anyway, I have worked to incorporate Eric's band in some of his photos. I realized that one pose I had him do, was very much like a poster that he brought for me to work from.

Here's what I created for him:

I hope he likes it because it's one of my favorite senior pics EVER!

Fall comes to Northwest Missouri

I got out this morning and decided I wanted to capture some fall leaves. I don't HAVE a lot of fall leaves in my yard, but that did not deter me! For the record, the 2 photos above, I did have to lay on the ground, with my head/camera right next to the tree. Shallow depth of field rocks.

Blurry bits make me happy.

The corn out here is past ready to go. I noticed yesterday that the corn looked shorter. On closer inspection, the wind really did a number on it, and lots of the tops are broken off. In other news, I saw a big combine go by this morning. If you stick your head out of the door, you can hear them harvesting. I'm really hoping I catch them here so I can get some good pics. I've even contemplated climbing up on the roof for a good angle. LOL. *I am scared of heights and ladders - but still considering it*

More corn, but much like the trees, I was laying on the ground. YES.. my head was in a cornfield. *just a little bit*

Obligitory annual single fall leaf photo. What is it about single fall leaves that people "get" that they are artistic? This one was buried under some ICE. No wonder my windbreaker jacket wasn't breaking much wind.

Said above pic I really pushed the saturation and hue. It pops now.

This one, unedited other than just a crop. At this point, I was getting too cold and so it was time to go back inside.