April 27,2011

That day has changed the history books here in Alabama as tornados tore through most of the state. The devastation is enormous!! Everyone in the state has been affected in some way. We are all working around the clock to put our state back together. So far 250 people are dead, and there are 2219 injured. Here are some photos from that day and the days after..

This is a photo of the Cullman county tornado I took from HWY 431 in Marshall County

This is the storm as it passed just north of Marshall County.. the tornado is rain wrapped at this point, however you can still see it over the mountain just to the right of the tree.

These are of some of the damage here locally.

This used to be a neighborhood.

This used to be a forest

This is also used to be a neighborhood.

If there was a silver lining to this storm, it is the kindness of the hearts of otheres!! Communities are helping communities, people from other states are coming together to help, it is simply amazing to see everyone pitching in to help!

How you can help:

Here are a few links that I KNOW are helping.

My church (MVC), Renovation Ministries, and Word Alive International Outreach have teamed up to be able to serve all those affected by this storm. Together we delivered 3 simi-trucks to the areas hit, the evening of the storms, and are making daily deliveries now, as well as coordinating volunteer teams that are working on clean up everyday. Here are the links to the all of these:

http://mvc3live.org

http://wordalive.org/relief/

http://renovationministry.epiclifecreative.com/#/home-1/

Not posting for a little while...

I will not be posting for a little while on here... obviously right? LOL I know its already been a while, I just wanted to make it official. Right now, my oldest child needs help. He has ADHD, and we are struggling because we do not have insurance. We are in the process of trying to get All Kids from BCBS, but so far have had no luck. You would think if you have a child with a disability the process would be just a little easier.. but apparently not. Right now its T-ball season, which is usually one of our families favorite times of the year, but because of all that is going on its not this year. Its just stressful. I am still taking pictures, still doing photography as a hobby, but I just don't have the time to put into it. Sorry guys for starting a 52 and not finishing.. I hate not finishing something, but right now my son has to come first, and getting all of this straightened out is just taking it all out of me right now. I just can't even seem to think about anything else right now.

7/52 - Cake Smash!

7/52 Cake Smash!

I got to take my youngest son's cake smash pics this week finally! I know I wasn't planning on doing portraits for my 52, but this past two weeks have been crazy hectic, so I don't know if I will be able to get something different! If so I will post that to make up for last week! LOL! So

here are a few from the cake smash I did with Josh!

All done in natural light with my new 35mm, at f/2.2

6/52

OOPS..... Yes, I missed this week! I did take pics this week, but I haven't even had time to sit down and download them!

5/52 - flaming shots

This week I played around with my flash a good bit! I saw a version of this on a blog (can't remember which, sorry!) and I had to try it! So I couldn't decide which version I liked better, the lighter one with the reflection or the darker contraster one! So you be the judge as to which looks better!

My set up:
My camera is set in Manual Mode, shutter 1/40, apt 1.8 using a 50mm prime. Off camera flash set @ 1/32, with red paper over it (I don't have gels) aimed at a white background. on camera flash is set to off but since it still has *some* light output to set the off camera flash, I covered it as well as to not get any flash reflection. The shot glass is on a stool about 1 ft off the ground, glass covered for reflection, flash behind it on the floor pointed at the background (which is a white sheet of paper). I filled the shot glass with 70% rubbing alcohol and set the fire.

I played with the aperture a bit to see what the different outcomes were, and this is what I got!

4/52 - Smoke

Ahhhh!!! 11:38 on the last day of my fourth week and I am posting what I just did! LOL! I thought I had left procrastination in the dust after college... guess not! But here it is! Im not totally happy with this one but it was the best out of what I got done, and next time I will buy incense like everyone says to! I used a small candle for this one. One of my kids hard page books, opened with black paper taped to both sides for a background (yeah I know ghetto! LOL!) I had my flash at a 90 degree angle to the candle, set up my camera and blew out the candle and started shooting! I think that when I use incense it will be better, and I will probably turn up the power on my flash next time as well. As always, thanks for reading, and your comments are always appreciated!

3/52 - Batman

Well I am trying to learn a bit more about long exposures... so far its been a bust! LOL! I have taken many many photos that were between 5-15 seconds long. None turned out the way that I pictured in my head. BUT I spent over an hour playing with my camera, which is the reason that we do project 52's! To get the camera in your hand and start experimenting! So yay! Anywho... I ended the evening frustrated that I wasn't getting what I wanted, then looked up and Batman to the rescue! LOL! I decided to take some pics of him and play with lighting.. So here is what I got!

Playing in the snice!

This isn't really apart of my 52, but I just wanted to share a couple pics from our recent ice/snow storm! Part of my reasons for doing a 52 is to get out of my "portraits only" kick I have been in! I take so many pics of my kids (NOT a bad thing!) that I forget to take pics of the beauty around me. (Which IS a bad thing!) So I know I shared one of the building that had the ice on it, but here are a few of my son playing in it! My 1 year old was running a temp, so he didn't get to go out at all so no pics of him this time!

Here is a close up of his happy face!

Here he is trying to eat the ice... I didn't let him, but I did snap a pic of him trying... LOL! You can see how thick the layer of ice was that was on top of the 3 inches of snow!

And this is him playing "ice ball" as he called it.. Leave it to my little leaguer to make anything into a sport.. ha! He ended up tossing a few to his daddy who was using a cardboard box for a bat! The huge pieces of ice would explode into a million pieces and they would all slide across the iced lawn!! It was really cool!

As always... thanks for reading and commenting!!

Week 2/52.. Sniced in!

Well.. we were supposed to get snowed in, but instead we got some snow with a not so nice layer of ice! So we got sniced in! Under about an inch of ice was 3 inches of snow. Not so fun to play in, but really fun watching the dog and kiddo trying to walk! ha! We have electric heat, so instead of chancing a power outage and getting cold, we went to my in laws house who has gas heat! All of my friends up North are laughing because everything has been shut down for 3 days for 3-6 inches of snow. BUT what no one understands unless you live here, our snow isn't pretty powdery you can drive on it snow. Our snow is slippery, slidey ( I know its not a word.. LOL) mostly ice snow... SNICE. When you go play in it, if you stand in once spot for too long you start to slide and when you play in it you end up SOAKING wet! YUCK! I really would love to play in the powdery snow that everyone talks about, it sounds so fun! But since I live here in Alabama when it snows we get snice instead! So week two of my 52, is a picture of what we have been looking at for days... ICE!

New year.. new path!

So this year, I have decided to start a project 52! Basically I am committing to post a photo once a week. I think most people usually give their project a theme, so I am going to just call mine "this and that"... mostly because I don't commit well.. LOL! The point of the project is to get me out there and thinking photographically, practicing taking shots and failing, and learning from that failure. So here it is, the first week! I had a rough time getting my creative juices flowing after so long of only doing portraits and I started to panic! I know I look at things all the time and think, wow that would be a great photo! But most of the time its when I am out and about camera-less! (note to self, keep camera with me more!) So I thought okay, step one.. pull camera out of the bag! Easy enough right?! But then step two... find something to photograph! I walked around the house looking for the right thing and finally saw Caleb'smarkers sitting out. He is so creative, always coloring or drawing these elaborate pictures, so I figured what better way to get my creativity going than to take a picture of his markers he always creates things with! So week one.. here ya go!

Im a slacker!

So my baby boy started school about 5 weeks ago! He is loving every day of it, and growing up WAY too fast!! At first I was using that time to study photography and take photos of Mackenzie to try and break into the Senior market... but then I joined a gym.. LOL! I have neglected myself for so long and it feels soo good to start trying to get back into shape! So now I am going to the gym Mon, Wed, and Fri at 12 for Zumba (which is totally fun btw!!) And some times on Tues and Thrus. I am still studying photography and taking photos all the time, but I am focusing big time on getting back in shape! I think you have to be in shape and CONFIDENT when you are shooting! I have been taking Mackenzie out shooting practicing in some areas that I wanted to try out for when I start doing Seniors! I will share some of those photos with ya'll even though they have been on my flicker for probably a month.. LOL! She is so fun to shoot because she is pretty much up for anything! For this shoot I brought my son's guitar, asked her to bring her fake glasses (they are so cute!) and some slip on shoes as well as her dress outfit! So if you have already seen them sorry...

Your camera takes really nice pictures!

OH my goodness!! We have ALL been asked this question! And it does make one wonder why no one tells painters, wow your brushes make great art! Or writers, your computer makes fantastic stories! Have you ever seen the episode of Sponge Bob (yes I am referencing a cartoon while making a serious point. LOL) in which Patrick wants to write a song, so he asks Sponge Bob to borrow a pen only to get mad because his pen isn't writing any words for him! ha! Well.. This blog has went viral because of this!! (noo not mine unfortunately I was not smart enough to think of doing this! haha!) Photographer Erin Ferrell did an experiment in where she gives her camera to a non photographer and gives him a location and model for 10 min, then she takes the same location same model for ten min. She then compares the two to reiterate the fact that IT IS NOT JUST THE CAMERA! ha ha! I hate to see someone go out and buy a really expensive top of the line camera, toss the instruction booklet, set it to auto and get frustrated with not getting "professional photos" with there professional camera! Yes they are smart cameras, but it does take TONS of studying, learning and practicing to take great photos! You have to learn about posing, lighting, backgrounds, aperture, so on and so forth... you have to LOVE it to really DO it! Just like any other profession... So in my opinion what Erin did was a stroke of genius! Anyway.. here is a link to her blog so you can read all about it and see the final results of her experiment! Let me know what you think about this!

http://www.erinfarrellphotography.com/theblog/?p=817

Where have you been?!

I know that is what everyone is thinking! I haven't blogged in over a month! I promise I have a good reason... All-Stars. LOL My 5 year old son made T-ball All-Stars, and you would think that would be no big deal right? WRONG! They practiced 3 hours a day, 6 days a week! Then when the games started they were every night, and we had to travel to them so it took up all our time! I never claimed to be a sports photographer, but I did catch a few shots during the games so I will post a few of my faves from the past few weeks! I also was hired to do the team and individual photos!

And finally the individual close up! :0)

The price of freedom

Today I had the opportunity to be apart of an awesome event. A local soldier was killed in combat and his funeral was today. So in support of Capt. Kyle Comfort and his family, an event was put together called "Line the streets with love". Anyone and everyone who wanted to come support his family was invited to line the streets from the church where the funeral was held to the burial grounds. And hundreds showed up! The Patriot Guard (who are an amazing group of people for what they do!) split with half in front and half in back of the procession and escorted them. While I am on the subject let me invoke my freedom of speech to say that it is HORRIBLE to think that anyone would take a funeral as an opportunity to spread a message of HATE!!! And that the God I serve is NOT a God of hate, but a God of LOVE! The people who are doing this despicable things are the opposite of what my God is about!!

*O.K. Allison.. breath* LOL

Anyway.. back to the story! So hundreds of people lined the streets, it was like a parade in honor of this fallen hero! Awesome... just awesome! I hope that more cities begin to do this! As the motorcade came upon the hill, the crowed was so still and quiet! Everything stopped... the emotion was so heavy in the air. The people driving in the precession were so filled with gratitude for what they were seeing. One man had tears streaming down his face, as he gave the crowd a thumbs up and mouthed "Thank you". Another person, a patriot guard rider blew out a kiss of appreciation to everyone there supporting our hero. Absolutely amazing... it was expected to be a tense event, as protesters were expected, but turned into a celebration of our freedom and this soldiers life. I am proud to be able to say that my family and I were a part of that. Proud that my son saw that.

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Shooting Fun!

I have been having a blast doing the shoots that I have gotten to do!! I did my cousin's prom photos in Ga two weeks ago, which went great... the weather was cloudy, so it was like God giving me a huge diffuser to take the pictures with! Then this weekend I did a shoot with one of my favorite families! They seriously made the whole thing fun! At one point I was laughing so hard I forgot to take pictures. LOL! yeah, rookie move, I know im supposed to capture those moments! I did manage to get a few. Although, the weather didn't cooperate with me this time. I scheduled the shoot for 4:30 knowing we would start by 5 and be done around 6, sounds like a great time right??? WRONG!!! LOL the sun was out at its FULLEST! I mean not ONE cloud in the entire sky to cut some of the shine. ha! Now I know, I need a reflector and a external flash so that next time I won't have such a hard time! I did manage to get a few great captures from them that didn't have horrible shadows in them! Hope that you can see what a fun family they were!

Hmm... weird... for some reason the blog is cutting off the ends of my photos. So for the real photos please see my flickr page! I promise I didn't cut the people in half. LOL!

Restriction Stinks!

My new lens came in today! I was so excited I could have hugged the UPS man! LOL! Joe and I were pulling off of our road when I saw the UPS truck turning in and I said GO BACK! ha ha! so we turned around and met him at our house. So this is one of the photographs that I got today of Caleb, and yes it has a back story. (don't they all?! LOL)

Yesterday Caleb lied to us, and fully admitted to lying so that he didn't get into trouble. So his punishment was that today he was not allowed to go outside except for T-Ball practice. He typically stays outside for the majority of the day, so this was a BIG deal for him. This photograph was taken when I was going outside to get the mail and I was playing with my camera. He ran to the door as usual and said wait I gotta get my shoes on! And I reminded him that he was on restriction, and that included going outside with me to get the mail. This picture is of him sitting in the doorway while I was getting the mail. He told me right after this that he was not going to lie anymore because "restriction stinks" HA! Mission accomplished.

I got it!

Tonight I got my first lighting shot! Talk about adrenaline! Those of you who know me, know I am TERRIFIED of storms! Just listening to the thunder makes my palms sweat, heart race and my hands shake! So when I saw that it was storming, I ran to the back door, set up my tripod and camera and started shooting.... my hands were shaking so bad that I could hardly press my remote trigger! LOL! Caleb (who is also scared of storms, yet as infatuated as I am) kept running into the kitchen yelling "GET IT GET IT! YES!!!!! YOU GOT IT!" The storm lasted maybe 10 min over my house before it moved away. So I did manage to get ONE good shot though out all the chaos.. and its not fantastic, BUT I DID IT!!

I have always wanted to get a photo of lighting, bet never knew how! But when Joe and I started going to Mountian View Church (behind top of the river 8:30 and 10:15, ok done with my commercial), we got involved with a small group and met several couples who are now GREAT friends! One of those couples are Brandon and Mandie. When I found out Brandon was into photography AND storm chasing I had a million questions for him.... and still do! LOL! But he told me how to take the shots, and I have been impatiently waiting for a good storm for months! Seems that every time one would blow up, I was out somewhere with out my camera! Finally tonight I got a storm, and my first shot... and tomorrow Joe and I have high hopes that there will be more night storms so a group of us can go to a local mountain and shoot! Ill post again if I end up getting anything good!

Winning run

Just a picture and a short story tonight... at some point in my life I have to get a little sleep.. LOL!


Caleb adores his t-ball coach. He always tells me, "mama I hope I made coach proud today". He has two goals this year in T-ball.. 1 - get good enough to play in the infield 2- hit a home run. We are just a few games into the season and he has already accomplished his first goal! Today was his first game playing in the infield and he did great! He smiled every time his coach said "Great job Caleb!" or "Looken good buddy!" This picture was taken today, right after Caleb scored the winning run of our first win. He ran right to his coach who threw him up in the air and carried him to the dugout. I am sure that he will remember that moment his whole life. I of course will, I couldn't be more proud of him.

My world of bubbles

One of the things I love about photography is the ability to take an every day object and make it the subject of an entire photo. To take one of life's little pleasures and blow it up to fill an entire frame. It makes people stop and think about that object, and if done correctly, when a person views your photo they will never look at that object the same again. So tonight I have been taking picture of bubbles. Who doesn't love bubbles?? One of my favorite parts of doing the dishes is when you squirt the soap in the water and *sometimes* if you are lucky you will throw a few mini-bubbles in the air! Am I the only one that loves this? Surely not! And I have to admit, that if it doesn't happen, I will give the soap container a few squeezes to see if I can make it happen. Yes I know im a dork. So here it is 1:30 in the morning, and am I sleeping with the rest of the world? Nope, Im playing with bubbles. So here are my bubble pictures, I hope you enjoy them and I hope that you stop and look closely next time you see one!

Negatives and paper

When I was a little girl, probably 5 or 6, I wanted to be a photographer. I would go to my mom's picture drawer and take some of her negatives, grab a piece of paper and a bucket of water and head to the bathroom. After filling the bucket with water I would place the negative and paper in the water, turn off the light and wait.... Every time I turned on the light I was disappointed! I would head to the kitchen thinking something in our house had to make it work. Searching through the cabinets I would grab all sorts of spices and oils. Id go back to the bathroom throw some salt and vinegar (or whatever my find of the day was) in the water and turn the light off... Still never worked. Too bad no one ever told me that you couldn't just throw random things in the water and expect a picture. I also remember carrying around an old film camera that was broken, I would take my imaginary pictures of everything that sparked my interest. Seeing the world for every detail it had.



Now I am 28, and I still don't develop pictures, but I do take them! A few months ago I received my first DSLR, a Nikon D3000, upgraded from a kodak easy share P&S. I couldn't be happier! I am walking around taking in all the details of life again, with or with out my camera in hand. My 5 year old son and I have started going on photography walks together, taking pictures of everything we see that interests us. Its crazy how life gets so busy that it ends up being one big blur, but you put a camera in your hand and suddenly time slows down to a crawl! A bee flies by and instead of ducking and running, I am squinting my eyes to see if I can take in every detail of his patterns and colors before he flies away. So now, I have decided to blog this experience. And through this blog I hope three things happen: First, I hope that I take the time every day to see the beauty around me and capture that either in my mind or on my camera. Also, that other people start to see all the beauty around them as they read this blog. Lastly... of course I hope that I can become a seasoned photographer that can capture a moment for all to see and admire.