Latest Photo Shoot

I waited so long to post these pics up because I wanted to double check with the mommy that it was okay but here are a few shots from my latest photo shoot. They were twin boys - 18 months old. Cute as can be! There were so many cute shots that I had a hard time deciding which ones to show you! I kept it at 10 although I wanted to show you more like 20! Would love your thoughts... you know, i like for you to be critical!


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Dawn's Long and Silly Journal - Read only if you are bored!

So I dont know if any of you ever experience this but I have had the hardest time accepting what I am known for here in Huntsville. What I mean by that is when I lived in Indy I was only known as a photographer. Well that and the fact that I worked in marketing. But everyone knew me as an artist. I went back to school after getting my degree in Photography and Computer Graphics to get my teaching degree. I didnt start teaching until I moved to Huntsville. Well, what do you think happened? Everyone in Huntsville knows me as a teacher. Which let me stop right here and say that I am glad to be known as a teacher and it is the most difficult thing I have ever done but also the most rewarding... and who wouldnt love the time off? So I love my job more than anything and am very proud to be doing what I do. I just dont want to lose who I was and still am.

When I went to Indiana Wesleyan I changed my major to art two weeks into my freshman year and had to declare a specific major during my sophomore year. I chose Photography and Computer Graphics because I felt like the two complemented each other well. Also I found out that year that I wasnt that bad at Photography (compared to drawing which I sucked at big time!) Out of all the art students they only give one photography scholorship out a year to who they deem the most promising photography student. I recieved this during my sophomore year - which was a shock but a huge honor. Anywayt, I then became a teaching and technical assistant in the photo lab where I worked and helped students for the remaining two years of college. During my summer breaks I helped a prominent wedding photographer i was his assistant during weddings. I began doing some weddings on my own here and there and honestly never have loved doing them... it takes your whole weekend... it's high stress and hard work. not my cup of tea! anyway, I also worked in a portrait studio in the town where my parents lived as the senior portrait photographer. I did a ton of graphics work for my jobs after college. I havent done that much since coming to Huntsville because I have had to work up to getting programs, cameras, equipment... all of that stuff! But I am slowly but surely building up the things I need and hope to start doing more and more with it again. I have to say that I really miss all of my artist friends up in Indy and miss the critiques on our work and getting together to brainstorm ideas for artwork. I went to an awesome church filled with amazingly talented artists and we would create artwork for messages or just for the beautification of the room or whatever. We dreamed up more than we created but it was a blast! I hope to move back to that a bit more in the future. I do have great artist friends here but we are all getting older and dont have as much time to sit around and dream up art projects!
Some other things I like to do... well, I also like to do stained glass, oil paint, weave if i had a loom, and draw if i am in the mood. Anyway, I guess I am just feeling like no one really knows me or what I enjoy doing and who I feel like I am. Since teaching I have learned so many other artforms that I never would have imagined doing. I like to create things - that is it in a nutshell! Sorry for the rambling waste of your time! I hope you stopped reading a long time ago. I am mostly just thinking out loud. Maybe someone here in H'ville feels like they know me better.... who knows?

The Wet Dog Triathalon and Our Little Laci

Today was jam-packed! We started out this morning at 5 am going to do our first triathalon. I ended up doing great. I finished 5th in my age group and was very pleased to start out so strong. My time breakdowns were roughly a 7 min swim for the 400 meter, around 33 min 15k bike and a 27 min 5k. That put my total time at 1:08:58. Throw in some transition times and there ya go! Allen did extremely well too. He finished in 1:10:23... no gloating from me... he had longer transition times due to bike shoes and running shoes and his swim kicked my swim's tale... around a 5:50 swim for him... rediculous! Oh, did i mention that it was raining more this morning than it has all summer combined!?!?! yuck. It did cool things off so that was nice.

Anyway, on to the really exciting news... muggsley got a baby sister! Her name is Laci. So without further adou... here she is:

Kaylen's Collage

As most of you know, Kaylen's room is red, yellow and green. So I did this photo shoot with that in mind because I have a frame that this college will fit in. I put this together and have sent it off for print... tell me your thoughts/critiques. Even though I cant change this one it will be helpful for future ones! I know the pics are mostly the same as the previous post but the college is different.

lake trip and fathers day pictures

Kaylen at 18 months

photo shoot

Okay, so I am really trying to keep doing artwork over my summers so I recently took pictures of a friend of mine's 6 week old baby. I thought I would post some of them and get your reactions. I am trying out some new actions in photoshop and playing around with images. Anyway, of course the baby is adorable... cant help but get that part right! So I would love to know what you think about the technical stuff.... posing, editing, all of that... so without further adou:

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Bermuda

I will write more about the trip when I get a chance but here are a few pics of our trip. It was sooo fun... except for the airplane ride there and back. We got home from Destin at 9pm on Sunday night and found out at 10 that our flight going out of Huntsville had been canceled so we had to drive to Birmingham and fly from there. Our flight left at 6 so we had to leave the house at 3 am. I didnt get packed until 1am. So talk about being tired the whole way there! Then on the way back we boarded our plane and were told we had to wait for permission to leave... an hour later... we left. I was afraid we would miss our connecting flight but we didnt. We made it to Birmingham but our bags didnt. They came in on the next flight... uggg... dont fly US Airways.

Now for the trip... we were treated like Kings and Queens. It was too amazing for words. Gifts: t-shirts, maui sunglasses, a beach bag with 2 nice towels, a silly little painting, aveda body products, and a video i-pod. We were fed out the wazoo!!! I think i gained 6 pounds. my excersions were a mountain biking tour, scuba diving, a massage, and a jet skiing safari. Allen didnt do the jet skiing and went deep sea fishing. He caught a wahoo. He was the only one to catch anything on his boat. We had sooo much fun!!!! I cant even describe how awesome of a time we had. Here are some pics from it:

Destin 2007

We left for Destin on Friday for the weekend. Allen had to work a conference and we only had a short amount of time to play but we packed it all in. Shopping, Pool time, Beach time, family pics (stay tunned), great meals, a busted lip.... and more! We werent there 30 min. and Kaylen fell and both lips were bleeding! I was so afraid she had broken a tooth! All was well but as you can see from the pics she looked like she had a cleft lip. Oh, the best part of the weekend was that Allen lost his drivers license, corporate credit card, and bank card in the middle of the ocean. It was a bit nerve racking since we were leaving at 5am on Monday for bermuda! All worked out and we had a blast!