back in the groove

Over Christmas break, a friend texted me, with however much giddiness you can text, that she was engaged!  I cried.  I knew it was coming sometime in the near future but had no idea it would be then.  I've known her for several years, watched her grow into a wonderful young woman and watched this love blossom from the beginning.

This past weekend, you know.....Polar Vortex weekend.....she asked if I could meet up with them to photograph them in the snow.  I was a little nervous but so excited that she had asked me!  I hadn't really picked up my camera much since September.  I had started to feel like I had lost all desire to use a lens and a memory card.  Things were mostly contained chaos at our house the latter part of 2013, and photography was pretty much at the bottom of the priority list.

The night before I was to meet up with them I started scouring Pinterest for some ideas.  I am always able to find good ideas but not always able to remember them when I get to the shoot.  So I saved them to my camera roll on my phone this time so that they would be easy to find.  Of course I didn't really remember to look at it except for maybe one time.  But it didn't matter, because she had come armed with the best ideas anyway!  These two made this shoot so fun!  I can see why photographers love to shoot weddings.  The full-blown wedding makes me completely nervous, but I would love to do the engagement part - such fun!

So my hope was that I would be able to get at least two good shots for them to be able to use.  And her posing ideas turned out really adorable, so I think we met the goal.  

And I believe my love for photography has been rekindled.

Thanks for tromping around in the snow with me you two!

photography class

I've been taking a photography class online the past four weeks.

Its focus was on taking portraits.

Every once in a while someone will ask me to take pictures of their kids or family, and I thought this class might help me improve my skills with that so that I can do an even better job when the opportunity come up again in the future.

And, besides, I really love photography and want to learn as much as possible.

In fact, Brian will tell you that my camera is our third child :)

Anyway, these are some of the assignments that I had.

My subjects were very willing after I told them they would be paid for their work!

This first one was for a side lighting assignment.

This one was my submission for the specific age group photo.

We were to take what we had learned about photographing people of different ages and apply it.
I chose the boys' age group cause that's what I had access to and I figured that's what I photograph the most.


And this one was for a bonus creative assignment.
We were to take a portrait of someone but not of their face.

This last one was not for an assignment.

I just loved how it turned out and wanted to share it.

The last assignment was to take a group photo.

I had visions of getting a picture of Brian and the boys at a park near us, but the weather and our schedules this week just wouldn't cooperate.

I ended up submitting a photo that I had taken a few months ago with hopes of getting feedback on that one at least.

I really liked this class.

I feel like I learned a lot about taking photographs of people, and at the same time it made me realize that I knew more than I thought I did - gotta love that, too!

botanical gardens

Brian recently had about a month-long vacation from work.

He is actually back to work now, but we were able to get a lot done and enjoy the time we had.

He was even able to get to Florida to see his family for a few days and catch up with some of his friends there.  

During the last week of his time off we went down to the Botanical Gardens.

I usually drag everyone down there a little earlier to enjoy the tulips or the cherry trees in the Japanese garden, but we just didn't make it this year.  We typically don't go during this time because the cherry blossoms have fallen off the trees and the tulip are pretty faded by now.  But who knew that the azaleas were blooming so fiercely?!  For some reason I never get an alert about the azaleas so I just don't think about them.  They were absolutely gorgeous!

The most fun part for me was that Brian brought a camera with him to shoot pictures too.

He was actually the original photographer in the family, but somewhere along the line (probably when the boys were born and I wanted to take pictures of them all day long) my interest in it kind of skyrocketed and I've pretty much taken over.  The camera rarely touches his hands any more,  because I'm always hogging it.

We don't do it very often, but it's fun to go on little photography jaunts with him.  He has a really good eye and it's fun to see things differently with him.  He taught me a ton about cameras and photography when I first started being interested.

Somehow, our quest for the day at the Botanical Gardens became getting an awesome blurred-motion running-water shot.  I think both of us had read how to do it and knew how to do it, but it was actually a pretty good challenge remembering everything and applying all of our knowledge.  I think you really need a tripod for a truly great shot of this, so maybe a little planning ahead next time :)

But here are a few of the images we ended up with.

Not bad for our first time I don't think!

silhouettes

Absolutely my favorite photography project right now.

I'm on the lookout for an awesome place to do this with no weeds at our feet.

So hopefully there will be more to come.

I'm thinking the beach if we can ever get there!

i want to be here

Lake Eola - Downtown Orlando

  Brian took this picture our last night of vacation, and I love everything about it.  The reflection of the city lights, just starting to really shine.  The swans in the water.  The silhouette of the palm trees.  The fast-fading sunset.   The feeling of the warm breeze that was blowing that evening.  The memory of being there with almost our entire Weiler family, just walking around enjoying the evening.  Aaaaahhhhhhh, I'm ready to go back.

a look

at one of the projects I've been working on....

Cute guy, huh?

flashback

Brian and I used to go hiking together all the time when we were first married.  Living in East Tennessee, you've got tons and tons of great places to hike.  Even when we were in Georgia there were plenty of places (just hard to do with kids in tow).  Last night B suggested we go hike this trail that we like here instead of going to the gym.  Awesome.  Anything to get off that elliptical! 

It was the perfect day - great weather - peak autumn colors - peaceful and quiet.  And a flashback to those days in Tennessee.  Loved it.