An Inspirational Week

This week has been so inspirational to me.  Life is too short not to take every opportunity to get out there and enjoy all the beauty in it.  Although it has been very cold and snowy here for the last ten days or so, it was gorgeous outside and I love taking photos in the winter just as much as the summer.  Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to capture all the love and happiness in our homes...and also all the stress leading up to the big day.  Then there is getting outdoors to enjoy some winter activities such as sledding and possibly snowshoeing.  It would be great to go in the mountains closeby and take in the wonderful fresh air and get some exercise at the same time.  I can totally see my youngest son Clay and my husband joining me in that activity.

Christmas is only a month away and it was nice to get out and go to the mall and see all the decorations.  It will be fun to put up the tree.  Oh the photo opportunities!  I bought a star filter for my DSLR and I am so stoked to try it out on the tree and the lights at Christmas.    Here is one from last night of my home.  I see we have a few bulbs burned out already, but I love low-light photography.  A person just has to keep warm and make sure the batteries are charged up good.

Scrapbooker's Paradise is a scrapbook store in Calgary that I usually shop at.  The ladies are so great there and they are always a breath of fresh air.  I always leave there smiling as they are so much fun and have a great sense of humor.  They are all very knowledgeable and share that same passion I have for the wonderful hobby.

My mom and I went to Jack Astor's for lunch.

  It  was great to connect and have some laughs.  Doesn't she look wonderful in red?  My mom is so pretty!

Well off to make some Beef Barley Soup and get the house in shape.  My husband will be coming home today and I sure hope he has a safe trip.

Day Three

Today was the final day of  Tamara Lackey's "Children's Portrait Photography".  It was such an inspiration and I took a ton of notes.  It really put it all in perspective for me as far as blending all the components of becoming  a professional photographer.  It is something that I want to work towards and see where it takes me.  I really want to pursue my diploma in photography and this course reinforced that for me.

Little by little I will work towards that goal.  It is really an excited time of my life and I truly believe that the sky is the limit.  I am not afraid of hard work to achieve this goal.

Day Two

Today was day two of the CreativeLive Children's Portrait Photography by Tamara Lackey.  It was great!  I have so much respect for her and her work.  She truly is a smart lady and very good with children.  It is opening a whole new realm in photography for me as I have mostly taken an interest in landscape and macro photography.  I really like the quote ``the dictionary is the only place where success is before work``.  Love that.  I am a true believer that hard work pays off in every aspect of life.  I also like the satisfaction you get from hard work.

Looking forward to tomorrow`s show as it will be critiquing photos and the `business`side of photography and the work and home balance.

Children's Portrait Photography

Lisa, a friend of mine told me about some wonderful photography courses that were online.  She told me about a livestream course that was taking place all weekend called "Children's Portrait Photography" by Tamara Lackey.

www.tamaralackey.com

   It is awesome!  Tamara definitely has a way with getting children to be comfortable around the camera and shows some of her techniques.  Today's course was seven hours long and discussed more of a hands on approach.  It was like a little psychology class. 

Tomorrow she will have some family photo shoots and also discuss establishing a studio and a budget design challenge.  I am looking forward to it.

Dean

Here is a layout on my little brother who passed away four years ago at the age of 38.  It was such a shock to my family and I wanted to pay tribute to him and also because it is such good therapy for me to scrapbook.  This layout was of Dean when he was about 4 years old.  Wasn't he cute?  His daughter Laine, who is now 8 looks so much like him.

I'm Getting Published Again!

In August this year I had a layout published in  and I was so flattered.  Today I received another email saying that my "Winter Joy" mini album is going to be published in the same online magazine.  It was the perfect start of a perfect day!

www.scrapbooking.com/

Winter and Flowers

The last two days there has been a lot of snow and although I hate driving in the winter, I love the beauty of the snow blanketing everything.  I had some library books to return so I snapped a few photos.

Rick bought me these yellow roses on Sunday as he knows I always get sad on the anniversary date of my brother's passing.  Yellow roses symbolize sympathy.  Aren't they pretty?