Where am I now?

So I have moved up to the cold state of South Dakota from home (Texas). I miss being in the south, I miss complaining about how hot it is out right now (52 here...that's hot for up here, and 79 back home), I miss my nephews and my family.... I just don't like the fact I'm actually growing up now. I have been in my  parents house my entire life (minus the whole two months I moved into an apartment and then the times I went to Germany to visit). It's just weird to not be in my bedroom and hear my mom and dad come home from work.
I recently got engaged though, that's a bright side to things. It's weird but again, part of the growing up and things changing kind of weird. I love the boy so that's all I really care about. We haven't even started to plan anything with the wedding details yet, not a date or anything but we know we would love it to be next summer on a beach down in lower Alabama or Florida. As a female, I have TONS of ideas that I have always thought about but now it's just weird thinking about planning it all out now. I think with being in a military relationship it's hard to plan a wedding because of the possibilities of deployment and a new duty station we are debating.
We just moved into a nice new apartment (will add pictures of some of the rooms whenever I get to decorating a bit more... and we have a fun little area away from base we get to walk around. I think this is the only part of being up here I like besides being with my fiancé.
I am still working on Photography every chance I get...I am unsuccessfully trying to get my website built and up, had to buy a new computer and transfer all of my photos and files over and I still don't think I have all of them... on top of trying to do the website I still need to edit a ton of pictures from previous sessions, along with do my homework. School seems to be pointless to me right now but if I stopped school then I wouldn't have anything to do.
All of that being said I think it's due time for some lunch, get to reading my school work so I can actually know what I am supposed to be turning in tomorrow night and work on some pictures and the website. Hope anyone following is enjoying the posts.

-wp

It'd be so awesome to win an amazing 2 day package deal with Crave Photography!!!

http://cravemyphotography.com/blog/world-wide-giveaway/

It's probably unlikely that I will win this but it's not a bad thing to try. Maybe the cards will be in my hands, maybe not, oh well it's worth a shot....right?? I think the fact Crave Photography already has over 8,000 "Likes" is putting a big long shot on that lucky person being me especially with 6 other vendors and THEIR fans involved in it, but like I said it's worth a shot. I LOVE looking at the photos and if you are anyone who likes to take pictures I'm sure you are going to love seeing her images as well!! Maybe everyone should enter, because really, ANY PHOTOGRAPHER could win this!!!!
-wp

Wagoner Wedding

I have been editing away at some of the shots I took at the wedding on the 20th :) Here are some previews. You can see more now on my Facebook Page. I will be working on my blog once it is up and running.

websites

I bought my first 2 websites recently: One for my Photography portfolio and one for my photography blog. Both are being worked on right now but they will be linked to later on :)

starting another workshop!

This one is a year long workshop with Tracey Clark on BigPictureClasses.
Should be fun!

off to the doctors!!

I'm on my way to my doctor's appointment for my spine!!! Hope there's nothing but good news!!!

-wp

1234

1. For some time I have been searching for props for children's portraits such as headbands and bows, they could even be used for adults and for any girl of any age to add a touch of flair or vintage touch to any type of portrait session. I have checked out a ton of online Etsy shops and a ton of shops in town that sell the custom made headbands, well the prices range from $2 to about $250 and more from some "high end" sellers with the average ranging form $15-$35. That being said, I think I will just take this as a business opportunity and start making and selling my own custom hair accessories. I think selling my own will help me have some money on the side of doing Photography sessions and having an "out of the house" job.
2. Meagan had her beautiful baby girl Dylani on the 16th! She is gorgeous and I can't wait to do a baby session with her and her new family. It is going to be great!! Also, speaking of a session, I am going to Grand Prairie tomorrow to shoot my first wedding with my Canon! I also just got my 580EX II speed-light :) I can't wait to try it out and see what it's like to shoot with an external flash!. Some posts from Rebecca and Darrell to come!
3. I have completed my online Photography course and have started my Color Theory course the other day, I have kind of gotten a little behind by not reading the assigned readings yet but so far I have done both assignments due.
4. Finally, Anthony let me know today we are going to Estes Park Colorado in July for a family event. I'm excited to see a new state but the reason behind the trip is a sad one.

I guess it's a good time to stop blogging and Facebooking and go do some reading for class :)

-wp

putting things on hold

I have created two blogs in the past few months, this one was started in December and I created a WordPress more recently. I am disappointed at the quality of my photos when I post on WordPress so I opted to leave that site for a while and probably am just going to alter this blog a little to make it more personal and for my photography. I do expect to get a website [dot]com soon but am juggling between names and trying to figure out if it's best to get a domain name first and then start on the site (however you do it) or learn how to and set up a webpage first and then purchase the domain... so many choices.

Just to share:
I jump from blog to blog and page to page on Facebook looking at Photographers interesting finds and came across this really cute accessories website. I think I am going to buy a few things by the end of this year. They are so cute!! Here is one of the products off of the Whippycake site.

-wp

*I do not own this product or the rights to it or this image and I have no affiliation with this company.

Meagan's baby bump!!

This is the first maternity shoot I have done. Meagan didn't want your typical baby bump shots so we found some of the graffiti in town and once I put the camera to my eye, she started posing away. I loved it!! Here are some shots:

blogging fanatic!!

I have been trying to learn the ropes of starting and maintaining a website but I can't really get the 150% complete hang of it so I am starting off small and getting a few blogs started. This one is my personal blog that I think I will update at least once, if not several, times a day. I do have a blog over here that I would like to have as a more "professional" blog for my photography stuff.
On another note, I am starving. I woke up at 2am went back to sleep at 8 until about 1030 and haven't really gotten up to do much. I have just been trying to figure out things with a website and playing around making some watermark/logos for the site. It's so much to handle in one hour and I am the impatient type to want it done now now now. I have a list of things I want/need to do: eat, clean my room, do my homework, finish laundry, and search for a workshop to help me build a website. I don't think half of those things will get done today at all... but hey there's a reason lists are written, not everyone crosses all of their items off the list in one day. I think figuring out some editing options I have with this blog is helpful though so it's an accomplishment!! I added a shot I took for part of my final project for my Principles of Digital Photography class and I think it's going to be fun to play with all of the editing tools and play around with it eventually. I should have put "edit the blogs" on that list so I could cross one thing off... maybe I will hmmm? I guess getting the homework done is a good thing to start since it is due tonight but I'm stuck watching a bridal show and just saw this ADORABLE jacket so I have to keep myself from "window shopping". Gosh why do I have to be in love with jackets??
-wp

strange sleeping habits

I have the absolute weirdest sleeping habits of anyone I know. I can be asleep for an hour or 12 hours and be completely fine. Two nights ago, I fell asleep at 4am and woke up at 5am... the night before last I fell asleep at around 2 or 3am and woke up at 730am and last night I fell asleep at 8pm and have been awake since 2am... what the heck? Oh well, I'll take this time to edit pictures and look over schoolwork I guess... I might end up just trying to figure out how to set up a .com instead though.

small edits

I don't particularly care to edit my photos too much, however, I do find it to be helpful to adjust some things in the photos and play around and learn. I learned how to change/enhance eye colors on some pictures and here is some of my mommy below.

natrual eyes

 what I did to her eyes

Lots of accomplishments

I have had lots of things happen the past few weeks. I turned 21, been keeping up with my Photography homework, working on finding a hosting site for a website, and I have my 1st maternity session on Tuesday! I'm very excited about some of the ideas Meagan and I have already thought of!! Hopefully I will be shooting a friends wedding on the 20th as well but that is up in the air right now so we'll see how it goes when the time comes. Not to mention I also am going to be able to make it to my Scoliosis specialist appointment on the 28th  get to figure out exactly what to do about my back if anything :)

busy with nothing....

So basically I have come to realize I get so busy with so much to do, pictures for class, pictures for the workshop I spent money to take, cleaning and rearranging my room, and trying to figure out how to start my website. I haven't taken or posted ONE photo for the Picture Winter and the class is 22 days in...I am keeping up with my classwork but everything is stuck in a rut.... :/ I think I should catch up on my picture winter tomorrow. More posts to come :)

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Catching up with things

So I haven't taken one single picture yet for my Picture Winter workshop so I'm kind of upset with my self because of my lack of motivation to take every picture so far. I did start my Photography class though online (Art Institute) I got Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3.3 for this course the other day :) I am so happy so I have been playing around with it for a little bit. I was looking up videos about tutorials for doing different things and I found one that teaches you how to make vintage type photos. I played around with a picture I took of Anthony and I in Pairs with my remote and here is the original and then the edited:

doctors

Doctors apt. went well. Just have some bruising on the muscles, typical outcome of a wreck. Loved seeing my nephews...they are such big boys now. Time to catch up on my picture winter workshop stuff :)

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Back in the states

So I made it back home to the states last night. I was awake for a good 28 hours, we spun in a complete circle and lost control of the car after hitting black ice on the Autobahn doing 130kph ... I am going to my doctor today to get a few X-Rays done just to make sure I didn't hurt anything whenever I tensed up and gripped the door handle (worst thing to do ever in an accident and I knew it when I was doing it). Being overseas is great to visit but 2 months is a VERY long time to be gone. I am eagerly awaiting Anthony's arrival back home so he can enjoy the states as much as I am. I have tons of pictures to put up from Paris and from what I took in Germany period so I will do that here in the next few days. I am also in the works of organizing my photo folder. I have been "renaming" all my photos in numerical order and I am at number 8567 and I have 24 more folders to go through.... (I took about 841 pictures in Paris alone so the numbers are about to reach above 12,000 photos I bet.... that is RIDICULOUS! I also have another computer that crashed that I need to get the photos off of that hard drive. I have about 6000 probably on there just guessing... Man do I take a LOT of pictures or what?!?!? Time to get up and get ready for the doctors. I get to see my nephews today!! I'm super excited about that!!! Pictures will be put up soon! :)