What Santa Brought me!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!

Hubby, baby, and I stayed in TX and enjoyed every single bit of relaxation and stress free fun!

Baby got tons of gifts, including gifts we gave him before Christmas. . . such as 

-Playskool Sesame Street Count 'n Crunch Cookie Monster

-Crayola Wooden Table and Chairs Set

-Strider ST-3 KTM No-Pedal Balance Bike - Orange

clothes and much much more.

Hubby got some awesome gifts this year too.

-HP Envy dvy-7247 Laptop Computer

[For Christmas/Birthday(in January),/ making OTS]

-Otter Box

-Assorted Movies

and other nick nacks.

As for me I made a pretty collage showing you what I was fortunate to get.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Let me just say [2] the Sigma brush that I got ... I am addicted! I want them all! You can tell the quality and dense-ness of the brush is AMAZING! 

Also, [8] is so great and useful and I love looking at it hanging up!

Lastly, [10] I can not wait to get in the kitchen and making so much yummynessss! 

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and enjoyed the holidays and continue too! 

Until next time. . .

First.

I just want to say I am so grateful I have met some amazing friends at this duty station (& FAST!). We also share a common passion for photography. One particular photographer & friend (who you are probably tired of hearing about but I do not really care)  Dani  teaches, tells me, and shares so many new tricks with me. A lot of photographers that I come across do not want to help, share, or spread their knowledge with fellow friends/photographers. Anyways back to the post.

First.

Dani and the client invited me to a Boudoir shoot. I would have been so happy just to learn from the shoot, but no they are nice enough to let me shoot so I can add to my portfolio. The following photos are some of my favorites that I shot and thought would be appropriate and okay to share.

A boudoir (French: [bu.dwaʁ], English: /ˈbuːd.wɑːr/) is a lady's private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room. The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning "to be sulky" or boudeur, meaning "sulky".^[1]

Until next time. . . 

taking a risk for the shot.

Hi. My name is Stephanie and I have crazy allergies and am allergic to my own dogs and grass. Sunday, two great photographers and friends of mine had the opportunity to photograph a beautiful senior. The places we went to were basically in the nature and my lucky self is allergic to ... nature. I paid for it yesterday but it was so worth it! To get out in shoot makes me so happy. I keep learning every single time I shoot and just love it.

Here are some pictures from the shoot.

Enjoy.

[photo credit: Daniela Curl Photography]

[edited by me]

Isn't she just gorgeous!

Until next time. . . 

Cotton & more.

Texas Cotton Fields. 
They sure are pretty and this was my first experience with them.
I went with a friend and also photographer (if you read/seen my prior post you have seen plenty of her).
It was an eventful day with getting locked out of her car on accident to mother nature covering her beautiful golden sun with massive clouds. I still managed to get what I think are decent shots. 
I of course had to get some shots of Dani too. 

Here they are:

Isn't cotton pretty?

Too pretty!

Until next time. . .

Christmas questions.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa wraps it up.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored lights are already in the tree :) I like white but I also love color. (sorta throw back and more Christmas-y)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? One year I did. If I find it yes, if not, I still get kissys.

5. When do you put your decorations up? I wish. But I should wait till after Thanksgiving to enjoy the holiday. 

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Punkin pie. dontchaknow.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? When I got a huge box that tuned out to be a TV, before my sister (I am EXACTLY 3 years younger than her). Baller status. I was like 5 or 6.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I have no clue. I just figured it out. Smart like that.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yup. and so will baby.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? As good as I can?? I have some that are the same kind of ornament but I like to mix it up and put some sentimental ornaments on the tree.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Before our last base in South Dakota, I loved/hated it. I hated shoveling and driving in it but it looked magical. 

12. Can you ice skate? No pro, but I can get around.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My camera hubby gave me like 2 Christmas' ago.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Food and family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Pie and cookies.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Black Friday? maybe, depends if I have someone to go with. 

17. What tops your tree? A star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Both. You get to see the look and feelings when someone opens up a gift, and gifts are fun... if he bought from your Amazon wish list. :) Jusss kiddin.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? eh. I sneeze with peppermint but sometimes I like it. 

20. Favorite Christmas show? The Grinch that stole Christmas.

21. Saddest Christmas Song? Silent Night

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? N*SYNC - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. 

Until next time. . . 

G Family.

Saturday evening I had the honor of taking photos of a friend and her husband. While the weather wasn't exactly what I had in mind, it went alright.

This was the second couples session I have taken and honestly it was a little awkward, for me mostly. I was spacey and just ... not at my best I feel.

But practice makes perfect and I plan to keep doing what I am doing (but better). Some days I know its not completely my equipment's fault but some days I just wish I had a camera equipment fairy. Anyways here are some of the photos.

Just saying, in the future, their kids will have some killer eyes. 

I love this one. 

Just trying something fun and different.

That's it.

Until next time. . .

Shutterfly.

I got a code recently and ordered some Christmas cards with the family photos Daniela Curl Photography took of us. I love how they came out with the simple template Shutterfly provided.

Here it is:

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Check out their other designs!
They turn out amazing and they have so many designs.
I love the Chalkboard design and the feeling of the actual
card is great quality. Good Job Shutterfly!

Until next time. . .

Halloween.

This year hubby actually was home and thankfully got switched to A shift, therefore he could go trick or treating with us.

We went to the base and trunk or treated for 20 minutes or so.

Came home and chilled out while I popped dinner in the oven.

Went around the block once and trick or treated, which

can I say is SO cute (at least at his age).

Baby said "thank you" (in his own kinda way),

but while we walked away from the house.

I guess he's shy like that but with manners.

He finally got the concept and loved when

people would hand him the treat so he could  put it in his

bucket. There was plenty of trick or treaters so I know

what to expect in the coming years.

Here are some pictures:

Trunk or treating.

<3

Well. . . I don't mind if you dont.

My skeleton baby.

So grown up!

Until next time. . .

Matte color.

So, I am totally in love with matte finishes to photos.

I never knew how to do it and am not at all claiming I do.

But I did some hard digging around (without buying

an action pack from any site). And found Tonya Holsey Photography.

She made it pretty easy. While I still have a long ways to go I decided

to practice on one of my recent shoots and this is what I came up with.

The top one is the original straight out of the camera photo and the bottom one is the edited.

Look below for the full size edited one.

Any tips or easy ways you turn your photos matte or any
tips to bring the warm glow in there are welcomed! 
Thanks!


------------------------------------edited----------------------------------


I had a little more time to give it another try.
These are my boys.
There is so much going on in the photo so I decided
to crop some of it out.
Heres attempt #2 of "matte-ifying".

And the big picture.

Another one.

Practice makes perfect?

Until next time. . . 

Black & White.

Once again I was inspired by a i heart faces.

I was browsing their site and found a link to how to 
create a black & white matte finish to photos.

It's so fun to change up the whole feeling of the photo 
when transforming it to black & white.

Here is what I created.

Everything around her just intensifies & I love it.

I love the texture of the wood behind her.

Matt-ey.

The brick has so much detail and her eyes are so textured. 

I love this tutorial and I just want to go through all my photos, to turn them 

black & white and see what pops from the photo!

Until next time. . .