Precious Perry

Congratulations Trey & Cathy Perry! 

Isabella Grace was born this past weekend, and she is PRECIOUS!!! Trey’s feet haven’t touched the ground yet, and Cathy is doing great. I’m super happy for them. They are one of the most genuine, sweetest Christian couples I know. They have been a blessing to me and soooo many others, and I was honored to be able to take some photos for them in the hospital yesterday. You may recall I photographed Cathy for her debut album not so long ago.

 

    Check out her site at www.cathyperryministries.com. She has a beautiful voice and ministry!

 

 

 

Isabella…. just 2 days old and look at her gazing at her daddy already!

 

 

 

Hard to put words to this one, except AAWWW.

Blessings, Heidi

Celebration

My coworker Jenny and I nominated our principal, Alan Due, for the Council for Exceptional Children’s Administrator of the Year Award. He’s just plain awesome. For example, he plans the entire school schedule aroound US so we can maximize our time with students, he got us an assistant who also works with students, AND he gives us a full day of planning with our general education inclusion teachers every Friday. He advocates for ALL students at our school. Alan reminds me of the little boy on the beach who is throwing the starfish back into the water and says, “It made a difference to this one!”

The awards banquet was last night. It was wonderful….. especially the part when

Alan WON!!

I love it when that happens!

THANK YOU CEC, Jacksonville Chapter 75!!!!!!!!

~

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiration

Up early/late…. couldn’t sleep (shocker)….

I like this latest message on www.sparkpeople.com from yesterday:

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”  - William James, philosopher and psychologist

Living a Meaningful Life

Looking for meaning? Having trouble figuring out how to make a difference? The answer may be closer and simpler than you think. Ask yourself: If I were gone tomorrow, what will I be most proud of having left behind? The answer will be different for each of us, but it may tell you something about why you’re here. Your answer can be as involved as a foundation you helped start, or as simple as a favorite picture that you took. Something will be here when you’re gone. What would you like it to be? What one thing would tell the world what you were all about? Maybe it’s your child. Maybe you’re already working on something that could turn into one of your greatest accomplishments. If so, give it your all. The more of yourself that goes into it now, the more people will be able to see you later on. 

Nice little dose of inspiration, don’t you think?

Have a great day! I’m heading back to bed

~Heidi

Check it out

Just a quick post to show you this photo. Jerry gets kinda frustrated trying to keep the clover out of our yard, but Ryley and I have fun with it.  She likes to pick the flowers and I can usually find a 4 leaf clover if I look carefully.

 

 

Change Your Perspective

Some simple ways to instantly improve your photos are to change your perspective, use creative cropping, line, natural framing with your background/foreground, depth of field, composition &/or camera orientation (hold your camera vertically for a change). I’m using a little of each in this image. This is the same image, but look at how the impact changes as I change my cropping.

 

  

 

 

Two more images that aren’t an average snapshot. 

 

Did the line of the window sill lead your eye to the egg? Or the vertical orientation and angled composition may have caught your attention.

One last image…

 

 

Renaissance Girl

I had the pleasure of attending another one of the mini-seminars that pro photographers from PPSNF are presenting. This one was done by Scott Beahan of Shutterly Perfect Portraiture (www.shutterlyperfect.com). I think there were about 20 of us with cameras in hand, shooting away.  It was a lot of fun. When I downloaded the images, I kept thinking that the girl looked very familiar to me.  Finally it hit me! She looks like my sister!! I’ve never seen anyone that resembles my sister, so it was really neat! 

This one is a distance shot though.

 

That’s all for now,

~Heidi

Gratitude

Last night as I was making dinner, I noticed that some spinach leaves had just started to go bad.  I tend to analyze things (really!), and noticed that I was taking each leaf of spinach that could be saved and tearing off the bad parts. If there was at least half of the leaf that could be saved, I’d tear off the bad part and keep the rest. So I got a little aggrivated with myself, because I was wasting time. But I couldn’t stop thinking of each leaf growing on the spinach farm, the farmer and the machine that harvested it, and everything it went through to make it into that bag and into my kitchen. What a waste for it to just end up getting thrown away! I try to be grateful for everything the Lord provides me, but I was beginning to feel a bit extreme last night, because it was actually stressing me out to be wasting time….over little spinach leaves. I thought to myself that it was another example of how everyone else seems so much more productive/efficient than me. So essentially I was “wasting time” to prevent from “wasting spinach.”

What am I getting at? Afterwards, I checked my email and found this in a SparkPeople message (www.sparkpeople.com)

(it’s pretty ironic, or just God’s divine way of letting me know it’s ok to be me!!):

 

When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree. - Vietnamese saying

Expressing Everyday Gratitude

How often do you remember the people that have made little things possible for you? It’s easy to take our privileges for granted. Today, be more aware of your surroundings–everything from your shirt, house, food, and car–and who has made them possible for you. Who has made it possible for you to experience such wonderful things? One way to let someone know that you truly appreciate their efforts is to send them a quick note or return the kindness in your own way.

I am grateful for YOU! Have a great day!

~Heidi

Perpetual Pumpkin

 Believe it or not, this is the pumpkin that Ryley’s “pa-pa” (my Dad) mailed to her back in October 2007!  He grew it in his yard, then decided that Ryley had to have it. So we got this box one day, and inside was this pumpkin with a ton of styrofoam noodles surrounding it.  Never expected to see that!!  I wish I would have decorated it for each one of the holidays it has been through! 

THEN….

NOW…

 

Have a great week!

From Brides to Bellies

It’s so exciting that two of my former wedding clients are expecting! Congratulations JP & Carley… she’s due next month.  These photos are from JP & Carley’s baby shower.  Look at that beautiful glow

 

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t photograph the details!!

 

Flashback…..

 

One of the BEST cake feeding ”gotchas” ever!!!

 

I also found out that Stacy, another one of my former brides, is also pregnant!  She has a radiant glow as well!  Conveniently, her birthday was last week, so it gave us the perfect opportunity to give her a special little gift  

 Congratulations to you as well Stacy & Keith!!

Flashback…..

 

 

 

 

That was fun!

 

PS~ Happy Anniversary Heather & Randy!!  4-1-2006

 

                                   

 

Hmmm…. wonder when it’ll be YOUR turn for a baby shower!!!??????

Wedding Shots

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the wedding I assisted Kim Kirk (www.kimkirkphotography.com) on this past weekend.  Sweet couple and beautiful day…