TODAY

TODAY, I am sort of freaking out a little...

I FINALLY got my images from a maternity photo shoot I modeled for over 3 MONTHS ago! (I have been waiting and waiting and stalking my mailbox for weeks now!) I absolutely worship this photographer (Ashlee Raubach) and was so excited I got to work with her (she is mind-blowingly talented - to put it lightly) ... And because I was a model and not a client, I got a disc of all of my full res images for FREE! FREE I TELL YA!!!! FREEEEEEEEE!!!! I could never afford to hire her (not that she is riduclously over-priced, but we sort don't really have a photography budget at the moment, you know, per se) ...so this was sort of a huge treat for me...if you couldn't already tell by all of the exclamation points!!!! Woo-hoo!

It was a dream come true to have this L.O.N.G. awaited pregnancy documented by such a talented photographer. Do I sound like a creepy, fanatical stalker type yet? Yes? Kay, time to stop talking now. I certainly can't hope to work with Miss Raubach again if she's forced to slap a restraining order on my A, now can I?



What are YOU doing today?
The girls at communal global want to know. Link up and share!

eeeek!

I just got a hold of the very first picture from my commercial shoot with Ashlee Raubach. (Who is amazing, by the way...) and I LOVE it!! Man, leaving the studio on the day of the shoot, I was SO EXCITED just thinking about how much I will treasure having these photos of me and my little guy... little did I know that 2 days later he would get bit in the face by a dog and need 5 stitches to close up his top lip in the emergency room...and 5 days after that, he would cut his hair to the scalp at the neighbor's, and 14 days after that, he would lose one of his darling front teeth and officially enter his "awkward-but-cute-in-a-funny-awkward-and-terribly-mischievous-second-grade-boy-sort-of-way" stage. (and for the record, he is still really, really cute to me.) But now I am really going to treasure these photos of my perfect, unscathed (for but a fleeting moment) 6 year old boy! Isn't Ashlee amazing? I am DYING to see the rest!

I'm going. (You should too.)

The Justin Hackworth 30 Strangers Event is tomorrow.
I went last year.
I loved it.
There were images displayed at the exhibit last year
that actually choked me up.
(This is no easy feat.)
There is something about mothers, and daughters, and grandmothers
and generations coming together in a small, intimate space
and being captured by Justin's unbelievably raw,
yet unbelievably trained lens that gets me right in the throat.
(You know, the thing where you're like:
"I'm really touched and sort of want to bawl,
but I'm going to hold all of that emotion right here in my throat
and keep it to myself so as not to make everyone else here
utterly weirded out and uncomfortable?"
You know, that thing?
Well that is what his images do to me.)
I don't know where one orders a "lens of almighty truth"
but Mr. Hackworth seems to have one of the best ones on the market.
So I am going.
And, I sort of feel like I am waiting for Christmas.
Yes, he is that good.
Last year, I made a donation and received a session with Justin in return.
This is what I got:

Is it any wonder I m a fan?
You should go.
Seriously.
See you there.

smile coaching.

So, Kort wanted me to take a picture of him with all of the "treasures" he'd found on our walk, and Kyle noticed that this smile was a bit unnatural.

so he decided to coach him into a more... natural grin.

(which went over really, really well.)

ah, there it is.

oh, and please be sure to fully appreciate the "Vanna hand" that he has goin' on in

every. single. frame.