My father-in-law is in town visiting for a week, and he always comes with gifts... though we're never sure what decade they are from, there is always an interesting tale to accompany the items. Be they vintage Chinese dresses, Ansel Adams prints from a yard sale in California, or old Nikon lenses, adapters, and bellows extenders I've never even heard of before, I'm always surprised by what comes out of his suitcase. Today, the camera lenses arrived. Now, he didn't know this, or maybe he did know this from studying my work and my love for close up flower images, but I have always wanted to dabble more in macro photography. And dabble we most certainly did this afternoon, with all three children napping we spread every piece of equipment we had between the two of us out on the dining table. There was a thunderstorm rolling through making perfect overcast skies on my favorite porch. After testing all of the lenses on some seashells, installing the Nikon lens on my Canon with a Nikon adapter ring, installing them frontwards AND backwards for different effects, yes a lens can be put on backwards, who knew?! I went outside in search of a ladybug or beetle. After not finding a single insect I grabbed two flowers and a mushroom and headed back inside. I popped the red flowers into a vase full of sand, grabbed the camera and started focusing the bellows fully extended. When my image came into focus here is what I saw:


And then I nearly peed my pants with excitement when this little guy, and I mean little, the size of a dime fully outstretched, peaked out from behind! Jackpot! So the next 40 minutes was spent manipulating the scene to get the best light and the best angle- and if you think posing toddlers is a challenge...

Interestingly, he wanted nothing to do with this mushroom, he would not stay on it for even a second. We pontificated over the mushrooms possible poisonous nature... everything else in the desert is poisonous.


This was his grumpy stance. After about 40 minutes and two attempts at shrooming, he was visibly angry with me... and, I had the lens to actually be able to capture that!

I believe I saw a rude extended digit as he turned on his heel and stomped away, the flower petals were shaking, so I assume he was stomping.

Simply an amazing afternoon, and the lenses and accessories now live with me so there will be many more afternoons like this one I hope! Hmmm, I wonder what food would do under a lens like this...

He always fights it...
Inspired by my very talented pal Julie Rivera... When I saw her post last Thursday I just about melted, and then sarcastically thought "as if that would ever happen in my house!" This scene only lasted about five minutes before he woke up completely disoriented and as grumpy as a bee stuck in a jar.

Baby Mama. Funniest movie I have seen in a long time, and the beauty featured in this sneak peek rivals the movie's ability to make me laugh. My dear friend is having a baby, such a precious and intimate event to share with someone. She was on my "emergency call" list when The Bundle arrived, and now I am on her list. Words can't express what this friendship means to me, so I hope my images will....

Eight years ago I stumbled onto Holy Trinity Monastery. I was determined to find my way back again and brought it up in conversation with a local who immediately identified where I was describing and how to get there. One day last week when my children were driving me crazy at home, I loaded the car with peanut butter sandwiches and away we went on a good old fashioned country drive. The promise of peacocks kept my little ones intrigued as we drove over the rolling hills, saturated from morning thunder storms, to the quaint little town of St David, Arizona. The morning was peaceful, the grounds completely vacant with the exception of about a dozen peacocks... Well, the grounds were peaceful. As soon as my children saw the birds, and as soon as the birds saw my children, there was some serious peacock talking, and equally as shrill a giggle coming from my kiddos, who were beside themselves with laughter over the silly call of these gorgeous birds. It was a great outing, I'd highly recommend this little bump in the road for a stretch and a picnic. Oh, and could someone PLEASE get married here and hire me?! Talk about an amazing Catholic chapel in which to wed, photographically speaking!

It's monsoon season, a season of lightning and thunderheads rolling into view every afternoon, making the scheduling of portrait sessions darn near impossible... and though one probably should not race to the nearest highest mountain to capture the beauty of the storm, I am an addict after all, you can't stop someone with a camera no matter how hard you try.