Superfluous Fluff

On the Road

I'm traveling with my family.  No new blog content until July 23rd.  See you then and hope we're both having a wonderful time :)

Ruthie and Kirk: Wedding Dreams

I met Ruthie and Kirk when I did some engagement photos for them back in November.  They're a warm, fun and beautiful couple and I had so much fun with them.  When they asked Shandee and I to be a part of their wedding I was tickled. (And terrified.  But shhhhh on that last part.)

I should have known that two such lovely people would have a dreamy sort of wedding.  Every detail was incredible.

From the hair...

....to the makeup...

From the dress...

...to the cake

It was perfect in every way. 

Ok, if you were behind the scenes you knew that there were a couple of small snags, but they were overcome with faith, grace, and love.  Ruthie and Kirk have the most wonderful loving group of friends and family.  It was really a blessing to be a part of their day and see so much love and compassion, so much laughter and heartfelt emotion.  In the end, all I saw was perfection.

And love.  So very much love. 

And wrapping it all together, a lovely ribbon of joy.

Ruthie and Kirk, thank you so much for sharing your day with me.  I know from the love I witnessed that you will have a happy future together, blessed by your love, the family you've built, and God.

Wild thing

We no longer have a lawn.

It has been raining, non-stop it seems, for weeks now.  We have had to let the lawn grow and grow.  The last time Hubby actually tried to cut it he spent more time in puddles than anything else.

Anyway, the bugs are annoying, but from the window or the road I don't actually mind not having a lawn.

Allowed to go it's own way, I have a field of flowers.  There are daisies galore, clumps of clover, pretty yellow flowers (not dandelions), violets, artist's paintbrushes (I think that's what they're called) and last week, I spotted this guy:

So lovely.  It's amazing what happens with God as our landscaper. 

Now if only the rain would stop so we could get some photos in our beautiful field of flowers....

On the go

It's not that I don't still love blogging.  I blog--I do!  It's just that it's all done in my head while I'm driving hither and yon or at night as I drift off.  Sadly, my brain is not actually connected to the internet, so you don't get to read those posts.  It really is a shame, since I'm quite sure that it's some of my best stuff :)

This month has been nuts. I've been juggling planning for our Girl Guide Camp, my photo class at BPS with ATJ, several photo shoots, getting ready for my Mom's wedding and our big trip to Ontario, wedding photography (the scariest and most beautiful thing I've been involved in in recent memory), and, OH YEAH--I HAVE A FAMILY!  End of year gifts and parties and planning and fun.  Somewhere in there was Hubby's birthday and Father's Day too.  It's really all a blur punctuated by loads of laundry and an increasingly messy house.  What can I say?  Something had to give!

So I'm cleaning and planning and packing and scrambling.  I hope to give you a little peeky at the wedding before I go, but no promises.  My plate is soooooo full.  I'm grateful for every morsel but finding it hard to chew at times.  I have not been responding to emails but I have been reading them.  Google Reader is laughing at me and I know I'm going to have to do some serious "mark all as read" clicking.  I check in for the last time on Sunday afternoon and then we're gone for two very full weeks.  I hope to have lots of stories and photos for you when I get back though!

In the meantime, there's my Boy for you.  Sitting where he is most of the time these days, his car seat.  We don't stop much lately.

Busman's Holiday

I was up until 3 AM finishing edits for a photoshoot. I'm procrastinating starting the edits on another.

And how do I procrastinate?

Why, by opening Lightroom and playing with other people's photos, of course!

I thought I'd participate in Fix-it Friday over at I ♥ Faces.  On Fix-it Fridays, a photo is provided for everyone to play with. 

Here's the SOOC, provided by Becca:

 

Isn't she adorable?  What a sweet little girl, and all that pink is just delicious!

Ok, so the first thing I noticed was the colour cast.  I used my eyedropper tool and the white of her eyes to fix up the colour balance.  Then I noticed the noise.  This was a very noisy photo, so I upped my masking and slid my noise reduction sliders waaaaaaaay to the right to make it soft and creamy.  Finally, I adjusted the luminance sliders to my liking and cropped it just a little bit more. I used my healing brush on just a couple of wee spots and brightened up the eyes a bit.   Here's my end result:

Amusingly enough, I noticed when I viewed the entry for this week that my end result is quite similar to that of Susan Keller's.  We took different paths but ended up at similar stops. 

I also thought I'd see how it looked in B&W, because I just LOVE a good B&W.  Here you go!

I should add that I did these with our Princess on my lap.  For a 7 year old, she has definite opinions on my editing, and would quickly tell me if I did something "wrong".  Maybe I'll have to hire out my next job to her! 

Thanks for stopping by and playing along!

What time is it?

When there are gorgeous cars everywhere you turn?

When some thunder and a few drops of rain seem a legitimate reason for panic?

When parents turn into the craziest of paparazzi?

Have you figured it out?

You guessed it! Last night was prom night in pretty Oromocto, and I got to tag along to photograph this sweet couple:

Bobby and Vikki, I know your cheeks were sore from all the smiling, but you looked AMAZING!  You're both so sweet and it was a lovely evening.  Aren't you glad the rain stopped?   I'll get your photos to you asap (I know you're wanting them for Facebook).  I hope the dance was wonderful!

Blue!

We have a new family member--the Boy calls her "blue".

Here she is:

And just in time....as I was driving the old Civic last night, a rock flew up and chipped the windshield.  There is a HUGE crack and it's growing by the hour.  Bummer.

What am I doing?

Spending the day at the computer, editing photos, when it has FINALLY stopped raining?  I'm not sure, but that's what I'm doing! 

(Actually, it's because I had those 3 photo shoots last week and then a ton of stuff to do around the house.  But I've finished editing 2 out of 3!)

Anyway, when my brain gets overloaded (after a while every wedding photo looks EXACTLY like the one before) I switch over to something personal to freshen up (or play bejeweled blitz on facebook) and I found this little treasure that I haven't shared yet:

Everyone always tells me what great eyes Sweetpea has (and she really does) but as a Mom I'm all about avoiding playing favourites, and this girl has some pretty nice eyes too.  Yes she does!

Happy Saturday all!  I sincerely hope you're out enjoying it and not working on the computer like me!

WW: Now on Thursday!

Ok, I'm being silly, but I'm also trying to get back into the daily blogging habit and don't have a lot of time.  So here are the apple blossoms on our little tree--finally out!

3 Sneaky Peeky

Did you think I was done?  Sorry!

After two delightful photo shoots on Saturday you'd think I'd had enough, but you'd be wrong!  Our good friends Cory and Cari have one foot out the door, facing home to Arizona.  Before we can let them go we had to get a few last photos.

Actually, Cari needs a family photo for a larger extended family project.  She kept telling me "I just need ONE good photo".  Wouldn't that be horrible if we didn't even get one?

Hey Cari, if I you hate these, you'll just have to stick around for a reshoot!  Yeah, that's it!

(How many times do you think I can use that one?)

Their kids have been such a perfect compliment to our kids, and we're truly going to miss them.  Sweetpea cries when she thinks of them leaving.  Life is just unfair sometimes.  At least we both have blogs, but it's not the same.

Nope, just not the same.

We're going to miss these guys.

And Cari, you're going to miss having all this green in your photos!  Admit it, life will be dull and grey without us!

See?  Grey already.