I grew super powers last night. My feet decided they didn't belong on the floor anymore. They wanted to see what the sky had to offer them. So they grew wings...

More Jake

Just cause they are so good...

Jake

Jeni

Jenaaaay....

Sandy

She's pretty awesome!

The Importance of being Earnest

Steve's cousin hired me to do some character shots for a play she is directing at the Lehi Arts center! The show started last night and goes through the 30th. Here's the information if you are interested in going! Meanwhile... Enjoy some of my favorites from the shoot!

Mud

Megan

This is getting good.....

Kenzie

This girl is amazing... ahhhhh.....

She let me shoot her forever tonight.. these are just a few among a LOT of awesome photos...

















Told ya!

Macall

She helped me out a little bit tonight...

Still Here

Hello... I'm still here...
A little while ago, my husband and I had a discussion.. about time, balance, life etc. I am spread too thin. I do everything. And I'm always ready to take on a new challenge. I'm a mom, a dancer, a teacher, a photographer, a music cutter, a seamstress, a cook etc. But having so many talents and skills meant that I didn't get to get great at any of them... just enough to squeak by.

I don't want that.

I've come to a conclusion for the time being, that I'm ok with not doing everything. I need to focus on a few things, and still have the others tucked away, but realize that if I spend too much time with those things, I won't be able to succeed with what I really want to succeed at.

We came up with a prioritized list.. of course...
1. Mommy and wife... I will give up EVERYTHING else before I would ever give this up.
2. Dancer.... The major love of my life. besides my hubby and baby of course.
3. Photographer.... I love doing this. I'm obsessed... but whereas I have so much going on in the first two areas, I can only spend a small amount of time working on my photog skills. And I'm ok with that for now. At some point my body will be too old to keep hoisting myself up on pointe shoes on stage and instead I will take lovely pictures of other dancers all day long. But until then, I just can't expect myself to be diong shoots ALL the time. It's ok.. I'm succeeding in other areas of my life...

BUT.... I am still having a blast with photography when I get my hands on my Canon t2i.... and my hands are particularly happy when they get a new piece of equipment!! Especially when it has an awesome genealogy.

I happen to know this FANTASTIC photographer who passed one of his lights onto me. This light looks like a hunk-o-junk and is in fact older than I am, but man.. it does beautiful things. I can't wait to get this light on a dancer, but last night I was able to set it up in my living room and shine it at my baby. This sounds incredibly cheesy but every picture I took held the same satisfaction that biting into a new york cheesecake would have.... Yummy.









Can't wait to set up an actual shoot!

I heart faces

So a little while ago I found the website I heart faces. It's a website that gives photographers challenges every week. Ahh... I've been talking with Steve lately about where I need to go with my photography now. I feel like I have an ok handle on technique in camera... I need lots more practice with off camera lighting, and I need to pay more attention to the composition of the photo. So I loved this website for the challenge of giving a theme, and trying to creatively interpret it and create a photo. I've decided to take this opportunity to work on composition and lighting. I am lucky enough to have quite a few models at my disposal. I have some awesome dancers that have agreed to help me out, and I have my baby and husband as well... hopefully I can get some self-portraits in there too....

Anyway, one of the rules of photo submissions into this website is that it has to include a human face in the photo. I don't necessarily love this rule, so I probably won't follow it every week, but I'm ok with that... I'm using this as an exercise in creativity and execution... not to win, so with this weeks challenge as hearts, I got 2 dancers, and created a heart. I loved several other shots than the one I submitted due to the fact that you couldn't really see faces... so here are the "rejects" that I LOVE from this last weeks shoot. Thanks to Satomi and Jake for being awesome models!

I heart faces - Heart

There are many levels of love out there. Mothers love their children, husbands love their wives, a friend loves a friend. But there is a love that exists between the artist and the art that they create. Dancers feel this love every day, and they feel it deep. They feel it through the long hours, through the injuries, through the years of training, through sweat, blood, tears, worn out minds and bodies... Dancers feel the love they have for their art in the form of sacrifice. The payoff, is fleeting, but oh so sweet. If the dancer has the opportunity to share their art and love with another, whoever it may be, they have a connection. They understand each others heart.

I heart faces - Best face of January 2011

My baby girl loves the slide... Priceless face!