The middle photo though was a pic of our Christmas tree – taken with my current very favorite lens – the 35mm f/1.4G – on manual mode to make the lights blurry like that.  :-)Next we have our New Year’s Eve photos! We were getting ready to go across the street to our friend/neighbor’s house for a party, so I barely had any time to take these. uggh! (Scott rushed me out the door…) But I got what I could. Nikon D300, Tamron 17-55mm f/2.8 lens (at like ap of 16, iso 160, shutter 1/160), Alien Bee ring flash. I brought all these photos into Toy Camera Analog Color with the polaroid border and Process type 5.So yay!  I got the first two pages of our 2012 Memory book done!  :-)

While I was at it, I took some ipod touch photos of some of my fav images I took in 2011 of Jacob & Elle. Used “Nashville” and “Early Bird” filters from Instagram here.And tried something completely new on this image – hmm…not sure what I think, but I know Elle is beautiful no matter how I edit the photo!  :-) Have a great week! I start my 10 days in a row again at work tomorrow…boo hoo! Feel sorry for me?

So that set our color scheme of lilac, black & white. We took two of the tables in her room and painted them black (pain in the butt – but they look great!). We also painted her letter “C” silver (which sucked cuz it was an oil-based paint – uggh! Thanks to Scott for cleaning that up!) It took us two days and lots of sweat, but we got it done! She is thrilled and LOVES it!Lamp, bed skirt, zebra body pillow case & drapes from Target, zebra sheets from Kohl’s, coat rack from amazon.com, frame from Home Goods.  Purple Christmas tree I bought last year (along w/ pink & blue) from Wal-Mart.com (sorry Rhiana if you see this – she decided to keep it! )

“BEFORE” – photos taken February 2010. We also decluttered a LOT and we took a lot of her little girlish things and put them in a tote. We’re calling it our time capsule. Didn’t throw them away, but just put them out of sight and out of mind for now.  “AFTER”. Claire said, “It’s FINALLY a COLOR!!” I said Hey! Tan is a color! She disagreed. Hasn’t she changed a TON in two years?!! My baby is growing up – sniff sniff! Once again, Buddy would not leave us alone when we were trying to take pictures! Seriously – we kept taking him off the bed, told the boys to call him, etc. Oh well, he’s so cute! Claire got this picture a while back at TJ Maxx and I love it! Inspiring!!That’s our room make-over! Claire spent $200 of her own on it (Christmas money) and I told her it has to last at least FOUR years – until she’s 17. I just hope she can keep it as clean as it is now!

btw….does anyone want to buy a gallon of lilac paint? I bought two but only ended up using one! Only $15 o.b.o! I’ll also be selling her old bedding on Craig’s List.

Jacob was super crabby and didn’t want to do it (like usual) and Elle was sweet and cooperative (like usual) so it was pretty awkward at times.

It was snowing SO HARD when we were shooting!  Just kidding - it really wasn’t snowing at all – it was WARM (like almost 40) so almost all the snow was melted and I had to even clone in some snow.  Hardly any snow in MN in December when I would actually LIKE to have some snow for once?? Figures!!

But Florabella came out with a FREE snow overlay download, so that’s what’s on here – #6 at about 80% or so. You should try it! Pretty fun! And hey, it sorta looks real, right?  The outdoor trees I had planned to shoot in at the first lot had been moved indoors, so we went to the next lot. This is where they told me they both felt really dumb because everyone was looking at them, and why would teenagers be shopping for a Christmas tree anyway? (((deeper sigh))). But I got them to do a few shots at the lot before we headed to “the woods”.By then my “hot chocolate” was lukewarm at best. Then Jacob spilled his on the blanket when trying to sit down. Nice.  ;-) Well…………there was my attempt at a Christmas tree lot photo shoot. Totally NOT what I had in mind, but it is what it is. What’s a person to do, right?

While the girls were doing hair & makeup, I took some of Claire’s old “M” magazines and taped them to the wall to use as a backdrop. Claire LOVES Justin Bieber, so she said to make sure to get a lot of him.  ;-)

Outfit #1 -

• Top:  Target
• White skinny jeans:  Old Navy
• Necklace:  Wet Seal
• Sunglasses:  Aeropostale
• Ring & bracelets:  Karen’s
• Star confetti:  Party City

This shot was way harder than it looks – plus it made a huge mess!So I used hearts  here – from my bokeh overlays.

Talking about a certain BOY Outfit #2 -

• Top:  Wet Seal (pink cami from Aeropostale)
• Jeggings:  Delia’s
• Necklace:  Wet Seal
• Earrings:  Claire’s
• Rub-on nail decorations:  Rue 21
• Headband & ring:  Karen’s
• Silver float sheeting:  Party City online (thanks Ria!!)

She was doing a great job at being moody and serious, but her inner “ninja” came out.  haha!  She does crack me up!  She’s a big old goofball! Outfit #3 -

• Top, jeans, earrings, necklace:  Wet Seal
• Black cami:  Target
• Bracelets, ring:  Karen’s

Love you, Claire Bear!  No matter how grown up you look, you’ll always be my little girl.  :-)

where:  Edinbrook Church, BP, MN

when:  Sunday August 14, 2011 at 10pm

what:  Claire’s first real concert! She was SO excited! I also picked up her friends Bailey & Nick and they all had a blast. She is a little infatuated with Erik (the drummer) right now so she was thrilled to have her photo taken with him!

It was SUPER hot in there – like it had to be over 90 degrees – and it was very dark and LOUD (ha!  I’m too old for this!) but it was fun to see them in action! I would have loved to see Slaves to Righteousness too but I had to work and we didn’t make it in time for them. Maybe next time!

Anyway, they are very talented, super fun, and love their fashion sense! My neighbor Nichole & I photographed them for this event and we also teamed up last fall to shoot them in the field.

Check them out on facebook if you’d like to book them for your event and here is one of their videos (scroll down to the bottom and turn off the music)

and here’s Claire’s favorite drum cover from Erik:

p.s. for the photogs out there, I only brought 2 lenses – my 85mm f/1.4 and my 24-70 f/2.8. I shot wide open for the most part with an ISO of around 2000+ – shutter speeds all over but mostly 100ish or so. It was SUPER dark. Most images were edited normally, then run through ToyCamera AnalogColor – see this post for more info on that.

where:  Tater Daze – Brooklyn Park

when:  Friday 6/17 – around 7pm

what:  I’ve been wanting to do a shoot at the fair for a LONG time now!  In fact, I’d LOVE to have our family photos taken there, but it didn’t work out for several reasons this year so I was feeling pretty bummed Friday night… But then Elle came over looking so pretty and I said, “Heeey!  How would you like some photos taken?” and she was totally game, but Jacob was NOT (plus he really needs a haircut!) but we sorta forced him into it and he was a good sport once we got there.  :-)

For the photogs that care, I used my Nikon D700, my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens primarily and my 85 f/1.4 lens on a few.  Used florabella’s ‘vintage summer’ on almost all of these – at varying opacities and added some totally rad ‘flare up golden’ here and there.  Also used some textures on some.

who:  my son Jacob (age 17) and his girlfriend Elle (age 16)

when:  Thurs 5/19/11 at about 3:30pm

where:  BP

what:  Jacob & Elle just celebrated their ONE YEAR anniversary on 5/14 so I wanted to get some new photos of them.  More to come as I have time to play with them!  They are so darn cute, are they not?  :-)

Happy Birthday to Angie too!  Love you!