Don & Amy - 12/20/2008

Here is another photo shoot I did for a family member. This one is for Don's Dad and his Step Mom Amy. We went to Ramona in a little rural area near my father in law's house. It was so pretty there. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from that photo shoot.

Christmas Party - December 5th, 2008

Ever since I have been with my company they have done a huge Christmas party every year. We all look forward to them and just thoroughly enjoy them. I joke that it is kind of like an adult prom for us. I was fortunate this year to already have a dress for it. I used my bridesmaid dress I bought for my brother's wedding. It was red and formal, perfect for what I wanted! This year the party was held at the Down Town Marriott Hotel. It was pretty much right next to the San Diego Convention Center.

So I brought my camera with me of course. I don't let an opportunity to practice my photography go by. Especially when it is a party setting. Since I photograph weddings I thought I could practice with taking pictures while people danced. Here are a few pictures of that.







Here are some pictures of Don and I. This first one was taken by one of my friend's boyfriend. He is a photographer as well and he was showing me a cool trick to make dramatic lighting with my flash. For those of you who know a thing or to about cameras all he did was put the ISO to 100, the aperture to 10 and the shutter to 250. This all has to be done in manual mode, so if you are not comfortable with that, this may be to advance for ya. Just practice, practice, practice. Than with my external flash he pointed it straight at me (fairly close to me) and took the picture. The lower the aperture, the more dramatic the lighting will be. Try it out! In Lightroom I lightened up the background where Don was, to include him in it too. In your editing program you could play around with that too. So here was the end result. The second one is a really dramatic one. That one was with an aperture of 8 and 250 shutter speed.





Here are some other random pictures...







And than Don getting down with it... or something like that. :o)

Thanksgiving

So Thanksgiving was pretty low key this year. This was our first year staying in San Diego for Thanksgiving since being married. We usually go to Arizona to see my family for Thanksgiving and last year we went to Puerto Penasco in Mexico (which I highly recommend.) So it was a bit strange staying in San Diego this year. All in all it was great. Here are a few pictures from when we went to Don's Aunt's house.

The Horn Brothers - 11/22/2008

So yes I realize these pictures don't go in chronological order, but I mainly just forgot to post them up in November, and I guess I could use the excuse that Jon was giving these pictures out to family members for Christmas. So basically I didn't want to ruin the surprise. Ya, I will go with that!

Jon (my brother in law) contacted me about doing a photo shoot of him so he could give pictures out to family members for Christmas. I was a little surprised since Jon doesn't like getting his picture taken. So I decided to include pictures of him and his brothers since he is the hardest one to convince to take pictures. We went to Balboa Park since there is a lot of variety there and it is one of my favorite places in San Diego. It is a great location for pictures! Unfortunately we started the photo shoot too late. The sun was already going down so we were racing against the clock. It was one of my more difficult photo shoots since I prefer natural light. I was still happy with what I did get, but I think if we had started earlier it could have been better. But for now I am happy with it.

Here is a picture of all the boys.



Here are a couple individual shots that I liked from each of the boys. The first one is of Don.





The second one is of Jon.




And last but not least, the youngest brother... Mike. Now I couldn't pick only one favorite picture of Mike. I actually loved both of these pictures, so I am posting both of them up.






This very last picture was taken with all natural light. This is how dark it was at the end of the photo shoot. I propped my self up against a pillar because any movement can blur the picture since I took this picture at a very slow shutter speed. Even than I can still notice a very very slight blur. Next time I should use my tri-pod to ensure there is no blur whatsoever. But I still liked the picture so I kept it.

Day at the Zoo 10-25-08

This past weekend I got to babysit my sister's kids. On Saturday we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo playing. Craig had a camp out trip so he didn’t come with us. It was just me, Kaylie, Courtney and their friend Mackenna. The kids were great. Their friend Mackenna made my day. When we were leaving she said she had so much fun and that her favorite part of the Zoo were all the pictures. I love that kid! Anyone who will let me be a crazy paparazzi (and enjoy it) is ok in my book.

On a side note, I over heard the Zoo keepers on the radio saying the Meerkats were attacking people. At the time I heard that, we had left that area so we didn’t see anything. I don’t know much about Meerkats, but they don’t look that dangerous… Who knows, maybe they had sharp pointy teeth like the bunny in Monty Python. :o) Here are some pictures from our little adventure:

Hollywood Trip

So for our 5 year anniversary Don and I went to Hollywood for 3 days. We went to Universal Studios for two days and toured Hollywood the rest of the time. It was so much fun. Here is a slide show of a few pictures from our trip. You will have to press play to view it.

Craig Hildebrand's Birthday

So this year was Craig's 12th birthday This was a special one for him since he received the Aaronic Priesthood in our church. The picture above is the whole family who to took part in this special ordinance. I think the bishop was overwhelmed with the amount of people...

Anyways after we left church we went to my sister's house and celebrated my nephew's birthday. Here are a few pictures from that:









Kaylie was doing her Popular song from Wicked. I love that song... Kaylie memorized all the words and put a dance to it. I have to say I memorized the words too. I know we are obsessed with that play.




Everyone playing in the pool.



Esther and I were messing around with the glow sticks in the pool. We sure know how to entertain ourselves!



And the last picture is everyone again. We are all just a bunch of goons...

The Daw Family

This past weekend was absolutely wonderful. I got to see lots of friends and family as well as shoot my first paid wedding in Orange County. That drive seemed like forever on the way back home. Needless to say I am exhausted after everyone left. I am still trying to recover! I am not as young as I used to be...

I will post some pictures from the weekend later this week, but for now here are a few pictures of my friends Esther, Jonathan and their baby Thorin. Their little son was born a few months ago and this is the first opportunity I had to take pictures of him. So here are a few favorites:

The Hardy Family - Ensign Article

So my Dad came across something interesting a couple weeks ago. There is an Ensign article about the Hardy family which is my Dad's side of the family. I remember as a child my Mom & Dad took my brother Dave and I to Louisiana to visit our "roots." That was one of the worse/best trips ever.

I think I was about 8 or 9 and my brother was about 12 or 13. We fought the whole way there. Which was the distance from Arizona to Louisiana. It was a VERY long car trip. I am still in shock that my parents didn't kill us. I vividly remember visiting Hardy Town which is literally a "blink and you will miss it" kind of town. We visited the house where the story in this article talks about Jane Holt Clark (who is my Great, Great, Great Aunt,) standing up to the mob and saying “I brought a good many of you into the world and I can take you out again just as easily if you dare to cross my doorstep.” She rocks! I can only imagine how scary it must have been to stand up to an angry mob like that. I also remember meeting my dear Great Grandfather for the very first time during that trip. He was such a wonderful man. He died last year and he was definitely one of the last of his kind. A true gentleman. I also remember meeting his wife who had to show Dave and I her toenail in a jar. We have that memory scarred into our minds... But she was a good woman too. I am glad to have had the opportunity to see where my Dad's side of the family came from and who they were. I think it is important to know your history. It makes you who you are and grateful for the things they sacrificed, which eventually blesses their future generations lives. A link to the article can be found below.

From Red Rock to Denham Springs
Carol Ann Wagley Burnham, “From Red Rock to Denham Springs,” Ensign, Apr 1983, 70

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