Jessee is an awesome girl! She is sweet and has an explosive laugh. Her family lives way out in the rural country. Jessee may be a pretty girly-girl blonde, but she is not that way in person. She is smart, shoots rifles competitively and is direct, outgoing and assertive. Her personality is super cool and she reminds me of one of my sisters (in a good way!).

Her wonderful mom and sister joined us for the shoot (cameras, not rifles!) at the historic Unity. They were all three too much fun to handle and I think we all had a good time.

Ornery girl.

The sign behind her says “Pool Closed”. You’ll see why a bit later.

Pretty in Pink! She found this rad dress on clearance and got it just for the shoot. THAT is shopping dedication!

Whiplash!

Happy girl! She throws her head back when she laughs. It’s great! 

This is one of my favs, too. Wowzers…

You see…it’s me…and she…Hey, that rhymes!
Good shot on mom’s part! Poor job on the pool boy’s part. Ugh, that is some greeeeen water.

My artsy fav.

Lee’s Summit West senior, Katie, rocked the house with her location recommendation. I had never shot at this particular park in Lee’s Summit, and it was a perfect day for some fun photos and she was even willing to break some rules with me to get some fun shots by a beautiful little water garden (people, please don’t tell the Parks & Rec that we trespassed! Shhh!) Ha!

Katie is quiet and thougthful. She is very active in local theatre, not only at her school, but also all around the city. She adores being backstage and making the shows come alive with her set and lighting designs. I can’t wait to catch a showing of one of her plays.

Shhh! Too fun!! (no rocks, subjects or photographers were injured in the making of this shot)

Time to play!

My favorite artsy shot.

I care about the environment and respect it. Everyone should.

I would like to preface this post to say that I am not a huge environmentalist tree-hugger who carries a sign in protests and boycotts this, that and the other. I have nothing against those that do (to each his own, I always say).

It is Blog Action Day. To do my part, I am taking a bit different turn of thought into this. I am going to be mean, which, if you know me, it is hard for me.

One of my biggest pet peeves is a person with no consideration for other’s property, public property and the environment (as a whole…like parks, forests, farmland, etc).  I grew up learning to respect in all things. Respect people regardless of status, respect property no matter where it is or who it belongs to, and respect yourself. It is the simple Golden Rule that says it all, treat others the way you would want to be treated.

Growing up on a farm off a busy highway, it would annoy me to no end when we would have to go to the property’s edge and clean the litter nearly every week. Many disrespectful drivers would toss out their refuse and it would land in our ditch or blow into our property. We would alway work hard to make sure our property looked clean and presentable (in a way, we were showing respect to the community and for ourselves).

I remember we had people in a neighborhood behind our 80 acres of crops who would use parts of the back of our property without asking to grow their own gardens. My dad probably would have been more than happy to give permission, but they did it without asking. I still don’t think it bothered dad, but it always bothered me. Why would a person do such a thing?…weren’t adults supposed to know better? Now that I am adult, it is not a shock that I can totally see how inconsiderate and disrespectful many adults are in many aspects of their lives.

So, for Blog Action Day, I want you to do me a favor. Be courteous. Be kind. Be respectful of the environment.

We get one chance at the environment. One opportunity…one lifetime to get it right so as to leave it better for the next generation. Respect the environment and yourself and your future by not littering and leaving things better than when you got there. It is common courtesy! It is common respect, and it makes for uncommon people who can rise up and make it better.