(Girls Singing)

Last weekend, we did our annual family foray about an hour north of Kansas City to Weston, MO. It is kind of our kick-off for Fall and a wonderful time for everybody. Almost the whole crew made it (with the exception of my little sister Hannah & her husband, Kyle, who live in Hawaii and are moving back later this month).

It was not a good year for apples in this area. Due to 4 late frosts in the Spring, the apples were literally not available. Out of 1,000 trees at one particular orchard, there were only 33 apples harvested! They still have plenty to do around the farms (country store, tours, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, barnyard animals, and much more). At the Red Barn there was a beautiful wedding happening at the end of one of the barns.

Storms were rolling in as we got there and we were outside in the cool breeze for about 45 minutes and then the rains and hail came…it hailed dime and nickel-sized wallops of ice there for a little while! It was crazy LOUD under the metal roof of the barns and country store!

My newest niece (Lacey’s baby!), Ruby.

The girls. Lily Mae (my niece), Jillian Joy (my 2 year old) and Ashlyn Grace (my 4 year old).

There is a guy standing on the far right of the giant covered deck of the barn. I think he was the groom standing outside. There were about 100 people on the inside of the beautifully decorated reception hall. I would love to shoot a wedding out there. All I had was my 50mm, otherwise we could have had an amazing wide shot there, but oh well.

Dad & my brother-in-law, Danny (Lacey’s hubby). They were walking down from the barn you see in the background, admiring the new construction.

The girls! Nice directing by the moms. I almost missed the shots. The wind was beginning to pick up and the thunder had begun to roll.

My girls…

One cleanly and pristine princess, trying to control and keep the younger ornery one under control.

Chillin’ on a bench.

Great photo op idea, but right when we stuck them in there, the rain came…hard!

And it came…and came.

And came…

Mom and dad talking across the room. My mom had stuck my hat on her head! It cracked me up… You can see Ashlyn’s head next to paw-paw’s arm. The girls are never far away form them.

For those of you who would like to see the ultimate mother in a not-so-pregnant state.

Thanks for letting me share my family a bit.

One of my long-time friends and clients is Nate Bock. He is a wonderful daddy and husband and is highly intelligent. Even now, with his doctorate, he still has plenty of study sessions. Nate used to be my student minister at my church when I was in high school! He made a move down to Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield, MO a couple years ago and has been building an excellent student ministry down there. He has two great staff members that I work with often, Julie & Erica. We all know who really runs the show, don’t we ladies?

I drove down to Springfield a few weeks back and we shot in the downtown area for some promotional photos to be used for various things. What a great little city! It just feels like home even when you visit. Here are some of my favorites from that sweltering, hot day.

Lastly, my favorite…although, not Nate’s.

Many of you may not realize that I own a busy design studio as my day job. During the day, you can find me always working on various projects (web, print and logos). I use commercial photography and illustrations daily. In fact, it is the whole reason I got started with photography to begin with. Commercial Stock Photography.

Stock photos are images you buy with the intent of using them for design (or other purposes, but primarily design). I started with iStockphoto as a buyer many years ago. Back when I started buying, photos were only a quarter each. I think they had around 1,500 images to choose from (now they have over 2 million images to choose from!).

Over the years, it grew into a real business and more talented photographers joined up. Image prices were raised and the selection and overall quality improved. I was still buying a lot. About 3 and a half years ago, I decided that a lot of the photos I had purchased, I could probably shoot better myself, so I got a digital camera and so began my game of commercial stock photography and also began my steep learning curve into the photography world as a contributor.

I grew and learned and grew and failed and grew and learned some more. Completely self-taught (wth the help and support of friends) I submitted image after image and slowly built a small library of my own work on iStockphoto. As I got better, my sales increased and my monetary income from the site began to pay for better equipment and for more time for learning.

To date: I have had over 23,000 stock image sales all over the world… I see them in use from time to time and often I am really shocked and surprised at where I hear about them. Billboards, magazines, TV shows, online ads, newspaper ads…everywhere.

Today, I am sharing a Dustin Steller image in action that I was ecstatic to find! It is of my good friend, DJ Rouse, who is a talented actor/model/singer and trained dancer who is fun to shoot with and makes a great friend as well as a model. I was flipping through my Relevant Magazine that I received in the mail. I have a subscription because I love their editorial photography and the content is great, too.

On page 19, I was shocked to find one of my images of DJ in use (available for purchase here). I shot I took specifically for the reason it was used for, describing “worship”! Cool, huh?