Aqua Woman

Marlee will graduate this year from McMurry. She has been a competitive swimmer for the last 15 years. I love to do shoots that are out of the ordinary. This shoot was definitely not ordinary and Marlee's personality is extraordinary. Extraordinarily nice.

The pool room was very warm and I ended up getting soaked and did not get in the water. The shoot was well worth breaking a sweat. I had planned on getting in the water to get some water level action shots, but the shallowest part of this competitive swim pool was 5.5'.

Oh, by the way, will you marry me?

Ken visited us over a month ago with a plan to get Christmas photos with his significant other and during the session make a surprise marriage proposal. We had a planning meeting and got our signals and sequence worked out.

The very nervous proposer dropped by the studio about an hour before the shoot to drop off the rock, uh--I mean the ring (but beleive me, it was a rock--Wow!) I attempted to relax him with some black humor and asked him what he is going to do if she said no. Ken found no humor in it and told me not to worry that I would get my session fee. I started laughing and apologizing and he still found little humor in it.

Anyway, the shoot went without a flaw and Margie and I really got caught up in the heavy emotion of the actual proposal. It could not have gone any better. Trisha was blown away and she very quickly said "Yes!".

Alpha Omega

Today was a very sad day in our little part of Elm Valley. We had to turn loose of Lucy, our 11 yr. old Rotweiler. The last several days have been very hard and it will take some time to dull this pain of her absence.
We have a wonderful vet, Barry Eitleman. Over the years, he has made several trips out here for the grim task of putting down our loved pets. We stayed home today to spend Lucy's last hours together. When all of this was finished, we cleaned up and drove in to the studio to try and do some catching up.
I was so bummed I went to some of our most recent shoots to get some examples of new, renewal, fresh start, innocent beginnings and start of life. This helped and I would like to share.

Tempus Fugit

Time has been flying. Normally, this time of the year we are doing a lot of cleaning, organizing, and planning. This year is so different. We have met so many wonderful customers that have allowed us the opportunity to try so many creative ideas. We have some amazing maternity and family/children portraits that we will be able to share with you Monday, Nov. 10th. Stay tuned.

The autumn color change of the trees is, as recently predicted, peaking right now. We have been able to move most folks back to this week and next week to take advantage of the great colors this year. There are several afternoon slots that are still open.

We have some great new designs for this year's Christmas cards. We will display some of these next week.

Lucy, our eleven year old Rotweiler is getting closer and closer to the end of a long, happy life. She is the kindest, most gentle and loving dog we have ever had the privlege to live with. She is having such a hard time getting up and down. Hip dysplasia and arthritis are deteriorating quality of life and hard decisions are close at hand. It seems that this time with her has flown by so quickly.

Speaking of time flying--it is 49 days till Christmas.