I Heart Faces - Soft & Sweet

I took this picture last summer of a sweet little baby from our church. Their family just has the cutest kids! I loved how sparkly and clear her eyes came out and you can see the reflection of me taking the picture. :-) This was one of my first photos experimenting with very shallow depth of field when I borrowed my friend's 50mm 1.8 before I bought my own. I was hooked! :-)

Steak with a side of...

I decided to have a little fun with food styling the other day when I was cooking dinner and take a photo of a dish before it was cooked. This was helpful for my family because they are often kept waiting while the food gets cold as I try to get the perfect shot. This way, it wasn't even done and there was no problem. :-)

Aren't the potatoes fun? They're fingerling potatoes and they are so interesting and colorful.

I Heart Faces - Pet Week

Also entering this photo for Allie Photography's {A Photo} Challenge!

Of course I couldn't pass up this week's theme! I know you've probably seen this picture when I posted it a few months back for Wordless Wednesday... but really, how could I resist bringing back that adorable face? This is our friends' cute kitten, Benwick, who I just learned died a few days ago. :-( Poor little kitty... I think he will be missed.

A Peek into the Past

My lovely sister arrayed in her fine Regency attire. This was probably my favorite of the photos I took of her during this photo shoot. Click here to see some more!

Nineteen...

That's how old I turned yesterday!

Check back for posts soon on the camera goodies I got. :-)

I Heart Faces - Shadows

All right, so I am thinking outside the box for i heart faces this week... at least I hope I am. I wasn't sure if I should flip it upside down, but hey, why not? "Shadows" is the theme and so shadows should be the main focus. :-) Thanks to my sis for being a good sport!

Sister + Spring

Equals a lovely portrait. :-) We are enjoying gorgeous 60º weather and sun today (finally, after many days of clouds and rain!). My sister and I couldn't resist going out and enjoying it, and of course, you have to take pictures.
I normally favor diffused light, but when shooting in full sun, I think backlit works good too!

Playing Around

I was playing around with photographing jewelry and decided to try the effect of hanging it on my conch shell from Hilton Head Island. I set my aperture at wide open to get the soft look.
Linking up at {A Photo} Challenge

Colonial Photo Shoot!

Finally! Here I am posting some pictures from one of the photo shoots I did recently. This one was pretty short (comparatively) as the only purpose for it was to get pictures of our lovely friends, Laura and Kristen, in the beautiful Colonial gowns my sister made for them to wear to an event. (Yes. She is a talented seamstress. Visit her blog for further proof).

Here is the gorgeous Laura, wearing her drool-worthy gown made out of embroidered linen!

Here is a shot of the pleated sleeve ruffle, which I took that morning while the dress was still on the dressform.

And Kristen, looking simply regal in that beautiful gown of gold! You can't tell in the picture but it has a delicious stiffness to it and a train, of which I am envious.

Here's Kristen's sleeve detail. Why don't we dress like this anymore?

After we got the "formal" shots (which were for my sister's blog, so if you go there you will recognize them :-), we got some more informal and fun shots too. Laura and Kristen were so cute and I loved all the laughing candids I got. This is very characteristic of us... we laugh a lot when we are together. :-)

The girls cracking up after a failed attempt at a serious pose.

Sisters!

I love you girls!

Oh... and Laura made some yummmy key lime pie bars that we ate after our exhausting laugh session!

More pictures comin' up soon... I hope...

Lilla Rose Giveaway Winners

I had a record number of entries for this giveaway (admittedly, I've not held many giveaways so it's not hard to beat that record *grin*). Thanks everyone for entering! The winners of the blog giveaway and the email list giveaway are...

Blog giveaway winner:

Samantha!

Email list winner:

Rosi!

Congrats, Samantha and Rosi! Please email me to claim your prize!

Thanks to everyone else for entering the giveaways!