Tell Me a Story- May

The sun is out and the weather is finally getting warmer. This last week has been such beautiful weather that I regret having to work all the time. I was really lucky today and got a chance to get out and spend some time with my girls while getting some pictures in. The lighting today was beautiful so I took full advantage and tried to get some great close up's in.

One of my favorite things about the weather getting nicer is that Lu loves to just lay outside. She would spend all day outside if she was allowed. Catching her in the moments of her "deep thoughts" are some of my favorite to get.

The lighting was so beautiful I had to get a couple of landscape photos in as well!

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Tell Me A Story- April

March was a blur, I barely remember the month starting and before I knew it, it was April and I once again had neglected my photos and camera. Easter Sunday (March 27th) was the first time I had picked up my camera the whole month.

Easter in our house is always a big family day...I can imagine it is like that for most people... We have a pretty standard group of about thirteen of us. Everyone comes over to my parents house for an early dinner and it is always a nice time.

Easter in Ohio was a beautiful day. It was almost 60 degrees that day and the perfect weather to be outside. What I love about it being beautiful outside is that it means inside the house there is always beautiful lighting that is perfect for taking photos!

I took full advantage of waiting for family to arrive and grabbed my camera and started taking photos of some flowers I had been given.

The weather was too beautiful not to go outside and take some photos with the girls :) I'm getting really into working with shadows and hope there are more days this summer I can keep practicing. 

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Tell Me a Story- February

It is hard for me to believe that I haven't picked up my camera since November. Actually, it is kind of painful to say that... Between work and life, I have found zero time to just get outside. I often find that after the New Year and the holidays, we all tend to get a little of the "winter blues" and getting out of that funk is sometimes a little more difficult than we would like.

Ohio's winter has been everything but a winter this year. We have experienced amazing temperatures, like 50's since January! As of February 20th, we have had maybe 2 snow "storms" and today, it was sixty degrees. After watching the world enjoy the beautiful weather all morning long, I got off of work and decided that today, I would get out of my "winter blues" and be outside with my two dogs who have been begging for some attention. It also gave me a beautiful excuse to get my camera out and do something that always makes me feel better.  

Carli has officially been apart of mine and Lu's life for six months now. Some days, she really pushes my buttons and I wonder how I am ever going to be able to handle two dogs. However, she makes up for it every day when she subtly thanks me for giving her a home when she cuddles up next to me. I feared that Lumen was going to hate Carli and have that "annoying little sister" she didn't ask for, for the rest of her life, but they have come a long way and seeing them playing with each other reassured me that they do actually like each other. 

Every now and again I find a photo that I have taken that I can't decide how I like the edit. Sometimes the color version is better and sometimes the black and white is better. But every now and again, there is a photo that I think looks great in both. I may be a little biased because I'm in love with the subject and think she is beautiful, but I couldn't decide which version I liked better. 

Poor Carli is the definition of the "second child" I often forget that I don't have nearly as many photos of her as I do Lu. I try and make sure I get a couple of her every time, but Carli isn't as use to just ignoring me and my camera when I try to take photos of her. Lu has been "trained" to the camera after dealing with it for the last two years! I do always call it a success when I get one decent photo of Carli each time I pull out my camera. She definitely makes me work for every shot I get of her. Part of her charm!

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Tell Me a Story- November

Hard to believe that September has come and gone and where the hell did October go?! As we are flipping the page to head in to December I'm realizing that time is moving faster and faster. Before we know it, it will be 2016.

My favorite time of the year is definitely fall which happens to be when my favorite holiday occurs. Thanksgiving. This year for Thanksgiving was the first year in 5 years that my whole family go to be together. My brother has moved back from living in Alaska and my sister came in from Chicago to celebrate with family. Since it was the first time all of us were back together in such a long time, we decided we needed to get a couple family photos.


My sister and her fiancé who are set to be married this coming June.

My brother and his girlfriend. You can feel the love between them!

A traditional siblings photo. Love them so much.

I love this crazy crazy family so much!

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Tell Me a Story- September

Fall is my favorite time of the year and to me, September means fall has started. Last year, at the end of August through the middle of September a local family planted a sunflower field for their daughter who had died from brain cancer. This year the family decided to plant the field again, only this time it was bigger and stretched across an amazing amount of space. The planting was a little later this year and personally, I think a better time.

 The field stretches for miles and runs along a highway and is seen by thousands of people for the two months these flowers are standing.

I love going to the field, I love seeing how there are some flowers standing taller than others and some who have opened up more than others. Reminds you have children who have cancer are fighting a battle that is individual to them all. Some children are able to stand a little taller than others while some are just starting their journey.

This photo below is my favorite from the bunch. I love how the flower in the middle is standing tall and bright while others surrounding it are waiting for their moment or fighting for their chance to stand tall. 

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Tell me a Story- August

My oh my, has August just flown by. I can not believe that we are entering September and fall is on it's way. August was a slow yet incredibly fast paced month. This month, I said good bye to my baby girl Hannah (the black and tan shepherd) she and my aunt are in Arizona for 16 weeks doing a traveling nurse job. It was really hard at the beginning of the month trying to adjust without having a second dog.

Lucky for me, my neighbor started traveling for work and asked me to watch his dogs for him while he was gone. It was a nice little distraction from missing Hannah and my aunt. My neighbor SK (for short) just rescued a dog he found while he was working on a job. She had been chained to a pole and left. Luckily SK has an incredibly large heart and decided to take her home with him and give her a good life. However, after cleaning her up and giving her some love, SK realized she was a lot of work. So, he asked for some help . . .

Meet Carli:

This beautiful girl is a 6ish month old Silver Lab/ Weimaraner mix who is about as sweet as puppies get. She is a ball of energy yet loving and cuddly. She made me work hard for this photo above, I had been trying for about a week to try and get it after seeing a similar looking piece online. Carli is quickly reminding me how much I forgot how much work a puppy can be. I promised SK that I would find her a good home with people I know who would take really good care of her. Until then, Carli will be mine. So far, I am enjoying the time and focusing on training. 

Before I had taken Carli in to my home, Lu and I had a little bit of "us" time to spend together. She really enjoys the time her and I get to spend together and it reminds me when it is just me and her how much she loves me and how sweet she is. One of my favorite traits about Lu is that she loves to wear bandanas. For Lu's whole life I have been putting them on her and trying to find her "color." After about 30+ bandanas, I found the perfect color for my girl.

The lighting the night I took these photos of Lu was really great. It was a soft evening lighting that I just couldn't pass up.

I love this shot of her whiskers as she was looking to see what was happening in the world around her. Reminds me of her soft, sensitive side that makes me fall in love with her a little more every day.

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Tell Me a Story- July

Summertime has to be one of my favorite times of the year. Despite the hot weather and humid air, it is so nice to be able to go outside. June was a record breaking month here in Ohio, where we got so much rain. Often too much rain that you couldn't go outside. Heartbreaking for the German shepherds. However, when the rain stopped and the sun came out, it was always so beautiful outside and perfect picture taking weather. 

I love letting Hannah and Lumen play in their baby pool. They love being able to cool off in the heat and I love trying to capture the water drops. They challenge me often when I try to get these photos because they don't do the same thing twice. It's hard when you want to get a certain shot but the models don't speak the same language. Luckily, I got this one. I love the drop next to Hannah's head, how they are just floating there.

Earlier in June, I saw a post of Facebook about how someone did a thirty minute challenge, where you take photos of the same thing for thirty minutes and see what the outcome is. I was not planning on trying the photo challenge, but on a particularly sunny afternoon, the girls and I had just come inside from playing ball and for the first time ever, Hannah just laid on the couch. I had already been taking photos of her earlier in the day so my camera still was not put away. She seemed to understand what I was trying to do as I told her to "wait" as I grabbed my camera. I really wanted to be at Hannah's level, so I sat on the group as I tried to get a couple of photos. It wasn't until I had snapped a few photos that Hannah moved to get more comfortable...or maybe change poses, I'm convinced she knew what I was doing. After she moved, that's when I decided to see if I could do the thirty minute photo challenge. Below is the collection I have of Hannah laying on the couch, the order of these photos has not been changed, this is how many times my beast decided to reposition.

I love this one, she closed her eyes as if she was saying "I can't see you so you can't see me"

I wish I could know what she was thinking sometimes when she is just watching the world around her

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