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!

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Beth Williams Photoblog

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. 

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Stacey Markel Photography

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.

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Balancing Bedlam

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

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Stacey Markel Photography | Maryland Family & Child Photographer

Tell Me a Story- June

While I'm sure by now everyone is sick of seeing photos of Hannah and Lu, I can not help but capture them each month. Some days I feel like a new mother and want to capture photos of them all the time because when they get old I want to remember their younger days. I never want to forget Hannah's energy or her passion to play with her ball outside. I never want to forget Lu's sweet and sensitive personality along with her love for people. So at the beginning of this month when we had been experiencing a ton of rain, the girls were getting stir crazy having to be in the house all day I was excited when I got home from work and there was a break in all the rain. Hannah was dying to get outside and I really wanted to get some photos of her in the puddles.

Anytime I ever want Hannah to cooperate with me taking photos, I have to give in and play for a little bit first. I'm convinced Hannah has so much energy that she doesn't even know where to begin to try and channel it. I firmly believe she has to get a certain amount out in order to function and behave correctly during the day. While I played ball with Hannah, Lu was running along side her just happy to be outside.

That might be one of the one million things I really love about Lu. She is perfectly happy to just run next to Hannah while Hannah always gets the ball. Another one of my favorite things about Lu is that she loves to wear bandannas. Like she actually loves to wear them, she picks out which one she wants to wear for the week and is never bothered by them. Hannah is much different with them, she pretty much hates them but tolerates and humors me when I force her to wear one. However, since Hannah hates wearing the bandannas, she normally tries to rip them off of Lumen. About a month ago I was telling my friend B about that and she ended up making Lu a bandanna that goes through her collar so Hannah can't rip it off. B is so great when it comes to making things, she actually has her own business Bizzyb Crafts. She makes headbands and scarves mostly and they are really cute! If you want to check out her website with her products click here.

A couple months ago I had the chance with the perfect lighting to practice taking some shadow shots of Lu. After the rain, the lighting was still pretty great, so I wanted to see if I could get some photos of the girls reflections and shadows in the big puddles that filled the parking lot. Lu was more interested in running around than to sit still for me, but after a few minutes of playing ball, Hannah was willing it work with me a little bit! 

I'm really happy with how the photos with the water turned out a look forward to the next rain to try and get some more.

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Stacey Markel Photography | Maryland Family & Child Photographer

Tell Me a Story - May

April has come and gone, and now May is at it's end! Hard to believe that summer is finally here and the weather is finally getting warmer! The beginning part of May was spent finishing school and neglecting my camera. Finally things changed when Memorial Day arrived and I spent the whole day outside with my girls. To be patriotic, I bought the girls matching American flag bandannas. Lu loves to wear her bandannas, but Hannah would rather rip them off. Luckily they both tolerated their new wardrobe for the day and looked extra cute.

Memorial Day reminds us to thank those who have and are serving this beautiful country we call home. However, this year I saw something online that reminded me that not only are humans serving our country, but K9's are also dedicated members of the United States Military. 

One of my favorite parts about summer is having more free time to spend the day with my girls and be outside. Another one of my favorite things about the summer time is the beautiful plants that start to come up and bloom. Growing up my step-mom's garden was full of bleeding heart plants. Over time, I have grown to really love the plant and enjoy taking photos of it. Yesterday when I went to take some photos, the sun was so bright that I wasn't really a fan of how the photos turned out. I did work on one that I felt was ok.

When I went to go and switch SD cards in my camera I noticed I still had one in there. When I looked at the photos, I realized I had taken them over a month ago and never did anything with them! I do remember taking them and when I took them my camera was about to die so I was only able to get 14 photos on the card. However, I got 2 good ones out of the bunch that I thought would be good to include. This is our neighbor and Lu's best little friend. I can't really explain the relationship other than Lu is in love with her and demands to go see her when she is outside. We are so fortunate that her parents allow Lu to play with her and to have them so close by! 

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Janelle Garcia Photography

Tell Me a Story- March

Hard to believe that February passed by in the blink of an eye and so has March. On St. Patrick's day the weather here was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining and it was a nice early evening to take some photos. The best part about the evening was that I got to my aunt's house expecting her and Hannah, the other GSD, to be there, but instead they were not and I got a little bit of alone time outside with Lumen.

The evening sun that was coming through the trees that night was perfect for playing with shadows. While Lu isn't the best model because she can't stand still for longer than three seconds, I still wanted to practice working with shadows with the perfect lighting.

I had been looking online at how photographers were using their sun glares in photos and I was really excited when I started to notice them in some of my shots. I know the one I got isn't exactly how it is suppose to be done, but I am still learning about how to get the perfect amount of glare in the photos while still making it look artistic.

I really enjoyed the hour alone Lu and I got to spend together. She even got to visit her best little friend the one and a half year old girl who lives across from us. Seeing how much Lu loves her makes me realize just how good of a dog Lu can be. After the neighbors walk, she came back and brought me and Lumen a flower. It happened to be perfect to get a couple shots of as well. I cherish the alone time Lu and I get to have together. I hope she knows someday how much she means to me.

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Balancing Bedlam

Tell me a story- January

I was really bummed to have missed last month's blog circle but with the holidays and family, I had no time to get to the camera or the blog! In the middle of last month, my sister got engaged . . . finally!! After dating her boyfriend for six years, they are finally planning on getting married! They made the trip back after the holidays to Cleveland to look at some venues and we also took a little bit of time to get some engagement photos!

We decided to go down to the local lake to take some photos. Since it was the middle of January it was definitely cold but they really were troopers and passed through it!

This is the first time I have ever taken engagement photos for someone and I was really excited it got to be for my sister. We are going to take some more in the spring in Chicago where they live, but the first round turned out really well we think! More than likely their wedding photographer will also have an engagement photo shoot for them, but part of me is curious to see how our pictures differ.

Isn't that ring beautiful?! Matt did an amazing job picking out a ring for my sister. We are looking forward to getting some photos of just the ring, but looking for ideas on how to make it pop....not that that thing needs to!

I'm so excited for you two! Congrats and let's get the wedding planning on!!!

Please keep the circle going by visiting: Sharleen N Stuart Photography / South Florida Photographer