Fancy photoshoot

I recently saw an idea on Pinterest to have your daughter dress up in your wedding gown, and give her that photo on her wedding day. Wonderful idea! However, my wedding dress is still wrapped up from when it was cleaned and pressed after the wedding, and I haven't had the guts to take it out and risk messing it up yet. So instead, I had the idea to let Natalie dress up in my sister's maid of honor dress from my wedding (which I had shortened a couple of years ago to wear to another event) and take some photos. I am SO happy with how they came out!

Beautiful eyes

I don't really plan to post many photos of my children on here, as I have my family blog for that. However, I do occasionally take artistic photos of them, and I feel that they belong more here than there. While playing this week, I grabbed these two shots of their beautiful eyes.

Spaniel love

My parents have a cocker spaniel named Rizzo who is exceptionally photogenic. Her coat color, her face, her expressions - she makes taking her photo very easy! I love when I have the opportunity to photograph her. This photo was not edited at all - she doesn't really need it!

Some local fauna

While on my walk through our neighborhood two weeks ago, I was lamenting my inability to take decent photos of all of the beautiful birds I saw. Cardinals, blue jays, robins...all rapidly flew away upon my approach, and I unfortunately did not have the ability to lie in wait with my telephoto lens just hoping for a bird to appear. Turns out karma is a bitch, as in my visit to the Paxton campus I stumbled across two rather large birds!

Paxton Barn

Across the street from us is the Paxton Campus, which hosts the Arc of Loudoun. This campus was donated to the town of Leesburg by the Paxton family to primarily serve those with disabilities, whether they be intellectual or physical. There's a very nice preschool located in one of the buildings on the campus - we were about to enroll Natalie there when we got the spot at our top choice (Ida Lee); I'm very happy with our decision to enroll her at Ida Lee but I know she would've done great there as well!

On the campus is an old, run down barn. On my excursion around town two weeks ago, I thought the barn might make a nice photography subject.

Pink dogwoods

In my excursion around Leesburg two weeks ago, I stumbled across a recently-blooming pink dogwood tree. I love dogwoods; we had about 5 white dogwoods lining the driveway of the house I grew up in, and I think they're lovely flowers. Add to that the fact that they are the state flower of Virginia...makes them even better in my estimation. And to find these beautiful pink ones!

Pansies

On my excursion two weeks ago around northern Leesburg, I came across the landscaped entrances to Potomac Crossing and Exeter (where I live). While I love taking photos of wild flowers, there's beauty in those that have been planted as well.

Tulips

About 15 minutes south of Leesburg there is a "pick your own tulips" place. I drove past it on Easter Sunday and at $1/tulip thought it sounded like fun!

I could have gone crazy with picking them (you can see how many there are and the riot of colors), but I limited myself to half a dozen.

White cherry blossoms

Every day on the drive to daycare, I pass this beautiful row of white cherry blossom trees.

Toys

I've found that children's toys can make very interesting subjects, partially, I think, because of the bright colors.

April flowers

I'm pretty obsessed with flowers (both outside and in vases), and I'm lucky enough to live in a town as beautiful as Leesburg, which this time of year gives me many opportunities to take photographs of flowers. These few are from one week ago, and were taken just walking around my neighborhood.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new photography blog! While I have always loved taking photographs (starting with disposable cameras in high school, through my first very bulky, small-screen digital camera in 2001, and now with my digital SLR), it's only recently that I've taken it up as a hobby. As I just mentioned, for this past Christmas I received a new camera: Canon Rebel t2i. I immediately had a lot to learn, and I think over the past 4 months my skills have vastly improved. I've been trying to cram in my "photography" pictures on my family blog, but that hasn't been working so well, so I decided to start another blog, dedicated to honing my photography skills and showing my favorite shots to the world (or, probably more accurately, my friends and family). 

My goal here is to showcase the realm of possibilities with photography, and highlight those photos that I think really stand out. I've even entertained the idea of this becoming a side-business for me, possibly selling photos I take that people really enjoy, or even (cheaply) hiring myself out for kids parties, taking photos of people's pets, etc, but I don't really think I'm there yet (and honestly, I don't know if I have the time to do something like that with working full time and having two kids at home). For now, this will be the place where I display my photos, and I hope that everyone enjoys seeing them as much as I've enjoyed taking them!