Ireland and Reese

I lovelove doing shoots in people's homes. Everyone is more relaxed (notably toddlers!) and I think the photographic results are more representative of the day-to-day interactions of parents, kids, siblings, and pets, which is exactly what I want to come away with.

Two-year-old Ireland was a little nervous when we shot at Chautauqua last week, but as soon as I showed up in her house yesterday morning, she grabbed my hand and gave me the grand tour, starting with the big girl room and moving along to tea parties, puppies, and kitchenGolf with no reservations.

It is my suspicion, however, that her parents were the ones who wanted to play with the blocks. Baby Reese didn't mind, though.

Ireland wasn't quite sure about my 5D and big lens until she pulled out her very own camera at the end of our session and started shooting everything in sight. It was like watching a shorter, much cuter version of myself. Now I know how my dogs feel. :)

Seriously, I want these blocks:

We went out back for a few minutes--it was cold and snowy yesterday, so that didn't last long.

Meanwhile, back indoors ...

We ended with a tea party ... plasticFrenchFry tea is decidedly delicious. Please note that Reese is gnawing on a drumstick. :) Love!

Thumpkin

Autumn is my favorite time of year.

Ever.

In the history of times of year.

Sport + Ali

Lately I've a little unimpressed with my keeper ratio, and last week I had a mini internal meltdown regarding my apparent lack of photography skills. I did a Typical Haley Freakout (THF) and considered feeding my 5D to the bears and going back to school for biology.

(This is all making perfect sense so far, right?)

While I'm still seriously thinking about going back to CU for the spring semester (strongly encouraged by Mentor 1), I decided to save my 5D from bearDeath (also strongly encouraged by Mentor 1) and keep shooting, but maybe switch things up a little and get out of the processing rut I was in. To shoot for fun and not worry about what anybody thinks of the results, because maybe changing things up would inspire me to do something different (strongly encouraged by Mentor 2, who mentioned he would feed ME to the bears if I stopped shooting).

ANYway, I went hiking with a friend today. I decided to process a couple shots in the Regular Haley Poulos style, and then just goof around with the others. And ... it was fun! I'm not sure I'm crazy about how I did them, and tomorrow I might say ICK BLEH but I figure I'll post them anyway, because Sport is darling.

Meet Sport!

Then I shot this comPLETELY out-of-focus over-exposed thingo and LOVELOVE.

Sport wasn't really too sure about the thing I was pointing at him, and I was using my plastic 50, so I was all up in his face and stuff.

Sport has a story. He was a stray who made it from a shelter in Kansas to The Animal House in Ft. Collins, where Ali worked. He was adopted out to a person who returned him after a biting incident, and who then requested that he be put down (GAH!).

Ali swooped in and fostered him, rehabilitating him from the terrified dog he was into a pretty brave, trusting little guy. She failed as a foster mom, and now Sport is in his forever home. :)

Bumper Stickers

Hello!

Someone (two someones, actually) once (technically twice then, I suppose) told me that I lack direction. YOU HAVE NO DIRECTION. I think they meant it as an insult, and at first I saw it that way too, but then a friend pointed out a bumper sticker to me: "Not all who wander are lost."

I liked that very much, and decided to live my life by the wisdom of bumper stickers. Good plan? I think so.

That's all I have to say about that.

Here are a couple more of Moose + Steve from last week:

Little Moosey reminds me of a serious little boy. He's all puppy in that he wiggles as though he has no joints and he chases bugs and he does naughty things like eating horse poo and barking at strangers, but he definitely looks to Steve for guidance and takes his jobs (heeling, sitting when told, reluctantly spitting out horse poo, etc.) very seriously. He's going to be a Good Dog.

Moving on:

I hope this next photo creeps you out as much as it did me. :)

I do have more grape and winery photos from the Western Slope trip a couple weeks ago, but they're sort of on the back burner until I finish up this Monterey sailboat batch.

SPEAKing of Monterey, my mistake was in not staying longer. The weather on Saturday was crap, and that's the only time we had to get out on the boat. So rather than shooting Glory (my intended subject) from another vessel, I was onBOARD Glory shooting Glory. Tricky!

I should post the before and after boatPics, so you can see how gray it really was out there. And flat and bleh. But I'd never been on a sailboat before, so to me it was still a lot of fun, and my crew was great company. :)

This afternoon I'm going pumpkin-picking with the Dino, my little cousin. Yesterday I had a family shoot up at Chautauqua, so hopefully once I get these boat photos done, I'll have time to process the pumpkin pics and some from yesterday before I go to Oklahoma in a couple weeks for a few horse shoots. (yay!) Until then, the wandering continues. :)

Moose

I'll be adding more photos and words about Moose tonight or tomorrow, but I couldn't help but post this one right now. You know how puppies are wiggly and loosey-goosey and floppy? And you know how they smell good and don't understand about two objects occupying the same space at the same time? And how they eat horse poo and think leaves are the BEST THING EVER and have the attention span of a gnat with ADD? I love me some puppy, and this one's going to grow up to be a therapy dog.

Anyway, more later ... just wanted to post this one in case I don't get to the rest tonight.

:)

edit: now two are posted! I've got to make myself stop until I'm done processing and have written out a proper post for Steve and Moose.

Om Nom

Just rolled in from a weekend on the western slope of Colorado--wine country in the Rockies. :)

Here are a couple just for the sake of updating on here ... more (hopefully) this week before I head to California.