In home children's session natural light

In home children's session natural light 2

In home children's session natural light 3

Now that my older grandsons are getting to big for a lot of lap time and they can read me the stories now, instead of those beautiful moments curled on a sofa reading repeatedly their favorite stories to them, I’ve wondered…. Do I remember the last time I read “Rikki Tikki Tavi” to them?  Can my mind recall the exact last time I washed those little curls of gold or brown?  Had I known it was going to be the last time to ever do those things, what would I have done differently?

So, this past week, I had a few days to keep my youngest grandchild and I thought about those things.  When I spoon feed him his sweet potatoes, when I changed his outfit, when I rocked him to sleep.  What if…it was the last time I ever got to do this?  And here’s what I did differently.  I took 1 more minute with each task.  I spent that 1 extra minute telling him how much I loved him and how very special he is.  Sure, he’s only a few months old and he may not have known what I was saying, but I knew.  And it was not for just his benefit, but as importantly, for mine.

There will always be a last time.  We just don’t know which time it is.  And so, this year I’m giving myself a gift. 

The gift of thinking that everything is  the last time. 

The members of the Enon  Cementry, address Enon Road, Pine Hill, Alabama, had been very short sited 30 years ago when the waist high chain link fence had been erected.  The esteemed elders had not taken into consideration that the economy of the Southern States of America would allow most people to become so well fed.  I watched from the vantage point of the small knoll just inside the fence and to the left, as Uncle George, his friends named Tipsy and Annette, all took their turns squeezing through the swinging gate.  Tipsy had the misfortune of tearing her dress almost completely from her body as she missed judged how much a turn radius she needed to clear the drop-down iron clamp that usually held the gate in place to the fence; that is when it was not acting as a weapon.  I could tell from the way it hung from its frame, that it had encountered quite a few Tipsies in its day, either in their Sunday frocks, or in their Caskets.  I had noticed it when Mama and I arrived at the Cemetery.  As I reached to lift it up, it resisted.  I had thought at the time a nice sketting of WD40 would not come amiss, but now I knew better.  It enjoyed its lot in life. 

Uncle George had insisted that Mama be there because she was the only person still alive from the day that his Grandmother was buried.  Never mind that Mama was only 1 at the time.  He expected her to know exactly where she was buried.  Mama had brought along a shovel because she thought she remembered that the top of the casket was covered in bricks and mortar just below the ground for some reason, maybe as a vault of sorts.  I guess they were going to dig around for awhile.  There were at least 6 acres inside the fence to cover.  Now I felt sure we could eliminate the places that were already marked.  Then I had an awful thought.  What if someone had buried someone else 6 inches from the spot were “Grandma” Uncle George was?  When the grave diggers were digging the grave, what if they had just barely missed her?  Kind of like when you come a hair from sideswiping a parked car?  Since they weren’t checking beside the marked graves, it WAS a possibility.  A possibility that I decided to keep to myself. 

As I looked around the wooded, peaceful last resting place for the 60 or so souls in slumber there, I wondered if they knew how lucky they were.  The problems that were bombarding me could never touch them.  As most of the headstones indicated, most of the residents of this beautiful place had lived a long live.  Their lives had been internet free, terrorists free, global warming free.  As I wondered along, smiling as I heard George and Mama fussing about something, I realized that each marker represented a life with their own sets of hope and dreams and day to day drama.  Just like in my life, no different, no smaller, just theirs.  And now we assume that when you are lying beneath that tombstone, those troubles are no longer able to touch you.  What if we are wrong?  What if that is what hell is REALLY all about?  You lie there and see everything going on to the ones you love and can’t do anything about it.  Or maybe the problems you died with still haunt you.  Maybe the things you didn’t get to say, or the things you did to the people you loved and you wished you could undo them, live in you after death, like a flame burning in your soul.  Maybe that’s what hell really is, and maybe that’s why people see ghost.  The ghost has the fire burning hot enough to try time after time to right the wrongs. 

A slight breeze brought the smell of a wild honeysuckle vine in full bloom back to me. It roused me back to the present and out of that place I had found myself pondering, that place mere mortals were not allowed to go.  Before I surrendered the last of the thoughts of heaven and hell, I said a quick prayer and hoped those poor souls could at least smell the sweet honeysuckle while their fires burned.  There was some comfort in that thought. 

By now a good 15 minutes had passed and Tipsy, Annette and Uncle George had all broken out in a full sweat and were currently debating which one had to help seat one another on the various concrete benches sitting around the Pearson families set of graves.  Mrs. Joyce Pearson sat quite often around the graves and I knew that if the benches could hold her weight, my relations would probably be okay today as well.   I guess if one of my group were to fall off the bench we could roll them as far as possible, maybe even to the gate, if they could crawl a little, therefore they could maybe pull themselves up link by link.  Upon further review of the fence, I wondered if this theory had been put to the test as several links were rather bent.

The discussion around the bench was woeful indeed.  The day’s labor had not revealed the whereabouts of the unknown tomb.  The group was voting on whether to wait for a day not so hot to continue and maybe someone would have a better idea that involved less physical work.  I was wondering if I knew anyone with a high-tech plane that could maybe do a quick pass over to map all the bodies. I remembered the conversation I enjoyed in a bar a year ago with a guy that was the commander of a “Side Scan Sonar Underwater Recovery Team.”  To bad we were not looking for a lost submarine in the Alabama River.  That was cool as hell to me at the time, so I decided to get better acquainted with the guy. He had declared himself always in a “ready” state and equipped for almost ANY situation, including but not limited to, night operations. I would have to see what he thought about cemeteries in South Alabama and high-tech operations.  Another story, that one. He really didn’t look quite like the average dirt road rider…  I cataloged that thought in the mental file cabinet labeled “Interesting men I have known and would like to revisit.”

 Another terrible thought then began to form through the haze of the now reaching 100 degrees in the shade temp. Several of the older graves simply had bricks laid around them.  Since the grass was mowed regularly, what if the minimum wage grass cutter had kicked them around as he cut the grass, to save the blades you know… and what if there was no body underneath any of the bricks. I mean the grass had been cut for at least 30 years with a power mower…. I decided to keep that thought to myself as well.

As we finally all made our way back to the graveled parking lot, where the vehicles waited, boiling in the midday sun, since as Tipsey said, “We have air conditioning in this here new Hyundai so we don’t have to let the flies in, you CAN’T leave the windows down.”   I paused to wipe a speck of bird mess off Miss Minnie Mayo’s headstone with a magnolia leaf I had picked up.  At least I didn’t have to go to piano lessons today with Miss Minnie and her antenna.  She had an antenna that someone had given her off an old wrecked vehicle that she used to point to the music on the Piano.  Sometimes the thing would spear the sheet music like a dagger and you would have to guess at the notes in that spot.  Sometimes she would hit you on the knuckles with it, accidently I am sure, you would hate to have to call it child abuse. Although, come to think on it,  blood could be spilled if you didn’t hold your hands at a high enough arch.  Hence, why I might be such a good typist now.  Years later, piano practice and Miss Minnie was NOT on my problem list. Looking back, if that was my biggest problem, life was good back then too. 

If I was right about my newest take on hell and that whole hell fire thing, I had better start mending my broken bridges now.  I had a lot of back tracking to do. 

​Meanwhile back in our sleepy little town…..

Many people may wonder exactly why this belongs on my photography blog space. Well…the answers are,

1. It’s my blog and I’ll say what I want to.
2. When I try to explain to my colleagues where I live they just don’t get it.
3. I’ve been wanting to do updates on this little town since I moved back.

SO..with that being said, here is my latest blog. 

The fact that the Town of Pine Hill held a “Hay Bale” decorating contest in conjunction with their annual “Depot Day” was the quaintest thing to happen since the goat got loose and ran amuck in downtown Pine Hill.  The Hay Bales were judged, I’m not sure on what criteria since I wasn’t a judge, and I think the winner was announced.  I’m usually the last person to know anything around here because I stay in a completely darkened room almost 13 hours a day most day to work on my spells and such….sorry…I mean editing. 

While I was out today making my post office rounds because the person that usually does that for me was working on her other job…(mind you, my eyes don’t adjust well to the sunlight since I’m part vampire I think,  the good kind…Bella…you know with the hunky boyfriend, mines’ named Dain….hehehehe) Anyway, I spotted the hay bales in the daylight.  Since I know you are dying to see them and the wreck I almost caused taking pictures of people’s houses…I’ll share with you now.

As a side note, let me close by saying that Pintrest has NOTHING on the good people of Pine Hill.  I would have taken part myself expect for the fact, I didn’t know about it and I’m still riding around with the stuff from last year’s Christmas in my trunk.  HEY…I have a head start on this years shopping though!

I hope you enjoy…and visit my blog often.  Not that I blog that often, but because if the goat makes a showing for Halloween….I’m all over it!!!

Well...it's for Auburn and I hope no one sits fire to it... Looks wonderful at night The Black Cat...One of my Favorites Bumblebee....buzz buzz Mums and pumpkins to sit the mood Total Too Cute Very Fall feeling Totally keeping in the fall theme I'd save this one for Spring and Easter. Glad I didn't have to glue this thing.... Another of my top picks Cancer Fighter! Pumkin Not quite sure...maybe a bug..a #1 bug? Simple and to the point Another one of my favorites..love the hat Best Sign EVER

"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" This was John the Baptist's declaration in John 1:29 upon seeing Jesus for the first time. Our studio buys lambs every year for our Easter/Spring Sessions based upon the worlds found in the Bible.

I've read articles from photographers and people who say.."You should NOT use live animals in photo shoots." I've got to tell you...I AGREE 100% with that. In the following cases...I agree that people that do not have enough sense to house, love and care for animals should NOT have them in photo shoots. I also think these people should not have children most likely either...but hey...My clients know me and they know I speak my mind. Trust me...If my dog and/or cat does NOT like you...I probably am not the photographer for you. We had a lady come in the studio last week that had a running screaming fit when Smut walked by her..she ran out the door screaming. Dain was about to go and talk to her outside when I told him..."Let that one go, I didn't like the way she looked at my cat."

The facts about our lambs and other rescue animals are these: Our tiniest lamb was a twin and the mother rejected him, leaving him to starve because she chose the other lamb over the runt. Since the farmer didn't have time to bottle fed the baby we took him off his hands at just one week old. Our larger baby was on his way to the stockyard to be sold for food. Our cat, Smut, ran in the studio door one night when Aidan McGilberry was walking out the door, so starving that it was choking on the dog food that we had in a bowl for Molley. Our 2nd cat, SC, came in staving because she was Smut's half-sister we think. We have had no mice/rats since those miscreants appeared. So, if the fact that my two lambs are laying in clean, soft hay from Mr. Mack Bradford's loft, in Dain's office, instead of being outside in the pouring rain, or in someone's freezer upsets someone, then here's what to do.... Keep scrolling. Don't sign your child up for a session and don't look at these AMAZING images that we have of these beautiful children as they interact with the creature that is mentioned over 100 times in the bible. But if you DO love the gentleness and sweetness of these images, use this time to take your child in your lap and talk to them about the "LAMB OF GOD," and what that means in their life. They are never to young to learn about Jesus.

And that's how I see it tonight from one of the poorest counties in America. Here are just a couple from our sessions. More will follow, I promise!

PS...for those worried about the lambs AFTER our sessions....They have an amazing home with a lot of beautiful children that are going to love them everyday!

May God richly bless you and keep you, no matter how you fall on animals in pictures.

XO,

Deby

71AA2368-Edit Easter Lambs Easter Lambs Easter Lambs Easter Lambs Easter Lambs Easter Lambs Easter Lambs Easter Lambs

“GURL…that woman right there will not pick her camera UP for less than $50.00”

“WHAT….She must thank she is SOMEBODY with that camera..!  I’ll take my own …** pictures.”

That used to make me mad, until it didn’t anymore.  It stopped when I joined the Professional Photographers Association of America.  It stopped when I surrounded myself with Professional Photographers that make a living with their camera.  It stopped when I started my quest for my CPP.

Think about it for a minute.  Are you a hair dresser?  Do you let mass amounts of people come sit in your chair, perform a service for them and then say…”No charge.  It’s free….you look good….go and I’ll see you next month!” What if you are a restaurant owner, I mean I see all the time on menus, the chips are not free if you don’t order something….WHAT???  Who comes in and just eats the chip and salsa and leaves without even a coke?  Then it hit me…the same people that come to my studio and want me to take pictures of them in 3 or 4 different outfits so they can have a profile picture on social media.  The same people that screen shot my galleries, even with the word PROOF and my logo on them and make a tee shirt….Well. If the Mexican restaurant doesn’t mind telling you to go away, then why should I? How about the cashier at a Dollar General?  Do you think they are going to show up and work their shift, go home and do it day after day for no pay?  Or based on what they sell?  Or a teacher, or anyone else that goes to work and expects to be paid. 

“But you just take pictures and that’s a lot of fun and it’s easy…”  Here are the facts.  Yes, it can be fun, that’s one reason I do this.  I find it feeds something within my soul.  I love to work with people, I feel in some small way that I am giving the best of me to my clients.  What I do has value, I capture moments, I capture emotions and I capture feelings.  I don’t TAKE PICTURES.  I take a moment in time and freeze it.  I take what I see and hand it back to you, on a silver platter, a piece of me and what I see in you.

I have a very large studio that has a VERY LARGE power bill.  I have insurance and sale taxes, dues, props, camera’s that cost more than cars I’ve owned, flashes, costumes, computer systems and software, printers and all manner of equipment to insure that if you do hire me…You have the same quality product as anyone else in the world.  I have the same access to anything that any other Professional Photographer on this planet has.  RIGHT HERE in tiny little Pine Hill, Al. AND, if for some reason I don’t, I have a network of Professional Photographers, World Class Professional Photographers, Photographers that have and are winning World Wide awards, Photographers that get paid hundreds of dollars an hour to teach and speak, that are less than a phone call away. 

So, yes….If you want me to take your picture, I’m going to charge you a LOWLY rate of $50 which is refunded to you in print product.  (I can hear my Professional Photographer friends gasping at that low rate…but as I always am defending myself…we are in the highest rate of poverty in the United States, so lay off my rate and my 4x6’s)

I figure if you are not willing to spend $50 on professional photos, then all you wanted with a Face Book profile picture anyway.  I’m not your girl.  That’s what Selfie Sticks are made for.

I also take my “Show” on the road to events.  There again, I charge a fee.  You get it back in print credits, but I drive a BIG CHEVY 4x4 diesel fully loaded pickup truck.  It is my favorite vehicle that I have ever owned, but to roll that big boy cost a lot of money…Drive something else you say.  NO. I need the room for the flea markets finds side the road and to haul my equipment.  You never KNOW when someone has discarded an old chair that only has 3 legs.  WHAT?  I can SO fix that, paint it blue and sit an 18 month old on it….yes, even with the 3 legs.  Try throwing a good vintage couch in the back of your energy saving Prius…

I also enjoy helping other people who are wanting to become professional photographers themselves.  I find a common bound with them.  I’ve had people ask me if I’m worried about the competition when I teach classes.  NO.  I am not.  These people become some of my closest friends.  One of my dearest friends ever, is my mentor.  I trust her, I can ask her anything and she has my best interest at heart.  When someone else can take a really good image of something that they see, in what way does that diminish my ability to take good images of what I see?  It’s the people that DON’T get the training and don’t know what they are doing that hurts the industry of Photography.  It’s the people that take your once in a lifetime events and later you understand that you can’t redo that moment and they just handed you a CD with 2600 images on it that won’t print.  (But hey…It looked good on their Face Book page…) No..it didn’t, you just didn’t know what to look for.  Face Book likes don’t make you a photographer any more than owning a thermometer makes you a nurse, or owning a sewing machine makes you a seamstress. It all takes hard work, dedication and learning combined with skill.

I’m taking my photography business in a whole new direction.  And I’m no longer doing freebies for people I don’t even know.  If you can afford to have the Vietnamese do your nails, you can afford images that will last longer than those nails.  I don’t have time for excuses and I will call you out on them if you bring them in here.  I’m tired of seeing my images as people’s profile pictures and they never bought a single one from 3 years ago.  (They even cut the logo off…) Hey..if you didn’t like it enough to hand me $5.00 for it, why do you like it enough to represent yourself virtually?   I have a BUCKET full of these people and they are on a list….it is called….  “DO NOT FOOL WITH THESE FOLKS AGAIN.”    You know who you are too.  I give my close friends and family my images of them, I don’t reduce the cost, I give it to them.  There is a difference.  This is my small way of doing something for them…they do stuff for me all the time, it’s my gift to them for being who they are to me.  I don’t like it when they don’t let me give them these gifts, it somehow diminishes some of my inter glow…Can’t have that now.

In closing, let me add why I don’t give you the digital files unless you have purchased the prints first. When I release those files to you, I lose all control over them. If you go take it and make it some strange shade of purple and a glow in the dark shade of green on the skin with some stupid Instagram app…who does that reflect upon?  ME.  People will think I did it.  Can’t have that either.  Sorry, again use your selfie stick or one of those images from the girl that burns the CD in the parking lot on her laptop when she finishes with your “Session.”

Oh yes…footnote to closing remarks…The Norfolk Southern Railroad department is doing a very big push to keep people OFF the railroad tracks….they will take your equipment after they put you in jail. So keep on with that crap. They have even developed a hotline for people to report photographers that are trespassing and using their tracks for images.  I mean, who doesn’t want to see a baby in a basket on a railroad track???   I shudder to think of how that’s cool. 

Hey, it’s my birthday so I can rant if I want to!

As always, thank you to my clients that allow me to work with you.  And if I have any left after this post, I hope to see you soon!    Lambs will be here in March!!

God Bless!

I'm been meaning to post the Spring Program for Applause Dance Program since May, but I've been a little busy with moving the studio and just being a full time photographer.  That's another blog. 

SO, for everyone that has asked about it....Here it is...The Book.  (s)  The program was so large it required an insert.  A contest was held to see who would star on the cover since all of the girls are so beautiful and talented.  Jasmine Hargreaves won the contest and was featured on both covers. Jasmine and I had a couple of private shoots till I got just what I wanted for the cover.

"Miss Elesia's" children are so very much fun to work with and I have come to love them all dearly!  I look forward to seeing you all again this year and the new additions at the Pine Hill and Monroeville locations~

Here's the program..... Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause Dance Studio"A WHOLE NEW WORLD" Applause

Mary Catherine

I want to talk just a minute to the parents of the children in the upcoming dance recital.  Your children are on my mind...mostly because I have spent hundreds of hours on this Keepsake program for you.  I wanted to share a thought or two about this body of work.

I have recently had an opportunity to study under one of the greatest photographic artist of our time.  He was doing the cutting edge work that I love.  He shared some very wise advice to me from his years of experience.  He said…”Everyone will not love your art.  Just like everyone will not love your cooking, your choices in clothing nor even you.  That’s okay.  That’s what makes us all different and especially from a photographer’s point of view, different is what keeps us alive.”  I’ve sent him a couple of the examples of this body of work to see what I was doing WRONG with them.  I’ll have to be honest…he was so very excited because he had not thought of the practical application of applying the work we did in class to the commercial aspect of a program.  With that in mind, I continued.  SO…  You may not like the artwork, but I hope you at least can appreciate the efforts made to do something very different for your child.  I hope that I bring this aspect to all my photography and again it is with the understanding that I’m not for everyone.  I’m not trying to be. 

You dance experience here with Applause Dance should be to broaden your child’s horizons.  As a former dancer myself of over 11 years, including a very short career in college that I would rather forget and a mother of 2 daughters that have taken dance class when we could, I understand all too well the extreme sacrifices  that you make.  The time spent just transporting your children back and forth to class, as well as the other 2 children that had ball practice….WHEW…I had 4 under 16 at the same time which meant…yeap, I drove everyone from cheerleading twice a day, to football the same day at two different places, travel softball… (Kill me now…) Volleyball and cheerleading at the same time, scholars bowl practice, bible school…no wait I thought we were sleeping past 6 this morning.  We lived way out in the country.  The gas bill for the 4 to 5 trips a day some days was more than the house payment.  I remember thinking….”Please lord…I just need a break!”  No vacations because one of them was always on some kind of “All Stars,” which lasted all summer.  Why can’t an infant wash his own clothes, hey if I nurse this one till he is 3 then, I at least don’t have to pack a bottle to sit in a gym…right? AND he can’t complain that he will NOT eat the cheeseburger because someone put the green garnish right beside it on the plate and then just when everything was settling down, the oldest one and the meanest one…licked the top of the darn bun of the one that wasn’t crying…chicken sandwich.  WHAT THE HECK…and were did that come from…what do you mean he is breathing your air…..How do you know…What is that smell coming from the backseat…the dog did WHAT to the baby’s diaper?  A DANCE RECITAL….NO….Do you know how much 5 costume cost?  Could we NOT just reuse the one we reused again last year again?  I mean I have to purchase some kind of $100 shoe for the mean one because just to spite me she let her foot grow another size between the time we tried OUT for cheerleader practice and made the squad….Yes…..? And the CAMP…WHAT CAMP…It cost WHAT?  I have to send how many gifts a day….I’m NOT making a poster for the door.  Someone has lost their mind giving them an Algebra test on a Monday morning…Where is that teachers number…..If that guy doesn’t sit down so I can see in the bleachers, I’m going down there and knock him out with this Lego man OR the naked Barbie doll missing her right hand because “TYSON” the new puppy used it to teethe on…let it go it was better than my ONLY good table leg.  I had a 6 month old with the Lego man and a 3 year old with the Barbie, an 12 year old batting and a 14 year old making moon eyes at some hunk that I’m SURE is 18….not happening today, where is his mama, I’m going to NIB THIS IN THE BUD.  All this in the span of 10 flat seconds running through my brain. Including…what’s for supper and I don’t remember what sift my husband is on…do we have to be quite when we get home…..or can we fight over the remote. 

This past week…I watched as my youngest one walked across a stage and got a high school diploma.   My house is quite now, there are no more carpooling days to 10 places at once, on one pulling at my pants leg looking up at me with need and Kool aide stained teeth.  No more all the things that wore me out.  That kept me young.  That aged me.  That lifted me, the smiles of a job well done, hand prints on paper that tug at the heart with their clever sayings.  There will be no more football Friday nights, Go #10…OMG my daughter just got state MVP … All those things that I HOPE I have instilled into my children as what parents do…because LORD knows right now, it’s all about them…My Mama and Daddy made those sacrifices for me, it WAS ALL about me and it still was till my Mama died a few years ago… so I learned it by example.  It was to be much later in life before I was able to fully understand what loving someone else more than you loved yourself meant, the difficulties my parents faced raising me and my older, meaner brother. 

So…with all this being said, believe me when I tell you….Been there done that.  And believe it or not, it is a blessing to be there.  Sometimes you just don’t get the blessing till you are standing in the hallway in the quiet hours looking into the rooms where the beds are made perfectly, the toys lined on bookcases and shelves waiting for their owners to return. They never return you know…and the pictures of the little Boston terrier with the twinkle in his eye and the Barbie fingers in his mouth….all gone now. 

Please let me know if in any way I can help you.  I’m in the memory business…and we do have payment plans.  Really we do…see Dain about it…Memories are priceless….images capture those priceless memories.  This dance recital is one of those.

God bless you and keep you and the ones you pray for with your last breath at night ... safe and whole.

“Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere.”

–Albert Einstein

Not everyone was born to stand on a stage.  Not everyone is able to put themselves in front of critics of unknown eyes.  The eyes of those that so wish they had been born to perform.  There I said it.  PERFORM.  The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor, Brittney Spears, Richard Petty, Lane Frost, whoever or whatever the Kardashians are….the list is endless of people that love to perform.  Some we love, some we hate…but all we know.  I’ve been blessed lately to be in the presence of some performers.  As a performer myself, don’t ask about that, it was a flop, but still a performance nonetheless, I have found that I am best as the one on the sideline with the Canon. 

If you were not able to attend the Applause Dance Studio’s abbreviated performance of their upcoming show, “A WHOLE NEW WORLD,” this week, you have not missed the main performance.  Join me in as we celebrate the PERFORMERS.  These young people could rule the world.  They are NOT afraid of those who are afraid to put themselves…”OUT THERE” and live life to its fullest.  I’ll take years off my life before I take life out of my years……..RIGHT?

Want to get out there and do something more?  You might want to give Applause Dance a call.....They are rocking it out!! 

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 Of course your answer will be family, friends and memories.  I guess that's were I like to think I can play some very small role.  I'm in the memory business.  Think about what you remember from your childhood.  Chances are it's got a lot to do with the fact someone has a grainy photo of it.  I know the things I remember so very vividly are in my memory because of a photo.  I have proof that I once was a very small sized woman. I have a photo before photo shop was invented. 

So tonight I want to thank the people that call me....when they want those pictures for memories.

Here's a few from a session about a month ago.   

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I've been looking forward to the moment that I could sit down and look through them. Like reading a wonderful book...I wanted to enjoy (instead of words,) the images for the first time....I knew these would be breathing taking for me because I had seen them in the camera and in my minds eye as the session developed, Emma Style.

I met Miss Emma almost a year ago at a wedding. She was in her fathers arms and I was in the side row capturing images of the guest before the wedding started.

For some strange reason I turned around and Emma looked straight at me. She had on the most beautiful dress with a matching bonnet, she ever so slightly lowered her eyes to me as if to say....well I can't tell you what she said to me, it was between us. Fate let our paths cross for just a second and I've been looking forward to this next session since the day that Miss Emma had me....at a glance.

I hope it will not be our last meeting......She is one of the most beautiful children I have ever seen. (I think she knows it.)

Here are just a very, very few of the images I "flagged" tonight as beautiful.

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I don't know her level of Cheese Straw making...that is yet to be determined.  But hey.....she can always buy some and TELL me that she baked  them (OR she can call Sheila to make a Key Lime Pie for me) ....After all...she can't be PERFECT...right?  SO until I find out more about Elesia's baking skills....I'm leaving her ranking with me at a 15 out of 10.   Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1) Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-2 Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-3 Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-6 Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-5 Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-4 Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-7 Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-9 Deby Andrus 1 (1 of 1)-8 b

Every wedding is as unique as a finger print.  Therefore it is my mission to look for the unexpected images, along with those that are on our classic "must have," list.  I'd like to share my very favorite one from last year. "Run Henry, Run!"I was at the back of the service with my 2 other photographers on both sides. I just had a feeling that Henry, our ring barer was about to make a break for it! I adore children at weddings!  

 "Run, Henry, Run"

I always make sure to keep an eye on the children.  My two other cameras at the wedding do the same.  While the adults, for the most part, got the memo about not picking their nose, or dancing, for some reason the little children have their own script.  Since we  have multiple cameras covering the event, I'm free to capture these "fleeting" moments as it were, such as this one with my buddy, "Henry."