What I spend a lot of my day doing....

READING    READING     READING

I think my husband  almost fell over dead when I started to get into photography.  I don't think he has ever seen me read so much!  I go to the library at least twice a week.

When God first talked with me about picking up my camera and learning more, I completely dove into reading.  I came home from the library that week with 9-10 books on exposure, lighting, the negative... I read at least a book a day (shh they have a lot of pictures)!  I couldn't get enough and still can't.

This past week I think I put an order in at the Cleveland Library for every book on Lightroom ( it's editing software) that I possible could. If you wanted one I am truly sorry....you are just going to have to wait.  Now if the Cleveland Library doesn't have it they will find it in another library, which is awesome for me, bad for you because I think I took out every book on Lightroom within at least a 50 mile radius of Cleveland!


In addition to books I also read photography blogs...a lot.  My pastor talked about balance in church this past week....and God convicted me just a little. He didn't swing down a mallet he just gently reminded me of Him.  So I am cutting back just a little. 

This picture also describes me right now

Wow is it hard to find balloons in the dead of winter (so yes not the best shot).

You know when you let a balloon go and it takes off up into the sky?  Many days I just want my dreams of my photography business to be reality...I want to take off...and fly.  Waiting...waiting is very humbling and focuses me right back on God. Faith pulls me through each day.  Because only He can do this not me.

Sometimes I get a little deflated in the waiting. I set my eyes too much on the end and don't realize what's happening right in front of me.

and sometimes like an overinflated balloon, I fill up with everything I have learned all day and explode as soon as Matt walks in the door.  A big ball of stored up energy hits him with "Guess what I learned today?" There are some days when I try to tell him everything before he even gets his shoes off.

With my mind set on starting a business it's easy for me to only see myself.
This has been my prayer lately- that I will take my eyes off of myself and onto God  and then onto others.

That is what this business is supposed to be about anyway: blessing others not me.  To bring life....to show beauty...and to fill others with the joy that only comes from heaven.

Wet Laundry

Laundry...yuck.  I wait till the end of the week or make it maybe two or three weeks to do laundry, which means I have two to three loads.  We don't have our own washer and dryer either.

This is our Laundry Jar which holds every valuable quarter we can find. It takes 6 quarters just to wash one load!

Now the washers- great.  The dryers...I think the laundry comes out just as wet as it went in sometimes, but with a hint of warmness.  So we protested to the dryers by doing it ourselves.  How hard could it be, people did this all the time back in the day?

Take a look at our apartment- three loads!

On the chairs under the chairs, on the bird cages, on the books....

...on the stove and the handles...

...my teapot!!! I was running out of room.  We only have a two room apartment, but how was I going to clothesline the laundry in a city!

oops inside out socks...i hope they got clean

 

It took two days to dry wrinkly!    

Meet Katie ( sneak peak)

Katie is one of my sister-in-laws and I love her!  She is so much fun to be around and I wish I got to see her more often.  Katie is only in high school and yet she can ride and train any horse no matter how poorly trained or stubborn.  Katie definitely has a gift with horses; they love her and will obey her.  If Katie could, she would probably live at the barn.  Sometimes she takes me with her to see the horses.  Over Christmas I brought my camera with me to capture her in action with these horses.  Katie has been asking for these photos for about a month now.  Here are just a few of more to come.

 

 

Aren't they beautiful!!! I have dreams of riding a horse across the mountains. Hair blowing...blah blah blah.  Katie has let me ride twice and let's just say I am far from that romantic image.   I can tell a horse they are beautiful.  I can brush a horse and get them all ready to ride.  I can sit on a horse, but do not tell me to make it move, once they start I am a bowl full of jello.  Both times I ended up slipping off the side while they were hardly moving. 

Tearin' up the streets (kinda)

It has been cold...really cold, but I love to run and I don't do very well on treadmills. I love being able to breath in the fresh air and get distracted people watching and admiring creation around me.  Treadmills just can't provide that, plus I fall off ...or I run too fast and hit the front or I run too slow and slide off the back.

I prefer to stick to the outdoors, even if that means snow. It's actually a lot of fun! Just remember to tip toe around icy corners. Looks a little silly, but a complete full speed wipe out looks even funnier.

First Chair Music Photographs Ready for Ordering!!!

If your are a parent that attended one of the First Chair Music Classes that I photographed or if you and your child attended the First Chair Music Holiday Party, the pictures are ready!!!!

I had so much fun capturing the excitement that takes place at First Chair Music and was honored to be able to capture these beautiful faces.

I do apologize if you do not find a photograph of your child. I wish I could say I was able to capture each and every child, but it was just not possible with so many children running around. If you do not find a photograph but like what you see, I would love to set up an appointment with you. In a personal session, I can capture the personality and beauty of your child without all of the background distractions. I would so much enjoy capturing what makes your child special.

Here is the online site link to view photographs taken at First Chair Music.

Click Here!


Enjoy!!

BBBRRRRR!!!!!

It has been snowing almost constantly in Cleveland for about a week and a half.  Matt and I decided to go take a look at how the lake was freezing up.  Remember this?

Now take a look!!!

Isn't it incredible!

We had so much fun playing on the ice, but to get here was no easy task.  We had to climb across an icy snow covered jetty.  Matt did it very gracefully with only one slip. I, on the other hand, went on all fours was covered in snow up to my thighs, and I looked like that scene in Bambi when Bambi is trying to skate on a frozen pond.  I know I got a good laugh out of it all and I am sure many other spectators did too.

But it was so worth it!!! Take a look!

This is underneath a fisherman's bridge

The ice was 3 inches thick at least

I am surprised I got such a serious shot considering Matt was laughing at me slipping all over the ice. I was trying to get in the right position to capture the right angle.  I was grabbing onto icicles trying to catch my fall.  A lot of good they did.  I was left almost on my bum with a three foot icicle in hand.

 

Matt is just a touch out of focus, but I had to show you how much ice there really was

This is the water!

I had so much fun but I think I pulled some muscles, but it was worth the laughter and pics.

From the Heart

You are my strength when I am weak God.

I do not like weakness revealed in my life, probably none of us do. I did not plan on this post this morning. I like writing about happy things, but everyday our life is not sunny and to be honest right now I feel like I am in a thunderstorm. Right now I am weak physically. I have a reversed curve in my neck that is causing pain through my whole body almost all day. I love to laugh, to rejoice, to jump and be active and this pain goes against my very being. Satan loves weakness, he takes a hold of it and feeds us lies- Like you are sick and will only get worse, lies like-nobody cares about your pain you are only a pest or a burden to them. Sometimes, I find myself focusing on these lies instead of the promises God has spoken to me of Life, plans for the future, and that healing will come. I know the voice of my loving Father and he has spoken such sweet words to me in this time. He takes me dancing with Him in the sky and shows me what he has planned for my life in this world. I begin to cry when I hear him speak because it seems so unlike anything I would expect him to say.

Over the past week I have had to tune into his voice over and over again as the pain is increasing with the initial therapy process to move my bones back in place. I can't do this without Him. He picks my head up when it falls telling me its going to be okay. Over and over again he never gives up. I love the words to this song by Casting Crowns


In the drying weary land
LORD You are the rain
In the sea of shattered ones
Your love comes rushing in
You hold the world within Your hands
And see each tear that falls
Through every fire and every storm
You're Always Enough
Always Enough

Your love is peace to the broken
Faith for the widow
Hope for the orphan
Strength for the weak

Your love is the anthem of nations
Brings out to the ages
And You're Always Enough for me

Casting Crowns ~ Always Enough

This post was not to ask for sympathy, but to possibly lift your head high because we all struggle. There is someone who cares for you more than anyone in this world can. Let him heal your heart, heal your body, and give you strength.

Over the River and through the Woods

From the city of Cleveland back to the rolling snow covered hills of Northern New Jersey. Yes, there are some parts of New Jersey that are absolutely beautiful, unfortunately I have no proof.

Here is just a small recap of Christmas back in our hometowns.


Both Matt's mom and my mom do an amazing job decorating and baking around the holidays! Their houses look like they came our of a catalog and there cooking is so much better than Martha Stewarts- actually I have no proof of that either, but let's just say they are really GOOD!
Do you see the little white envelope underneath the tree? That is for me...and... it's LIGHTROOM!!!

One of my favorite times at Christmas is reading Christmas Stories. My favorite- The Polar Express.

Present Time!!! Matt's up FirstThis game is all about persuasion- He is going to win every time
Grandmom V
Grandmom P
And this is one of my favorite photos. This Christmas we gave both sets of parents a wedding album that we personally made for them on Shutterfly. They turned out beautifully. I wish I had a shot of my parent opening the book.Now this post is missing a few people. Britt and Katie- I only took one pic (beginning photographers never take just one picture) and you will be glad I didn't post them. The picture does not show off your true beauty.
And...I forgot something when we traveled to my Grandparents on Christmas night...ummm...I forgot MY CAMERA!!!! How could I do this I just do not know, but I missed capturing Christmas with my family and extended family! CJ you are lucky this year, but next year I will not forget my camera and then it's war hehehe. Don't worry I love him.




I had to sneak these in too because it was our First Christmas!!! Here we have picked our very own Christmas tree!!

Many people giggle when I put his hat on, but I love it!!! It's got everything a winter hat should have- it doesn't give me hat hair, POM POM, hand knit with love, and it has a rim on the front to bring me into style. Thank you Goodwill!Matt did a scavenger hunt for me this Christmas!! One of the clues was= where you first said yes to me- well that was 6 years ago when he asked me to go to Homecoming with him. I almost fell over I was so shocked. Where did that happen? In the basement of our hometown church. He had me searching all over the apartment and almost 5 floors down in our building until I found my favorite ornament on our tree.

I had a wonderful Christmas. I am so thankful to God for the families that have raised and surround Matt and I. I was blessed in so many ways, but the best Christmas present was spending it with Matt. Merry Christmas Everyone!

How the Plummer Christmas Card came to be...

It all started on a rainy winter day. Matt and I had been brainstorming all week what our Christmas photo should be. The guiding structure was that it had to be about the very heart of Christmas, Jesus. It had to grasp the importance of Him, The King, coming into this world as a baby and growing into a man with the sole purpose of dieing to save me, to save you.

Matt came up with a great idea! There is a Claes Oldedburg sculpture three blocks from out apartment that is a huge stamp. Hang in there a moment. Claes Oldenburg takes items like a spoon, paper clip, in this case a stamp (the ink kind) and blows them up. I mean really blows them up. Here take a look.

So Matt's idea was to photograph ourselves sitting on the letters of the Free stamp. Why the Free Stamp? Because we have been set Free by the blood of Jesus Christ. It was perfect!!!

However we had some issues

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   Rain which means puddles
2. 
   
   
   
   
   
   A photographer that has a lack of understanding when it comes to a self timer- I could only get it to 10 seconds
3. 
   
   
   
   
   
   Picture this- all dressed up, running through the puddles, only 10 seconds AND
4. 
   
   
   
   
   
   I'm too short to get myslef up on the stamp and no muscles to assist
5. 
   
   
   
   
   
   Once again only 10 seconds for Matt to get me onto the wet Free stamp and himself

again...
If only you could see that I am hysterically laughing. He didn't quite get me all the way up and I am pinned to the letter F.Did we get it??

How many tries umm......at least 5 runs

Until...

A young man hopped out of his car hysterically laughing at the scene he had been watching for the past 8 minutes. He very politely apologized for watching the entirety of it before he offered his assistance. So here it is!!!!

Problem- umm... can you see us???

This just will not do. Grandma deserves to see our two little faces.

Plan B began to form as we were muddy and dripping wet.

“A light has come into the world”

Curious how to get that almost spooky flashlight effect captured?:

Set up a strong light- we dismantled a standing lamp and based it between pillows- Yes I know it is fire hazard

Position the light onto your faces

Set your camera to manual- yes scary at first

You are going to need a very long exposure-meaning the speed needs to be slower than usual, but not so slow that if you move you get a blurry ghost in the background with you. Ours was set to 1/60th of a second and an aperture of 4.5 try it out ...have some fun

Then turn off the lights

Press the button

Run and jump on your loved ones back

and Smile!!

Once again next year is bound to be even better!!

Christmas bells are ringing...drummers drumming...listen to them singing

The First Chair Holiday Party was a blast!! Songs, toys, Musical Instruments of course, and beautiful children dressed for the Holidays! Take a look at some of my favorite shots from the party!


It's moments like these that just make me melt.
We played dress up too. Howdy."Stick 'em up Cowboy."
Toys Toys Toys everywhere

This toy is my favorite. They sing, "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes...and she'll be riding 6 purple elephants when she comes!!!!" All the while holding the reins of this rainbow fluffy toy and on YeeHaw everyone falls backwards pulling back the reins and comes back up laughing. This little guy is waiting for his favorite part..."YEEHAW."There was so much laughter
We got a little tired at the end. Hope you had a Merry Christmas!