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!    

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!!

Merry Christmas from the Plummer's

It's our first Christmas and first Christmas Card ever and that means it is bound to improve.
One day before I went to make this Christmas card ahhhhhh my trial version of Lightroom expired---another words my editing software!!!
I had to use Gimp and a Raw Image Converter that are absolutely impossible! Why is it that in Gimp once you move something it is stuck!!! I tried to move a highlighted star and it dragged a line all the way across the picture as I click click clicked one by one the arrow key all the way across the layer. Oh and don't even get me started on layers!! So frustrating! I worked on it all day and I know it is not as professional as it could be, but folks it's the best we could do this year without Lightroom to edit the picture or Photoshop. Yes, there were other options like Snapfish or shutterfly, but I really wanted to make our first Christmas Card all by my very lone self and with of course Matt's approval.

Now after going through all of this you would think I would have wished I used a company to make the card and have saved myself tears sweat and almost blood as I got angry with the computer( yes God I will try to work on that anger and frustratoin part this year, but I am just being honest). But if you know me, you would understand how I love to be creative. I wouldn't be satisfied with any of the FREE (of course) christmas templates that you can insert your photo. Plus, I like a good challenge!

So here it is... and Merry Christmas!!!! Wait until you hear the story of how we took this picture!

Merry Christmas, well almost Happy New Year!!!

I am back!!!! Yes, I know that I have been gone a long time, but I am officially back and almost ready to share what a wonderful Christmas Matt and I had.

You see I haven't been editing for a while because my editing software trial expired!!!! And there was no heading back to the old versions Ickk. So I have been patiently waiting and praying that I got this one thing for Christmas and ta daaaaaaa!!!!! It's here in my hands!!!!!

Lightroom!!!!

BAHHHH!!! I am so so excited!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen editing is back underway!!!!!
Which means more blog posts full of pictures!!!

Surprise

photo by Jeremy Hess Photographers

Sunday was three days before our 5 month Anniversary. No not 6 not a year, but why not celebrate your wedding day every month! We started doing a little something when we got some horrible news. We heard that sometimes the freezer destroys the top 1 year tier of your cake (you know the one you save till your 1 year anniversary)!!! So, we decided to eat a slice every month. Why? So we know if it is starting to go bad! This cake is too good to go bad mmmm.... chocolate chocolate chip cake with peanut butter filling. It is absolutely delicious!

photo by jeremy hess photographers
cake by bella manse

Anyway, back to Sunday. Matt decided that we should go out to our favorite restaurant in Cleveland, Zocallo, for our anniversary!!!! This restaurant is to die for. Weeks, actually a month, before we went I had been craving...no salivating... at random times for Zocallo Mexican Food. This food is so good that I don't even care about the rapid after effect.

The first time we ate here, we had not eaten anything substantial all day. When they placed in front of us fried tortilla chips and homemade salsa we began stuffing our faces. Then we ordered queso fundido- basically a greasy cheesy melted mixture with onions and meat, which we ate with more fried chips. Wow is what my tongue was saying, but all of a sudden boom it hit my stomach hard and lets just say I was almost laying down in the booth seat. Stomach churning, bowels moving, but Oh I wanted more so badly.

By the time the meal came I only had three bites of an enourmous burrito!! How unlike me.

Obviously the side effects have not kept me from going back. This time I slowly ate the chips and Matt and I agreed no queso fundido. Steak Burrito-----well, I ate almost all of it!! I know you''re waiting for the side effects well they did hit but not as strong. I could still walk this time, but wow did I feel enourmous.

Matt and I decided to go for a walk afterwards, and yes I still want to go back to Zocallo.

Matt asked if I wanted to see the Christmas Light in downtown. Hands down I said yes. I love Christmas lights and walks with Him.

We walked all the way through and down almost to the Theater. My feet were starting to complain as they had been in three inch high heels the night before and my feet don't like high heels at all. I asked when we were heading home and he said we would turn around at the end of the Theatre.

We arrived at the Theater when Matt said, " Did your phone ring. I reached into my pocket and pulled out TICKETS!!!!! Wow is he sneaky!!! I had a ticket in my pocket to see WICKED!!!!!


One of my roommate in college was a music major that loved Wicked. I didn't catch on till this year when one of the songs from the play came across the Pandora Radio. AMAZING!!!! I know a lot of caps, but this play is one of the best I have seen. I didn't want to leave the theater. The music, the acting, the voices---unbelievable.

I won't spoil the story, but Wicked is about what happened before the Wizard of Oz. If you like theater this is a must see.

Matt knows how much I like surprises! Wow he is good!!!

New Lense and New Model !!!

The 50mm f 1.4 welcomes himself to the blog!!


This little guy can take pictures in low light situations, but most of all it gives a buttery blurry background that makes the subject just pop!!!

My new Model???
I didn't even have to plead. He volunteered himself. Take a look at the most handsome man ever. Yes, he is taken.
We went to Edgewater Park in downtown Cleveland just as the sun was casting a beautiful warm glow across the water and rocks.
Jumping rocks. These rocks are huge and Matt loves to challenge himself by running as fast as he can along them. I enjoy the thrill for a little while till I realize I could slip...I try to keep that thought out of my head and keep going(probably not the wisest decision).
Isn't he stunning!

Matt had me laughing so hard throughout his photo shoot I could hardly keep the camera still.


Our day ended with a beautiful sunset and Frisbee on the lawn by the water.