Posted on December 31, 2008
Last year at the beginning of the year I came across several blogs, scrapbooking forums and photography sites where there was discussion on finding a word for the year. I didn’t participate last year, but I’ve decided to do it this year. The idea behind the one little word concept is to give yourself something to focus on throughout the year. Ali Edwards (a scrapbooker who’s work I really admire who is also due with her second child very soon) said in a recent blog entry: “A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow.” So with that in mind I decided to do some inner reflection and find my word for the year. Several came to mind, but one in particular kept popping up in my mind.
I’m going to soon be the mother of two, and just the physical and mental strength required for that alone is going to be great, especially at first when I’m initially learning what all being the mother of two really involves. I find myself focusing mostly on how I’ll cope the first few weeks, mentally going over how I’ll manage to nurse a newborn and still care for my precious Kate, reading up on child rearing books – everything from how to parent a strong willed toddler to how to help infants establish healthy sleeping habits. I also realize that the work and learning about parenting won’t ever end, as your child grows and changes you grow and change along with that as a parent. But for now I’m focusing on one thing at a time and that includes the short term goal of finding the strength to conquer the recovery period after delivery and then the longer term goal of reaching the end of 2009 and looking back on all I’ve accomplished and worked through.
I’m not only choosing the word strength in conjunction with motherhood though. It’s a pretty powerful word and I want it to transcend into the way I conduct myself as a wife, friend, sister, daughter, grand-daughter, etc. I want to be a strong wife for my husband, someone he can continue to depend on and someone who he can trust completely to keep the home fires burning as he leaves for deployments. I want to be a strong friend who has an available shoulder for them to cry on. I want to be a strong sister, daughter and granddaughter to my precious family members back in the states. I want them to know that while I’m in Germany and feel lonely occasionally, I’m also strong enough to get through this time and still enjoy the journey.
I really loved the word that helped describe strength on the 3rd bullet, courage. I’m by nature not very courageous, but I’m slowly but surely finding my inner courage and as the year progresses I want to continue that. Finding the strength to speak up for myself, for my family and for the important causes I support. Not in an in your face tacky way, but in a tasteful, polite manner, but still finding the strength and the courage to speak up and show a firm stand on what I believe in.
Now…I don’t just want to write this post and have the word bouncing around in my head only to forget about it by mid January. I really want to have this word written around my home for myself, as a constant reminder. I haven’t hashed out my exact plan for that just yet, but once I come up with something creative I’ll share it. And yes…even if that’s as simple as printing the dictionary’s definition of strength and taping it to my bathroom mirror. I just want to remember that no matter how tired I am, no matter how mentally drained I might be, no matter how much stress and strain I’m under, no matter how much I might be missing my husband, I’m a strong woman and with my wonderful family, my priceless praying parents and Jesus I can get through it!
Strength. It’s a powerful word. My word for 2009. Happy New Year Everyone!
Posted on December 29, 2008
Now it’s time for me to highlight some of my favorite professional photos I took throughout 2008. I spent this year really growing and learning as a photographer, so some of these were taken of family members, but because of the amount of knowledge I gained from the photoshoots I’m still considering them professional, since they helped me on my professional photography journey so much. I am a lot better about highlighting the professional images I capture on my blog so that my clients can have a sneak peek from the session as soon as possible, so several of my favorite images I’ve already posted here. I didn’t want to simply re-post older images that had already had their time in the spotlight, I wanted to find a few new ones, ones that I loved but for one reason or another I hadn’t posted. So enjoy these Top 8 images for 2008!
1. Timeless Elegance {January 2008}
This gorgeous girl is my sister. I took a trip out to visit my family for a couple months last winter with the plan to REALLY focus on photography. She is by nature a bit of a tom boy, or at least that was how I’d remembered her from when I’d moved away the year prior, but she sure had grown up and grown into a beautiful girl! I put her in this faux fur coat and heels and she totally found her inner elegance. We took this photo in my parents front yard by some cool weeds near their pond. One of the few decent backdrops I could find in the dead of winter in Oklahoma. LOVE that she and I kinda learned together. Me learning how to pose, find backgrounds, shoot in manual. Her how to let me pose her, rock her awesome expressions and overall just find the timeless elegance within.
2. All Grown Up {January 2008}
This is my kid brother. It’s so hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that he’s all grown up! He’s not the little guy who used to be my constant playmate, my sweet little buddy who used to comfort me if I fell and scraped up my knee, the creative brother who used to help me figure out the best way to hang a tire swing up on a tree, my musical genius brother who used to sing 1970′s rock with me to the top of our lungs as we jumped on our trampoline. The comedic brother who made (and still makes me) laugh so hard my stomach hurts. Love him so much. I adore this image for several reasons. I love the catchlights in his eyes, love the expression he has, love how it’s so crisp you can see each hair on his beard so clearly, also this is the first picture I took of him where when I was later editing it the realization hit me like a ton of bricks, “He’s a man now”, makes my heart hurt just a bit that our wonderful childhood is over and we’re both in the throws of adult life. But he’s grown into a really cool man. Someone who is interesting, a hard worker, entertaining, fun, intelligent. I’m proud of my baby brother and look forward to seeing where his life leads next.
3. Blissful Family {February 2008}
This is by far one of the most genuinely loving families I’ve ever met. These parents love their son so deeply! There isn’t a doubt in my mind that they fully appreciate each sweet moment they have together as a family. This sweet little man was a little tired of picture time and wanted to run off and play with his football, but a little tickling from mom and dad cheered him right up. This image isn’t technically perfect, but MY GOSH I love it. Overall my favorite images are the ones where the subjects don’t seem to look like I’m there. I love when I can click the shutter button and freeze a moment of how people are when they go about their daily lives. Love natural shots!
4. Glamour {March 2008}
This is my other sister. She’s been a natural model since day one, so I wasn’t that surprised when I took her out for some photo shoots and she rocked it each and every time. What did surprise me is how once we got started it felt like we’d gone back in time. You see I was ten when she was born and I used to take my little living, breathing baby doll into my room and dress her in random things and take pictures of her with a little Kodak throw away camera. Fun times. She was only 1-2 years old at the time and my knowledge of photography was…well non-existant, but I had a blast anyway! So now that we’re older and I have a better camera and she has some rockin’ awesome hair and makeup skills it was so much fun to pick up where we’d left off 14 years prior. Love this image because it sums up a couple things I always strive for all my photos to be – crisp, clear and colorful. Love that the girl captured here is my beautiful baby sissy too!
5. One Year Wonder {October 2008}
This sweet little girl turned one and I got to take some photos of her to document her bit first birthday! This image rolls up so many things I love – babies, baskets, autumn weather and COLOR! I love the bright pink hat and sweater, love the gorgeous autumn leaves, love how amazingly she just sat there posing for me and letting me take as many photo of her as I wanted. Such a sweet little princess!
6. I Love, LOVE! {October 2008}
You know how you meet certain couples and their chemistry is undeniable? Well if not…just check out these two images and you’ll see what I mean. They love each other so much! Just check out the way he’s gazing at her…awww…this is the stuff movies are made of people!!! And I was blessed enough to get to capture them with my camera. During this session I had nearly endless images that I adored of these two alone, but I finally chose these two, cause they felt the most natural, the most un-posed, the most real. You see I love, LOVE, and these image just ooze with it!
7. Passionate {November 2008}
This is my most requested pose EVER. I have yet to do a couples shoot or family shoot without the client always requesting this pose, and with good reason, hello, it’s hot stuff! As I went through all the clients I photographed this year I came across this same pose again and again but I finally chose to highlight this particular photo for a couple of reasons. For one thing I love her hair…wait, that really has nothing to do with anything other than my own jealousy at how gorgeous she is! Hee-hee. Okay, let me start again. I love this gorgeous stone wall. Love that it’s literally in their backyard and something that is so personalized for them and their stay here in Germany. Love how really beautiful they both are and how sweetly they love each other. I guess you could say they think each other is pretty darn swell, no question about it! :)
8. Bubble Bath {December 2008}
I don’t post any images from the boudoir sessions I photograph because of their private nature, but since this particular shot doesn’t show the client in anyway I had to include it. I’ve had this concept of including some bubble bath photos into a Boudoir session for awhile now, but this was the first time it worked out and I LOVED taking these images! Boudoir photography is seriously one of my favorites! I love that I can play a small part in making a woman feel good about herself! To present her with gorgeous images of herself that she can then give to her husband. Love to make a woman who might feel like just an average wife and mom feel completely glamourous for a day! So here is an image from a shoot conducted in a bubble bath (and for my grandma who might be reading this…no worries my client had on a bathing suit underneath the bubbles, I PROMISE! Hee-hee).
So there you have it, a small glimpse into some of my favorite professional images from this past year. For all of my clients who gave me the opportunity to capture you and your families, THANK YOU. I appreciate each and every one of you. I look forward to hopefully working with all of you again.
Happy 2009!!
Posted on December 29, 2008
Last year around this time I went through and chose my Top 7 Favorite Photos from 2007. It was hard to pick JUST seven, but I had a great time browsing through all my images from the year and narrowing down. I decided to do the same thing this year, only getting the added bonus of choosing EIGHT for 2008 and not just seven. It’s really fun to go through a years worth of pictures and really think about WHY certain photos hold special meaning. Sometimes I pick them because they make me laugh, other times it’s because I nailed the exposure, composition (and a bunch of other technical stuff I won’t bore you with) and the “professional” side of me is so darn proud, other times it’s because it reminds me of a special moment in time, either way I dug through and think I found a good variety of all the above. Now I realize there are a few more than 8 actual images listed here, but sometimes one photo isn’t quite enough, so I would pair them together with a photo taken during the same time frame to better express the true meaning of why I love the moment. You might call it cheating…but hey, this is my blog I can do whatever the heck I want! Hee-hee. I tried to pick only images that hadn’t been highlighted on my blog already, but I know a few have. I didn’t want to choose photos that simply “looked nice” I wanted them to be special to me for one reason or another. So without further adieu…here are my Top 8 Favorite Personal Photographs of 2008.
1. David and Kate {January 2008}
These photos are…well I’ll be frank, horrible technically. Blur city, tons of grain BUT I adore them. The one on the left which is especially blurry but I’m still considering blowing it up into a huge canvas to hang in my kitchen. It was taken at our favorite German restaurant, David is enjoying some delicious coffee and Kate is enjoying sparkling apple juice (a regular on all the menu’s here – SUPER yummy!). I just love the naturalness of the photo, how they both seem completely unaware of my presence there with the camera. Just beautifully natural stuff. The photo on the right just outright makes me LAUGH…gosh the expression on Kate’s face is HILARIOUS! It was taken shortly after our restaurant trip and we were running around the park to work off the schnitzel we’d just devoured. Kate was having a funny moment with Daddy and I clicked just in time to capture her hilarious expression. I DO in fact have this photo blown up into a 12×12 image and it’s hanging proudly in my livingroom and every time I see it I just can’t help but chuckle.
2. Mothers Day {May 2008}
This photo is one of the few I’m actually IN…I’m really bad about forgetting to document my part in this world, I so often just capture everyone else and forget to sometimes take time away from being behind the camera. This photo is special for several reasons. It was Mothers Day and I’d just found out I was pregnant a few days prior and we were enjoying a yummy meal at an outdoor Mexican restaurant in Alabama. I felt SOOO happy! I was in the United States (I seriously LOVED being in Alabama for 6 weeks while David attended an Officer military course), I was with my wonderful little family and I had this incredible little secret growing in my stomach, something no one at the time knew (well maybe a select few, I was too excited not to tell ANYONE!), but there is something so sacred to me about being newly pregnant, having something so priceless growing away, someone who is so perfect and special, yet no one knows just yet by looking at you. Love that sweet time. Kate was chowing down on some tortillia chips and the weather was perfect, it was just a wonderful day!
3. Sleeping Beauty {May 2008}
This was also taken in Alabama. In our little hotel, which by the way was without air conditioning for over half our trip! But that didn’t keep our girl from randomly passing out! We’d spend all day long out in the play park, and then she’d come in for lunch and crash on the spot! I loved it cause it’s really the only opportunity I’ve had to watch her sleep for long periods of time, usually she’s in her room with the door closed, so I don’t get to see her in perfect sleepy peace. In the tiny little hotel room there wasn’t anywhere else for me to go! So I’d sit quietly and catch up on emails, read, snooze a little bit myself. Great memories from that hot little dingy hotel room!
4. Goofy Girls {May 2008}
These beautiful girls are my sisters. LOVE these girls! So thankful we got to visit them while we were in the U.S! The first picture clearly captures how goofy things get when we are together. I honestly have no clue what we were hamming it up about, but love how overly animated we all were at the moment. Love how close I am to my sweet sisters even though we’re countries apart. I included one of us looking normal so you can fully see how beautiful they are. Gosh I love them!!
5. Me with my girls {July 2008}
David was deployed when I found out the gender of our new baby, but just cause I had no one around to click the shutter button didn’t keep me away from at least TRYING to capture the special time!
I won’t lie…the photo on the left took FOR-EV-ER. It’s hard to fully explain to a 2 year old what you want them to do while your camera is propped up on a billion books to get “just the right height” from the photo. But gosh I’m glad I did this. Seriously one of my favorite photos ever. The one on the right was taken on a whim, I wanted to show how much my belly was sticking out from my angle.
6. Cool Chick {August 2008}
This Summer in Germany wasn’t too hot, but on this particular day Kate and I were both SOOO hot and miserable! So since we have no a/c, most of the time being outside is cooler than being inside, so we headed out on our deck to cool off with some delicious ice cream and enjoy the breeze. She rocked her shades so well the entire Summer! Love that I got this image of her!
7. Daddy and his girl {October 2008}
This photo was taken a few weeks after David returned back from deployment. Kate INSTANTLY warmed right up to him, the instant we picked him up she reached right out for him and has been his little shadow ever since. On an unseasonably warm day we went to the park and I took this picture of them walking hand in hand. Sums up their relationship so well! Wherever Daddy goes, Kate wants to be right beside him!
8. Rice Crispy Christmas House {December 2008}
I really wanted to give Kate lots of fun Christmas memories this year because she’s old enough to really participate in activities and enjoy them. I saw this recipe and thought it sounded perfect for Kate! So much easier and less flimsy than a gingerbread house (it took quite a beating from Kate, she’s got a heavy hand and it never crumbled or gave way!). She had a great time decorating it! I had a great time eating all the left over rice crispy treats.
So that concludes my Favorite Top 8 Photos in 2008. Here is to a Happy 2009 and a years worth of even more amazing images! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Posted on December 27, 2008
Christmas this year was really low-key and relaxing, which is exactly what David and I were wanting! We started our holiday celebrations Christmas Eve, having some Christmas movies on in the background, reading Christmas books, making Christmas cookies, enjoying Christmas Eve dinner. Before bed we read some Christmas books to Kate and I tortured David and Kate with taking endless photos. Thank goodness for the self timer so I can occasionally prove I really am around here sometimes and not ALWAYS just the one behind the camera.
Christmas morning we enjoyed opening gifts and just being with each other. I took endless photos of Kate opening gifts, but just too many for me to weed through today!
I did also pull out the self timer and we took this family picture. Not perfect by any means and the photographer in me CRINGES at all the issues with it, but hey, it’s our family and that makes it special.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season as well! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Posted on December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
Family image on the left captured by Susanne of Dream Street Photography. THANK YOU Susanne!
Posted on December 15, 2008
Well if you know us and our little family even just a little bit you’ll know that our Kate is quite an animated little thing. Her facial expressions speak volumes! I really love this set of photos because it combines so many of the things that makes up our Kate.
For starters: COMFORT.
Kate is a girl who fully embraces the wonder of comfort! Which is why she doesn’t hang around the house in anything but jammies. She even is known to change her jammies a couple times a day depending on how they feel at the time. She has more pajama sets than anything else in her wardrobe and that’s just the way she likes it! So as you’ll notice here she is rocking one of the many jammie sets (and thankfully the top and bottoms actually match this time).
She is also enjoying a special treat she is quite fond of: ANDIES CANDIES.
This is a girl who LOVES mint flavored ANYTHING! She would rather chow down on Altoids or tick tacks instead of M&M’s or Skittles. So this new discovery of a delicious minty center sandwiched between two chocolate bars is pure heaven for our girl.
And then finally: ANIMATION.
She has this one expression that looks insanely mean, but it’s *usually* only used in a very joking context. Now yes, if she gets VERY angry it has been known to spills out then as well, but overall she uses it almost like her “fake mean” expression. She originally created it this Summer at my parents house to call the goats over to her, she’d yell out, “Mere goat, mere goat” (come here goat) and then somehow the expression was born at that time. We kept hoping it might go away, cause frankly she looks almost demonic when she does it, but no matter all the angles we’ve tried it seems that it’s here to stay…so since it’s become such a big part of her I decided to snap some photos of it. So enjoy ladies and gents…this is Kate’s “mere goat” face:
Posted on December 10, 2008
This is my friend Ashlie and her two precious kiddos. This is a Mama that truly loves her children and I think these candid photos capture that so perfectly.
Check out the expression Aiden had after he kissed his mom! So cute!!
Love these sweet images, natural candid shots of them all laughing and having fun.
Aiden is a classic nearly 3 year old boy – on the move all the time! I was so excited to see I got not only one but TWO clear images of him, he likes to make me work for the photos and I usually have to run along side him to get clear ones. Such a handsome little man!
As usual while Aiden and Kate were running around getting into things Kamryn sat perfectly still and posed so pretty for the camera! She’s a natural model I tell ya!
This is a pose Ashlie suggested and I love how it turned out!
…and as always I save the best for last, this is my far my favorite from the entire session. Love the wintery, foggy (classic Germany) backdrop and the sweet relationship between this mommy and daughter. And as a fun side note, this is the exact same park that we used when we captured
Miss Kam’s One Year Photos. Boy how the scenery changes in two months!
Posted on December 10, 2008
In a short 4 weeks I’ll be due to have my little baby girl. When I realize that in between now and then I have all the fun Christmas hoopla to make the time go by even faster I get so excited! So all that to say I won’t be taking on any new clients for a while. I still have some photo shoots I’m editing and some that are scheduled, but I won’t be booking any new photoshoots until I’m recovered from delivery and our new family of four will be adjusted and used to our new precious member. I can still fill any print orders for my former clients, as well as provide customer service, so don’t hesitate to email me at any time and I’ll be happy to help in anyway I can. My email address is: annie_pennington@mac.com
Thank you to all my wonderful clients who have trusted me to capture their memories. I have loved working with all of you and hope to work with you again before we all move onto our new military assignments. Happy Holidays everyone!
Posted on December 4, 2008
I’m in the process of editing photos (both of my photo shoots from this weekend should have their photos all completed and delivered VERY soon, I promise!) and came across this image. I dont’ know what is up with these two, I guess you could say they like each other a bit, don’t ya think?? I was just so in love with the photo location, the expression on E’s face and that awesome gate that I had to post this one to share.
Okay…now back to editing…
Posted on December 1, 2008
I had the pleasure of meeting this awesome family last week and photographed their beautiful family. I really loved photographing this sweet family because it reminded me of mine a little bit. You see, I’m a big sister and I love my younger brother greatly, and seeing this sweet big sister with her baby brother just made me all warm and fuzzy inside. They seriously were a completely fun family. Love how animated big sister is! She posed for the camera like a PRO!
Check out her rockin’ jumping skills here, while mom and dad were sharing their sweet moment she was hamming it up for me! LOVE THIS!
Look at the difference in expressions here…they were taken within mere moments of each other but the first one is the epitome of adorable orneriness and then the other is the epitome of sweet! So cute!
Look at her beautiful eyes!
Sweet little guy leaning into his Daddy.
German photography = awesome gates!
And now enters the sexiest picture of all time! Look at the expression on her face, it’s incredible!!
Thanks S Family for the great afternoon. I loved meeting you!!
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