happy days continue

Fresh on the heels of celebrating my nephew's birthday, I had the honor of taking photos for the birthday of another adorable young one!

Happy 1st Birthday Lyra! 
This has been just the first of many wonderful years to come for you!

In addition the the birthday pictures/family photo shoot (the above photos), we also did a smash-the-cake session on Lyra's actual birthday.  Unfortunately, I wasn't as pleased with how this batch came out - I think it was the lighting, I need to work more on indoor lighting... but she's adorable regardless!

happy day!

Had another wonderful visit with the 2 most adorable boys in the whole world! This past weekend the whole family was all together for my nephew's second birthday party.  Can never have a bad time with these two around :-D

you smell like a banana

Last week my Grandma passed away  :-(

Obviously sadness is the primary emotion, but after that is weirdness. It's weird to think that she won't be around anymore. While I was growing up she never lived more than 15 minutes away. She came to every birthday party, graduation, holiday, etc.  She introduced my sister and I to Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn movies and let us raid her closet to put on plays.

Here are a few photos I took of my Grandma with her great grandsons at Thanksgiving:

nature break

Here are a few shots from my Thanksgiving trip to SC and another visit to Morikami...

f/STOP Cancer contest

Exciting news!! A photo that I took of my nephew, Matthew, is one of the winners of the f/STOP Cancer contest and is going to be featured in a calendar!  100% of the proceeds benefit the Gift of Life Foundation (www.giftoflife.org)!

Gift of Life helps to find matches for patients in need of a bone marrow transplant. They're a great organization and I've volunteered with them several times.  So many of us have been affected or know someone who has been affected by cancer.  Gift of Life has succeeded in finding matches for nearly 2400 people and last year's calendar raised over $25,000 to get them closer to their goal of a match for anyone, anytime.

The calendars can be purchased online at http://www.co-store.com/theSILVERproject.  They are $25 each, which I know is a little expensive for a calendar, but did I mention that all of the proceeds benefit the Gift of Life Foundation?!  Besides, it's that time of year - you're going to need a new calendar soon anyway :-)  Even if you aren't able to purchase one yourself, please forward this information around to family and friends who might be interested. It's a great cause and you can brag that you know one of the photographers :-)

Thank you!!!

las olas art festival

Last weekend I headed down to the Las Olas Art Festival with a couple of friends...  I'm not posting any photos of the actual artwork b/c 1) I wasn't supposed to take any in the first place (oops!) and 2) they didn't come out very well anyway.  But here's a couple of Las Olas/Downtown Ft. Lauderdale...

Also had another photo session with pup - he's such a great model!

yes, this is the same photo as the one above, just trying a cool effect...



ArtPrize

Our flights to Michigan flew in and out of Grand Rapids.  On our way out, we had an opportunity to walk around Downtown Grand Rapids and look at the artwork on display for an open art contest called ArtPrize.  As I understand it, the contest is open to anyone and any medium of art, you simply need to find a venue in Downtown that is willing to host your piece. 

It was awesome! Some of the artwork was incredible and I love to the whole idea of community involvement. Every year some of the pieces are kept and become a regular part of the downtown landscape.  If you ever find yourself in Grand Rapids at ArtPrize time, I highly recommend you check it out!

there really is a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow



that's the whole barrell!



http://www.metalmonkeymania.com/



ok, so this isn't actually artwork, but I though it was a cool building

as John Lennon says, it's all you need...

mackinac: around the island

Some miscellaneous shots around the island...



that's right, the restaurant has a bowling alley!





'Idlewood'



mackinac: confections

Mackinac Island is famous for its fudge, there's at least 5 different fudge shops within a half-mile area downtown.  Here are a few shots of some confectionary delights :-)


5ft slab of fudge





toffee



mackinac: flowers

To say that the flowers all around Mackinac Island are gorgeous is an understatement. Maybe it's b/c I'm not from the Midwest and this was my first trip to Michigan, but I've never even seen some of these types of flowers.  Perhaps the endless supply of, um, horse excrement adds to their vitality?  [If you weren't aware, there are no privately owned vehicles allowed on the island, you either walk, bike, or take a horse-drawn carriage. This certainly adds to the 'quaint factor' but let's just say the result is quite a lot of horse dung - to try and put it politely :-) ]

Regardless of the cause, the flowers are beautiful!