Day 11 #photoadayjuly

Letter C

Day 10 #photoadayjuly

Fav color

Day 9 #photoadayjuly

#photoadayjuly

Some of you might have noticed that I am doing my first #photoadayjuly challenge.  I love that it is forcing me to pick up my Nikon instead of my phone.  The soothing feel of my eye up against the eye rest calms my soul.  Yes I prefer to see my image through the eye view and not on a screen....weird, I know.  I also still have my first Nikon that I purchased it when I took Photography 101 in college.  I have no idea why I hold onto it when film is almost completely obsolete but at the time of its purchase the art of Digital photography was only beginning.  In fact, back then I learned to develop my own prints.  I am saddend by the thought that there will be an entire generation that may never learn that skill.  It is hard to describe the sense of satisfaction as your white piece of paper sits in the final tray and your image appears.  That's right, there was no instant gratification back then, no immediate view of your shot to determine if you captured your intent and until that paper changed you were eagerly anticipating your prize.  Sometimes I was rewarded beyond what I could have hoped and others I was dissapointed and had to set the shoot up again.  Either way it was a labor of love and it made me happy.  I origianlly began only being interested in shooting city landscapes and architechture but after my son was born my focus quickly turned to him.  Through the years I have found a nice balance of both people and places.  Here are my shots so far and each one will have its own blog post after this.   

Day 1 was self portrait which was im the post Mergers and Growth
Day 2 Busy
Day 3 Best Part of the Day
Day 4 Fun
Day 5 On the floor
Day 6 Chair (see if you can find it)
Day 7 Garden

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge/Enjoying Life

Oh how I toiled and toiled over the reoccurring question of, what picture would Kelle Hampton like??? After two days of nothing creative making an appearance I realized that Kelle Hampton would like truth.


So in that spirit, my small things are:


A cup of coffee on my patio early in the morning before anyone is awake.
A book, of any kind as I simply love the way they look and feel.
My camera, full of pictures ready to be looked at and edited.
Music playing softly in the background, always.
Unexpected caresses from my husband.
Holding my seven year olds hand.
Nursing my baby.
My two boys playing together.
My whole family under one roof.
These are the little things that make up the fabric of me. 

Mergers and Growth...

Ok, ok, I suck at keeping up with my updates here and for that I am sorry!  I have been splitting my attention between two blogs and my more artistic one has been winning out. Why you ask?  Truth time:  it's easier to write when no one knows it's me. 

It's not that I am embarrassed or afraid but rather, conditioned.  The sideways thinking that image means everything started when I was young and has shackled my life in many ways.   It is my captor because you see, without anonimity my words lose their spark.  So in an effort to grow I decided to bring over some of my blog posts for everyone to read.  If you like them, great!  And if not, no big deal.  I write because I love it and without it part of me is lost. 

Carter's Corner - "Justin Beaver"

A six year old snapshot of what Carter is like right now:

He is a typical boy in the fact that he never hardly sits still. He loves to be entertained and playing or doing something. Some of his favorite things are: Super Mario to include DS or Wii, space exploration of all kinds with a focus on "the black hole", dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes, writing books and journals, science experiments, crafts that involve anything messy, rocks that might be fossils, playing with friends outside on his knees, Hershey roundup before bed every night and staying home.

His most talked about subject at school is Hershey. He loves that dog and says he wants to one day have 100 dogs. Chris and I promptly explained how expensive and time consuming that would be but he still stands by his dream. The two of them play Hershey Roundup each night before bed. Carter throws her toy down the stairs and then runs and hides. Hershey will hunt and hunt until she finds him! Even if other people are around she will still ignore us and look for Carter. It is very cute.

At home it is always about space. In fact, we are going to be re-decorating his room the first part of March with a space theme. This does not surprise me as he has his dad's scientific mind and love of the sky!

I'll leave you with this...around Valentine's Day he came home from school and said, "Mom, all the girls are in love with Justin Beaver." I sort of chuckled at the mispronounced name and was about to reply when he continued on, "I don't understand it because I think he sounds like a girl."

I gave him a big hug and a squeeze for that one. Our little American Idol judge is tougher than Simon Cowel.

T