Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight

Thank you all for your friendship, encouragement and business.

You are very important to me and I love you all.

I pray that you all have a safe and wonderful Christmas.

Love,

Shawn, Carol, Blair, Raven & Emily

Sun Rise Moon Shine

Did you see this mornings sunrise moon? It was beautiful!

Christmas Deadline

My clients who want to place orders for Christmas need to know that today is that deadline. Most of you have placed your orders but if you haven't do so today!
Thank you all for your business.

Santa at the Gazebo

Santa made a recent stop in Snyder this past weekend.

This is his local family, the Arrendondos. They are super people and made sure that Santa had plenty of food and a warm bed for his stop over. Thank you Arrendondos for your contribution to Christmas 2008.

Santa had some helpers at the Gazebo, this is Elf Blair

Elf Emily

Elf Raven

And Elf Rowdy

Tarpin' Crew

Weekends at our house are anything but relaxing. During stripping season we are busy right behind the module builder tarping the modules so that the wind doesn't blow the cotton off.

Occasionally we catch up to what the builder has accomplished and the kids get bored. They decorated the pickup so that there were no misunderstandings about what we were doing:
This says "Tarpin' Crew" .... "Don't call us" ...
On Shawn's pickup they wrote: "will strip for $" !

We started this weekend on the gin yard:



Raven decided that she didn't have a complex enough job and it made her mad.
I assured her that her job was as complex as any 9 year could handle and just because that meant occassionally being a paper weight, she still got the same pay as the kids who were doing other jobs.



Once she was on the ladder and pulling she was in a much better humor

Blair's boyfriend, Rowdy was nice enough to come with us.

The perspective in this image is odd. Blair and Rowdy look huge and Emily down on the ground looks tiny. Sorry about that, that is a disadvantage of the lens I was using.

Shawn took Rowdy for a ride in the stripper.

And then the wind got up. Tarping is never tarping unless you have a howling wind. Sunday was no exception. Really, this makes this task incredibly dangerous, but the kids are learning that when you feel the wind pulling too hard on the tarp and you are heading to the edge, LET GO! We can gather that thing up later, but a 10 foot drop is more than you want to attempt with your tiny body.

Crew Chief Carol

Did anyone else notice the beautiful sky Sunday afternoon. My camera captured it beautifully.

The 10 foot drop doesn't bother Rowdy. He voluntarily made the fall.

Thank you Rowdy for your help and thank you Rene (Rowdy's mom) for not invoking Child Labor Laws here on the farm!

The Stansell Girls

Mark and Esther Stansell have two beautiful girls. I had the honor of doing their portrait as a family earlier this year when little Evie was only weeks old. I was glad to work with them again.


This is Laney

And this is Evie

Thank you Stansells for coming see me and giving me another opportunity with your girls.

Running.....

Meet the Aaron Stansell Family:

This is Tenley

Miles

Raelee

Little Raelee came to see me yesterday. She is a cutie!
I just love her little Ugs.

Raelee dressed up for me while we played together too.

Easily, this is my favorite of her. She looks like a Victorian Doll.

The Mark Strickland Family

Mark and Angie set Shawn and me up on a blind date 23 years ago. We have remained pretty close through the years. We try to spend holidays and birthdays together when at all possible. It keeps relations in fair shape since Angie and I are sisters.
We always have fun telling people that we are sisters since most can't figure out why one of us seems familiar to them.
Mark is the Ira Apache guy. I am pretty sure that isn't what his official title is, but since I don't know it I will leave it at that.
And most will remember Angie from Fast Oil Change.

Mark and Angie have a dog named Charlie who....

has a boy named Jake.

Jake is a Junior at Snyder and a fair student from what I understand.

Jake has three cousins. This is a really cute picture of all of the gang.

Hank the Cowdog, Ritz Theatre

I have been pleased to be the photographer for the Ritz Theatre for the last several years. The latest production, Hank the Cowdog, Every Dog has his day was very entertaining. If you haven't been able to make their productions, they are worth your Saturday/Sunday evenings or afternoons.

brady

Brady.... Senior 2009

I like working with Brady (who is a senior at Ira) because she knows what she wants out of her sessions. When we work together it truly doesn't take very long to accomplish what the shoot was about in the first place. She is always game for whatever I throw at her and then she knocks it up a notch or two. It is always fun.

Justin & Audra's Family

I am not sure how many photographers would admit that some of their best images are produced from moments that are totally unscripted and unposed.
Normally a blink picture is deleted, but I am finding more and more that those blinks hold huge messages and moments that can't or shouldn't be ignored. They can be moving within themselves. The Summers Boy (blog titled My Friend Debbie) and his dad revealed a moments prayer just as little Parker (above) seems to be ending his prayer with such reverance in how he is holding his Daddy's hat so close.

Then obviously the prayer is concluded and he moves on to other things! He just has such an expectant look on his face that he have asked a question somewhere in that sweet heart of his.

Daddy's and daughters are so photogenic. When Daddy is in the picture things just happen that change the countenance of these little girls dramatically.

Boots and jeans, hats and buckles....



Another one of life's moments.

This is truly a preview of coming attractions...