Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

To all of you, I wish you a joyous Christmas and Happy New Year. May your stocking be filled with everything you want and may your New Year be a safe and full of wonderful memories for years to come!

Broadening my Horizons!

I'm proud to introduce my new Zazzle store! Here you can find 24x36 poster sized prints of some of my artwork. I'm in the process of selling my home to buy a new one with a little land. I plan on getting some of these myself to make my new home uniquely mine. Hopefully you will find something you like here as well. Here is just one of my posters I have created recently.

Sisters

Me, my sister, and our families did a photo shoot last weekend. We had a good time, but in the back of our minds we knew what was missing, my baby sister Stephanie and her two adorable kiddos. I'm posting one of my favorite photos that my daughter Samantha took. I enhanced it with my touch. Hope you like it.

Oh Claire... you do inspire me!

Claire Mountain

Princess Claire

Hello September!

Oh I can't tell you how happy I am it is September! The temperature dropped about 20 degrees in one day and has been beautiful for 4 days. I went to the doc on Friday and finally got some answers. I have torn bicep tendons in both of my arms! I guess I got a little carried away working out. If I don't have them healed up in a month, I can get some shots to help speed up the recovery. I also I got some new meds for my migraines. They make things happen in slow motion a little and wear me out, but I'll take that any day compared to what I've been suffering with for years. Who knows, maybe it will make these beautiful days last longer!  I just finished a piece of art using the photograph of a beautiful orchid I took at the botanical gardens in Oklahoma City. Hope your day is a blessed one!

Sick and Tired...of being sick and tired.

Well the Oklahoma heat just got me this summer.  We had over 50 days of 100+ temperatures.  Because of health problems, I can't venture out of the cool house for more than getting in the car to go to another cool place. It's really put a damper on my usual "Out and About" photography. Everything in Oklahoma looks dead like in the middle of winter. To top it off, I messed up my shoulder several months ago and it has not healed at all, add my normal migraines and you get the picture. Being self employed has it's advantages, don't get me wrong, but with the prices of health insurance and high deductibles, (not to mention a few other snags in the road) I haven't been to the doctor. Hopefully September is the month for me!

This did open up a new venture for me with the greeting cards avenue. I have been using my creative juices in photoshop using my existing photography and art. I just purchased a new bundle of Kim Klassen textures. I'm very excited to see what I can do with all these wonder overlays! I'm looking forward to autumn like no other year. I have a few senior sessions to do and am planning on taking advantage of the brisk air.

Well, I'll stop my belly-aching for now and leave you with my newest piece of art. Hope you enjoy!

Greetings!

I was so excited to wake up this morning to find one of my greeting cards featured on the home page of Greeting Card Universe as "Design of the Day".  They have hundreds of thousands of cards on the site to chose from. It gives me a huge boost to keep up all the work I've been putting in!  Here is the card:

Can't wait for the heat to die down so I can take some more photos!

Hurricane Howie

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of the family...Hurricane Howie!

As some of you may know, I lost my buddy Scooter to diabetes on June 21st.  Scooter was such a staple in my daily life, my whole world was turned upside down.  We still have our other two rug ruts, Cheeko and Peanut, but I guess we are just a three dog family!  I spent weeks looking for a dog that could fit in and be the new addition to our pack. All of mine and John's dogs have been adopted and we didn't want to change this.  One night I stumbled onto a site and found this adorable guy, but kept looking because we originally wanted a female...but something kept bringing me back. He was the last of his litter from a breeder and no one picked him. Time went by and before the breeder knew it, he was almost six months old and she listed him on the adoption list.  John and I decided he was the one. We drove to Antlers, Oklahoma Friday night when John got home from work. The three hours it took to get there were so exciting, I thought I was going to bust! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Once I saw him I knew we had made the right choice!

It is uncanny how much he reminds me of Scooter. He is very shy and took to me very quickly. We are in the process of trying to socialize him. He seems to be afraid of men, including John.  In the last 3 weeks since we picked him up, his social skills have improved a lot.  He makes me smile every day with his playful antics and loves to be hugged and actually hugs back. Nothing could ever replace my Scooer-boo, but Howie is making it much easier to remember all the fun times I had with him.

R.I.P Scooter 1998-2011

P.S.
Yes!!! Howie is named after the original "Hurricane Howie" from Big Brother Season 6! I know he will bring me as many laughs as the original did!!!

My latest Fantasy Shoot

Hello everyone! I hope ya'll are having an awesome day! 

Last weekend I got to photograph one of my favorite subjects, my niece Carissa.  She was such a trooper. It's been over the 100 degree mark here in Oklahoma for a couple of weeks, and boy was it a hot one even at 9 a.m. I have to give Carissa props, she put on the formal dress and gloves and off we went. I love to photograph the unusual. I've always been a fan of Halloween and costumes and am moving toward this in almost every shoot.  I love the complexity of "out of the box" art, and love to bring the viewer into it. This can also give the subject something fun to look forward to and "play the part". I mean, who doesn't like to play dress up?

Thanks for stopping by!! I'd love to read your feedback!!!

Ever spend one whole day on a project?

Well today I did! I've been working on my greeting cards and wanted to put one together for a family reunion. I got a little nostalgic and decided to use a photo of my great-grandparents. I spent all day trying to tweek it and get it where I wanted it. What do you think?

What 3 day weekend?

Well, while most people were at the lake on Memorial Day weekend, I spent mine at home waiting for the phone to ring.  My 13 year old, four legged best friend, Scooter was in the hospital.  We took him in Friday to the vet and found out he has diabetes.  We picked him up at 5:00 and took him straight to the animal hospital where he stayed until Sunday night. We brought him home and now we have new responsibilities. A good diet and insulin shots twice a day. He's a trooper! It's been a week and I am happy to say he is doing much better.

While I spent the weekend at home, I got busy on making some new greeting cards to get my mind off of my sick baby.  There is a link at the top of the page that will take you directly to my store. The cards cost less than most cards you would buy at your local retail store and the quality is wonderful. I ordered some myself and I know I will never buy another greeting card from anyone other than GreetingCardUniverse.com. They have every occasion you can think of! Most retail stores only have the normal selection, but I just can't get over the categories available here. Here is a recent one I sold last week:

Inside of card reads: Congrats on your first home run!

Greeting Cards!

Woohoo! I can now offer greeting cards! It took a while to get some of them designed, but I'm finally up and running! I have a link at my www.poeticvisionsphotography.com site. I'm so excited. My husband and I have been talking about wanting to make cards for years. I'm just getting started, but hopefully it will catch on. Eventually I hope to have many occasions to choose from, but for now I believe my Sympathy cards are absolutely beautiful. If you get a chance, I hope you take a look and possibly find some that suit your needs. Here is the cover of a few:

To read the inside, go to the link: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/poeticvisionsphotography
Hope you have a great day!

I love to revamp!

I just finished revamping my splash page for Poetic Visions Photography. I've had some ideas rolling around in my noggin lately and I finally put them out for everyone to see. I absolutely LOVE my website host PhotoBiz. They have several templates to choose from, but allow you to personalize to suit your own taste. If you are a fellow photographer and looking to advertise on the web, I highly recommend them!

I've also started a new venture involving my photography. Look for Poetic Visions Photography's line of Greeting Cards very soon! I'm very excited! I was hoping they would be available before Mother's Day, but they haven't been processed yet.  There will be a variety of different occasions available, from sympathy to blank inside. I'll keep you updated to when they become available.

I'm looking forward to a couple of spring shoots coming up. Now that we've received some rain, the grass and trees are just beckoning to have their photos taken!

Check out my new Splash Page here:www.poeticvisionsphotography.com

I'll leave you with one of the beautiful roses from my rose garden. Hope everyone has a FABULOUS day!

Oklahoma Springtime

I await spring the way most folks look forward to Christmas. The sunshine, warmth, the smells, and the beautiful flowers are just a few things that generate joy for me. But my big love...the storms! Yes, tornadoes can be scary, but after being raised here and living the majority of my adult life here, the storms are what makes it exciting! Maybe even more so now that I am a photographer. I took these photos on Good Friday and can't wait for another major system to blow in so I can photograph it. Hope you enjoy!

 These guys chased me to my car! I finally got brave enough to turn around and snap some photos. Maybe they were hungry. This is at Lake Stanley Draper. Normally that would be water behind them, but they drained some water to do some improvements to the lake. I'm sure the drought has taken it's toll as well.

 This photo is a hybrid between two photos. There are two layers of clouds. The original clouds that were in the horse photo and a photo of clouds taken over my house later that evening. I like the way the two melded.

This photo also has two different shots. The clouds were taken from my front yard and the horses are taken on Indian Hills Road in Norman.

16 years? Feels like it was yesterday.

Sixteen years ago today the Alfred P. Murrah building in downtown Oklahoma City was bombed. It's hard to believe it's been that long.

I was at work that morning doing payroll. I went to the copy machine and all of the sudden it felt like a truck hit the building.  A few minutes later and I was outside looking at the smoke rising from downtown.  Our building was located at 5th and Meridian.  The day was sunny and clear so it was quite easy to see the terrible devastation happening.

I worked for a personnel company in the accounting office at the time.  We had crews on site downtown setting up the Arts Festival, just blocks from the bombing. A man I worked with there had a wife that was in the building. Thank goodness she was alright, physically. My husband John, I had only met him a month prior, was at the Arts Festival set up.  His sister Barbie worked at the courthouse. It seemed forever before anyone could get a hold of John. We had Nextel radios and everyone was frantically calling him.  He was shaken up, but ok, thank goodness.

A few days later our company worked the parking at the fairgrounds for the memorial service and we passed out little blue pins for those entering.  I had made several pins with white, yellow, purple and blue ribbon a day before to pass out as well. The amount of support that showed up for the memorial was overwhelming.

I hadn't seen the bombing site until a few weeks later. I went there on Mother's Day. I was shocked to see how bad it actually looked in person and will never forget what I saw.  Years later I photographed the site after it became a memorial.  I'm posting these photos in dedication to all those affected 16 years ago today.

I will never forget.

Who doesn't love a newborn?

Saturday finally arrived! I was so looking forward to photographing my friend Jill's new granddaughter, Eleanor Sparrow. Jill and I met at church and quickly became close friends. We've shared many moments of joy and sorrow together. I jumped at the opportunity to do one of the things I love the most, do a photo shoot of a newborn. I can add this to my list of joyful moments spent with my great friend! I've posted a few of my favorite photos. Hope you all enjoy!

Trying this again!

Not sure how, but I somehow managed to delete my previous blog! Oh the horror! Well, we'll see if the second time is the charm!

I'm looking forward to doing a fun newborn session tomorrow.  The precious one's name is Eleanor Sparrow. Her name alone sparked so many options for baby photos. With 3 trips to the craft store, I think I finally got all the props I wanted. Maybe too many!

I should have a few photos up by Sunday so stay tuned!