15th Birthday Photo Shoot

In just over 2 weeks, my oldest daughter Raegan will be 15 years old. Tonight, it was gorgeous out- sunny, warm, a light breeze... so nice. But, Raegan had to baby sit. By the time she got home, I was busy as well. I had literally only 25 minutes of free time at once point tonight, and I grabbed Rae and my new camera. I tugged her out the door, had her brush her hair in the car, and drove around the corner to a small outdoor "market" place.

The market place has nice richly colored brick columns, which make for nice back ground color.

Here are some of my favorite images from the shoot, which was done in about 15 minutes. The first image below is unedited- it was shrunk and watermarked, but no edits were done to it.

I took this photo intending it to look as it does above- sideways with Raegan laying down on the ground. When I started playing with it, though, I found it looked better right side up, so that's what I did- flipped it.

I do really like it this way- in color. But, I decided to keep trying some edits.

This is what I settled on- I love it in black & white- it's crisp and clean, and she's more striking in it.

Here are some more of my favorites- some have several edits with them.

New Camera, New Photos

A few weeks ago, my husband and I decided that it was time for me to invest in a brand new DSLR camera. I had one, but it was 2nd hand, and I was never real comfortable with it. The camera arrived last week, and today, I got out of the house in this gorgeous Spring weather with Raegan to test it out.

I picked out the Sony A33, which I got with a 50mm portrait lens, and a 75-300mm zoom lens. I also was spoiled this week- I got new filters, a tripod, a spare battery, and a remote in the mail, courtesy of my loving hubby.

I -love- this camera. My main complaints: the battery SUCKS. It drains super fast, so I'm glad I have a spare, because if I have a big shoot, I'll need it. Next, a 2gig memory card is eaten up in no time at all. Now granted, I am currently set to take photos in both JPG and RAW, but still, I only get a little less than 100 photos before it's gone.

All that said, I am in love.  Here are some photos I took today of Raegan, who will be 15 next month.

My baby is in high school

14 years ago, I was worrying about what to dress my darling little baby up as for Halloween. She wound up going as a pumpkin. It was a homemade costume made for a 4 year old, so it was HUGE and round- only her little head poked out- but she won 1st place in a costume contest with it.

Now I'm worrying about how to do her hair for homecoming. Homecoming. She's 14, and a freshman this year. I stopped and thought about it a few weeks ago, and was shocked- from here on out, I'll have a high schooler every year for 10 years. 10 YEARS!

Someone tell me how she leap frogged from this:

to this:

I'm wondering where the time went? Sure- everyone tells you it goes fast. But while it's happening, it doesn't -seem- fast. It seems slow. Very slow when you add in my two younger kids. Now? She's a freshman, and looking back, I can't help but wonder...  didn't she just graduate from Pre-school?