Highlands Hammock State Park

We live very close to Highlands Hammock State Park and today we decided to visit this beautiful park for some family fun! If you are ever in the Central Florida area this is a park you would not want to miss!!! It is beautiful and very serene. We are so blessed to have it right in our back yard. Here are a few pics I was able to capture today. Do you see what I see??? Yep! That is one huge gator!!!!! Hope you enjoy!

52 week challenge - Weeks 1-8

One of my goals for 2015 is to get better with my photography so, in order to attain that goal, I decided to participate in a 52-week photography challenge. One picture a week for 52 weeks... Sounds simple enough! Well, leave it up to me to be behind on this already! I have allowed stuff the get in the way of what brings me some peace... I have a very intensive personality so I did not want this challenge to consume me but, I do have to work at it don't I??? I have!!!! I did 3 weeks worth today! I know, what a procrastinator right?!!! I will get better at this, I promise! Hey, I'm a work in progress :)

Week 1 - Self Portrait

Week 2 - Colorful 

This one was easy cause I like to wear color and since I was already wearing this dress:

And I'm feeling a little accomplished cause I've already done this week's challenge!!! YAY!

Week 3 - Close-Up

Week 4 proved to be a bit of a challenge... I was to take a Bokeh pic, which means 'out-of-focus points of light.' I took over 20 images before capturing the one I thought would work. Here's my Bokeh challenge:

Week 5 was easy for me cause all it required was Natural Light! All it meant was that I needed to go outside and use natural light on my picture... Let's see, I live in Florida and today was a beautiful 66 degrees for a high... Yep! Let's go outside PLEASE!!! The hubs and I went to one of our favorite spots in town, the Highlands Hammock State Park.

Week 6 was hands. I chose my niece, Kasey as my model because I was already using her as my model for one of my assignments for the photography class.

For week 7 the challenge was the color red. I chose one of my Adirondack chairs on our deck in the backyard. This place has brought me so much peace!!!!

Week 8 is a landscape photography and I chose this tree that I can see from my backyard. It's beautiful!

First actual gig!

So, although my husband and I have been taking pictures for a couple of months now, we hadn't considered doing so for people other than our families. That was until I shared with a dear co-worker of mine what new hobby I was enjoying lately... You see, she will be a grandma at the end of this month (first time grandma!!!) and she asked if I could do a Maternity Session with her son and his girlfriend. I was a bit reluctant to say yes but she is a pretty special friend and there was absolutely no way I was going to disappoint her! So, I volun-told my husband and set out on a Pinterest quest to find ideas for maternity pics and got some really good ones! Today was the day and, although I have to admit I was nervous, I had a blast!!!! The couple we photograph was just so adorable and sweet. My husband and I truly enjoyed our time with them! Here's a sneak peek at our work today. More to follow!!!! Hope you enjoy!

New year, new goals!

A new year has most people setting goals and I admit, I am one of those people! I would like to make 2015 my best year yet :) I have been blessed with very good years so I have no complaints. I do however look for ways to improve. I'm a work in progress kinda person right now... I'm not perfect but I'm not a hot mess either. One of the major things I would like to work on this new year is my photography. I bought myself a DSLR camera (Pentax K50) for my birthday this past October and have had lots of fun with it so far but I want to take my photography to the next level... I would like to share, through my lens, the peace that photography has brought me. My husband and I plan on taking a photography class at our local college that starts in a few weeks so that's my first step in improving my photography. I went online to look for 52-week photo challenges so we can learn more about how to use our cameras and how to work on editing as well and below you will find the one we chose. I hope you enjoy our our journey!