Enjoying Spring . . .

With friends . . .

Goofin' off with Mark and Kristin at Eden Park. The trees and flowers are looking "very springy" right now - so pretty!

and Family!

Aaron and Drew got in some good games of basketball - inside and out!

Kaley proceeds to whiz through their game on her scooter. :-)

I love being a photographer!

What a great day! This morning I photographed Janae Boardman (from Indiana) for her Senior Pictures. She was fun to work with and chose some great outfits (which makes my job so much easier). These two poses are among my favorites!

Back in the good 'ole USA!

Wow! To sum it up in one word - INCREDIBLE! We had an amazing trip to South Africa. I'm trying to catch up on everything from laundry to work to sleep to school work to photography work and am feeling slightly overwhelmed, so this post will be just a few pictures to let you all know I am alive and well.

After 22 hours of travel, including one 15-hour flight, these are VERY happy smiles from 5 tired girls who are glad to be in South Africa!
Our team of 7 included Lauren Mathis, Ashley Beatty, Kim Brown, BethAnn Waltermire, Stephen Gibson, and Mylon Albright - a great group!

Nearly all the kids at the mission speak both the native language (Zulu) and English. This girl taught us some words in Zulu. They were a lot of fun to be with - I think they enjoyed us too!

This is the auditorium on the mission grounds. Yes, it's extremely large - it seats 10,000 people!

We had a safari fun day that was absolutely unbelievable. We saw zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, baboons, rhino, buffalo, warthogs, and a few other animals I didn't even recognize. It was a very exciting day! Yes, I took many pictures of all these animals including these zebras. That day was the first time I realized the mane of the zebra was also black and white striped - amazing!

We visited an AIDS hospital. It was very sad to see all these patients with AIDS, but it was also very incredible to hear their conversion stories and the many miracles that are taking place there. This mission AIDS hospital currently has 48 beds and they are preparing to expand to 3,000 beds. Despite this large increase, they will never be able to keep up with the demand. For every 3 people you see in South Africa, one of them has AIDS - that is an extremely high percentage.

We all loved South Africa and thoroughly enjoyed our trip. However, these words are such a welcome sight!

Since my body is still on South African time (it's 3:30 in the morning there!), I'm off to bed!

A Short Leave of Absence

Tomorrow I will be leaving the country! Yes, it's true. I am leading a group of GBS students on a mission trip to Durban, South Africa. So, I will be leaving blogland for 10 days, but I promise lots of pictures (of course) upon my return. There will be 7 of us total. Pray for our team, and pray for Aaron as he is not going (bummer!).

Since tonight was my "last supper" in the states, Aaron picked up food from my favorite place - Taco Bell! Their food is great, but I also love the funny sayings on the sauce packets - they're hysterical. I'll admit - I read all of them before I eat my food! Here's two of my favorites from tonight. Enjoy!

#8

Today is my nephew's 8th birthday!

Happy Birthday to Caleb Braden Englund!

Incredible Weekend!

Wow! What a weekend. Since Thursday I have been enjoying the Professional Photographers of Ohio Convention in Dayton, Ohio! My brain is so full of new information and some incredible new ideas that I can hardly decide what to try first.

This convention is held in the same place as IHC*. Just imagine that huge floor filled with rows upon rows of vendors in every category imaginable: cameras, frames, back drops, props, lenses, lighting, software, printers, tripods, printing labs, album companies, etc. - and all of this multiplied times 4-5 different companies for each category. It's amazing! Aaron and I didn't even make it through all the booths. In addition to all of this, there are several sessions you can attend throughout the day to hear experts give tips for success in a specific topic like senior portrait photography, running your studio, wedding album design, creating competition prints, children photography, etc. All of these sessions were really good and this is where I learn the most.

Yes - there are scads and scads of people there. Very crowded at times, but really neat to meet other photographers and talk shop! :-)

The session on lighting was very helpful! The word "photography" literally means "writing with light" - lighting is the most challenging part of taking a photograph.

The print competition is really interesting. We watched part of the judging, which was very educational to hear comments from the judges on why a particular print was scored low/high. I plan to enter prints next year.

*Just a note for those going to IHC in about a month. They are doing some serious construction in Dayton - not only was the "normal" exit we take to get to the Convention Center closed, but they are also doing construction at the Convention Center itself! As of now, you can't use the front entrance because of some huge contraption they are putting in that little half-circle where people normally load/unload. I'm not sure if it's some form of art or if it was part of the construction equipment. :-) Everyone had to use the 3rd floor sky walk to come and go. Hopefully, they will be done before IHC - but it didn't look too promising.

March - In like a lion, out like a lamb!

I sure am ready for Spring weather, but it appears March has "come in like a lion" as the saying goes. It's raining cats and dogs and we are supposed to have "severe thunderstorms with gusty winds and hail" (according to the radio). The only good thing about this, is that March should go out like a lamb. That is what I'm ready for.

These pictures were taken last March when I was at home in Missouri!

Khara and Kelsey always want to hold the new lambs. :-)

Ooops! Kelsey's lamb got away!