Soon-to-be-big-sister Rachael

Here are a few shots from my latest session. Rachael is my goddaughter and is so beautiful... not that you would know by these pictures. She is also a little on the stubborn side and decided that she did not need to look at me while I was holding the camera to my face and saying things like "Hey Rachael, look over here, Smile for me Rachael..." You get the idea. So far these are my favorites, but it is so hard to pick a favorite of this sweet girl who will be a big sister by next Friday.

Lil Miss Firecracker

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful July 4th weekend. Here at Casa Laster things were quite. I was alone this weekend with the Rabbit and Daisy's new puppies (pictures to come soon) due to Mike being out of town on dog business and though I missed my dear husband it was AWESOME to get to do what I wanted to for the entire weekend. Yes folks, I got to watch the Food Network, bake bread, take photos of the new pups and edit my backlog of photos to my hearts content all weekend long. Did I already mention that? I crashed at a friend's house for a few hours on the 4th and got to spend time eating, watching a stupid movie (is there really any other kind?) and taking pictures of this little cutie. She is so full of herself and her daddy isn't going to know what hit him when she turns 13.

My Sister's Dining Room Gallery

my sister lives about 45 minutes away from me, which means i don't get to see her or her family as much i as would like. she is in the process of redecorating her whole house but her dining room is what she is working on right now. might i just add she is fantastic at this kind of stuff. she comes up with ideas to colors that i had no idea would go together. anyway...she is wanting to hang large (8x10 pictures framed in 16x20 frames) pictures on the wall of her dining room. the walls are painted a really cool dark dreamcicley orange (see i told you see comes up with some cool ideas)... and she wants to use nature photos that either she or i have taken. she called the other day and wanted to see some more photos for her to pick from but since we live 45 mins apart and we are both extreeeeeeemly busy right now we couldn't get together this weekend to look at what i have on my computer, so here are some of my submissions for my sister's dining room gallery.

Where exactly did April go?

As I look back over this blog I noticed I haven't posted in over 2 weeks. The only thing I can think of is some kind of space-time-warp thing happened and I lost all of the month of April, well almost 3 weeks of it... Actually, I have been extremely busy but that is no excuse for not keeping my promise to myself to post at least 1-2 times a week. So, to wipe the slate clean and start all over again let me show you what I was doing 2 weekends ago in Baltimore, MD.
The weekend of the 19th I attended a photographic lighting workshop in Baltimore, MD. These 3 beautiful ladies were some of the models who came out to help us. Kerena, Lindsey, and Melissa were wonderful to work with and very professional through out our learning process. It was great to be able to do nothing for 9 hours but think and talk photography with others who love it as much as I do.
So in between working a job that pays the bills, working with teenagers 11+ hours a week, and working to keep my house from junking up around me I love to work with my camera to produce beautiful pictures. Can you tell how I handle everything else?

I hope you have a great weekend.

More of my favorites

here are some more of my favorite photos from the last year or so. hope you enjoy.

Ok, so my husband is into dogs...

This is how I start out my sentence when I am trying to explain to someone why my husband had to make a one day trip to Indiana. Or a four day trip to Wisconsin. Or 1/2 day trip to Ohio. He enjoys hunting and he loves to hunt with dogs and he will go to great lengths to ensure the dogs he owns are the best around. Above you can see him with some of his favorites. First up is with his favorite girl Shadow. Then he is kneeling with an offspring of Shadow's, our boy Haze. Next are two pups from our last litter and my beagle Rabbit running through the neighbor's cow field. Last but not least is Mike doing what he does best, watching over his dogs.
...I've got several dogs barking outside (our neighbors LOVE us) and two puppies playing on the couch behind me. Life is Good and though I sound crazy to most people when I tell all about our "family", I wouldn't trade any of this. So even though I start out by trying to explain what my husband is doing I have to admit... I'm into dogs too.

A quick look...

He has got to be one of the cutest kids in the world.... We had such a great time at the park on Friday. The weather finally cooperated and we took full advantage of it. Happy 1st Birthday Liam.