Tonight I went to watch my son’s game, they are in districts and have won the first three games. Tonight we played in a town about a half hours drive. It’s a bit of a fun journey on route 79 and the towns are very Mayberry RFD like, with no internet service…How do they live?

We were in a town called Elsberry and the lights were on, the team was doing great, when I noticed off in center field, a very distinct, brown cloud. I thought for sure it was a dust cloud.

The ump motioned to me and said “make sure you get that” I thought.. Uhhh sure, and ignored his request…but after a few moments the dust cloud did not go away but got bigger and bigger and it moved, in amazing shapes and patterns.

I started to click and then asked…WHAT is that? the Ump responded “mosquitos” Are you kidding me? and he said, if we don’t finish this game soon, they will move from light to light and be upon us before we know it.

He was not kidding, I ran out to get some closer shots and thanked God I had my 70-200 on, but was wishing for the 400! Tomorrow I’ll post up some shots of the game, these shots are unedited, I wanted to get them up because I teased everyone that I had some amazing shots…

Now you all see why I had to take a shower first…

Oh and the last picture, my son said and I agree “That’s niche marketing at it’s best”

It’s been more then a month I sat in a tiny office and listened to the excitement of 5 people (6 if you count me) whose mission was to make the best 4th of July float possible.

Now you have to understand the ringleader in this ordeal is Steve and he just loves, LOVES, did I say he LOVES this 4th of July task. He got the phone call in February for the theme and he was honest, it just did not excite him, but then came the idea…then he spoke with Larry who started to talk the jargon of a mad scientist, this I think secretly scared Steve, hahaha.

That is where we came in. My husband also speaks mad scientist.

Sitting in this room, listening to a sound track and then came the sounds of the unfamiliar yet familiar jargon of two men on a mission. Jim and Larry were prepared to deal with hydraulics, CO2 tanks, lifts, fog machines and more…I mean seriously I can’t even recall names of tools and parts that were mentioned. My husband is very smart, extremely brilliant when it comes to anything… honestly.. anything! I’ve seen him build a home from scratch with out a plan and I’ve seen him restructure a home to fit a desire or need. But, I’d not seen him make an Apollo Module lift off the moon!

Jim and Larry are both extremely brilliant and those two minds went to work and even when it led to a 2am finale on July 3rd, they accomplished their goals. The Lunar had lift off!

We all had a part in it, Steve and Starr are extremely organized and list writers! I love organization it really makes me smile and Barb is an amazing woman how will get the job done. Along with everyone else that participated and helped it would never have gotten done!

And then me… I take pretty pictures But I did help also and I got the pleasure of handing out candy the day of the parade AND take pictures. Then the 4th of July came…

As I rolled over in bed to shut off my alarm I heard it, I knew what it was, but I did not want to believe it. RAIN… I got out of bed and prepared to be at my destination at 5:30am. It’s going to be a pony tail day!

I started out in shorts, changed to jeans and by the time the parade started…I was soaked from head to toe. I gave up my umbrella, and just said…”it is what it is” and I just hope no one has pictures of what it was!

I had a blast…and as typical, whenever I go out I meet amazing people and I have to tell you about him. His name is Chris and I told him I was going to give him a shout out on my blog, because, Chris is amazing!

I noticed Chris on one of the days I was on location shooting, he was on top of the moon, really, he was. It was hot that day, but he did not seem to mind, he was helping his dad, Mike (another awesome smart man). As I look back, I never heard him complain one time, I was baking in the heat and he just wanted to help.

The next time I saw Chris was at the parade waiting to walk the 2 mile long hike to the end of the route. There we were…standing in the rain, and finally Chris spoke out, he spoke what ever person was thinking I don’t remember his exact words but it was like “Can we go home”, C’mon you all know you were thinking the same thing.

We were half way through the parade and I noticed Chris in the back of the route, if you know Chris you know he has a difficulty with walking, and a lot of people were asking him to “hop on for a piggy back ride”, “let me give you a lift”, “can I help you” and with each request I heard his response said in a tenacious voice “I just want to walk” and he did. I knew I had to talk to him and I told him “Hey, I don’t even know you, but I’m so proud of you” Chris had a goal, he was going to finish the race. He told me “I can see the finish line, I’m half way done” I told him, “You’re more then half way, your almost done it’s right there.

I thought of the people who signed the list to help that day who never even showed up and here was Chris drenched from head to toe, soaking wet determined to finish his race. He had a goal in mind and he set his eyes on the prize. Nothing, no one stood in his way.

So Chris, here’s your shout out I promised… You were total inspiration to me and you make me smile even now. I wish you many many more goals being met and won. Make sure you tell me about them all!

So here are a few of those images from the making of the float. Thanks to everyone who helped and participated and just had fun. It really was a blast, even in the rain!

Larry hard at work

This is barb, she was our astronaut!

Jim and Mike working on the Module

Harold!!!!

Yes, Ami is everywhere

Steve (we were hard at work and he was popping popcorn) (no not really!)

The finished model!

and this, this is Chris! An inspiration to me!

I’m blessed enough to have moved to a new state and find an amazing church that does some amazing outreaches, I use the word amazing a lot and so do they.

One of the outreaches they do is at a school in St. Louis called Patrick Henry.

An amazing fact is that the city of STL was going to close a slew of schools and Patrick Henry was on the chopping block. Because of the time and energy spent by Church On The Rock and it’s amazing (that word again) volunteers Patrick Henry was given a stay and was not one of the schools to close.

What an honor it is to be even such a small part of this great ministry and it’s ________ (insert amazing) works!

This day was also no exception. It was an honor to be asked to photograph this event. It’s taken me a bit to blog about it, but I wanted to make sure I include them in my blogging!

This day Church On The Rock (COTR) celebrated the teachers of Patrick Henry with makeovers, new hairdo’s, nails, and more. They were also each presented with Ipods and a GC to the Galleria Mall.

One of the things that I noticed on my way driving into Patrick Henry was a few bulletin boards with advertisements bombarding the children with images and thoughts they really did not need to be thinking about. The closer I got to the school, the more I saw.

As the teachers came in I thought about how tough it is for them to be able to control a classroom of inner city children whose focus was almost anything but school. I got to speak to a few of them and it was nice to be able to tell them how much I appreciate what they are doing to help these children.

It was an honor to photography the teachers of Patrick Henry School and to be part of such a great giving back.

Thank you for this opportunity to capture todays hero’s getting some pampering and appreciation that they deserve!

So how important is a logo?

You’ll have to ask Ami, my 2 year old grandson. Who, by the way is brilliant!
Raquel, Ami and I ran to the mall last week and while in Radio Shack, Ami starts to say “Alltel, Alltel” So I asked my daughter, does he know what Alltel is? She says yes, if he sees Alltel he knows!

Oh and before I forget, our friend Jeanine made it clear to me that Alltel is now Verizon. See, she works for them, so she should know, but I think Ami is correct on this one! I wonder, is it the same logo?

Later that same day, Ami knows Subway, just by the logo on the sign. C’mon, whose that smart at 2?

Then it hit me, if a two year old can recognize a logo and acknowledge a company then a logo is pretty darn important, don’t you think?

We’ve been tossing around Logo ideas for a long time. I’ve had some tremendous help also from: James Smith, Robert Whetton and Jose Robertson.

And as you know last week I asked you all to help us. Resoundingly you picked the logo we now host on our Facebook Fan page.

We had to really think about this logo for a few moments, because it’s a wedding photographers logo for sure, and when you think about the statement I make 100 times a day to everyone “if you are not passionate about what you do, get out, do what you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about it, you will never succeed to the level you were meant to be at. We are passionate about what we do, and it shows!” I know it’s a mouthful, but it’s so true.

We don’t want to be limited to weddings alone, but this logo does best describe US!

SO the logo you all choose really does describe who we are and what we do.

BUT….we also loved a second logo and decided we were cool enough to have two logos, the one you will see most often and the one we will use on letter heads, emails etc.

So here they are…
and thank you so much for all your support and love and emails and comments.

Lisa B

You know when it happens, a smile, a glance and then before you know it, you “click”. I’m not talking about photography at the moment, but people. I’m a people person. I love to watch people, observe and yes, talk. Sometimes I’ll just pick a conversation, or sometimes I’ll be thrown into a conversation with a complete stranger. I love the emotion new people bring to our lives and I’ve been very blessed to meet some amazing people. People that if you read my blog, have amazing stories and I come back home to share them with you.

Sam – the man whose wife died of cervical cancer and shared his story with me in a hotel in Westchester, NY

Bert Sugar - who told me amazing stories of his life and only at the end of our train ride did he tell me who he was, I was able to take one of the best Bert Sugar pictures ever!

The list goes on and on. Everyone has a story and if you take time to listen, you’ll learn some amazing things about life and people.

And so the story goes… on my recent flight to Ohio I shared a seat with a young man who was heading to Cleveland to spend time with his dad (a Jet Blue Pilot) (go Jet Blue)!! We did not talk till the plane had landed but just spending that time with him was fun and interesting to share stories with. Then this happened….

As I said goodbye to my new friend from Texas… I turned the corner to pick up my luggage and I saw two woman looking at some pictures, I’m a photographer so of course I looked. I saw a picture of a beautiful little girl, beautiful composiiton and the processing was done in such a manner the picture really stood out to me. So I remarked “That is a beautiful picture” Now I’m not sure what these two woman thought of me, but when I see good work, I make sure I say so! We ended up in a really awesome conversation, they were sisters, one had come into Cleveland to visit the other, they were full of smiles and sharing these beautiful pictures. As we talked I wondered why the one lady was not taking pictures of children, serious good pictures folks, and we talked about passion of our art and I explained I was a wedding photographer traveling to do a wedding in NE Ohio.

After a little more talk I found out that Simona does hand tinting of photographs, much like the selective coloring that some photographers do today, but this is done with more of a softness and detail and of course “done by hand” which makes it so appealing to me and I am sure to others. Simona does not have a website, but it’s something I want to encourage her to do and to get. She has amazing talent and passion for what she does and I encouraged her to push through and to obtain that goal and desire!

I told her I was going to share a bit about her in my blog and when she gets home I hope she sends me a couple images to post here for you to see and then we can see what we can do for Simona Breibart and her artistic abilities.

Life is good, I could have easily just passed them by, got my luggage and went on my way. I’m glad I took time out of my day and my life to connect with Simona and her sister. I hope you two enjoy your time together and remember to think about me tomorrow at the wedding! Stay in touch!

I love to “click” with people! Life is too short to stay all wrapped up in our own tiny worlds!

The world is all about Logos and Branding. I’ve had a logo and I was never really happy with it, so I have picked 5 logo’s for you to help me choose. I would like your vote for what logo you think best fits Creations Photography

Thank you ahead of time for your votes!

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I’ve dragged my feet on this and my mailbox has been filling up…so for now…here are a few more of your questions and my brilliant answers

Do you hire someone to do your portrait work?
No, we do all our own work at weddings and so on! There was a moment in time I felt to hire out those family sessions because my heart was just not into them. The stiff standing at the alter music stand, flag, crosses and other stuff photos. I really went through a moment and I had to address that issue! I’m a firm believer if you are not passionate about what you do it shows, and it did show, in our family sessions. So I had to face facts and dish out a tough lesson to myself and now, our sessions are rocking. It’s not my most favorite part of a wedding, but my brides and her family still desire these images and my job is to make sure my bride gets what she wants. That said. We do our own portrait sessions!

Where is the most exotic place to shoot?
I think anywhere there is passion is exotic! But if you are talking location. For me, wow, Israel, Italy or Spain. But honestly it’s not always about location but about attitude, you can be in the most absolute wonderful place in the world and your attitude is not right and wow, it can ruin anything. Love, Romance, Passion can make a back yard in Cleveland Ohio amazing. It takes an amazing photographer that can capture that emotion, anyone can take a snapshot, but to know how to capture that intense moment between two people in love that spark, that glance, that kiss, now that takes talent!

When did I discover my love for photography?
Well, my last blog of questions I talked about my father raising me with a camera in my hand at age 8. But, my passion for photography did not start there, I enjoyed what I did and I loved to take pictures but my passion started when I began to shoot people in 2001. When I started to watch people through the lens and capture that smile, that look, that glance. When I stood whispering to myself “come on, come on, do it, smile, do it” waiting for the right look and being prepared to capture it. Then came digital, one of my hardest moves to make but once I did, I got so excited about photography my passion began to grow!

What gear do I use?
I use only Canon gear! Now, before all you Nikon fans get mad at me, I’m being real. I started on a Pentex and grew into a Canon, there is no reason for me to leave and I love it. Right now I own the Canon 40D, I consider Canons consumer mistake and has now been discontinued. It’s a mistake not because it’s bad, but because it’s that good of a camera, it’s low light ability is amazing and it’s fast shutter and focus ability make it an amazing reception camera. That being said, I’ll be ordering the 5DmII shortly and moving up to full frame, I’m excited about that! I have to lenses that I love: my 24-70 (aka the brick) and the 70-200 (aka the block) I’ve been using the 70-200 more then ever lately and it’s a sharp sharp lens. I have a canon grip and the 580x flash!

How many hours at a function?
If you are talking weddings I can do an easy 12 hour day. I start when my bride wants me and finish generally an hour or so after everything has been done at the reception. It’s a long day and if you’re not lovin’ what you do, you’ll be hating that time spent shooting. I love it, in fact my partner will have to tell me at times “enough” because I’ll just keep shooting, you never know what you are going to capture.

What software for editing do you use?
I’m the Adobe Lightroom Queen. I love LR it’s where my images first go, then after that I take them into Photoshop CS3 for anything special I’d like to do.

Am I single?
This came up a couple times and it just made me laugh, nope I am not single and no I am not looking either! I am happily married with three children and one amazing grandson! I love my life, I have a great life and I feel very blessed!

What album company do you prefer?
Last year we made the choice to stick with one company for our albums and that choice is Memador! An amazing company that offers excellent customer service and a wonder array of product. They are an upper level company with an superb product that draws the attention of other vendors when we are at shows. I’m very proud of Memador.