Mansfield Character Breakfast

This morning I took the kids to a character breakfast where the proceeds benefited the Chernobyl Children Project, USA. Prior to today, I had no idea such an organization existed. The purpose of the organization is to provide help for children affected by the Chernobyl disaster. What I didn't realize is that the nuclear disaster that occurred in 1986 is still having a profound effect on people who live there. You can read more about what they do on their web site, but one of the main things they do is to coordinate trips for children from the region to a Boston-area host family. They get to stay with the family for a month and receive proper medical attention for the time they are here.

I realized that it truly is amazing how little I know about what is going on in the world. It makes me sad to think of the innocent children that were (and are continuing to be) affected by the radiation.

Here are some images I made while we were there:

Doing Dishes

Something I've seemed to have forgotten to do in this craziness of life, is to capture more images of the kids just being kids. I've spent time in the past trying to get the perfect posed image of my children for Christmas, or Easter, or just because. What I seem to forget to do is take the camera out while they are doing what they do best - playing, having fun, etc. In my opinion, a posed picture is nice, but rarely captures the true essence of the child. And since the purpose of taking pictures is to forever capture your children in time - why not do so while they are doing all the things that they love?

When I look back at pictures of my children in a year, two years, or even ten years from now, will I remember that RJ's favorite toy is his Lego Star Wars? Will I remember all the times Maddy sat down to color on whatever she felt like coloring that day? I hope so, but my guess is that I won't. And having great images of them doing their favorite things will help. So, I'm making a pact to myself to take the camera out more during daily life and get them doing things that they usually do.

Tonight I did that, in a rare moment where my children (of their own accord, mind you) decided to wash the night's dishes for me. Aren't they sweet? Being 3 and 6, though, they didn't really clean anything, but they sure got water everywhere!

New 50mm Lens

I just got a new 50mm lens and I've been dying to test it out! I love it. It's small, compact, clear, and super fast - way faster than anything I've ever owned. I'm hooked! I took it with me to the playground and got a few really cute images of the kids. Take a look!




I LOVE how you can see each strand of Maddy's crazy hair. I think this image describes her to a tee!




Isn't he the handsomest little man you've ever seen?!

More Karate Kids

The kids have graduated to their next belts in karate again. The karate program they are in promotes them every couple of months to keep them interested. They go to Personal Best Karate in Foxboro. I highly recommend them. Miss Stacey, their instructor, is the kindest, most patient woman I've ever met. Here they are posing with her after receiving their new belts:





Here are a few images from the demonstration they do prior to receiving the belts. I am such a proud momma - I have the GREATEST kids ever!

Connecticut Wedding

I'm way behind in blogging...I know, I know! We've been a very busy family. In the last half of January, I went to my cousin-in-law's wedding in CT. Her brother is a great photographer, too, so he and his wife did the shooting for her. I of course, brought my camera and got a few great images from the end of the pew (weird place for me to be, for once!). She looked so beautiful and her son is just a cutie!

Here's the slideshow: http://jeniferlynphotography.com/Pages/Kathlene
I set the show to a great, upbeat song, so some of the images go by rather fast to the music. BUT, at the end, you can view the gallery and look at each image one by one. You can see them all in the show, but this one is my ABSOLUTE favorite!

Tournament of Champions

January was a very busy month for me. Once I got back from San Antonio, I spent many days trying to figure out what to do with my business. That was my evening job. SInce I had been away from the kids for 4 whole days (I've never gone away from home without them - except when we won that trip to the Grammy's last year, but they were in FL with my in-laws having a blast, so that really doesn't count), I really needed to catch up on some much missed play time.


The next weekend after I got back, the kids had a Tournament of Champions where they performed a 'Form' in front of judges, received a score and a trophy. It was really cool and the kids did great. I'm a very proud Mama and got so nervous for them while they were up there. RJ was the VERY first person to perform for the day. I was so nervous for him, I'm surprised I got any images to even post here. He did very well, placing third. I felt he deserved much better than that, but I wasn't one of the judges. (and I'm a bit biased, too!). Maddy did very well, too. She hadn't been doing so well practicing at home, so I wasn't sure how focused she'd be, but she did so good. She also placed third.



These were both taken when they were introducing themselves to the judges. Aren't they just the cutest?! Oh wait, don't I say that all the time?

PPA Convention

So I told you all I'd write about the convention and I just simply haven't made the time. After I got back, I was trying so hard to implement as many changes as I could, that I forgot to follow up on a few of them! The convention was just simply amazing. Dad and I went to an average of 3 classes each day we were there. In addition, there was an over 400 booth expo. It was just amazing. Some highlights (for me, at least!):

1. Getting to see and spend oodles of time with my dad - that was beyond cool.



2. Attending the seminar given by Liana Lehman. She is a phenomenal photographer with tons of energy. She was featured in PPA magazine last year during the wedding edition and I've followed her work ever since. I learned more from her than any other presenter there. I left her speech with a huge new thought process on how to approach my business. It was amazing.




3. Meeting and having my picture taken with David Jay, another spectacular photographer. He has the most amazing business sense of anyone I've seen. He's found ways to market himself and make himself stick out. I'm just in awe.



4. Going to the Canon booth...you can't believe the awesome gear they had there! I got a free CF card holder just for filling out a survey. Of course, my wish list grew exponentially...



5. Seeing and touching the different albums from the many album makers out there. I have been trying to decipher who I should choose as my album vendor for quite some time. The choices are staggering. But Dad humored me and came along as I touched and stared at and picked apart at least 2 dozen different companies. What I found out, was that I really have a good thing going with SharedInk. Their product is great and their customer service is unbelievable. And if you know me, you know that customer service is really hugely important to me.



6. Getting tons and tons of new ideas for my business - from marketing to new ways to run my workflow. It was just amazing. Well worth the money.



7. 7. Walking on the Riverwalk with Dad. We only did this on the first night we were there, but that place is amazing. I would love to see it when it's warmer out. The vendors were so interesting. I can't possibly describe all the sites and sounds we took in that night, but it was awesome. We had dinner at this really awesome Mexican restaurant. The margaritas were great, but cold!

8. Did I mention I got to spend time with my dad?!

9. Realizing I can actually survive on little sleep and much walking all in the same day. ...And I HATE trains! Especially loud noisy ones that beep every second as they drive through the lobby of the hotel I'm staying at between the hours of 4:00 and 5:00 am! But the morning coffee was pretty good, huh Dad?

10. Getting to see the Alamo. It was really cold and windy that day and neither of us had real jackets, so we basically ran around the outside of the Alamo getting spectacular images (can't tell by the image that it's less than 30 degrees, can you?!). That was really fun, though!

Dad and I had purchased plane tickets to leave on Tues, even though the convention lasted until late Tues night. Thank goodness we did. There was an ice storm (by the way, the weather in Boston was consistently at least 10 -20 degrees warmer every day we were in TX. It was FREEZING!). Many flights were cancelled (including Dad's flight :-( home, but he managed to get a flight out that night). I was reading on Wed that all flights were cancelled and that many people were stuck there until Friday. It was amazing.