Rocky {Portrait}

One photo. One man. Much love.

My hubby is a truly beautiful person...inside and out.

River {Portrait}

My little guy turned six in September. I did a little post about this over at the family blog. You can see that post here. So, here are a few shots of my not-so-little-guy. Growing like a weed, I tell you....

Steffek Family {Maternity}

We had the ultimate privilege of photographing the lovely 'S' family. What a precious family! They were a joy to photograph! And I must admit that being around such a gorgeous, glowing, pregnant mother makes me long to be pregnant again. Is there really anything more beautiful than the stunning glow of a pregnant woman? Nah, I didn't think so...

Oh, how I wish we were going to be back in their town to do the newborn photographs....

Here are some of my favorites from their maternity/family shoot. There is seriously so much love in that sweet family. 

outdoor happenings. home edition.

who says you have to go far to have fun? who says you have to get in a vehicle and drive away to explore the world or at least a little part of it?

many times we just open up the front door and venture out onto our 1/4 of a mile long (half paved, half gravel) driveway and call it an adventure...it is really, lots to see and do.

the kids love this driveway. and that was one of the biggest things they missed about tn when we lived in gulf shores..lots of places to move about without so much traffic.

they love the driveway so much, in fact,  that they enjoy getting a head start down the driveway when we are heading out to run errands and such. they do this so "they can get their exercise and become really strong" (that's what they say, really). i also think they like it because it is all down hill and helps them go pretty fast. plus, it's just fun...and that's what being a kid is all about.

funny...the never want to go UP the driveway. it is somewhat steep. but, kids are bursting with energy...hmmmm...something doesn't add up. ;-) most of the time i can't seem to simmer down that energy (not that i would really want to, of course)...but, you know what i mean....if we could bottle up a kids energy we could make some major moolah. ;-) but...alas, they prefer to drive up the driveway. we will work on that. ;-)

just some random shots taken on multiple adventures close to our home...
one thing you should notice...notice how many "ouchies" lily manages to get on her hands...hmmm....

oh, and yes, rocky...those are your boxer shorts i was sportin' in that shot of my feet. haha. hey, they were there, convenient, comfy...and i have missed you. ;-)

have a beautiful, blessed day!
-kelly

shots in the park...

hello all!

it has been awhile since my last post...many reasons for this, but we all know that reasons can really just be excuses so, why bother mentioning them,really? i mean, i could mention the fact that my computer was dead.  i am very thankful to my sweet husband for getting it working again. it is quite difficult to work on building a photography business without a computer, that is for sure.

i hope you all have been doing great! many things going on that i will discuss in a different post, but for now i am going to post some photos from a shoot we did in foley, alabama in july at the foley railroad museaum's surrounding park

haydn, alana, & hadley are simply precious kids. i love how well the older brother, hadyn interacted with his two younger sisters. it was obvious that he is a great big brother. i could also see just how much the girls love him,too. almost makes me want to have another baby and turn our little family of four into five. nah, better wait on that idea for awhile..

great shoot of adorable kids at a cute location. (our kids loved playing with them in between shots, too).
i would love to do another shoot at that location again some day. i loved the bright, bold colors of the trains.  i am guessing another shoot will happen there when we make another trip back to gulf shores/orange beach to visit friends sometime in the future. i miss them all terribly, though...of course, i am excited to be back in tn, too. just a great excuse to make it to the beach again, right? ;-)

oh, and for those who have asked if we have the photography website up yet...no, not yet. still working on that. i am VERY anxious to get that up. having a website is pretty crucial for any business, in my opinion. i am so full of creative ideas that i would like to see happen on the website, but with the current wordpress template we have worked on bit with it isn't happening as quickly as i would like. time is money, right? well, i agree with that statement to a degree. so, my ideas are almost exploding from my brain. i have seen some amazing photography websites and i have been influenced by seeing them, i guess. i realize that anything good takes time...i just kind of wish that i could shave off a bit of that time by not having to start from scratch.

so...i threw together a little website...it is not finished, nor will it be there forever since it is a free trial. but...you get the idea...i like this because i can basically plug in my ideas and info and go. impatient, much? but, yes another but...it is also a flash website, and we all know (or some of us might) that flash isn't so great for seo (search engine optimization). but, it was fun to quickly throw something together. did you catch the QUICKLY part? haha!

here is the link: http://riverlilyphotography.zenfolio.com/

comments/suggestions? i realize that free is better and i will end up doing just that (if i must). plus, i know my awesome partner in photography, rocky, will help me with the site when he gets time. life is busy, yo.

oh, and update on the project 365, a photography assignment i gave myself to take a picture a day for a year...well, i am still taking photos daily, but have fallen behind on getting photos up on flickr. there were also some days that got neglected, photo taking wise, but..i am on track again with my daily snaps (though flickr is still needing to be updated). i had started to do that but then the computer took turn for the worse. oh, well...life must go on. ;-)

hope you all have a great rest of the week! i cannot wait for the weekend!! this past month has been so exhausting and this weekend is going to change all that in so many ways, vague much? ;-)

beautiful eyes *photo challenge*

hello!

lately i do not have the time to participate in photo challenges like i would love to...

but, even though i am behind on everything a few pressing things, i am going to do this anyway. just because it's healthy for my brain to take breaks from time to time...and i like to keep things healthy. so, on that note...maybe not going to bed until 1:00 midnight each night to catch up on life just isn't such a healthy idea, huh? working on fixing that....really.

so, when i came across this photo challenge i couldn't help but enter...beautiful eyes. i just so happen to know someone who totes some beautiful eyes.

i had a difficult time deciding on which photo to choose for this photo challenge. i have photographed many people with stunning eyes.  i am partial to this particular set of eyes, though....(as well as i am rocky's and river's eyes, too).

i am sure you have seen this shot before..it is one of my favorites of lily's eyes.

www.iheartfaces.com

oh, and be sure to enter the giveaway for a copy of photographer, kristen duke's book, Say NO to Auto over at averie's blog.

hope you all are having a great week. i am already eagerly awaiting the weekend. 

love, kelly

zip lines and sea turtles..

hello all!
whoa this little blog has been neglected for sometime...but, with good reason.

we moved back home to tn just a little over a week ago and things have been pretty crazy around here as we settle back into the house. mainly because of the mice invasion we had. we live in the country, so mice do come to visit once in a while (tis life, i suppose) but being that the surrounding areas to our home were devastated by a tornado and the little critter's homes were turned up...i suppose they figured the next best place to call home would be our home.. ICK! no thankyou! sorry, guys...you are not allowed. i can respect you in nature, your natural home, but you are not welcomed in our home. harsh, i know.

so, after much cleaning (thanks to my sister and bro-in-law for coming over and helping me a great deal) the place is clean, and now i am slowly unpacking the gulf shores things...i am also using this time to purge the house of unnecessary items. it is such a freeing feeling to brings lots of bags to the donation center. the bags keep going right out my door, into the 4runner, and to the donation center...i imagine that will be happening for awhile. i have a strong dislike for too much "stuff" right now. it must go for my sanity. clutter free is nice.

meanwhile...i am also working on lots of shoots which took place right before the move. just finished up a precious maternity shoot, and will post some from that shoot just as soon as i can. i have one more shoot to finish up (amy's) and then another to start and finish (lisa's). :-)

river will also be officially starting homeschooling this month.....so, things are quite busy around here to say the least.

let's see....so much has taken place since my last post that i am going to try to quickly get you up to date on the happenings....

firstly, one exciting event which took place is when we were invited after my friend amy's family shoot to go grab some ice cream with them (okay, though ice cream is pretty awesome it was what happened after ice cream that was super exciting...) we were invited to go to the beach and possibly see some baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean. and guess what?? they actually hatched while we were there and we got to see them make the journey to the ocean. oh, what an amazing thing to witness! pretty much a chance of a lifetime, it was! unfortunately, we did not do flash photography, obviously,  as the lights could have disoriented the turtles as they went to the ocean. we did use the tripod and got some...you can't really see the turtles, but you can see some stars, light from the pier, sand, and the ditch that was dug for the turtle trek, and of course...our littles gazing upon the little turtles in transit. ;-)

river and lily are sitting in the right of the photo...they are watching the little turtle trek to the sea, and trying very hard not to touch the turtles. they did a great job just watching. 

some  interesting effects going on in these photos.

did you know sea turtles lay their eggs in the same location of where they were born? yes, really? and did you know that people go out here week's, months, years trying to see such an event, and some never see it? i consider us pretty blessed to have been able to be a part of this!

just so you know...baby sea turtles are out-of-this-world -adorable!!!

the whole experience spoke to me of God's plan and design.

thank you, clint and amy for the invite! that was completely amazing! i am thrilled that lily and river got to experience such an event and that rocky and i did, too. ;-)

in other family news:
no, i'm not pregnant...though, i wouldn't mind it really. bring on the baby, is how feel most of the time. ;-)
anywho...the kids went zip lining for the very first time.
my dear friend, amy invited us over to her mom's house for the adventure. both lily and river LOVED it.
someday we would love to put a zip line somewhere on our land, well...that and a pool...and we might as well throw in some hardwood flooring into the mix, as well, since i'm at it. ;-)

apparently, lily loves 4 wheelers

noah showing us how it is done!

the set-up...

lily and amy still working that 4wheeler.

river getting hooked in...

i saw a smidge of fear in his eyes right before going off the edge...that soon passed.

getting all harnessed up..

daddy squeezed in a little hug before she zipped away. ;-)

facing it, with no fear..

from the "launchpad" you can see me clapping...proud mama!

she loved it!

taylor

we are going to miss the gulf shores/orange beach area, but most importantly, the friends we made while there. there is no doubt that we will return for visits. truly, a great bunch of people there. we will miss you all! but, you can't get rid of us...we WILL be back to visit! hey, and will probably be looking for a pad to crash at. lol. (hint hint).

so...more photos to come from gulf shores.. i am way behind on my photos in general. don't even ask about how my project365 is doing. i assure you i have been snapping my photo a day, but they need edited and put up on flickr. i will get it done.
more gulf shores photos to come just as soon as i can get them up.

have a wonderful day!

and if you are awaiting photos from me...thank you so much for your patience. this move back has been crazy. normally i give a 1-2 week turn-a-round window for photo editing and such...this move threw things off schedule to say the least. but,  rest assured you will see them soon...i sleep very little. ;-) burning the midnight oil i guess you could say.