So it will probably come as no shock to you that I somehow managed to post a gallery without the ability to purchase prints. What was that about? I didn’t even know I could do that! I have rectified the situation now, but if you notice it in the future, please let me know!

So you know, that’s probably a pretty simple error. Especially in my half blind condition. I have no excuse except sheer insanity that I embarked on this next endeavor. However, I am sure you will enjoy the visual as well as the story.

Yet again I found myself attending a youth retreat for the various congregations of my church. This year we traveled to the lovely JMU campus and let me tell you… this was hands down the best retreat I have ever in my life been on. I spent three days there and loved every second. By the time I left on Saturday, my feet throbbed and I had morphed into the Cankle Goddess. That said, I was still sad that the event had drawn to a close.

Now you may remember my story about last year’s event complete with my nervousness about hovering at the ceiling of the church gym in a one-woman bucket lift doing bad things with my vertigo tendencies.

So what did we do this year? Oh no. No bucket for me. I am shown a bar stool (with a seat back) perched on top of a metal picnic table. Um, what? Oh no. I’m not kidding. I’m a pretty pasty pale white girl, but I’m sure that I gave a whole new meaning to the term “white” when I first spied this.

So what did I do?

I begged for big strong burly manly men to act as spotters!

Like I said. What was I thinking? What kind of fool does this? Oh yeah, me. Kids, don’t try this at home!

Oh and how pray tell did I get a photograph? Well, the area representative happened to be holding my secondary camera and thought he’d take a few photographs. Namely of me.

And that’s why you NEVER let someone else hold your camera. You suddenly find bootleg images of yourself!

(Seriously, I thought it was so funny I made this my Facebook profile pic. The only complaint is he had my telephoto lens so he couldn’t actually get the psychotic contraption I stood upon!)

Oh as for my spotters. You guys are pros. Seriously! Thanks for doing the big manly man thing and keeping me from falling flat on my face. I’d have never gotten up and down without you!

Oh and that vertigo? Seriously. Prayer. It pays off. Those area leaders must have a red line batphone to the Big Man Upstairs. It is the only answer!

Oh and would you like to see the photo I took? After all it’s not quite all of the 251 AWESOME people I got to go on the retreat with and that I risked life and limb to capture on film. (Um film? Try tiny little memory card!)

Oh and I took another shot from a much safer balcony vantage point. I wanted the kids to have something a little more “fun”.

Have Camera, Will Travel (And performing amazing feats of climbing ability)
JS

Sorry that it’s taken so long but here’s your photos!

First let’s start off with just one of the cute kids in this family. Seriously, this girl is too cute!

I took several group photos of the various branches of the Maley family:

As part of the reunion, we wished a very happy 90th birthday to Ruth! Let me just second it again… happy birthday! Doesn’t that cake look fantastic! And Ruth, you look fantastic, even with how hot it was!

Here she is blowing out her candles! I don’t know what she wished for, but how could it not come true with all her family around her!

So you ready to see that whole Maley family all in one place? Family. It is what matters most!

Maley family members, I love you! Thanks for letting me come to your reunion, which was much closer to my home then my own reunion going on at the same time in Mississippi!

For the full range of photos (though this is most of them) and to order prints go to the Gallery

–Have Camera, Will Travel (to crash other reunions when I can’t go to my own!)
JS

Here’s a tidbit:

Basically here’s what happened:

Tie Dye Wedding (Uh yeah, you read that right!)
End of school year.
Prepared to send home exchange daughter (*SOB SOB SOB*)
Girl’s Camp (Skads of teenage girls in the wilderness… yes we all survived!)
Heat Stroke from Girls Camp (I did NOT order in record tying heat. Whomever did? You are defriended now.)
A Family Reunion for someone (EEEK pix! Read below if you are involved.)
Seriously ill for a week from heat stroke (Seriously, a month later and I’m still suffering from it.)
Hideous Sinus Infection of Doom (Who invented allergies?)
Scout Camp
Sewing Camp (Yes, my youngest son loves sewing. He also cooks. Back off, he’s still mine!)
Church Youth Retreat (I have pictures!)
Ferrum College Summer Enrichment Camp (It’s a four hour one way drive! But totally awesome!)
BSA Jamboree

Oh did I mention that my husband was gone almost the entire calendar month of July? Read that as: Gone during all those camps. Joyful!

Gee. I wonder where my time went?

I know I’ve left you without blog entries. I’ve dealt with all of this, a slight internet uploading issue, and now my glasses are broken and I can barely see. Oh yes, lovely. I’ll be fine, no worries!

On the bright note, that photograph I posted above was a test. It does look like my internet upload speeds might be back up to par. We’ll see. I’m setting those family reunion photos to load. Sorry for the delay.

So watch for: The fam reunion. With any luck I can slog through that post tomorrow. Pardon any typos!

The wedding: I actually got the pictures loaded and the bride has seen them. I know that you want to see them, too, so they will come. Probably AFTER I get my new glasses in so I can tell what I’m sharing with you. Here’s a teaser to keep you stalking me: Tie-dye wedding dress. Oh yes. I kid you not.

I might have some other things to post as well. Possibly a picture where you can *gasp* see me! Shocker!

Stay tuned. I promise there’s stuff coming! Oh and, someone… please hit the “slow” button. Somehow I think I’m stuck in FFWD!

–Have Camera, Will Travel (Apparently to a zillion camps!)

Remember Prom? The corsages, the fancy dress, and the dancing! What’s not to love?

Three couples headed out for their night on the town looking like a million bucks! I hope they had as much fun as it looked like they were ready for.

Don’t they look ready for some fun? If you want to see more, check out the gallery here!

Stay tuned for some early release photos from the wedding I went to on Saturday! (Tie dyed satin wedding gown is a must-see!)

Have Camera, Will Travel (and hang out with fun people)
JS

Tomorrow is their six week wedding anniversary and I hope that the last six weeks have been just the best six weeks ever for Greg and Marie! They are a great couple and I am so glad to not only get to work with them, but to share their special day.

The good news is that my cyberstalking on facebook has yet to come up with me photobombing any of the guests photos. Thank goodness!

Here’s some of the exciting and glorious day for the two of them!

You are cordially invited… take a look at their program:

Ok, so this is really from the rehearsal, but it is just so funny! As a joke the wedding party decided to hold their bouquets this way for the rehearsal. Really, you just had to be there, but it is still funny to look at the photo! I love that even as things start to mount to the big moment, everyone was still able to joke around.

Marie was a bride with a plan. Her plan involved being a little different from most brides. Because her gown’s hem and train were the most lovely shade of red, she wanted red shoes. She also thought that with all red gowns, her bridesmaids might like to not have red shoes, so she wanted white for them. As it turns out this caused panic attacks on the part of the shoe people thinking they had completely messed up her order. But you know what? She totally made the right choice because look at how stunning her shoes were:

In the Bridal Beehive as I like to call it, the buzzing of activity was high yet we had time to rock out with music provided by the maid of honour:

I love that her gown had all this red that she carried through on the veil… it was absolutely beautiful!

While the bride and her attendants were in a flurry of motion, I popped down to check on the men. Don’t you know they were just kicking back. Must be nice to be able to just lounge around! This is a groom without a care in the world:

I took the men out back to get a photograph and let’s face it… the ring bearer steals the show with his posse behind him!

Back in the beehive Marie’s just about ready to go as her worker bees help her get dressed:

And then there’s this lovely jewelry made for the wedding by her maid of honour (which by the way I think if she starts selling her stuff on Etsy I’m gonna have to start promoting because hello gorgeous!):

The Ring Exchange:

The family that prays together, stays together! I loved that the minister had them have their very first prayer as a married couple… it was such a great moment.

We arrived at the reception with a fanfare… led by the flower girl. I gotta say, I love her moxie! That’s right, the party can finally start because she is here:

Ok, seriously, is this not the most awesome cake? It so matches the theme perfectly! Yeah once more she dealt with the whole, “You want a RED…???” and I say “Red, FTW!”

We went out back of the lovely Lightfoot Restaurant, the reception venue, and took some pictures next to a little waterfall. Here’s just a couple of shots:

So there’s just a few of the photos from the wedding of Greg and Marie. They are a great couple with big hearts and a great sense of humour!

To see more of their photos, here’s a link to their slideshow on my smugmug: SLIDESHOW HERE **Warning – it’s LONG because there’s lots to see!**

–Have Camera, Will Travel (and have a rip roaring good time with ya)
JS

Saturday was the prom for some of the high schoolers in our area and I got asked to take some pictures. Silly me thought that even though it was Mother’s Day, my birthday, there was a contest that I entered and needed to do printing for, and my husband needed to travel out of town that I could get my sneak peek up before oh… Thursday. What WAS I thinking?

Oh yeah, it was my usual self… NOT thinking! Welcome to my world where I jump in and try to do far too much in far too little an amount of time.

At any rate, sorry to the teens that their sneak peek took until Thursday morning… but here’s a picture of each couple to get them geared up for their final proofs in a few weeks!

First it is John and his date, aren’t they a lovely pair?

John and his date before Prom

Ok these two are just adorable… I love that his tux perfectly matches her gown in colour!

And finally, the last in this triple date to Prom:

I hope you enjoyed your sneak peek and that you had a great time Saturday!

–Have Camera, Will Travel (I even have dancing shoes!)
JS

Unfortunately it meant I was far too busy playing to post any pictures…

But! Oh there’s always one, right? The wait should be worth it for all of you because now I can finally reveal my Super Secret Project! Yay! I know you’ve all been waiting to hear since I’ve hinted and hinted…

Two summers ago I entered my first photo contest and I ended up with a photograph hung in the exhibit. This experience humbled me and amazed me. I never thought I would see one of my photographs hanging alongside so many absolutely gorgeous photos let alone being seen by an estimated 10,000 visitors. Even more amazing was at the end of the exhibit I learned that my photograph was one voted as a People’s Choice.

I think I cried when I first got the news. That unbelievable to me.

A little while ago, I received an email from the same group inviting me participate in their new photo contest. I reread the email about a dozen times and then pinched myself to make sure that it was really there in my inbox and not a dream. I then began to make plans to shoot new photos with the theme in mind.

The theme is not one that I particularly spend a lot of time shooting, but I do enjoy. You know the old saying: Stop and smell the roses? Yeah, well I often look at beautiful flowers but never take the time to photograph them. This exhibit deals with the living things growing on the grounds so I needed to focus with that in mind. I got out and walked the grounds in a way I never have before and I looked to take pictures in a way I don’t normally take pictures at this venue. I actually LOVE doing this sort of thing, so needless to say I was excited.

Well, the verdict is in… and they chose to hang not one but TWO of my photos! Seriously? YES! I can’t believe it!

I’m not posting those two… I’ll post them after the exhibit ends. I thought you might like to see a few of the photographs I did take and considered entering!

If you are in the DC Area from May 22-June 20, you might want to consider checking out the exhibit a the DC Temple Visitors Center. The exhibit is free of charge and after looking at the photographs selected… let me just say it will be STUNNING.

I just loved the way the two flowers looked almost like a bridal couple…

So my favourite colour is purple and this lovely bud really screams SPRING to me.

I loved the way the light hit this purple flower making it nearly glow!

The flower looks as though it is reaching up towards the spires, reaching up towards the heavens, reaching up as I feel like I’m always reaching.

This last picture I’m sharing is one that I like because it shows a group of bright and cheerful flowers clustered in front of the Temple and it seems like whenever I am there I see some group of bright and cheerful people clustered in front of the Temple!

So there you go. My Super Secret Project! I hope you enjoyed.

–Have Camera, Will Travel (and turn Mission Impossible to Mission Possible!)
JS

PS Happy Mother’s Day to all!

I’m sorry for no post last week, I got sidetracked by some massive projects. (Namely going through my attrociously large To-Be-Read pile of books. You just don’t want to know how badly it fought with me. I won! Yeah. That’s my story.) That said, I did actually go shooting last week, but alas… I can share nothing with you for several weeks. Not even a sneak peek!

I know. No fair. Tell me about it. Because I can tell you now, there was this one great shot… and then this other…

It’ll all make sense. Later. When I can share. I need to go through those photos and see if I need to go shoot some more. (Bah, who am I kidding? I’ll be there again on Friday. Who thinks I’ll probably end up going early to shoot some more? Yeah, there’s a distinct possibility! I’m under a super time constraint, so we’ll see.)

To make up for the taking pictures and not even a sneak peek to give… I wrapped up those adorable pictures of Baby Lillian. Now you guys all have to know… this girl owns me. Like seriously. She is in firm control of me and she knows it. I’m madly in love with her, so I took way lots of photos even though she was grumpy at the rainy yucky day.

So you wanna see? All right! Me, too! (Because really? I went through her photos FOUR times because I just couldn’t get enough looking at her! You can say it now…” SUCKER!!!!!!”)

See, this is the proof right here… she’s saying to me, “Really? I mean, really???!!! IT IS COLD AND WET OUT HERE! But you know I’m still cute!”

“What’s that clickie box for? Oh me? OK, well I suppose I can be cute, but really, you are AWFULLY demanding!”

So I love that picture. Words just can’t begin to describe how much I love it. I just do. Almost as much as I love this sweet little girl!

To help cheer her up, we let her get some playtime with Mommy. You probably remember mommy… I dubbed her a Goddess. Just so you know? She is one. How did I get to be friends with her? I’m just THAT lucky. But, not as lucky as Baby Lillian who has a Goddess for a mommy!

As you can tell, Lillian loves some Mommy-daughter play time!

We tried the backyard, but mostly Lillian wanted to look at her mommy! Isn’t this just sweet?

I really love it when children and parents interact. There’s just something about it that touches my heart. Insert your “awww” right there. I’m such a sap!

This is a girl with a lot on her mind… I’d love to hear what you think is going through that cute little head of Lillians!

Now it just has to be said… I think this is the funniest picture. Maybe she needs some extra fiber in her diet? Somehow I think that’s the wrong kind of fiber, Lillian!

And just because we need to end on a super sweet rot your teeth out picture:

Lillian? I LOVE YOU! I can’t wait to see you again for your 1st birthday! This time? We will WAIT for NO RAIN! I promise!

Meanwhile, for all the rest of you… I’m a little busy over the next week. There might be pictures. There be pictures of twins. There might be pictures of a castle. Maybe there will be pictures soon from last week. You might want to stay tuned… especially in case there might be twin photos. Because hello… twins are like DOUBLE THE CUTE!

–Have Camera, Will Travel (To a previously unmentioned secret destination you’ll just have to wait to find out about!)
JS

I am still editing away at cute baby as well as wedding photos so I can share the final products with all of you, but today I went out driving and took a country road. I like my backroads in VA!

Spring pollens are kicking our butts out here so all you hear everywhere you go is raspy voices and a litiny of hacking. As miserable we are, Spring gives us this beautiful view…can you believe it?

I sure hope my phone captured the surreal super saturated green of these trees!

Happy Spring and I hope you are doing better with the pollen then all of us!

–Have camera, will travel (and do battle with killer pollen)
JS

Our morning started at the way still dark hours of the morning. I hear the hotel coffee was awful, but I suppose even awful coffee can wake a person up! I staked out my usual spot in the Bridal Beehive while Marie and her various attendants set off to beautify themselves… but she paused long enough to try to log onto facebook:

The Queen Bee triess to log on from the Bridal Beehive!

Too bad there was no wifi at the Church! *GASP* That’s when she swiped my new Droid phone to do some playing.

So normally I wouldn’t share these during the preview, but I can’t help myself. I really can’t. Greg and Marie chose to go traditional in that his first glimpse of her was as she came down the aisle. I’m a sucker for the first glimpse. Call it the romantic in me. Greg’s first glimpse blows me away.

First Glimpse numero uno

He totally lost it!

Oh yeah. He lost it. I keep staring at this photo and I want to burst into sappy mushy gushy tears. Yeah, I’m THAT girl. Don’t mock. You know you wanna cry at the adorableness of Greg.

He’s about to become the happiest man on earth!

Now here’s the coolness about my droid… I was able to live update from the wedding itself. OK, so I’m not only super sappy but super geeky. Sue me. I snapped a photo and hit facebook and let it load for anyone unable to make it to the wedding. HOT! While it did it’s business uploading, I took this one with my good camera for this preview post:

Don’t you just love all that red in her dress?

Since I have done two pictures primarily focused towards his face, here’s a picture of her:

She’s just as happy as he is! Isn’t that so sweet?

I’ve seen a lot of first kisses in my life, and here’s one I love (mostly because it reminds me of way back in the stone ages when I got married and my husband’s method of planting one on me):

Now THAT'S a first kiss!

And here’s a picture of the couple leaving the Church to head to the reception:

So here’s the final photo… it’s just so funny and absolutely indicative of today:

Gotta update my status on Facebook to MARRIED!

That’s right. She swiped my Droid again so she could facebook her new marital status from the limo on the way to reception! Even funnier was everyone in the limo had their phones out to “like” the status as it hit the web! I love it!

I hope you enjoyed the preview of Greg and Marie’s big day. You crazy kids just got the largest preview post I think I’ve ever done.