• Welcome to my blog!

    We are very proud of our blog, because it features all of our amazing clients and their families. Each of their sessions is unique and we are glad that like us, you get to experience the feeling and moments that happens during their sessions. Thank you for sharing in their lives and feel free to comment. Subscribe to our blog to keep unto date when new blogs are posted.

  • About

    Hello and thank you for your spending your time exploring our website. My name is Chrissy Tenney and I am the artist behind Marcum Photography. Most people ask where the Marcum comes from in Marcum Photography? Well, most people use their name as their business name and Marcum was my maiden name. I started my business while I was in school before I got married. So not only was I already doing business as Marcum Photography, but my parents where essential in encouraging me to go to school for photography so I feel it honors them as well.

    So I am not self taught I have a Bachelors of fine art in Photography from Brooks Institute in Santa Barbra, California. I also have and an associates in photography from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. How does someone decide what they want to be when they grow up? Well I decided that photography was really the only class I ever liked. Thats a great way to pick a career right? My parents found Powell Wyoming and they said "look you can go to school at home getting your generals done like everyone else or you can experience and new place and get to photograph in Yellowstone". Who does't say that. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I meet amazing people, great friends, got to be so creative and even went to my first rodeo. Our teachers where so wonderful there is really wasn't a better place for me.

    I knew I needed a Bachelors so since one of my teachers graduated from the acclaimed Brooks Institute I was able to transfer there. It's extremely competitive there which I wasn't too fond of and very by the book but they have classes you can't get other places. I got to really expand my knowledge to so many areas. I even got to do what they call industrial photography which is the breaking glass and stopped water shots, very fun. I also meet a church family there that I still have to this day and they helped me keep my sanity and good nature while dealing with that crazy competitive environment.

    So what do you do when you get out of school? For me it was easy, continue doing what I love and am interested in. I photograph not only because I love it but, because there is just something amazing about being involved in peoples. I am always meeting new people and always growing as an artist because each new session is different, which I love! As you can tell from my portfolio I have got the opportunity to photography many different things over the years. In school you have to pick a major and in owning a business you have to specialize in one area.

    We specialize in newborns and family. It really fits my personality. Newborns I know can scare some people because they are so tiny. For me they are big, they are one of the biggest things that will ever change a persons life. Which makes them a very big deal. Each child is a small person and each person in life has a story and is special to someone, that is what I feel our focus is. Not only do I get to photograph this child but I track their story. I have been very privileged to know a couple before that child was a thought. Its special to see their excitement in their maternity session. I get to see them transform into parents daddy nervously holding them. I love when mom gets to take a breath seeing her baby all wrapped up and beautiful, for a couple hours she gets a bit of a rest as she watches how beautiful her baby. Plus who doesn't love the cubby cheeks and walking feet. I get to see more then some of their family. It is such a rewarding job to feel so much a part of that families life. I get called for family pictures and you visit their homes and my art is on their walls. They walk by the images of their family on their walls that I took or flip through albums I made and remember the best times. Who doesn't want that as a job and who doesn't want to have beautiful memories of their life and family around them. Thank you for reading this I hope you consider becoming part of our family of clients.

Halloween/ fall is a very busy season at our house. We have to do every fall activity within the span of about two weeks it seems. This includes the normal getting and carving pumpkins, but also goes to the extreme of getting out the four bins of halloween stuff, a five foot mummy and two bags of foam pumpkins I’ve cut years before. This year we made halloween less scary for Keaton, which means we got out the four bins of stuff, but only put up about half of it. Bleeding candles and window clings aren’t really the safest things for toddlers. I have also decided that next year we might take out the whole costume part of the halloween party. I love that part but it’s expensive for people and every one ends up taking off their costume half way though anyway. We normally rent a projected and watch a scary movie on the yard tell all hours of the night which we didn’t do, because of the storm, and well we have a kid and we are officially old and boring. It was a very difficult for me this year, not being able to put up all my decorations, and having the Frankenstorm (hurricane Sandy) to contend with. This caused me a lot of stress, because that meant no outside decorations too! I put some up anyway and well.. my foam pumpkins blew off into the neighbors yard and broke. The storm wasn’t even hitting tell the day after the party, but… it was still a touch windy on the deck lol, obviously. The storm also meant that where ever I went to do last minute things like pick up dip, there were tons of people getting batteries and bottled water. It’s kind of a running joke with my family when a storm comes that they say “bread, milk, eggs, toilet paper” I guess they consider those things the “staples”. When we know it’s more like bottled water, bread, batteries. But when they call you always answer “bread, milk, eggs, toilet paper”, it’s our thing I guess. We’re weird, obviously. So The party was great, no rain! The storm was fine too! We never lost power or satellite, even though we had a new one put on days before the storm. That was a worry of mine that I would be home alone with a hole in the roof from a blown away satellite. That’s right Keaton and I were all alone. My husband is a firefighter/ paramedic and when there are storms and craziness they are there. It was insane, because the day after the party I’m getting texts like “fill up the bath tubs” and “do you know where the batteries are?”. I am not saying it wasn’t a bad storm it is just weird to get random texts all day long. So needless to say I filled up the bathtubs for the first time ever in my life!! You can never be to careful though, I mean if you loose power and can’t go to the bathroom and you can’t go outside then really your out of luck so yes I filled up the tubs lol. So the crazy week went like this halloween party, Frankenstorm, actual halloween! So after the storm hit we had a great night of trick or treating weather, and everything worked out great! I’ll go in order so here is the party!

So these are Martha Stewart cupcakes, I mean it looks like she made them, right? Probably not! I do feel like I did pretty good because, the “broken glass” aka boiled sugar on the top is supposed to be clear like broken glass ( mine has a little bubbles) but I didn’t have a candy thermometer so thats my excuse. It was funny because I actually bothered to read the reviews on what people though of these cupcakes online and it was nothing but people complaining about the trouble they had making these and these woman were so mad a Martha! Woo! Because apparently to get the “glass” (sugar) clear it’s near impossible in real life. Well duh girls we are not all martha and her no life having staff ok! So here is my “I have a life I gave it my best try” version lol.

I also made pretzel bones, and chili and all that! I also forced everyone who comes to be in costume, so here are some of my friends kids being awesome sports about it, they are great! I also put up the halloween tree and my new favorite ornament. I didn’t take any pictures of the storm because well all you could really see was rain and my filled up bath tubs and that is just not entertaining. So on to “the day after” aka halloween. Speaking of the day after apparently a lot of people watched the movie “the day after tomorrow” during the storm, I found that humorous. Any way so my husband has no concept of time when it comes to any holiday that requires we be somewhere or that people come over. So I proceeded with my usual lets get ready freak out. I guess I did it twice once for the party and once for Halloween. So you can understand my craziness here is our child 10min before trick or treating, not dressed, not fed, not napping, playing in the ball pit he spent the past 30min blowing up. This drives me crazy!!!  I did however give in for 5 min to take some pictures before I freaked out and and rushed us together and out the door while trying to feed a toddler. I mean I’m the mom so I have to be crazy like that, just like the dads have to be crazy and pick the most annoying thing to be doing instead of getting ready to go. It’s crazy lol. So at least he’s having fun in his pre trick or treat outfit (aka pjs and crazy hair). I feel like he lived in pjs all week because of the storm.

I just love his static hair and yogurt face.

This is us out the door on our way to the grandparents house. They live a street over, no lie we are the real “everyone love raymond”. He isn’t big enough to reach the peddles of his big wheel yet and doesn’t have his hat part on but, he’s a little flying dragon.I love his little blue pumpkin bucket, he’s looking at daddy wondering where his candy is. We put two pieces in it before we left the house.It doesn’t look like it but It was actually getting really dark and this was one of the only times when we handed him his bucket that he was able to find the handle in the dark.
This is also I guess what you should expect from a toddler costume, for them to barely be able to see out of it or to be pulling it off.Grammy & Granddads house is always first on our halloween list of houses to go to. Last year was his first Halloween so he was in a stroller and the grandparents house was the only one he visited, but this year he can walk, so I though it was super adorable.We only realized after standing there that he can only say a couple words and trick or treat and thank are not in his vocabulary yet. Maybe that’s why people don’t let their kids trick or treat tell they’re like four or five. Oh well I”m getting in as many Halloween’s as I can, while he’s still too little to object to my costume choice. I mean he’ll have years of dressing up as a super here but lets get real he probably wouldn’t pick a dragon to go as. We were also going to dress up as vikings, kind of a “how to train your dragon” thing but were in a rush to get out of the house. We did wear them for the costume party, but I didn’t even get a picture of us 🙁 After we “treated” at the grandparents house we went two houses down to meet up with friends of mine. Luis and I went to school together in elementary and high school and I was so surprised to find out that he lived only two houses down from the in-laws. So we had been trying to get together to meet his little boy Aiden and his wife Carolina. They came to the Halloween party and we had a blast and decided to meet up with them to trick or treat. Carolina’s mom came out too and Duane and her drove the boys around while we took pictures. Here are the cuties in action!We “drove” them all over the neighbor hood, they were so cute. Then we came home and let Keaton help give out candy. The last picture on the right is him biting into a mini kit kat. He managed to bite all the way though and open the wrapper with his sharp little toddler teeth. So he had two kit kats from daddy, had a ton of fun with Aiden, and stayed up late. I hope everyone else’s Halloween was just as successful and safe. Happy belated Halloween to everyone!

It’s officially fall! There is the aroma of pumpkin spice lattes in the air, and if you are a Starbucks nut like me then you know the pumpkin cream cheese muffins are out too! Oh they are the best treat of the year! They are also one of those things that are just fun to eat because the cream cheese is only in the top part. Which was a huge calamity for me as is most of my life. I had been craving one all week and they were always so elusive. AKA they were out of them, like every time I went in. Well then one day THEY WERE IN!!! What made it even better was that I was in the drive thru, the baby was passed out, and we were on the way home. It was a golden mommy moment. I was going to be able to put the baby down and have a quiet moment with my coffee and pumpkin cream cheese muffin 🙂 I put the baby down, came back and the muffin was on the floor with cream cheese smeared all over. “NOOOO, dam you, you crazy dog” was what instantly popped out of my mouth. Mommies sometimes only want the little pleasures which, some times seem to allude them at every turn. Which can frustrate the hell out of any good woman. So This post is all about how much I love fall and pumpkins and all that, but again missed a potentially great mommy moment. AKA have fun at the farm while simultaneously  getting a great family picture for the Christmas card. Was that too much to ask, well yes lol. For starters (and those of you who are photographers relate) it feels like I can get my clients to understand the concept of magic hour but can’t manage to get the family to. I really need to be more forceful about planning activities around that time, but oh well we are busy, like the rest of the planet. However our trip to Round Hill Farm was  amazing even if it wasn’t at magic hour. If you live in Virginia anywhere near here you have to visit! To top it off all the crazy animals and fun, I some how always blank out that  my husband is not great with a camera. Well it’s kind of hilarious, which is why later in this post you will see some funny pictures of me I wouldn’t normally be showing the world. But we’re friends right and it’s a laugh, so please enjoy the calamity that is me and the family outing.

This was the first instance that I though ummm… maybe playing in the hay only sounded fun. As a mom sometimes you stupidly think your kid will enjoy things other kids do, but sometimes it doesn’t always work that way. Like how I stood here trying to coax my child to play in the hay. “It’s fun you can run and play in it”, I said. Then you get the look that kids always give their moms, the um… you are crazy look. Next we walked by the animals on our way to the hay barrel maze. Why with a one and a half year old this would be fun I don’t know but as always it was my husbands idea. The walk was short but fun we walked buy the, I guess you call them stables. They had pigs, baby chicks and these beautiful alpacas. Keaton’s not used to seeing anamals up close (other then our dog) so this was his hesatent stance.
This was the alpaca he was looking at, beautiful right?

And Then Keaton got a little braver and went to see the, I guess they’re cows lol. Wow I need to study up more on old McDonald’s farm lol. The bottom one is up for debate too, I said it’s a turkey. Yummy Yummy turkey lol, well thanksgiving is coming up, but yea, um I don’t’ want to be eating turkey while looking at this cute face lol. Um that is why they sell them the way they do in the super market, it never says turkey sam, he was the thompson’s family pet and he taste delicious 🙂

See what I’m saying people who wants to eat a face like that lol. No one! Now onto the maze!

This shot kinda reminds me of when I was driving with a friend and he said “hey” and I said “um yea hey what” and he said no “hay” and pointed to a field of hay lol. Cheesy but it really happened to me, I am just that slow some days lol. And my friends are that mean lol. But as I have told you before I am that random person at Starbucks you are overhearing all the time.

You will notice a lot though this outing that I am as usual not in a lot of these pictures. Can you mommies or photographers relate? I always hang in the back so that I can take pictures once everyone has moved the heck out of my way lol. It’s also my style, because my husbands style is to be first in line thru any tour so he can chat with the guide. He also likes to read all the posted things about obscure things or people you would NEVER care about, except that a sign declares they are an awesome figure in history/ life and you must know them. I find that kinda boring and I”m not that into history only photographing the cool stuff lol. Do you hang back or is it just me? Anyway, I enjoyed the thought behind this maze, because if you are an adult you can see other adult heads as you walk thru the maze so you don’t get lost.

When you let the child lead that may not work as well and you may end up down a dead end like this one. I also really enjoy when kids and adults see the way out and your instincts take over and you run!!!! You see that little bit of space, and I know even parents are like, wahoo, escape!! This is the look right before the running, the do you see me, because now I’m about to run away from you look.

For my child running is a every second event. This kid never sits still. He has, like baby ADD, that I hear my husband had when he was little too! It’s the mothers curse! The, “I hope you have a kid just like you when you grow up”. Keaton is always leading the pack with all of us trailing after him. Oh by the way that is my mother-in-law in the image on the top. She wanted to have special grandma time with Keaton. I got some great pictures of all of them, but I laughingly will call her my stand in for this post. Mainly because the images she’s in would have been great family pictures, had I acctully been in them lol.

See This is what I’m saying, wouldn’t this be a great family photo if I was in it. It’s ok that she’s in it though cause it’s cute. The bottem pictures are of my husband trying to get Keaton’s shoes off, because they are full of corn kernels. See we again mistakenly though that he would enjoy playing in the huge sandbox full of corn kernels there. It was an ordeal for him, the arms raised and crying. We pulled him out, because his sandal type shoes had filled with kernels lol. I shouldn’t laugh but really it was funny, watching a dad try and get shoes on a toddler, and also simultaneously pull kernels out of them. Once shoes were back on we headed back up to the animals again. I don’t know if you do this, but I boss my husband around, telling him “go stand/ sit over there I want a picture there”. Even being a photographer doesn’t get me the simple yes no problem, your the photographer  answer I’m looking for. No I get the, “are you sure the lights right?”, “what, here next to this ugly tire”, “Do you want us to go in it?”. You would think he was someones annoying client. which, knock on wood, but I never done get, thank God. No only the hubby harasses me with such gusto. This is the result though, I like it. I only wish Keaton wasn’t as afraid of the hay lol.

This was the most beautiful animals there. This sheep reminded me of going to the fair’s in the mountains with my grandfather and getting to hold baby sheep. Don’t you just love all that wool. Duane’s mom knits and after she petted the sheep she said, ” oh hello sheep, how’s my wool?”. Which was just really funny, wearing her knitted sweater, and all that 🙂

Keaton has this routine with our dog that he sticks his face out and the dog comes to give him a kiss. So here is Keaton sticking his face out for kisses with the adorable little billy goats. He was not prepared for the lambs to came running up for kisses too! I just love his little pout lip it’s so cute!

This was the offending sheep, definitely too cute to be upset at. And even funnier that such a cutie could make my cutie cry lol.

The barnyard area was full of beautiful animals that just had such personality, I mean just look at these characters.

After seeing all these guys or gals lol, Keaton decided he was “done”,  because this guy was so loud. The turkeys where making so much noise. It was so funny to hear them chatter to each other, but Keaton was so confused that he just decided he was done lol.

I stayed behind a couple minutes to get these shots, of Lord help me whatever this hilarious animal is. I really do need to study old McDonald’s farm lol.

Can you tell that he really liked me? Wanted to give me kisses, he was really playing it up. I told you these animals were really friendly lol.

So on the way back up the hill to the hayrides they have donkeys, and even a zebra. There is something else that I really liked about this farm and that was the sign below. It thanks some of the other farms and local people (who probably had the chickens) for bringing their animals out for show. I really liked this because It means these animals aren’t there all the time they are real farm animals or pets and have open fields and pens at home too. Also you know if another farmer is willing to loan out an animal to another farmer they must trust that person a great deal to take care of their animals, which I like. You could also just tell that these animals are very well cared for.

This is the view as you walk up the hill with the barn, and then the back of the truck for hayrides. Pretty, right? I love the barn, a red barn at that. My friends in Wyoming used to say you can’t call it a barn if it’s not red lol.

These are my favorite shots from the hayride. There are a lot, but I just though it looked so cute with the barn in the background.

This is my mother-in-law enjoying the hayride. She didn’t say much but anytime you get to enjoy the fall its always a serene time. Plus she loves taking pictures of Keaton and she was ready once we stopped bumping around to start snapping away.

Here is one of Keaton when we finely stopped. He’s just sitting there pulling on the hay. It’s always kind of funny to try and get a one and a half year olds excited about stuff, when they can’t talk and have never seen certain things before. “Honey look pumpkins”! He doesn’t know what pumpkins are yet, he can’t even say pumpkins.

When we got off though, and he got to see the pumpkins he made sure to try and pick up one bigger then his head. He threw a fit and looked up at grammy like, if you loved me you would pick up this heavy thing and take it home for me lol. Here is how that went.

Yep,oh here baby lets get this heavy pumpkin for you. He so has grammy wrapped around his finger. This is the point in time I decide what a great picture, that would be great if I had a picture like that of Keaton and I at the pumpkin patch too! So I called my husband over to get some pictures of Keaton and I. This is what you get with him. Notice that my head is cut off and I’m making CARAZY faces at him. This would be, because the whole time he is asking me “don’t you want to turn around so the sun is in your face”? “Why do I have to be on green mode?” “You should smile, you know your not smiling, right?” “I dunno, these don’t look all that great.”. He can drive me a little crazy lol. So please enjoy his attempt at photographing me with the baby. I would normally not post such obviously horrible pictures of myself but I though you would get a laugh out of them.

Then you have these of me hiding behind Keaton lol. Then the other two where the lighting was not great and of course, I didn’t get the red barn background either lol. Oh well, I make the best of  it. We just say it’s Duane’s overly artistic eye. What do you guys think, are they too funny or what?

Alright now pay for the pumpkins and where done right? No. I put him up on the tractor and then we have to get one more picture by the haystalks, or at least that’s what Duane’s mom wanted.

So here is my shot of Duane and Keaton first.

Then this is the one I get to be in that Duane’s mom took of us.

This is the one I took of Duane’s mom and Keaton and then the “family” ones at the bottom. It would have been really great had I been in these.

I know what your all saying get a remote or put it on a timer and tripod and stop complaining. And I hear you, your right, your right. But the truth of it is that, at this age and as much as he likes to run I was surprised that he would sit still for any type of family photo. Lesson learned though. I know what I’ll be getting myself for christmas, because lets face it as a photographer you so rarely get to be in pictures and if you are you might as well go all out and make it perfect right?Well This by far was one of the best farm/ pumpkin patch experiences I’ve ever had. The animals where adorable, the people super friendly. We have already decided that this is our pumpkin patch central for the fall. We went on a week day, and they have even more stuff on the weekends, like a little train that goes around for the kids, adorable! The prices were great and I even got one of these awesome white pumpkins, still don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but they are so cool. Hopefully in the future I will be showing you all some better family portraits, like ones that I’m in or whatever craziness I decide to use for the Christmas card this year lol, cliffhanger. And for heaven sake get a pumpkin spice latte, and pumpkin cream cheese muffin and enjoy all the fall stuff. Oh and FREAK OUT!!!!! Christmas is all most here lol.

So this a little bit of a tribute and some girlie stuff too. So the situation is that I happen to be helping throw a baby shower for a friend the day of my favorite band playing this year 🙁 Soo sad but this baby shower was really important so I did what had to be done lol. I had a great time at the shower and it looked amazing as you will see from the pictures below, shhh I took them with my iPhone, don’t tell. Since I didn’t get to go to the concert I will do a little tribute and post all of my favorite past moments of precious times I was able to go. But first things first BABYS!!!!

This is a little collection of the pictures I took at the baby shower. I was crazy busy that day helping the hubby get lumber for the deck then setting up this whole thing so I gave my self a break and didn’t take me camera. Of course I should have though, I really do need to work on the whole take it with you where every you go thing. To make that easier I will be making hubby buy me an adorable purse/camera bag/ diaper bag all in one this year for christmas!!! Any way this was the party.

The whole party was butterfly theme of course and I have to give a huge shout out to http://www.ellinee.com who designed the watercolored butterflies, thank you tags and the flowers on the letter I that I made. The top left picture is silverware tied with butterflies then and adorable diaper cake done by one of the other awesome ladies throwing the shower. Then dollar store boxes with thank you tags. The large picture is of the baby to be’s room can you guess her name lol. The big letter I on the door I made out of card board and yarn. I got the idea off of pintrist, who says everyone just pins and never uses stuff from there. Pintrist saves my life all the time 🙂 . The bottom left picture is of her walk though to the kitchen that we hung butterflies from. The frame is in Isabella’s room, a friend of hers made this. It’s also an idea from pintrist lol. Yes I will be going on and on about pintrist! A friend of hers also made this really fun cake and it looked adorable, but the best was the bottom was a chocolate pumpkin cake and omg it was amazing. It’s also a pintrist recipe, that I stupidly did not get before the party ended 🙁

These are the rest of the decorations. The pom pom’s are from the party store and the onesies I cut out from a template I found on pintrist. The butterfly I punched a whole in and used fun straws in those Starbucks glass frappuccino bottles. The banner was a free printable from pottery barn kids

So that was the party and it was a great time with the girls. I think we all had a blast and I know the mommy to be got amazing stuff for little miss Isabella. So here’s the question will your child grow up and love rock and roll? Yes!!!!!! Ok everyone has their own form of rock and roll. Like for my parents it’s classic rock and people still love it. For me It is my favorite band Skillet and christian rock. Now don’t judge cause Skillet is amazing and very rock and roll ok.

I have been listening to them since their first album came out in 96. I have seen them in 5 different states, but only once in my home state. So here is the deal a couple years back I got to be one of the photographers for this huge two day concert called Awakening fest. I was asked to do it for either two or three of the years. I got to go back stage and on stage and it was great! The next year I was on my honeymoon and after that we had moved fairly far away, but the one year I wasn’t photographing guess who was playing SKILLET!!!  So I went and saw them play of course, but wasn’t on stage or back stage. Keep in mind it poured buckets that year my friends and I where wet to the bone but loved every minute. However, I again did not bring my good camera and I’m very glad I didn’t because we where almost front row jumping in the mud and after they played we looked disgusting and I can’t imagine what my camera would have looked like. But here are some very rock and roll shots of all the other Awakening Fest’s I photographed with out my favorite band 🙁 . Click on Skillet’s picture (it will go to their page) select some great music to listen to as you look at all the awesome pics.I Guess I will be seeing Skillet in another state again this year lol great fans travel to she their bands, as skillet says so they can rock their face off!!!

This is the graffiti wall they did one year, it went around the whole top center part of the venue. The pictures in the bottom part are the bands back stage and your going to kill me cause its been so long I don’t even remember which bands these where. But feel free to tell me and that its horrible that I can’t remember. The image on the left is the band with some of the creators of Awakening Fest.

This Is Barlow Girl, or one of them lol. They are all sisters and they definitly fall into the catagory of strong woman. I love that, I think it was the first couple years their set was at sunset or around there so all their shots had great lighting!

These are the other two sisters the one on the right playing guitar and keyboard and the other on the drums. By the way the lead singer of skillet (his wife is in the band) she’s the one with the black hair. I saw her rocking keyboard and guitar pregnant and it was like the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, they are so amazing, love her! Just saying! Strong woman rock the world literally 🙂

and this (the bottom picture) was a great moment because she got up and read the Word and just gave this great speech about her personal experience in life and it was very touching. I’m sure it really reached a lot of young girls in the crowd so it was a really great moment.

These are some of the crowd shots you can really tell just how much these kids adore some of the great bands playing 🙂

I really loved playing around with these story board templates and putting things together and I really love this one, because well… drums rock and the way the light was hitting these I just love it. I always think it’s funny because at a venue that goes from night to day the crowd is great during the day but when the sun goes down they are even more pumped. Plus the lighting is way different.

This is one of the other things about an all day concert like this one, during the day there are kids every where having a blast. There are all sorts of things for kids like jousting, and bounce houses and face paint, but I really loved this shot of this little girl just quietly taking it all in. I think everyone has fun at these events because you can do what ever suites your personality.

Like this girl who obviously whooped the heck out of someone wahoo! I love to see kids doing that jousting stuff it is so funny. But It’s also crazy how some kids even really young ones want to be front row. I remember being at a Skillet concert having a mom get upset with me that her child who was like 8 couldn’t see. That was because um oh yea not everyone was 8 and was obviously taller. I very politely ( really I actually was ) told her I would be more worried about moshing and him getting hurt and asked her if she had ever been to one of these concerts. The answer was no and when the moshing started they “eventually” left. That’s also what I love about this venue because if you have kids and your not front row jumping like a crazy person and head banging and all that, which is normally my husband lol. Then you can still enjoy a great show while chilling in your camp chair, although I really believe that people need to at the very least stand and listen to rock and roll lol.

As you can tell there is a whole lot of standing near the stage happening when the sun goes down. These next couple of sets are of Toby Mac who one of my then roommates was in love with!! I am always amazed how many people are in his crew, I think there was seven over all. But this part of the show was so hard to shoot for two reasons, ok maybe three. One, strobe lights, drive me crazy. Two, they had so many color transitions and the lighting was really dark too. After this below you’ll see one shot where he’s silhouetted against the album logo on the dj booth. Third issue was, I love Toby Mac but I have never seen some one screw up their face so much while singing or just be eating a microphone, but he does. Maybe it’s a rap thing. I dunno, but I told my roomy who was in love with him that maybe the pictures of him posed in magazines she would like better then these, but she thinks he’s hot regardless lol.

This is what I’m saying about the Toby Mac crew there are a ton of them right? I just love how they all interact with each other all the time. Toby would be running to sing with every one and they are rocking out with each other. They are probably the most “social” on stage band I’ve seen. It’s really fun to watch, because they are never stationary for long. Well maybe the DJ.

More of them running around. The image on the right is one of the only girl of the group and she’s running up to take center stage and every one telling her to go, it’s so funny. The crowed loved them and all the moving around, I think if I remember correctly Toby even climbed part of the side of the stage up to almost where the lights were. Which was kind of crazy, but like I said the crowd loved it 🙂

The images of this guy I love, every one in the bad just has such heart and it really shows 🙂Look she was really rocking out. Everyone else is doing their thing and the guy in the top right was doing flips and all sorts of stuff, even with the strobe lights going at one point. They even picked them up, how that doesn’t blind you after a bunch of shows I have no idea.
Love this one too and just had to end the set of Toby Mac pictures with this one, it’s one of my favorites. Isn’t it funny when you shoot how some are just your favorites because they are and some cause the moment is great, but yea I just like this one.

This next set is of Jeremy Camp who I’m going to be honest with you is great, he falls in to christian rock, but he’s not metal. He is just the epitome of christian rock. Which is great, I like his stuff and have a ton of his music. It’s great stuff A+. The funny thing is though that the year it rained and I got to see skillet he was the headliner and Skillet “opened” for him. Which was hilarious, because they pretty much closed the concert for him. Basically what happened is that this is a two day concert and Jeremy Camp is one style and Skillet another. Skillet a little harder rock if you will. Well they should have put Jeremy on the second day with the more christian rock stuff then with all the harder bands. Because the crowd that whole day stood all day in the rain to hear skillet, went crazy, mud everywhere, and when Jeremy Camp came up for his set there was a mass exodus. You could tell who where Jeremy’s fans and who’s where Skillets, covered in mud they all booked out. Me included, like I said I like Jeremy Camp but just not enough to continue standing in the rain with wet sneakers and muddy jeans. Luckily the year I got to photograph him, no rain lol.  As you can tell he puts on a good show, just no moshing.

This is Jeremy Camp 🙂

They had some fun lighting too, as you can tell mostly red and orange. Let me know what you think of some of these, I had fun and I like them but I’m always nervous about how people perceive the lens flare.

Well as you can tell I love me some good drum shots and I just love all the “fog” in this one. What’s funny is later in the night if i’m remembering correctly it did get a little foggy in parts of the venue because there is a big hill at the top and it kind of makes a little valley.

Well it’s sad but my favorite out of these is the bottom one with all the cell phones. Gone are the lighters and the risk of lighting the girl in front of you’s hair on fire. Now everyone uses cell phones and instead of a great warm glow from the lighters it’s a blue cast of start up screens lol. I also kinda dig the blue shot in the middle where his head is the lens flair, I know it’s wrong but I kinda like it lol.

His whole crew except the drummer.

Ha every time I see this pic I just wish people could have been there, because yea he’s doing the whole point to God thing but it’s always is a really powerful moment. That’s one thing that I have to give him, it’s not metal, but is very moving. And not in a it sounds like a love song kind of way, but in a this is the real life issues and things we should be focusing on kind of a thing.

Ok this is the last, last one. Even out of the Jeremy Camp stuff and I’m ending on this on because I like it and I think it rocks. Please let me know what you guys think, If you’ve ever had to miss seeing your band to go to something completely the opposite like a baby shower or a really formel wedding. The stuff we do for friends. Well I have to say I haven’t got to see a really awesome rock concert since my little one ( now a year and a half) was born. I am in serious need or rock. I mean I have to settle for cranking my music obesely loud as I roll into the church parking lot when the in-laws or hubby have the baby. I do always love the look the old people give me, they never say anything, but I alway want to be like “what it’s christian rock”.  Anyone else suffering from a serious lack of rock in their life? I mean I used to crank it up while i’m in the shower and now I’m lucky if I get a shower let alone get to spend it not listening to see if the baby woke up. The things you didn’t know you’d give up for your kids lol. But he will be a metal head one day, he will lol.

So It’s ok to eat sand or at least that’s what all mommies tell other mommies before their child’s first beach trip. This was my son  Keaton’s second beach trip, but the first one was before he could crawl. Which means their was no worry about eating sand. This trip there was plenty of sand eating and running. Here are a million pictures to kind of give you an idea of how it all went down. This is little mans first walk on the beach. We live in Virginia and Corolla beach in North Carolina is like a 5 hour drive so he was so thrilled to get out and play.We took the grandparents (my parents) with us, and were so glad we did. Grandparents were great! We were able to play in the water together, go on a date while we were there, and the second set of eyes was super handy as we found out, because our son has absolutely no fear of the water! So this is my lovely mother! We went down to the beach around sunset and the light was great, but we stayed until it got dark.

This Is my mom and dad, aren’t’ they so cute! This is one of the few pictures ever in life I was able to get my dad not talking or commenting or joking. He talks a lot, like me, what can I say. Oh also don’t know if you noticed I talk like I type.. very fast with no brakes so don’t expect a lot of punctuation here. Also my spelling is atrocious so please bear with me 🙂

This is “daddy please pick me up and take me to see the waves”

OK!!!!! I will admit it to you guys but shhh, I totally Photoshopped my self a little skinnier in this one because well it was not looking good for me lol. But I know you feel me on this one girls. This mommy is not back to where she wants to be weight wise, but I’m getting there. I do Weight Watchers and lost 50 Lb when I was in high school but gained it all back when I got married years later. Lets just say hubby is not big on eating his vegetables. So far I’ve lost 25LB but still have a ton to loose (remember I Photoshopped my self lol) but If I did it once I can do it again. I just love this family picture of us because lets be honest I am not normally in pictures I take them. Plus the hubby is awful at taking pics half the time he almost cuts my head off, It will be the sky and my head, no body lol. He’ll say well I was trying to get the sky behind you lol mission accomplished 🙂

So I told you how Keaton has no fear of the water… well look who tried to run strait in and fell over. He wasn’t even wearing his suit yet! So glad I didn’t have to grab him this time.

So of course we let him roam in just a soggy diaper. Then he decided to get into more trouble and yes this is the first picture of all the sand eating that I endured that week. Because as a mom your instincts to grab their hand and be like, NOOOO why are you eating that is a very strong instinct. Which of course makes it oh so thrilling for little kids, to see mommy freaking out like a crazy pants, right?

I love this one too! Although I had to fight the instinct to drop my camera and go after him and pull his hand away from his mouth lol. And you will notice hubby standing right next to him like oh please he’s fine, kids eat sand all the time. And I love Keaton’s look, like if I look away from mommy she won’t know I’m eating this yummy crunchy stuff. By the way I though it would be horrible on his system which it probably is, but he ate more food, drank more and passed it the next day. So apparently this kid has an iron stomach.

All the boys on the beach together, I love it. This is the first vacation we’ve taken as a couple with my parents so it’s great to see everyone together.

Ok I don’t know if you all call them this, but this is a family thing. Dad is officially building the first dribble castle of the season. Yes we call them dribble castles and yes my dad is the best on the planet at making them. So this pic is extra funny for me 🙂

And this is Keaton running to help!

This is the second day, as Keaton scouts the beach lol. He was such a beach bum he went to the beach every single day we where there. Although it was impossible to get him to wear a hat. He did wear the shirt though so that was good!

This is the look I get all the time. No I don’t think I want to hold your hand, I think I want to RUN!!!!!

Then this makes me laugh. I was going to eat this sand daddy, but you can have it.

Sand!!! This is what a dribble castle looks like for those of you who don’t know.

Ok so we all know that men always talk a big game but my husband on this trip was hilarious! I would hold Keaton’s hand down by the water and he would yell, “don’t take him any further!” Literally right before this picture I asked him if he would ever take him in further then just getting his feet wet. The reply was, “no not this trip one bad wave and he could be sucked out to sea.” So imagine my surprise to see my husband on his knees in the actual “waves” with our son lol. Can you say double standard. I told him this and he just laughs cause he knows he is a total spaz. Which is funny for a tough firefighter type like him lol.

So at the end of this day of fun the hilarious calamity strikes. My husband and I get to play in the water, body surf and just relax (thank you grandparents). Well while body surfing in a wave my husband Duane, biffs it and gets smashed into the sand. That happens some times no biggy. But here is where it gets entertaining because my husband while very tough on the job is some how a huge baby when it comes to minor cuts and bruises. So we wake up in the morning and I hear, oh my elbow hurts this and that. So I think omg I am never going to hear the end of this and end up changing all the diapers because that’s what boys do lol. So we head to the urgent care and get and x-ray and he got a sling. So I thought again its not broken so cry me a river. Turns out it was fractured, a small little crack or chip or something, so then I felt bad lol. But I still heard about it ALL weekend lol 🙂

This is Keaton eating grapes from grandma, which later gave him the worst diaper rash in the history of the world. We had to call the doctor and have them order this special diaper cream to the pharmacy at the beach. It was so bad it even started bleeding at one point, poor tush. But thank God for salt water which I think helped alot! So Duane had a broken elbow and the baby with diaper rash it was kind of crazy but something like this always happens on vacation without fail.

He loved these grapes so much he bit moms hand just to get them! I think that kid could live off of fruit alone.

As I said before he would not wear a hat lol this is my dad trying to hold it on his head! But oh he loves his granddad, I love the “kisses” picture below 🙂

Just love this look

Whats kinda funny about the beach is that my husband and I aren’t big drinkers, so I think I had like 2 margaritas and a few mikes hard lemonade the whole weekend, cause well I was on vacation, Hello! But you have to keep the little man hydrated and so he had his sippy cup on the beach and I just love that it matches his swim suit lol. Not intentional but cute none the less.

This is the boardwalk up to the beach and it is quite a different experience having a kid that can walk to the beach then taking a baby that can’t even crawl yet.

So you know the saying you can give a kid expensive toys but he’ll always wind up just playing with the box so you should just get him a box? Well this rings true for my kid all the time. He is occupied by the craziest stuff and we just let him have it because we don’t care, however we do get some crazy looks sometimes but we’re parents. I say just go with it. So anyway, this was a kids shovel that the bottom plastic part broke off but Keaton wanted to carry it to the beach everyday like his personal shovel. Only problem was trying to not get hit with it. But It was kinda hard to pry him away from it.

This place has the best kettle corn in corolla and great pastry its past the light house in this little area they call old town corolla
Lovie’s Kitchen Table
1130-E Corolla Village Road
Corolla
Lovie’s offers great food and drink in Corolla. Set in an historic Corolla home, Lovie’s is a sweet place to find refreshment. Stop by in the morning for coffee and a signature sweet potato sticky bun. Enjoy lunch on the screened porch. Shop their great selection of sweet and savory specialty foods, NC microbrews and boutique wines, and find great gifts and souvenirs to complement your kitchen. Lovie’s is situated between the bookstore and the chapel in Corolla village.

This is Meme feeding Keaton the kettle corn on their porch swing 🙂

This is one of the shops we always stop by
Old Corolla Trading Co.
1129 Old Corolla Village Road
Corolla

These are some of the wild horses in Corolla. It was so crazy because this is where my husband is so great for me. He insisted we go to the off road area, where you basically drive on the beach to this area where there are neighborhoods and stuff but the houses are there and can’t get to the rest of the area, be cause of cattle guards and things. I’m so unadventurous that I have been coming to the outer banks forever and have never driven up this way. I was amazed that people actually think they can take their minivans out there, but what can you say some people are idiots. But It keeps the tow truck driver in business, so that’s a plus.  You are also suposed to keep 50ft away from these horses and obviously that’s not followed. So much so there was an organization that drives up and hands out fliers to tell you to basically get back.

This is our crew to the right. The beach between them and the horses is what people drive on, crazy right!

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This is my tourist shot lol can you believe every one is so close to these beautiful animals. There are people tanning right next to them, and throwing footballs. Someone even brought their dog and walked right next to them, I was kind of surprised they didn’t run away. It is so crazy!!!

So our last days at the beach where like this! This is Keaton’s sandy feet. I just had to get one shot of this cause who doesn’t love little sandy toes.

Oh This is Delaney him and his wife Ann stayed with us. He is a ship captain on this amazing ship think huge techy, like bigger then Deadliest Catch. Anyway he is a great cook and fattened us up all week check out his site if you live in Virginia and love BBQ, seafood or a whole roasted pig, he also does fancy stuff but I love it all what can I say. Check him out! http://www.oceanmeetslandcatering.com/

Oh I almost forgot! So while we were on our date night we left Keaton with the Grandparents (Thanks Again!). They took him out to the beach and found this message in a bottle, how cute right. But also hugely irresponsible because it pollutes the world and all that. So while I was very torn about throwing this bottle back in the ocean we did just because I would feel awful if this little girl didn’t get a second response back. So here is her letter (I badly blurred out their address but oh well you get the jist.)


So that was that, and the end of our great beach vacation! Threw the bottle back to sea right before we got kicked off the beach by the lifeguards because a huge storm was coming. Then it immediately started raining so we got out just in time to get this last picture. Bye bye beach, see you next year!

I absolutely loved photographing this party! It’s true what they say about red heads, they can be a bit mischievous!  The birthday boy was as sweet as pie, but I just love some of the pictures I was able to get of that little glint of trouble in his eye. He had a some very adorable guests also. This is baby brother helping out in the kitchen, he’s such a cutie. I have never seen so much food at a little kids birthday and it was all amazing!

This is the birthday boy in the bounce house, which he only left probably twice the while evening. This was probably the only five seconds of non-bouncing. This was a very difficult shot to get because this particular bounce house had a very small opening. when they say only kids aloud they mean it. Although I know a couple of dads and one mom joined in on the fun and squeezed though there. The birthday boy loved it, the kids loved it so what more could you ask for, right?

When the birthday boy wasn’t in the bounce house or eating cake he was doing chores and mowing the yard. What a great kid! They had a huge yard to play in and let me tell you those kids more then took advantage of it.

Sorry I know my logo is covering his face but this was so fun, because he was going through pulling all the balloons down and threatening the girl behind him that he was going to pop them. I think it was a little red head flirting  she was giggling it was so funny.

This is that mischievous glint I was telling you about. This is the look right before he gets to dive into the cake, making everyone laugh around him. He really plays to the crowd lol.

I love this look, can you tell that that cupcake was just absolutely amazing!!! Like I said he really played to the crowd making funny faces and just having a blast. I think all the kids enjoyed the cake & cupcakes they where hovering like hawks and always about an inch from one of them putting their fingers in the cake or falling right into it. I always think that is so funny how kids can get so excited about a little thing like cake and then almost manage to wait patiently. I mean why don’t they wait like that when you tell them you cleaning and your going to give them a cookie in a minute. Is it just that your not dangling a scrumptious cookie on a string in front of their face lol. Kids are so funny they just crack me up. They had already divvied who gets what side of the cake, so amusing.

Dad asking “was that good?” which it obviously really was. Then something happened that so rarely happens at kids birthday parties!!! He used a napkin, all by himself with out being asked and of course all the mommies are looking at him like aren’t you the most well behaved child on the planet. But mommies don’t get to over the moon he has red hair so you know those teenage years are coming lol. However, I just love daddies and little boys together and this was just so sweet

Birthday boy really has some manners, I told you it was impressive. This was one of the cute little girls at the party and while we where getting pictures of the two of them I asked him to give her a hug. What amazes me is the hug while getting no frosting on this little girls dress or face lol. Most little boys can’t wait to smear a girl with frosting but you have to give it to him he is a perfect gentlemen.

I  came upon this little one and laughed out loud and her poor mommy was just looking at her. I love those moments as a mom where you look at your child and your like really?, seriously, that’s what where doing right now? Then you say well sigh ok, have at it. I told her mom well at least that’s what diaper wipes are for and its not like its permanent marker, right? I just love the frosting facial and then deciding to rub it all over her arm, but you have to admit she still looks so cute even covered in frosting

This is just one of the family pictures, I also did the whole family, grandparents included, but it’s just not done yet and I wanted to get this one out to you. Look at this family aren’t they just adorable. The two brothers are super cute, I could not believe how much the little one hammed it up for the camera. What a good baby right? If all babies where this easy to photography my job would be sooo easy. But I love this family picture everyone looks great! It was a great party and I”m glad I was able to get the whole family together at the end it just ended everything on a great note and of course everyone had a blast. Kids left with goodie bags and hats and worn out and hopefully slept for their parents, I know my little one did all the way home after this party. Well Happy Birthday Jefferson! Congrats on the BIG 3 🙂

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