Ava

It was 60 degrees (60 DEGREES!!!) outside in Missouri in the end of January, and I had to take advantage of the nice weather. I wanted to take Max and Ava out to this big field a few miles from our house with some nice tall grass in it for some portraits. Max decided he didn't want to take a nap, so he didn't get to go. I still trekked out there with Ava and my parents right before sunset and the light was perfect!

Here are some of my favorites from my 20 minute mini session with my beautiful daughter, Ava. Doesn't she look all grown up now? On a side note, if anyone knows how to stop time, or even slow it down for that matter, could you please let me know? I'll be 27 next month, and time just seems like it's flying by. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!













It's hard to believe it's snowing like crazy as I type this and these pictures were taken 2 days ago. I'm so ready for the spring so Max, Ava, and Zoey can all play outside every day again.

Van Horn Video - Deal or No Deal Video

So things have been kinda slow around here lately (it IS January after all), so I was really excited to tag along with my good friends Drew and Selena from Van Horn Video today for their Deal or No Deal audition video with Layna and Joel. Let me just tell you, this video is going to be HILARIOUS! As soon as Drew gets done editing it, I'm sure I'll be able to talk him into letting me post it here so everyone can see it. Anyway, Josh made me promise to take a few photos so I could have something to blog about, so here they are...

First up, Drew and Selena in action... Selena is such a great director! And Drew's quiet and always thinking behind the camera :)


Getting ready to play a mock 'Deal or No Deal'

A few of the Realies came along to show their support for Layna... and to be the glamorous case girls :)

Deal or No Deal? The pressure was almost too much!

And the reaction to winning a million dollars... (and in case you're wondering, Joel is holding a stuffed monkey because if they win a million dollars, he's hoping Layna will let him get a REAL pet monkey... my money's on Layna... sorry Joel!)

This is Layna rapping to Baby Got Back (of course she changed up the words:) with everybody else shaking their booties in the background


Layna and Joel, good luck! They had better let you on Deal or No Deal. I mean, you worked so hard on the video (and you do have great hair :)

Grandma EE

This afternoon I went out into a field to take some sweet shots of Ava, and my parents tagged along to help. Max and Jenny were supposed to come along, but due to an unfortunate scenario where Max decided he did not want to take a nap, they had to stay home. I needed a helper, and my mom always does a good job:)

To get to the point, I was looking through the pictures tonight and this one grabbed me, so I wanted to share it right away. I'll post more pics of Ava from the session once I get more time to work on them.



I wanted to add also that I don't have enough pictures of my parents with our kids, and that's a shame. My parents probably spend almost as much time as we do with our kids. Max and Ava just love their Papa & EE. If it wasn't for them, we couldn't run our photography business the way we do.

Anyway, I'd love to let people know that if they are interested in any Grandparent Sessions, we'd love to spend some time with your kids and their grandparents doing whatever it is they do together. Whether it's sharing an ice cream cone, or just capturing grandpa pushing your little ones around on their tricycles, we'd love to capture some of those memories for all generations to enjoy for years to come.

And, finally, I'd like to personally thank everyone for their kind words on our new website. We spent a lot of time getting that ready for launch, I'm glad that it was time well spent.

New Website!!

Our new website is finally done!! Go check it out...

www.joshsolarphoto.com

6 Freakin' Miles

This morning I woke up at 5:24 am and could not get back to sleep. I decided to get my run in for the day. Well, I wanted to knock out a 5 mile run, and I made this lap in my neighborhood that I thought was 1.05 miles. It turns out that it's really 1.2 miles, so my 5 mile run turned into 6 miles, at 5 freakin' 30 in the morning! My favorite part about it all was the looks people were giving me as I ran through the neighborhood.

Anyway, it felt great to run that much at one time, and on a side note, if you decide to run for over an hour outside in the 10 degree weather, when you come back inside, yes, that is your sweat that froze on your stocking cap and sweatshirt:)



And because I don't like to post a blog without a picture, here is another random shot from Leavenworth earlier this month.

Ava & her Bibs

Everyone who has children knows that they do random, quirky things that come out of nowhere and you never know why. Well, Ava recently developed this nice little habit of opening up the bib drawer, grabbing one out, and then proceeding to scream at the top of her lungs at you until you put the bib on. It doesn't stop there, though, as she will then go and grab another bib and scream at you once again until you put it on for her. This goes on until she has 7 or 8 bibs on at the same time, and I think it's rather funny, so here are a few snaps from the other day once she started grabbing the bibs.

The open bib drawer, as you can see she already has a few on


Don't you just love her hair?


The only reason there is no crying baby here is because she has that paci in her mouth.


Hope everyone's having a wonderful day!

Running in the cold

So, Jenny got me the Nike+ for Christmas and it's been killing me. I've been running outside in shorts and a sweatshirt every 2 to 3 days since Christmas, and it freakin' sucks! I tried running on my parents treadmill, but I broke that bad boy on the first run, and it's still waiting to be fixed.

Anyway, I guess I'm sharing because I weigh over 230 lbs. and that is just too much. Just typing that pisses me off and makes me want to run. Also, it helps keep me motivated when my fellow photographer friends such as Heather are posting updates to how their weight loss is going. Heather, we're in this together now. Before I was just running without a purpose, then I stepped on that dang scale.

For those that aren't familiar with Nike+, it's pretty sweet. Basically, you need an iPod Nano, some Nike+ shoes, and the Nike+ software and you're set. You plug a little chip into the bottom of your Nano, then put another chip into the bottom of your shoe, and it sends all sorts of cool data to your Nano for you to upload and chart on the internet.

I set a goal to run 25 miles in 4 weeks. I'm currently 1/2 a mile behind where I should be, but I run 2.5 miles every 2 to 3 days, so tomorrow afternoon's run will put me ahead of my pace. Shin splints and back pain be damned, I'm going to complete my goal:)

Edit: I made my goal, woo, hoo. I feel like I'm in high school again!


Feel free to scroll through my last 5 runs, it updates as I update my nike account.

Betsy & Jake: Slideshow

And here's the slideshow from both the last wedding of the year and the first wedding of '08, Betsy & Jake. Enjoy!

Jennifer & Gerrit: Slideshow

Here's Jennifer & Gerrit's slideshow from their wedding day. Enjoy!

Wii Action

Ok, so we had a wonderful get together with fellow photographers, Heather Cole and her family, and Kelley and her husband, Sam, last night. After dinner, we hooked up some Wii Action and the camera happened to catch quite a few amazing shots of all of us in all our glory.

I have to apologize to everyone who was involved in this slideshow as we ALL look like a bunch of idiots!!

Here's what to look for in the slideshow:
1. Heather & Sam during a crazy intense boxing match
2. Max up way past his bedtime (Jenny & I suffered the next morning)
3. Heather is very intense while playing video games
4. Jenny busting out the kick during the tight-rope walk
5. Some sweet DDR moves by yours truly (unfortunately we didn't capture my amazing spin moves:)
6. Heather & I in a heated Monkey Ball Hurdle race
7. Kelley bustin' some sweet moves on the DDR mat

**oh, and the ultra cheesy 80's music goes out to the DDR Queens of Olivia, Heather, Kelley and Jenny**

Random Shots, January 2008

This month, Drew and I decided to head out to Leavenworth for our monthly photo journey. And we had the wonderful Kelley join us this month as well. I had invited her a couple of months ago, and it didn't work out, then I was an idiot and forgot to invite her last month, so I'm glad it finally worked out for all of us. We all had a blast!

This one hits home to me, I'm all about saving the planet.


I love shadows


I love vines on brick walls, too:)




I honestly can't remember what this is, but I like the way it turned out




This truck was sweet. All of us were crammed in taking pics at the same time.






And, here's my favorite shot of the day!










More vines on walls




I love all the nice positive graffiti around Leavenworth


This mannequin was downright creepy.


Hope you liked the pics!

Welcome to Facebook

So, as if I didn't need anything else to take up my time, Jenny made me start a facebook page. Anyway, if you're on facebook, go ahead and add me by clicking here. Jenny says I need some friends:)

How pathetic did that sound?

And thanks to Kelley for the wonderful profile pic!

Max's New Clothes

Max wanted to show off some of his new t-shirts for me this afternoon, and I like the pictures, so I wanted to share.

We love college football here in this house, specifically USC, being from Southern California and all, and we don't care what the ratings say, there is only one number 1 in this house.


Let me introduce Mr. Grumpy


and finally, Mr. Funny showing off his fish face


and another Mr. Funny doing I don't know


Have a great day everyone!

Juliana's One Year Portraits!

Time flies so fast! Juliana is now 1 year old. We met Juliana's parents when we first started our business a few years ago. We did their engagement photos way back in Winter of 2005, they were married in April of 2006, and then became our first wedding clients to have a baby!

It's great building relationships with so many awesome people. I love that I get to be such a big part of people's lives, capturing precious memories from the wedding day on throughout the rest of their lives. It's also nice building those relationships with the babies themselves. Juliana, at 1, is pretty comfortable with both Jenny and I, and I think that shows in the pictures.

Now, it was hard to narrow the pictures down for our teaser. Once I transfer all of the pictures to the computer and back them up, I flip through them marking my favorites. After my initial run-through today, I had 36 pictures picked out as favorites, which is way too many.

Anyway, here are my favorites from our session with Juliana this afternoon.

Look at that face!


I loved this pink chair




It was so nice outside, we went out to snap a few




When Angela mentioned she had a tutu for Juliana to wear for some pictures we got really excited. Look at how cute she is!












Then Juliana got to smash a cake which always makes for some nice pictures. I loved how she was so dainty at first...




then made a huge mess!






Priceless!