So excited - I have to share!!!

I have had so much fun with my photography lately!!!  I enjoyed every minute of shooting the Coytee Farm ETHJA show back on June 6th and I am so excited about the Westwind Farm ETHJA show this Saturday and Sunday.... not thrilled about the heat forecast but excited about the show, nevertheless!!  I also enjoyed shooting my good friend Mary's wedding this past Saturday, even though it made me realize that weddings are probably never going to be my thing.  I love Mary and shooting her wedding was fun, I loved hanging out with the girls that afternoon while she was getting ready but once the ceremony started, it was stressful and one person CAN NOT shoot a wedding successfully... you just can't cover it all!!  So I should have had a second shooter.  But, hopefully she will be happy with the photos I provide.  I was disappointed that I didn't get to do more artistic things but there again... it was just me and there just wasn't time.



I had done so much research the past few months on shooting horse shows and the common theme I was finding was that in order to get really good shots, you had to have a love of horses and a love of the sport.  Well, everyone knows how horse crazy I am so that definitely was/is in my favor.

But I've gotten some really nice feedback from the riders who ordered prints from the Coytee show earlier this month and tonight I got the sweetest email telling me how much she loved her prints and how much fun I was to have around that day shooting pictures.  She is recommending me for a whole new branch of horse shows and I am walking on air!!

Also, I've just been contacted to do my first Equine Portrait session!!  YAY!!

Today was a very stressfull day so it was nice for it to have such a nice ending.  Nothing really in particular other than encountering other people ALL DAY LONG that were having bad days and it was very difficult not to let it rub off on me.

I even got a brand new Canon 50D that shoots 6.3 frames per second and getting that camera was a fiasco at a local camera shop... wont name names but it's named after an animal!!  It was a nightmare trying to buy that camera from that store and I was dealing with the 40ish year old manager!!  So finally, I said FORGET IT and went to Best Buy, which I normally don't like going to... and I had the nicest 18-20 year old kid help me.  Go figure!  There were many other stressers, things beyond my control... but one thing that was odd...

Took Katie to STAR and maybe it was the heat but several encounters there with grumpy people and normally STAR is one of the happiest highlights of our week!!  So that was like the straw that broke the camels back... ALMOST!

But, instead, as a family, we tried to end the day on a happy note.  Even before I got my emails that got me so happy....

Katie and I stopped at Outback on the way home and got Katie's and Don's favorite dinner and came home and surprised him with a belated Father's Day dinner.  We were all so tired and I didn't feel good on Father's Day... we didn't really do anything special.  So, we ate dinner outside with the tiki torches lit and then jumped in the pool and swam and played and ended it all by chilling in the hot tub.

Katie was asleep before her head hit the pillow!!

Keep your fingers crossed for me that this weekend's show proves to go as well as the one earlier this month because I love, love, love doing it!!!

OH, OH, OH... and I almost forgot!!!  Such great, happy, wonderful news!!!  My cousin Kim and her daughter Sarah and son Jacob are HOME!!!  Home to stay!!  They've been in Kuwait City, Kuwait (well, right outside of the city) for almost THREE LONG years and Katie and I are ecstatic to see them next week!!  Katie and Sarah already have their multi-evening slumber party planned!!  So happy they are home!!!  I've missed them so much!!

What stressful day?  What grumpy people!!?  Too many things to be happy about!!!