Photography in PIttsburgh

It's been a while...a couple of years.

But after having a chance to take out my camera, I was able to take some great shots of some cone flowers.

I love photography and no matter how long it's been between shooting photography in my backyard, for a client or just of my family, I always enjoy it.

Here's some great shots that I took recently.

This is a special echinacea plant that I bought a few years back and I'm so impressed with it's ability to live in the horrible soil I have near my Pittsburgh Home.   If you look, you see these weird growths coming out of the flower. It's from insect damage early in the flower development.  I think it makes the flower look really cool...almost like a firework.

This is a different variety of the coneflower with a huge "cone" in the middle and the petals facing downwards.  They are growing so well in my back yard and I hate to split them but I am going to have to and then try to get huge areas that are covered by them in the years to come.   It certainly takes patience to get a lot of perennial flowers to grow all over your yard. I love these flowers because they are so beautiful, long lasting and come in an impressive variety of shapes and colors.

Can you tell I'm a fan of Echinacea?  They are just awesome to photograph.  Love them!

I absolutely love this shot (you have no idea what I did to get it) and it's because it is related to this fantastic woman named Sheri who makes the awesome gourmet gifts and treats that are amazing. I have the pleasure of helping her grow her amazing little business and I'm just so excited for the success that I know she is going to have.  She makes this pretzel bark in Pittsburgh and ships it all throughout the nation.  This is the little box of white chocolate pretzel bark that would be super awesome for weddings so I set up the shot to look really feminine and hopefully appeal to brides looking for unique wedding favor ideas.   I wish I would have known about Sheri and her Pretzel Crazy company when I got married because I just absolutely love what she does with pretzels!

Check it out:  www.pretzelcrazy.com

This is my second favorite shot that I took for these yummy caramel and chocolate covered pretzels.  They are so cute and perfect for a bride and groom wedding favor that I just can't get over it!

Look at them!  They are so unique?  When have you ever seen such cool treats for a wedding?

You and I both know that answer...Never.  It's always mints or those almond candies.  These are AWESOME in comparison!  If you are looking for or know someone who is looking for a unique wedding favor idea, please make sure to show them these super awesome "wedding cookies".  They are better than wedding cookies though...and I just love them!

So there you go!  That's my photography for the week. I hope to update more frequently in the future as I take more photos for clients and for fun!

Maybe I will start some type of Norman Rockwell Experimentation. I really like these.

I was excited to show these off. :)  Here you go...Kaylee is getting some character...and man...she has beautiful big blue eyes.  What a cutie pie.  I think I'm in love....

Kaylee For President 2013!

Here she is crying when she just wakes up. I tried to put as much noise as I could into the photo to kind of make the photo move and vibrate.  High ISO, Slow Shutter.....everything.  Then I couldn't decide which one I liked best.  Now don't think I'm horrible.  I picked her up immediately after I hit the shutter button.  I want to remember EVERYTHING about her.   Including this at the time she is teething.  She is still beautiful no matter what she does.  I love her so much!

Those back teeth in this photo are the ones that are currently coming in. 

Nature Photography

Perhaps I should have called this blog My Summer Nature Photography.  It seems that the plants and animals are taking over this blog.  Man...I got to get out in the city or something to fix this.  In the meantime...here are some of yesterday's favorites:

This multiflora plant had a cameo in one of my earlier posts.  It is now flowering.  I played around with this one a little bit.  i think it would make a good background for a notebook or a title page or something.

This butterfly kept me busy for awhile.  I feel like this is a Lion King moment here.  He has conquered the leaf and is going to the cliff to stick out his chest.  Pretty cool.

This is for me more than anything else.  I have a freak obsession with aphids.  I think more people should spy on these guys.  They look like they might be plotting to take over the world.  I love the one red one in this shot.  It adds a nice contrast.

I told you I had some fun with this little guy.

A little peek at my drawing...and some more flowers. :)

Petunia.  My mother liked these when she was younger.  I remember something similar in my childhood.

I love the blue anthers here on the tip of the stamen.

Ha ha.  This is my distraction getting the best of me.  I decided to collect seeds from several of the flowers.  This year has been amazing for flowering plants.  In the process, I had run out of envelopes to collect them in, so I had to make my own.  Once I started creating, I couldn't stop and then had to try and draw the flower that I was packaging.  Then I decided maybe a photograph would capture the essence of the plant a little better.  So here it is.  A photo of my drawing of the real thing with the real thing.  Dianthus the Annual.

My mother also use to plant marigolds all around our double wide trailer.  They are great flowers because they seed so quickly and you can have multiple growths from the same plant in one season. They are also fabulous at keeping pests away from the other plants in your garden.

Another distraction.  I love insects.....especially tricky ones.  This is a bee fly......NOT a bee or a hornet.  It's from a completely different family.  It is more closely related to a house fly than a bee in many ways. :)  I think this one might be enlarged and hang in my new house soon!  :)

Kaylee...again.

I just really liked the lighting and the primary colors in this one.  I'm going to try and get a different subject matter this weekend to post.  This will be hard since I'm surround by humans most of the time!  :)

Look at those eyes.

One of my Favorite Subjects.

I love taking pictures of my daughter, Kaylee.  I have to observe her more often and more closely than normal when I do this.  I've got to be quick and not get too lost in the moments that I try to capture because she moves so quickly on to the next.  She is a fast little (or rather tall) 15 month old little girl.  Here she is in my neighbor's yard.  Janet, my neighbor, just got a sidewalk poured and Kaylee couldn't be happier about it.  Perhaps this means she's going to be a city girl?  Oh boy.

A Walk Around My Old Place.

Well...Ok.  It's not my old place yet...but it's close.  We will be moving soon and I have to highlight what I love so much about where I am now.
Dustin took Kaylee for a little walk.  We were going to go together, but I was so tired even thinking about walking down that crazy hill (I will document that for you later) so I said I would stay behind in the house.  When I went back into the house, I saw my camera and then I realized I could walk with them a little and take a little Mommy break.  I LOVE photography....if you didn't already know.  It is so healthy for me in so many ways.
 So...I left, with camera in hand, and traveled down the path to find my two Homo sapiens loves.  On the way I was distracted by some of the Earth's most victorious critters.   They outnumber all other class of organisms by far.  Here is a photo story of my little 15min. walk behind the old place.

Here was my first encounter.  Her name is Kelsey.  She is a Rescue Dog.  Beautiful and Graceful.

This is Jewel Weed.  It usually grows around poison ivy.  An oxymoron in a way.

It's a weed that most people kill.  Can you imagine.  Look at it's beauty.  Do you see the insects?

Same Weed.  Why would someone kill this?

Wild Berries.  Either Blackberry or Raspberry...I think.  They taste delicious.

I love this.

This little guy posed for me.  I believe it is a nymph of some sort or another. Maybe a Pennsylvania Leatherback?

Not quite ripe yet.  Who cares...it looks awesome!

There is some type of DISEASE killing this plant.  It ends up being absolutely breathtaking.  Perhaps the YANG to our YING is not such a bad thing.  It is apparently beautiful here.

I'm thinking about doing a series of photos that focus on certain techniques.  Kind of like Picasso did to reach himself.  This photo reminds me of that.  I have a lot of visual work to do.

And then this photo makes me wonder if I should just go to black and white.  This is the eloquent Cabbage Butterfly.  Wow.  I just can't even imagine what it would be like to fly and drift like this beautiful little thing that loves the evening hour.

More Weeds.  Really?  How can that be?  I think you are BEAUTIFUL.  Thank you for existing.