In light of trying to be my authentic self I have an admission to make.  Blogging is hard for me.  There I said it.  It’s not that I don’t have things to blog about.  For anyone who has ever met me you know that I have a LOT to say.  Sometimes too much to say.  Why can’t I blog more often?  The answer is: I don’t know.  I don’t know why I put off blogging.  It’s a hassle to resize the photos and think of something important to say.  Seriously, what could I write that will hold your attention?  Maybe it’s a fear of putting my thoughts out there for eternity.  Once it’s online it will never go away. right?

One of my goals for 2010 is to blog more often and I tell you it has been a struggle.  I lay awake at night trying to think of something to share that will be worth your time to stop by and read……still having trouble with that sometimes.

Today, though, I have something to share.  Someone to share about.  Someone inspiring!

Last week I was blessed to be able to attend the One Light Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia.   Let’s just say that I did not have the best grasp on lighting techniques.  Yes, I have been using off camera flash, but it was always a hit or miss situation.  I understood it about like I understand Geometry.  I passed Geometry in high school (barely), but I had no idea what I was doing.  Still not sure how I got through that class.  Anyway, I knew enough about lighting to be dangerous, but not enough to really know what I was doing.  One of my other goals for 2010 was to attend some workshops and this one was at the TOP of my list.  The photographer behind the One Light Workshop is Zack Arias and he is an amazing and inspiring person. If you have a moment you should check out his Transform video.  It is truly inspiring.  Perhaps my favorite part of the whole workshop was the mixer the night before where Zack shared how he got to where he is today.  He shared his story of struggle, disappointment and debt.  Then he shared his story of a friend who believed in him and how he learned to believe in himself and how he built his now very successful business ALL OVER AGAIN without debt.  He and his lovely wife were a joy to be around.  I’m blessed to have met them and their adorable son.

So did I actually learn anything?  Absolutely!  Zack began to explain lighting step by step and almost immediately the light bulb (no pun intended) lit for me.  It is so simple.  I just got it….finally!  I am so excited to now be armed with this knowledge and am excited that I will have more options available to me for client sessions.  It is amazing what a little light will do.  Just check out my photos from the workshop:

First, I want to show you these images that are both straight out of the camera with just resizing and a bit of sharpening.  The one on the left is available, natural light.  The one on the right is one flash, with a 60″ umbrella off camera.

The following images are taken with the same light setup and have had a bit of editing done to them using the TRA Lightroom Presets.

My favorite image of the day below:

Dear Blog,

I have a confession to make.  This may be hard to take, but I just can’t live with myself if I don’t tell you the truth.  I have been cheating on you.  With Twitter.  I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean for it to happen.  It just did.  Twitter is so easy going and fast and always has time for me.  Twitter makes it SO easy to share photos from my iPhone and always lets me know when my friends have something to say.  I know those reasons are not a good excuse, and I hope you will forgive me for neglecting you.  Maybe this video with make up for it.

Love, Cindy

Here is a little video I threw together (literally) last night.  I videoed and snapped about 20 mins. of Mia playing in our backyard and in about 2 hours had this sweet little video that I have been planning on making for some time now.  I keep watching it over and over and every time it chokes me up.  I can’t watch it without thinking about how someday I will show this to her when she has her own 4 year old.  I’m not sure what it is about the black and white, bubbles and that SONG, but I am just in awe today at how BEAUTIFUL my daughter is.  It makes me forget that she broke my favorite vintage camera and threw up red kool-aid in the MIDDLE of my living room carpet.  When I watch this video all I see is love and happiness!  I hope you enjoy it too.

Mia in the backyard | July 2009 from Cindy Mills on Vimeo.

I had so much fun with Amberlee and Ryan on Saturday.  They are exactly the kind of clients I LOVE to work with.  They were up for anything and they loved (well at least Amberlee did :)  ) when I did crazy stuff like climb up on a scaffolding to get just the right angle on a photo.   We found some cool, new little nooks in downtown McKinney.  This is definitely a favorite session of mine!

Oh….did I forget to mention Maggie, their adorable dog?  Isn’t she the cutest?

Next one….LOVE IT!

I can’t decide………Color………..

………or black and white?

When I took this next one I caught my breath because it was so A-MAZE-ING!  Told you these two rocked!

Thanks guys, you were a blast!

That was the hardest thing about this session. The wind. I was afraid it would blow one of us into the canal! We managed to survive and even got some great pictures. With the exception of the wind this was a really fun session. See if you can guess which is my favorite.

Did you guess my favorite yet? The last one. I LOVE it!!!

Thanks guys! It was a fun Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday I met with 3 adorable, georgeous, cute cousins. Seriously, it’s not fair to have this many beautiful kids in ONE family!!  First up was cutie 2 1/2 yr. old Payton. Her mommy made her shirt. I LOVE it!

Then while Payton went to change into her formal clothes her cousins had their turn in front of my camera. This brother and sister were some of the easiest models I’ve had in quite awhile. Emily and Alex didn’t even have fake, cheesy smiles when I asked them to smile. What kid DOESN’T have a cheesy, fake smile? They made my job a breeze!

I love her smile with her eyes squinched (is that a word?). She was the CUTEST little thing. She didn’t love looking at the camera, but when she heard there may be candy involved she was more than happy to keep on smiling for me.

This one was pure luck. I looked back as we were walking to our next location and saw this. I didn’t even have time to reset my camera. Thank goodness I shoot in RAW!!

Seriously, have you ever seen more beautiful children?

I had so much fun with the cousins. Please, please call me again! Anytime!! Really!!!!

I headed over to The Bogan’s beautiful home on Sunday evening to get some family portraits for them. They just had an outdoor kitchen built in their backyard and it is awesome. I would love to have something like this in my backyard one day. It was a perfect place for their family portraits! We were going to build a fire in the fireplace, but I think everyone decided it was just too HOT! That’s Texas for you.

The littlest Bogan. She was not that thrilled with me, but I got some good ones of her anyway!

For this one I asked my model to look at my camera and not smile. I kept saying “whatever you do DON’T smile.” It worked like a charm. Look at the little giggle working it’s way out!

My favorite!!!!

My other favorite!

I have definitely entered the heart of the family Christmas portrait season! I have begun making lists to keep track of my to do lists. I will survive though and when we come out on the other side I will have met tons of new friends and made some great images for these families. That’s my Christmas wish

Here is a fun family that I had the honor of spending time with on Saturday morning. We headed down to one of my favorite locations. The Mandalay canal in Los Colinas.

It was requested that I get mostly shots of their son and I was more than happy to oblige because this boy had the most BEAUTIFUL, sparkly blue eyes that I’ve ever seen. He is going to be a heartbreaker one day!

I think this is my favorite.

Told you he was a cutie!!!! Of course, we had to get some good ones of the whole family too!

And last but not least one shot of mom and dad. Love this one!

I’ve got more sneak peeks coming soon! Back to the To Do list!

It’s been a crazy week.  My calendar is getting so full I practically need someone to decipher all the writing and corrections on it.   It just gets worse (or better I should say) from here until Thanksgiving. 

Wednesday evening I finally got to meet with the Weaver’s and we had a great time at the park.  They have an awesome park near their home that has lots of wonderful photo opportunities.  Of course it didn’t hurt that they were a completely adorable family and I loved how their outfits coordinated without matching.  Of course, I always love polka dots so………

Don’t forget to scroll down to the next post and see the one from their session that I posted last night.

So often parents tend to focus on the kids when I do a family session.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “if we can just get ONE good family picture and then some of the kids I’ll be happy.”  Well, if that’s all I do then I’M not happy!  I think it’s important for mom and dad to get some good pictures of just the two of them.  I LOVE it when parents give me the chance to capture their love for each other……and not JUST for the kids.  Here is a great example.

I had a fun time with you guys!  I can’t wait to show you the rest of your pictures and find out what else we have in common.

Here is one from my session last night.  There are more to come, but this one……..I just couldn’t wait any longer to post this one!

I got the chance to do something a little different (for me) on Thursday evening. I was hired by this lovely young lady’s dad to capture her during her homecoming game. She is in the drill team so I got a few of her in the stands and during halftime. The best part? She had NO CLUE! This poor girl didn’t have any idea that I had been hired to get photos of just her. It was so fun. I felt like a spy…except that I wasn’t that inconspicuous with my GIANT 80-200mm lens. Anyway, I really enjoyed it and had a great time conspiring with her parents.

I can’t decide on this one. I like it this way:

And Holga style: