‘Tis the season for taking pictures! {houston texas portrait photographer}

Hi fun friends! It’s that time of year again! During the holidays we’re surrounded by so many great photographic opportunities: beautiful decorations, excited children, distant family, and (in some lucky places) even snow! To celebrate the season and help make the scramble for christmas photos more fun, my good friend Kay (of Kay Harmon Photography) and I decided to create a little contest. You’re all invited to participate in the fun, and there’s even a prize at the end!

The rules are simple: find, capture, and post as many of the Christmas Scenes listed as possible! Phone uploads, point and shoot photos, fancy professional images – all are welcome. Post the photos on your own facebook wall (with a tag for The Homespun Life so I can see, too!) or post them on The Homespun Life‘s page. Whoever gets the most photos at the end of the month will win a small prize! (No more than 3 photos per day, please.) You may notice that there is one photo for every day of the month, plus some alternates. That way, if you want to post one photo a day but don’t like some of the ones on the list, you have some choices! Feel free to follow the order listed or jump around. I’m a rebel so I’ll be picking from all over the list.

Can’t wait to see what you come up with! I’ll only be posting mine on Facebook, not here on the blog, so be sure to stop by and check it out! And remember – whoever has posted the most photos at the end of the month will win a prize. So get to work!

(And yes, I know “Scavenger” is misspelled on the list. Don’t judge.)

A Very Vintage Christmas {houston texas portrait photographer}

Just for funsies, here’s a selection of some of the vintage-ized images from the shoot with my nieces. Having the old-fashioned sled and the fun present boxes made for a great set – now if only we could have had some snow! I guess that’s too much to ask for in Houston. ;)

These girls are a photographer’s dream come true! {houston texas portrait photographer}

I had a photo shoot a few weekends ago with my adorable nieces, and boy did they make me look good! It’s pretty much impossible to get a bad photo of these two girls.

But then again, I’m a little biased. ;)

New fun toys! {the homespun life – photography; embroidery; sewing}

It’s been almost like Christmas around here lately! The hubby and I both celebrate our birthdays in August and our wedding anniversary is in July, so the summer season in our household is always showered in gifts. This year was no exception. Remember my gorgeous antique singer sewing machine? Well I finally got it back to working order about a month ago, and to celebrate the hubby got me a gorgeous cast iron treadle table and a lovely all-wood antique sewing box that is now home to my embroidery floss and tools.

I was thrilled to come home and find these antique beauties! But it got even better a few weeks later when my birthday gift arrived: a brand new lens for my beloved Canon! I’ve been needing a zoom lens for portraiture (my wide angles are no help in that department), and the new one is a perfect multi-purpose lens. I’ve already found it to be useful in all sorts of different contexts:

I even took it with me last week on my photo shoot with Kay Harmon Photography and got some great shots! Needless to say, I’m head over heels for both the hubby and this wonderful lens. I’ve also got a 5-in-1 reflector coming my way, so be on the lookout for more portrait shoots showing up here in the next few months. I’m so excited! And speaking of portrait shoots, if you live in the Houston, DFW, Austin, or San Antonio areas (or anywhere in between), check out my new portraits section – I’m looking for volunteers to help me build my portfolio, and there’s a lot of freebies in it for you if you want to join the fun!

Fun with Kay Harmon Photography! {the homespun life: portrait photography}

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Dallas with my good friend Kay of Kay Harmon Photography and assist her on a family portrait session. It could not have been a more perfect trip, except perhaps for the weather! But despite the withering 110 degree heat, this amazing family was completely positive and upbeat. We had a blast, and I was able to snap a few fun candid shots of Kay in action. (Isn’t she amazing? You can also find her on facebook.)

Check out her blog for more sneak peeks of this wonderful session – trust me, you’ll be glad you did!

University of Notre Dame: A Springtime Photo Shoot: {The Homespun Life Fine Art Photography}

As many of you know, the hubby and I will be saying farewell to South Bend in just a few short weeks. There isn’t much about the town that we’re going to miss (besides good friends and the wonderful Red Purl!), but we are going to be sad to leave the beautiful campus at Notre Dame. We took advantage of gorgeous sunny weather today to wander about and enjoy the lovely spring blooms starting to appear, and I snapped a few shots. Boy, did it feel good to take the camera out again!

Photography: How Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop actions saved my business

I spent a few hours editing photos this morning – a task I once loved, then grew to hate with a festering passion, and now once more thoroughly enjoy – and realized that I’d neglected to post one of my favorite online photography resources. How silly of me! Kids, if you’re at all interested in photography  – even just snapshots of the little ones with cake all over their face or the whole family making the peace sign in front of the Eiffel Tower or whatever – and you have access to Photoshop, every second you spend not downloading this resource is a second spent in entirely the wrong way.

Photography Book Review: The A-Z of Creative Photography

Recently, while browsing the Art section of Book People in Austin, TX, I came across the perfect Christmas gift for a good friend of mine. She’s a budding photographer, and I was hoping to find some sort of book that might provide inspiration for her artistic endeavors. What I found was something much, much better. So much better, in fact, that I ended up buying a second copy for myself.

What I found was Lee Frost‘s The A-Z of Creative Photography.