a big month for my business!

You guys can look forward to lots of posts from me this month! I'm super stoked!

Want some more yummy baby goodness???





Too cute for words!

Ok, well I have bronchitis and one of the biggest days of my photography life up ahead so I'm going to go drink my glass of wine and go to sleep!

Oh, PS! Did I happen to mention that my fiance is the BEST in the world? He takes care of me in sickness & in health and I love him for that! :)

this little piggy....

I had my first shoot for my "itty-bitty collection" today! I loved it! I may specialize in newborn photography. Can they possibly take a bad picture? I don't know... maybe mom's are biased... something about the miracle of life is always beautiful to me...


Much more to come! :) For now just drool over these two! I could drool over baby toes for days.... so it shouldn't be too hard! [I tried to upload a collage and for some reason its coming across with a blue tint so I will try to fix that and get it up tomorrow!]

Hope everyone had a great long weekend! We grilled til our ears fell off - ears of corn that is! hahahahahhhha..... anyways. Forget I said that and keep looking at those scrumptious toes!

Weekend Extravaganza!

I love long weekends! :) I always have one near my birthday and it is such a blessing! [Except when I was little and all my friends families went out of town for Memorial Day!] Anyways, I am so excited to have a weekend for ME! Want to know what I'm going to spend it doing? Lets see... tomorrow I get to spend the day with my sweet little girl and we are going to do some shopping! Then we are going to go eat sushi with my family and my mom is making me a cake! Then my mom is keeping Madison for the night and the next morning I am going to get up and get a mani/pedi! Then on Sunday [my actual birthday] I am going to have brunch with all the girls in my family! Then the rest of our time off I am going to be as lazy as possible! YAY! :)

What are you doing this holiday weekend?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder....

... Right? I hope so! Sorry I've been away for awhile guys! Between family gatherings and editing I have hardly had time for anything!

Want some eye candy?
I thought so...






Too gorgeous for their own good! Also, mega props to their AWESOME mom Jenni who has been a major marketing tool for me and has made sure the word is getting OUT! :)

Also, Mizz Boo made a post about being IN FRONT of the camera for your kids sake, posterity, etc. So here it goes...




Oh guess what else? Some of you already know because you got HERE through my website, but for those of you who DON'T know, I have a website! I built it in one afternoon so it's still under major construction!

www.FreestylePhotographics.com

Lots of sa-weeeet shoots coming up! I'm super excited! But not before my 23rd birthday on Sunday! YAY!

So hot make you wanna SLAP YO MAMA!

Ok, sorry all you mom's out there, I know you're day is tomorrow so luckily I didn't really slap mine today. But boy did I want to! Days like today make me want to be a studio photographer! Anyways, I had a super[hot] day taking photos of my dear friend Jenni and her beautiful girls and her adorable grandson! Then I got treated to a Mother's Day dinner with the in-laws and now we are going to watch a movie, so I won't bore you with all my ramblings about how BEAUTIFUL the Bledsoe girls are, I will let you see for yourself!

I like to pretend I'm a fairy princess.... & a photographer!

Aw, I have received some comments and emails that make me all warm and gooey inside! What a fantastic way to start of my Friday! I guess I should post a blog with a little about myself in it before I throw you all into the whirlwind blog of a pretend photographer!

It all started on a warm day in May 1986.... Ok, we won't start that far back. Um... I'm 22, I live in a suburb of Augusta, GA where I grew up and now I'm raising my 15 month old daughter here! She is spoiled rotten and knows she's cute enough to get away with it! She can say words like mommy, daddy, poo poo, cookie, outside, and juice. I spend most of my days being mommy, taking care of daddy, changing poo poo, getting cookies and juice, and taking her outside! So I guess that's why those are her favorite words.



Oh yeah, speaking of daddy, I'm engaged to my best friend. We did things kind of backwards but thats ok with me! We're getting married this October and don't worry I will be posting LOTS of pictures and details that you probably won't care to know! He is the most supportive man in the world, in fact, he went out of his way to make sure I could get my DSLR as soon as possible and "pimps" out my photography skills as much as possible! I love him for that and SOO many more reasons!



Anyways, about this photography thing... well, I've ALWAYS, ALWAYS appreciated the art but have always been a self proclaimed poet and charcoal pencil artist. I haven't drawn or written in a LONG, LONG time though! Things get crazy and life starts happening and one day you wake up behind a desk thinking... where am I?

Once my daughter was born though I became like Madison paparazzi. I kid you not I probably have over a 1000 pictures of her from her first year of life! I didn't even get my first digital camera until the Christmas of 2006 (yeah, I was deprived!). It was a Canon Powershot. It died and I got a Nikon S550 last spring. I love that point and shoot. It's awesome and I still use it. But I started really thinking about a year ago how much I LOVED photography. I loved having my picture made, I loved playing around on Photoshop, and I realized it too is an ART! Wow!

So I began taking pictures of any and everything I could. My poor family. I'm glad they like smiling! I started REALLY thinking about a business this past November and just got my first DSLR (like was previously stated) in April! Its a D90. I feel REALLY inadequate with it. I have taken NO classes and am 100% self taught. I suppose you will always be you're own worst critic but I'm like the world's WORST person at taking money for what I do. So when someone said "OH! You're a REAL photographer!" I snickered on the inside. No I'm not! I like to pretend I am. I drool over Pioneer Woman and Miz Booshay's photos and hope to one day be like them. But for now I just call myself a photographer and hope no one finds out the truth! :)

Here are some pictures I took on my S550 right before I got my DSLR!
Check it:

It's no wonder - I can't stand the raaaain.

Ok, sorry had to give you guys your dose of Missy Elliot for the morning! :) Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about, and some of you can picture Missy in trashbag and all!



ANYWAYS!

My shoot got rained out today. BOO! I was so looking forward to taking pictures of the ever so adorable River (& mommy Kalin too!) but it will work out for the best anyways because it will be a family affair on Monday and that makes me super happy! The more the merrier! :)

Well, while I have time to procrastinate at work I would like to introduce you to the most important woman in my life! She is fifteen months old and knows how to work the camera!

This is Madison:



Can you smell the rottenness through your screen?


Oh, PS. Ree still has us ALL waiting to find out who the winners of those beloved lenses are. She really knows how to keep a girl on the edge of her seat! Over 8000 people entered! I don't know why I am even checking though - I NEVER win anything!

Lazy days.

Ok, I haven't exactly gotten to the "lazy" part of my day yet and my newfound definition of "lazy" doesn't even begin to compare to the "lazy" I experienced as a teenager but as long as my "lazy" doesn't consist of an eight hour work day, two hour photoshoot, three+ hours of editing not to mention picking up my one year old from daycare, straightening up the house as much as possible and DINNER then - "lazy" is allllll good! :)

So, thankfully, I have a day to BREATHE before my oh so exciting shoot with Kalen & River tomorrow!

I just have to finish up Kayla & Brittany's mini shoot photos [which is a breeze because those lovely ladies don't need much editing AT ALL!] and then I'm going to sit on the couch, strawberry shortcake in hand, and enjoy every second of American Idol.


I love Adam. Really. Like, I love him. :)


I will post pictures later on today (the rest of Kayla's shoot and some personal favs of my little girl!) but I just HAD to blog and tell you guys... I know the Bible says "Thou shalt not covet that neighbor" but I am guilty of that VERY thing :( I really, really, really WANT the Nikkor 50mm 1.4 and guess what? Pioneer Woman is giving it AWAY! Now, she just posted this contest and over the past like um.. not very long... over 1000 people have entered! I am number 1232. Please pray for me. I never win anything. And I'm certain I won't win this. But before my bubble bursts... PRAY. haha.

------------------------------

DRATS! Up too late again! Either way, no time for Madison photos (SAY WHAT?) All I have time to post is my second storyboard ever! Check-check-check it out!

Rain, rain go away...

... come again not so close to Mother's Day!

Of course, it only threatened rain all day... that is until we got out of our cars at Savannah Rapids to take Kayla & Brittany's pictures for Mother's Day! The downpour began and my poor D90 has no raincoat. Of course, we couldn't reschedule because kids these days are so daggum busy! I believe Brittany told me she was "booked" the rest of the week! :) So we did the best we could under covered areas... we shall return with the whole family on Saturday so their precious allowance (how sweet are they?) doesn't go to waste! Plus, their mom is only like THE bomb and pretty much a second mom to me!

Beautiful girls, inside and out:





My very first storyboard:




OH! I am also so excited! My very favorite blogger in pretty much the whole world and her dear friend Steph commented on my first blog! Mrs. Boo is famous to me so the fact that she did just makes my whole week and it's only MONDAY! If you haven't checked out her blog, you so should! She's got the most beautiful redheaded beauties/daughters! And she's not too shabby behind a lens!

http://booshay.blogspot.com

Thank you for fulfilling a fan's dream, Donna ;)

Anybody else out there in blogland? I'd love to hear from you!

I have been blessed!

Ok, so I've decided I'd rather start my photography blog now than a few months into my business because I just don't think that it would be fair to my current clients not to have wonderful memoirs written about our photoshoots etched into my blog forever and ever, Amen. [That, my friends, is perhaps the longest sentence in history - probably the least grammatically correct, too - get used to it!] Anyways, I just purchased my first DSLR less than TWO weeks ago and have already been blessed enough to photograph some of the cutest kids our area has to offer!

On Tuesday, April 28th, I was invited to photograph the last soccer game of the season - for the world's most adorable four year olds! Sports Illustrated here they come!

Anderson & Abram Walden -

They are two of the cutest boys ever and I really hope that I have the chance to photograph them A LOT in the future! :)

Then, my lucky self had the pleasure of making a Mother's Day present for a very special MOM! Alyse and her two cutie pie brothers made my Wednesday! Thank you for being my clients!

Alright, I have a busy week ahead, THREE SHOOTS! I don't know what I did to get so lucky but I'm glad I did it! :)

PS. Do you tweet? I do! Follow me on Twitter this week to get a secret hint on how to receive a FREE photo shoot! www.twitter.com/freestylefoto !
I also have a Flickr page! www.flickr.com/freestylephotoaug

So all you technically savvy folks out there, hit me up! :)