Because I was basically born with a camera in my hand, you know I have some photos to share.  However I want to clarify that I was not the hired photographer for the event.  These are just some snaps I caught between my bridesmaid duties.  The real photographers were from Imaginative Studios, and I can’t wait to see their images.  I am only able to beat them to the punch with this blog post because I had about 100 images to sort thru, while I am sure they easily have 4000 images to sort thru.

So, congratulations to Geoff & Lauren.  I love you both!

We scored an amazing deal on tickets to Universal Studios, and I hope that by sharing this story another family can take advantage of it too. I have the Chase “Ink Rewards” Visa card and get a reward point for each penny I spend, and I charge almost all of my studio expenses to that card. Those points can be redeemed for cash, for credit on my statement, or for various gift cards and tickets. 5000 reward points can be redeemed for a Universal Studios ticket, but not just any old Universal Studios ticket. I’m talking a 2-park pass to both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure…woot! This 2-park ticket costs $109. If I redeemed the 5000 points for cash, I would have gotten only $50. I had not redeemed points for awhile so I had enough for all four of our Universal Tickets.

I also wanted to share two really good finds that might help you on your next vacation. First, the REI Chock Shoulder Bag may just be the perfect vacation bag. It held all of my personal essentials (wallet, point and shoot, sunglasses, keys, gum) plus all of my mommy essentials (wipes, hand sanitizer, band aids, kleenex) with room to spare. For the plane ride, I could also fit my Kindle in it. It’s has several small zippered compartments, slip-in pen holder, and a padded shoulder strap. It also has two side pockets. I used one side pocket for a water bottle and the other for a mini umbrella (which believe it or not I needed almost everyday). And best of all, considering all it can hold, it’s not even huge and bulky. I have it in red but it’s available in black or gray as well.

Another great thing to have if you will be walking around a theme park in the heat is the Nathan Bottle Sling. This is simply a neoprene sling that holds and (somewhat) insulates a water bottle. I carried my water in my REI bag, but my husband and kids carried their own water in the Nathan slings. You don’t need to necessarily buy the Nathan bottles. The sling will hold a lot of different bottles, even a disposable Aquafina bottle.

If you are going to tackle an Orlando theme park in August , you must carry a water bottle and refill it often. I was trying to think of a way to describe how hot it is in Orlando in August and I found a website with “hotter than” sayings. Here are a few of my faves.

• It’s hotter than the four sides of hell
• It’s hotter than the devil’s underpants.
• It’s hotter than a jalapeno in a heatwave.
• It’s hotter than whoopee in woolens.
• It’s hotter than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut.
• It’s hotter than an armadillo’s hide at a West Texas picnic on the Fourth of July.
• It’s hotter than a peppered fart.

So, did I mention it was hot?  LOL!

Now before I subject you to my vacation pictures, I want to comment on the question that plagues many professional photographers. “Should I take my SLR or my point-and-shoot on my family vacation?”  I usually think about the final purpose of the images. If I am looking for snaps for the kids’ memory books or stuff to share with family and friends on facebook and flickr, then I will bring the point-and-shoot. If I know I will want to make large prints or perhaps get some unusual travel pics of a famous location to sell as stock, then I will bring the SLR. There is also the question of convenience. A point-and-shoot is a heck of a lot easier to carry around than my SLR, multiple lenses, and speedlight. Plus there is also the question of damage or theft. If I don’t need high quality artistic prints, do I want to subject my precious professional gear to sand and water? Or do I want to leave $5000 worth of camera gear in a locker at Sea World while I go on Manta? I think not!

That said, the images you see here were all taken with my point-and-shoot. I currently have the Olympus 1030SW waterproof camera. It was the replacement for a Fuji point-and-shoot that bit the dust after a Disney World trip a couple of years ago. Due to constant changes in humidity (going from heat to air conditioning), a seal split on my old Fuji and there is permanent condensation inside the lens element. Another vote for bringing the point-and-shoot to a theme park; it’s less painful to have to replace the $200 point-and-shoot than repair or replace the $2000 Nikon lens.

So back to these images. Are they stellar examples of my photographic skills? Absolutely not. Are my kids excited to look at them and think back to their Florida vacation? Yes. And I took them all with a camera that fit in my pocket and allowed me to fully participate in all activities.

These first pictures are from the resort we stayed at in Orlando. We stayed at a Hilton Grand Vacations Club for (drum roll please) 80 bucks a night. It was gorgeous and amazing, a huge one-bedroom suite with living room and full kitchen. We did not do Disney on this trip, but I can tell you that the next time we do Disney we will not be staying in the park and will instead be staying at a place like this. The last time we went to Disney we stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort on the Disney grounds. We easily paid more than double what we paid for this Hilton suite and we had about a fourth of the square footage. This Hilton Grand Vacation Club was so nice that I am sharing pictures, mostly for the sake of my mom and mother-in-law who always ask me how nice the place we stayed was.

This is new misspelling of our last name.  It gets misspelled quite often, but this is the first time we have gotten this one!

Here are some highlights from Sea World and Universal Studios, including my 4-year-old’s first roller coaster ride.

Then we drove to the beach condo we rented in Redington Shores.

One rainy day we decided to take a drive to Sarasota to check out the Mote Aquarium.  The kids loved seeing the sharks, dolphins, and manatees.  They especially loved petting the stingrays and sifting for shark’s teeth.

Our good friends from Chicago, Julie and Mark, bought a condo in Siesta Key so it was really fun to meet up with them one night.  We met up at Bubba Gump at John’s Pass in Madeira Beach.  The kids wanted ice cream right after dinner, and we told them that we were so full we should walk around the boardwalk to burn off some of our dinner.  Hence the lunges you see the kids doing here.  They definitely earned their ice cream!

Most of the rest of the trip was spend relaxing at the beach or pool, or hanging out with my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Tom.  After Uncle Tom cracked out his telescope and lots of new magic tricks, my kids were then fighting over who get to sit next to him at meals or hold his hand crossing the street.  In the meantime, Aunt Cindy and I polished off quite a lot of sangria together.

It was a great trip!  But now, back to reality…..

It ended up being a bit rainy that day, so we didn’t get to do as much open outdoor shooting as I had hoped.  I think the biggest thing I leaned at this workshop is to think outside of the box.  The bulk of the images you see here were shot in a parking garage.  This is not a location I would normally consider shooting it, but I am stunned at the amazing results.  This location might not be the best idea for photographing small kids, but for high school seniors I think it’s absolutely perfect.

All of the images you see here were shot with either one or two speedlights (SB800′s in this case) on stands or somehow otherwise supported or balanced off the camera.

Thanks to Bob Harrington, my fellow photographers who participated in the workshop, and of course our fantastic models.  I enjoyed spending the day with all of you, and now I have a brand new set of creative tools to add to my lineup.

I was honored to be chosen by this family to create some portraits for them before their mother leaves the country for a year.  They were teasing their dad because he wasn’t smiling much during the session, but look!  I definitely got some smiles.  How could a father not smile when surrounded by such beautiful daughters, right?

Thank you K family for the opportunity to capture some special memories for you!

These next few ideas below are not summery, but I wanted to share them because I was just having a clothing conversation with a client today on the phone.  These are some “what to wear” examples from my old blog.  I wanted to move them here to the new blog so that they can be easily referenced.  Even though they are fall/winter clothing ideas, this gives some helpful ideas for combining various colors and patterns.

Enjoy!

Beer Cheese:
Two 8 oz blocks of cream cheese
1 packet powdered ranch dressing mix
6 oz. beer
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

Blend all ingredients together in food processor. Chill overnight. Serve with pretzels.

Spinach Squares:
16 oz. small curd cottage cheese
8 oz. sour cream
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach
3 Tbsp. flour
5 slices american cheese
6 eggs
1 stick of butter, melted

Thaw & drain spinach.  Mix cottage cheese, sour cream, spinach, and flour together.  Beat eggs in separate bowl and add to cottage cheese mixture.  Stack American cheese and cut into cubes.  Add cheese blocks and melted butter to mixture.  Pour into 9×13 baking dish and dot with butter.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until browned on top.  Cool to slice, but serve warm.

I had so much fun photographing Mark earlier this week.  When his mom first called me, she told me about a couple of more traditional poses she’d like to emulate that would be similar to portraits she had ordered of Mark’s older brother.  She said that once we got those shots out of the way, Mark was open to do whatever I wanted.  I asked his mom about his personality, his interests and hobbies, etc.  I explained that if he played baseball, for example, we could do something totally wacky like having him throw a flaming baseball.  It turns out that Mark is indeed a pitcher for his high school baseball team and during the session his mother was joking about how Mark can “throw fire.”  Hence the flaming baseball shot was born!

After we did some studio shots, we went over to Notre Dame High School.  That was really fun because I went to an all-girls high school (no longer open), and Notre Dame is an all-boys school that was one of the brother schools to my school.  My own brother and my husband went to Notre Dame as did several of my friends, so it was neat to be back there for this shoot.

Mark, it was a pleasure meeting you!   I appreciate your easy-going attitude and willingness to go along with some of my silly ideas.  I hope you like your sneak peek.  Your full proof gallery will be ready soon!

Here’s a little sneak peek for T and his family.  We had a lot of fun taking these photos.  Special thanks to T’s big sister for being my volunteer assistant and reflector holder!

Before the Avon Walk become a distant memory for me, I wanted to write about some tips for keeping your feet healthy should you choose to do a long distance walk. I see that many people are hitting my blog by using search terms such as “shoes for avon walk” and “avon walk blister care.” Therefore, I thought I would share some things that worked for me.

Finding the right shoes is crucial. After I finished the Avon Walk, two crew members came up to talk to me. They said they were thinking about doing the walk next year and asked “What brand of shoe is good?” Their question is what gave me the initial idea to write this blog post with some foot care tips because the bottom line is that there is no “good brand” of shoe. What worked for me might cause pain for someone else. The trick is finding what works for your personal foot anatomy and gait pattern, and that can only be done at a running store. A trained professional at a running store will look at the wear patterns on your current shoes and be able to tell a lot about your gait pattern. They will watch you walk across the floor in stocking feet to see which way your ankle rolls. They will look to see if you have a narrow or a wide foot, a high or low arch, if you pronate or supinate when you walk, etc. Then they can make a recommendation of the right shoe for YOU! And just the shoe that is right for you might be totally wrong for your walking partners. It’s a very individual thing, and this is why I think it’s very risky to just say something like “New Balance is a good brand, so I am just going to get these $40 New Balance shoes from JC Penney.” Within the New Balance line, there are shoes with all kinds of special technology in them so just make sure you are getting something that works for your own personal gait pattern. If you live anywhere near Evanston, I found the folks at Murphy’s Fit to be very helpful in guiding me to the proper shoes.

As far as socks, avoid 100% cotton. You want to look for something that wicks sweat away from your feet. There are several different types of wicking socks, and I recommend that you get 2 or 3 different styles to start with. Then when you see what you like, you can buy a bunch of pairs. Someone at Sports Authority recommended Thorlos to me, but when I wore them on my first longer walk I found them to be too thick and warm.  Next I tried Feetures.  I ended up really liking Feetures and bought several pairs. I received a pair of Reebok wicking socks as part of the Avon Walk fundraising, and those were great socks as well. For the Avon Walk, I ended up wearing both the Feetures and the Reebok socks. I changed my socks every 8 miles, which also really helped. At the rest stop medical care stations, I heard some of the medical professionals advising people to use two pairs of socks and layer baby powder in between. Since I got that advice on walk day and never trained in two pairs of socks, I was afraid to try it. But now that I am telling you in advance, you can try two socks with a powdered buffer and report back how it worked!

As you train, you will feel hot spots on your feet in your blister-prone areas. If this happens, I highly recommend rubbing those areas with a friction stick before you put your socks on. I like Band Aid brand Friction Block.  I could feel a big difference right away in how my foot would glide with each step.

I personally have two blister prone toes on each foot, simply due to the anatomy of my foot. I often get blisters on those toes just from walking around on vacation or from working out, so I knew I needed some preventative medicine on those toes for the Avon Walk. Band Aid makes a special blister care bandage, but I must tell you that the Target generic version is much better for the method I used it. Both lines of blister care bandages are unlike traditional Band Aids because they are rubbery and thick. The Band Aid brand version has a little pad in the center like a traditional bandage but the Target version does not. So the Target version is almost like a thick rubbery tape. I would actually tape my blister-prone toes with that “tape” and then the pressure normally put onto my toes would be put onto that tape instead. This method worked like a charm!

As passed the medical stations along the route and I saw some people getting their feet worked on, I realized how lucky I was to have spend so much time finding the right socks, shoes, and blister management. Talking to some people on the route I would hear things like “The first year I did the Avon Walk I lost two toenails!” (eew) and “Last year after the Avon Walk it took 4 months for my feet to get back to normal.” My feet did great at the Avon Walk. I had two minor blisters on the blister prone toes mentioned above. I took care of them as advised in the foot care literature Avon provided, and the day after the walk my feet were as good as new.

I hope that these tips will help some future Avon walkers!