Winter break is something I am still getting used to.  For anyone not from around here Winter break (or recess) is sort of like Spring break, but in the winter. So, for one week in February kids get a week off of school. At first I thought this was a wonderful thing–we could get out of Syracuse in the Winter and get great deals for vacation out of season.  But then reality set in and I realized that there was no February break for my husband who would be teaching, and the airlines make it just as expensive to travel during February as it is to travel during Christmas.

So….we stayed home and welcomed Jason’s mom for a few days over winter recess.  Apparently it is still inexpensive to fly into Syracuse in February!

Like anyone welcoming their mother-in-law to their house for a few days I asked her to clean out my refrigerator while my husband made a nice breakfast. I was pondering why I still can’t seem to finish remodeling our kitchen while they were hard at work. I did find the time to take this image.

Sadie was busy getting seed orders ready. Winter break is also a good time to start dreaming about spring and planting yummy or pretty things in your garden.

I did let Grandma relax a little after she cleaned up the kitchen. Cuddles with Grandma.

She was even entertained by Echo reading her stories.

My mother-in-law texts and uses Facebook–don’t all Grandma’s? Here she is teaching Sadie how to text.

For laughs we took Grandma ice skating. Turns out she didn’t fall–go figure.

Grandma showed me up by giving Sadie and her sore toes (from too small skates) a piggy back ride to the car. I told Sadie she was too big.

One last hug before Grandma left.

Echo got her ear’s pierced over winter break. I can hardly look at this picture she is growing up so fast.

I got behind in my work, but I spent lots of time with my girls last week and had a great visit with my mother-in-law so, I give winter break 2010 a gold medal.

Some days I just can’t stand it that I work most weekends. I miss out on my friend’s weddings, I miss birthday parties, bbq’s, t-ball games and lazy Saturday mornings eating waffles. So, when I am getting down about what I miss out on I try to remind myself of the many positive aspects of owning my out business.

One of those positive aspects is being able to help out at school. Three years ago I helped out with Echo’s first grade field trip to hospital land where the kids learn all about going to the hospital and hopefully if any of them do have to make an actual visit they won’t be too scared. It is such a cute program. When I went with Echo’s class she got picked for a role play in which she got to be the doctor.

Here she is all ready to operate.

So, when I got the notice that Sadie’s first grade class was going to visit Hospital Land I asked right away if I could go along. Echo encouraged Sadie to put her hand up to be “doctor” when they did the role play and what do you know—she got it.

This Saturday I will be working at an amazing wedding, but this Monday I got to hang and have a great time with a bunch of 1st graders.

When we moved from North Carolina to Syracuse, NY we swore that we would take advantage of weekend trips to NYC, Boston, and DC, and I am proud to say that I think we are doing a pretty good job. We have taken the kids to NYC three times, Boston twice, and DC once.

I must admit the longer I live here (it has been 3.5 years now) the further away these cities seem to me. I guess when we lived in North Carolina and I had to drive close to an hour to get to a Target, the drive to NYC from Syracuse seemed so easy. Now, living in Fayetteville, NY it seems that I hardly have to travel more than 15 minutes to get anywhere I need to go–so that trip to NYC is getting a bit longer.

Our last trip to NYC was just for one night, as usual, but we packed a lot in. It all started with tickets to the Metropolitan Opera to see Carmen. I knew it would be considered quite foolish to drag our two kids to the opera (ages 6 &9), but I liked the idea of trying. If I’m really honest I liked saying that we were taking our kids to the Opera–that just sounds so cultured. I did get a little nervous when I read a few reviews of the current production of Carmen that called it “dark” and a “dangerous mingling of sex, rebellion and violence.” But, our seats were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy up there, and honestly I was much more comfortable showing them an Opera full of sex and violence, than some of the previews that pop up at the movie theatres before PG movies.

Here we are doing our best to dress up. You can see I’m not very dressed up, but the fact that my husband has a tie on is a huge thing–he never wears a tie, not for a wedding (including our own) or for work.

Since we knew the kids were not going to be too excited about seeing an Opera we did let them take some of their Christmas money to FAO Schwarz.

I think Echo was taking a video of herself on the Big Piano here.

But, mostly when we go to NYC we just wander around and people watch.

In Times Square.

Outside of the Natural History Museum.

Here Echo is taking a rest in the Natural History Museum Gem section. I think that part of the museum makes such a nice resting spot.

And, I always insist and walking through Central Park as much as we can. This time we even say Sting taking his dog for a walk. I even had my camera around my neck, and his dog even sniffed Echo, and I didn’t say a word–just let him go along on his walk–also I sort of froze up–sorry.

I find that by just going to NYC for one night –and I drive–it is affordable. We usually only plan one thing (if any) and the rest of the time we just soak in all that the city has to offer.

*And–just a reminder. All 2009 gallieries that were re-posted will expire on Jan. 31st. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

I know it is sort of cliche to have “get organized” as your New Year’s resolution, but that was/is one of my goals–specifically to get my office organized. So, back in December I cleared off some time on my calendar in January to really get the job done. The first step was to get my actual physical space organized. From past experience I have found that once my physical space gets too messy I am very unproductive. So yesterday and today I have focused on getting my physical space cleaned up and finding a spot for everything. I put shelves up with help from my husband, got a few containers, and got to work.

I didn’t do a very good job getting before and after pictures, but I did find a few. Here is one wall of my office–check out the clutter!

It is still a work in progress, but I made it through that book shelf and all of the papers on the top yesterday. Yes, I know the walls are a bit bare for a photographer, but it is part of the long term plan.

This shows off my new shelves…and the mess under my table. Also notice the new light Jason put in for me. It really was pathetic how dark that corner of my office was considering that is where I mat photos and package orders.

My shelves are filling up.

And, next up tacking the HUGE box of reciepts that I must enter into Quickbooks–I am so bad at keeping up with this.

And after that I will be spending a bit of time organizing my computer. Moving 2009 files off, getting new external hard drives set up, and updating my website and forms.Which reminds me–if you still want to order pictures from your 2009 session and your session was not in Nov. or Dec., you will need to contact me soon.

I hope, hope, hope I can get this all done in the amount of time I set aside. It is no where near as much fun as the actual photography part of my job so it can be hard to stay motivated. Luckily, I allowed myself to schedule a few sessions during this time to give me a break or two.

And, since those photos of my office are very boring I will share a few other images that have my girls in them.

Both of my girls got sick last week. It was some sort of flu/stomach bug–and it totally wiped them out. My youngest started the stomach bug portion of her illness on our 14 hour drive back to Syracuse from St. Louis. This was not easy for any us. My oldest followed suit a few days later. Here she is trying to watch a movie in bed, but soon after all she could do was sleep.

Luckily the illness only keep them down for a few days each.Feeling a tiny bit better…

And here is Sadie. I think her face was frozen after a long play outside in the snow.

And soon, I will sign off from the computer and get back to the boring office organization project. Cheers!

I must say once again thank you to all of my blog readers for helping me to have such a wonderful year. If you were a client I really loved photographing your family and appreciated your kind words, if you are a friend or family member thank you for encouraging me along the way. Tonight on New Year’s Eve I am home with my youngest who has a bug. In fact she is already asleep and I am a bit sad not to have some moments alone with her as it seems with each passing year how quickly my babies are growing up.

Alas, she is asleep so I decided to look at the one yearly tradition that I have–keeping track of the books I have read over the year. I wish I could make myself keep a journal over a whole year, but I always fade out when I try. The one thing I have been able to keep up with is simply writing down the titles of the books I have read over the year. I don’t even write comments about them (although I always think I should)–just title and author. At the end of the year I figure if I can remember the book at all it must have been good.

Reading is one of my favorite hobbies and if you too want to pick something simple to do for yourself next year this is about as easy of a resolution as one can find and fun to look back on at the end of the year.

Here are the books I read this year. Some are books I read aloud to my kids ( I only included the memorable ones).

1. How to be Lost by Amanda Ward 

2. Preacher Boy by Katherine Paterson  

3. Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion.

4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 

5. Lost and Found (with the girls) by Andrew Clements

6. What looks like Crazy by Pearl Cleage

7. Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald  

8. Sailing alone around the room by Billy Collins.

9-12. Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer 

13. What Happened to Anna K. by Irena Reyn 

14. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher 

15-18. Harry Potter 5,6,7 (with the kids)

19. The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert 

20. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 

21. The Help by Kathryn Stockett 

21. Any Place I hang my Hat by Susan Isaacs.

22. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld 

23. Prep by Curtis Sittenfield 

24. SCAT by Carl Hiassen 

25. Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner 

26. Digging to America by Anne Tyler 

27. Don’t sleep there are snakes by Daniel Everett 

And for fun, the three most memorable books I read this year were: 1. Gone with the Wind. I had never read this book before and wow what a book. Of course I had heard of it and knew the story, but I really never realized what a good read it was. This book will certainly make my lists in future years. 2. The Graveyard Book–This book was one that I recommended to many and even got my husband to read. 3. American Wife–a book I picked up on a whim and couldn’t put down–loved it.

Here is to 2010! A post with photographs will be on the blog soon.

It’s that time of year when you have family to your home, or you are traveling–and while I’m sure you will be busy cooking, cleaning, and hopefully enjoying the day you should also remember to grab that camera and document the day. These photographs will be the things that help you bring back the memories from that day years later.

This Thanksgiving we traveled  North to enjoy the holiday with Jason’s Professor and mentor from Bennington College.

Remember while photographing holiday events that can be stressful to not add to your stress by trying to take the perfect photo. Just keep your camera close while you are chatting and see what happens.

This dog had the longest tongue ever and was a joy to photograph.

When photographing kids make taking their picture a game and not forced. I think I was hiding behind something when I took this picture as part of a game of peek-a-boo.

Don’t forget to take self-portrait when you get the chance. I like how this one shows me as well as the setting.

Details. Details. Details. These were all taken outside the house. I love this backyard and really enjoyed wandering around to see what I could find that marked the day and the season.

And of course don’t forget the details of the actual meal, place setting, etc. If you have older kids you can put them in charge of taking the pictures as well.

Try to take pictures of any traditions or activities that are going on. And, notice how I didn’t stop the play here and make everyone turn and look at me.

Again, you don’t always need to have someones face in the image….

Finally, if you have an amazing  husband like I do–who actually does the dishes—put down your camera for a bit(but keep it close) and actually spend some time with him–at least that is my plan this holiday season.

My blog might not be as active between now and 2010 as I will be traveling and taking a little break. You can always reach me by email–or if you have joined twitter you can find me there as well under genphotos.

Have a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Holiday!!! My annual thank you so much slideshow will arrive soon in my much neglected newsletter–keep an eye out for it. Cheers.

I’m going to apologize up front, but I am going to toot my horn just a bit.

Last May I got an email letting me know that an image I had entered into a photography contest had been selected as one of the 150 winners. Now, I normally never ever enter photography contests. In fact I believe this was the first (and only) contest I had entered. The reason I decided to finally enter the contest was twofold. First, the competition was based upon the famous  1950s landmark photographic exhibition and book, ‘The Family of Man. I actually have two copies of this book and it I still look through it. Second, I saw that one of my all time photographers was also involved in the competition–Elliott Erwitt was was to choose the winning image, which meant that Elliot Erwitt would have to look at one of my photographs.

I was thrilled to find out that of over 40,000 images entered from all over the world one of my images was chosen to be in the book.

A few months ago I got a copy of the book in the mail.

In the back of the book all of the winning photographers got to submit a little photo of themselves. I included a silly photo of me and my girls making fish faces. I thought it would be nice to get them in the book somehow—–and when I got the book, I open it up to find out that the company cropped my kids out of the image so that it is just me giving a silly face.

And here is the page where my photo is located. Mine is the one on the bottom right.

And in case you can’t see the image that well here is the full image.

Makes you smile, doesn’t it? The great thing is that the image is of good friends. Since I only decided to enter the contest on the last day I only could choose from images that I was pretty sure I could get a copyright release from–Luckily when I called to tell my friends that the image was going to be published they agreed.

Thanks for letting me toot my horn a bit. And thanks to all of you who have emailed about the Holiday CD–I’ll get those sent off in the next day or two. If you still want a CD shoot me an email and I’ll put you on my list.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people
will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou

Just starting to download pics from my vacation.

It was the summer that Echo discovered Mad Libs and we played it most of the time. She even made up a few of her own.

Love it when my girls actually get this close to each other.

We visited two Echo Lake’s while on vacation.

So grown up my 6 year old is…

More later-I promise.

So, we are one of those families— The ones who wait until the last minute to buy gifts if we even bother to get them at all.  The ones who write out thank you cards, but then the cards get lost before we send them because we stick them in a “special” pile that no one knows about. We even wait until the last minute to put together a birthday greeting for the grandma (mother-in-law) that drove all the way to our house from St. Louis to watch our kids while we were in Greece for 10 days.

Yup–feeling a bit guilty.

Soooo–since my mother-in-law never seems to get mad at us for this area that we are lacking in and she loves seeing pictures of her grandkids and kids we decided to do a little video for her. Last year (same thing happened) and the kids made a really funny happy birthday video that we posted on YouTube that only a Grandma could love. We were looking to repeat it–to upstage it.

However….after pulling out all of the dress up needed for the show (which we didn’t get to until late) a fight ensued between our girls about who was going to hold the cheerleader pom-poms. I’m still not sure whey they were needed. Anyway,  there was much fighting and eventually we ran out of time for the song performance. Plus, all of the sulking wouldn’t have made for a very fun video.

I didn’t want Grandma to be completely empty handed so the girls took the sign that they made outside for a picture.

I think you could tell the mood from this one even if I had decided not to give it a blue tint.

And can you feel a little anger here?

And this was after me resorting to “Can you please smile nice for Grandma”. I probably was looking a little frustrated at this point hence the lovely fake smile from my oldest.

So, these images are what I have from our night of trying to put together a last minute lasting birthday greeting for you Cathy. I’m sure making a card a week ago would have been much easier, but that just isn’t us.

We hope you have a great birthday. We love you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

*And I hope these images show that even a professional photographer has trouble taking pictures of her own kids!