A Field of Sunflowers

Donna Hurdle has been trying to get a photo of her sons for a couple of years but I think it's sometimes hard to gather men (even young ones) and make them do what you want. But she finally got them all together and we rode over to a field of sunflowers planted near her house. In the few short days since she made the appointment, the sunflowers had given up quite a bit and weren't quite as numerous and tall and pretty as they once were. But it still made a nice scene though I did digitally add a few sunflowers here and there to increase their population. I was a film holdout for a long time but sometimes the retouching possibilities of digital and Photoshop make me so happy.

Paisley

Finally some photos of Paisley Benson to share with all of you. The last time we saw Paisley, we really didn't see her. It was when I took some maternity portraits of her mommy Michele that I posted a couple of months ago. Well, Michele brought her over for some photos and we had a great time. These little ones are so sweet and so much fun, especially if they fall asleep. Then we can put them in all sorts of poses that they will hate when they're teenagers.

Since Paisley is a summer baby, she has beach wear -- a beach towel with her name on it and some cool little flip flops. I think I remember Michele saying the flips were a gift from her aunt Whitney.

And of course a beach-going girl has to have her own personalized bucket though Paisley looks a little bored here with our efforts to get her beach ready.

Of course, we did some sweet photos with her mommy and daddy's wedding rings. I know her Daddy probably loved this one with this wedding band.

I think Michele said this pretty little dress was what she wore home from the hospital and her bracelet was a special gift from Daddy.

I think we just plain wore her out. She probably slept in her car seat all the way home.

We Are Family

If you've been to Conway Photo or are from this area you already know this but we are a small business. It's just Peggy, Lynn, Eula and me and none of us are all here at the same time. But we are family and we love each other and when one of us has a problem or is hurting, we all hurt.

Right now we are all in pain and anxious because Peggy's son and Lynn's brother, Phil, was seriously injured in an accident on Thursday. (Did I mention that Lynn is Peggy's daughter -- in case you didn't know that). We are all keeping him and his family in our prayers and I wanted to write this so you all can add Phil and Betsy and Ryan and Dale to your own personal prayer list. Phil is surrounded by his family and friends and I know the entire community is waiting eagerly for news of every little improvement. Please keep them all in your thoughts this weekend and beyond. (Saturday morning update: Just talked to Lynn and feel encouraged about Phil. He's got a lot of recovering to do but all of his family and friends are behind him and will help out as much as the can).

By the way, if you don't know him, this photos is of Phil surrounded by his two sisters, Lynn and Michelle taken at Allison and Alan's wedding a couple of weeks ago. I knew how much Peggy would love this photo so I dragged these three reluctant models outside for a quick shot.

Junior Miss

The Roanoke Valley Junior Miss competition is coming soon!! For the past several years I've photographed the Junior Miss contestants for their program and it's a great group of young ladies this year. It should be a wonderful evening at Halifax Community College on August 29. Good luck to all the contestants!!

Cakes!! Yum!!

I have been planning for some time to blog a little about wedding cakes. Needless to say, I see a lot of them and they run the gamut from elegant to whimsical to downright funny. A recent groom's cake in the form of the Batman emblem prompted me to sit at the computer and pull up photos of some of the more memorable cakes from the last couple of years to share with you. Hope you're not too hungry when you finish looking at them.

The Batman groom's cake

Another favorite for the groom was this possum cake

This groom was obviously a policeman and I hope he likes donuts!!

This cake topper was bride and groom Pez dispensers

Cupcakes instead of

a wedding cake

This groom's cake with

the strawberries and

dark chocolate makes

me want to dive in

A German chocolate

groom's cake with orchids

These cakes are from

beach weddings at the Sanderling Inn in Duck

I love the icicles on this winter wedding cake

The stargazer lillies were

a pretty touch on this one

One of my favorite cakes --

simple and elegant. Also delicious, I'm sure,

since it was baked by Doris Riggs
from Nashville

I think it's so soft and pretty with this

tulle over the cake. It also helps

keep the bugs off the cake at an

outside wedding like this one

I've always gotten a lot of compliments

on this cake photo. I think everyone likes

the square shape and the colorful flowers.

Really pretty scrollwork in the

icing on this cake

Another beautiful cake -- this one

was baked by the bride's mother.

This is one of all-time favorite cakes. I love the cool, green color,

the miniature pears, the elegant cake stand. This one

was baked by Susan Joyner of Ahoskie.

If I left your cake out, I'm sorry. There are so many great ones and I tried to put together a group of cakes in a hurry.

Miss Laurali

I have been so busy since I got back to the studio from my little vacations that I haven't been able to find a few minutes to post some new entries. I'm not complaining; work is good. I've just had so many great appointments lately and haven't had time to share them with you.

I definitely wanted to share a few photos of Laurali Lassiter. Isn't she beautiful? She brought her mom and dad over one morning and we had a great time. Not only did she smile for the camera (an outstanding accomplishment for one so little) but she also fell asleep and let us do all sorts of things to her for photos. She posed with mom and dad, she let her mommy put a big pink flower around her head, and she played with jewelry and never even woke up. FYI -- she's got both her mommy and daddy's wedding rings in the photo of just her hands and (I think) her great-grandmother's ring in the photo with the flower.

Hope you enjoy these. I'll try to be better about keeping things up to date now that I'm back home for a while.

Back from D.C.

It you feels like I've been missing in action from my blog for several days then you're entirely correct. Joe and I took off on a little, long-planned trip last week to Washington. We had several goals in mind (I'm sorry but I'm goal-oriented even on vacation). The centerpiece of the trip was that I had scored tickets to the Van Morrison concert at Constitution Hall on Thursday night. I LOVE Van Morrison and the concert didn't disappoint. We also wanted to combine a little sightseeing with the concert since we hadn't been to D.C. in years. The top of MY sightseeing list was a trip to the World War II Veterans Memorial. As the proud daughter of a World War II veteran, I really wanted to pay my respects at this memorial and am very saddened that my father did not live long enough for this memorial to open. Joe and I got off our tour bus at the Lincoln Memorial and took a nice, long walk past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on our way to the WWII memorial. It is a beautiful monument to the men, women and citizens of the U.S. who lived, fought and died during this difficult time. I was so excited to find the detail pictured above from the bas-relief sculpture on the "Liberation" panel. The sculpture depicted some of the many jobs the troops performed during and after the war and I felt that this photographer was included especially for my Daddy. He spent the last year of his time in the Army as a photographer in occupied Japan and many of the skills he learned there served him well in his future career.

More photos from the World Warr II memorial showing the Pacific side of the memorial along with the North Carolina pillar.

Joe and I also really enjoyed our visit to the Newseum. Lot of wonderful exhibits. We wish we had another entire day to spend there. Joe especially enjoyed the exhibit they had on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.

So . . . I'm back at work now immersed in high school seniors. I hope to be able to blog more often because I've had lots of great things going on lately that I want to share. Have a good week everyone!