Cades Cove in August

Welp, if you've been following me for a while you might have noticed that we go to Cades Cove everyonce in a while.  I always have tons of photos from the day and I rarely process them all.  You know how it is, you take a billion pictures and then get overwhelmed when you go back and look at them.  I do usually pick out a few to process.  Anyhoo, I know I've told you about Cades Cove before, but it's located in Townsend, TN very close to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. It's a wonderfully long loop that is just completely nature and some old houses and churches to visit.  There are LOTS of hiking trails to be explored and just lots of wildlife (if you go at the right time of day).  It's completely free to go through and you can walk, jog, run, hike, bike, drive, ride ,or any other form of transportation you can think of, through.  The road is one way and you slowly make your way around the loop stopping where you want to stop along the way.  I love it, and so does my family.  I just wish I could say we saw some wildlife this time, but we didn't.  It was nice to go and have a picnic though.  Here are a few shots from our day.

I did get some beautiful butterfly images that I can't wait to share! :0)

reality

You ever start reading something that a successful popular photog wrote and get so lost in the words that you feel for that ever so short moment that it's you living the dream?  It's you with the sessions scheduled for the week and it's you editing those photos.  It's you sharing your knowledge with others.  It's you flitting across the US with your youngest child to teach a workshop.  It's you spending that day with your kids because you're your boss and your kids needed it.  Then you read the last word in the post, message, letter, packet and SNAP there you are in your little sunless cubicle with a mile high pile of mail waiting to be opened and sifted through.  ;)


Wish I had an image to share, but I'm at work and I don't have access right now so my words will have to do.

Easy Macros on Sunday

I have been wanting to try Macro for so long, but wasn't sure what to buy and honestly, I just don't have the money for an actual Macro lens... so I was so very excited to learn something the other night.  I learned that you can flip your 50mm lens around and it becomes a macro lens.  The dof is very shallow and it is very hard for me not to shake.  You obviously have to move back and forth until you find the sweet spot, but it is fun.  I'm still getting the hang of it, but here are a few shots I took this afternoon.

These are all SOOC I just converted them from raw and resized for the web

My sweet little Kitty

Ok, I was going to wait to post this until tomorrow, but I just totally want to go ahead and post it haha.  I posted this shot on my fb page and my good friend Mel suggested I enter it into the iheartfaces contest "pet faces".  I know this isn't a real pet so I am thinking it will probably not qualify after reading the rules, but thought I'd try anyhoo heehee.

My sweet little kitty

Faith Fun Fest

Well last weekend Emma and I spent the day at our church's Faith Fun Fest :0).  I took pictures and she played.  It was a lot of fun for her to run free and do what she wanted.  She rode the merry go round, played in the bounce house thing and went down the big slide then she blew bubbles and ran through sprinklers... oh and she met a sweet adorable clown!  Such a great day! Here's a few of my fave shots from the day. Oh, I will share my numero uno fave shot in my next post heehee.