Anna Sophia is 5!  I can hardly believe how time has flown.  I’m sure every devoted Aunt says that.  But I really do mean it.  I’m so happy that she was such a happy participant in a birthday photo shoot.  She was pretty excited to having her own session without Mom, Dad and Brother.  But I didn’t score very many points when she asked were my shade ‘thingie’ (aka Reflector) was.  Apparently it wasn’t ‘official’ enough for her.

Of course I also took her shopping for a birthday present and much to my dismay……she wanted a video camera…..huh what….a VIDEO camera!  EEEEKKKKK!  We compromised and got one that is bright pink, kid friendly and does both video and still images.  And hey…I’m not a opposed to video….I like video….it will sure be interesting to see what she makes ‘movies’ of.  Beware YouTube!

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!  Uncle Chad and I are so proud of you.  And hopefully you will indulge me in many more photo shoots over the next say 60 years or so.

XO XO XO,

Aunt Tami

P.S.  Uncle Chad loved your Darth Vader cake and said he was glad that you didn’t break out the ‘choke force’ on him while he was eating it!

My husband realized that my Grandpa was going to be wanting his tractor soon to plow his garden.  So he took the time to clean the battery terminals, replace a cable and give it a general ‘once over’.  I took it as an opportunity to play around with my wide angle lens a little bit.  I do love the distortion of a really wide angle lens.  I know that everything has it’s place in photography and I don’t use it very often when shooting people.  But it’s fun to play with and I like what I was able to come up with here.

What about you…when your out shooting what have you been experimenting with?

I love doing follow up shoots.  Add a cute kiddo, beautiful home & adorable dog and you have the makings of a great session.  Brooks is a little man of many many faces.  I had such a good time with him and his mama in the hour that I spent photographing him.  Every single shot has a completely different expression too.

When Brooks was a newborn, Minnie (fierce Chihuahua that she is) was not real sure about me.  I would say tolerated my presence, let me pick her up, but was not real sure I should be in her home.  This time though….what a little ham!  She wanted to play with me and kept getting in the frame.  So I took a few minutes and indulged her little self.

As you will know if you followed me here from my old blog….I have a big heart for Large Mouth Bass.  And am lucky to live on a farm here in Western Pennsylvania with not one but TWO Bass ponds.  And equally lucky to have had my beautiful Grandma Sophie & Grandpa Joe as steady influences in my life growing up.  Can there be any quicker way for a child to learn patience then taking them fishing?  I think not.  I’m happy to carry on the family tradition with my Nephew and Niece.

This week will usher in Spring.  And I’m happy to be submitting this post to Sunday Stills challenge Transitions.  The grass is starting to green, buds starting to break, and certainly the fish will be bitting soon.  I’m looking forward to it.

I was happily photographing my Orchid yesterday (it’s most amazing bloom yet if I do say so) when a very nebby little Jack Russell Terrier jumped up into the chair beside me to check out what I was up to.   I imagine that she thinks that the front of my lens is a very large eyeball.  And if it’s pointed in a certain direction then she should be there looking to see what is up.  Clarice is built like a small compact tank so she can insinuate herself into most situations.

Oh and ‘nebby’ for all my friends around the world is ‘Pittsburghese’ for ‘prying into the affairs of others’.  Jack Russell Terriers epitomize the word.

A highlight of 2011 was having the opportunity to photography a beautiful dairy and crop farm in Volant, PA through the seasons of the year.  Kemland is such an amazing farm.  And I always feel in my element photographing animals and the people who work with them.  Of course…throw in some farm equipment, trucks and impromptu photo shoots and we have a winning combination.

When asked to shoot a second year.  I very happily agreed.  It will be interesting to see how the story of 2012 unfolds.  Over the next few months I’m going to share some of 2011 album spreads from the wonderful book that was designed using the images that were taken.  And I’m very happy to have already started shooting this year but most of those images will be under wraps until the end of the year.  I am sharing a few today though.  This is the one and only accumulation of snow that we had this winter.

I truly feel so blessed by how much the simple action of starting a blog on the 13th of September 2008 has been….but more on that another time.  For now I’m very happy to introduce you to my new home on the interwebs.  Although this website, sorry BLOGSITE,  is still a work in progress I feel so good about it that I had to release it.  Please note, not everything is fully functioning on the navigation bar.  Give me a few more days…I’ve truly been burning the midnight oil and loving every minute of it.  There is something so wonderful about a new creative project.  It seems to enhance every other part of your life.

For those faithful followers who have made the decision to follow me from my old site www.pawildwoman.blogspot.com/www.tamiweingartner.net.  I hope that you will enjoy the new site.  I think the best benefit to switching to the WordPress format is that I will be able to communicate with you directly.  I love the interaction that blogging creates….but one of the things that I didn’t like is that I had no way to respond to you directly in the commenting section.  We couldn’t have a conversation.  Well that has changed now.  If you ask a question or leave a particularly nice comment and I want to give you some loving back than I can respond directly to your comment.  And that my dear blogging companions is beautiful!

I was also a little to scattered around…my Website, Client Galleries & Blog were all separate entities.  And I wanted to be linked up!  So here I am.  All nice and organized in one location.  Under one ‘roof’ so that I can come and write blog posts, update my Portfolio or communicate with a client.

Although I will be leaving my old blog up to remind me of where I started on this incredible journey, I will no longer be posting new content to it.  So PLEASE subscribe to my new RSS feed for the blog.   I look forward to continue building the relationship that we have started!