Oh the things that childless people do to their pets on Halloween….
Happy Halloween from Beau-nana!
Off to watch some scary movies and eat lots of junk food…
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“Ninja can only use their special disappearing powers in combination with a smoke bomb. This is not negotiable.”
-entertheninja.com
Filed under: Angie, baby love, connection, love, ninjas, photography, sunshine
Remember this GORGEOUS couple?
Well, they decided that although they both have fabulous big city careers, they were going to raise sweet baby Wyatt to love his country roots. So, we embarked on a project for his Cowboy themed nursery.
My clients and future clients should know, when you invite me into your lives to photograph you and your family, we are about to build something special.
I look beyond the purpose of one session. I like to envision not only what will be hanging on your walls from what we create when I photograph you, but also what will be added to it in the future.
For the Devers family, we started with this image (taken before the baby was born). I knew that Lindsey was going for a retro-cowboy theme, so I set out to find some itty-bitty boots. I looked high and low and then, by chance, found a pair in mint condition at Once Upon a Child in Cordova.
I knew I HAD to find a saddle for his newborn session, and as always, my AWESOME BFF and fellow photographer, Angie Hayes, came through for me. She managed to find this gorgeous one for me to borrow (and thank you to her generous friend for the loan!).
And a couple of Saturdays ago, we created the most recent piece for his room (mom and dad supplied the precious little hat and boots this time):
I’m telling y’all, this had to be the most chill 6 month old I have ever photographed (he comes by it honestly.. his parents are way laid back). He let us change his clothes a half dozen times and create all sorts of blackmail material for his senior year of high school…
Thanks again Lindsey and Brian, I love watching Wyatt grow!
Off to watch the sunrise with my Beau-Dawg,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“Ninjas invented the internet. All of it.”
-entertheninja.com
Filed under: Uncategorized
Things I learned about having surgery:
There aren’t any cute male nurses in Memphis (unless you count my hubby!).
I will always be my momma’s little girl and she will always be a nervous wreck anytime one of her babies is hurting.
Stitches are itchy.
Talk your husband into stealing a heated blanket from the hospital and hope he listens better than mine did.
“Discomfort” is actually a hateful word that doctors use instead of EXCRUCIATING pain.
There is no longer any such thing as being a modest and sexy wife to my husband anymore because he has had to help me to the bathroom every few hours since Thursday night.
There are some goooood drugs out there and there are some that don’t work at all! Figure out which ones are which BEFORE you let someone cut you open.
Dr. Kutteh is my personal hero. He not only saved my ovary… but he also correctly diagnosed some major issues and worked hard to resolve them all in this one surgery. He is dedicated to helping The Doc and I get that baby that we so desperately want.
Small towns are amazing places where people still pray for each other and cook meals for the sick. You couldn’t pay me to move from this place.
The most beautiful words to wake up to: “It’s not cancer.”
And last,
I have the sweetest most attentive husband on Earth. He has thought of everything… from telling me that my little surgery hat matched my eyes, to protecting me from bossy old mean nurses, to literally carrying me all over the house, to making sure we had those “bendy” straws so that I wouldn’t have to sit up to take my meds, to ALWAYS being ready with the exact number of pillows I need, to waking up at all hours of the night to make sure I had my pain under control and to help me to the bathroom, to making the perfect cinnamon toast….
photo taken by The Doc (my Ceej, that is) via his blackberry:
Off to a drug induced dreamland,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“Be as patient as possible. If speed of travel is not important, take as much time as you can. Impatience and the resultant hasty movement that it encourages are the greatest dangers to the person who must move silently without detection.”
-Stephen K. Hayes
Lily and Zach Johnson come from the kindest, most community loving, salt of the Earth people you can imagine.
Many of the Johnson’s friends moved away from this small town after high school, but they stayed to spread their sunshine to a community that they love so dearly.
I know one thing for sure… this town is a happier place for me because I am lucky enough to know them.
I’m also blessed to have had the opportunity to create some photographs of the sweet beams of light that are Zach and Lily…
A variation on one of my signature shots:
And one that says it all…
Off to dreamland,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
Simple way to tell what time it is without a clock is to call the local phone operator and ask them. Simple, but effective. Don’t tell them your name.
-entertheninja.com
Sweet baby Jackson has one of those “little man” faces. He looks as if any minute he will start talking and hold a pleasant conversation about the weather or politics.
He is already a gentleman… he never peed on me and even though he did poop… he didn’t aim at me. (Which is more than I can say about most of the sweet little stinkers I photograph!)
Welcome to the world, precious Jackson. May you grow to be strong and kind and true. May you love the life you live, and those who live it with you.
Oh, and if you ever have to suffer the indignity of having your big sister play dress up with you… may you remember that you can always get her back by putting spitballs in her hair and reading her diary to her boyfriends!
And one last sweet sweet little smile…
Off to dreamland,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. “
~Maya Angelou
A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with writer Christina Morgan at the local Starbucks. She was writing a series for the local paper, The Millington Star, about women in business.
My momma was a great businesswoman, and so although I was worried I would say something dumb, I agreed to do the interview to make her proud.
Most of you who know me, know that once you get me talking… it’s hard to stop me. I ramble and ramble and jump from thought to thought and talk circles around the poor soul who happens to be listening. And there is no filter from my brain to my mouth, so there is no telling what sort of offensive and ridiculous things I am going to say.
My momma says it ‘cuz I’m “creative”.
Really, I think I’m just nuts.
Anyway, dear sweet Christina had her editing work cut out for her. I think she did a pretty good job at keeping me from embarrassing myself.
You can view her article here.
the crazy started early... Bing age 4.5
Off to spread some sunshine,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“Nobody puts Bing in a corner”
(tee hee)
-Patrick Swayze
Paige and Davis are two very lucky children.
They have a mom like I do.
She listens to them. Laughs with them.
She doesn’t try to tell them who they should be… she just loves who they are.
Best of all, she has a sense of humor about her kids.
All of which are necessary qualities to possess when you are the mom of two superheroes…
Off to dreamland,
Bing
Ninja Quote of the Week:
“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
Robin Williams
The MSoD parties are, quite simply, thebomb.com.
I love just letting loose and doing the chicken dance with all of my favorite little (and big) people. Last Friday, we celebrated the start of a new dance year with our annual Back 2 School Bash. This year we had a “luau” theme… complete with leis and non-alcoholic daquiries for everyone!
As always, there were lots of helping hands that made the party awesomely fantastic. The Ninja BFF, Angie, was there, not to mention the ever helpful Ziegler kids, my sweet Demi-Doodle, several parents who came with food (woot!) and my friend Cindy Kraft (visit her site here ) who helped take photos. (Cindy and I shared my camera all night, and I was super grateful for the shots she got while I was busy gettin’ my groove on!)
Turns out that Angie can do more than teach tumbling… she has some pretty groovy moves!
Of course, there is always that weird hippie who dances by herself in the corner all night… tee hee! (note to self, do not wear strapless dress and attempt the hokey pokey ever again)
what I saw most of the night… kiddos looking up at me, trying to get my attention (“Misss Biiiiiing… Miiiiissss Biiiiinnnnng!”) yet another reason NOT to go strapless… little kids will often resort to TUGGING when they really need to get through to you!
Off to find some sunshine on this rainy day!
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“The truest expression of a people is in its dance and music.”
Agnes de Mile
Warning.. a long and rambly blog ahead… come take the journey with me….
I’ve been writing a lot of my personal thoughts here lately. Not sure why I feel the need to, but it is very cathartic.
I’ve been going through a lot of changes lately. Been living very much inside my own head. Been trying to take stock of a life that is chaotic and happy and exhausting and scary and full of joy. Things are changing and I can feel myself growing. Both in my work and in my personal life (as if they were two seperate things, ha!)
A genius photographer friend of mine, Lowry (see his gorgeous work here), has been leading a group of photographers through some exercises that will hopefully help us to better our businesses. He asked a question about our self worth as photographers and what is it that we bring to the table. as artists and professionals in this field.. and it sent my mind reeling…
Okay, this was really really hard for me. Mostly because I am always so humbled by the happiness of my clients and the praise from my peers. It almost scares me… I’m afraid of being seen a certain way… of having an expectation hanging over my head to have to live up too. Maybe it’s because I am a major overachiever… I just get exhausted every time I raise the bar for myself. I keep thinking, “Bing, someday someone is going to find out that you are not so talented…” I have to pinch myself a lot of days to remind myself that this really is my life and work and that I am not an imposter, I am really doing this and making it work.
My husband calls it “Imposter Syndrome” …says it is a real thing… so I looked it up on wikipedia and he was right. (Yet another sign that I am crazy!)
I realize that I need to deal with this… I have been so tired lately and wanting to hang up my camera for a while, but if I can figure out a way for this to not be so emotionally exhausting, maybe I can continue to pursue it.
So, I’ll give this a shot…
My self worth… what I bring to the table…
I listen. Yes, I have a style, but it’s not about me. It’s about my subject. I listen and I listen and I listen and then I try to tell their story.
I understand. When someone is being photographed, they often feel vulnerable. They are trusting me with the insecurities they have about themselves. Photographing another person is a deeply intimate thing. There has to be a connection and a certain level of trust.
And more than anything, I understand that we all just want to be seen.
Be seen for who we truly are.
Be remembered for the good stuff.
That’s all I got for now… thanks Lowry!
(and of course, gotta leave a photo for those poor souls who actually read through the end of this rambly mess!)
Off to find the sunshine,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
Lao Tzu
So apparently, there are members of the running cult have nothing better to do than dream up new ways to torture its’ members.
I am talking of course, about the very hilly Chick-fil-a 5k run.
I invited myself along with a group pf amazing ladies who actually run almost everyday of the week (and they call me the “crazy one”) to run that very 5k, my first ever, this morning.
(photo courtesy of Angie Hayes)
Since the dance school season started up again, I have not been too good at keeping up with my running schedule. In fact (confession time), this morning was the first time I have run anywhere in about two weeks.
It hurt.
Everything burned.
I considered faking an ankle injury.
I tried to hitch a ride on a baby stroller. (The woman pushing it must have gotten a burst of energy because she started running faster all of the sudden!)
In short, I am now completely aware of how out of shape I am.
Things I learned while participating in this masochistic event:
I am slow.
The faster cult members will run over the slower cult members.
There are actually some cult members that I am faster than and nevermind if they are over the age of 80 or under the age of 8. And apparently the only reason I was able to pass them is because my legs are so pasty white that I blinded everyone else around me. (Hey, I’ll take whatever competitive edge I can get!)
And perhaps most important, I learned that men who run should NEVER wear spandex pants without some sort of “support”. EWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
Things that encouraged me to run faster:
The positively horrific B.O. of the person running next to me.
The need to pee from all of the coffee I’d drank that morning.
The homeless guy who decided that I might be the perfect person to witness his morning bathroom break on the sidewalk.
And best of all,
Knowing that my BFF was waiting for me at the end.
(photo courtesy of Angie Hayes)
Off to rest my aching body..
bing
Ninja Tale of the Day:
Two ninjas were hiking through the jungle when they spotted a tiger who looked both hungry and fast. One of the ninjas reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of tennis shoes.
The other ninja looked at him “Do you really think those shoes are going to make you run faster than that tiger?”
I don’t have to run faster than that tiger, the ninja replied. “I just have to run faster than you”.
