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
Filed under: Uncategorized
They are everywhere.
Gurgling and cooing at me in grocery stores.
Drooling all dreamy-eyed at me in restaurants.
I see my husband looking at them longingly and my heart goes pitter-pat.
What has happened to my brain? When did I start slooowing down when passing the baby isle at Target… just so I can catch a whiff of baby powder? When did I start day-dreaming of holding a tiny warm bundle that has The Doc’s green eyes and dimples and my blonde curls?
One thing is for sure… I’ve got it bad.
These guys aren’t helping either…..
Off to spread some sunshine!
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“Move the lake, then eat the fish.”
-The Whut, loony ninja master, Ask a Ninja Handbook
Filed under: Uncategorized
I did the UNTHINKABLE tonight.
I freaking cooked.
(I attempted it once last week and I could not bring myself to eat it…)
So what if I caught a dish rag on fire?
So what I burned my hand taking the tilapia and veggies out of the oven?
So what if the baked sweet potato “fries” were almost cold (thus needing to be reheated) by the time I finished baking the other stuff?
I cooked and no one died from food poisoning.
I cooked and my husband does not want to trade me in for a better model.
I cooked and it did not involve a microwave or toaster oven or an ambulance for the first time in my adult life.
By golly, I might just have to try this again next week!
Tonight’s menu:
baked tilapia filets
squash, zucchini, red and green bell peppers, garlic, onion, and asparagus
baked sweet potato “fries”
and, of course, sweet tea!
Off to wash the dishes and pray I don’t break one!
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“Ain’t nothin gonna break my stride/ Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no/ I got to keep on movin’.”
-Matthew Wilder, “Break My Stride”
Sherrie Lemons is my Ghost of Christmas Past.
Except, not in a regretful, mournful way… more like having a living scrapbook of your teen self around all the time.
We are ten years apart, but sometimes it feels like we are only ten seconds apart. Her heart, her outlook, her worries, and the weightlessness of her own “La-La Land” very much mirror my own at her age (and sometimes, even now).
She is, of course, many things that I was not when I was 17 years old…
tall and gorgeous
confident
OCD
good at school
geeky in a cool way (I was definitely geeky, but not so much cool)
Knowing Sherrie only further confirms my belief that our lives are not parallel. We all intersect at some point. We all carry around pieces of each other. We are all a lot more alike than we are different.
Off to spread some sunshine,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
“In order to know where you are going, you must make some attempt to understand where you have come from.”
International Order of Ninjas
Filed under: Uncategorized
Today I got to capture a brand spanking new relationship, The Sisterhood of Lilli and Sadie.
These two little girls are incredibly lucky to be born to a family full of strong, loving, hilarious, sassy women. These women know how to celebrate being girly in little ways everyday. They always have lipstick and purses, advice for each other and shoulders to lean on. I am lucky enough to be a bystander, a witness to this beautiful family and the sisterhood they share.
These girls will grow and change and make mistakes… but they will be there for each other. Through pillow fights and hair pulling, make-believe and make-up lessons, first boyfriends and first bras, worries and wedding dresses. They will be good at being sisters, because they will have been taught by the best.
To Lilli and Sadie, may you always leave your eyes and heart wide open to all of the magic that your sisterhood holds.
Off to dreamland,
Bing
Ninja Thought of the Day:
A ninja speaks with action.
-The Ninja Handbook, from The International Order of Ninjas
Filed under: Uncategorized
Chaotic Randomness, a.k.a. A look inside a Ninja’s brain:
When I was 13 years old, I wrote a full dictionary of words I made up (or ones that already existed that I changed the meanings of).
If I am in my car alone, then I HAVE to be singing. My most favorite song to sing is La Vie Boheme, but only in my car. I know every. single. word.
I feel like I should come with some kind of disclaimer so I don’t hurt people’s feelings when they interact with me. I have the uncanny ability to say the WRONG thing at the WRONG time to the WRONG person nearly every time I open my mouth.
Bar-b-que chips are my favorite, though I really don’t enjoy eating the actual chip… I’d really just prefer to lick the seasoning off of them
If I could wear just one thing every day, it would be my favorite old cotton skirt and shirt. In fact, if the outfit was perpetually clean and it never got cold outside, I just might wear it everyday.
Compliments and praise make me dizzy and anxious and really gets my blood pressure up. I am perfectly fine to roll along through life, just doing my own thing, making others and myself happy through dance and photography. When people start saying really nice things about my work, I suddenly become super self-conscious. Knowing that people think I am good at my art has the potential to change my art and that scares me. Sometimes, oblivious and invisible is blissfully better than noticed and appreciated. Sometimes. (I really just need to learn to be more gracious.)
I have a serious q-tip addiction. I have GOT to stop using so many q-tips a day or I am going to damage my ears!
I love the way little kids smell when they come in from playing outside… like sweaty little puppies. “Playing Outside” has a very distinctive scent… if someone bottled that, I would buy it (not wear it (ew), but just have it around in case I feel lazy or nostalgic).
My sense of humor can be so dry, I am only actually funny in my own head. To people who don’t already love me, I am just an insensitive jack ass. Or a weirdo.
I suck at housework of any kind, but I cannot function when my house is messy. So I guess that means I cannot function most of the time.
Most people don’t believe me, but my dog (Beau) and I have a secret language. He gets me. I get him. I won’t reveal all of our secrets, but I will say that he refers to himself as “The Beau-Dawg”. He’s also quite funny.
I absolutely loathe talking on the phone. I want to be able to see the person’s face. To read their lips. To hug them hello and good-bye instead of just saying it.
The food I crave constantly is my momma’a homemade salsa and chips. Whenever I get my hands on some, it disappears in a blink and I DO NOT share. Don’t even ask.
Shoes are only perfect when they are old, ugly, and don’t match anything.
Off to help sick hubby not starve or thirst to death….
Bing
Ninja Thought for Today:
You should never spin as someone tells you to. It is your body that is spinning. This idea is called “owning your spin”.
From the International Order of Ninjas Handbook
Filed under: Uncategorized
He says he saw me first. I say I saw him first.
It was April, 1997 and we were on a hot sticky school bus (number 11) in South Mississippi.
I noticed his eyes first, sparkling mischievously behind the longest eyelashes I had ever seen on a boy. The second thing I noticed was his dimpled smile and perfect, white teeth. I was 14 years old and my heart totally melted in my chest for the first time in my life.
Later, around midnight on May 25, 1997, he would tell me that he noticed my waist length blonde hair and had to restrain himself reaching across the seat and touching it. We stayed on the phone the entire night. He was 15, but his soul was much much older. We both discovered that we had already realized that the world was big and we had so much time, so much to learn, so much to do. The best part about that night, was realizing that we both understood.
that sacrifices would be just another part of the journey
that love was about more than romance
that people could make true, unbreakable promises and mean it
That understanding- that honesty- we shared that night, even as children- ultimately led us down a life altering path towards each other.
From May 25, 1997 to May 25, 2009… Every relationship experience, every first, every good, every bad, every heart-soaring and heart breaking, every memory, every idea, every dream, every moment… all of it has been wrapped up in each other.
How rare is that?
That we are the only people who have been able to truly break each other’s hearts? That we are the only people who have been able to truly love each other’s hearts?
There is another thing we talked about on that night, 12 years ago today…
yet one more thing we understood…
That is, if everyone on Earth could know what we knew, if everyone could feel what we felt and love how we loved…
then everyone would know what it was to be truly happy.
That night, we made a wish for everyone else. And for us.
That it would last.
That we’d always look at each other with wonder and tenderness and understanding.
And lucky for us…
Summer, 1998 (photo courtesy of my momma)
Summer, 2008 (photo courtesy of Angie Hayes)
Happy Anniversary, my lovey.
Bing
Filed under: Uncategorized
Edited May 19, 2009…
So…
We got too excited.
He isn’t cancer free… he’s just finished with treatment.
They have to monitor his white blood cell count and scan him and keep an eye on the remaining bits of tumor for the next year.
If nothing changes, he’ll be considered “in remission”.
They say the cancer has an 80% chance of reoccurring in one year.
But I say… my brother will be in that 20%.
Bing
Original post:
January 7th, our worlds are rocked. Brad is having emergency brain surgery and They say he may not make it.
January 8th, They say Brad has cancer and it is a horrible kind. They say he may never get completely better.
February 9th, Brad starts Chemo… They say he will be in treatment until June.
April 10th, Brad is now finished with chemo and onto radiation. They say he will be needing 33 treatments. They say he won’t be the same.
May 12, Tomorrow Brad gets his last radiation treatment…. not even close to needing 33.
…….and They were right about one thing… Brad is not the same.
BRAD IS CANCER FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
He is a living, breathing, sarcastic, funny, redneck, superman, history making, CANCER SURVIVOR!!!!!!!!
That is all.
Please return to your regularly scheduled Tuesday evening….
…except…
maybe return with a little more Bradley Miracle Magic in your heart?
Love,
Bing
Oh, and Dr. Benn and Dr. Johnson… you now have iconic hero status.. my family cannot be more grateful for your dedication and amazing care. You guys are definitely a big part Superman Brad’s super powers!!!!!!!
