Mulvihill Family Photo Shoot

This weekend I was able to gather up the Mulvihill children and pets to take family pics of them for the parent’s Christmas present.  Since money is tight right now, I figured this was the best gift I could give this holiday season.  As you have seen below, I also took this theory with my own parents.

The day was overcast, and about 40 degrees with a nice little wind-chill – it could have been worse.  We chose Blackburn Park in Webster as our shooting grounds.  Blackburn doesn’t have the monuments or background that Tower Grove had, but I think we used it’s landscape to our advantage.  In this case, I was looking for trees with some green leaves on them or a nice park bench with a good background.  We also used a pile of leaves as one of our locations, which turned out to be a VERY nice shot that I will talk about later.

Mike & Michelle Mulvihill

These two were the first couple of the day.  Although Mike is always goofy, he managed to give me a few good shots in order to get what I needed.  But, I knew he would also provide us with some VERY entertaining shots which I was definitely looking forward to.  There was a few times I had to stop shooting because I was laughing too hard.  (what a great problem to have!)

Due to the weather and the winds, I tried to get the shots in as quickly as possible, but you wouldn’t know it by all of the photos I took of these two.

Bill & Meghan Taylor

How cute is this picutre?  This is one of my favorites from the day.  We did the usual shots with Megs & Bill, but the ones of them goofing off together were my absolute favorite because it shows the couples true characters.

But, Bill always cheats when he plays board games…you may want to watch out for him if you are ever engaged in a Risk battle…

Ok, so this is my absolute favorite of the day.  This was the first take of this whole series of timed shots and it turned out better than I thought it would.  I set the timer for 10 seconds, ran and jumped into the pile of leaves…and voila, you’ve got yourself the family portrait done by a professional.

What a great day.

Destin, FL

More to come on my photographic journey through Destin.

Family Photos

A few weeks ago I was blessed with the company of my brother, his sweet girlfriend and my darling nephew (puppy Cooper), for family portraits that will be used for my parents Christmas presents.

For the past few years, Greg and I have given our parents a calendar that contained random photos of us from each stage of life – some growing up; some action sports shots; some college parting…etc.

This year, we decided that it was time to mix it up a bit by doing a photo shoot that closely resembled engagement photos…except, none of us are engaged or married.  (No pressure on anyone there)

Personally, I could have someone take photo’s of me ALL day.  I love goofing off and having a great photo to show for it.  My brother and Tom, however, did not share the same sentiments.  Luckily the weather was nice, the dog was in a great mood, and I wasn’t looking to overly porkish on this particular day…otherwise I would have cancelled it and remained dormant until I felt like coming out.  What can I say, I’m a big baby.

Anyway, it was a great day spent with my brother and Jess.  Always a nice treat to see them and my whittle Coops. (Pardon the baby talk…I just can’t resist)

My next attempt at photography will be this weekend when I take on the Mulvihill family in an epic battle to see who can look away from the camera the most.  Oh yes, it’s always a good time with this group.  In the photo cue we’ve got Meghan & Bill, accompanied by their black lab/boxer/”whatever the else he is” puppy named Oliver.  Then we jump to Michelle & Mike along with their yellow lab Sadie.  Since Thomas and I have already subjected ourselves to photographic scrutiny, we will be opting out of the shoot this weekend, and only remaining in the family shots.  This will help cut down on the hours as well, since it will be cold and the weather may be un-friendly.  I look forward to another great day of photography and also getting to spend some quality time with some people I love.

New Job, New Room Mate, New…Trip?

Congrats to me.  I’ve managed to change my life completely around in the past few months.

First of all, I went out and got myself a new job after being extremely unhappy at the old one.  I won’t go into that out of respect for some people.  Now I work in the commercial real estate industry, and so far I love it.

Second of all, I got myself a new room mate.  Yes, officially Tom will be moving in this December.  We are both very excited, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time since the Holidays are right around the corner.

Third, I can afford to live again since I have this new job, which means I can afford to do things that I enjoy without living off of others.  AND I can afford to travel again which brings me to my next point of Ireland.  It looks like we are attempting to plan a trip to Shannon, Ireland in early March.  For this, I am INCREDIBLY thankful because I’ve been dreaming of the day that I could return to Europe.  Luckily, we would be traveling with a couple that we get along with very well.  EUROPE!  I hope and pray that it all works out, because if it does then that would be a trip of a lifetime.

I traveled to Europe to study abroad in the fall of 2004 and it was a eye-awakening opening  experience for me.  I made some good friends, made some good enemies (naturally) and also learned a lot about myself.  To sum it up, it was college wrapped into 8 weeks.  Its an experience that I would never give back and I was so blessed (thanks to Grandpa Gates) that I was able to do it.

So, keep your fingers crossed for my probably Journey #2 to Europe in hopes to find a little more of me.  If I end up going, you may want to spend a lot of time with me before we leave, because I may never come back.

Truck Signage

We were using the magnets as graphics on our trucks until today.  Our new truck signage.

New Design for the Open House

I’ve decided to go ahead and post this pre-print document because I am proud of what I have done.  This peice is being used for our open house coming up in December.