Scott Pallot sings Mary Jane's Last Dance "Live"

Saw Pallot, Porters & Miller Saturday night at "HUGS" in Eatonton, Georgia. My understanding is that they will be back sometime in August to play again there. If you get a chance to see them, it is well worth it. They have a great sound and 3 of the members sing lead vocals. All are awesome and have a great harmony between them. I will definitely be looking forward to hearing them in person again. You can hear more music on their myspace page, Pallot Porters & Miller . You don't have to have a myspace account to listen and view their videos. I will add them to my calendar at the bottom of my blog when I find out a definite date.
Hope to see you there!

Copperhead Road by Scott Pallot "Live" at Harley Davidson of Macon

Tom Petty cover or "Free Fallin" by Scott Pallot Live at Harley Davidso...

Heart of the Matter Pallot Porter & Miller

Scott Pallot sings Mood Ring Pallot Porter & Miller

Angel From Montgomery Pallot Porter & Miller

Purple Rain by Pallot Porters & Miller

Purple Rain by Pallot Porters & Miller

Where does the time go?

Where do I begin? Birthday parties, photo shoots, Sunflower festival, 4th of July parties, work, and helping my sister type up 75 hours of lesson plans for a class, and Editing pictures. WOW! I can't believe I am still moving. I am exhausted but enjoyed every minute.

Spent an entire day in Shady Dale, Georgia the weekend of the June 20th, at the Chester resident enjoying John Morrell's 60th Birthday. Met some great people, got some great pictures, and really enjoyed the cooking. John's and his family cooked a whole hog, made brunswick stew, and had lots of other goodies. It was a fun day and the Chester's were great host.

The weekend of the 26th, we went to my niece Lovey's 4th Birthday pool party at her Aunt Christy's and Uncle Jamie's house. Lovey and her daddy Ronnie were here visiting from Colorado before he deploys for Afghanistan and being Lovey's birthday was less than 2 weeks away it was a good time to have a party a little early.

Sunday, Sunflower farm and photo shoot with niece Emily. What can I say, we got some great shots and had fun doing it. I don't get to spend much time with my niece Emily, so having the whole day with here was great. She is such a sweet kind hearted person and absolutely beautiful. She wanted her Aunt Dana to do her Senior pictures and what was I suppose to do but say....WELL YEA! Still have a few other locations to go shoot with her and now we will just have to decide which ones she wants to use. :) She is my niece...I can spoil her, Right!

Several other days that week I was able to capture a few shot of my niece Lovey, Allissa, and my sister and her family.

                   

 
The 3rd of July, we spent at my Dad's and Gloria's for a cookout and day with the family.

Back to the Sunflower Farm  for the Festival on the 4th and back again the 5th with some friends just to get more pictures of the flowers.

During all of this, Kristie (sister #2) and I spent five or six nights working till about midnight on all her school work and a few hours over the weekends. Today was her LAST day of class. I think she and I both were doing the happy dance when she left. She was driving all the way to  Alpharetta, 5 days a week working on Saturday's and Spending every night and her 1 day a week off doing homework for 5 weeks. And I thought I was busy.


Hmmm! I wonder if time will slow down now?

It's almost Time for the Sunflower Farm Festival!

Are you getting Excited? I am! Hope to see you there. Looking for directions ...go check out there website.

Busy Few Months

Well...The turnout for AmVets 1st Annual Ride For Freedom turned out great. I believe they had about a hundred riders. It was pretty chilly that day but it was worth every minute. For me this was a last minute idea to go shoot this event and even though I wasn't as prepared as I would have like to have been I still had a blast. My Hubby, Robert, was my pilot for the day and he did an awesome job at having me just a head of the group of bikes along their route 3 different times. We had so much fun. If you get a chance go check out some of the images captured on my dotphot site.

As for what's been going on since then...where do I start. Gallstones, my sleepless nights with gallbladder attacks and a trip to the emergency room. Well after a visit to the emergency room several months ago and the doctors at the hospital telling me they thought I had pleurisy (I knew that wasn't right) and a few more attacks a trip to the doctor and then several test we finally had a diagnosis...Gallstones. Surgery in May and was back up and running a week later or should I say back up and flying.

 

A week after surgery I was on a plane to Colorado Springs, Colorado to see my baby sister Kelly, her husband Ronnie and my sweet little niece Lovey. I was able to spend an entire week with them and had a great time. We visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, spent some time in Manitou Springs at the base of Pikes Peak, Picnicked at Garden of the Gods, spent some time with friends and went to there wonderful Church New Life Church. There was so much to do and weather prevented us from doing as much as we wanted but it was definitely a great trip and I guess we did need to save some things to do for the next visit.

 Then it was time to come home and reality sets in on how short my visit really was. I had a very hard time leaving them. Ronnie will be deploying to Afghanistan in a few months and I really didn't get to spend much time with him at all that really bothered me. I am so proud of him and what he is doing for our country and also very scared for him and my sister. People really don't understand the sacrifices our soldiers make for us and they have no clue how hard it is on the families left behind to get through everyday life without their family member unless they personally have a member in the military. Everyday is a challenge to stay strong and keep the faith that they will return home unharmed. I can't imagine how hard it truly is on my sister to not have Ronnie there and how hard it is for him to be away. I pray for them and all our soldiers and their families and just ask that everyone keep our military in there prayers.

 

After crying almost the whole plane trip back because I had to leave my family so far away...It was time to get back to work. Morning after being back home, I helped a friend shoot a wedding in Athens. It was beautiful and we all had a great time. Congratulations Tom and Dawn! My friend Dege is working on weeding through all the images and I think the couple is going to be very pleased.

We also had graduation the 28th of May. My nephew Marshall graduated and our friend Katie! Congratulations guys!

Now it is time to start working on the latest project shooting Senior pictures for my sweet little niece Emily. We are working out details now on our locations so that will be coming up soon. Can't wait!

Check back soon for more updates.

AmVet's 1st Annual Defenders of Freedom Ride

This Weekend will be the 1st Annual Defenders of Freedom Ride in Winder, GA sponsored by AmVets Post 12. These guys are awesome, they do a lot to support our veterans and this weekend I get to do my part in helping with that cause. I have a great appreciation for our Veterans and our Military and have not ever really known what I could do to help them or their families until this event came up.

I will be donating 50% of all profits made from my shoot this weekend back to AmVets to help them with there cause and enjoy a day of being around a group of proud Americans. I hope that if you can't participate in the ride that you will go to there website (AmVets Post 12, GA) and make a contribution. Don't you want to help support the people that make it possible for you to live as Free Americans.

To View pictures after event go to  http://savingmemories.dotphoto.com/  click on the AmVets Defenders of Freedom Ride. Enjoy.

Welcome Home Robert!

Vacation

Last weekend, Robert and I made a quick four day trip to Lakeland. It was a great weekend. We were able to see all of his brothers and sisters this trip and were actually able to get a family picture with all the siblings with Mom and Dad. I believe this is the first family picture that included all of them.

We were still missing 8 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Maybe one day we will have an opportunity to catch everybody home. While there we were able to celebrate Dad's retirement, his birthday, go to the Strawberry festival, spend time with family (including our new niece Cypress), make a lot of photos and enjoy our Anniversary together. We needed a vacation from our vacation, but enjoyed every minute of it.  My next trip Colorado Springs to see my baby sister and her family. I can't wait!

Park Hopping

Last Saturday was a beautiful day, a perfect day to go park hopping with the neices and nephews. We packed a picnic lunch and took off. We started off in downtown Madison at the new Town Park where the kids loved playing around the fountain, then off to the playground behind the Primary School and ended the day at Hard Labor Creek State Park. The kids played and we all made some new friends, Cindy, Buck, and little Annabelle. Here are a few photos of our day.

I think there will be a few play dates in our future! Nothing like watching the imagination of children.

God, Family & Photography

What a year! 2009 has come and gone and it was another year of great memories of being with family, and friends. This past year we have all had our struggles some worse than others but thankfully we all still have our jobs, homes, and each other.

This past year I have tried to make every family event possible to capture those moments in photos. Birthdays, cookouts, kids award ceremonies, holidays with family, our travels, and graduations, to put together a slideshow for my family. This past year with pictures selected I have about 1300 pictures to put in a 3 part slideshow. I am working hard on getting my project done so I can share this with my family. The collage of photos is a small sampling of those photos taken. Part 1 is almost complete. Yeah!

This year's photos I am developing a new stategy to organize along the way. My goal this year is to weed out all my bad photos before waiting until the last minute to trash them and also to orgaize my 2010 album now so as to drop all the very best shots of each event there and save myself some major headaches later.

I have learned so much this past year with my photography and using my camera and I hope to learn even more this year. I will be taking a few photography classes this year and trying to get into more event photography to make some extra money. I could certainly use that...need to get a few more lenses. :)

I know my family gets tired of having a camera around constantly and would just like to let them know... It's not going away!

I know as soon as they view this slideshow they will truly understand why I love taking pictures. My husband has helped me select and put music to these pictures and I just can't help but to smile everytime I listen and watch this show. I see all those intimate moments that are preserved and not lost to time. I see those moments that made my family smile and cry that can be reflected on. I see what God has given us in each other and I thank him everyday that I am part of it. I love my family.

I know that this year will surely have it's moments of greatness and hardship and I also know that we will get through them. I also know as a friend so kindly reminded me the other day and was brought up again in church Sunday that through good times and bad we are never alone as long as we believe in our God. He makes the great times better and he is always there to hold us up in the bad. I am going to make my personal relationship with him stronger this year and am hoping that my photography work will help inspire others to do the same.

2010...Here I come!