Maple Leaf Festival

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Maple Leaf Festival Baldwin KS

Hi, October is one of my favorite time of the year. The third weekend in October is always marked on my calendar. It’s a tradition of mine to go every year with a family member. Some years it has been all of them and this year my son, son-in-law and grand daughter was with me.

The atmosphere is just awesome; people, crafts, food, the smell, colorful leaves and plain ol’ fun.

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Maple Leaf Crowd
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Maple Leaf Food

The best part of the whole day was my souvenir. Yes, each year I like to buy one item to remind me of the day. This year was the best to date.

The Forever Hands booth. Once I spotted the Forever Hands booth I knew I found just the souvenir for this year. This was one of the very first booths we stopped at. Typically we walk throughout all of them and then I go back to the one I liked the best. There was no question or doubt, this was it.

A sculpture of my grand daughter’s hand- to last a lifetime. What a memory! Clickable gallery below.

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The last image in the gallery; I was worried Brie’s plaster hand was going to have a huge thumb! She was wiggling her fingers in the mold. Once the mold was set and Brie’s hand was removed; we were told to come back in a couple of hours while the plaster set. Upon our return; I was quite pleased……

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Forever Hands

This lovely sculpture is at home next to my computer. I look at it often while working and remember our Maple Leaf day together.

Have you ever preserved your children/grand children’s hand-foot print? Please do share!

Best Wishes,
debra

Ellen DeGeneres Visits KU

Hi, October and November are busy months- sorry for the delay in posts! This time of year is family portrait session with the beautiful autumn leaves. I took a much needed break. Did you hear…….

Ellen DeGeneres visits KU

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What an unexpected fun experience! Working most of the weekend on gallery edits- I took a moment to troll my Facebook account. Yes I call it trolling to keep up with family and friends near and far. I stumbled onto the above notice of Ellen coming to KU- Kansas University. That’s only 20 minutes from my house. Ellen is one of my favorites to watch on TV. Off I went!

Many people with lots of energy and excitement. I just added the 200-500mm lens to my camera gear which provided a fun outing to test the lens. The Ellen DeGeneres event took place between the football stadium and the hill in front of the Campanile Memorial. Ellen was not physically at KU. Her camera crew set up the satellite stage for Ellen to video conference with the crowd on the KU campus. She asked that everyone dress up as a Royal Baseball player. Several did and others like me did not. I had fun people watching! The gallery is featured below.

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This segment was taped live to be aired today- the first day of the World Series. Be sure to watch Ellen. I’m wearing a pink sweatshirt in the distant crowd to the right. I was told the camera could pano the whole audience.

Go Royals!

Best Wishes,
debra

Perfect Family Picture

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Hi, I have mentioned Fall is the time of year for family pictures. Most will have an idea what they think a perfect family picture is. I bet it’s different than what I consider a perfect family picture. There are no guarantees with young children!

The best advise I can give to parents, do your best to make sure your children are well rested and well fed prior to your session. Trust your photographer. Go into the session with the thought that no matter what happens, the end result will be awesome. The more comfortable you are, the more comfortable your photographer will be and the children will be comfortable too- creating that memorable family picture you will enjoy for the rest of time!

Perfect Family Picture

From funny expressions……….

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To someone looking away……….

The more people there are in a group picture, the more difficult it is to have everyone looking at the camera at the same time with a pleasant smile.

Sometimes the best pictures are when no one is looking at the camera…..
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More images from this photo session.

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So many different expressions!
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A real beauty.
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And handsome!
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Remember- when having your family pictures taken; either by a professional or setting your camera up on a tripod and using the self timer, you are creating a lifetime of memories for you and your family. Be relaxed and have fun. Your images will show your happiness and love for each other!

Below is my favorite of the family. I like it best for several reasons:
1) Everyone is looking at the camera;
2) Everyone has a pleasant smile;
3) It tells a story.

Do you see what the middle child is doing? He’s holding one of the juicy fruits the parents brought for the kids. Even the littlest is holding one. I’m not sure just how many they went through that day, but it was alot!
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What are some of your favorite memories from one of your family photo sessions? I would enjoy hearing your story.

Best Wishes,
debra

Click here to view more family pictures.