My Self Portrait Project

Wow! I'm on day 289 of 365... Just crazy how far I've gone!

I started this project mainly to give myself a different type of creative outlet and it's turned into so much more. Exploring how I define my photography, a bit of a blog for my girls to see who I was, an outlet for creativity (LOL!) and even a way for me to see just how much I can stick with it. It's been awesome, fun, annoying, surprising....

For those of you that haven't seen it, you can check it out here: http://www.tippiepics.com/selfportrait

Happy Holidays!!

Hayden, Trip and Michelle - second shoot!

This was my second photoshoot with little Hayden and he was just as adorable as I remembered! Although he got up really early and lost interest in the shoot quickly, I was still able to capture some cute photos of him and some nice shots of the family!

We met at the base of Mt Crested Butte about an hour before the first lift opened for the season. This year, the snow is so late that this was the only place we could find with reasonable snow - and it was ONLY at the bottom of the Red Lady Lift. We found a few spots around the lift - and then wandered over to the Silver Queen Lift and, as you can see, there was literally no snow under it. But it still made a nice place for a family photo!

Trip and Michelle, I hope you enjoy your photos and that we got the family photo you wanted for your Christmas cards!

So much going on!

The last few weeks have been really busy since I've last blogged! My daughters got sick (they're all better now!), I won a photography contest and am entered into the finals (again!) and I made it onto the cover of my first magazine!

Probably the most exciting to me is being on the cover of a magazine! Mountain Kids Magazine is a local publication that helps visitors (and locals!) find fun things to do with their kids, has some fun articles and is just a wonderful resource! Needless to say, I'm thrilled to be a part of it! If you're in Crested Butte or coming to visit, I definitely recommend checking it out.

I've also entered into several photo contests on http://www.dgrin.com/ and have gotten into the finals twice! I'm very excited to have this happen! Below are some of my winning entries. My latest winner got 3rd in the contest! Now if only I can place during the finals.... There is definitely some stiff competition.

3rd Place for the Semi Finals - Round 3 (and qualifies me for the finals)


Finalist for the Qualifying round (and qualified me for the second semi finals)


5th Place for the Semi Finals - Round 1 (and qualifies me for the finals)


Finalist for the Qualifying round(and qualified me for the first semi finals)

Ben, Rosie and Tim

Or is it Jim? Mark? LOL! For some reason I had a huge mental block on Tim's name... Whoops!

Anyway, this was my first tiny baby shoot in forever! I can't tell you how excited I was to get to do this. Ben was just adorable! I just loved his fuzzy little hair, his crinkly forehead and the way he followed me around with his eyes almost the entire time. Yup, definitely precious!

And it was so wonderful seeing Rosie again and meeting her husband. Baby Ben is one lucky little man to have such adoring parents. But that's pretty apparent as you look through the photos!

Enjoy - and thanks again, Rosie and Tim....

(Click on the image to bring up a larger resolution version...)

Rowan, Addison, Heather and John

My girls go to school with Rowan and I was quite thrilled when Heather asked me to take photos of her family. Turns out they are not only a good looking family, but a lot of fun! Heather is incredibly easy to chat with and her husband, John, builds the most amazing houses!

I think my favorite part of the shoot was watching how much they adore each other... Sitting back and letting them interact was such a pleasure to watch!

Here are just a few shots. It was a joy taking their photos!!

(Click on the image to bring up a larger resolution version...)

Adriane and Cory's wedding

For all my other weddings, I've always been so incredibly nervous that at the end of the shoot, I'm just exhausted. For Adriane and Cory, I tried to take a cue from her an not allow myself that stress - and I'm pleased to say that it worked!

But a big part of the reason is the laid back nature of both the bride and groom. They were incredibly easy to work with and both looked gorgeous! The church was amazing and I loved the reception location with it's wonderful light and beautiful yard and gazebo.

The biggest problem I have had, though, is culling through the 2000+ photo and organizing them! These are the ones that have popped out at me so far, though.

Enjoy! And congratulations, Adriane and Cory!