Your Growing Moments Captured.........

Texas Blue Bonnets

2011-04-03T13:30:00.005-04:00

Beautiful blue bonnets and a beautiful family to go with them! We had a perfect day, and perfect light. It was beautiful. Thank you Sankey family for letting me capture your family again.

Downtown Historic Grapevine

2011-03-22T12:06:00.007-04:00

Night time is a great time to take some interesting shots. The proof is in the images. Check out the beauty and intrigue of Historic Downtown Grapevine.

Rebuilding

2011-03-22T09:49:00.002-04:00

This is a year for renewal for me. I want to make sure that I am building things up in my life fresh. So in honor of starting over, refreshing and renewing the amazing things in this wonderful life that I am so thankful for I am redoing my entire website!

This means that I need beautiful fresh faces to plaster all over it!

So past, present and future clients should call and make an appointment for a free session. This promotion is only available for sessions scheduled before April 31, 2011 so call me and schedule your free session. As the beauty of Texas blooms and the weather becomes perfect for portraits , let me capture your family and your children and save these memories for you for year and years to come.

Your friend and family photographer always,

Tiarra

More Self Portraits

2010-04-08T17:29:00.003-04:00

Is what you get when I finally figure out how to use the self timer on my camera. I think that I will do all self portraits for my final in my digital class.

More Pictures

2010-03-30T09:31:00.005-04:00

Well I know that updating pictures is important. That is why this coming Friday is going to be my photo day! Watch for it, new photos of everyone! Here are a few that I did the other day. Enjoy!

Me

My sister

My mom

And I guess I will post me in a dress, (but I cheated and it is me and John )

Self Portrait

2010-03-28T15:51:00.003-04:00

I was taking school pictures at Bear Valley School, and I took this shot of me. A little abstract self portrait. I like it. Pictures from the Exhibit at The Fort Worth Community Art Center are forth coming. :)

Accepted in the TCC art Exhibition

2010-02-27T00:27:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to share with you all the piece I entered into the TCC Art Exhibition. I didn't think it would get in, but it did. So here it is. Multiple Exposure of a lamp with a toy Holga Camera on 120 bw film. Developed and printed by me in the dark room.

Thanks for reading, I'll post pics of the gallery when the show happens!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-20T13:18:00.001-05:00

From our family to yours! Merry Christmas! We hope that God blesses you all during this special holiday season!

Christmas Time!

2009-12-15T08:10:00.002-05:00

I haven't taken many clients this year doing school and photography. Just my regulars and of course anyone from our church family. Well I squeezed in this one and right close to Christmas too! Thanks Melanie! I am so glad I got to come over!

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?

2009-12-14T12:06:00.001-05:00

This article has been very well received by the photography community, and is published in the December 2009 edition of Professional Photographer Magazine.

In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home “photo printers,” we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they’re paying for time and expertise.

The Average One-Hour Portrait Session

First, let’s look at the actual work involved:

Travel to the session
Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
Shoot the photos
Travel from the session
Load images onto a computer
Back up the files on an external drive
2 – 4 hours of Adobe® Photoshop® time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
2 – 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.
You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a personal photographer charging a $200 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them $200 per hour.

The Eight-Hour Wedding

A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 – 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!

(Don’t forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)

The Expertise and Cost of Doing Business

Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though a DSLR now costs under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities, insurance, etc!

In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.

The Chain Store Photo Studio

Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.

Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last just a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don’t have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.

The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. In fact, Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios in 2007 because of the financial drain. What the chain stores bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos…and while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.

The Real Deal

Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.

Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs $1.50 at the drugstore. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.

The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs, created by a Personal Photographer are so expensive.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

My kiddos

2009-10-31T14:38:00.002-05:00

Mr. Mike, Emily's dad, is also a photographer. He was nice enough to shoot some images of my daughters and nephews. We got one of all 5 of them. A feat in and of itself. I am so happy I will be having this one printed big!

Emily

2009-10-31T14:08:00.005-05:00

Hi all,

I know it has been a long time, but I wanted to share with all of you these beautiful images from a photoshoot today.

This is Emily, we took these for a ceremony. She is being awarded a community service award. She is a super sweet girl and we had lots of fun this morning!

Check her website below, and her baby brother's website who was her inspiration for her non profit charity that she created.

Baby Jude, The diary of a baby and a stroke: http://cjengo.blogspot.com/

Emily's smile boxes inc. a non profit charity, spreading smiles through hospitals; http://www.emilyssmileboxes.com/

Sarah's 1!

2009-10-11T14:05:00.002-04:00

So my little baby is now a toddler. Walking all over the place and so pretty! Her birthday party was yesterday and while the party place ruined the party, the lady assigned to our party helped with making it better. I am sad she is getting so big, but so happy to see her growing into such a beautiful big girl! I will post pictures in another post after I am done complaining about her party:

We went to Jump for Fun in Southlake. So just take note that if you ever want to have a party that has good customer service you will want to never use this company. They will input your information wrong and tell you that they don't remember you calling to fix it. They won't call to confirm your party and see if you want to order anything for the party. They will however tell you they called and that you didn't want anything. WTF!

This company can book another party during yours. As long as it is within 2 years. So they booked a party for a 4 and 5 year old double party with close to 20 - 25 kids at it. It was the classmates of each of the kids celebrating. The manager tried to tell me that the party was for a 3 year old and a 5 year old, but the kids at that party were much too old for that. And what class is a 3 year old in? Most 3 year olds don't attend pre K.

So 20 minutes into our party we our bombarded by 25 loud kids. Sarah now no longer wants to play. So we spend the rest of our time in their party room holding her because she is now to afraid to play. I go in to talk to the guy in charge and he says that they have no record that Sarah was turning one. I booked on the phone. Really?? They must not know how to input information into their computers. Because I know how old my little girl is. Why would I say she is 3??? So their way of making it up to us that Sarah is now too scared to play is to give us a Jump for Fun t shirt and comp us the cheapest pizza we bought. Are you kidding me? Thanks for the cheap shirt and the free $12 pizza after I just spent $300 to rent your place and buy pizza!!!!! Are they out of their minds!!

So I write them a letter letting them know I am upset and they blame me. They tell me that I never told them she was 1 so how could they know. Why would I book a random aged party for my kid?

And of course he believes they did their best to compensate me for her party.

I digress from my soap box to say that while I know Sarah won't remember this, it cost me $300!!!! Does anyone else thing that I should be happy about this.

Don't take your kids to Jump for Fun!! Go to Pump it Up in Grapevine instead. It's cheaper, you don't have to share your room with kids that are way to old to play with your baby.

So pretty!

2009-07-08T15:07:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to post this one from a session with one of my best friends! Her daughter is so pretty and we had such a good time!

More Little Heroes

2009-07-08T14:12:00.005-04:00

This is little J. He is the sweetest baby. Born with just 3 chambers to his heart. I could have looked at his sweet little face all day long! He was just happy and sweet. He and his parents are an inspiration to me. What a beautiful family! Pray for them as he has surgery soon, and we want the Lord to give them strength and success to see many many years watching this handsome boy grow up!

Sweet Littlest Hero

2009-06-11T16:52:00.005-04:00

This sweet little baby boy was part of the Charity Littlest Heroes. He is baby Jude. He had a stroke in Utero and he is my hero. If you would like to read more about his story or about what his big sister is doing to give to other children in the hospital you can see below:

Baby Jude, The diary of a baby and a stroke: http://cjengo.blogspot.com/

Our family's reviews: http://ourfamviews.blogspot.com/

Emily's smile boxes: http://www.emilyssmileboxes.com/

Who says you can't take pretty pictures while driving?

2009-05-20T12:26:00.004-04:00

I took this while driving home from a senior session the other night. I know it isn't as good as most sunset pictures but it is pretty to me all the same.

Seniors Are So Fun!

2009-05-13T22:39:00.007-04:00

We had a great time in Grapevine the other day. What beautiful weather and a very handsome senior.

A Beautiful Family

2009-05-11T23:50:00.006-04:00

A sneak peek for a fun family! And don't worry, their teens weren't that serious, those were just my favs!

Even me...

2009-04-23T10:39:00.003-04:00

I even managed to take a picture of myself. For all of you to see. Don't make too much fun of me, it is harder than you think to take a self portrait.

Today I thought about something that is just me. (In my search for who I am) and I really like chocolate, but not dark chocolate. So I know that without influence I don't like dark chocolate. Tell me something about you that is unique.

A long awaited update

2009-04-23T10:32:00.006-04:00

Well I am such a slacker. This blog hasn't had a new post in so long. I have to tell you that it is hard work being a wife, a mom, an assistant and a photographer. I feel overwhelmed most of the time.

I am currently on a search to find out who I am. I know who I am in Christ, a beloved daughter. But I think I am not quite sure who I am as a person.

Well I wanted to show you an update so here it is: The kids are great, I am ALWAYS busy and I hope to take a break to breath soon! SO many pictures to post so here is the first post. Updated pictures of all of the children. THen the next post will be Faith's birthday!

My Chubby baby!

2009-01-08T17:04:00.002-05:00

Here is my Sarah. She is getting so big. And she is finally starting to feel better. I never got to come on here and post about our sickness. There really just wasn't any time. So I will post about it now. We all got sick and sadly Sarah got rsv. She is recovering well now. We did have to take breathing treatments and she has a monitor that we hook up when she sleeps to make sure her breathing is good. It has been hard to watch her suffer but she is on the mend now. So without any further ado, here she is:

NYIP

2009-01-08T16:32:00.006-05:00

Hi Everyone. Sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Our house was invaded by the RSV virus and even our littlest one got it. So now that we are all on the mend I am ready to get back into the game.

I wanted to share some images with you from a random driving around shoot. Some of these I am using for my photo assignments. I am attending the New York Institute for Photography. You can never know enough about what you love.

These first 3 pictures I am turning in this week. One is panning the subject. That would be my swinging Aimee. The second picture was to have very little depth of field and isolate the subject and the last one was to have great depth of field showing the viewer a great deal in focus.

This one was just for fun. More to come when I get some more time.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T17:51:00.002-05:00

Painting with Light

2008-12-23T17:25:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I am so happy to have made it through another year! I just want to say that GOD is amazing! The things we have been through this year have surely made us stronger. I pray that in the coming new year that everyone is blessed and that GOD does a work in your lives that makes you stronger and gives you a peace that transcends understanding.

With that said, here is my Christmas tree this year. A little painted.

Water

2008-12-18T14:53:00.002-05:00

So we have been having some cold, and some rain today. The phaunt forum I am on was doing a challenge on water so I wanted to share with you what I took. Enjoy!

Here are some more.....

2008-12-14T19:35:00.004-05:00

Just taking some pictures.....

2008-12-14T19:02:00.003-05:00

More to come!

Updated PIctures of Sarah

2008-12-03T21:36:00.004-05:00

I still need to take some more, but I wanted to share with you Sarah's 6 week pictures. She will be 2 months old tomorrow.

Peek A Boo!

2008-10-22T19:22:00.005-04:00

Just a few cute snaps of my now big girl Aimee playing peek a boo!

More Pictures!

2008-10-20T23:31:00.001-04:00

Here she is again, my little photo shoot with Sarah!

And here are just some snaps!

Birth Pictures!

2008-10-12T16:02:00.009-04:00

Well here they are. Some pictures from when Sarah was born. We couldn't get too many due to the strict rules of the OR at the hospital. I am so happy to be able to share these moments with you all. I can't wait to return back to taking pictures of all of your families and capturing your moments!

Me before they started surgery:
Brand New and not happy! Here is Sarah Elisabeth!

Meeting Mommy

More Pictures

2008-10-12T15:46:00.003-04:00

Here are some more pictures of our Little baby girl Sarah! I will be working on getting some of the birth pictures up soon!

She's Here!

2008-10-11T14:10:00.005-04:00

I will share more photos later, but my friend Tiffany came by and took a few pictures for us last night and sent them to me so I was able to post them here. I don't have a lot of time (we are going home today!!) So I will add these pictures an update you on her stats!

Sarah Elisabeth was born Thursday, October 9th, at 8:06 am. She was 6lbs 1 oz. So much tinier than any of our weight guesses! Thank you to everyone who entered our contest! The winner is....... Heather Williams!

Guess Sarah's Weight Contest!

2008-10-06T15:48:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone! I am posting this here so everyone can play! Up for grabs is a free session and $100 print credit for whoever guesses Sarah's weight the closest. Just post here to my blog your guess and if you live far away and you can't take advantage of the session then you will win a $25 gift card to a restaurant of your choosing!

Just post in the comments and as soon as I know her weight I will post it here!!!

Last pregnancy pictures before baby!

2008-10-06T15:41:00.011-04:00

Well we are all set to have our 3rd baby girl Sarah Elisabeth this Thursday at 5pm! My sister helped me take these a few days ago so here they are!

Another Paiting Type Picture

2008-09-24T19:12:00.002-04:00

Hello bloggers! I just love this picture! A little painter effect....

Little J Man!

2008-09-21T22:35:00.003-04:00

I love taking pictures of this little boy. He is so sweet but the second I look at him with my camera the smile just disappears. You just can't get a picture with a smile. He is too sweet though and I hope his parents love these!

A Picture from a church

2008-09-21T21:31:00.002-04:00

I shoot here often with the families that I photograph and I had a fun time processing this:

My sleeping baby!

2008-09-21T21:28:00.002-04:00

Isn't she cute!

My littlest girl, soon so be my big girl!~

Mini Shoot with Gorgeous girls!

2008-09-18T15:00:00.005-04:00

Hi Everyone! Here are some pictures of some beautiful girls that I just love to photograph! They are so sweet and so easy to work with. I hope you all love them!

Just My baby brother!

2008-09-12T22:17:00.007-04:00

Just playing around with my lights. Me and my brother were bored.

Littlest Hero!

2008-08-19T21:28:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone, sorry I haven't been posting much! We are 7 weeks and 3 days from our scheduled delivery of Sarah Elisabeth on October 10th at 7am!

I just took pictures for a wonderful charity called Littlest Heroes! This little girl was just precious! And her family was so very sweet. She is a wonderful blessing having had 2 heart surgeries since birth and she is just going strong! May GOD continue to bless them with good health for their little girl and I am just grateful that I got to take pictures of them!

The G Family!

2008-08-11T15:44:00.002-04:00

Hi guys! I had a great time working with your family! Hope you love these, I can't wait to get them all finished and posted for you!

The B Family!

2008-08-04T11:13:00.006-04:00

Hi guys, sorry this took a little longer to get up then usual! I hope that you love them, I had a great time!

My Sweet Girls

2008-07-16T15:02:00.006-04:00

Just a few snaps of my girls. I have to remind myself that they need lots of pictures taken too. Keep us in your prayers. The time is drawing near that our disability will be gone and we will have a full house! Our GOD will provide for us though so we aren't going to spend all our time stressed out! We love you all and I thank everyone of you that comes here and thinks of us.
Thanks for looking!

I made this for Faith. I took this last night and I just loved it. Shes growing up way to fast for me. I found the poem online. I think it fits her. Click the image to view it big and read the poem.

Mia's School Pictures

2008-07-01T16:03:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone, this beautiful little girl had some school pictures done with me. Hope you are all having a great week!

Family Session

2008-06-30T10:26:00.004-04:00

Here is your sneak peek S family! I hope you love them!

Double Double!

2008-06-24T21:59:00.011-04:00

I had a great time with these two families! They were lots of fun to talk with and the girls are all just adorable as can be! Enjoy!

Baby N

2008-06-21T10:29:00.006-04:00

Here is the sneak peek for baby N! He was so cute and so tiny! Hope you love these!

And one of big sister!

My Nephews and my girls

2008-06-14T19:48:00.015-04:00

So I decided to take the kids out and take some pictures for Grandma. So here it is!

Sneak Peek of the Leven's Family

2008-06-12T22:01:00.007-04:00

Here it is ladies. Hope you love them! It was fun shooting with you!

Sneak Peek for the H Family!

2008-05-31T23:20:00.006-04:00

This family was fun to work with. I wanted them to be comfortable and I think we made it.

Thank you so much for being such a great family to work with! It was fun and your girls are sweet! Enjoy!

Welcome to the World Ava!

2008-05-26T21:43:00.006-04:00

Thank you so much Jack and Lorri and Ella for having me over to shoot Ava's baby pictures! I hope that you love them!

This one is for you Jack

And this one is for you Lorri, to go with your maternity blanket portrait.

The Matera Family Sneak Peek

2008-05-26T21:38:00.006-04:00

This was such a great family to work with! We had a great time. Here is their Sneak Peek!

Hai Li's Sneak Peek!

2008-05-24T22:28:00.006-04:00

This is Hai Le. We had so much fun and she was just full of posing ideas! I just had to edit some when I got home! Hope you love them Leslie!

My Celebrate Adoption Session

2008-05-21T10:10:00.005-04:00

Hi all you bloggers! I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot a Celebrating Adoption session. My great Photographer friend Tiffany was unable to make it and asked me to shoot it in her place.

So meet Nathan. One of the sweetest little boys ever and he has a beautiful family!

Sneak Peak of the Down's Maternity

2008-05-01T14:52:00.002-04:00

I did a portrait party last Sunday and it went great. The guests were wonderful. These are the hosts (aren't they gorgeous!) and the sneak peak of their portraits during their session.

Tornado Update

2008-04-13T21:23:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

We are all doing well. We found out that it was an F0. Categorized by how many MPH it goes (F0= 60-90MPH).

They said ours was 87MPH. We accessed our yard and we actually saved everything (shy of the net around the trampoline) and we fixed that last night. My heart couldn't stand the kids jumping on it without the net!

We got our power back yesterday at around 3pm. The phone came back on about an hour before that. We had a neat two nights of camping out in the house. We had candles and we just read stories and went to bed early! Wish I could read books and go to bed early every night! Faith had night terrors that first night, but she was fine after that. Aimee didn't understand what was going on so she wasn't really scared at all.

We also didn't lost our food in our fridge. I keep hoping that the eyesore of our RV sitting out front would some day be good for something besides holding down the concrete. And the gas generator on it kept our fridge cold so we did just fine. I am amazed at how wonderful GOD is at taking care of his sheep.

I feel so blessed to have experienced this and to be able to remember how amazingly strong the weather his, but how much BIGGER GOD is! He took great care of us, and we are proud to praise him for his wonderful care!

We love you all!

The Storm

2008-04-10T20:01:00.016-04:00

We got hit by what I think was a funnel cloud or an F1 tornado. It tore through our neighborhood in a diagonal line. Our neighbors got the brunt of it. We are all okay and so is the house. Here are the pictures I got. Our trampoline flew from our yard to the neighbors over our fence. I don't have time to explain all the pictures right now, but I will try to post later. I am at my mom's house as we haven't had power since 3:30am and we have no phone.

I hope that anyone else who experienced this came out as well as we did. Praise GOD for keeping us safe.

Some Tree Debris

My Rear Neighbors trees

All of our yard toys tossed to one side of the yard
Our trampoline in the neighbors yard
The news Van that was across from our house from 5:30 to 8:30am
My Neighbors tree on their cars
My Other neighbors tree on their car

The Tree Roots
Another view of the tree

Another View of my neighbors cars
The tree blocking our street
My Poor neighbors cars

The leaf splatter on my car
Our Fence

A Sneak Peek of The George Family Session

2008-04-09T20:55:00.007-04:00

Hi Everyone! Just a sneak peek of the George Family. They were so fun to work with! I had a great time, and I hope they love these as much as I do!

Our Photography Weekend

2008-03-30T21:06:00.010-04:00

We had the most wonderful photography ladies come down from all parts of the us for a weekend with me and Tiffany Davis.

We had a great bunch of ladies and it was a blast. Here is our spoils. We shot at the Las Colinas Canals, and we shot at the Blooms Festival at the Dallas Arboretum and we had fun talking shop all weekend.

Easter Pictures of the girls

2008-03-27T18:08:00.007-04:00

I took Easter pictures of my girls. They didn't turn out as great as I would have liked but still I am happy to have gotten them.

The Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-27T18:04:00.002-04:00

I just have one to post for now. I am in the middle of editing these.

I had the chance to shoot an easter egg hunt and this little girl was loving on her grandpa. It was too sweet.

Thanks for looking!

Our Christmas Card

2007-12-18T22:10:00.000-05:00

Here is our Christmas card this year. I am sending it out to our closest friends this year as we could only get so many this year so here is the card for everyone to see.

Playing with Light

2007-11-23T14:48:00.001-05:00

So I played with light last night. It is one of the days of inspiration and I wanted it to be creative. You tell me if I got creative enough.

Youth

2007-11-20T22:35:00.000-05:00

So here is my post for the theme youth. My nephew was in a Thanksgiving Program at school and of course I took Jack with me. If you don't know this already Jack is my D200's name.

Self Centered

2007-11-17T10:14:00.000-05:00

Day before yesterday was the inspiration day of self centered. Since I couldn't think of anything, I ran a bath. This was my self centered moment. And just so you know, that is juice in the glass. I'm to poor for wine. lol.

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

2007-11-17T10:12:00.000-05:00

A great friend of mine sent me a link to this so I am posting it here as we are homeschoolers too and I really felt like this applies.

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

By Deborah Markus, from Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1, Fall 2007, and thanks to Tweetey for sending this list to me.

*1 - Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

*2 - Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

*3 - Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

*4 - Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

*5 - If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

*6 - Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

*7 - We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

*8 - Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

*9 - Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

*10 - We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

*11 - Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

*12 - If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

*13 - Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

*14 - Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

*15 - Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

*16 - Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

*17 - Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

*18 - If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

*19 - Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

*20 - Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

*21 - Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

*22 - Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

*23 - Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

*24 - Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

*25 - Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

Today is Nature

2007-11-13T21:47:00.003-05:00

And here are my pictures, I sure have really enjoyed just pulling my camera out for this. I am hoping that I will be adding some of my sessions from this week on here as well. So for my nature here is a sunburst not done as well as my friend Renee, and my nuts that I found in my tree. I sure thought the squirrels had cleaned us out. But I guess not.

Real Life and Content

2007-11-12T16:06:00.000-05:00

So my friend is doing 30 days of inspiration and I am coming in a little behind (I think two days behind but I will try to post some of this on here. Yesterday was real life so here is Faith having a breathing treatment. Today is Content. So my post for Content is my Aimee who was content to sleep. I know I have tons of pictures of them sleeping but I tell you, it's the easiest way to take their pictures.

These are green channel conversions in photoshop. What do you think?

We are all sick!

2007-11-09T20:59:00.000-05:00

But we are getting better. After the miscarriage we all got sick and have been fighting it for about 2 weeks. But it is finally getting better. Here are my poor sick kids tortured yesterday when we had to wait for my husband John at his discogram. It didn't show anything so we are back to square one. We are getting ready to do a spinal cord stimulator. We will post how it goes. Here are the pictures that we took yesterday. I really felt that it was therapeutic to take some pictures. I feel like I really haven't gotten to do it for fun in a while so this was nice.

Aimee's M & M's

Faith's leaf she found me.

Aimee checkin out a car coming into the parking lot.

Faith and her usual pose for me.

The girls were by a fence that had dogs on the other side. They really got startled for a moment.

Our news and some more pictures

2007-10-25T21:06:00.000-04:00

Well I am sad to say that we had a miscarriage this week. We lost our new baby. We are very sad but we know that GOD has a plan for us and even though we can't see it we know he is taking care of us and he knows whats best.

With that said I have pictures of some planes I took over the last weekend before our sadness and just some recent shots while we are moving through this. I feel like it helps me to take pictures so I hope to take tons within the next few weeks to help me get through our loss.

Blessings to all of you who read this.

Another one of Gabe. The camera just loves his big eyes!

Little Faces Photography Website

My friend Tiff and her beautiful family:

The blue angels at the airshow we went to last weekend:
My birthday flower from my best bosses Tammy and Freda, I love you both so much!
My try with my black backround paper, had to do a lot of burning so I know I am doing something wrong.
And the bible verse that is getting me through this week:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4: 6-7

Some old shots I forgot to Post

2007-10-18T18:27:00.000-04:00

Okay so I took these a while back while I was driving, and I know what your gonna say, but I was stuck in traffic and you can see that my following distance was very big.

My Faith and her home haircut

2007-10-17T18:08:00.000-04:00

Well my oldest Faith is 4 and she decided that she is big enough to cut her own hair. It didn't turn out so hot and we had to go to a salon to get it fixed. Here is the before and after. It is kinda growing on me though I sure do miss her long hair.

She is still my beautiful baby.

One of my Fav babies to Photograph

2007-10-13T22:18:00.000-04:00

This is Gabriel, I have posted him before because he is too cute!

We are...

2007-10-12T19:47:00.000-04:00

Pregnant! Baby number three tentatively due on June 7th. Praise the Lord, we are grateful for this blessing. To update anyone who actually reads this. My husband John is still disabled and we are just working our way through it. We have been blessed so far to be able to keep our house. With a failed back surgery at our backs and not sure what is next before us we are just relying on GOD to take care of us. He has done an amazing job so far.

We have more tests for John here in the near future but as of today he is not hurting too bad from some injections he had yesterday. We were able to go to the mall yesterday and walk around. Something he can't normally do. Pray that they find what is wrong soon.

We are blessed and content to know we are taken care of.

Thanks for reading this.
Tiarra

My Mobile Business Card

2007-10-01T20:22:00.000-04:00

So I got my car wrapped. Hopefully I can scare up some business this way. Please note I am a terrible product photographer. I love it and it looks better in person than on here but this is the best I could do. I am trying to work on my brand and my advertising so look out world here I come!@

Just a few

2007-09-30T17:13:00.000-04:00

I have been really busy lately so I have to say I have slacked off on pictures. Business is slow even though it shouldn't be. Oh well. Here are my pictures for today:

And my Aimee

I finally finished!

2007-09-15T23:35:00.001-04:00

I finished MLKstudios class and I am so happy! Here is my diploma, followed by the pictures I took for the last lesson. I also bought me a logo and decided to change things up on here. So no more brown. Hope you all like it, though I do feel like I am copying my fav blogger Ellen. I hope to add some things to make this more my own!

Notice this one at the top, I got my new logo and I was playing around, I really love this picture of my Faith and I am gonna get it BIG! This was my portraiture photo.
My Landscape
Architecture
This is my Aimee all sad. I chose this one for my journalism shot.

just like this one. Would love to know what you think.

More fireworks, and of course another Sleeping Beauty

2007-09-08T12:28:00.000-04:00

I know that I have posted fireworks this year, but Hurst (where we live) had cancelled their fireworks (the original fireworks post was from Pittsburgh tx) and they had their show on Labor day! So I had the oppourtunity to take more fireworks pictures. I think that I am getting pretty good at this fireworks thing. But Ellen, seeing as how you are like the only person who looks at this. You can tell me what you think.

And of course another image of my baby sleeping. I just love her lashes and I am happy to say that this couch was thrown out and a white leather one from Good will took its place. You sure can't beat a love seat and a sofa for $75!

My Best Friend came back

2007-08-29T12:16:00.001-04:00

My Best friend who has been missing for 2 years came back to see me. Good thing I still live in the same place. She came back with this cute little girl that she was more than happy to let me photograph. I just love her she is so cute.

Here are the ones that I got. Talk to you later Ellen since your the only one who visits!

My Nephew's 1st day of School

2007-08-27T13:55:00.000-04:00

So I got up early and cataloged his day for my sister and came up with this collage from a template that I got from ILP.

My wet nephew

2007-08-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

I haven't had a chance to shoot anything cool lately but I did get this great shot of my nephew at the park. My kids wouldn't let me take their pictures, but my JJ let me get his. Here it is, I just love it. I am gonna blow it up for my sister.

Just some recent shots

2007-08-22T14:27:00.001-04:00

Here are just some recent images. I haven't been doing much with my camera (shame on me!) so I know I need to get on with it. Here are just two.

Been carved like a turkey

2007-08-15T23:09:00.001-04:00

Sharing a little about me this time:

Well for the last few days a mole I had behind my right shoulder has been hurting and burning. I am not one for going to the doctor but my purse and my bra strap irritate this to no end. Well I decide to go to the doctor, Lord knows I am paranoid about getting cancer. So I go and they say well lets take it out and test it. I'm like ok. Well they are supposed to use a punch kinda like a human paper punch. They have different sizes and they were gonna use a 4 but Dr Vu (my primary care doc) says "Do we have a 5?" and the nurse says "No, but we have a 6." And Dr Vu says "Na, we'll just carve it out, can you get me a 3 scalpal". So I have officially been carved like a turkey. I got 3 stiches in my shoulder and it feels like someone punched me. I get out my stiches next Wed and I get back the results of my biopsy, so if you all could pray for clean results I sure would appreciate it.
Heres a shot of my stiches, hope ya aren't grossed out!

Our Camping trip

2007-07-30T19:24:00.001-04:00

So we went camping this weekend and I got to test out my new D200 some more. Here are the shots that I got edited so far. Once I get more time I am sure there will be more to come. We all swam a ton and when I get my lame water disposable developed I will be sure to post some here. I wish that my oldest would let me take her picture. I will post what she let me get later. She looks so grumpy it is just too sad. Anyway. Here are the shots that I just loved and this camera is so amazing that all but my lame sunset is SOOC (straight out of camera) so I am totally in love. I have lovingly named my camera Jack cause he is very manly!

My D200 shots

2007-07-27T13:21:00.000-04:00

Here is my post for today. I haven't posted in a while. I don't have too much time to type as we are going camping in an hour. Here are some shots from my new to me D200. Let me know what you think ! I love hearing from you all!

Some from camping

2007-07-07T00:40:00.001-04:00

Our camping trip was great! We had an amzing time and it was so nice to get away from the computer for a little while. I got to spend time with the girls and just let the time go. I took pictures with my D80 but most were soft. Found out it is the camera so I will be sending it off and switching to the D200. Wish me luck!

Fireworks!!

2007-07-07T00:11:00.000-04:00

Here are the fireworks! My wonderful brother helped me take these (he opened and closed the shutter for me while I held my 18 month old and I am so glad they turned out this colorful! f/9 at varying shutter speeds. Thanks for looking hope you had a great 4th of July!

My only red white and blue picture and I have hardly any in it!

Reflections

2007-06-14T08:56:00.000-04:00

Alright. Here is our trip to the science center. The kids were uncooperative for pictures so I tried my hand at reflections.

I am throwing in the doggy picture I took of my Uncle's doggy. The poor thing has heart problems but he is the strongest little doggy I have ever seen.
As always thanks for coming by. I love hearing from you all.

This was inside the museum. Looking into forever!

Tons of Pictures!

2007-06-10T11:38:00.001-04:00

Okay so I have needed to post for a while but it just seems like my time is all gone. Here is our update and our pictures. I know I need some new ones of Aimee, she is just so hard to photograph lately.

John is doing okay since his surgery. He has all new pain to deal with and I think it is bringing him down but we are trying to keep him on the up and up. We are just waiting to see what GOD has in store for us now. It's all in his good time.

Faith is learning so fast I have trouble keeping up. She has little to no interest in writing but she is getting better at spelling and I haven't met a more computer literate 4 year old besides my nephew. I suppose it is tragic that her parents are both computer nerds.

Aimee is crazy smart too. She sings row row row your boat. Just the row part is understandable but that means so much to me that she is so interested in learning. She tells her first knock knock joke. It's "Knock, Knock? And you are who's there, and she says fish." Thats the whole joke but I ask that you find another 18 month old that tells knock knock jokes. She also loves to fake sneeze so you will bless her. It's too cute.

And me, well I am finally on week 4 of my 8 week class that I started in Jan. I really didn't think I would have this much trouble. I am pushing forward. MLK's class is great and I am learning tons. Below are some pictures that I took of Faith the other night and also my project #3 from my class. It was to take pictures kinda journalism style and the convert them to black and white. There are a few in color too just because I thought you needed to see those too. This was our trip to the Scarborough fair.

Thanks for looking!

When we left for the renaissance festival it was beautiful. Then it started to rain. When we got there this was what we found. MUD!

My Nephew
My nephew
Faith hated that her shoes and feet were muddy. She cried for the first hour we were there. Then my brother washed her feet and she was fine after that.

This butterfly didn't make it.

These guys are there every year. They are too funny. I can't remember what there names are but they are the funniest show (to me) there.

The fairy of the fair. She is so pretty. She is there every year too. Can't remember her name either.

Ye Olde kid ride wench.
And ye old wench wagon. Their name, not mine.

A maiden's balcony

A cart shop selling wares.

And ye olde bow shop.

My Brother the Graduate

2007-06-06T00:10:00.000-04:00

Here he is everyone. My Brother the Graduate. Congratulations Miguel!

WE LOVE YOU!

My BW Pictures for yesterday

2007-05-30T16:27:00.001-04:00

I decided to try out my BW mode on my D80. So at iso1600 I took these. What do you all think?

My Jeffrey (My nephew)
My lame self portrait.
She sure does love her Cricket!

Isn't this cute!
This is when the kitten had enough.This one is a little soft but I love it anyway.

My Brother's Prom

2007-05-30T13:09:00.000-04:00

The rain prevented me from getting anything creative outside and they didn't have a lot of time to let me take pictures so here is what I got. I thought for flash indoors it came out well. That is Ally, my brother's friend who came all the way from PA to go to Prom with him. Isn't my brother handsome?

Our New Family Members!

2007-05-28T12:25:00.001-04:00

Here is the new additions to our family. What do you think? The orange one is Cricket and the great striped one is Buttons. Aimee just chases them around all day long. Don't know what I am gonna do with her. But they just love the kids too.

The Five things I like about blogging

2007-05-28T12:18:00.000-04:00

I'm supposed to post the top 5 reasons why I blog, then tag 5 more people to do the same.

So #1: I like reading about other people's lives and I really LOVE looking at other pictures. I think that most photographers can agree they love looking at pictures!

#2: I am an introvert so I like being able to post pictures and stuff and no one can see that I am in my UNDERWEAR!

#3: Makes me be more creative. I like looking and reading to make me work harder on my creativity. No one can be as creatively cool as Ellen though. I LOVE her stuff!

#4: I admit I started doing this cause everyone else was but now I love it because it is just so fun!

#5: and lastly I love that people actually come to my blog on purpose to look at the pictures I post and some of you aren't family! That means a lot to me!

Now I gotta find other people to tag!

My Better Ferris Wheel

2007-05-23T12:40:00.001-04:00

I went back and took another shot of the ferris wheel. I am bummed to find when I got home that my camera was set at iso 1000! I still like the way it came out.

Also I have been tagged so look for that next.

My Aimee and my ferris wheel

2007-05-21T18:34:00.000-04:00

Okay so here is my post for today. I took a few quick snaps of Aimee today. Natural light in my comp room. I also tried my hand at the over done Ferris wheel at night picture. I hand held this at 3 seconds so I have motion blur. I am gonna retry it tonight.

My first two assignments

2007-05-17T19:17:00.000-04:00

I am in MLK studios class for photography. It's online and I am such a slacker that I started this 8 week course in Jan and here it is May and I am just getting done with assignment two. So I thought I would post some of my shots here. Just to show them.

Here is the 2nd lesson. We had to fill the frame with colors so here are my colors. I know park equip is overdone but I still like the way these came out and I think that the shadows on my play equip made them a little more interesting.