This past week

Oct 25th, I had the pleasure of taking family photos for the PTO's Spaghetti Dinner & Basket Raffle Night at my son's school.  This is one of their main fundraisers of the year and it had a very nice turnout. 

The families would come and eat for $5 a plate. After dinner they could venture to the library and check out the last evening of the Scholastic Book Fair sale in the library or they could come down the hall to have their photo taken with me and proceed to the basket raffle area where over 100 baskets were located filled with all kinds of goodies.

Even the stars of Clifford the Big Red Dog came by.

Here is my husband posing for a photo for our son.

                                                             

Sat Oct 27, 2012 -    The scouts participated in cleaning up the park prior, during , and after a community fundraising Dog Walk & Costume contest benefiting a local fallen policeman's family.  

Dorthy won 1st place. 

Even the dogs got to make new friends.

A lot of doggie smiles took place.

Fall Fest 2012

The Cub Scouts had their annual Fall Fest activities recently at Camp Hart.  It was a beautiful day and the trees were a variety of fall colors.

The boys got to do a leather working project.

They also learned BB Gun & Archery safety.

Plus they got to put these safety lessons into practice and practice on an archery range and firing range.

They also learned new songs, played games, and had a lot of fun.

As a parent, it was great to see so many smiles and know that everyone was not only learning but having a great time together and having a blast.

Settled in PA

Settled in-- PA

Our move to PA started off rocky but we are here now and finally settled in very nicely. My studio is set up, not in as big of a space as I had in Vegas but it will do.  There are many outdoor locations here that will be lovely to do outdoor location shoots as well.  Much more pretty then the desert. I love the trees, parks, water.

My son is now back into a Pre-K 3 days a week, which allows me additional time to work on photography.  Its great for him, he is making a lot of new friends.

We also have him in as an "honorary" Tiger Scout with the local pack. (Boy Scouts).  I have applied to help out as a Den Leader/Photographer/assistant/Badge Counselor/Committee Member & anything else they need assistance with.  I have already taken several online classes for it.  I did Girl Scouts with my daughter when she was young and look forward to doing this with my son.

The local pack here are a great bunch of adults & children.  Tomorrow we will have a tent at a local park  for the Firework show, to give out info on Scouting as well as collecting non-perishable foods/donations for a local food bank.  Then on the 4th the boys will be walking in the parade.  I will be taking photos at each event.

I plan on adding a blog post on their adventures & what they are doing to help the community.  Memorial weekend they helped the local VFW by replacing all of the old flags with new flags on veterans graves.  They have also cleaned up a park and laid fresh mulch around new & older trees.  These boys are really learning on how to help their community and others.  Which is what we should all remember to do.

They also have fun, last month we experienced our 1st "Rod & Reel Fishing Derby" it was a lot of fun. My son's first experience with fishing. He used a regular pole & 1 he handmade with some help from his grandpa in VT.  He caught 8 sunfish that day.

More & more blog posts to come now that I am settled in!

12-13-11 Prime Document-Final "Las Vegas Sign"

I decided on a not so typical approach to my final for my Prime document final project.  Instead of alot of misc items from an area, I concentrated on documenting 1 place.

For readers that dont know, in my Prime Document class we shoot the entire semester with a fixed focal length prime lens and document different areas of Las Vegas.

As some of you know we found out recently that we will be moving out of Nevada in January. I was passing the historic sign one day and realized I had never once actually been to the sign and I have lived here since June 2003. This began to stir thoughts and ideas for my final project for this class. I kicked around a variety of ideas, but then decided to stick with "people of the las vegas sign".

The Welcome to Las Vegas Sign was designed by Betty Willis. It was installed in 1959. The design was never copyrighted she wanted it to be a gift and be public domain. The sign stands 25 feet tall.

Most wedding chapels that provide wedding packages with Limos will drive couples to the sign to have your photograph taken under the historic sign.

People celebrating anniversaries and birthdays will come out and take photos under the sign.

Special events, even Nascar, will come out under the sign.

Large groups in town for special projects are no stranger to wanting their photo under the sign as well.

Families are the largest group you will see taking photos under the sign.

At various times on the weekend congestion at the sign can get hectic.

There is only 1 row of parking, here you can see a line formed of cars that are waiting for people to leave so that they can park. You can also see cars parked illegally in the Bus & limo only parking on the left.

You can even shuttle in on a sightseeing tour bus.

the back of the sign.

What the sign would look like if there was ever major flooding......

12-8-11 Holiday spirit

Walking around downtown with class today you could see holiday spirit starting to show. Not only at some businesses but with people as well.  This is my favorite time of year. I love seeing the decorations and seeing people helping other people.

Here are some of my shots from today:

St Nick himself.....

Now this is what you call decorating your house......

touch of holiday joy...

beautiful & symbolic...

prodly wearing a tie his niece made him...

what some of us need after the holidays.....

reminds me of a movie we tend to see around the holidays, can u guess??

presents for the kiddies.....

frosty says its too cold out, he will stay inside where its warm  ;)

I hope every one of you has a wonderful holiday season.  I will post another blog or 2 before the end of the year.  But remember, be safe out there!!!!

12-2-11 Downtown

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving last week.  Yesterday I walked around downtown vegas.  I didnt have a theme in mind, but i ended up with alot of lines/leading line photos, as well as gritty.

So here are some photos from yesterday: