He is clearly seen.

Tonight I went out to shoot a technically bad photograph.  Why?  I love sun flare, haze and generally everything considered technically wrong in photography.  It makes me feel something.  Some hate it.  Not me.  What about you?

If you hate the technically bad, I can’t blame you.  Are these better?  The angle is a bit different taking the haze and sun flare out of the photograph.

Originally I began blogging in order to showcase my photography work.  However, my blogging really has morphed into an online journal of my life and includes some client photographs as well.  That’s a bit of a problem.  Should the two be kept separate?  Should I just create an off line digital journal just for my family?  I’m sorting all of that out right now but in the meantime, I’ll continue to include most of my favorite photographs of our girls.  They are growing so fast and changing so much that I’m now glad I’ve been fairly disciplined about capturing them.  Sometimes I want everything to SLOW DOWN.

We took a trip to lifest this weekend.  I love being around like minded people.  It feels safe and happy.

As you may know, if you have followed the blog for any length of time, we have on our hands (my hot, hot, hottie and me) a full fledge cowgirl.  She loves all things cowgirl and declares fairly regularly that she aspires to be one when she grows up.  And because my hot, hot, hottie and me met at a rodeo in Wyoming, this seems right.  When I caught her listening to Alan Jackson on her ipod the other day my heart actually skipped a beat I was so happy.  No, I’m not kidding.

In an effort to encourage her desires and because sadly we won’t get to Wyoming this summer to see the Daddy of ‘em all, I went looking for a Professional Cowboy Rodeo Association sanctioned rodeo.  Can you believe I found one just three hours north of our house this weekend?  The only thing that disappointed Lulu was that she couldn’t wear her cowboy cowgirl boots due to the ninety degree temperatures.

The first two cowgirls that rode through the arena made Livy smile pretty big.

One of the cowgirls had a sparkly shirt and the other had an American Flag design.  I turned to Liv, fully expecting her to like one more than the other.  Which do you think she liked the most?

I thought for certain she would choose the sparkly cowgirl.  She surprised me by proclaiming she liked the American cowgirl best.

After the rodeo, we went to fireworks and played a hard-core game of scrabble waiting.  And then came parade day.  Do you cry when the parade begins and you hear Americana music and you see the police, firefighters and our armed service men and women?  I do.  Every time.  Can’t help it.

This young lady makes me happy – she’s pretty patriotic.  Isn’t that something?  I love that.  She brought face paint to paint American Flags on our arms.  She rocks.

We went on a trolley ride just before the parade began.

And then the parade began and I took photographs of the people I liked the most.  I just want to have a piece of apple pie and a cup of coffee with this hero.

I think I’d like to play this guy in a game of pool.  I’m no good at pool.  But this guy looks pretty cool and maybe he’d think I was ok if I challenged him to a game.  Or maybe not.  In any event, any guy in the patriot guard riders is A-okay in my book.

I want bagpipes to wake me up every morning.  Really.  I love them.

I would really, really, really like it if the Republican party would pay a lot of attention to this dude in the next few years.  I’d like that a lot.  Plus he looked at Dave’s Cubs shirt, said hi and exclaimed that he is a Cubs fan.  I’m not even making that up.

These girls…..well…….I adore them.