day 295 : Yesterday afternoon Ben and I drove out to Palm Springs where we’re going to spend the next few days relaxing up until new years. The sunsets here are pretty spectacular so it’s the perfect chance to try my off camera flash with the sunset… I was a little too late trying to set it up and we only caught the tail end of the sunset… so beware there may be another of these shots in a few days 🙂

day 294: Before settling down to watch a movie this evening, we decided to test out one of our other awesome presents, a popcorn maker from Allison and Mark. I was hoping to catch some popping in action, but we had some technical difficulties (I think I failed to follow directions properly) and I was attempting to catch flying kernels so I missed the photo op. The popcorn was still delicious… and I’m sure we’ll do better next time 🙂

day 293: Last night while we were out getting frozen yogurt, I decided to try out a couple of my favorite Christmas presents, a new flash from my parents, and some wireless flash triggers from Ben (could I get any nerdier?) Yay for off camera flash. On the way home I got even nerdier playing with long exposures and trying to draw hearts. Yes… I’m that ridiculous.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last couple of days. Ben and I have been having a rough week. On Saturday evening we lost our beloved Rita in a freak accident and I haven’t really had the motivation to blog. We are going to miss her dearly and she was definitely an irreplaceable friend. I’m just so grateful that we had as much time with her as we did, and that she’ll stay forever in our hearts and minds (and all of the photos will certainly help us remember her!) Here a couple of the most recent photos taken before she passed away. We’ll miss you Rita!

Even with everything that’s been going on, I’ve still managed to take at least my one picture a day. I figured I’d better start putting them up before I lose my audience… so I’m doing something a little bit different to get caught up… one post for all the photos for the last week or so.

Day 287:

Day 288: On Saturday we went to dinner to celebrate Allison passing her teaching credential tests. Congratulations Allison!

Day 289:

Day 290:

Day 291: Merry Christmas!

Day 292:

day 286: This evening we got together with Meredith (who we haven’t seen in forever!) to go to dinner, which is nice because we’ve been so busy I feel like we never get to see friends anymore. She brought us some amazingly tasty holiday treats. Thanks Meredith!!

day 285 : After finishing up the model on Wednesday afternoon it was time for some vegging out and movie watching. I plan to get as much rest as possible for the next two days 🙂 I also got to work on some of our Christmas cards (don’t worry if you haven’t gotten one yet, they’re on the way, promise!) in front of the tree. Oh how festive.

day 284 : When there’s a model to be built on a deadline, sleeping becomes a luxury and staying up late to get it done becomes a given. I had a model due on Wednesday which meant a very very long day of work on Tuesday. Thank goodness it’s finished and now I can rest up for the holidays 🙂

day 283: I realized today that it’s been an awfully long time since I posted a shot with my macro lens. I mainly use this lens for detail shots at weddings so it hasn’t seen much use in the last couple of weeks. What better way to give it a workout than by shooting Rita’s nose?

day 282: This afternoon my friend Crissy and I got together and brought along her husband Marcus and Ben to model for us while we experimented with off camera lighting. It was a super fun and informative little get together… and I think I have new favorite jumping photo. How hilarious is this one?

day 281: This evening we met up with Sam and Tai to have dinner and exchange early Christmas gifts since they’ll be in Kansas and we’ll be here… they gave Ben an awesome polaroid camera so now he has a new fun toy to play with (although at 10 shots per film package it’s quite an expensive hobby) It’s quite an entertaining gift… thanks guys!