Back towards the end of July I traveled with Cindy from Captured by Candi to shoot this amazing couples engagement photos! Not only were they incredibly fun to photograph but we had a great time in Chicago finding new areas.

We started out at Deep River Park in Merrillville, IN to get some shots with their dog and moved out to Chicago after that. They met at a Diary Queen so we had to fit the ice cream in there somewhere!

One of the best parts about being in the tech industry is that it is always evolving and always providing new opportunities to learn. When I was in school, I hated to study. Math and me, didn’t mix, and I was always wound up frustrated.

Now that I’m out of school and learning to get along in the real world, I’ve found that I LOVE to learn. Now it’s about social media, seo, blogging, in other words, things that I like. I especially have learned more as I get to blog more. While I spend a lot of time blogging on the GT blog, I am always looking for new places to write and reasons to force myself to learn something new.

I’ve always loved to write, whether it’s bios of gymnasts (and trust me I’ve spent years writing those), blog entries no one ever will read, or even just notes to myself that need to be ripped up and thrown away to get past a point of frustration. I’ve found that writing is just a good way to get my thoughts out.

The more I write these days the more I find myself relaxing.

So I decided to take on the “Bad Ass SEO Blogging Contest” this month and see what I could do. With a focus on keywords and what types of keywords you should focus on for your website, I decided to give it a shot.

Check out the post, leave a comment, argue with me, and tell your friends.

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Special thanks to the contest media partner: My Blog Guest. MyBlogGuest.com is the free guest post exchange community where users meet to exchange guest posts and network.

A few weeks ago Rebecca called to tell me that Dan came home with a present… a 7 week old basset hound (later on named Mayberrie).

I was in the mood to take some pictures so Wrigley and I headed over there for her to meet her newest cousin and play with Sky, her dachshund cousin. We tagged along for Mayberrie’s first bath and she mainly slept the rest of the night but we definitely got some cute pictures.

Her cousins weren’t exactly thrilled to be forced to pose with her. But that didn’t matter. We had fun anyways

Wrigley and Sky were not quite sure about this new pup:

]]> http://www.kristypage.net/photography/photographing-miss-may-basset-hound/feed/ 0 http://www.kristypage.net/spinning/you-spin-me-round/ http://www.kristypage.net/spinning/you-spin-me-round/#comments Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:24:04 +0000 Kristin http://www.kristypage.net/?p=870

Over the past week I’ve been doing some spinning. It’s felt great to get back behind the wheel. I was getting incredibly bored spinning a Romney fleece that I’ve had for almost two years now so I decided to change it up and it’s helping!

As I mentioned the other day, I’m spinning Intention Yarns – Hope. It’s Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) fiber and I’m loving it!. The colorway is a mix of pink, white, and brown and I’m going to two ply it with some of the brown Romney.

Ultimately I’d like to get a good 200-300 yards out of the 2-ply. Ideally I’d like to give another shot to the the Yarn Harlots One Row Handspun scarf. My last one did not have nearly enough yarn and wasn’t even close to evenly spun!

Tension wise I’m getting better and keeping it pretty even although it definitely has it’s bumps. Someday I’ll get it all evened out!

What’s on your bobbin?

Life is funny sometimes… every time I think I’ve found my sanity, something comes along and sanity starts laughing at me! I always forget how incredibly busy summer can get no matter where I live at.

There have been weddings, family reunions, photography events, spending time with friends, and trips to Chicago.

This summer has been a fun one… but the blog has been neglected.

So Has My Knitting…

Unfortunately, with lots of things going on during the weekends and throughout the evenings, my knitting has been incredibly neglected. I’ve mainly been working on these two pairs of socks.

It has become a summer of socks

The one on the right is the Glynis socks from Cookie A’s Sock Innovation and the one on the left is the Slip Jig socks from March 2010 Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin’ Sock Club.

I did finally break back into my spinning wheel this weekend and hope to continue motivation with the beautiful roving I’m spinning from Intention Yarns.

Spending My Days Behind the Camera…

With winter over and everything in full bloom, I’ve been spending a number of days behind the camera, and I’m loving every minute of it! After purchasing my camera last summer and getting to know it through the winter I’ve been getting to spend a lot of time learning even more. There are a lot of shots that I’ve been pretty proud of this summer that I would’ve never gotten with a point and shoot.

Wrigley sleeping in her chair

Even tonight, Wrigley curled up in “her” chair next to me while I worked on the blog and I snapped this shot. Flash and I are slowly becoming friends and over time I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

Have no fear… I’ll be back…

When summer ends and life comes back down to earth, I plan on getting more back into the blog. It’s been far too long.

How has your summer been? Did anything exciting happen while I was gone?

(oh, and in case you didn’t notice, I have a new theme)

Over the last 8 months I’ve gotten to know Rebecca and Dan pretty well. Rebecca is my boyfriend’s sister and it’s been so fun to watch as she and Dan planned for their wedding. Rebecca asked if I’d take some pictures while the girls got ready and I asked her if I could take some bridal portraits as well… Those are quickly becoming one of my favorite things to photograph. I also took some pictures of the rings and some of the big events at the reception.While they were getting some of their full bridal party pictures taken one of the bridesmaids asked me to take some individuals of them with Rebecca as well, so we snuck those in quickly. I also asked her main photographer if she minded if I took some of the shots she set up with Rebecca and the flowers and she was all for it, so I was excited to get those.

Overall it was a wonderful day and I’m so happy with the way the pictures came out!

To see all of the photos, including rehearsal dinner, click here.

I teased this wedding a few weeks ago after I second shot with Cat Hoffman. This couple was so much fun to work with and I loved that we did a reveal ahead of time. It gave us so much more time and we even made it to the beach!

The wedding was outdoors and we were nervous because there was a lot of rain heading our way. About five minutes before their first kiss we had a downpour and everyone made their way inside. Luckily all of the outdoor photos were done before hand.

Overall, it was a wonderful wedding, wonderful day and I thank Cat for letting me shoot with her! To see the full gallery, click here.

This past weekend my parents, Aaron, and I went to see the Toledo Mudhens vs. the Norfolk Tides at 5/3 Field in Toledo, OH. Unfortunately our Mudhens lost, but it was a good game and I decided to test out my cameras ability to shoot baseball from fairly far away. I brought my 50-135mm zoom for the game and my 35mm auto focus for the fireworks show afterward. I was kicking myself for not bringing a better zoom, but Aaron and I walked around the stadium and got some more up close pictures.

The sun and I were at war through the first part of the game so there are some photos that are not exactly what I wash hoping for but eventually the sun set and I won.

Here are a few of my favorites.

To see the rest of the pictures, visit the gallery.

Those of you who know me and what photography I do, know that I shoot with all manual focus lenses. When I bought my d60, I only bought the body, I had all the lenses I needed… right?

As I’ve gotten really really into photography in the last year now transitioning from film to digital, I realized that auto focus might come into play somewhere along the line. For the last 9 months I’ve been “getting to know what I have.” I haven’t worried about buying anything new when it comes to lenses, I was more than stocked up…

Until today

I met with a photographer at Kohne Photography in Ohio to go through what I have to get a little bit of a better understanding about what each lens does. No one really ever explained to me what I have, I just have taken it and run with it and learned a whole lot over the last year. Today he cleared up some of my questions… and sold me on something new…

Auto focus.

There are probably a good deal of photographers laughing at me right now, that’s okay…

I purchased a Nikon DX 35mm 1.8 lens today. All I can say is WOW!

First of all, the color is right on my pictures (shock!).

Second of all, everything is in focus and I don’t have to do the work. It takes some wonderful pictures and I can’t wait to play around more with it. I finally am getting the hang of what I have and this only makes it that much better.

Okay, so I’m a little slow… but when considering that last May I shot three rolls of film at Ogden Gardens in Valpo… I’ve come a long way.

I’m excited… wants to go take some pictures?

I second shot with Cat Hoffman Photography yesterday and wanted to post a quick tease of the wedding! The best part about second shooting is the ability to learn. For the last few months I’ve been working to get the “expose for the background, flash the foreground” trick nailed. Yesterday was the day!

The bride and groom were so awesome to shoot with and I can’t wait to get the rest of the pictures edited. I’m so happy with the way these came out!

(yes, that is the Chicago skyline in the background of the picture, despite the clouds and haze…)

About a year ago I bought my Kindle. Honestly one of the best purchases I have made. Ever since I graduated college and randomly decided to do my senior paper on the Left Behind series (which involved reading 12 books in 5 weeks plus my other full load of work) reading hasn’t really been happening too much. Until I bought my Kindle I think I read 3 full books in two years…

Oops

In December I was reading a series called the Lauren Holbrook series. While it is a cheesy Christian series, it was good to get back into reading. While it took me 5 months to read three books (I’d get into them one week and not read for three weeks) I finally finished the last of the series two weeks ago.

Last year when I first got my Kindle I ordered a book called Vision in White by Nora Roberts, it was part 1 of a four book series and the second one had come out in October called Bed of Roses.

While its cheesy romance

I can’t put the book down. I’m already a quarter of the way into it. Unfortunately, the next book, Savor the Moment, isn’t on Kindle… Wow, I’m getting spoiled with my kindle.

Anyways, I’m reading again… it is getting my mind moving which I needed to do, and I think in some ways is making me think more when I write. Whether it be my own personal writing, or writing here, or writing over at the GT blog (yes I referenced A Cinderella Story in my speed blogging post today), it is getting easier, kind of like it was back in college.

Weird huh?

Knitting is coming along, I randomly cast on a shawl last week so hopefully that will continue to move forward. Until then, I’m off to read my cheesy books.

This weekend I got my studio backdrop all set up. After a few hours of work, at least 3 trips to Menard’s and 1 trip to Joanna Fabrics, we’re in business. Naturally I turned to one of my favorite photography subjects, dogs

Joy and Wrigley each had their own individual photo shoot, and then decided to play nice for a whole 2 minutes of sitting together. I just wanted to share a few of my favorites!

“I’m done for the day, go away”

Wrigley

I found this little moment tonight.

The pillow was something we had given my grandpa years ago… Every once and awhile I’ll curl up with his dog blanket I made him and this pillow just for a little hug from him. Tonight I turned around and found Wrigley taking a nap on the pillow and I couldn’t pass up this photo.

So it’s been just over a week since I issued the inbound challenge to northwest Indiana, southwest Florida, and everyone else around the world.

My goodness it’s been incredibly fun to watch. Ignoring the fact that I’ve barely blogged here, I’ve been enjoying spending my 33 minutes a day on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… and commenting on other blogs.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s tons I want to write about… such as:

• My awesome week of mail (involving lights, social media pillows [I'm a TOTAL nerd], and fiber)
• Why I have WAY too many knitting books, but still refuse to give them up (couldn’t lift the box by myself)
• How excited I am getting back into photography (gym photos in two weeks!!!)
• How I actually finished a book (It only took three months)
• Why the Apple store in downtown Chicago completely rocks my socks (new space bar, new battery, no cost!)
• …and most recently, why you should go see Billy Elliot (Chicagoans, GO!)

Have I?

Eh no…

Will I?

Hopefully this week… plus more!

I have a whole list of things I want to blog about, talk about, and keep writing down… This week, just wasn’t a good week… Actually May is just a crazy month to be trying to keep up with all of this, which is why it’s been such a great challenge to me. On Friday I mentioned on Twitter that I wanted to blog, I just hadn’t had time… saan1911 suggested I write a blog about not writing a blog… so I decided to do so…

Here is a nice long winded blog to say that I haven’t sat down to organize my thoughts… and really the only point of this entry is to tell you that I’ve been enjoying watching everyone’s #golden33 and I can’t wait to continue to see how the month of May plays out for everyone!

Time to Knit

Oh knitting.

I don’t talk too much about my personal life on this blog, but after a day filled with stress… and a conversation with Aaron and my mom, I wanted to share.

Anyone who knows me wouldn’t be surprised by the two carloads of yarn I moved this week, let’s ignore the fact that there is still another. Why do I have so much yarn you ask? It is my sanity. More so, knitting is my sanity.

I’ve been an actual knitter for 5.5 years now… my freshman year of college we would stay up all night watching movies so I started knocking out fun fur scarves. Now socks are my addiction and have been for a few years. As Ann Budd would say “Life is always better when you’re wearing a pair of hand knit socks.”

Aaron was teasing me a few weeks ago that I don’t knit as much any more when we’re just being lazy watching TV. I just haven’t had as much time. He laughed at me and told me that it is because I’m not as nervous when I’m hanging out with him anymore.

He knows me too well.

Knitting has gotten me through a lot of tough situations. I’ve told this story to a great deal of people, but it pretty much encompasses what knitting means to me.

In July of 2008 my mom called to tell me that my grandpa was dying and would be moving in with them. My very first instinct was to go to my yarn stash (there’s a reason I have 3 car loads of yarn) and grab the softest yarn I had and cast on a pair of socks.

If only I knew what those socks would become.

For the next three months I knit on the socks off and on, usually when I was in Ohio spending time with my Grandpa.

One afternoon my grandpa and I were sitting outside enjoying what was left of the summer weather and I was knitting on the socks. He wanted to go inside and I said “Just one more row”. He laughed and rolled his eyes and told me that was what my grandmother always said. My grandpa told me the story of when they would be on car trips and she wouldn’t let him pull over until she finished the row she was on.

“By the time she was done we’d miss the stop and be in the middle of nowhere” – Grandpa

He got used to driving around the block a few times.

October 31st, 2008, I had a conversation with my grandpa for the very last time before he fell asleep. That night I knit on the socks… November 1st, I knit on the socks while sitting by my Grandpa’s bed, and watched as he started to go see my Grandma. On November 2nd, around 3pm I had 12 rows left on the socks. 12 rows.

My mom, dad, and I sat with one of my Grandpa’s wonderful nurses around his bed and his breathing started to slow down… I continued to knit. Every once and awhile my mom would ask me how many rows I had left. The lower my numbers got the slower my grandpa’s breathing got. My Grandpa decided it was time to go see my grandma not too much later. After the tears my mom asked me how many rows I had left…

“Just one more row.”

My Grandma probably yelled at him when he saw her

It became a joke around the family that I wasn’t allowed to finish anymore knitting projects, or at least get down to one row. The socks felted pretty quickly (they had alpaca in them) and I don’t wear them that often. I eventually want to frame them.

I tell you this story to sort of explain what knitting is to me… it is peaceful.

When I’m stressed I tend to pick up my knitting and knit to calm down. Lately life has been insane, I haven’t been knitting that much.

Last night we went to help Aaron’s sister in her new house for a bit and when we left Aaron said “let’s go relax… you should knit.” In my head I had 1,000 things still to do, I had been up since 5:45 and I was ready to just go to bed. So I didn’t knit.

Today, I regretted it. I went on a hunt to my yarn store, and I didn’t buy anything… I miss my knitting.

So tonight… I knit…