Oops, blog neglected!

©2011MegRussellPhotography

New Year's resolutions are made to be broken right? This year's blog project has been sadly relegated to the neglected pile of to dos. This photo screamed out, BLOG ME, so here is another piece of the project that will inspire more images from my photography addiction. This was taken at the Sarah Duke Botanical Garden in Durham North Carolina. Our vacation was a photographer's dream and many more vacation photos will be featured here! 

Is it Spring or Not?

As we watched it snow this weekend, I am sure we were all confused. Is this Spring or not? I assure you it is. I spent a day at the Arboretum and the trees are blossoming, the bulbs are sprouting, and the allergies are kicking in. I have early spring allergies caused by the beautiful flowering trees. I will not let them beat me this year, I will be outside up close and personal to those trees, capturing their beauty through my watering eyes, my throbbing sinuses, and the zombie-like demeanor I attribute to the medicines. I am very grateful for the auto-focus points on my camera, they will help combat the fuzzy appearance of nature that I will experience until late spring/early summer. Then all I will have to fight is the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes.

A White Christmas! Er, Spring Break....

Our Spring Break started off with a wintry snowfall. Spring is one week away, and yet we were blanketed in fluffy white flakes. My daughter and I sat at our breakfast table and watched the birds at our feeders for hours. We used our bird guide to identify them and I took 466 photos. Yep, 466, from my breakfast table! Thank God for digital cameras. How much $ would that have been in film?

In contrast, my son spent his morning playing soccer out in the snow at a Sporting KC training camp. I wish I had some photos of that! He did injure a toe, but other than bruising, he was perfectly fine after a hot cup of cocoa.

I am sure many of you echo my daughter's sentiment of "I don't like snow anymore," but we all know that the Midwestern fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk heat is just around the corner.  I myself will enjoy the few extra days of head to toe sweat-pant couture, and lazy snow days inside.

If you put the feed out, they will come. (Eventually....)

@2011MegRussellPhotography

I put my feeders out way too late this year.

I thought the birds would come anyway because it had been so cold.

I have waited several weeks for them, and not very patiently.

Each morning as we eat breakfast, we stare out at the feeders full of seeds,

they look lonely without any customers.

But now with this last ice, sleet, and snow storm, they are here!

I am celebrating by sending this cutie out to all of you.

Here come my customers!

 @2011 Meg Russell Photography

Word of mouth is always the best promotion for any business, 

I mean, it's free advertising! 

Especially in the photography world, 

word of mouth is money in your pocket.

Now, I am apparently becoming quite the buzz in the world of wildlife photography.

The models are showing up on my door step, 

just waiting for their opportunity to have a shoot with me!

This guy was waiting on our back fence this morning.

I was honored to take his portrait. 

I am hoping he'll send more of his friends my way.

Happy Valentine's Day!

For those of you with a loved one, 

do something special for them today.

It doesn't have to be expensive or fancy,

just a gesture of your love.

For those of you who are single, 

celebrate anyway!

Do something special for yourself.

Take the time to get a massage,

or paint your nails.

Nothing says you can't be your own Valentine!

Plus, I am sending you this rose as I token of my love for you!

We can be Valentines!

Will you be my Valentine?

To Valentine or Not to Valentine?

Valentine's day is coming!

Whether you love this holiday or dread it, it is on it's way.

How will you celebrate?

Love is more than three words mumbled before bedtime. Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.
Nicholas Sparks

Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own home.
Give love to your children, to a wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor.
Mother Teresa 

"Love is like a rose. It may look beautiful, but it's got thorns."
-- Anonymous

Cabin Fever?

Yep, I am full on dreaming of a cabin in the woods.

We spent a wonderful weekend last February in a Cabin in Eureka Springs.

All four Russell family members fell in love. 

I know I have sworn off living in the country in the past.

I mean, no ice cream truck, no friends next door for the kids to play with,

no Target right down the road, not to mention no fast food!

But maybe a simpler life would increase the value of what we have,

Our family.

(Although, a girl does need a few city things, like a speedy internet connection.)

The dream and the search continue...

Soccer, the year round sport!

Indoor sports photography is tricky.

No flashes allowed.

You need a fast shutter.

You need a high ISO.

You need a the largest aperture you own.

You need a good zoom, 

and in this case, 

manual focus is required,

as there is a black net, 

that separates the field from the fans, aka parents.

But I am practicing, 

and the shots are improving.

P.S. I am the proud soccer mom of #52!

Winter's Glitter

©2011MegRussellPhotography

We are actually snowed-in for the first time I can remember, since living in town.

Usually the "snow days" off of school do not stop us from venturing out.

My driveway is impassable at the moment, except for a Toyota Land-cruiser.

Our subdivision street has not been plowed.

Every store, restaurant, and business in town is closed. Unheard of!

Even so, we have a freezer full of food, heat, and each other.

Although one of us is officially sick, and two of us are starting to show symptoms,

and the fourth one of us is getting ready to leave for Vegas! [Lucky duck.]

(& only if his flight doesn't get canceled!)

When "Snowpocalypse" has calmed down a bit, I hope to get out and shoot some photos,

But for now, here's a glittery ice photo from 2010. Enjoy!

Oh yes, I am a tree-hugger most definitely. 

I am very much in love with this tree, 

so you can expect to see it over and over again.

I promise it will always appear in a different light, or season. 

 This tree makes me want to read "The Giving Tree" one more time.

This tree and I haven't known each other long, 

but I am eager to see it in the spring, summer, and fall!

Out for a drive in the country last Friday,

looking for something, anything to photograph,

as I was all bundle up in my winter photography outfit,

(snowpants, black and ever so slimming,)

I ran across this gaggle of geese.

Of course I did not have the correct lens on, 

but they waited.

Then I didn't have my manual settings correctly set,

but they waited.

 I jumped out of the car to get this photo,

and they still waited.

As my car rolled away,

with it's forgotten e-brake not set,

and I ran cursing after it,

they gave up on me and took flight!

I know I know, you are all sick of the snow. Well I am not! 

I am loving all the opportunities to challenge myself to find 

beauty in the stark, harsh, bitter, cold, winter season.

I am quite surprised at how much beauty there is if you just look for it. 

This photo was taken at twilight, on the last sled run of the day.

"All horses deserve, at least once in their lives, to be loved by a little girl." -Unknown

Oh my! A teenager in the house!

It has finally happened! We have a teenager in our house! 

Here is some advice for us from those "in the know."

Pick your battles!-Mom

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. -Mom

Remember all the old people were once teenagers. -Dad
Live your life so that you will have the fewest regrets. -Dad
This too shall pass. -Aunt Tana
Call me anytime. -Aunt Tana

I believe there will be more words of wisdom to come, and both my teen and I will survive.
He and I have a huge support system of seasoned teen parents to lean on and run to.
Also, does anyone have a used copy of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Parenting a Teenager"?

Snow Bored? Never!

Sledding

by Judy Mahar

Sledding
and heading for spaces below,
Gliding
and sliding across the new snow,
Slicing,
an icing of white on the hill,
Leaning,
Careening, avoiding a spill.
Racing
to where the icy hill ends
A boy and his sled
become wintery friends.

Let them eat cake!

There is nothing wrong with today's teenager that twenty years won't cure. 
~Author Unknown


My son's birthday is coming up on Friday. He'll be 13. This weeks' blog posts will be dedicated to him. Yes, I will be showing off my kid this week! It's my right as his mom. And this is my blog after all.

Peter Rabbit?

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
Beatrix Potter

Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work.
Beatrix Potter


All outward forms of religion are almost useless, and are the causes of endless strife. . . . Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.
Beatrix Potter
Journals 1881-1897

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.
Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, opening words

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

-Nelson Henderson

 

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand.  

~Leonardo da Vinci

Who doesn't love a sunset?

Who doesn't love a sunset? 

What a spectacular end to the day. 

The glow, the colors, the way it changes moment to moment.

I hear that sunrises are spectacular also, but I'm not a morning person.

I can look at my photos backward and pretend the sun is rising.

I'm guessing it's the same. 

One day I will have to get up early to prove my theory.

But not tomorrow.

Flying or Sledding?

Our first snow day of the year. 

My daughter has taken up snow boogie-ing with a gusto I've not seen in her before. 

No fear as she sleds, rather, flies down what is called Mad Dog Hill.

I could not be prouder of my gutsy, yet bossy, independant thinking, daughter.

My Mantis Model

This is the photo that re-energized my interest in photography.

 My Mantis. He was a great model for a few moments. 

A Warm Winter Day in the Midwest

It was a warm winter's day when I shot this leafless tree with it's shriveled berries. Midwestern weather is bipolar with it's ice storms in October and it's 68 degree days in December. Summer is the only season that you can predict, with it's one temperature, fry an egg on the side walk, hot!

Bridge of Friendship 

By Lina Santos

In the mutual respect of each existence, the pillar of a good friendship lives.
The respect, the change of ideas, the complicity, the flexibility, they make new pillars uniting themselves to be reborn, creating a bridge of magic light, that we can cross everyday.
Unlike the normal ones, the constant cross, doesn't consume her, it solidifies her!
I hope that after a lot of crossings, the light that comes from our Bridge of Friendship, wins a place in a corner of the sky, closer to all other bridges that are insistently, called "stars!"

My Bliss

Saw this little guy on a walk around the Overland Park Arboretum this week. 

He set my heart all aflutter!