Sail Away

I stumbled upon a blog a few days ago about a 16 year-old attempting to make history as the youngest person, male or female, to circumnavigate the world in a sail boat named Wild Eyes. I’m sure the news covered this story out in California, but I heard not one peep about this adventure here in Houston. And I don’t recall CNN having mentioned anything about it. If they did, then I was on the floor playing ‘touchdown’ with my grandson. Sometimes my life is in the middle of a 3 year-old’s world of Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Train. News in this house is a foreign object from 7am to 7pm.

I honestly don’t recall how I stumbled on this blog, or what led me to it, but I’ve been captivated since its discovery. For those of you who are far removed from the news as I am these days, her name is Abby Sunderland. She’s from Southern California and has dreamed of this day since she was 13 years old.

I also noticed while exploring her blog and site that there is another 16 year old currently making the same adventure. She’s just a tad older than Abby, from Australia, has been at sea since October 18, 2009, and her name is Jessica Watson. Again, another newsworthy feat I was oblivious to.

As I read through these blogs I am amazed at these two young ladies. Being in an open ocean by themselves just amazes me. At 16, I was far from any huge accomplishment like this! Heck, I’m still far from any huge accomplishment like this! I've never been on a sail boat. I will someday soon. Will I go out in the open sea? No way! Imagining that is far, far from my mind! I completely admire them for their dreams and fulfilling them at such a young age. I can only sit back and wonder what they will be doing 10 years from now.

If you have time, please check out their blogs.

Abby Sunderland has been on her adventure for 7 days now.

Jessica Watson has been on hers since October 18, 2009. She has some pretty scary days near Cape Horn!

Jaydenisms

Nana: Jayden, let's sing our ABC's.

Jayden: Ok, A B C D E F G, H I J K ELLO IN MY PEE, Q R S, T U V, W, X, Y AND Z.

Sneek Peek Week

I recently had the pleasure of photographing Axel and Tanny. They are expecting their first child in March and are so excited. We've been in a cold snap for a while but this particular day we had beautiful weather!

We headed out to a couple of parks in the downtown Houston area. Axel and Tanny brought along their little sweet doggies and we had a fantastic time.

There's this little boy . . .

who loves to play football. He's the little guy in my other post. Remember, he calls it 'Touchdown'. He's on the 'Black Team.' He always plays against the 'Yellow Team', the 'Blue Team' and the 'Red Team'. He's a tough player and is always facing one of the toughest defense lineups I've ever seen!

I had the opportunity to see this game today. He was playing against all three teams at once. It was amazing to watch. The defense was pretty vicious looking. One guy had HUGE ears, big hands and LARGE feet! He played for the 'Yellow Team.' I don't know how anyone could run past him without getting squashed with one stomp. There was another guy in the defense lineup who was big, TOUGH, and had a pair of WIDE OPEN eyes I've ever seen. He was on the 'Blue Team' and he just stared down the offense. I'd be scared if I had those lamps focused on me! And finally, on the 'Red Team' there was this small, skinny guy

Touchdown!

Last weekend Kylene wanted to get some 'football' pictures with her and Jayden. Jayden loves the heck out of football. He calls it 'touchdown.'

We found a soccer field and headed out for some shots. Oh, don't let the fingernail polish and heels fool you. That girl can play some football.

Tackling comes easy for Jayden. Especially when Mommy's not ready!

After each 'touchdown' Mommy got a kiss from Jayden.

I love these two! So much fun together!

Mr. Bojangles

I used to love to draw. My favorite was cartoon charachters. And when my kids were younger, I'd draw their favorite all the time. When my oldest broke his wrist in basketball, I drew and painted his favorite charachter, Daffy Duck, on his cast. All his friends thought it was the coolest. So did I. Then.

It wasn't until early 2001 when I received my first point-and-shoot camera that I found my new hobby. Drawing was put somewhere on the back burner. Especially when I discovered the early days of Photoshop. I would turn my backyard floral photos into cool artsy looking paintings. I'm sure today, with what I know about Photoshop, I would crack up at that first "cool artsy looking painting" and wonder what the heck was it about that picture that was so "cool" and "artsy looking".

Although my passion is portraiture and wedding photography, I'm always finding new and cool ways to make my everyday shots into some kind of "cool artsy" look. For example, I took this shot back in 2008 on Mardi Gras day in New Orleans. When I saw this guy standing outside the 2nd Level Night Club on Bourbon Street, I already had the completed image in my head. The lighting was the worst, full sun, but it was what I needed to complete my idea.


It took me 2 years to finally get to my project with this image. It also took me over an hour to search for this image through my many, many shots of that Mardi Gras day. I loved how he was holding his cigarette, his hat, the glasses, and those red and white shoes. He reminded me of an old jazz player. Or a man who danced the soft shoe. Whatever he was, to me he was Mr. Bojangles.

May the spotlight shine on you again.