Happy Thanksgiving

I spent Thanksgiving at my dad's house and this is the feast that my stepmom made. She is the best chef ever! Yummy!! I hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays for a couple reasons... the food, family, and it is a time to think about how blessed we really are. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

More pics from Thanksgiving...

My dad
My stepmom Sharon and stepbrother Jason
The family princess, Barkley the Great Dane
My stepbrother Austin, now driving... scary.


The three kids out for a ride along with Austin

OSP South ~ Chattanooga, TN

There is a group of photographers that I have come to know online through David Jay's OpenSourcePhoto. Almost 100 of us decided to meet up in Chattanooga, TN for a few days. Garrett & Joy Nudd and Nathan & Amber Holritz were the kind enough to welcome us into their town. We got together in the mornings while Garrett and Nathan put on presentations... great information! Monday afternoon we did a photo shoot and split up into smaller groups. Tuesday afternoon we traveled to Southern Adventist University where Garrett teaches a photography class. We all met in the auditorium and LaCour came to talk. They are amazing! Both nights we took over local restaurants and spent lots of time getting to know each other better. After dinner was dessert.. Monday at the Nudd's studio and Tuesday at the Holritz's. I had such a blast! Can't wait til our next get together!!

The whole gang...

Monday's photo shoot...


Monday night's dinner at Sushi Nabe. It was Lori's birthday!

The Nudd's studio...

Garrett's class...

Group shots... What wonderful and talented individuals I have been blessed to come to know!

Last Day in New York City

On my final day in the city, Davina, Lauren, Shan and I ventured down to Canal Street in Soho. It's a different world down there... very fun! After our shopping adventure, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and head to the PhotoPlus Expo for an hour before catching my flight home. New York City was a blast and it was so great meeting everyone and making all kinds of new friends. What an adventure!! Some random images...

Last Day of Xtreme

Wednesday was the last day of class, so we said our goodbyes to the group. After heading to Ground Zero (see below) we went to a party that Luke, Jason, and Alisha had put on for all the photographers coming to visit NY. There were a ton of people there and it was a lot of fun!

Ground Zero

Wednesday night we visited Ground Zero. I didn't know what to expect, but when I got out of the cab I was a little sick to my stomach. The weight of the reality of what people must have gone through that horrible day in history overcame me. No matter where you are in New York City you can always count on it being noisy. When I stepped out of that cab, you could have heard a pin drop... it was so quiet. My heart goes out to all of the people that this tragic act of terrorism has touched. I do know one thing - after seeing how much was destroyed and thinking of all the people that were affected, I know that America can bounce back from anything and that American's will not stand for injustice. God bless America!

INSPIR(RED)

Tuesday night a group of us went to dinner. Then we went shopping at the GAP. We all bought something from the (RED) campaign. If you haven't heard about this yet, the (RED) campaign is awesome! A bunch of companies/people got together (The GAP, Apple, etc..) and for every (RED) product sold, they are donating half to the HIV/AIDS cause in Africa. So please get out there and buy (RED)!

After our adventure in the GAP, we went for a walk through NY. It was Halloween. We didn't see as many weirdos as I thought we might, but we weren't near one of the many Halloween parades throughout the city. We did however see the Ghostbusters! We ended up at Serendipity for desert. MMMMMM!!! This is the place that is in the movie "Serendipity". Good food! Huge deserts! Even bigger bill!! (as you can see below)

My Xtreme Masterpiece

We had to present a masterpiece at the end of the seminar and here is mine and my other favorite...

NYC Cont...

Monday night we went to dinner at the Mesa Grille, Bobby Flay's restaurant. Some of you may know Bobby Flay from the food network. Lauren Clark is a huge Bobby Flay fan and made reservations. There ended up being 15 of us. Charles ordered a birthday desert for Davina and it wasn't even her birthday. But it WAS hilarious! After dinner we took the subway down to Times Square for some photos. Wow! That place is lit up like the middle of day. Then back to Hotel La Quinta in Midtown to get some shut eye.