Beauty.........

So as I was wrapping up the photos from the Camden Pageant (a little late, I know)  there were a few that I thought were really worth sharing.    Before I entered into this gig of shooting the pageant I had no idea what entailed.  It's a lot of work, not for me as much as it was for the moms and the girls.  Now mind you, I have only been to this one pageant, I am sure that they get harrier in the bigger pageants, but this was a pretty big deal.    These girls worked hard and so did their moms and families, so when I found some of these shots that I caught I just wanted to share.



This was one of my favorites, though I have no idea what she was feeling, she was just so adorable.
This was my second favorite

--I loved her dress and her expression--
There was a lot of waiting around time for the girls.

At the end, a LOT of excitement






I hope I get to do this again next year!   By the way, I am so glad I have a son!!!

It's not that the wind is blowing....

Yes it is. For a butterfly. Imagine having wings that are like small kites. So when the wind blows, a butterfly has no choice but to go the way the wind is blowing. Do you think birds have much of a choice?

My butterfly bush is in full bloom and this season the butterflies seem to be a bit shy.   In previous season they usually let me come right up close to them to take photos.  Right now I am stalking butterflies,it's pretty funny actually--try to picture it in your head.








I am in love with this shot:


The other day I finally seen my humming bird moth, he didn't stick around long enough for me to get a shot of him, so hopefully I will get you some shots of those soon because the butterfly bush isn't going to last forever. Fall is almost here....


These are my mystery pumpkins, they started growing on our brush pile that we have been waiting to burn. There are still 8 growing out there, plus the 5 that are growing in the veggie garden that were supposed to be squash!



Well people, why do we keep letting me get so far behind on my blogs? It's been weeks since I last blogged. Much as I try I get behind........
There is more to tell, I have done family photos that I have shared already but can be seen here: Westfall Family

If you would like to see the Camden pageant photos, you can see the girls who got packages here:  Camden Pageant 
There are tons more photos from the pageant that I will share....with any luck I can get those edited this weekend!

Wild in Wisconsin

Well, the trip to Wisconsin was all about Summerfest. Many of you may be asking what is this Summerfest you speak of. Well It's a whole bunch of concerts with new and up coming bands as well as some well knowns. It's kind of like a fair with out the rides. I have to tell you it was the most fun I have had in a long time!!! When we first arrived I didn't think I would be able to take my camera in. Well I couldn't take it in to the big stage with the head liners like Santana, Lady Antebellum and Tim McGraw, and there was more, but we didn't go because it much more money!


These guys were totally awesome. They are my favorite band--Framing Hanley--they really rocked.


After these guys Fly Leaf was up, but we watched a little bit of it from our boat, but it very distracting with the fire works going off, forever!

While you are in Wisconson, you should get a tattoo,



My husband got the anchor in Wisconson, and we got the mermaid as a cover up.

You should also take a dinghy ride around the river to a Brewery



While we were out and about I found some pretty awesome stuff to take photos of with my fisheye lens

slow ride.....

Thursday we rested after we got the boat all set up.  After some resting we walked over to Summerfest, which was like a five minute walk from our dock.  After that we came back and rested some more.  Friday, our boating pals took us around the city.  Herb and Kathy were so nice to let us ride with them in their dinghy.  Ron and Pam carried the coolers, and Sarah and Harlin rode with Bob and Leann.  It was a little rough getting to the river but not bad. 




I was trying to take a picture of the bridge, but there really isn't much room to move around in a dinghy, and I asked him to take a picture for me but he "couldn't turn around"!  I took his picture and when he asked me what I was doing I told him nothing!

There is Kathy!!
The Milwaukee train bridge



Our first stop:




Oh my we had so much fun! Then we went on down the river after we had lunch, and stopped at Rock Bottom for more drinks and ice cream that was super Delicious--It tasted like coffee and I love coffee!!! More on the river later!

Thought I would share this link with everyone: Lyra M. 
She is scheduled to get her first portraits next week, and I wanted to let everyone know that there will be a benefit lunch on July 25th, and I will be donating a photo shoot for the auction as well as attending the lunch.  If you can not make it, there is a link where you can donate:Donation Link.  All the funds will help the young couple pay for doctor bills and anything else they may need help with. 

When in Milwaukee....

Catching you up----here we go!  Last week, my husband and I took our boat from Grand Haven, Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Holiday.  Oh my gosh, we had such a smooth ride over.  It took 3 1/2 hours to get across Lake Michigan! 


The view from the water, isn't this amazing!

The sunset on our first night there, and I took this from the back of our boat!
Here was my view after the sun went down:


We went for the Holiday and Summerfest, which was totally awesome! I seriously can't wait to go next year!

I will get you more ASAP!  There is MUCH to tell!  

Wow......

Well, last evening we had intended to heading to the boat.  Once we got the car loaded made our way toward town to get some food and then be on our merry way.   The rain was coming, and we knew, but we had no idea it would be so bad.


We made our way down Jonesvile Rd heading toward 69 in rain so hard we couldn't see in front of us, and we come upon a police cruiser blocking the road way.  We could not get through because of the giant tree laying across the road.  Let me rephrase that, it was laying just to block half  the road, we  (we being my husband and I) would have went through but the police wouldn't let us.  So we turned around and headed back the way we came from and turned north on the first cross road we came to.  I don't recall the name of it but as we came upon other vehicles, we soon learned that there was another tree across the road.  My husband got out in the pouring rain and tried move the tree only to dicover that it was bigger than he anticipated.  We turned around.  The oncoming car stopped us to tell us of what we already knew and said to Chuck: can both of us move it?  Yes--it actually ended up being 5 people, The man and woman in the other car, Chuck and I got out tojavascript:void(0)o, and then another man got out to help as well.  Sucess!  We moved the tree enough for everyone to get through!  On our way again.  For about two miles.  The next tree we encountered was almost as big around as my car.  Ugh!

Irritated, I said, next tree we encounter we are going HOME!  We made it quite a ways, all the way to Marshall Road before we seen another tree down.  This one had a van beneath it.  We pulled over and made a couple calls.  The weather at the boat: GREAT!  The weather back home (Hillsdale):  REALLY BAD!  The worst of the mess was around the Hospital area.  We had a hard time actually getting home because of down trees and power lines, we had to go out and around to Bear Lake Road just to find a clear path.  We found out that we didn't have power at our house.  So we hopped in Chucks SUV and went into town to assess the damage.   Quite a few of our lawn customers are in the area where the "tree top tornado" made a mess and we wanted to check on them.  Luckly they were all okay, but the neighbors were not:


This house actually had two trees on it. There was one in the back too.  The house next to this house had a tree actually uprooted:
 

It was pretty devastating and as far as we know there were no major injuries, thank goodness.  Our hearts go out to all of these people.