I’ve Got Mad Love for Hiking

To say that my husband Corey and I don’t get a lot of time to spend together would be an understatement. Between his unconventional work hours, my day job and my new photography business, we only have 3 days each month where we are both OFF work. I try to not schedule shoots on his weekends off if I can help it because to take away 1 of those 3 is devastating to me. Even evenings aren’t necessarily open. He works nights, I shoot after work, I’m editing, etc. Most nights are spent sharing a wall. On one side a tv rings with the sounds of first person shooter Xbox games and on the other, some strain of trashy television, I won’t even specify because it’s THAT embarrassing, as my background noise while I edit. So every once in a while when we have time off together, where we actually don’t have plans to catch up with the friends and family we so desperately want to spend time with,  we try to find something fun to do. And if Corey gets his way – it includes the dog. Not that I’m anti-Roxy but there’s not much you can do with a 60lb. boxer with the energy level Roxy has. So… hiking it is.

One Friday, we woke up at 6:30am (against my will), and drove to Blowing Rock with Roxy. By the way Roxy loves to “go for a ride”. When you ask, you can’t even get the whole question out “wanna go fo..” and her ears are perked and she stops whatever she is doing, jumps down on the floor and sits in perfect boxer stance, shoulders back, ready for her collar. It’s amazing. Anyway, we drove to the mountains and parked at a park along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We ended up hiking about 4 miles or so. It was great to get out of the house, do something together as a family and enjoy the outdoors. So I thought I would share some photos from our adventure. Enjoy!

And I’ll end by showing you how long Roxy’s tongue really is.

Click on the thumbnails below to view more photos from hiking!

My Husband and His Green Thumb {Denver Photographer}

It was brought to my attention that I spend so much time taking photographs of everyone else that I don’t even stop to take photos of my husband, Corey. A few months ago, he called me to tell me he was looking through some gardening books at Lowe’s and wanted to start growing his own vegetables. I thought it was a great idea, however, I knew I could not devote any time to it with everything else I have going on – i.e. full time job, photography business. So I was sure to let him know that if he was going to do this, that he was going to be doing it and I wouldn’t be able to commit to helping.

Let’s just generalize for a minute. Men: I apologize for the blanket statement but bear with me. I have come to realize that men tend to get a lot of ideas. Some ideas they execute, others wither away with time – could be 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days. The ideas they actually execute are sometimes few and far between depending on the guy. So I was a little surprised when Corey began buying packets of seeds, a book, soil, etc. After months of hard work and perseverance, what started as a spare bedroom science project – with lamps, fans, the works – has turned into quite the vegetable garden!

So one day when Corey got home from work and was tending to his garden picking vegetables for dinner, I got my camera out to snap a few photos of him in action. I’m so proud of my man! I’m really excited about round two. He’s building and planting a second raised bed of vegetables for the fall.

Post from earlier today – Box of Rox and a New Lens!

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“Morning Blue” Continued {Charlotte Photographer}

Reason #3 I always carry my camera. I refuse to stop counting now that I realize how rewarding it is to carry my camera everywhere. It’s almost like an extension of me at this point. (An extension that, might I add, is extremely heavy. I guess now I have an argument to get regular massages – eh hem, Corey.) {See Reason #1 | See Reason #2}

Remember the “Happy Accident” with the blue fog. Well I’m taking that accident and giving it purpose. (BTW – I’m working on getting this file online for you to order prints because I have had a couple of people ask me already about it. Which is the greatest compliment a photographer can get.) In the mean time, I’m using the accidental settings to capture more “Morning Blue”. Below the ‘Blue’ I have included a couple additional images from the same day only driving home from work instead.

Morning:

Early Evening: