Monday, June 28, 2010

{Megan & Jake} Wedding

I had the pleasure of shooting this couple's wedding.  The bride, as you can see, was 9 months pregnant and such a trooper!  The weather was quite warm and I never heard one complaint out of her.  The ceremony was at a venue I had never been to before, but the white gazebo definitely won me over - we all know I have a love for weddings in gazebos (which is why MINE was at a white gazebo as well).  Here are some shots from Megan and Jake's big day.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

A Brief Lesson in Psychology

For those who don't know, I majored in criminal justice at BSU.  I also started out majoring in psychology.  An ideal career would be a criminal psychologist, or even a child psychologist.  I no longer desire either of these positions; however, the subjects still fascinate me.  I have done countless hours of research, both during school, for papers, and after I graduated, to continue to further my education.  The following is an excerpt from one of the books I held onto after school.

The need for attention

Human beings are social creatures and need social interaction, feedback, and validation of their worth. The emotionally mature person doesn't need to go hunting for these; they gain it naturally from their daily life, especially from their work and from stable relationships. Daniel Goleman calls emotional maturity emotional intelligence, or EQ; he believes, and I agree, that EQ is a much better indicator of a person's character and value than intelligence quotient, or IQ.

The emotionally immature person, however, has low levels of self-esteem and self-confidence and consequently feels insecure; to counter these feelings of insecurity they will spend a large proportion of their lives creating situations in which they become the center of attention. (EVEN THOUGH THEY CLAIM TO WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DRAMA)  It may be that the need for attention is inversely proportional to emotional maturity, therefore anyone indulging in attention-seeking behaviours is telling you how emotionally immature they are.

Attention-seeking behaviour is surprisingly common. Being the center of attention alleviates feelings of insecurity and inadequacy but the relief is temporary as the underlying problem remains unaddressed: low self-confidence and low self-esteem, and consequent low levels of self-worth and self-love.

Insecure and emotionally immature people often exhibit bullying behaviors, especially manipulation and deception. These are necessary in order to obtain attention which would not otherwise be forthcoming. Bullies and harassers have the emotional age of a young child and will exhibit temper tantrums, deceit, lying and manipulation to avoid exposure of their true nature and to evade accountability and sanction. This page lists some of the most common tactics bullies and manipulators employ to gain attention for themselves. An attention-seeker may exhibit several of the methods listed below.

Attention seeking methods

Attention-seeking is particularly noticeable with females so I've used the pronoun "she". Males also exhibit attention-seeking behaviour.

Attention seekers commonly exploit the suffering of others to gain attention for themselves. Or they may exploit their own suffering, or alleged suffering. In extreme forms, such as in Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, the attention-seeker will deliberately cause suffering to others as a means of gaining attention.

The sufferer: this might include feigning or exaggerating illness, playing on an injury, or perhaps causing or inviting injury (A SUPPOSED SEIZURE, PERHAPS?), in extreme cases going as far as losing a limb. Severe cases may meet the diagnostic criteria for Munchausen Syndrome (also know as Factitious Disorder). The illness or injury becomes a vehicle for gaining sympathy and thus attention. The attention-seeker excels in manipulating people through their emotions, especially that of guilt. It's very difficult not to feel sorry for someone who relates a plausible tale of suffering in a sob story or "poor me" drama.

The manipulator: she may exploit family relationships, manipulating others with guilt and distorting perceptions; although she may not harm people physically, she causes everyone to suffer emotional injury. Vulnerable family members are favorite targets. A common attention-seeking ploy is to claim she is being persecuted, victimized, excluded, isolated or ignored by another family member or group, perhaps insisting she is the target of a campaign of exclusion or harassment.

The drama queen: every incident or opportunity, no matter how insignificant, is exploited, exaggerated and if necessary distorted to become an event of dramatic proportions. Everything is elevated to crisis proportions. Histrionics may be present where the person feels she is not the center of attention but should be.

The busy bee: this individual is the busiest person in the world if her constant retelling of her life is to be believed. Everyday events which are regarded as normal by normal people take on epic proportions as everyone is invited to simultaneously admire and commiserate with this oh-so-busy person who never has a moment to herself, never has time to sit down, etc. She's never too busy, though, to tell you how busy she is.

The feigner: when called to account and outwitted, the person instinctively uses the denial - counterattack - feigning victimhood strategy to manipulate everyone present, especially bystanders and those in authority. The most effective method of feigning victimhood is to burst into tears, for most people's instinct is to feel sorry for them, to put their arm round them or offer them a tissue. There's little more plausible than real tears, although as actresses know, it's possible to turn these on at will. Feigners are adept at using crocodile tears. From years of practice, attention-seekers often give an Oscar-winning performance in this respect. Feigning victimhood is a favourite tactic of bullies and harassers to evade accountability and sanction. When accused of bullying and harassment, the person immediately turns on the water works and claims they are the one being bullied or harassed - even though there's been no prior mention of being bullied or harassed. It's the fact that this claim appears only after and in response to having been called to account that is revealing. Mature adults do not burst into tears when held accountable for their actions.

The victim: she may intentionally create acts of harassment against herself, e.g. send herself hate mail or damage her own possessions in an attempt to incriminate a fellow employee, a family member, neighbour, etc. Scheming, cunning, devious, deceptive and manipulative, she will identify her "harasser" and produce circumstantial evidence in support of her claim. She will revel in the attention she gains and use her glib charm to plausibly dismiss any suggestion that she herself may be responsible. However, a background check may reveal that this is not the first time she has had this happen to her.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Movie Review: Remember Me

For the life of me, I couldn't find a decent movie poster picture for this movie......maybe because I got distracted by the below picture:


That's really all you need to know about this movie. It has Rob Pattinson in it, and......the end.  Just kidding!  Honestly, it wasn't the best movie I have ever seen, but it certainly wasn't the worst.  It was strange seeing Pierce Brosnan play an asshole, but he did it well.  And all the pieces didn't "click" for me until the very end - I don't know how I didn't see it coming.  Overall, watch this movie. Even if for nothing else than to prepare yourself for more Rob next week.  And if you don't know what next week is, shame on you!!

Friday, June 25, 2010

More Wedded Bliss

This is the last segment of Ashley and David's wedding pictures I am going to post.  I have many more edited photos, but I also have a wedding from last weekend I need to get posted on here, as well as a wedding coming up this weekend that will need some attention.  So, having said that, here are more of Ashley and David!


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Goofballs

One of the things I absolutely love about Ashley and David is the dynamic of their relationship. They are 100% devoted to their faith, the are grounded people, and most importantly, they are hilarious. They are random beyond the definition of the word, and it makes perfect sense. So they brought along RANDOM to their wedding day and wanted to do a lot of fun, goofy pictures. Here are some (non-edited) samples:






The story behind the cake picture is that David tried to pick up a slice of cake and dropped it about 4 times.  So when he finally got a piece, they ate it and he tossed the rest over his shoulder.  It was hilarious to watch.

Stay tuned for some ceremony shots next!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Fun in the Sun


This afternoon, the weather was finally warm enough to break out the slip n slide. The pool has been out for quite some time now, and it was time to add another element of fun to the backyard. Carter wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first, but that sure didn't last long! He dove right on in and had such a fun time. I have never heard him laugh so hard - it was fantastic!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Before the Wedded Bliss

I think the bride and groom are back from their honeymoon.....I'm not sure the bride is checking blog posts, so I might be safe in doing this. If not, this post will be deleted and re-posted at a later date, lol!

Ashley and David opted to do a bunch of their pictures before the ceremony, so that the guests wouldn't have to wait forever during the reception for the bride and groom to join in the fun. We had a good time roaming the winery property, which definitely provided for a bunch of ideal shots. Here are some I captured......in no particular order.


Let me give you some history on this chair.  It's over 100 years old and currently belongs to Ashley's grandmother.  When it was used for wedding pictures back then, the traditional post was for the man to be seated and for his wife to be standing beside or behind him.  Ashley and David wanted to do this traditional pose, with the traditional (back then, anyway) blank and/or grumpy stare.  I think we pulled it off quite well!

Stay tuned for more!  Next up are the funny shots - these two have such a comical aspect to their relationship and they contrived many hilarious shots, which will be the next feature.  After that will be the ceremony shots, and then the post-ceremony shots.  Stay tuned!

Only if I Have To

As a photographer, I hate using my flash.  I'm a natural light photographer 99.9999% of the time.  Why?  Because I learned how to use my camera and I refuse to shoot on "auto".  And I hate the harsh light flashes provide for indoor shots.  Using a flash for outdoor photography is sometimes a necessity to add fill light to faces, and I really enjoy this technique.  Since the on-camera flash isn't the best, it was time to figure out something else.  So I went ahead and bought an external flash (Canon, of course).  And since I don't like using a flash for indoor photography, I also bought a soft box flash diffuser, which will be arriving shortly.



I am very excited to add these two items to my collection - I think they will come in handy and will allow me to enjoy flash photography as it's supposed to be enjoyed.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Circus.....and a new member of the family

Well, today was the big day for Carter.  It was the day of the circus, and even though he didn't really even know what to expect, he knew there would be elephants.  And that's what got him there.  He really liked the trapeze artists - their high-flying routine had him captivated.



He wasn't too impressed with the other acts - most of the animal ones were in the far ring, so we could see too well.  Below is a crappy picture, but this dog walked on the ledge - on his FRONT legs.  It was so neat to see!  There were other dogs doing tricks, and horses, ponies, and a camel as well.

But his favorite was the elephant.  He wanted to badly to ride one, but the price was a complete rip-off, and essentially for one lap.  I debated paying anyway, because really, how many times do you get to ride an elephant in your life?  Ultimately, I decided to not ante up the big bucks.

However, we did add a new member to our family......which is what Carter talked about the entire time.  He wanted an alien.  And a green one.  Every time one of the vendors would walk by, Carter would beg and beg and beg.  Since he was relatively well-behaved, he did get an alien.  He doesn't have a name yet, but Carter has already made a bed for him in his room, lol!  He has a pillow and a towel. Apparently Mr. Alien doesn't warrant a real blanket yet.  Maybe this is just his probationary period to see if he's a good fit for the family?

Overall, we had a good time.  The bleachers were definitely hard on the behind, but it was a good show.  Thanks again to my mother-in-law, Michelle, for the tickets!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my favorite dads!!