Visit my photo galleries at smugmug.com

So, I'm trying out a new website for hosting and sharing photos. It's called smugmug.com. If it works out like I hope it will, I'll have photos for sale on the site as well. Check it out using the orange button below and let me know what you think.

Galleries

And just because it's fun, here's a photo from a recent wedding I had the privilege of shooting:

Thanks!

Engagement announcement cover

A few weeks ago, I took engagement photos for our niece and her fiance. It was a lot of fun, and when we came back from our huge trip to the U.K. (hopefully a topic for an upcoming post) and found the invite in our mailbox, I was touched and excited to see that they used so many of the pictures from the photo shoot in the invitation. Here is the one they used as the cover for the announcement:

They have it centered, and the tree splits down the middle to open the invite. Love it! Thanks, guys! Now to finish up processing the bridals. Whew!

It's so much fun when extended family comes to visit

That is not a sarcastic statement. I really do love it when extended family comes to visit us. We recently had a niece, her husband, and three wonderful children stay with us for a few nights before and after a big family get together up in Park City for my sister-in-law's kids and grandkids. I was also fortunate enough to take family pictures for them in Park City at the end of their reunion. I will be posting some of them soon on my other blog.

Any whoo, getting back to the topic of my blog post here. Having family around gives me a great excuse to pull out the camera and start taking pictures of everyone, especially the kids. Here are some of the candid photos I grabbed while they were at our place, and also some from another family gathering with other nieces and nephews and their families in town (or moving back to town YAY!!!) for a Sunday FHE.

New adventures and a change of pace

I was reading a friend's blog this morning, and she mentioned that some of her favorite bloggers haven't blogged in a while. It made me realize that I've neglected this blog for some time now (not that I'm assuming that my blog is one of the ones she loves reading (but I hope so, Megan, I really hope so)).

Life has been taking some interesting turns lately. I'm still Young Women's president, but at least I don't feel like I'm drowning in the calling all the time. Just mostly treading water with the occasional wave splashing over me and filling my lungs briefly with water. The girls are wonderful, and my counselors and advisers are amazing. Without them, I would literally be falling apart right now.

Mr. Perfect still works with the Special Needs Mutual for our area. He loves this calling, and I love occasionally going to their activities. Some of the kids will ask were I am when I can't come. They are awesome (as in fill me with awe at their greatness) people, and I love them dearly. When he gets released, I will miss them as much as he will.

Mr. Perfect and I are adjusting to the idea of being empty-nesters and all that it might entail. We still see Man in Plays frequently, but he's 18 now, graduating from high school in a few short months, and then off to parts unknown at this time for college, because it's looking less and less likely that he'll be going to a local school. We see Lawyer-in-the-Works a couple of times a year, and Drama Queen more frequently, but they are both busy building their lives (as they should be) and being in constant contact with the parents becomes less important (as it should).

I'm in the process of morphing my photography hobby into a full-fledged portrait/wedding business. It's fraught with danger and intrigue -- oh, wait. No it isn't. I just wish it were. It is fraught with anxiety hoping that it takes off and that people like the outcome. It also begs the question of can I run two businesses and keep a regular full-time job at the same time. More decisions to contemplate. I suppose that last one will only matter after some time has passed and we see just how this takes off.

Life is very good. In fact, it's fantastic. I love my life.

Wordless Wednesday

Final fall colors

This year, the fall colors in the Salt Lake Valley have been amazing. It's been fun carrying my camera around these last few months.

Mr. Perfect's willingness to let me play with my camera

I love all of these pictures of Mr. Perfect. He was very gracious to let me take pictures of him while he tried to nap one lazy Sunday afternoon. Thank you, sweetie!

Fall pictures

Mr. Perfect and Most Happy Girl had a chance to sit for our favorite photography, Melina Moore. Isn't she amazing?

Disclosure: All images are the property of the subjects and Melina Moore Memories. Use without their permission is prohibited.

A contest on that other blog of mine...

I've reached a milestone on my photo blog: 100 posts. So I'm having a contest there. If you're interested in an 8x10 print of a picture posted on it, please enter here:

http://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/a-picture-and-a-contest/

Thanks!

Experiment in house plants

I am not good with house plants. Seriously. Over the years, I've had one house plant survive longer than 6 months. It's actually thriving, but that's because it's the type that deals really well with neglect and abuse. Drama Queen and Man in Plays gave me a beautiful azalea for Mother's Day, and it lasted about 2-1/2 weeks. I sure loved it, but obviously didn't know how to take care of it. Now, I'm trying with perhaps one of the hardest-to-keep-alive houseplants of all time: a Gerbera daisy. Wish me luck.

Another blog

I hope that most of you realize by now just how crazy I am. I work full-time as a technical writer for a software company, plus I have between 15 and 20 piano students (fluctuation happens). I write this blog; I write my cooking blog; I've finished a novel that I need to find a good editor and agent for so I can get it published. And now I've created a photography blog. At least this one doesn't require me to write anything for it. I just have to edit photos I've taken and upload them. Check it out and let me know what you think. Click the photo below to go to the site.

Thanks!

What I saw on my way to work this morning

This was the view of the canyons and sunrise that greeted me on my way to work this morning. I really do love living in this valley.

Wacky Utah Weather

January in Utah is always a bad weather bet. We usually get some really nasty inversion in the Salt Lake Valley, and up and down the Wasatch Front in general. It's really weird to think that Park City, which is up in the mountains, can be warmer than Salt Lake in the middle of the day, but it happens a lot in January.

The last week, we had some huge snow storms come through that took out the inversion -- for now. It will be back, most likely by this weekend. But for now, it's easy to breathe, and I can see all of the mountains on all four sides of the valley. It's a beautiful thing.

Now that it's warming up, it's fun and a little scary to watch the snow melt and fall off the roof. This is how the house looked this morning as I drove to work.

Some serious slippage going there. But look at how beautiful the sky was at 7:15 am. Makes me happy to be able to breathe.

And just because I'm feeling a bit nostalgic and wishing this is what our weather was like right now, here's a panoramic shot from our trip to California in October.

I miss the beach and the ocean. A lot.

The affects of wildfires on sunsets

Stunning, and not a little scary.

The girls and their guys

When Drama Queen asked if PaintBall Boy could come to the photo shoot and maybe jump into some of the shots, we immediately said "Of course! and let Lawyer-in-the-Works know that Our Computer Fixer can come, too!" We love the results. We think they look a bit like those pictures of people no one knows that come in frames when you buy them (because our kids are beautiful enough to be models, don't you know).

Thanks, again, to Melina Moore Memories for the wonderful pictures.

Senior Pictures

Both Lawyer-In-Training and Drama Queen are graduating this spring. We thought it would be a lot of fun to have their senior pictures taken at the same time, so we could have some with them together. Their guys (Our Computer Fixer and PaintBall Boy) came, too. We won't get the pictures from the photographer (Melina Moore Memories) for a couple of weeks, but here are some that we took, including Game Boy and his braces-free teeth. (Aren't they shiny?)