July has been a month for maternity sessions. Thanks to midwife Jennifer Rector of Virginia Homebirth Midwifery, I’ve had the pleasure to work with some lovely couples as models to build my maternity portfolio. Photographing expecting couples is a wonderful experience. Couples who choose to be photographed are always madly in love. They giggle often, gaze into each others eyes, giving me incredible opportunities to catch the joy of the occasion.

I’ve posted my favorites from the recent shoots as the latest additions to my growing Maternity & Portraiture set. Please feel free to leave your comments on the photos or here. I hope you enjoy them!

Halie

It’s June already, and the heat is on full force. A variety of summer flowers are in full bloom, providing the birds and buzzers abundant food sources. The beautiful blooms and the fauna they welcome provide Mitch and me with hours of pleasure. Every morning, we start our day with coffee and a light breakfast in front of a bay window onto the garden and are delighted to see gold finches balancing on the purple rods of the butterfly bush, sparrows hopping on the rock pathway, and Tiger Swallowtails sipping at the purple coneflower.

Who could resist a daily walk among the wildflowers? Would such a life be worth living? And to leave the summer already.camera behind, would it not be a crime? So many days fly by that I have not visited my garden. The time passes so quickly, from the blizzards of last winter to the 100-degree days of June. Here we are again,

This morning, I seized the moment to capture the fleeting beauty of a few summer flowers. I posted them all to the Hovenga Family Gardens gallery on Face Book, but my favorites I will display here. The intense colors of these magenta beauties startled me on screen. I love the way the magenta pops from the yellow of the stamen. These images were made using the Canon 100 mm macro lens. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

The cold weather brought snow and ice to Virginia Beach this weekend, and the excitement of such an event produced an abundance of rarely seen recreation in our region. Children of all ages threw snowballs, rode sleds, and even skied! It was an amazing site.

Unfortunately, this type of play has been somewhat discouraged by the city, who has forbidden sledding down Mt. Trashmore, and the hard-working transportation officials, police, and emergency facilities who have had to assist and care for the many who haven’t fared so well driving on the snow and ice. Unfortunately, in the name of public safety, many simply stayed home and indoors.

But for us, the weekend was delightful, and although I’m not thrilled with most of the photos I captured, I did enjoy the activity and have a couple shots that aren’t too bad, all posted on facebook. And now the weekend is over, and it’s back to work for all. I see a light at the end of the tunnel though. Winds of change are blowing, and Mitch and I continue to forge an ever-stronger bond. Life is good.

Every once in a while, the stars align just right, allowing hard-working families the opportunity to enjoy nature on a weekend free from work. This weekend, the stars did just that. And the people of Virginia Beach played in the snow.

A few more days, and it’s back to the rat race. I’ll add a couple math classes a week to my already very busy work week. But I’m forging ahead, determined to meet the goals I’ve set for myself. I’ve heard said that sharing our goals with others makes us more likely to keep them, but I’m pretty sure that’s crap. I’ve tossed many a goal out the window after sharing it with the world. I’m convinced that my determination comes from just being plain ol’ fed up with myself, and I’m the only one whose opinion matters. Ok, well, I’ll have to add Eden and Mitch to that short list.

So I don’t need to share those goals with you. But I will tell you that more photographic output is also a goal. I’ve always been afraid of failing, and the fear is alive and well in my photography. I mean, what if my photos suck? But if I never shoot–even rotten photos–I’ll never shoot those winning photos either. Maybe fear of failure is what has kept me from winning at anything. I mean that very fear of failure, that absolute need for perfection straight away, has probably kept me from taking any risks at all in life. And here I thought I was just a late bloomer, but the analyzed truth is much more productive. Maybe I can eek a few decades out of my remaining life to actually do something!

What you’re reading is not self pity. And it’s not apathy. It’s realization and determination. It’s the dynamite going off under my butt that has me forging ahead. I’ll let you know as things go my way.

Today’s image was shot dockside in Norfolk, Virginia. I love the fog over the buildings and the largeness of the water. It was such a chilly morning that I gave myself about 5 minutes to get shots of the area. I remind myself that these scenes are out there for the taking. We just need to go get them.

Not too many people come in to the doc’s office while I’m there. I work opposite the doc and his team, so it’s very quiet. Solitude can be nice because it allows me to finish my work quickly and then take some time to blog or to study for school. Today, I was working quietly when an elderly couple came in.

“My glasses are driving me crazy,” he said. They were bent and needed an adjustment. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to help him (adjustments require training & tools), so I had to apologize and give him times to come back. Thinking that was the end of it, I was a little amused when the gentleman said to his wife, “let’s sit down and rest for a few minutes.”

It isn’t very often that I get to talk with the elderly, and I enjoy it greatly, especially when they’re a cute and friendly couple like these two. I took a moment to ask about the weather, and before you know it, they were enmeshed in my story about my greyhound India chasing pelicans down the shoreline at Chick’s beach. I could tell they were imagining her running alongside those birds.

It’s nice to connect with other generations, but if we don’t take time to do it, we may never realize what we’re missing. This holiday season, I’m going to make sure I take some time to slow down and connect with people around me. Those connections just might be the true gift of the season.

Have you ever noticed how life seems to be an endless churning? Ideas, politics, the economy, the daily struggles of life, all seem like an endless struggle that we chip away at, sand by sand, day by day. Yet, to get anywhere, to reach our personal goals, we have to continue the struggle, reaching for whatever we want in life. And if we consider how lucky we are, maybe we can find something to be thankful for in our own challenges.

My personal challenges have taught me many lessons, but it’s taken quite some time for me to accept them. Some people call that insanity, but I was young and naive. Today, I take those challenges and face them head on. And it’s amazing what I’m able to do! I have so much determination that it’s scary, and no one and nothing will stand in my way. I wish I could tell you how to find that determination if you’re missing it. I guess, I just got really tired of being stuck. And maybe I realized that no one was going to give me what I want out of this life. I’m the only one that can make my goals become a reality.

After years of subordinating my own desires to those of others, I decided to get out into the workforce, and I’m so proud of myself: I have two jobs, while I work towards one good one! And after three years of procrastination, I’m back in school working towards a master’s degree in humanities and philosophy. I know the workload seems crazy, but I told you I’m determined. I decided that my goals are priority, so I use every free minute wisely. With some careful planning and this inner will, things will come around. I know it.

So the churning continues, and I’m okay with that. What do you need to do today to come that much closer to reaching your goals?

Life is grey and rainy in Virginia Beach during much of the off season. Today it’s cool and wet and not very pretty at all. The best way to get through it is surely to throw on our jackets, pop open the umbrella and ignore it. But sometimes, our weather is hard to ignore, like during the last “noreaster.”

Enough rain fell over a handful of days to flood cities, streets, houses, and businesses. Bulkheads and beach structures washed away in Sandbridge and Oceanview, and many residents endured without power and water for days on end.

But it’s not just people that have a hard time with this weather. The endless days of gray make it hard on the dogs, too. Our dogs are spoiled and don’t like the rain falling on them, so to put them outside to potty, you’d think life had come to an end. The howling! Yet take them to the beach and “the girls” don’t seem to mind getting a little wet from the spray of the surf or a racing sprint through the water.

Here, our youngest, India, is on the fly at her favorite beach. The static north easter above brought a grey sky and mist to Virgini Beach this November day.

My blogging world is a bit upside down right now. Tip to bloggers: never let your hosting service expire; you lose everything. Ahh well, sometimes a clean slate is just what a gal needs. I’ve had a lot of new beginnings lately. A combination of fate and a newly discovered ambition has changed almost every aspect of my life. My teenage daughter spread her wings, and my husband retired after 28 years of military service, leaving me with plenty of time and incredible motivation to finally work towards goals of my own.

On this day, I work two jobs and am enrolled part time at two institutions. Oh of course, these demands on my time will have to change as time goes on and as my life changes. I am looking forward to the fresh challenges. Along the way, I expect this blog will entertain a menagerie of my ideas and interests, including photography, poetry, and literature, maybe a bit of culture and politics, and just a smidgeon of sociology. Who knows? Let’s see where this life will take me.