what a man!

You know I will be crucified for posting these, but I can't help myself. They bring me such utter joy and happiness that they must be shared for all. I was posting on Summer's Blog about her weekend with her friends, some of it anyway and just had to share these quick peeks of Devin.

He is quite the man, let me tell you! He was jamming to some early 90's rap on XM The Groove and just shook his groove thing all over my kitchen! LOL













These make me smile and feel all warm inside. What a man! LOL

it's here!

Finally. After I messed up the index files and cause Harald a ton of headaches, my new Bludomain website is here!

www.kristinbednarz.com

There's still some galleries to complete and images to upload, but for the most part, MY NEW WEBSITE IS COMPLETE! You may recognize a few images from the last website, but the best part of this new site? HUGE IMAGES, and easy navigation. I was always getting calls in how to direct people to the Online Galleries. Now, it's simple. Eveything is in one place, to the side. Definitely a plus for the "computer challenged" folks out there.

Be sure and check out Bludomain's BLOG and website. They do the BEST stuff for people like me. Seriously, if you are looking for a killer website and not just for photography, give them a call. You probably don't want to tell them you know me, because of my screw-up skills on web html, but hey? If if you live dangerously. HA!

And Harald? I know you don't have time to read this, but a BIG THANKS to you and your team there at Bludomain! Thanks for making my stuff look good.

new galleries are up!

Despite the website woes, I still managed to get 2 new galleries up for some favorite clients of mine.

First, MICHAEL. Just click on his name to view his gallery.



Second, THE BEDNARZ BOYS. You will probably recognize many of these faces. I love this little family! Although the are not quite so little anymore! I photographed Stephanie and Nathan's wedding and all 4 boys since then! Stephanie is absolutely gorgeous and her boys have been such a joy to watch grow up. Spitting images of their father, mind you, but there's some of Steph's softness there, too.



Hopefully the website woes will be fixed sometime today or tomorrow. I promise you will love the new site when you can see it!

website woes

This was supposed to be a post about how awesome and wonderful my new website is. Yep. A new one. But instead, I goofed the index2.php file and now nothing will load. So, until further notice, the online galleries and website are MESSED UP!

Stay tuned....

america's next top MODEL

HA! I'm addicted to reality TV. Well, not really. I'm addicted to Grey's Anatomy and ANTM. I love this show! My girls have caught an episode or two and we were goofing at Sea World on the cool blue bathroom wall. They had the best backdrops in this park! I so wish I could have taken an engagement session there. How fun would that be?

They were "working it". LOL









You do realize, as faithful BLOG readers, that I'm only sharing the personal stuff for the next few days. Yep. Have tons of work to catch up on and need to get things taken care of, behind the camera for a bit. (translation...computer editing and orders and album design) So, bear with me and all my "these are my girls aren't they cute" threads. LOL

On a side note, all the vacation shots were taken with a Canon 20 2.8 (thank you, Stephanie!). Various aperatures and shutters depending on how many beers I drank. Mostly P mode for "professional". (snickering)

san antonio

Our first family vacation.

AND I SURVIVED!!!!

We took the kids down to San Antonio for just a few nights. I booked our hotel Sunday night after I got home from Haley and Austin's wedding.

FIRST MISTAKE. never book hotel room online while tired.

Yep. After 6 hours of driving, we arrive, only to find our hotel room is only for 1, not 4. I had booked a "studio suite". Do you know what that is? Yep. A very tiny double bed in a room only big enough for you and your luggage. So, several hours later, several phone calls later and we are at the Residence Inn Alamo. YEAH! Hot breakfast in the morning. Very important with Bednarz's.

So, we woke up sort of early Thursday and headed to Sea World. We really didn't have an agenda this vacation. We only knew that we really needed to go on one because our kids constantly remind us that we have never done that EVER for just us. JUST the 4 of us in a hotel room without a soccer ball.

So no agenda, but plenty of fun!

Because I am a professional photographer and definitely know how to take photographs, plese understand, I thought I was doing soooo good. But, because Sea World freely distributes beers to their patrons over 21, please understand, THIS IS WHY I DO NOT DRINK AT YOUR WEDDING. Did I document our vacation? Yep. But not very well! Geez...I went to gather photos for this blog and realized I suck at the famly vacation photographer roll. I'm giving it to the kids next time.

Kalyn and Me


Summer and me


The girls after getting our Season Passes. Yep, the maketing at Sea World works wonders on tired hot parents. Sure! We'll bring the kids again this year! LOL


Summer standing by a Clydesdale. She absolutely adores horses!


Waiting outside some sort of show/ride. This got to be a pretty much what we did all day, so this one picture is to document that. K? Enjoy!



Me and the girls with our cool, 4D glasses inside the 4D Pirate show. Very cool show. Six Flags over Texas in Dallas has a similar show, so this stuff is wonderful! Air conditioning AND something cool.


Ahh...another thing we did most of the day. Look at the map. See where we are going, see where we've been, try to figure out what we are doing.



I love this shot! It's what I saw most of the day. The backs of my kids bodies, begging us to hurry. Ahh...true vacation bliss.


The ceiling of the penguin place was pretty cool. After watching Happy Feet a few months back, I really didn't enjoy seeing these little guys all bottled up like that. Kinda depressing. Just not enough space, nor deep enough. Right? But hey, what's the alternative? Swim for open sea and get eaten? Hmm....


Food. This was a problem. Everyone wanted to eat during the same 3 hour period and this park, seriously did not have enough places. I went to the Roasted Corn hut and this tied us over until Hooters at midnight! LOL


Can you see the heat in my face? Yep...great show though! This is before we watched the Sea Lions. They were my favorite!


Ahhh....the HOLY GRAIL! I did mention the Hospitality House for patrons over 21?


Devin and I waiting at some sort of show...maybe water skiing? Not sure. They were all running together at this point. HA!


Okay, this is where my documentation gets really bad. For the next few hours, I took nothing but pictures of me and Devin. I was trying to find my "favorite side of my face". All my clients hear me ask them this, "what is your favorite side?" Well, we had plenty of time to kill, a camera and me trying to find mine. I think this is it. My right side. Yep....definitely it.







This was the show "Believe". The set was so pretty! HUGE and quite colorful and the sound was amazing! But the Killer Sharks? Uh...OK. I still liked the sea lions better.


The girls before the show.


and being silly....waiting will do this to you.


More later! Right now, catching up on phone calls, emails and all sorts of wet laundry! LOL

Glad to be home!

what happens when you ask your kid to hold your camera for just a second

5 Things I would Like to Do in My Lifetime

We are currenntly in San Antonio with the girls on our First EVER Family Vacation! You know the kind? There's no Holiday involved, we arent' traveling to visit anyone and no tournaments for sports of any kind. Just a regular vacation. Complete with little sleep, awful beds and just plain fun.

The girls are down swimming in the pool and I realized it was FRIDAY and I needed to blog my "cyber sisters" topic of the week.


5 Things I would Like to Do in My Lifetime

• photograph a wedding in Paris.

I don't know why, but this just seems like the ultimate wedding! A trip to Europe and photograph a bride and groom to boot! How cool is that? I've done weddings all over the US, even going to Boston in May, but Europe? It just seems too wild. Maybe?

• Remodel our home.

I love our house. I really do. But it's old, the windows are awful and it seriously needs some work. We have kept putting it off and off due to other money committments. Devin and I are supporting an artist friend and there's just no money to do the things we would like to do. Somedays, I don't think it will ever happen, but I've been visualizing it and really trying to believe it is possible and that someday, I will have windows that are good, a place to park my car, and carpet that my vacuum doesn't "brush" or eat. LOL Oh, and my own personal space in my bathroom. Oh, and a closet larger than a coat closet! LOL

• back pack through Europe

I have a plan to do this with Kalyn when she's older, after she graduates. Just her and me. (and do the same with Summer too.) But I would love to just have a backpack full of clean underwear and go travel Europe with a Rail Pass and not much else. We would just go where the train took us and see everything we want to see.

• debt

Pretty self explanatory. But we have some medical bills hanging over our heads right now and a few credit cards due to investments in Rick and me, photography wise. It's manageable, but it sure would be nice to know the money I make is free and ready for doing what we would love to do. (redo house)

• photos

This is a passion of mine and I'm a step closer to getting it done, but things are CRAZY at home photo wise, personally. Yep. It's a shame, but the pro in the family doesn't have an organizational system to her photos. I wish I did. Some day, I will. But my goal right now is to stay on top of printing what gets taken this year and putting them in photo albums. I went fully digital back almost 5 years ago and I have 1000's of personal photos stored on hard drives and DVD's. Ridiculous. This year, I started with Christmas and I'm printing personal photos out and sliding them into albums as I go. There is no storage in our old home, so I'm currently putting my albums on the floor of the dining room. No choice. But someday, I would like to have them organized. All of them!

That's 5 folks! I've taken a ton of photos while we've been here in San Antonio and I will share them soon! I'm currently on Kalyn's Ibook, so it will be just a bit.

ta ta

the sears family

There's nothing better than family. Really there ins't. And as a photographer I have the sheer pleasure of watching the interaction of a BIG family, such as this one, and just laughing and giggling at what makes them "them". You know?

This is the Sears Family from Mt. Vernon. I met them Sunday morning, after sleeping in their house, drinking their coffee and eating their yummy food, at their barn outside of town past a few chicken houses or two. They got all dressed up and then their photographer dragged them to a pile of "poo". Seriously, but I love the way these turned out.

Haley, my bride from this week, babysat for the Hobson family when she was at Texas Tech. That was our connection. That is what is so cool about my job, all the fabulous connections you gain from just a pile a poo. LOL

Enjoy!

Haley and Austin (finally)

After I capitolized the 'jpg' extension, the links worked and now you can finally see the fabulous images from Haley and Austin's wedding! It was such a breat affair with laughter and tears and so many great moments. I just felt so special to be a part of it. WOW! I get the coolest brides that are so much fun. I love it! Enjoy! And the rest of their wedding images will be ready by April 10, 2007.

Mt. Vernon (part 2)

Blogger is giving me GRIEF! I have so many lovely images to share of Haley + Austin's wedding this weekend, but I can't get a single one to upload. Grr....well, a single one, maybe. In the meantime, click on their names to see their SNEAK PEEK. I'll work on their slideshow and hopefully, sometime I can share all their fabulous images!

Hey, did you notice anything new about the blog?

smiles

cool new site

This site is put together by a few of my "fellow associaties" in the field of wedding photography. Very cool informative site that may help answer questions any of you have when trying to find a wedding photographer. It's such a hard thing, huh? I personally think everyone should just hire me, but hey? I can't work every weekend. LOL

You will always be able to acess it by clicking on the link under "favorite places". See wedding questions?

If you get the chance, let me know what you think. They are asking for feedback.

mt. vernon part 1

I'm in Mt. Vernon, Texas (someone asked me if that was in Virginia) photographing Haley and Austin's wedding. Everything is green and lovely and just so spring like! I love how there is actually green grass in the spring time in part of Texas. HA!

More later, and I will be home tomorrow. My phone doesn't get good coverage here and no internet after today. I'm staying with family wedding night. So, Monday? I'll blog and return messages.

littlefield trackmeet

This is Kalyn on the phone with her dad letting him know all about 1st place! Yep. She hates to run, but she's very good at it, and last night at the Littlefield Track Meet she won 1st Place in the mile! YIPEE!!!! I was so very proud and excited and running along as best a big mamma can, cheering her on, and she won! Way to go Kalyn!

Can't write much right now as I'm heading out for Haley and Austin's wedding in Mt. Vernon and I'm not sure if I'll have internet connections, but I'll be back on Sunday, so until then, here's a few quick ones from last night's track meet.

my favorite things

Kinda like Oprah, you know? My Cyber Sisters Blog topic of the week is "your 5 Favorite Things", so here they are in no order of importance. Remember, these are things, and only things. But they mean so much to me and my weekly life.

In 2004 I had a car wreck and ruined my earthly chance of wearing high heels. Yep. In Heaven, I'm Pamlea Lee Anderson in stilettos. LOL I loved wearing heels to weddings and clicking around and just plain enjoying the process of being a girl. Well, since the "leg problems", shoes have become a form of comfort and necessaity for walking. Flipflops can not be done long term in the day due to ankle trouble so in 2005 I found KEENS. I LOVE THEM! I've had this pair for 2 years now and I wear them almost everyday. They feel great, and yes they look like lesbian shoes, but hey, comfort. Remember? Comfort.

KEENS



My IPOD is another BIG weekley favorite of mine. And not only on the ipod itself, but on itunes. I spend an incredible amount of time on the computer, home alone, and itunes is my office. It is a wonderful place to listen and keep up with cool stuff in the world. AND the fact that it synchs with my pod is a double plus. My inlaws, David and Davida bought me mine for Christmas and I LOVE how I can put photos, TV shows, Grey's Weekley Podcast, etc.

APPLE



I use baby oil each and every time I step into the shower. I've done this since highschool and love the way my legs and body feel and just love the smell! It's a wonderful way to feel great and not that expensive either.


My computer or any techno stuff in general is a favorite thing for me. Seriously, since Atari and Intellivision of my youth, I've always been attracted to gadget things. I love them! And I'm on my computer and phone (8125 PDA/phone) all the time. I stay connected that way. I'm currently using a Dell computer and laptop with the girls having the cool ibooks, but not for long baby. I love everything apple! And if they designed a car, I'd buy it too.




Okay, the BIC Ultra Round Stick Grip is my other 5 favorite thing in my weekly world. I love this pen! I have since college. I write a bunch during the day and despite it leaking once in a while I buy these pens in bulk from Office Depot. Nope. Not Sams. They quit carrying the blue and it's the only one I love. Notice the Composition book beneath the pen? Very important. Do not carry spirals and you will tend to lose your notes and it develops those very annoying "snaky" things that come from tearing out sheets of paper. Compostion books from Target are da bomb! I carry one with me almost everywhere and use it to journal about my life, my loves, etc. I even journaled about my 5 Favorite Things in there. Seriously, ask Steph.

new entry

NO, I haven't redecorated. That isn't likely to happen any time soon! LOL

But I am in the process of doing some "tweaking" of the website. When you go to www.kristinbednarz.com you see something new. An easier way to get around and find what you need, curteousy of Bludomain. Thanks, Harald!

Stay tuned for more to come. Exciting things are happening! (and not just in cyberworld either)

alexa and brian

Alexa and Brian's e-session was great! They are such a cute, classic looking couple together. And they obviously feel very comfortable around each other. I love that!

We met at the Dallas Arboretum which was wonderful, but so cold!!! BRRRRR!!!! The wind off the lake was bone chilling and alexa in her cute little spaghetti strapped dress was such a trooper! (you too, Brian! Trooper, too! Go Brian! But you did have much less flesh exposed to the element, I might add.)

My 16-35 is in the shop, so I couldn't go as wide as I usually do, but I think this was a good thing though, because it forced me to get "uncomfortable" and find new ways to show our surroundings using gear in the bag. My old trusy 28-105 came out of the bag, was dusted off and did GREAT despite the recent years of non-use. Oh, and of course the 50 1.2, stayed on my 5d most of the time. I'm so loving this lens!

Here's some of my favorites from my quick trip to Dallas. My husband Devin said last night after I got home, "it's weird that you were gone and now you are here and you were in Dallas? Isn't that wierd, Kristin?"

Yeah, I guess it was. But I so love this kinda weird.




We found these great screens at the patio when you first walk in. I loved them! And it was a great place for them to get used to me and my "quirks of shooting". I went over the rules, and there aren't very many, and we started shooting.















I love this next photo! It's very classic and very "them". This place was perfect for that reason alone. Throw in some cool lines and some GREEN GRASS (I almost went into shock!) and you've got an excellent morning.































Happy Birthday, Alexa! How was the sushi? LOL

track meet

WOW! Kalyn's first track meet.

Cold.

Windy.

LONG.

She ran the 800, the mile and was supposed to triple jump, but that didn't happen. 6 hours for less than 20 minutes of running. Very long day!




This is Boo (aka Lauren Heinrich), after running her mile. She came in 6th and Kalyn came in 3rd with 6:48 as her time. Not sure of Boo's time, but these girls did soooo good. I was so proud watching Kalyn and her friends run.



I had grand expectations to take a ton of photos, but the wind and cold just got to me and I only pulled my camera out for the last hour or so. Next time, I promise more. It was 37 degrees and I kept having to pull the batteries out of my 5d to get them warm so they would register again! YIPES!











This is Claire, Kalyn's teammate on Lonestar and she goes to school in Shallowater. She ran the mile relay and came in first! Way to go Claire!!!



All of these were taken with my 50, @ 1600 ISO AV Mode, 1.2. Hope that helps!