Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Polar Express???

I recently took my first train ride.  But I'll back up just a bit.

My daughter is pregnant and due the first week of the new year.  I was actually expecting the weather to be snowy so we decided to travel by train.  You know, we thought it may be safer actually, and we wouldn't have to drive over Vail Pass in the snow. 

Any of you in Colorado know that the snow is late this year.  But anyway, when I told my mom how we were traveling here, she reminded me that when I was born, my grandmother took a train through the snow to be there when I was born.  So, of course, I stuck to my plan as a part of tradition.  My grandmother passed away 7 years ago, and I was very close to her, and thought this would just be a truly sentimental journey for me to travel the way she did (not) so many years ago.

The train ride was way cool.  My hubby and I hopped on the train at 10 am and traveled across Colorado.  What a fabulous trip.  The train was roomy and we weren't stuck in our seats for the whole ride.  We explored the train.  I couldn't help but think about the movie "The Polar Express" the whole time I was on the train.  (I recently saw the movie).  I have to say though, that I have never been in such a small rest room. 

We had lunch in the train's diner.  We were seated with another couple who was from Australia.  It was really interesting to chat with them over our lunch. 

The train makes several stops along the way, some of them my hubby had time to hop off for a quick smoke.  When we stopped in Glenwood, we both hopped off so that I could get some pictures.  Glad I did but wish I would've taken more.  That depot looks antique.  It was beautiful.

We spent most of our time in the observation car.  Big windows allowed us to see much of the scenery and get some pictures.  We saw lots of wildlife too.  Several deer and a bald eagle.  One deer that we came across actually was trying to cross the river and became frozen before it made it across.  Sad!  but odd!!

After it got dark, we made our way back to our seat before we picked up more people in Denver, that filled the train.  Then we had to listen to this one man who was obviously upset that there were children in the same car as him.  He asked the train attendant if he could do something about all the noise.  It was truly funny.  The attandant told him that there is just no way to turn a toddler OFF.  He still had a cow.

Then it wasn't long after that when our train trip was over.  10 hours after we got on.  It was a wonderful ride.  Can't wait to do it again.

Now that we are here, we're just waiting for my daughter to pop.  The next big adventure in this photographer's life.  I'll keep you posted.

Chow for now,
Corbie






Thursday, December 23, 2010

First Santa Visit

Well, my family has been the Claus Family for the past couple of years at our church.  It has been suggested to us in the past that we should do Santa Visits with the public and make some extra money.  I really didn't see how we could possibly do it, not at the time anyway.

Then recently a friend of mine suggested it to me again.  And we pondered over it about adding it to my photography business.  Ha!  What a thought.

So anyway, I put it into effect and started advertising around town and we got our first call.  We only scheduled one this year but that is ok.  We learned alot from the visit we just did.

We were invited to a birthday party for a 1 year old.  They wanted a 1 hour visit.  We thought...wonderful....it's a step in the direction that we want to go.

Well, I'm now glad that we only had one scheduled this year.  Now it's back to the drawing board to redo the plan. 

The party was fun.  There were only 2 toddlers, who by the way, of course, were afraid of Santa.  But I thought that may work to our advantage, simply because we had to fill a whole hour.  The older kids were awesome.  They know exactly who Santa is and are not afraid of him.  So with the older kids, the visit went pretty quick.

Anyway, we found ourselves with some awkward moments, almost like we were invading a home party.  We were the party crashers.  Once the presents started opening, the kids forgot all about Santa and we didn't know what to do. 

Overall, it was awesome, and I can't wait to do it again.  I just think that a whole hour, for just a few kids, is a little too long.  And adding them to birthday parties, I don't know.  I'm sure that if we get called for another birthday party, we will go, but I think that a 30 minute visit is enough.  Or we will estimate the time based on how many children will be visiting with Santa.







Chow for Now,
Corbie

Lighthouse Church blesses the community

The Lighthouse Church of Grand Junction heads out each year to bless some of the elders in the community with Christmas Carols the old fashioned way.  They show up on their doorsteps, ring the bell and start singing.  This year they also visited a local nursing home and blessed the residents there with a few songs and visiting.

The church visited the nursing home first and sang a few songs in the cafeteria as the residents were finishing up their supper.  Then they went around and visited with a few of the residents.






Then they were off, singing their way through the halls of the home to carry cheer to those that were already in their rooms.  There were beautiful door decorations along the hallway, and I couldn't resist taking some shots of those too.



Well, I was going to post some more photos of the event but it seems that yet again I am having problems doing so.  It has been suggested to me to move to WordPress for my blog..  If it keeps this up, simply because I do not have time to piddle fart with this when it don't want to work, I may be moving. 

But I'll keep you posted.

The rest of the photos will be posted on FB.
Chow for Now,
Corbie

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Promo Photo

I've got this young man who wants to make it big in extreme sports some day.  He's a fan of Shawn White and he loves sports all the way around.  He's into LaCrosse, snowboarding, biking, and skateboarding. 

Anyway, he's been after me for some promo photos.  So I followed him out to the bike track about a week ago and here is what we got.




If you'd like to see more, head on over to the full album on FB.

Chow for Now,
Corbie

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Streets of Grand Junction

We had our Parade of Lights here in downtown Grand Junction back on the 4th of December.  This is my first year to go to the parade since I moved here 4 years ago.  There were alot of people downtown, but I'll post that next time.

I had been reading about different techniques on street photography, so I thought I would give it a try.

The strange thing about street photography that I still don't understand, is how can we secretly take pictures of people and then be able to sell them as stock photography, or post them on the public internet.

I know that because this was a public event, and when people go out and participate in a public event, if their picture is taken, no laws are broken.

Copyrights and legalities just seem to be so gray, if you know what I mean.  Plus, the paparazzi take pictures of celebrities all the time without their permission.  It seems that when ever I read up about it, I get conflicting answers, so who knows.

Anyway, below are some of the photos that I captured from the streets of Grand Junction.


Chow for Now,
Corbie



If you would like to see the rest of the album, please visit my facebook page.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Santa Visits

My family has been the Claus Family at our church now for two years.  It all started a couple of years ago when our Pastor asked my husband if he would fill in and be Santa for that year.  We got all excited and made it into a family affair.  I became Mrs. Claus and 4 of our kids became elves.  Last year I made us new costumes, so that we would have them forever and stop renting them.  We had a blast, the kids loved seeing Santa, and our kids enjoyed dressing up and being elves.

This year, we were missing one of our elves, because, as you know, our daughter has moved out and is expecting in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, last year several people suggested that we do Santa visits as a way to make extra money.  I really didn't think it was a good idea.  But what do I know.??

This year, someone suggested it to me again....and after we sat and pondered over it for a little while, we thought that maybe we could do this.  You know, incorporate it into my photography business.  We did manage to get one scheduled this year.  We'll see how it goes.  It's a party for a one year old, who will have about 5 little one year olds as his guests.

I'll let you know how it goes.  Today was our Santa Program at church.  Here are a couple of photos from our day.

Chow for now,
Corbie




Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Maternity Shoot

Well, I've been working on my website and I think for now I've finally got that completed for the new year.  Still need to put together my welcome packets and that kind of stuff.

Did a couple of maternity shoots over this past month.  I had a blast shooting them and I believe they turned out really nice.  And the Moms-to-be loved them.  Can't wait to do more.

One of the maternity shoots was my own daughter.  She is due around the first of the year.  She lives about 6 hours away, so I'm getting packed up after Christmas and heading her way on a train.  Gonna spend the whole month of January with her.  She's expecting a girl.  I'll be getting some newborn photos under my belt next.  I'm really excited.

Enjoy the photos,
Chow for Now
Corbie