Since Christmas we have been traveling a bit and working hard. We went to San Diego right after the first for a week to visit with family and friends. We traveled with a group of friends when were living in California. We went to China, Africa and all around the Southwest - Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and the like. We had not seen them since 2003 and it was a grand old reunion.
We also visited Ed's Dad and some of his buddies in the San Diego area. Once we got back here we have been busy with the usual end of year stuff for the business.
Yesterday was Plant High Panthers day in the city of Tampa. The team and school were honored by the mayor and a banner flew at City Hall. We saw Austin's parents at a Ruskin Chamber event and they were telling us about it. They are so proud of the team and so are we. We feel honored to have been a very small part of Austin's senior year and thus a part of Plant High's success.
What a great Christmas we have had! It is so good to have family all together again. Before Ed left to go to Virginia to spend Christmas with his daughter and family, he did a portrait of Betty's family. In fact, we spent all Sunday morning doing portraits both at the beach and in the studio. Aria and Clay have grown so since the last one done the fall before we left San Jose back in 2004. We'll attach a few of the images to this blog to show you the family. We spent Tuesday going to MOSI and the Dali Museum over in St. Petersburg. That was fun. There was a scavenger hunt for the little ones as they looked for different things like ants, flies, eggs and soft clocks in Dali's paintings. They received a prize at the end.
These first images are from the beach. We went to our usual spot at Little Harbor in Ruskin. The children love the beach.
The cousins were perfect subjects for the camera.
Once we got to the studio we changed into the burgundy and black and did a whole group of images.
These are Betty's three kids. The boys still live in California - one in Watsonville and the other in Santa Cruz.
Aria and Clay have such a good time together. They spent a lot of time riding two wheel bikes and doing art projects. The house will be quiet when Aria goes home on Saturday.
Rhonda and Greg McDaniel came in to have their family portrait done and we created so many images they had trouble deciding on one image. We have been doing some different things with composites for families and we created this one for Rhonda and Greg. I think you'll like it. It gives a way to display several images in one frame and highlight the whole family. We are so privileged to be able to create images like these for families and give them something special to have for years. A Family Portrait - No other gift is so appreciated and it certainly isn't returned or re-gifted.
McDaniel Family
Back in September we photographed Austin Clark who plays for the Plant Panthers. Last evening his team beat the Armwood Hawks in the regional finals of the football season. We are so proud of Austin and his teammates. They were not the favored tean, but they pulled it off. One reported likened it to David and Goliath. We're putting Austin's photo up again and want to congratulate him and wish him luck as he decides where he will go to school next year. These kids work so hard and it is neat to see them succeed. Charlotte is, I am sure, busting with pride this morning. She is a great Mom supporter.
Austin Clark
Plant High School
We just got back from a short trip with the Riverview Chamber to Cozumel on the Carnival Inspiration. The colors and the sights were awesome! And we had our trusty Nikons with us and each took over 300 images while we were gone. We love what we do and having a camera in our hands and "snapping away is such fun for us, that you could say we take our work home with us. It is such a wonderful thing for us that we love going to work each day...so many people just exist in their jobs, but we love it all. As we sailed out of the Bay the sun had set and the bridge was off in the distance and barely visible. This has become one of my favorite images from the cruise.
So peaceful and serene. We spent Thursday evening and Friday sailing from Tampa to Mexico and had a sunny, warm evening and day. We arrived early Saturday morning and were in for a real treat as the day was even prettier than the day before. Everyone was off the ship early and we set out on our explorations.
Cruise ship
This was our ship in port at Cozumel. The colors of the small center at the dock were a-blaze with oranges, purples, golds, reds, greens. We had such fun wandering around and catching small pieces of the flavor of the area.
Cozumel Street
This is one of the little side streets. Couldn't you just sit in the shade here and enjoy watching the people go about their business?
The bright sun threw shadows everywhere and made pleasing patterns for us to record. Sunday was cold and windy. We stayed in reading books and wandering around the ship. We got home to Tampa and Brandon Monday morning and have been hard at work/play since. I did have time to create a kaleidoscope of several of the images I took in one of the little stores. Hope you enjoy it.
Here at Huth & Booth we specialize in photographing families and this means the pets. We both love animals and have had dogs all our lives. When our families bring their pets we feel we are not only saving memories of the human family members, but are preserving our "furry" family members as well. Today we photographed the Jackson family and their pets; Lucky, the cat, Strawberry and her daughter, Tinker Bell, beautiful Cockers. They were a fun family and we loved working with them. And look at these precious "furry" friends.
After their session we photographed another Bloomingdale Senior. This time we had a great time with Aryn Plas. She plans to go to USF next year and study engineeriing, She's not only pretty, but smart as well. We met her family the beginning of the year when we photographed their family. Aryn has a sister, Leigha, who is in Kindergarten this year at Cimino Elememntary. Here are a couple of the images from her session.
Have a good week we will see you here when we get back from our weekend away.
On Memorial Day Ed and I photographed the Willis family.They are a family of five, Natalie and Ron and their three children, Alannah, Zachary and Mandy. Mandy was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) on Oct. 23, 2001, her first birthday. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy for bilateral optic gliomas. What a brave little girl and she has the neatest family who are helping her in her fight. Natalie said I could share with you their battle and I am asking that you keep them in your prayers. Things have been a little tough lately. If you would like to read more about her you can go to their journal at http://believeinmandy.blogspot.com. I attaching her picture so you can see who she is.
We are still working on the website as you can tell if you look carefully. I still have four galleries of images to upload, but will not get them done until we return from Michigan. If we can find a place to get on line while there, I will keep you posted on our class and our travels. The motel where the instructors stay is not real new and has no internet connection in the rooms. The theme for this year's party at school is baseball. Ed thought he could go as a bat and I could go as the ball. We just didn't have time to get it all put together and we leave Thursday early am. Oh, well!
Also want to introduce you to Ray Winder who did the painting for our studio lobby. He is amazing. I have placed a link to his site over under the links to the right. Be sure you check him out if you are looking for something different in your home or business. Below in a pano photo of the lobby for those of you who haven't seen it.
