Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day 
Every year on mothers day I try to think of something to do for my mother that would be special and remembered.  I hope that I have money to spend on her because she deserves the best of everything.  Well this year I not only had no money, my mom wanted a day off.  This I could give her, only trouble is, I am a mother too, she didn't want to make me work on mothers day either.  
So I started to think about it some more and I thought of flowers.  Well mom always kills flowers.  I so wanted to give her a plant to plant in her garden, her roses are so beautiful.  Then I thought about it her roses...

 I could give her a picture of her roses.  It would last forever.  And never die, she couldn't kill them, not that she kills her roses.  She doesn't.  But this could capture them for her in a moment in time.

 Aren't they gorgous?  I think so but there is more...
what you ask?









In her backyard she just by chance grows the most beautiful iris's and she should have these too. so here is one for her.

 Well there is my bouquet of flowers for mothers day.  May all mothers everywhere enjoy them.  Happy Mothers day too one and all of you.

A Dog Day Afternoon

It was a great day!  I spent the afternoon with my lovely daughter.  But also with Carma.  She is my daughters pup.  Carma is about nine months old (I think) she is a pit bull, and she is very friendly.I did enjoy her company.

Isn't she a beauty?  She played with Nicole for quite awhile with a ball and then a stick, and finally with a rope.  she seemed to like the ball the very most.  No maybe the stick.

Nicole Played pretty rough with Carma for being six  months pregnant herself.  She kept up with the puppy though.

The stick made for a big tug of war.  Carma chewed and broke it from a big long stick that was about six feet across until it was just a couple of feet long.

 

She enjoyed the flowers for a bit, we kinda posed her in the flowers to get this shot.

after a long day a kick back in the grass was in order.  Thanks for spending the day with me Carma, it was fun!  All photos by Cathy Kuster

 

 

Different things make me happy

A Mothers love, makes me feel all warm inside...

My daughter becoming a mother is a happy thing...

A smiling dog is nice to see...

My two sweet Kitties chumming it up is a happy day for me...

My whole family and Lourie there to take the picture was very happy for me...

My son Jason spending his birthday with me was greeaatt!!!

And flowers are a beautiful way to pass some time.

And a beautiful sunset to finish the day is one way to make me happy.  I love to see and feel joy in my life and to be able to take pictures that reflect the things that make me happy.  I took all these pictures except one picture of Nicole the black and white one, and the family portrait of  me and my kids.  But of course that does not take away the happiness they bring me.
The family portrait I would have to say is a personal favorite, as my kids and I are not quite ever in the same place at the same time, it is rare.  I am so thankful that I was able to get a picture of all of us, and I thank Lourie, and Emmy for their contributions.  Lourie was the photographer, and Emmy Barton was the Editor.
The next favorite is Lucy and JoAnn.  The Mother and her baby.  Well I took it and I have to say it is quite the moment.  I like it anyway.  I also favor my cat picture but mostly because it's my cats.  Teddy the dog that is a good picture too, I mean I like it.  Teddy looks like he is smiling, he's so cute!  The flowers and the sunset I like because they are things that mean something to me, I don't know if they are good pictures but I like them.  Oh most of my pictures make me happy, because they are of people, and things that I love, and that brings feelings that are warm and good.  Maybe that is why I like photography so much.



 

Take a picture Tuesday "Sweet"

Between the two I think Patches is the sweetest.  But Sumo looks pretty cute too with his laughing smile.  Cat's to me are very precious, though of course not more than humans.  They do provide companionship and love.  And who could resist this angelic face looking up at you.  But don't let patches fool you, she can be mean and honory.
Sumo is just as he appears a laughing silly sweet little... wait not little, big bundle of fur.  So who is the sweet one?  If you are asking me?  Why Patches of course.  photography by Cathy Ann 

Iddlywild Did I spell that right?

This summer my Mom, Sister, her kids, me and my daughter all went to IddlyWild.  It was great!  So pretty.  I am not much for taking scenic pictures, I try, but people is more my thing.  But it was so pretty up there.  The mountains, well the tall hills, the tall tree's, the rocks.  Oh I am a fan of rocks and there were some great ones.
 As you can see Nicky sitting in a pile of them.  It was at a rock store.  The rocks were outside there were so many colors and sizes.  She looked picture perfect sitting there
among them.

Then there was the bench.  We wanted Ryan to sit with Nicky and Emily and take a cute picture of them all sitting on the bench.  I had one with Kristin and Nicky and Emily, so we asked Ryan.  He said "No pictures please!"  while shaking his hand in front of his face.  So I took the picture without him sadly.

Being the sneaky photographer that I am I saw a chance and got a picture of Ryan anyway.  He isn't smiling, but you don't alway's have to be smiling to make a good shot.
He looks as though he is contemplating something very deep and important, I wonder what he is cooking up?

Kristin also caught off guard is taking a moment to soak up the sun. She really seemed to enjoy the trip that day.  And spent  a lot of her time in the stores with her older cousin Nicky.  I actually got a lot of good pictures that day even of Ryan.  He was Playing with his cars and I was able to take some more shots of him.  And oh I don't know how I could forget 

the stick band.  Who performed for us for quite a while.  It was very entertaining.  All in in all it was a great day.  Fun photo's and all.

 

My Starshine NickyNack

Nic, shined in the sun or rain for me.  She was the perfect little model.  I loved taking pictures of her.  She loved to have her picture taken.  She wanted to be a professional model from a very young age.  We even looked into classes for her when she was four but although I had the talent to showcase her, we couldn't afford to pay for the "training".
This picture known for its halo effect is a favorite of mine it makes her look angelic, and the white eyelet dress doesn't hurt either.  I loved how the over grown grass lent itself to a perfect picture that day.

years later I take another photo for a another photography class, and what do I get?  Not the angelic little girl in the grass.  I get a sexy sultry young women, who at the time was only thirteen.  however I liked the picture.  I love how her hair flies free in the wind.  How the tree so perfectly frames her face.  I love how deep her eyes are and draw you in.I love how the colors compliment the colors of her eyes.  all in all I love this photo.

Admittedly this is not my favorite, she does look lovely it was her one and only prom she ever went to, and I took pictures before they left.  She looked so beautiful that night, fifteen, growing older.  Always getting more beautiful.  The camera eats her up.  She did not have much fun that night so much so that she decided not to go to her own senior prom.  Which she didn't.  She should have been prom queen RECOUNT!

this is one of a lot of excellent senior pictures that I took of Nicole her senior year.  Choosing just one was next to impossible for me because I think they all came out so good.  Now mostly that is because nic and I have worked together over the years so much.  But also because she is such an attractive model, and I am such a great photographer.  The experience we had while doing her senior pictures was a special bonding mother daughter moment.  We had a lot of fun.  It is hard to believe she has grown into such a fine young woman.  I am proud of her for moving forward with her life and making things work.and now guess what?

Yep, soon I will have another Model, Aden James soon to arrive in July I can hardly wait to take your picture lil' man

 

Days of Darkrooms and Film

About twenty years ago, way before there were digital cameras, I took a photography class.  This is my son Jason.  He was my first assignment. 
I took the picture with natural lighting, and made him pose like that.  I told him to stare as if he were missing a friend and were looking for him.

He did a great job!  The teacher had only one complaint, the eye I focused on was the nearest to me, she felt it should have been the one farthest.  I like it just the way it is.
I did however get an "A" on the project.  I also developed the picture in a darkroom the negatives and all, and no I did not change anything on my computer except adding my name.

 This photo was just for me at first.  I loved how it captured such an innocent moment.  Nicole at her sweetest.  But later decided to include it in my final portfolio for my class.  I also got an "A" on that project which included five pictures.  This was also a natural light photo and no I didn't change a thing, everything you see I did in the darkroom or with the camera settings.

This picture of a family's youngest two children from my ward at church was also included in my portfolio.  I felt it had a lot of passion and spoke to me.  I asked the kids to sit back to back and look real sad.  They followed direction real well.  I was trying to copy a famous photographer who photographed impoverished families.  I did end up with a real sweet picture.
I did have to change this one a bit.  The only copy I now have is on a contact sheet.  Which is what you do with the negatives when you start printing.  You lay all the negatives on a piece of photo paper then expose it.
So this picture when I scanned it was the size of 35mm film.  I had to sharpen it and re size it but that was really all I did.

This Picture of Nicole was I think the third assignment, yes "A".  It was to create a Halo effect at the top of the subjects head.  She was a good subject becuase she had all that hair.  She also was always camera hungry.
This particular picture proofed to be difficult in the darkroom where her dress and arm meet underneath.  I had to do what is called dodge and burn to get the dress to show up becuase it was way over exposed compared to the rest of the photo.

Today you would use a computer to fix that,  I found it fun to do it in the dark room,  but I also find the computer fun and challenging.  And no I did not change it It is as I did it back then.

And now for one of my favorite photos.  I shot it by chance.  I had my camera with me(as any good photographer knows you always should) and wham!  the worlds two biggest enimies my two sons walked arm in arm.
Now it isn't perfect, oh I would have loved not to have cut off their feet.  but it is perfect to me,  A moment in time that is sealed up forever and I have it to treasure.  And that's what pictures are Treasures.

Last Saturday

I went to the park last Saturday with my two nieces, and young nephew.  the reason for the outing was so I could practice/play with my sisters camera.  She has a dslr, I do not.  I had a lot of fun, although I did not know how to use the camera to it's full advantage.  I do know how to edit them.

I took a total of 60 pictures, I only shared about 25 with my sister.  She said I did real good.  I guess I am my own worst critic.  I think I need a lot more practice.  I do hope to run my own photography business one day, very soon.  And I do believe my Pictures are good enough for professional use. Here are five of What I thought were the better ones.  I just thought I would share.

I guess what is most important is that I had a lot of fun doing it and that is what makes life great doing what you love.  And that is what I intend to do.