Hard to believe it's been almost a year . . .

 Since I posted on this blog. Boy time really flys when you get my age. I'm still working at the same place, coming up on 20 years in July. I'm hoping to retire in a year or so. As far as my photography, still shooting an occasional session as they come up, as I say, my day job gets in the way. Once I retire I plan to "promote" myself more aggressively to help supplement Social Security. Without rambling on too much, I'll just post a few of my favorite shots from the last year.

 

 

 

Found a few minutes to post

My daughter and her crew dropped by yesterday after going to a friend's wedding for a new family picture. Try getting all 6's attention at the same time. Can you imagine being the only man in this house full of women? LOL

Ashley - 16

Destiny - 11

Allyssa - 3

Cheyenne - 20 months

Ash and boyfriend Nate goofing around

William's Family Session

A couple of weeks ago I shot William and his family. Here are a few of the selections.

I'm still here . . .

Just been busy with my day job and shooting sessions when I can. I know it's been quite a while since my last post but in that time I have been working on building my portfolio with a couple newborn sessions and a few family sessions before Christmas. I had another family session a couple weeks ago and will be doing a Senior session tomorrow. Here is one I took of my husband.
The Senior I will be doing is my grandson who is finally getting around to getting pictures taken before he graduates in a few weeks. I'll post a couple after that session and try to post more often on here, what good is a blog if you don't say anything.

Here are a few samples from the sessions before Christmas. All photos copywrite Saddleback Hills Photography

The studio is almost done

Although I still have some finishing touches (trim, baseboard, base for my desk, etc), here's a sneak preview.

My Office -



The Studio -


The Dressing Room -


The Prop Store Room -

It's been a year already . . . . .

I showed you the pictures when she was born, now Allyssa is one year old today. We celebrated her birthday yesterday with family and friends. Here are a couple of the (300+) pictures I took - the before and after of the cake demolition. I've seen massive destruction of the baby cakes, but Allyssa was very delicate (albeit messy) with hers.

It's been a while since my last post . . .

We have been spending every possible moment working on our building and seems like it is taking forever. We are working on the steel now and getting what the 2 of us can do by ourselves. Sometimes on the weekend, we enlist some help. We pretty much have the interior framing done but can't finish it until we are watertight. The steel is going up slowly, thanks to the ever present wind we have. Seems like it is calm during the week but come the weekend when we have more time, the winds kick up.

Every weekend we try to line up some help to get the roof on. So far, still no roof, going to try to get help again next weekend. I don't see any way that Dan and I can do it by ourselves. The last pictures I posted were taken on Labor Day weekend so I'll just date the pictures and you can follow our progress.

9/27/09 - Painted Doors and and trim going on around garage doors

10/5/09 - Interior Framing

10/21/09 - Stairs to Mezzinine storage area

11/6/09 - Steel going up

11/15/09 - More steel but still no roof

We've been busy . . .

I sat here 2 weeks ago and typed up the entire post with the Labor Day weekend update and then LOST the whole thing when I hit the "Publish Post" link. Frustrated, I walked away. I have spend another week in Mexico since and am finally getting back with the update.

In the pictures, you will see a man named Harvey, he is my neighbor and a great guy that gave up half of his holiday weekend to help us. He enlisted his 2 sons, their friends and another friend of his, Seth. With my SIL, Matt, and his friend Joe, at times, we had 10 hammers in action. I'll let the pictures tell most of the story.

My SIL Matt getting ready to anchor a truss.

L to R Harvey, Matt and Joe.

Trusses up and most of the purlins in place.

Harvey, Seth and Joe spend most of the afternoon in the air.

Joe, Seth, Matt and Harvey taking a much deserved break.

By Sunday afternoon, the roof framing was almost complete.

This view is my studio end, the 15 lite door is for the studio and the 9 lite door beside it will go into the garage. The 2 windows to the right will be in the office part and the other one in the studio.

Since Labor Day, we have been framing some of the areas that still needed it, painting doors and adding some of the trim pieces, getting everything ready to have a "Steel Hanging Party" Hopefully the same crew will show up and be ready to help. This project is taking longer that I had hoped but at the rate it's going, I'll have plenty to keep me busy this fall and into winter.