This week Steve and I are on our annual vacation to Grand Cayman. I have been coming here for about 15 years now. Steve and I together have made something like 10 trips here together. I often try to explain to people what this vacation and place means to me and I don’t ever think that I can quite explain it.
We all lead crazy lives. I am fully aware that I like to be busy and I am always trying to stuff 50 lbs of stuff into a 5 lb bag. I say over and over, busy is good…busy is good. It is kind of funny that for a week or two every year that I can grind to an almost halt. I come to Grand Cayman to perfect the art of doing nothing.
How is it that I can do just about nothing and love it for a couple of weeks every year? I have realized that I NEED this to keep some sort of balance in my personal and professional life. I need to feed the creative side of my brain and give it rest to just wander for days at a time. My creative and live force needs to filled up and topped off. Steve and I need this in our married lives just as badly. My poor husband has to share me all the time and wait patiently for my time and attention. On vacation we eat all our meals together. We sit and just chat on and off all day long. (As I am writing this Steve is taking a little nap on the couch, good for him!) We religiously watch the sunset together every night like it is the Academy Awards or the Super Bowl. After the sun sets Steve fires up the grill and we cook a simple grilled dinner just for two and eat it by candlelight. We are downright boring on vacation and we love every second of it.
As I write this I am sitting in a wet bathing suit listening to the breeze blow the palm trees. I am looking at the beach and ocean. Today is a perfect Cayman day. Pretty hot and sunny, just the way I like it. I am a very lucky person and I know it. We do faithfully save money every month so we can afford this annual trip. We know how important it is to us.
I have taken the same sunset picture from our beach hundreds of times. I just can’t watch the sun go down without preserving the amazing sight. It’s kind of funny how many of the same pictures we have. Last night the moon was almost full and it was so amazing. The area of the island where we are at is very quiet. (We are very close to Run Point if you know the island) It is pretty dark at night and looking at the stars and moon at night is simply amazing at night. What I love to look at when the moon is full and bright is the shadows the light of the moon casts down on the sand from the palm trees. I wish I could accurately describe it to you. I have tried to photograph it and it just does not come close to capturing the look. It is just mesmerizing to me.
I think that the older I get the more I appreciate the beauty in nature. The more that I find that a sunset makes me happy. The more I stare at the clouds, the more I appreciate all that they offer. I find myself just drinking in all the beauty that is around me and trying to iron it into my mind and save it. I am not sure if everybody does that or just me. I guess that it makes sense that as a photographer I am always trying to capture the beauty in all I see. It’s what I love, it’s what I do!
I will continue to take pictures of the sunset tonight and I am sure each night that we are here. I walk around with my snapshot camera (I rarely bring the big guns on vacation) and photograph flowers, the water, lizards and anything that catches my eyes. (I have started a small album of photographs of Grand Cayman on my personal Facebook page if you want to see the images)
I feel like this post is kind of a jumble of random thoughts and I am second guessing if I should post it. If I over think it, I won’t do it. So in advance I beg your forgiveness if some of this does not make any sense or if my grammar is awful. (I know I have a few readers that are from the Nazi grammar police) After all, I am on vacation. As I said I am here to fill up my creative cup. I just had words coming to my head and I wanted to put them down and share them.
Honestly, I am also getting hot as the sun has shifted since I started writing this and I hear the ocean calling me for a little dip to cool off. Until next time, I wish you well. I hope that you can drink in all that is good in your life and appreciate the simple beauty that is always around us regardless of where we are.
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grand cayman
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photography
January is always a crazy time for me. Right after the madness of the holidays I jump head first into traveling the country to speak and lecture at some fabulous Photography conventions and workshops.
Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at Walter Van Dusen’s
“Mystic 6” Photography Convention held in Mystic, Connecticut. Walter ran an amazing convention, certainly one of the best I’ve ever been a part of. The event brought out some very talented people and I met a ton of new people who became fast friends in the business.
Traveling around to speak to thousands of photographers not only benefits them, but
Angela Carson Photography gets stronger with each event we attend. I love going because it keeps me constantly learning. In order to make any muscle stronger you have to exercise it, think of the muscle as our Studio and the exercise as attending as many events as possible. I learn so much from the brilliant people that both teach and attend photography conventions. It can easily be said that (over a nice dinner) that we are just socializing, but truly all we know how to talk about is photography!
Another plus is sitting in on programs and hearing what other photographers are doing in their own studios. Often times it is at these lectures where I first hear about the latest techniques and tips, both in photography and in running a successful business that puts the clients first.
Last but certainly not least, talking about Angela Carson Photography and being able to see the inspiration it gives other photographers constantly reinforces and reminds me to run the absolute best studio I can. For the past 24 years we have been working to provide the best client experience possible and I’m proud to say that being invited to speak about our success reminds me time and time again to keep up the hard work.
And so the travel continues, this Saturday I’m headed to
“Imaging USA 2011” which is presented by the Professional Photographers of America, and held in San Antonio. I’ve been prepping all week for my seven-hour lecture and cannot wait to see some of my closest friends and meet new ones!
Although traveling can be hard sometimes, battling this new cold (achoo!), and being away from Steve and the Studio, I know that speaking about Angela Carson Photography makes your experience as our client and friend that much better!
Editor’s Note: Shoutout to Lynn Damon for being my personal driver all around the beautiful state of Connecticut. And photo credit to Mabyn Ludke and Richard Esposito
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photography
For over 20 years I have tried to come up with unique, creative and humorous holiday cards. Needless to say, as much as I try to think about it and plan our card months in advance the ideas usually don’t come to me all that easy. Fall is such a hectic time of the year at the studio and I am busy as all get out. I have tons of client’s cards to plan and design and my creativity is quite taxed.
Steve has really been a big help the past several years help me with the concept and the completion of the card. It was his idea to figure out a way for me to me flying behind an airplane the year he became a pilot. In the year 2000 Steve had his first “baptism by fire” photographing me reading to my niece and nephews in bed. That session was just nuts with 5 kids under 5 together! We had 2 assistants standing on each side of the bed tossing kids back in the bed when they got out! For several years we have had fun together in our parents clothing from the 50’s and laughing about times gone by.
I have to say that this year’s card is a cumulative effort. Rosa came up with the concept. My dear girlfriend Jocelyn helped us with the needed props as well doing the photography. Steve helped me come up with the design and wording. Kim did the fine tuning on the images. What did I do? I guess I took in all the assistance and pulled it all together.
Today is the big day. 1000 holiday cards are on the way to us and Fed Ex should be delivering the overnight box from the printer midday. We have all the envelopes printed (That is no small task as I have a longtime battle with printers and they ALL HATE ME!) and stamped.
I bet that you are a bit disappointed that you have not even gotten a small clue about what this years’ card is? It is a tightly held secret! I would have to kill you if I told you! You will have to check your mailbox and be surprised. How many real surprises are left in life anyway? Especially the happy kind!
I sure hope that you enjoy our card this year and appreciate the labor of love it really is! It is an insane kind of fun creating a unique card year after. If you are not on our mailing list please send us your mailing address (
studio@angelacarson.com) and I will make sure you get a card. Please also send us your email address as well. If all goes as planned we will be releasing a special video presentation of this year’s card next week for Christmas. (That is about the biggest hint you are going to get!) You do not want to miss this!
I hope that you have a great last week before Christmas. I know it is an insanely busy time for us all and it is very hard to remember the reason for the season. (I call my alter ego stressed out Holiday freak the Christmas Bitch!) I know that it is a whole lot more fun if you can laugh through the nuttiness and besides it is a lot prettier than crying! Until next time, be well.
I am so excited to be a “guest blogger” today for Angela Carson Photography. For those of you who I haven’t met yet, I’m Papea. Actually my real name is Kalin, Angela has been photographing me since I was five years old. I recently started working at the studio with Angela, Rosa and Kim. The name “Papea” (pronounced like the flower, Poppy) is an acronym for Personal Assistant Princess of Everything Angela. “Papea” stuck on day one, and now I’m happily introduced to clients by my new name.
Working at Angela Carson Photography has been a blast so far! I love being able to meet the families who come into the studio to have such beautiful portraits created . The team here works tirelessly and strives for nothing less than perfection. And let’s not forget what a riot it is. On a daily basis I do everything from blow snow off the porch, pick up Angela’s Thanksgiving turkey (seriously), assist on a portrait session, box and package Christmas cards or assemble portrait orders. It is certainly an adventure.
This morning I kept bugging Angela about this blog. It has been months since she’s posted and I know how many people love reading about the adventures at the studio and around the world. However, when I kindly asked, she glared at me with a face only a totally stressed out business owning Greek woman could have, (see below for actual photo of the moment I asked her to blog today). And so, she informed me I could be a guest blogger. Wahoo!
The studio has transformed into Santa’s Workshop in the past few weeks, the Holiday spirit has covered the place from head to toe and we are busy as elves getting all our projects completed in time! Christmas cards are coming together everyday, with beautiful portraits. Framed family portraits are being created non-stop and family after family keep coming in for a special session with Angela.
One of my favorite project’s Angela is working on is “Angela’s Baby Project” which is Angela’s year long coffee table art book of stunning portraits of newborn babies. I love looking at the portraits from sessions past and I’m so excited for my first newborn session today!
Ten-day-old baby Caroline is coming in this afternoon for her session and I am ecstatic to be able to be a part of it! Stay tuned for more blog posts and info about “Angela’s Baby Project” in the meantime, enjoy your Holiday season and be sure to savor the time spent with family and close friends, it’ll fly by!
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angela carson
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angela's baby project
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christmas
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kalin franks
I hope that you have heard by now that I have embarked on a year-long creative and philanthropic project this year. I decided the beginning of the year that it would be fun to give myself a little artistic project and I wanted newborn babies to be my subjects. Soon after beginning my little project I decided that I the images would make a great coffee table art book. I also realized that I wanted to have a beneficiary of our efforts and that the Just for Kids Foundation would be the perfect organization for us to assist. If you would like to find out more information about our baby project please go to the website www.angelasbabyproject.com
This past week I had the pleasure to meet Brooke and Eric and their new baby boy. It was a joy watching them with their new baby. They are both so loving and wonderful with their new little bundle. I just adore newborn babies. There is just something about that little person that continually amazes me. I can’t get enough of them. I was so lucky to have some time holding and enjoying this little man and he rewarded me with many little smiles. It was so cool holing him and loving on him. He was the most adorable baby and we could not have asked for a better baby model. It was such fun posing him in all kinds of “squishy” poses and he pretty much just let us do what we wanted with him. We just had the best time with the three of them. Needless to say we have the most beautiful images from their portrait session. I thought that you would enjoy seeing a few of the beautiful images we created.
Our Baby Project is ongoing until the end of the year. We would love for you to help us spread the word and if you know anyone who is expecting a baby this year please have them go to our website
www.angelasbabyproject.com to sign up to participate. I really appreciate all the people that have helped us spread the word about our project. It has been an amazing journey so far and we look forward to the next several months photographing adorable babies and meeting wonderful parents. Until next time, be well and I hope you get to love on the babies in your life.
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angela's baby project
This past Thursday was our annual “Flower Day”. It is our tradition that on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend we plant all the flowers at the studio and our house. All of us take part in the planting and it is one of my favorite days of the year. I honestly look forward to that day all year long. I guess for me flower day makes it official summer is here. It is my personal “opening day” of summer!
I can honestly say that the past few years I have turned into a pretty good gardener. I am totally into it! I am borderline obsessed with gardening. (We can talk more about all my obsessions at a later date) It is funny because just a few years ago I knew absolutely nothing about gardening and I would joke that I could kill a silk plant. I think actually may have knocked off a few silk plants in my day! I really have to thank Julie Cleary for helping me learn about gardening in the beginning. I guess it all started when I had a vision (I have a lot of those too!) for pretty flowers all around the studio. I had tried in the past to plant some flowers with what little I knew with limited success. I then hired Julie to do the planting and planning. Little did she know that I would “catch the bug” (I had to put that pun in there) so big and bad in just a few years that poor Julie would be out of a job.
It is just so cool to watch what you plant grow into something so beautiful. It’s fun to pick the different plants with all their diverse shapes and characteristics. I like putting different color combinations together and coming up with something a bit unconventional and unusual, but pretty (nothing to new here). I just love digging in the dirt, getting all dirty and sweaty making it all happen. It is therapy for me.
Eight years ago when Steve and I got married and bought our home in Northville we had no idea how much gardening our house would require. We bought it in the winter and once spring hit we realized that we had bought a small jungle. It is a lot to keep up with at home and at times a bit over whelming. (Our home is on almost an acre of land.) The house has given me lots of areas to play with and learn about gardening. As I mentioned our lot is quite large and we have flower beds all around our house and many, many pots and containers of flowers displayed around our home. (At last count we have 25 different containers of flowers and that is just at our house.) However it is really a joy for me to go out and “play in the dirt”.
Last year I started a vegetable garden at home. I had pretty good success last year, so this year I had to make it bigger and better. We even spent last weekend building a fence (a fortress) for the vegetable garden as last summer we had deer that found my tomatoes and they were having quite a feast on them. I totally turned into Elmer Fudd and I had to get rid of those deer! It was downright funny what I did to get them to stop eating my stuff. So this year I had to have the big, bad fence to keep them out. (Look on my personal Facebook page for pictures of the fence.) This summer I have planted several kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers and acorn squash. Wish me luck with the squash as I have never had success with them.
For those of you have kept up on my blog the past year you know that a year ago this week I had to have emergency neck surgery. It was a very sudden things and quite a surprise to me. I was unable to lift or work in the yard for 6 weeks last summer just when everything was getting planted. I had a very hard time with that (I do not sit well on the sidelines) and once I could start working in the yard I never really caught up with all of it.
So this past couple of weeks while I have been getting ready for “flower day” I have really been having a ball. Last Sunday as I was driving home from my 5th trip to Home Depot that weekend singing Bob Marley and I realized that I was just about as happy as I could be. I had a smile on my face I could not wipe off. I honestly did not want to. I was so glad that I was aware of how really happy I was there in my car all sweaty, filthy dirty singing away (like a fool) and loving every moment of it! I was doing exactly what I preach. I was living in my moment and finding happiness in everyday things. The great weather, music, God’s beauty in the earth and me all stinky dirty! It was a perfect moment for me.
I am healthy, happy and aware of it. We all have problems, stuff happens to us all and some days we are just better at dealing with it then others. I have been on a mission the past few years to stay in my “happy place” and be mindful of all I have. It is my personal mantra. I have so very much to be thankful for. I get to do a job that I love. I have a wonderful man at home with me. I have a family I adore and that loves me back. I have so many amazing friends from every walk of life. My clients are so good to me and in my mind they are an extension of my family. I guess this little post about my “Flower Day” has now turned into a post about tending our personal gardens. What I mean is the garden in our minds. We all choose what we put in there and what we let grow. What we need to weed out and how we need to water it and make it grow.
It’s so funny when I start writing these blog posts of mine it amazes me how I start with one thought or idea and then many times I end up somewhere else. Honestly, writing this takes a lot out of me and it many times takes hours of time. I now know why I have to be in the proper frame of mind to write my blog. I have to be able to be completely honest with myself and be able to be open to just write and see where I end up. As I write this I realize that my writing is an extension of exactly who I am as a person. Authentic is the word that comes to my mind. Like it or not, I am at times I am too brutally honest and I sure do put it all out there. I feel bad when my honesty scares or hurts people. I am sure I do that more than I know. I don’t want or like to hurt people. I just work hard and play hard at all times.
I live my life with passion. I really put everything I have into everything I do. Love me or hate me it is for the same reason. I am a “real” and “authentic” person who lives my life with all the gusto I have and I would not want it any other way.
I am writing this on an airplane with Steve flying to Disney World for the week to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We were married in Disney World and return there as often as we can. Being at our favorite hotel (The Grand Floridian where our wedding reception was held) really brings back great memories for us both. It brings us back tour wedding weekend, a wonderful time that was shared with so many dear friends and family members. The very first trip Steve and I took together when we started dating was to Disney World. We have so many fond memories and it is fun or us to relive them and make more great memories on additional trips. We are looking forward to a week together doing just that.
This trip is going to be extra special as a few weeks ago we found out that we have good clients that are going to be vacationing in Disney World at the same time we are. I mention this because I am going to be photographing them while we are on this trip. I promise to share that story and some of the images in my next blog post. I am looking so forward to photographing them and creating many fond memories for them this week. I just can’t wait to photograph this beautiful family in one of my favorite places. I get to spend the day in the Magic Kingdom with an adorable little girl and I feel like kid I am so excited. I have the best job in the world and I know it. Until next time, be well and don’t forget your own personal “Flower Day” and tend the garden that is in your mind. You will be so glad that you did!
A few nights ago when we were in the middle of one of this week’s many thunderstorms I heard some weird noises I thought were coming from outside the windows in my family room. It was windy and raining like cats and dogs so I didn’t think much of it. When I woke up yesterday morning I heard the noises again and I figured out that there was a critter of some sort in my chimney. I had no idea what kind of critter was camping out in my chimney. It sounded like a loud flutter sound. I kept thinking if it was a bird why was it so loud and why was I not hearing any chirping? I was totally freaked out about a varmint that would somehow find a way out of the fireplace and into the house.
OH GREAT! Of course, Steve has been out of town all week. (Does this weird stuff ever happen when the husband is in town?) I had no clue what to do about it. So I picked up the phone and made my first call to the bug exterminator and they gave me a number of a guy who gets rid of animals. I about had a stroke when he said that it would be $500-$1000 to get whatever it was out of the chimney. I nearly had a meltdown just about then. I had a totally insane week and this was the last thing I needed to deal with on Friday was this critter in the chimney.
I then went off to visit my daily friend Google and I searched up Critter Control. I spoke to a very nice woman and after some schedule re-arranging I was going to meet Bob from Critter Control Saturday morning at our house. When I got home on Friday night I did not hear my new little friend anymore. It never fails, I find someone who will reasonably deal with my new friend and now I won’t need them to rid my chimney of the varmint.
Well just as soon as I woke up on Saturday my little friend was back at the “whooshing sound” in the chimney. For the life of me I could not guess what that sound was. No little bird could make that sound and it was not a clawing sound. Regardless, something was in there and I wanted it out before it figured out how to get out in the house or died and I really had a problem on my hands.
Saturday morning Critter Control Bob showed up. He was just a delightful man and boy does he have some funny stories about other people’s varmint problems. (I decided that we need to invite him to a party to tell all his crazy stories!) I was surprised how without any fear Bob pretty much just stuck his head in the fireplace with a flashlight and mirror and looked around to see what was making that sound. It was a duck that got stuck in my chimney! A mallard duck was in there. Who would have thought that? Bob said this was only the second time that he had seen a mallard duck in a chimney. I just could not believe that duck had somehow gotten in there. How funny? I quickly got the camera as I had to show Steve a picture of our new pet that had moved in this past week.
Then my new hero Bob just put his hands right up in the chimney (Apparently there is a little shelf in there just above the flue he was sitting on.) and grabbed the duck. Just like that he had him. After a few photos Bob just walked right out of the front door and tossed the duck up in the air and he flew away. It was so wild that I had a duck in the chimney. I could not stop thinking about it all day.
This story is so bizarre I had to write about "The Duck That Got Stuck!" I also had to pass on the phone number of my new buddy Bob Boyd from Critter Control (248-889-4977) in case you have any unwanted pets that move into your home. Have a wonderful Sunday and enjoy the sunshine. Until next time, be well.
