I love my country.

I do not love the direction she is headed. More than anything, I would love to see her brought back to her former days, more along the lines of what our founding fathers had intended.

There is always hope. There is another generation and I consider it an honor to raise up my son to be a man who respects God, his elders, and his country. To know what it stands for and why it needs protecting.

The other day my son told me “he wanted to be in a battle” and to “be a hero”. Of course, as his mother I wanted to yell,“stay safe, no!”. But I kept my fears to myself — we need a nation of men and women who are weary of “safe”.

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“Where will our country find leaders with integrity, courage, strength—all the family values—in ten, twenty, or thirty years?

The answer is that you are teaching them, loving them, and raising them right now.” — Barbara Bush

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{ About the Images Below }

These images are dedicated to my God, first and foremost, and to my country. A love-song, in imagery form, as to what it means to be an American. Dare I say a Patriot.

Lastly, my prior military husband helped me with this session and we were sure to protect and respect the flag during the shoot.

© 2011 Skye Hardwick – Do not use without permission

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“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heavenand will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14

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Stay tuned for more images from this series.

If you are in the San Gabriel Valley  CA area and would like to have your child a part of my Freedom Project, please drop me a line. Especially from those who have a loved one who is currently serving our country.

Furthermore, to the Photographers who may be reading. I am writing an article for my Soulographer Inspiration Blog about connecting your heart to your images using this series as an example. Keep watch for that one!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d appreciate it if you would share it with others who would enjoy it.

Until then.

- Skye xoxo

www.soulographer.com

There I will feature articles on such topics as posing, shooting locations, photographing your own kids, and more. Not to mention interviews, product reviews, and giveaways!

Plus, you don’t want to miss out on the new “Studio Tours” . . . you can’t help but feel a bit envious, and yes, inspired!

Here’s a sneak peek from our first Studio Tour —> visit the Blogsite for the full feature.

My husband, Gary, and I both have a love of the country so we thought we’d incorporate a country look and feel into our special day. Especially for me as I miss the lush fields and run down barns that I am used to back East. For the most part, quite a different world here in SoCal (not hating on CA as I can shoot outdoors here all year long – nice!). Our ceremony was held in a historic mennonite meetinghouse and our reception was down the road in a big red barn. Both were built in the early 1800’s and needed a lot of cleanup beforehand, but we had a great crew to get things done (thanks to Gary, Josh, Carrie & the folks at the museum).

Getting ready for the details of the wedding … well let’s just say I actually need a break from antique shops (did I just say that?) because I hit up so many looking for the perfect elements to add. Now that our big day has passed, we have more quilts, candles, apple crates and the like than we know what to do with. Don’t even get me started on the mason jars (which we used for drinking glasses). Also, I couldn’t have done it without Etsy – tons of farm-inspired treasures there!

Major props to our fabulous photographers Leigh Taylor and second shooter Beth Armsheimer – working with them was so much fun. Even when my veil was left behind at the hotel (and arrived literally as I was headed to the ceremony – thanks Holly!) they were there to calm my  nerves and tell me “this is normal” and they were right …all was okay, more than okay … it was a dream.

To view all the preview images from our special day, please head to Leigh’s blog.

{ ***** VIEW MORE WEDDING IMAGES ***** }

Here are a few favorite images …. images below copyright Leigh Taylor & Beth Armsheimer.

Don’t worry, once we receive all the files I’ll be sure to post a few more. { wink }

I’ll leave you with a portion of a favorite quote we included in our wedding programs:

“When you make a promise, you tie yourself to other persons by the unseen fiber of loyalty. You agree to stick with people you are stuck with. When everything else tells them they can count on nothing, they can count on you. When they do not have the faintest notion of what in the world is going on around them, they will know that you are going to be there with them. You have created a small sanctuary of trust within the jungle of unpredictability: you have a made a promise that you intend to keep.” – Lewis Smedes

Be blessed.
xoxo
- S

Below are some images of my little brother (we are 21 years apart) and my son together. We try (and usually succeed) to get images of them together every year. Of course, you know how it can be photographing boys …especially boys who know you well (you know what I’m talking about). And especially on a stinky farm with lots of cows that make all sorts of sounds and noises. Fun times.

Seriously though. I’m bummed I didn’t get much of my son alone this year in PA as his ones from last year are some of my all time favorite images of him, but there’s plenty of warm weather here in California for another shoot.

For this first shot, I’m showing you the version before I edited out my “oops!” moment. We all have them, though thankfully, I have them much less. I left the plastic clothing sticker on his shirt. That will be edited out before printing. {wink}

Plus, my family from back East will be in town for a visit and to see our new home. We’ll also be hosting them for Easter this year. Excited, but never made an Easter dinner before! Honey Baked Ham? { laughs } If you have any yummy side dish recipes, please share in the comments! Thank you!!

Today let me just gush on how much I love Cs4! About three months ago I upgraded from Cs2 and although there is always some sort of learning curve with new versions of Photoshop, I love it! Especially Bridge — Bridge is how I comb through my sessions and sort the good from the not-so-good.

Now, you can totally customize the look of Bridge – below is how I have mine set up. Nice and easy (IMO). Just simply drag things around (put your cursor on the lines you want to drag) to change the look of your Bridge.

My fave feature is the compare (where you can compare two images side by side, obviously) and then the magnifier tool (which I use all the time!). I don’t do any actual editing in Bridge, just a way to view. In the example below I used the features with web sized files, but you can only truly appreciate its ability will full sized files.

Used on an edited full sized image, you can use the magnify to see the sharp quality of the eyes

Each photographer has their own editing style and process with which they edit. Photoshop, CaptureOne and Lightroom seem to be the most popular. One day I would love to give Lightroom a whirl, but I’ve got too much on my plate at the moment to try something new. Especially since I’m quite happy with my editing process at this time (if it ain’t broke …). However, if you are looking to learn more about Photoshop, I cannot recommend enough anything by Scott Kelby or NAPP.

Ps. You can now find Work of Heart Photograhpy on Facebook!

You would think with all the barns abound one could find one to rent for a wedding reception (there’s only one in the immediate area of Pittsburgh that I can find) — if anyone knows of any farm or rustic places available for rent, please let me know!

My son is pretty easy to photograph; I suspect only due to the fact that I don’t take him out to do “shoots” as much as I did years back. When I lived back east I took for granted how easy it was to find shooting locations. In many places you couldn’t throw a rock without it landing on a potential shoot spot. California makes you work a bit harder; though I will say this, in California I can do outdoor work all year long!

The first one is my absolute favorite. How can I possibly choose which ones to print and how large? Perhaps put a gallery wall together. The blue tractor was at the bed & breakfast we stayed at in NE Ohio — they also had a beaten up old ladder fire truck and a run down property next door too. Loved it!

Here is our Christmas card for 2009.

Front

Top Inside.

Bottom Inside.

Back.

– John Eldredge

“Sing … Sing a Song…”