Home

in

I just got back yesterday from sunny Southern California and I had a great trip. Not only did I have a wonderful time with my parents, but I also did a great Shootshop workshop with the fabulous Nate Kaiser of the image is found AND had dinner with the lovely Tara Whitney and her oh so wonderful and warm family. Tara and I met when she photographed my family last May and I immediately loved her. After that I started working on a design project for her, so we got to know each other better via email. I was so pleased to have the opportunity to have some face time with her and we gabbed and gabbed until I had to leave to head back to my parents. She is one of those people that I could have talked to all night. Why do I keep meeting Californians that I want to be friends with now that I live in Texas? Murphy's Law I guess.I have much to post and say, but I need to get ready for Sam's birthday extravaganza. Yes he's one today! So for the time being here is one shot of the gorgeous Katie and Ryan (who were beautiful and fun as all get out) that Nate shot on Wednesday and one from my visit at the Whitneys of Tara and her little angel, Nate. More to come...

Leaving On a Jet Plane

I am now in Southern California visiting my parents for the week. I love being here because my only responsibility is charging my cell phone. Finally, a work load I can deal with. But even though I constantly claim I need time to myself, not 5 minutes after I leave my boys I miss all three of them terribly. So to my three angels, I miss and love you, but I am still looking forward to sleeping in for the first time in AGES. Plus no one to steal the covers.

Amy's Perspective

Amy posted her photos from our adventures in Granbury. You can check them out here. Aren't they beautiful? She blows me away every time. She has a great rotating masthead on her blog and for those of you who use RSS feeds I wouldn't want you to miss it, so here is my favorite of the three rotating images:

Ducks and a Pond and a Playscape Oh My!

Last weekend I me up with Sara and Russell and their two little ones at Mills Pond in Wells Branch. We had a great time. Orion showed off his brand new clapping skills and Leilani was a superstar. She is the only child I know that has as big a range of facial expressions as Sam.

The Creek

Almost every week day, after dropping the boys at school, I take the dogs for a walk. The neighborhood the boys' school in is a really nice, old neighborhood called Hyde Park. We walk around there a bit and then head over to the creek when it is nice and hot so the dogs can swim. One day I brought my camera along and the fisheye lens I had rented and took some photos.

The Fabulous Coffeys

Last weekend we went to visit Curt and Amy Coffey in Granbury, which is near Dallas/Fort Worth. I met them at the Lab workshop last March and I really enjoyed their company as well as their mad photography skills. So we said we would meet up this summer to hang out and take some photos and we did. I know. It is a miracle that I actually followed through on something. They very kindly hosted all four of us for the night and the kids played so well together. I have so many to share so I will do it in three parts. Here is the first. Be sure not to miss the one of Ben in the princess dress with wings. He looked spectacular.

Lazy Days

It is a lazy Saturday after a week that was filled with early morning wake ups and lots of sleep deprived crankiness. I have been so grumpy lately that I am even annoying myself. Sometimes I find myself down a hole for no reason I can think of. So I hunker down and read trashy magazines, eat junk food and wait for it to pass me by, all the while hoping I will come out the other end intact. How is it that we often end up being our own worst enemies? After forty years on this earth I was hoping I would know better by now. I remember when my mom turned forty and she seemed so grown up. I just don't feel like a grown up yet. And then I wonder if my children see this insecurity I have in my role of parent or if they see something more akin to the way I viewed my parents. It could be one of those many instances I have where people perceive me as 'together' when all the while I am feeling completely lost.Last night when I was on my way to my friend Christen's I was listening to La Vie Boheme from 'Rent' and I had this sudden realization that I feel so out of place in Texas. I have been so lucky to meet people who are not only exceptional, but also very like-minded. But I feel surrounded by a greater community that is very homogenous. In Berkeley our neighbors were represented by almost every race and creed. Sexual orientation was never a given and my friends were as often homosexual and hetero. I have been so busy trying to make Josh accept these cultural differences that I neglected to deal with my own grief over this loss. It seemed to come crashing down on me last night. I felt this immense mourning over what I have lost. And it is all so entwined with the grief I feel over losing daily contact with loved ones that it is hard to separate those feelings from culture shock. Where does one end and the other begin? Our community in Berkeley had loads of problems and culture clashes. It was no utopia by any means, so please don't confuse my nostalgic representation for a true picture of our life there. There is no perfect society. But I miss trying to create one.

Morning at Home

in

These were taken last Saturday morning before we headed out to Granbury. A typical morning at the Berry Liebster household. The last strip of Ben is his reaction to tasting coffee. He seems to run the entire gamut of human emotion in these.

Is It Bad?

I am having one of THOSE weeks. You know the kind. The kind where bad behavior is a requirement. I have found the 'Is It Bad?' format seems to work best for these public confessions so I think it will become a regular feature of this blog.Is it bad to read 'US Weekly' when you are supposed to be making money? Is it bad to eat Pillsbury's cinnamon rolls and then insist that your children eat nothing with artificial ingredients? Is it bad to do the above when you just got a call from your doctor's office saying you might be borderline diabetic? Is it bad to eat an entire bag of Jelly Bellys? Is it bad to keep spending money when you are already in credit card debt? Is it bad to want to kill your kids when they wake you up at 5:30 in the morning? Is it bad to not shower for three days?

Tanya's Big Suprise

Tanya thought her birthday was over, but our friend Andrea and her husband Darryl had other ideas. They hosted a surprise party for her. The best part was that Tanya was about an hour late to her own party. This meant that I sat on the stairs with my camera and flash in hand waiting for her to get there so that I could capture her arrival. Luckily Sara, Anjalika, Leah Ann, Courtney, Melanie and others kept me company while we drank beers on empty stomachs which led to much raucous laughter. When Tanya finally arrived she did it with her usual aplomb. She came in and immediately went right back out and shut the door and then repeated the gesture. I love her. Here are some pics of the celebration, which was a good time even if Tanya missed half of her own party.

Sam's Day

in

Last Thursday was Sam's special day at home with me. Since he is so young there was no need to plan out the day. For him a trip to Target is pretty darn exciting. We started the day the infant way with breakfast and a nap. Then we headed off to have lunch with the girls for Tanya's birthday. Next was some one on one time at home in Sam's favorite room, the toy room. Finally, Tanya and Darrell's daughter Mia came for dinner so that her parents could have a night on the town for her mama's bday. We had a great time with Mia. We even got dumplings for the occasion, which she politely tried and then equally politely requested macaroni and cheese and peas. Which I gave her happily and she nicely shared with Sam. Everyone was happy and more dumplings for me.

The Visit

Jill, Joe, Mason and Sofia are the lucky ones that get to entertain my three boys when I am off shooting a wedding (heavy sarcastic tone for the poor souls). But this day was the rare occasion when I showed up too. My favorites are Sam with cottage cheese in his hair and Josh doing his best Vanna White imitation with the Barbie head.

And Many More

Today is my dear friend Tanya's birthday. In about one and a half hours she will be one year older. I want to her wish her a wonderful year. I have some photos for you Tanya of our adventures today, but I am too tired to process them now, so you will have to wait a bit. And I know how much you love to wait. But for now, here are a couple of you looking like your amazing self.

The Departure

The other night I had some of my girlfriends over for a little glamour photography night. Andrea's cousin Javier did everyone's makeup and they all dressed in their best duds and jewels and we photographed well into the night. This was definitely a different style for me and I really love the results. Originally my concept for the project was inspired by Seattle photographer Erin Vey's "Believe/Portraits of Women". I thought it would be great to do a version on the theme for Austin. After taking John Michael Cooper's seminar, I decided to do a twist on that and do a more dramatic take. Since I am a BIG fan of 1940s noir films, I decided that was a direction I wanted to go in. I was not very good at describing my objectives to my subjects. It was definitely a night that I could have used more caffeine as I was more than a bit foggy. But I was happy to see that I obviously knew what I wanted in my heart, if not on my tongue, since I got exactly what I was looking for. This is not a big direction change in my photography for me. Sometimes it is just nice to play in someone else's sandbox. If you want to see the slideshow you can see it here.