My existence

It is already mid-August which means that grade schools are back in full gear and college students are clinging to their last few days of summer.

I have just over a week now before I fly back to DC on the 25th. However, my days until then are going to be full of packing up my life for 4 months and editing your beautiful images.

Lately I have been camped out in the den of my house. This is my umm..well my desk for the moment: 

On my desk at any given moment you will find honey roasted peanuts, coffee, two sharpies, ribbon, a credit card bill, a laptop and an external hard drive (and those are in order of importance).

While editing your images I am usually watching reruns of my soaps: Pretty Little Liars, Teen Wolf, The OC, One Tree Hill and various TLC shows about babies.

Speaking of babies:

Look at her eyes! And her cheeks! Gosh.............. I contemplated kidnapping her but there were too many witnesses.

So all in all my existence as of late has consisted of me sitting in front of the laptop from the first picture while editing images like this one of baby Mia. Doesn't seem like too bad of a life, does it?

More to come later!

Grace

Grace Photography is hunting new locations!

Well hello again!

For those of you who stalk my Facebook and Twitter accounts (cough* cough* MOTHER * cough*cough), you know that I have spent my summer interning in DC with The Washington Examiner.

It has been one of the best summers of my life and I would love to tell anyone who will listen about it. However, come July 30th, Georgetown University is officially kicking me off the campus and I'll be returning to Tennessee where the trees are green and the tomatoes are fried. Only 12 days!

This also means I get to restart Grace Photography for about 3 weeks until I return again to DC for the fall. I have missed working with you all very much and I look forward to photographing you in the coming weeks.

I have already scheduled some appointments and talked with many folks about setting up a session in August. For those of you whom I haven't talked with, it is not too late! Contact me today and we can surely set something up.

This post, though, isn't about me and my impending return. Rather, it is about all the wonderful locations I have used when photographing clients.

Part of what I love about photography is a camera's ability to transform a location into a magical scene.

1) The Lauderdale County Square has been a great location for me since its renovation. 

Especially this red wall. Many of you reading this post live in or near Lauderdale County. Have you noticed this wall before? I'm kind of obsessed with it. 

2) Katherine Garner's home is the first location I ever used. Every summer since I was a kid, she has had a simply magical yard complete will all types of birds and flowers. Mrs. Katherine has been nice enough to let me traipse up through her yard with everyone from chubby cheek babies to brides in massive dresses. 

3. Another home I have enjoyed invading during early morning and late afternoon sessions is that of Danna and Jodie Walker. They have not only a beautiful yard, but also a deck and swing I enjoy using. 

4) The most random of all of my locations is the small vineyard off Highway 51. Due to the heavier traffic near this location, cars have been known to pull over and watch me photograph. Who wouldn't stop when they see a beautiful bride in a vineyard?

5) In the fall, I love to make people treck out to Alfred and Debbie Blankenship's home and pond. The foliage is simply stunning in the fall. 

Well folks, those are just a few of the locations that I have used the most over the year that I have been running Grace Photography. 

However, I am always hunting for new places. Do you have any suggestions for new spots for me? Feel free to contact me and suggest your yard and/or that random beautiful spot you pass by everyday. It might just be the background for my next shoot!

Have a blessed week everyone.

Grace

Georgetown.

I haven't blogged once since I have been in DC. What I am about to blog probably isn't an appropriate first blog for when a person moves to DC for 6 months, either. Oh well. This is officially my first blog from DC.

My roommate Marrissa went to take a shower this afternoon. This is what she found.

Now I am not an overly squeamish person. But COME ON people. This thing is the size of a small dog! Paris Hilton could slap a collar around its neck and carry it around as a fashion statement. This thing laughs at nuclear bombs. 

Enjoy the below video of my roommates and I attempting/failing to catch it. When I say roommates and I understand that I really mean my roommate Regina tried to catch it while I documented.

The cockroach escaped all of our approaches to apprehend it. It was a smart little booger. It ran into a closet that houses the electrical stuff of the apartment — the closet that is locked and we can't get into. At the end of the day we figured out a perfect way to cage it into the closet.

That's newspaper that we stuffed the crack of the door with. That will keep it in there, right? RIGHT? 

Amen. 

Grace

Elvin Lynn Ferrell

Meet my Daddy:

His name is Elvin Lynn Ferrell or ELF.
Most people call him Coach Ferrell. Actually, it ends up coming out sounding like Coach Furrull. Don't ask me why. Don't ask my why they call him coach either. He hasn't been a coach since I was born, I think.

Oh well. He is my daddy and that is all that matters.
Tonight he went and supported one of his former students that is becoming a pastor in Washington. Or as my Dad kept repeating: WaRshington.

Daddy bought this tie. It has Ripley tomatoes on it, you see. I thought he looked spiffy in it. 

A list of random things about Daddy:

1. He took me to the first Harry Potter movie when I was in like 3rd grade — I sat in his lap and everything. 

2. I used to hope for rain during my summers so that he couldn't mow other people's yards and would come home.

3. The smell of cut grass always makes me think of him.

4. He still kisses my hand after I say the blessing for the food at dinner. 

5. He calls our dogs "it", but secretly likes them both. 

6. Fish sticks and tater tots are the only memory I have of him cooking when I was little ... I dislike both of those items but would always eat them anyway. 

This is a picture of my daddy and me taken last Easter. He does like me despite that look on his face (I think).

Amen.

Grace

The story you MUST know before continuing your life

Okay. Please prepare yourself people. The story I am about to tell you is TRUE and DISTURBING and the most AWESOME thing you will read today.

Megan Miller (my roommate) told me this story on the way to class this morning:

One night one of Megan's friends was babysitting. It was like any other normal night of babysitting; she had just put the kids to bed and returned downstairs to watch TV until the parents got home.

Well the lights were off but she kept catching glimpses of a clown statue out of the corner of her eye. The statue was the size of a miniature person and, as most clowns are, it was creepy. The babysitter grew increasingly creeped out by the statue and wondered why the family would even buy such a thing.

All of a sudden the statue MOVED. 


The girl instantly freaked out, jumped up and ran upstairs where she locked herself and the kids in a room together. She called the kids' parents and told them what was going on. They told her to call the police. It was not a statue at all. Turns out it was the next door neighbor who is a midget and has mental issues.

The midget had apparently broken into the home and stood in the living room as if he were a clown statue. The police even had to remove the man as if he were a statue because he remained stiff and rigid.

This isn't the real clown but I figured we all needed a visual to go along with the story. 

This kind of stuff DOES NOT happen in real life, does it??? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the reality of this story. My roommates and I keep looking into the corners of our apartment expecting to see a midget clown starring back at us. I will more than likely have nightmares and certainly NEVER babysit again.

Amen. 

Grace