OPERATION: Respect for the Heroes

I went to the premiere release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and when the movie was over the whole audience roared with cheer and applause.  This past weekend I went to see another movie, Lone Survivor.  At the end of the movie there was no applause.  This movie is based on real events, on real people.  It is based on the courage and bravery all military members possess.  They put their lives on the line, literally, for us.  For our freedom.  For our safety.

At the end of the movie they begin to show pictures and videos of the men the movie was based on.  I have to tell you, it angered me that some people began to walk out.  And it wasn't just a couple people.  These men risked their lives for our country and most died the least you can do is give them 5 more minutes. (Disclaimer: I don't think this is a spoiler since the name of the movie kind of gives that away.)

When the movie was over and as the pictures faded across the screen I wanted to applaud for their courage and salute to their bravery.  Sadly, I was sidetracked by the people leaving.  The men and women of all branches of military deserve more respect than we as a country give them.

As I was watching the movie another thought that upset me was how little they are compensated for what they do.  In my eyes, based on what they do and put on the line, they should be paid what the "stars" make.  Movie stars, sports stars, the Kardashians, etc. are getting what they should get.  I think it's messed up that a 30 second spot for a "big game" commercial costs $4 million, I think a company would get just as much publicity if they put that money towards supporting the military, but that's a different subject.

Movie and sports stars do what they do for all of us too, but for our entertainment.  The troops are doing it for our safety, and loosing their lives in the meantime.  During a combination of all the wars the United States have fought in, there have been 1,305,836 casualties during war, according to Wikipedia.  That isn't just a number, these are lives.  One or more of those could have been your father, brother, grandfather, sister, mother, uncle, aunt, grandmother, etc!  I have a lot of family members that have been in the military and it could have been one of them, if not in this mission then another one.  

If you don't watch the new movies or TV shows that came out this week- will you die?  No.  If you don't watch this weekend's game- will you die?  No.  If there was no military, would you die? Maybe, maybe not but statistically you'd be more likely to without that defense in place.  We'd most likely all risk loosing our freedom and safety.  If we had no military we could be taken over by who knows who.

The least we can do is show these men and woman they have our respect.  I know some people who will say "thank you" when they see someone in uniform.  Let's make this a thing of the norm!  So much so, it becomes as natural as saying "Good morning."

Not everyone will agree politically with every military action or war- but you can show some respect for the brave men and women who are defending our country while risking their lives.

Until the time of world peace comes around, let's practice Operation: Respect for the Heroes!  And it's as simple as that, show military members some respect if you see them.

THANK YOU TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE THAT HAS SERVED/ARE SERVING/WILL BE SERVING IN THE MILITARY IF YOU ARE READING THIS!

TV Tuesday: Casting

As I was watching Once Upon A Time this week I realized once again how great they are at casting!  This week the special character was Ariel from the Little Mermaid.  She was played by Joanna Garcia.  Joanna used to be Reba's daughter on the show Reba and she's been in various other things.   She's another Florida girl representing!  Tampa!

Emilie de Ravin has been great as Belle.  Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies so I'm glad they've done her well.

The guy that plays Mr. Gold is pure genius.

The spin off show Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has been pretty good at casting too.  I like Alice and the Genie, I'm just not understanding the Queen of Hearts yet.  Maybe because Cora was perfect as the Queen in Once.  Will be interesting to see how that played out and she became the Queen of Hearts.

This is just casting for one series, what casting on which show have you thought was perfect?

TV Tuesday: Supernatural Live Blog

I'm on the road-in Texas to be exact SO for this week's TV Tuesday I figured I would "live"blog as I watch Supernatural in my hotel room. 

Don't read if you haven't watched and don't want spoilers.

this weeks episode is the return of Charlie-Felicia Day/ and is Wizard of 02 themed.  I loved the opening with the men of letters -it looks like it also flashes back to it.  I love learning More about the Men of letters and when Dean and Sam are in the bunker.

Dean & Sam + 50's Computer = LOL Charlie Hacker to the rescue.

The Supernatural books come back to haunt them LOL

"Whoa Whoa whoa! No Spoilers I haven't read the book Yet!"  "you're going to read the book?" "Yea Dean,I read books."  Love when Sam is nerdy lol

"Pace Yourself Toto."

"What's wrong Darling, Cowardly Lion got your tongue?"

"You were nicer in the book!"

"Something along the lines Of eeeeeeeeeeee . "

"I told You to stay in the Dugeon" "I bet You Say that to all the girls. "

"Is that your Batman voice?"

"There's no place like home ."

Great episode!

0MG Dean as a dog! Can't wait for next week.

Throwback Thursday: Cat in a Tree Continued

I found the other pictures I was looking for last week so I figured I would post them for this week.  I love these pictures because they were with my point and shoot back before I fully grasped concepts of photography such as composition.

Prissy

Stormy Jeanne

Champagne

I also got a picture of

A cat in a bag

and a

cat as a hat.

TV Tuesday: The Voice [Battle Rounds]

I'm personally glad that the battle rounds are over on The Voice.  I think it's because some of the choices the judges are making are annoying me lol.  Not necessarily who they are choosing as the winner of each battle, but who they are deciding to choose to steal.  They steal one person, but then in the next battle no one steals someone who should go on because of how awesome they did!  There are so many suspenseful action/drama shows right now that the singing shows have moved down on my list lol.  Though they are really nice to listen to while editing pictures.  There's some great talent on The Voice, and on X Factor so far...I guess I'm just ready for the live shows!  Do any of you watch these shows- who do you hope makes it?  From the Voice I love Jacquie Lee and Grey (whoohoo Jacksonville represent!)   I think it's awesome that on both shows there are people that are from my state Florida, specifically up here in N. Florida! :c)

Throwback Thursday: Cat in a Tree

Silhouette of Tiger

 If I could pinpoint the first picture I took with a camera that wasn't 'just a snapshot' it would be this one I took when I was younger with a point and shoot camera in my grandma's backyard of one of the kittens we had at the time, Tiger.  I remember being so excited at how this picture came out and I love it to this day.  While I can only imagine what kind of picture I would have gotten with the DSLR camera, I love the simplistic point and shoot quality of this silhouette.

That wasn't the last time I took a picture of a cat in the tree.  This is one of my Grandma's cat Precious.  This one was also with a point and shoot camera.  I have some more pictures of some other cats in trees but I can't find my digital copies, maybe one other TBT!

If you are a photographer, what's the first non-"snapshot" you took?

TV Time Tuesday

The 2013 Fall TV season is heating up with all the premieres, and we still have some to come!  I think this is one of the best years for TV so far.  I can barely keep up with all the awesome shows.  Though it is nice to have a selection of awesome shows to have on the TV while I'm editing pictures.  I decided to do a blog to list some of the TV shows I'm watching.   I'd love feedback on the shows you're watching too and what you think of them!

Just a warning: this is a long post!  I've put the title of my Top 5 shows in bold (which include Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, The Walking Dead, How I Met Your Mother, and the Big Bang Theory) and the title of the new shows in italics.  They are listed by the day the appear on TV, and then the reality shows separate.

Wildflower Field

I love shooting at the Hampton Wildflower field!  I wish it was in bloom year-round!  Here's a sampling from the photographs I got there this year:

Shannon's Soapbox: Who's on your street?

I don't usually post a blog entry while on a soapbox, in fact I've been completely lax on even posting an entry.  Hopefully I'll post even more soon, but on to what this entry is about.  

I'm writing this entry due to recent local events; an 8 year old (Cherish Perrywinkle) was taken from her mother in a Wal-mart and her body was later found near a church in Jacksonville, FL.  In case you haven't heard about it yet, here's a brief summary of the articles I've read:  Cherish's mother was in Dollar General with Cherish and her sister's on Friday night.  Cherish was supposed to fly to her dad's house the following morning and wanted a new dress which her mother said they could not afford.  In comes Donald Smith who told the mother that his wife has a gift card to Wal-mart and they could help them get some food and clothing if they rode with him to Wal-Mart to meetup with his "wife."  

Once at Wal-Mart, Donald walked off with Cherish to take her to the McDonald's...though he never returned with her.  At 11pm the mother called the police to report her child had been kidnapped.  An Amber Alert was issued, but unfortunately the outcome was Cherish's body was found near a church.

The whole story is heartbreaking.  Come to find out Donald is a registered sex offender.  He was just released on May 31.  Only 21 days before these tragic events happened!! Twenty-one days, not even a month!  On the SAME DAY of these events, he met with police to comply with a state law that requires sex offenders to verify their address once a year and was reminded he could not be around children.  He's been convicted more then once; in 1977 for lewd and lascivious behavior on a child under 16, in 1993 when he tried to lure three young girls into his pornography-filled van (he served 5 years), and in 2009 when he attempted to kidnap a 9 year old when he called their house and pretended to be a Department of Children and Families employee and needed to pick up and check out the girl.  Thankfully the family was suspicious and he failed to kidnap her, and he served a year for the attempt.  

Looking at these events and the history of this monster; I think the laws need to be looked at for sexual offenders/predators.  Especially repeat offenders!

Parents: educate your children not to go away with strangers, and lead by example!  In this case the mother got into the car with this stranger with her kids!  It's one thing when you put your own life in danger, but it's your responsibility to keep your children safe.  I'm not going to bash on the mother because I'm sure she's hurting from her grief, but I hope that her mistakes teach others that may have done the same thing she did if they were in the same situation.  Don't accept candy from strangers!  Candy, clothes, food, money...if it sounds too good to be true it most likely is too good to be true.

Be aware of your surroundings!  Did you know that each state has an online database of registered offenders?  It may or may not have helped in this case but it doesn't hurt to be aware of potential threats in your area.  Granted, there are sick people out there that haven't done something yet, but you can still be aware of the ones that have.  

I searched the Florida database to find offenders living within a 5 mile radius.  I was shocked to learn there's 163 offenders within 5 miles of where I live!

Click here to find your state from the national list.

 Do you know who's on your street?
Did you do a search?  Were you surprised by the results?

Feel free to share this entry, at the very least share the link to the national registry list so others can check their surroundings!

Wedding Second Shooter

This past year I have been fortunate enough to be able to work with Califf Photography and learn even more.  Back in December I shot as an additional photographer for a wedding with them.  Below are some of the pictures!  I hope you enjoy.  Feel free to leave any comments!

This was one of the most gorgeous weddings I have been to!  Even though I'd just gotten married in October, this wedding made me want to do it all over again lol.  I loved all of the DIY touches and details for the wedding!

Hoggtowne Medieval Faire

The last weekend of January and the first weekend of February is always an exciting time for me here in Gainesville!  Those are the weekends that the Hoggtowne Medieval Faire comes to visit!  I've been going since 2006 because I love taking pictures at the event!  There's so much to see and do!

Maypole

Happy Valentines Day!

Goodbye, Nikki.

Back in 1996 my mom and I saw a dog listed in the newspaper and decided to go look.  We drove up to the house and come to find out it was the house some of our friends had lived in previously.  Nikki came out and we fell in love and got her right then and there.  She was a year old at the time.

We got her the summer before I went into the 8th grade.  I remember that I had to do a speech in class and I did it about our new dog, Nikki.  My mom even brought her into class as the visual aid for the speech.  She's been with us through a good stretch of the Life Rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs.

Nikki was there riding along with me when I was 16 and learning how to drive stick shift in my mom's truck.  It almost feels like yesterday we were riding around the block and playing Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera.

Hey! It's OK Tuesday!

Joining in WhisperingWriter's Hey It's OK Tuesday.

Hey it's OK that I took a long break from writing entries and posting pictures.  I was sort of busy preparing for the wedding, then the honeymoon and just now getting settled back down.  I've written 2 entries so far about the wedding (about the disaster cake and surprises my groom had for me), and more to come!

To have taken a hiatus from reading also.  There are so many books I want to read, but I would start one and then not finish because I would get busy with everything that was going on.  Luckily, I get my book time back now- I love books!

Four Surprises [Wedding]

I mentioned in the previous entry just one of the things that didn't go as planned for the wedding.  As I mentioned the cake was nothing like what we expected, there was a change with the catering 3 weeks before the wedding, and the wedding was moved inside due to rain earlier in the day of the wedding.  There were also some things that I didn't know about that my dear loving groom had set up and planned everything for!  Though, I guess there were technically five surprises- I had no clue what the guys were wearing.  Tony's thought was I shouldn't know since he couldn't see my dress before the wedding lol.  

The morning of the wedding I awoke to this on my bed:

Disaster Cake!

The wedding cake was not something on the top of my importance list when I was planning the wedding.  If you know me, you know photography was one of the main things that mattered to me.   I just wanted to make sure the cake was delicious, and visually appealing!  I'd thought of going the cupcake route, but was blinded by the price of the 3 tier cake at Wal-mart.  I know, I know..Wal-mart?  Really?  [Note: You get what you pay for!]  My grandmother had gotten an awesome birthday cake, and cake for our family reunion from Wal-mart.  The designer was awesome and was able to do what she wanted, and they tasted delicious.  I knew they were awesome at those cakes, but was unsure about wedding cakes.  I looked up reviews online and found a mixture of reviews.  There were good and bad.  Though, since I'd tried the others I figured we could give them a shot.  I now know, it's best to stick with them for sheet cakes, unless your event is in a room temperature 60 degrees or lower, which I will explain below.

Crazy Busy!

Wow!  The last time I wrote an entry on this blog I was in my 20s and single, now I'm 30 and married!  heh  It's been forever since I've posted any pictures on here, I will need to rectify that!  On August 15th was my 30th birthday.  My fiancee (at the time) threw me a surprise party with some of the best people ever!

However, the larger party was on October 6, 2012!  On that day I married my lovely husband.  Things didn't go quite as planned, but how many of them do?  The outcome is what matters though!  And the wedding was awesome and guests have told me they had a blast.  So I'm one happy lady!

I have some personal blog entries I want to write coming up and then get back to posting picture entries!

Don't forget I love comments and feedback so feel free to leave a shout out below!

One Week

One week.  That’s all that is left of my twenties!  I’m not nervous, or dreading my thirtieth birthday, but at the same time I feel it closing in.  It probably doesn’t help that it’s also less then two months until my wedding day.  This has definitely been the year of change; major change at that. 

[Love That Shot!] Worldwide Photowalk Contest!

Last Saturday Love That Shot was hosting a WorldWide Photo Contest!  The day before I found out there was a animal rescue place doing a tour on Saturday.  I LOVE big cats, so I just had to go.  The hard part is choosing which picture to enter! LoL

Such a sweet [though I wouldn't want to be caught in the wild near her!] gorgeous girl!

Spread your wings and fly!