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!