Friday, June 29, 2012

Noah at 3 Months


I have probably mentioned this on here before, but I do not consider myself competent in photographing babies. I do it occasionally for friends, or in this case for another photographer who had to pass the job off to me. I try to avoid it though, because there are people around here that are SO MUCH BETTER (example), and people for real need good photos of their babies. That phase passes in a flash! Still, when I do them, I do my best. I'm usually pretty happy with the results, but they definitely aren't my best work.   





It helps when the baby is an absolute angel. Noah barely made a peep during the whole shoot. I could have just taken him home with me! Hopefully the parents were at least a little happy with the results :)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Fancy in Floral


A week or so ago, I was asked to participate in a blogger affiliate program with Sugarlips, a brand that sells women's fashion and was started in L.A. ten years ago. They have some really great pieces, and the prices are totally reasonable! I picked out this Blooming Gardenias skirt to try for a couple of reasons.
  1. I don't have anything with the high-low hem trend yet, and I wanted to try it out. 
  2. I don't have a lot of florals and want to fill that void in my wardrobe. Two birds with one stone skirt!


Their website and another blogger paired the skirt with a black bustier for a more dressed up look. I think that would look great for a night out! I decided to do something a little more casual/work appropriate. I paired it with my all-too-common plain tee in mint and added some gold jewelry. I think I'd like it better with a white tee, but my only one is too big. There are a lot of colors in the skirt, but I didn't want it to come off too matchy-matchy, so I just picked something that coordinated with the colors in the skirt. How did I do?!

 i can do non-human things with my legs

i'm just glad that beam was sturdy


That's my model pose. I'm a total pro! (sarcasm, in case you didn't catch that.) Ok, back to the skirt. I'm really happy with it, and I'm so glad that's what they sent me. The material kind of reminds me of skirts I used to wear to church as a kid, but it's a fond memory, so I don't mind. It's sort of like chiffon...but it's polyester and not as soft. It does have good movement though, and the colors really pop! I would definitely encourage you to look through their selection. I honestly think there's something for everyone there.




details:
skirt- c/o Sugarlips
shirt- F21 (old)
shoes- Aerosoles
necklaces- vintage from grandmothers
ring, earrings- Express

Monday, June 25, 2012

Jonathan & Danielle Crown Winery Wedding

One of the most popular non-church venues around this area is the Crown Winery. It's been around since 2008, and the vineyard is looking mighty pretty these days! Even though I've been shooting weddings for several years now, this was the first one I got to shoot at Crown. It was a hot day, but luckily there were clouds on and off all day, and it was expected to rain late that night making it a little cooler. I am happy with the pictures, and I'm so glad I finally got to shoot there! Here are some of my favorites documenting the events of the day.














They really wanted pictures at sunset, but the sun sets late in the summer so that didn't quite happen. I still like what we got though! Overall it was a good day. There were some hectic moments, but we made it through. I hope you all are staying cool in this crazy heat! I don't want to be outside unless I'm near a pool or a large body of water.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Link Monster


Have you ever ordered something and then gotten it in the mail only to find that you grossly underestimated it's size? Oh it's just me? The rest of you must actually read descriptions before you buy something. I saw this on Gilt Group, and I happened to have a credit from something else I had returned, so I bought it. It looked to me like it would be a nice single layer link necklace. in a normal person size. Boy was I wrong! They hooked me with the neon/gold combination, and I just didn't see the monstrosity of it coming.




I was nervous to actually wear the necklace out and about. I wore it a little bit at work, and didn't wear it into Kroger. But I wore it to Goodwill! You can pretty much wear anything to Goodwill, though, so I don't know if that counts. I haven't fully decided if I want to keep it. I honestly don't see myself ever wearing it again, and I don't even know where I'll put it. It won't fit on my necklace hanger thing, so right now it's just in a box. If you think it's just the bees knees, you can buy it in my Goodsie store! Or if you have a very bold friend that would like it, link 'em up. If no one buys it, I'll just keep it around for parties, or to wear like this...


details:
shirt- Express
jeans- Target
shoes- Old Navy
ring- antique store
necklace- Adia Kibur (it's a $100 piece, I will sell it for $30)
 
I should also address how much I love this location. It's an old Dutch Colonial style inn in town that is now being used for offices by a church. I can't wait to do more photos there! I took some wedding portraits there once, and I loved them. It's also conveniently close to Goodwill, where Margaret and I can browse. She's my Goodwill good luck charm. I always find the best stuff when I go with her!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Shop My Closet

Kristimcmurry on Goodsie: Shop My Closet
Look at that! I actually accomplished something this week. I listed several pieces of clothing in my goodsie shop. A lot of it is stuff that is too big (yay running!), but some of the things I just don't wear enough. I gave a lot of clothes to Goodwill, but these pieces are all still in good condition/good brands so I'd love to make a little money from them. I just bought a mattress, so every little income helps. Mattresses are high, y'all! 

So, if you see something you like, snatch it up! If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer  (like materials, washing instructions, measurements, ect.).  My email is kristimcmurry@gmail.com... ask away.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Evan & Brittany Engagement


You guys. June has been CRAZY so far. I haven't had time to pull together the posts that I really want to do, so I thought I would share these engagement photos with you. This is Evan and Brittany and their sweet little son. They are getting married in September, and I'm so excited to shoot their wedding! I've talked with Brittany a little about it, and it sounds like she and I have a lot of the same taste so I think I will really enjoy their wedding.  They are both so sweet and quiet, and you can tell they just adore their son. I was glad we got him in a few of the shots!







We shot these as early as we could with our schedules, but we couldn't beat the hot sun! I've been trying to use the sun to my advantage when I can (like in the last picture), but it can be pretty difficult. As much as I love a good backlight, I'm more of an even lighting kind of girl :)

I'm going to work a little tonight on getting a goodsie shop set up with items from my closet. I mentioned it in my last post, and I'll probably do a full post about it when everything is done. It's mostly just clothes that don't fit me anymore, but there are also a couple of pair of shoes in there! Hopefully it will be things that you all will like. It's always nice to pass on your clothes to a good home (that's why I love clothing exchanges).

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Simple Summer Wool

First of all thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the wonderful comments on my last post! It makes me incredibly happy that you guys like the new photo. I think I even teared up a little. 

I've been meaning to post an outfit with this skirt FOREVER. Actually, I wanted to post it when it was cold out because it's a wool skirt, but I never got around to it. Still, I'm not one of those people that cares if what I'm wearing is appropriate for the season, so here you have my half summer half winter outfit. Even a skirt made of wool is cooler than jeans in the summer (which is what I normally wear)!



My outfit-photo-taking-buddy decided to stay around Jackson indefinitely, so it looks like we'll still be getting together for pictures pretty often! It's so much easier to take each other's photos than to try and set up a tripod. I'm just so thrilled that she is hanging around since she's one of my favorite people in Jackson (I know you're reading this, Margaret...so go ahead and cry).

Anyway, since she lives near downtown, I decided we should do some pictures near the farmer's market! This is on the back side of it so people couldn't stare at us. I haven't quite worked up to the "I'm ok with people staring and me and wondering what the crap I'm doing" stage yet. Maybe soon! This building has the coolest lights, so I just had to include them.



details:
top- Express (old)
skirt- vintage
shoes- Wanted
necklace- Target

As I mentioned before, the skirt is wool, but I can't resist wearing it because I love the color so much. I picked it up last year at the Nashville flea market in Honeybean run by Kaelah. I was taking a risk since I wasn't able to try it on, but it fits just fine! It actually has a little bit of elastic on both sides so it fits a nice range of sizes. I know sometimes I have crazy things in my outfit posts, but this is kind of how I dress on the daily. Just a simple top, bottom and one piece of jewelry. I still don't feel boring though. Sometimes I think less is more.

Speaking of my clothes, I have 15ish items that either no longer fit me or I just don't wear anymore that I would like to sell. I gave a lot of stuff away, but these are things that are still in great condition and are good brands. I have several Express jeans/pants, a couple of Express tops, an Express suit, and more. Would any of you be interested in buying stuff if I posted them on here? I've seen bloggers do that, but I wasn't sure if you guys would be interested. Just thought I'd check! If so, I'll plan to post some stuff next week! I've already taken pictures :)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A Hare in My Salad

I finally have a new photograph for my Etsy shop! I got the idea just last week and actually put it together last night. It's been so long since I did anything new that this just feels incredibly refreshing and motivating. I might even have another new one for you in a few weeks! Here I give you "A Hare in My Salad" Get it? Hare...hair...haha.



Since Etsy has these new fancy "about" pages, I took the opportunity to get a picture of me with the setup. I am looking ROUGH, but I don't think most people will care, and I really shouldn't either. You can see more pictures and my "story" on my about page (which I think is really cool...thanks, Etsy!)

I hope you all like the new photograph! I picked a pastel background so that this could work for Easter, and I picked salad because I'm assuming hares eat lettuce...and carrots. I'm really happy with how it turned out! It's even better than the picture I had in my head, which is always a nice surprise.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

With the Sand in My Shoes

Here I present to you: Naples on foot! After breakfast one morning, I decided to go out for a jog and see what I could see. The road that our resort was on runs parallel to the beach with a walkway to the water practically every 10 feet. It was perfect for an out and back with half on the sidewalk and half on the beach!



There were so many cool houses on that strip! I pretty much ran with my head turned to the side the whole time. There was this one house with a gorgeous pond out front with a bridge and lots of little water fountain things. The landscaping around there was so beautiful! I would have taken more of the landscaping, but a lot of them were being worked on and I didn't want to creep on the gardeners.


And here is where the fun begins. I don't know if any of you have run on the sand before, but it ain't easy! It's supposed to be best at low tide, but I had to go while Rhett was in a meeting, which happened to be right after high tide. I was able to run on some mildly packed sand, but it was still pretty shifty. I think my beach running pace was about a 10:30 which is quite a bit slower than my road pace, if that tells you anything. I only ran about a mile of the beach part since it was so tiring! I just kind of fast walked the rest.




This is the pier that Rhett and I tried to walk to the day before. We never made it because it felt like it was never getting closer! Turns out it was about 1.75 miles from where we started. It only looked like about a mile! Isn't that crazy how things look way closer than they really are on the beach? Anyway, I was thrilled to get to run on the beach. Since I'm landlocked in Tennessee, vacation is the only time I'll ever get to do this! It's totally worth waiting for vacations though...it was so much fun. I know it makes no sense because it was actually a hard workout, but I found running on the beach to be very relaxing. I guess it was combination of the breeze, the sound of the water and all the adorable birds.

Have any of you ever run on the beach? How did you like it?