Some shots from a wintery session with Les (my beautiful wife)

Lots of snow + some of our favorite people = a winter blast! We are so thankful for these times with family and friends. Hope you find yourself renewed with great relationships this holiday season!

This winter has really caught us off guard. In the last four years that we have lived in Canada we have not experienced such bitter cold temperatures (-25 to -30C). Of course this totally bums out any real chance of "on location" photography. Needless to say that the opportunities for photo shoots are greatly diminished, but this creates an excellent opportunity to work on other skill sets, like building the perfect gingerbread house. My daughter and I began early in the day by baking all our gingerbread pieces...waiting patiently for that perfect brown crispness. YEAH RIGHT. Maybe one day we will start from scratch, but for our first go at it we decided to use a fully stashed starter kit. From icing to jelly beans we found ourselves nibbling away at our creation as we built. Good times had by all!

This weekend we bought our daughter a snow suit so she could experience the Canadian winter in full force. She had an absolute blast and even though her little mittens wouldn't stay on she avoided whining about it just so she could play outside longer. From a partial built snowman (the snow wasn't wet enough to stick) to a few snow angels...I would say we left our mark on the day! She even woke up the next morning wanting to put on her snow boots and build a snowman. Lots of fun in the snow ahead for this little gal! Here are a few pics from the outing:

Just wanted to share a "Before & After" shot with some horses I saw on the drive home the other day. When I decide to take a random photo like this its usually because I can not only see a good picture in the making, but more so that I can see a final piece of art in my mind.

The day was cold and very windy. The kind of weather that sends the chills through your body. However, these kinds of situations just force you to see things differently. I mean most people would absolutely hate the wind and the cold, but horses are a different story. The wind combined with their own curiosity made the shot, but I really try to spend time with a photo long enough to see if there is a voice or a style that I can bring out of the original. This particular photo seemed to need the rustic weathered look...so this is what came out.

Before with slight modifications in Lightroom

After with some texturing and Photoshop love!

Both my wife and I attended Texas Tech University so the red and black can run deep at times! The Red Raiders play the Oklahoma Sooners tonight in a very decisive college football game...it could launch them into an even closer race to nudge Alabama out of the #1 spot. Needless to say we brought our kids into the excitement. Addie has been regularly making the "Guns Up" hand signal and chanting "Go Tech Go!"