I’ve Been Tagged!

April 21, 2008 Posted in Musings

I was tagged by my faithful blog reader and photographer friend Lisa, to participate in a blog game where I’m supposed to list 8 interesting things about myself that my blog readers may not know and then try to get 8 other photographers to do the same!

Here goes!

 1.  I am a HUGE Mexican food fan, and practically live at Casa Fiesta.  In fact, I was there twice on Friday!  And I don’t care what anyone says, I’ve been to Mexico, I’ve had real, live Mexican food, and Casa is very comparable!

2.  I sleep with a lot of pillows, and it drives Travis (my husband) crazy!  Right now I only have 4 on the bed for me (he has two), and I could easily go for a couple more.  And they have to be down alternative or really good feather pillows, too.

3.  I love my dogs!  We have a dachshund, a mini shar-pei, and a great dane, and yes, the size difference is drastic from one end to the other, ranging from 14 pounds to 130 pounds.  I have a whole list of breeds that I want to have eventually, but the one breed I will always have, is a dachshund.  Although, great danes are pretty entertaining.  He’s as clumsy as I am!

4.  My husband and I have been together for 9 years now, and married for 4.  We were high school sweethearts (at least for our senior year), we met on a blind date, and survived a long-distance relationship for 3 years!  And, unlike many of my friends, we have never “taken a break”.  🙂

5.  The one thing I love more than photography is traveling.  I have been to 8 foreign countries and more than half of the states.  I just counted this past weekend, and I have been on 49 different flights.  Unfortunately, I can’t make that a round 50 until after the baby gets here!

6.  Garfield is my favorite comic strip.  I check out Garfield.com daily, and have a 365 day calendar on my desk!

7.  My favorite color is pink, and then lime green.  Combined, awesome!!!!!!

8.  I always spit out my peppermints after about 10 seconds.  I like the taste, but don’t have the patience to suck them, so from the time it goes in my mouth at the restaurant register to the time I get to the car, it almost always ends up on the ground or in the trash.

Ok, who to tag…who to tag…why, my favorite friends and ‘togs, that’s who!

1.  Devan, of course!  devanwhitsonphotography.com
2.  Rox, who just moved to the DesMoines area!  ImagingRox.com
3.  Jose, surely you can make the time, despite shooting 60 weddings a year!  JoseVilla.com
4.  Shannon, how about it, lucky girl?  luckyredhen.com
5.  Punam, she is a rockin’ ‘tog from NY and so much fun!  punambean.com
6.  Shan & Steph, I can’t forget you guys, do you count as two blogs?  831photography.com
7.  Amanda, who rocks the QCA with her amazing child’s portraits!  inyourworldportraits.com
8.  Ryan, also known as Rion, who is now living in Thailand, yet rocks my world with his shots!  rionphotography.com

 Wow, that was fun!  I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with about themselves!.

by Wendi Riggens

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Devan - I’ll have to do this this evening. I’m completely random and might scare people…

   

Updates and Musings

April 18, 2008 Posted in Musings,News

Hello friends!  It’s been a while since I have posted, and I thought I’d let you all know what is going on in my world lately.  I’ve been taking it easy lately due to the pregnancy, so I don’t have any recent shoots to share, so this will be a bit of a more personal note.

On April 5th, I had the honor and priviledge of being the photographer for the Red Cross annual fundraiser, Puttin’ On The Ritz.  I will definitely get some of the dancing shots put up for your viewing pleasure soon.  I have always wanted to learn how to ballroom dance, and watching the couples spin around the dance floor gave me warm fuzzies!  It was a fun night!

Baby is coming along nicely, according to my doctors.  He is moving around like crazy, and has recently started flipping.  One minute he’ll be really low, the next, trying to kick my belly button inside out, and then he’ll move to the side.  It is really quite entertaining to feel him move around like this!  I am starting to feel like a small planet, and most of my regular clothes no longer fit around my belly, but everyone says it is worth it.  🙂

With baby day fast approaching, my husband, Travis and I have started getting serious about our house search.  In case you didn’t know, we have listed our beautiful little 2 bedroom for sale, and as much as we love our house and will miss it, it is time to get into something a little bigger and more family-friendly!  We have narrowed our search to 4 houses in Burlington and West Burlington, and unless something new comes on the market that rocks our socks, we’ll hopefully be making an offer in the next couple of weeks here.  The whole house-selling-searching-buying-moving thing stinks, but we are ready for a change.

Hmm…what else is new?  We found out a couple weeks ago that our cat can jump a 6 foot privacy fence without even touching it!  He has turned into quite the roamer according to our neighbors.  So, if anyone sees a gray male cat with white toes in the Perkins Park area, he’s probably ours.  Did I mention he has also figured out how to remove his collar?  Yeah, that’s wonderful!  (please note the sarcasm)

One advantage/disadvantage of being a photographer is the difficulty of having your own picture taken.  I love photography, and my child will likely be the most photographed child in the tri-state region, between me and my photog friends shooting him!  My dear friend Devan will be shooting my maternity session in a couple months, and is planning to come to the hospital as soon as this little guy comes out to get some true newborn moments.  I am so excited about it!  It is really hard for me to get in front of the camera, but I’ll have to do it for a bit at least.

So, with the baby on the way, a move in the future, and my body changing from that of a human being to a small planet to an eventual solar system, I’m being forced to take it easy this spring and summer.  I have a small handful of weddings planned before the baby gets here, a few portrait sessions, and that is about it.  I am going to start a couple personal projects, though, to keep my creative juices flowing, things I can do right here in town, or even in my own home.  One is a daily photo journal of happiness, proposed by my good friend Bing Osterman.  The goal is to take a photograph every day of something that makes me happy.  I won’t say what it was last night, you’ll just have to wait and see.  Today, what made me really, super happy was my lunch at Casa Fiesta, my favorite restaurant in town, but I didn’t have a camera with me!  I’ll probably take a picture of my leftovers tonight!  I love this idea because no matter how bad of a day I am having, I will be forced to think positive, at least once.  Bing is such a positive, incredible person, and I thank her for this inspiration!

Wow, this has turned into quite a post!  I’ll sign off for now, otherwise I could write for another hour and really bore you to death!  I am going to spend my weekend finishing up the images from the Red Cross event, and plan to finally post some shots from Mexico.  Those have unfortunately taken a back seat as life has taken over since I returned, and I know I promised a bunch of you that they would be up, so just be a little more patient and I promise you will be rewarded!

Have a wonderful day, everyone, and be sure to think about what makes you happy!.

   

Sloppy Joe, Slop-sloppy Joe! :)

April 6, 2008 Posted in Musings

Ah, the little things in life that make a preggo photographer happy.  Made Sloppy Joes tonight, and I was so excited, I just had to take a few shots of them!

So, yes, these are totally random and out of place with most of my postings, but I thought I’d share.  I’ll be posting pics soon of the Red Cross fundraiser I shot last night, and Drew & Cristy’s wedding!




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Baby News!

March 29, 2008 Posted in Musings

Last weekend, we went to Des Moines for an ultrasound.  I was terribly sick, but my wonderful husband wouldn’t let me cancel to get healthy.  “I don’t need you to be there mentally, I just need your uterus.”  I swear he is much sweeter than that sounds, but he really wanted to know if he was going to have a future Dallas Cowboys quarterback or cheerleader! 🙂

I promised that I would post on here when we found out, and I know there are a few people waiting to find out, so wait no longer!

First, we got to see the profile.  Look at those little bitty features!

And then…

The tech said there was no question about it!  He wasn’t shy, at least at first!  After a minute or so, he decided he’d had enough, and stuck his hands down there to hide everything!

And that big mass to the left is the placenta, since someone else already asked me that and Travis had to tell me what it was!

So, in another 20 weeks or so, I’ll be posting pictures of our baby boy!  Thank you to everyone that has been asking about the pregnancy, I really appreciate all the well wishes!.

by Wendi Riggens

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Lori - Congratulations Wendi!
Have you started to pick out some boy names?

   

Janelle & Trent’s Sneak Peak!

March 29, 2008 Posted in Engagements

Today I had the honor of shooting Janelle & Trent’s engagement session.  Despite still being a tad sick, and the weather being a little chillier and a little windier than we had hoped, but it was still a great time!  J&T are naturals in front of the camera, and I had no problem getting true emotion from them.  I let them be themselves, and it lets me be a photographer.  They are a beautiful couple, and I am really looking forward to shooting their wedding in June!

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE dogs?  Moxie is such a cutie pie, and she seemed to enjoy the session as much as we did!  She did try to eat my lens once, but that’s ok. 🙂

Keep an eye out this summer for shots from their wedding!  They are getting married in Crapo Park here in Burlington, and it is going to be a wonderful wedding!.

   
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