Monthly Archives: June 2017

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{Birthday Week 2016} Revisited

These are some photos that I initially didn’t think would make a good blog post, maybe because they’re even more “personal” than my usual posts. I did post a few on Flickr, but after letting them sit since last year, I have now decided to share them.

My sister, my sister-in-law, and I have birthdays that fall within the same seven day period. I  have been trying to be intentional about shooting film during specific times such as our birthday week, so I loaded my Fujica ST605N and kept it with me throughout the week.

Before going to the tattoo shop for my mom, we stopped at Pei Wei and I had a tofu, veggies, and rice bowl at Pei Wei

Tattoo #3 for mom

Little notebook I bought to use in England the next month 

A mug my sister got me for my birthday

Union Jack sneakers my sister also got me for my birthday

On my sister-in-law’s birthday, my mom took my brother this hat and made me photograph him in it (like he was a mountain man 🙂 )

My mom and sister-in-law on her birthday (my sister-in-law’s, that is!)

Flower my sister-in-law gave me on her birthday

 

Using the vintage Pyrex bowl my sister gave me to store icing tips

Mom’s new tattoo, about a week into its healing process

Birthday pressies from New York

The many Instax photos I took during birthday week

The most of the Instax mini photos that week went onto my daily photo project blog, but I’ll share them here too:

The Fujica which shot the other photos in this post

First time at Bass Pro in the Pyramid in Memphis

Another photo from mom’s tattoo session

My actual birthday: lunch at Pyro’s Pizza

Birthday selfie, taken the evening of my birthday

A beautiful vintage Pyrex bowl my sister gave me that week <3

The mini vegan chocolate cake I made my sister-in-law for her birthday
(click here to see a better photo of it, as well as a photo of her eating it 🙂 )

We ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant for my sister’s birthday. There was still a Christmas wreath over the door, even though it was August!

Oh and fe bonus photos taken with a different camera, my Ricoh FF-1 😀 :

More from my first time at Bass Pro in the Pyramid

Huddle House with mom, in Batesville, Mississippi

 

Photos taken with a Fujica ST605N and Agfa Vista 200, Fuji Instax Mini 90 and Fuji Instax Mini film, and Ricoh FF-1 and expired Fuji Superia 400 

{Oh Smoky Mountains}

Here’s a story for you:

My family and I had a little vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee/The Smoky Mountains in September 2016. I took only film with me, waited awhile before I sent it away to be developed, and got a surprise once the film arrived at the photo lab: the package had been damaged in transit, and two rolls of film had gone missing. I was gutted. I knew at least one of those rolls was the primary roll I’d shot while we were in the Smokies. There would be nothing I could do to recover those photos. Thankfully, once I got my film scans back, I found that my secondary roll of film hadn’t been lost after all. Basically the first couple of days of our trip were on the film that was lost (as well as photos from the rest of the vacation,) but at least I also have some Instax Mini photos to share from those first two days!

Fannie Farkles Family Fun Parlor, downtown Gatlinburg

We can never get enough No Way Jose’s Mexican food while in G’burg!

In the Village Shops in Gatlinburg – was surprised to see a British red phone box here, as I’d just been photographing them in London a few weeks earlier 😉

We went to The Apple Barn sooooo many times on this trip! 

There was some sort of Harley Davidson meet-up at our motel that weekend

“Homemade Wine,” downtown Gatlinburg

Ripley’s Believe it or Not Odditorium and the Gatlinburg Space Needle

Gatlinburg Space Needle and Arcade

This is a cannibal pumpkin at Dollywood. 

50s-themed area in Dollywood called Jukebox Junction

EPIC eagle sculpture near the Wild Eagle rollercoaster

Red’s Diner

Inside Red’s Diner 

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH – Rockin’ Roadway, Jukebox Junction

Metal sunflower sculpture 

Rides in the County Fair section at Dollywood

Smoky Mountain Cat House 

Our drive through Smoky Mountains National Park, on our way to Cherokee, North Carolina 

On our way back from Cherokee, we stopped at Mountain Farm Museum in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

I made my brother-in-law pose for this photo

Pinhole photo at the Farm Museum 

Chicken at the Farm Museum 

Crazy overexposed photo of the chicken

Delicious ice cream shop in downtown Gatlinburg

Light fixture made of spoon’s at Maypops

Caramelcorn, downtown Gatlinburg

Ripley’s Believe it or Not Odditorium

Ah, good ole Fisherman Cove (the area of our hotel in Gatlinburg where our room was located)

Bear sculpture in the parking lot of our motel

One last pit stop at the Apple Barn before driving back to Mississippi

Truck stop on our way back to Mississippi

These photos came to mean even more to me because, a couple of months after we were in the Smokies, there were devastating fires which reeked havoc on the area. I don’t yet how the landscape will have changed since I was last there, but I am so thankful for our time in that beautiful part of our country. We also found out that the motel we’d stayed in for our 2015 and 2016 Gatlinburg vacations had torn down so they could build a resort hotel there, so things will definitely be different for us next time we visit the area!

Photos taken with my Pentax Espio Mini, Fuji Instax Mini 90, and Lomography Diana F+

{Mini Family Session} Shields Family

While I was photographing Julie and Mark’s rehearsal dinner, I also managed to get in a few shots of the Shields family. I have photographed Lisa, Rob, and their children several times over the years, so I wanted to get a few photos of their latest addition, Julian. I was especially pleased to do this, because I’d taken photos of Julian’s older brothers Ezra and Lionel when they were babies too.

Rob, Ezra, Lisa, Julian, and Lionel 🙂

{Getting Married} Julie + Mark

I was recently invited to photograph the rehearsal dinner of Julie and Mark at Chickasaw Country Club in Memphis. It was a beautiful setting for an evening filled with friends and family who had gathered to honor Julie and Mark.

There were several toasts given, which were funny and touching, resulting in plenty of laughs and a few tears too!

I was honored to be there to document this wonderful night. Congratulations, Julie and Mark!