The Szettella Family

4th of July!

I am such a terrible blogger!  I haven't posted in months! Ugh! I am so so sorry. Is there anyone left out there who is reading this thing? I don't blame you. But... you might want to check out this post. I took over 400 pictures over the 4th of July holiday and I must say that I am very happy with a good %-age of them.   I have been working on shooting in full manual  mode and these are to date the best I have gotten in shade to full sun and back again (over and over!) So Yay me! Hope you enjoy!

Our first party of the season was at Rob Waters house. He is a fraternity brother of Mike's and has a 3rd of July party every year on the water. The fireworks rock over the water!


The kids before the party! Jake was not wanting his picture taken! LOL


They had a bounce obstacle course which meant the kids were in heaven! Here is Tess havin' a good time!


 
I don't know if Jake liked the bouncing or the girl in the green more! LOL But they were having fun all the same!


And Tess and my mom hung out in the hammock for a while.


And Jake chilled out on the hammock too!  I didn't take any pictures of the fireworks at Robs, but they were great. Jake fell asleep after the 3rd firework went off. He slept through them all. Tess on the other hand didn't fall asleep till we were almost home at 11:30! She was a crazy woman! LOL

The next morning was the Clarkston Parade Downtown.


The kids drew with chalk on the road till the parade started. Jake is becoming quite the little artist!


Tess was adorable! She sat and watched the parade and waved her flag. We had a half dozen or so people that were in the parade actually stop and check her out and comment on how adorable she was. We already knew!


Tess REALLY loved the candy part of the parade! Between the two of them they almost filled my new oversized purse!

Unfortunately, she figured out to open the suckers! I think she ate 2-3 while we were watching the parade. It was a long one this year with it being an election year and all! :)

This beauty was pulling a gorgeous carriage. Too bad I only had my 50mm so this was the best shot I could get without getting up and backing up! Which I wasn't about to do! :)


Tess got bored about an hour into the parade and made a little art of her own.


Here is Tess checking out the giant John Deer Tractors! We have about 15 tractors in the parade every year! And yes, Jake was there! I just couldn't get him to a.) come anywhere near me and the camera and b.) hold still long enough when he did so I could get a clear shot! LOL Oh well!

Next we had a party at Mike's new bosses house! It was fantastic! Probably the best party we have been to! It was on a private little lake with about 26 houses on it. All the homeowners (the men) competed with each other to outdo everyone else with the best fireworks so there was an incredible display. We got there around 7pm so the kids hung out and played for a while first.


Tess liked getting dirty!


Although here she looks like she is making sure the dress is not! LOL


She REALLY wanted to go swimming!


I thought this one was kinda cool! I love the tree line at the bottom!


Across the Lake!


I loved the fire pit on the beach and the paddle boat just beyond it on the shore.


The neighbors had some neat ones too! And Jake was there! I promise. He just hates the camera right now. He did stay awake for all the fireworks and then crashed on the way home with Tess. It was a wonderful time!

Sewing and Star Wars!

Well, we have 2 Star Wars themed birthday parties coming up for friends and family and I thought "what a great excuse to get out the sewing machine and make Tess an outfit to wear to the parties!"

So I ordered some Star Wars fabric and went to town on making a cute set. I am so over the moon with how it turned out! I used a European Sewing pattern called Cara from Farbenmix for the dress and a basic pj pattern for the pants.

The set is much better in person if I do say so myself. It is very full and it twirls great! Tess loves it! So I wanted to share the couple pictures I got of her wearing it. More to come as our first party is this evening!

And one in the studio! (She wanted to call Daddy!)

A Few More of the Princess

Jake has been under the weather ever so slightly the last couple days hence the lack of pictures. Just in case you were wondering! Tess on the other hand is warming up to the studio as you can see from the post earlier today. I am having a hard time getting her to sit/stand still now. All she wants to do is twirl and goof around. Either way, I am happy to be getting some pictures of her where she isn't screaming at the top of her lungs! Here are a couple more faves from today!

Wanting her stuffed lambie!

Happy now!

Hope you enjoyed! More tomorrow!

Can you get any CUTER than this?!?!

Just a quick shot (or three) of Tess in the studio today. This is an outfit I made for her last year. LOVE that it still fits!

Little Princess!

Still playing in the studio with the kids! Caught these two of Tess last night and she isn't even crying! She is wearing her Kaiya Eve Pettiskirt . I just checked out the site again and I think we need another one now!

Anyways, enjoy!

Check out that smirk!

Our First Spring Day (Kinda)

It was sunny  today.

We hadn't seen the sun in a while so it was refreshing. It also meant I was dying to get some outside pictures of the kids! We went and got some balloons and headed to Depot Park in Downtown Clarkston for a little photo shoot.

The kids had fun.

I need to work on my camera settings for outdoor photos. The problem is that when it is just me and the kids I don't have a lot of time for checking and playing with the settings because I am busy chasing them around!

I am happy with the shots I got today though! Here they are!

When all else fails, CHEAT!

So yesterday while I was proofing Tess's shoot from the previous post Jake picked up my old film camera and started pretending to take pictures. Tess came running into the studio, jumped up on the background and started posing and saying cheese like a total ham.

I

couldn't

believe

it!

That little stinker screamed and cried the entire time I tried to take her picture and I thought it was the studio...

but

it

was

just

ME!

So last night I get everything set up, gave Jake the camera and watched Tess run in to pose. I was ready this time though as I had my camera too! So I was able to capture a couple images of a HAPPY girl! I didn't have my setting right (you can't remember everything LOL) so they aren't perfect but I love them and I love her (and Jake for him wonderful paparazzi skills!) So here are my three favorite!

More to come soon I am sure as I am having way to much fun in the studio! I am thinking of getting a blue background for Jake and maybe a green one too!

Tess (still) hating the studio!

Well, she still hates it! Just my luck I get the studio set up and my own kid won't go near it without screaming! Oh well! Here are my faves from this morning!

Oh So Craby!

I caught the tear right before it fell! Talk about perfect timing!

I love this headband on her!

She saw her reflection in the French doors and paused just long enough for me to snap this one!

But she REALLY didn't like her reflection!

This is her reflection in the glass. I think she thought it was another little girl crying so she just kept crying with her!

Well, I will just keep putting her in the studio till she gets used to it. I don't mind these sad pictures at all! I know, I'm a bad mommy!

BIG Bunny!

Jen came for a visit today and I did a photo shoot with Isabelle. (You can see the pictures on my photography blog by clicking the link to the right)

I was excited because Jen brought Isabelle's BIG BUNNY that Jen's parents got her for Easter to use during the shoot. I of course had to snap a couple pictures of Tess on the bunny. We need to get one for the studio. VERY CUTE!

So here is my favorite picture of Tess. It isn't great but if you knew how hard it was to get her to look at the camera AND smile you would understand! I played around with some of my new textures in CS33 as well. Hope you enjoy!

Photography Blog and First Studio Shoot!

The Photography Blog is still there! Finally had a shoot to add. My first shoot in the new home studio. Here is a teaser picture. You can see all the shots from the session by clicking on the link to the right!