Christmas Photo Shoot

I just finished my first Christmas photo shoot of the year and I honestly have to say that I am quite pleased with my work! My cousin asked me if I would take some pictures for her to put on a Christmas card and I gladly said yes.  I wasn't sure how make them pose so I turned to faithful Pinterest as always.  Pinterest always has great photo ideas. I had so much fun taking photos of this beautiful family that I'm just so lucky to be related to.  I can't wait for my next holiday shoots that I have lined up this month!  Here are a few of my favorite from this shoot:

Staying in Touch With Your Younger Self

I recently read an article online about getting older and one of the things that really caught my attention that it said was "staying in touch with your younger self."  This really got me thinking.

So I decided to pull out my old journals and just sit in my room by myself and read them.  My journals start back in 2009 when I was in middle school.  While reading each entry I felt like I was reliving each day.  It helped me vividly remember events that took place that I had forgotten about.

 I had so many memories rushing back.  I started to remember all the good times but with the good times came the bad too.  At one point I started crying.  I felt the same pain that I had once felt all over again except this time I knew everything was going to end up okay.

Another thing I learned after reading my journals is that the things that you think are the most important at the time end up being just minuet things and the most important things end up being right in front of your face the whole time.  I sadly came to the end of my entries only hoping that there would be more but unfortunately there wasn't.

My advice to not only young people but to everyone write down your thoughts, feelings and memories.  Whether they are good or bad so one day in the future you can go back and read them to remind yourself of the good times or show your self that the bad days do end and that life goes on!

Easy Fall Dessert Recipes

This fall I was looking for easy and cheap dessert recipes.  Here are two of my favorites that I found:

Apple Pie Baked Apples

Ingredients:

• 4 Green Apples
• 1 Apple Pie Filling
• 1 package of refrigerated roll out pie crust
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon

Step 1:

Preheat oven to 350

Step 2:

Cut the top of the apple off and then scoop out the middle of the apple ( I used a melon ball scoop)

Step 3:  

Use a pizza cutter to cut the pie crust into thin strips.

Step 4:

Mix the apple pie filling and cinnamon together then put the mixture into the apples

Step 5:

Weave the thin strips of pie crust along the top of the apple like a checkerboard.

Step 6:

Place the apples in the oven for 45 minutes

Pumpkin Pie Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 can of pumpkin (15 oz)
• 1 pkg JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding (3.4 oz)
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tub of Cool Whip, thawed (8 oz)

Step 1:

Mix pumpkin, dry pudding mix and spice in a bowl with a whisk until it is blended

Step 2:

Stir in the Cool Whip

Step 3:

Refrigerate 1 hour

I cut up fruit and graham crackers to dip with!

Hope you enjoy both recipes.  I know I sure did!

Update on Bieber

 In honor of his album's release Justin Bieber appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show everyday the week of the release for the first ever Bieber Week.  He sang, surprised fans, played games, talk about his past and future and ended the week with a huge concert on the back lot.

Justin Bieber's album Purpose is finally out and lets just say it did not disappoint.  The album includes 19 tracks featuring artist like Big Sean, Travis Scott and Halsey.  
 

Purpose has a completely different sound than Justin has ever put out before.  I was really surprised that there are a lot of slower songs on the album.  The album incorporates EDM ballads, R&B and dance music.  

This album really captures Justin's growth as an artist and as a human being as well.  His songs talk about the struggles with fame, battles with love and getting back up after falling.  

A quote from Kenneth Partridge in an article in the Billboard magazine sums the album up perfectly "New man, fresh perspective, music that pops:  That's where Purpose turns skeptics into born-again Beliebers." 

Along with the album Justin just released a 13-part video that features different dancers illustrating the album through artistic choreography.  The video opens up with a collage of Justin's biggest controversies and then goes into the first track on the album with following with the rest of the album.

 My personal favorite songs from the album include:

No Pressure

Love Yourself

Company

After the album was released Justin went on to announce his world tour!  It will begin March 9th and tickets are on sale now.   And you can bet your bottom dollar that I will absolutely be attending.  It is extremely hard for me to contain my excitement about Bieber being back on top and the fact that I will soon be graced with his presence!

 

If you aren't a Bieber fan, I strongly suggest that you get past the fact that it's Justin Bieber and actually give his music a chance.  You might be surprised!  His album is available on iTunes, Spotify and in stores. 

Getting a Musical Education

I happen to have an older friend that I met while working on a commercial a year ago.  She is 69 years old and yes I consider a friend.  I think it is important for younger people like myself to have older friends that can teach you valuable things that you can't learn anywhere else.  My friend has not only taught me a lot about the film world but life in general.  I have always been a history fanatic so just listening to her talk about her past is a treat all in itself.

Last night I had the pleasure of getting to spend some time with her.  She made me a beautiful dinner and we got to talking about everything going on in our lives at the moment.  Then we got on the topic of music.  She pulled out all of her old records and insisted on me becoming familiar with each artist.  We listen to music and drink wine for hours. 

The music she showed me was completely different than anything we have today.  A lot of it is instrumental but it is really beautiful and creative music.  Each artist has their own sound and truly are "artists."  She was hippie back in the day so she was enlightening me on music that a lot of people have never or will never hear.  This was such a fun night and she honestly has given me such a special gift by introducing me to all this music. 

Here are a few of the artists she happened to show me:

AL JARREAU

RICKIE LEE JONES

PHOEBE SNOW

JEFF BECK

JOHNNY MATHIS

STRATOSFEAR

HUMMINGBIRD

BOB JAMES

Element

I have some super exciting news.  So back in June of 2014  I had the pleasure of working on my very first full feature film.  My friend that I went to film school with, Alyssa Cawthon had gotten a job on it and needed an assistant.  She luckily thought of me.

  

Of course I accepted the job even though I wasn't getting paid I knew this was a great opportunity and could open doors for me and also help me get my foot and name into the film world. 

Cast and Crew

The movie is called "Element."  It is directed by Jon Keeyes and stars Paul Stuart, Steven Michael Quezada and Michael Ironside.  It is classified as a psychological thriller.  

I worked in the wardrobe department which I fell in love with.  My jobs included clothes, making returns, going shopping for costumes and whatever else needed to be done.  

The movie was a 16-day production.  We shot at locations all around Oklahoma City including the CityPlace building, Paramount Cafe, Mickey Mantle's and much more. 







The cast and crew worked so great together.  It was one of the best experiences I've had thus far in my film career.  

The exciting news is that they just released the trailer to the movie.  I'm really impressed with it and it looks like it turned out to be a pretty good movie.  It is really exciting to see all of it finally come together.  

The movie is about to make its festival run so fingers crossed that it excels.  I'm hoping I can get the chance to see it. 

Here is the Official Element Movie Trailer!

What I've Learned

 Hugs, Kisses & Snot

            For my blog adoption project I choose the blog titled Hugs, Kisses and Snot written by fellow Oklahoman, Stephanie Clinton.  She is 39 years old and describes herself as a “Stay at home mom, writer, community volunteer, doer of mom-things and a creative introvert with extrovert tendencies.”   I wanted to do mine over an Oklahoma woman blogger.  I searched and searched the Oklahoma Women Bloggers website until I found a few that I liked and Hugs, Kisses and Snot happened to be one of them.  I ended up picking this one because Stephanie was very quick to respond and willing to help me out which I very grateful for.  I think that is an important quality to have as a blogger too.  It’s very nice to have a blogger so interested in replying back to their fans in a timely manner.

Why She Blogs 

            Hugs, Kisses and Snot started in March 2011.  Stephanie started the blog after attending the Pioneer Woman book signing.  It made her think “I have interesting things to say, I have cute kids...I should start a blog!" So she did.  It started as a way for her to share what her family was up to, yummy food she prepared and fun crafts and DIY.  However, over the years it has evolved and includes humor essays on parenting, product reviews and thoughts on faith.    

Purpose of the Blog

The purpose of the blog is mostly an outlet for writing and sharing ideas on life, creativity, parenting and anything else that is important in her life at the moment.  She said that “Blogging has become more than a hobby and turned into a way for me to express myself. I hope to inspire other women to be creative and not take themselves so seriously. I would love it if women would read my blog and know that I was being real with them. That they could trust I was being honest about life and inspiring them to be honest as well. I would hope that after spending time on my blog they would know that life doesn't have to be Facebook perfect and that they are wonderful just the way they are.”

Statistics of the Blog

 The geographic location of the blog is Norman, OK.  When I asked Stephanie how many followers she had she replied with “Enough. I don't check stats very often so I'm not too concerned with how many followers I have.”  I also asked her if Hugs, Kisses and Snot makes money and she said that it makes a little but not enough to file taxes.  What makes this blog unique is that it is Stephanie’s own story and no one else can tell her story but her. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths of the blog is the honesty and humor in each post, the page setup is great and the fact that she post frequently.  I think her layout is very nice and simple but not too simple.  I really love the colors and designs she uses.  They look great together. I also really like the tabs at the top that she uses to organize her post into categories which makes it easier to find and navigate through all of them since she has so many.  I also think a strength of the blog is that the homepage has little synopsis of each recent post that you can read and can decided if you want to read that one or not.  I like this because you don’t have to scroll through the entire post to get to the next one.  I think the sidebar has a good amount of things on it and doesn’t look too junky.  I also like the fact that her contact information is easy to find and that her Instagram is connected to the blog.  The weaknesses of the blog well I couldn’t really find any besides the fact that I really don’t care for the blog title all that much.  Snot just sounds gross and unappealing.   I mean I understand what she was going for but just as personal preference I would not use the word snot in my title.  She however did say that her weakness is that she doesn’t spend a lot of time doing the things needed to grow a huge audience but she said that she isn’t overly concerned about the statistics anyways. Another weakness of her own is that she hasn’t learned how to analyze analytics yet.   

Stephanie's Thoughts

I asked her what are somethings that she doesn’t like about blogging are and she said “I hate it that bloggers feel that they have to have a niche in order to be successful. I don't want to be put in a box and forced to write about only one thing. I'm afraid I would get burnt out and run out of ideas if I had to pick just one topic to write about. I also don't like it when bloggers think this is a way to "get rich quick". There is no one way to make a lot of money blogging. It takes a lot of time and work and even then you have to constantly be thinking of the next thing that will bring in a paycheck. Plus, there is no guarantee that blogging will be a full time paycheck.”  She also mentioned that the biggest thing she has gained is online friends who have helped shape her as a blogger. Her advice to new bloggers is “Write about what inspires you. Find other bloggers that you can connect with. Having other bloggers who "get it" and can bounce ideas off of or ask technical questions is huge.”  

How the Blog Influenced Me

Hugs, Kisses and Snot has definitely influenced my blog and myself for the better.  Since my blog doesn’t really have a niche it was comforting to hear a successful blogger say that it’s okay not to have one and she is proof that you can still have a successful blog.  I don’t want to be put in a box to where I have write about certain things just like she mentioned.  I agree with the fact that inside the box will make someone get burnt out quicker and easier.  I really enjoyed doing this assignment and getting to know the ins and outs of blogging from a fellow blogger.  Stephanie had a lot of great advice.  I can’t wait to use what I have learned from her to make my blog better and make myself a better blogger as well.   

Revival

Selena Gomez recently released her new album, Revival.  I finally got to sit down and listen to the whole thing start to finish and it's fabulous.  This is her best album yet in my opinion.  There is so much honesty and passion in each track and her voice is beautiful as always. My top three favorite tracks have to be Revival, Sober and Perfect.

Revival is absolutely favorite track.  It is such an empowering song about self preservation and getting back up on your feet after you fall.  Each lyric is full of honesty. I have been playing this track over and over again. I can't get enough of it!


Sober has to be my next favorite track on the album.  This song is just simply fantastic.  The lyrics are honestly really sad but I think a lot of girls can relate to this song.  It is about how someone in this case a guy knows how to love you right in certain moments but he doesn't always know how to treat you right all the time.

 It really conveys the pain that some girls go through because the don't want to leave that guy because in the moments he is treating her right it is the best thing in the word.

Perfect is another favorite of mine.  This song is slower, however it has so much meaning within it.  This song describes what it's like for a girl to compete with other girls for the affection of a guy. It is a bit heartbreaking but really captures unfortunately what girls all over the world experience on a daily basis.

I think Selena really excelled with relating to girls all around the world with this album which is really important in my book.  You can feel her passion radiate from each song and each lyric has so much emotion whether it's happy, sad or confused.

Even though my favorite tracks are the slower and more lyrical songs, Revival is definitely not lacking in the dance music department.  It contains tracks like Me & The Rhythm, Body Heat and Hands To Myself that are all sure to get you up on your feet dancing away.

Selena is kicking off the Revival Tour in May 2016.  I am hoping I can catch her live while she is in Tulsa, June 19th.

Be sure to go check out her album below. Enjoy!


 

Job Update

I am absolutely loving my new job as an assistant wedding videographer.  I just finished working on my 4th wedding with Leslee Layton Film and I've gotten to experience so many fun things already. 

Leslee and I at the tea ceremony

The second wedding I worked was at the Skirvin hotel in downtown OKC and let me just say it was gorgeous.  I had never been in the Skirvin but I instantly fell in  love with it.  The wedding was a lot of fun and the bride was stunning.

The third wedding I had the pleasure of working on was a Vietnamese/Catholic wedding.  It was super unique and I was able to gain some knowledge about different cultures and religions that I didn't know anything about. 

This wedding started at the bride's parents house were they had a tea ceremony.  The ceremony was pretty much an act of joining the two families together.  It was really neat to watch. 

Filming in the Christ the King Church

After the tea ceremony was over the wedding party headed to the Christ the King Catholic Church for the wedding ceremony.  The church was breathtaking.  The wedding ceremony was a little long but it was really interesting to witness a different kind of wedding than what I am use too.  

Dominion House

The last wedding I worked on was at the Dominion House in Guthrie.  This venue was outside and simply spectacular.  One interesting thing that happened at this wedding was the couple decided to do a "feet washing" instead of a candle lighting or sand ceremony.  I had never seen this be done so it was kinda cool.  The reception was by far to most fun reception out of all the weddings.  Everyone just seemed to be having the time of their lives.

I am absolutely blessed to have found such a great company to work for.  I love my boss and team and seriously can't wait for more weddings to come! 

Check out a few of the finished videos here:

Southwind Hills Wedding

The Skirvin Wedding

Vietnamese Wedding


And like us on Facebook:  Leslee Layton Films

Homecoming

This past week was Homecoming week in my hometown of Blanchard.  I  still participate in this event due to the fact that I have two younger siblings still going to school there and who happen to be a cheerleader and a football player. However, I was extremely impressed with this year's homecoming events.

Pep Assembly

This year's theme was "The Greatest Game on Turf", so pretty much circus theme.  I thought it was a fresh and creative theme and something Blanchard has never done before.  When I was in high school we always had stupid themes that were pretty much the same thing every year.

My sister and little cousin

Homecoming week starts out with everyone dressing up everyday of the week, this year there was fake an injury day, twin day, clown day, mustache day and of course spirit day.  After a full week of fun, on Friday there was a pep assembly, parade, homecoming and then finally the football game.


I was highly impressed with the pep assembly this year.  It was probably my second favorite pep assembly of all time.  The pep assembly was full of fun activities that got the whole school participating and coming together that even included the teachers and the principal. (Who happens to be one of my favorite people in the whole world).

My brother (on the right) walking out during Homecoming

The parade followed the pep assembly.  Of course the parade took place on main street.  The whole town was there literally, it was crammed packed. The parade was really good this year.  A lot of the floats were decorated well and looked awesome.

With a few hours until the football game, we decided to grab some lunch and here in Blanchard the choices are limited so we ended up going to Mazzio's. Which I guess it what everyone else was thinking too because it was packed.

After lunch we went to the football field to get good seats.  Homecoming started before the game. It began with the whole football team, cheerleaders and pom squad being introduced and walking through the arch.  Then all the homecoming attendants rode out on the football field in cars and were introduced, then walked through the arch as well.  After everyone had been introduced the king and queen were announced and crowned.  Then finally the football game began.  Even though homecoming is a fulfilled day, our boys came out to play and we ended up getting a victory.

My family

After almost 4 years of being out of high school, I think I finally realized what "homecoming" means.  I think it means that I will always have a home and town to come back to no matter where my crazy life takes me and I know I will always have their support and people rooting me on to be as successful as I can be.  "Once a lion, always a lion."

Fitness Photo Shoot

So I just had the pleasure of doing my first fitness photo shoot with a girl I went to high school with, Kayla Argyle. She has her first fitness competition coming up so she wanted me to take a few pictures of her.

 I honestly wasn't sure what kind of poses to do but she was a lot of help and I was able to feed off her energy to come up with picture ideas on the spot.  It was a fantastic experience and now I have some beautiful pictures to add to my portfolio.

 Here are few of my favorite shots!

Forever Awaiting Nov.13th

I have a confession to make....I really love Justin Bieber.  I've loved him and his music for a really long time now and he is finally releasing his 3rd studio album, Purpose, on November 13th.  It has been 3 years since his last album dropped so I am ecstatic.  He has recently released two singles off  his upcoming album, "What Do You Mean" and "Sorry", respectively.

He had a star studded social media campaign while counting down to the release of "What Do You Mean".  Stars from Ryan Seacrest and Ellen Degeneres to Ariana Grande and Kendall Jenner would take a picture of themselves holding a sign with "What Do You Mean" written on it and however many days left until the song came out.

I thought this was such a creative and different way to spread the word about not only Justin's new song but his comeback too.  You all know that Justin hit a rough patch and was getting in to trouble but he has finally found his way back to what is most important: MUSIC!

He made a video for "What Do You Mean"  starring John Leguizamo and himself.   The video was more like a mini movie rather than a normal music video.  I loved it.  When his single "Sorry" dropped I was blown away.  It is definitely my favorite out of the two singles.  His voice is so beautiful in it.

He also released an acoustic version which is my absolute favorite because it really shows off what his voice is really capable of without any beats or music taking it over.  There is a video for "Sorry" which stars a group of girl dancers.   The video is fun and full of bright colors and let's just say those girls can dance!

People might not like Justin Bieber but there is no denying his talent and I am so glad he is back to making music.  November 13th can't come fast enough!

Stephens Wedding.

I got the privilege to be apart of two of my friend's, Austin and Caiti, wedding by being their wedding photographer.  This was my very first wedding to do photography at so I knew I wouldn't be able to do all of it by myself so I hired Lorian Graziano, a girl I went to high school with to help me.

Lorian, my assistant

I was so extremely nervous about how the pictures were going to turn out because the wedding was outside at 7:30 p.m. which means it was dark pretty much the whole time.  I am by no means a professional photographer so I wasn't sure how to approach a night shoot.  Luckily, my assistant Lorian had a light kit that helped enormously.

The Groomsman

On the day of the wedding, Lorian and I got there few hours early to capture some pictures of the bridal party getting ready. One of my best friends was a groomsman and I knew all the other groomsman so that created a fun and comfortable atmosphere.  Once we got through doing getting some pictures of everyone getting ready  we decided to go ahead and get some groomsman pictures with the groom out of the way.  We took the guys outside so we could use the venue as a background.  Once we got done it seemed like time flew.  The bride originally wanted to take bridesmaids pictures before the ceremony but we ended running out of time.


The ceremony finally started and went pretty well except that we lost sunlight way faster than anticipated.  With the help of Lorian, we were able to get a decent amount of ceremony pictures.   After the ceremony we took family pictures and some couple pictures and thankfully they turned out great due to Lorian's lights. I made Lorian actually take the pictures while I directed people where to stand.

The bride and groom had finally had enough of picture taking so we followed them inside for their grand entrance and to capture their first dance.  We continued shooting throughout all the normal  wedding things like cake cutting, boutique toss and dancing.  This was a great learning experience for me.  I learned a lot of do's and don't's.  After going through 1000 pictures I'm finally done editing.  I can't wait to see what the bride and groom think of all of them!

Austin and Caiti

Crimison Peak

I have been anxiously awaiting for the newest movie by Guillermo del Toro called Crimson Peak to be released.  It stars Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowsk, Charlie Hunnam and my favorite Tom Hiddleston.  I initially really wanted to go see the movie for the simple fact that Tom Hiddleston is in it but the more and more I watched the trailer and different teasers the more I actually wanted to see the movie for the story itself.

My aunt and uncle, cousin Brittany, sister Allie and myself

 I had planned to go see it with my cousin opening weekend but I ended up having to cancel for work but I finally got to go see it this week with my cousin, aunt, uncle and sister.

Crimson Peak is set in back in the Victorian Era and is classified as a gothic romance, horror and mystery.  The plot of the movie according to IMDb is:  " In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author (Mia Wasikowsk) is torn between love for her childhood friend (Charlie Hunnam) and the temptation of a mysterious outsider (Tom Hiddleston).  Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers."

From a filmmaking perspective this movie was absolutely beautiful.  With having experience in the art department and wardrobe department, this movie excelled in both.
First off the production design was breathtaking.  It was so detailed and fit the time period to a tee. By using great techniques the art design was able to make the house that this story took place in a character itself.  Katie Rife of the A.V. Club must agree because she wrote " The production design is the real star of Crimson Peak."

The costume design was simply spectacular.  I honestly couldn't stop staring at every piece of clothing that anyone had on during the entire movie. I was in awe. I couldn't imagine getting a chance to work in the wardrobe department on a movie like this.

Now from an average movie goer's perspective,  I thought the acting was fabulous and of course all the costumes.  However, I really didn't like the way the ghost looked, it was a bit ignorant. The story wasn't what I expected either and ended up being a really sad love story which I loved.  It was a bit too gory at times as well but I mean it is a horror movie so that is expected.  Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Haunted Houses

Our group

One of the many family traditions my family has is going haunted housing every year.  We have been doing this since I was in 7th grade.  We all get to invite a friend to come over and watch a scary movie and eat pizza.  Then go haunted housing.   I love going and getting scared out of my mind.  It is one of my favorite traditions.  This year we went to three different haunted houses.

The truck at the Newcastle Haunted House

The first one we went to is in Newcastle and not only was it a haunted house but it was also a zombie hunt.  I had never been to a zombie hunt before but it was a ton of fun.  A zombie hunt is where you shoot zombies with paintball guns.  This zombie hunt was setup to where we rode on a trailer that was pulled by a truck that drove us around the area where the zombies were and we just went crazy on them with our paintball guns.  It was really exhilarating.  The haunted house was not so good but it only cost $5.  They also had a creepy maze we did while we waited for our zombie hunt to begin.

The second haunted house we went to was the Trail of Fears in Bridge Creek.  Trail of Fears is a fundraiser that Bridge Creek High School puts on.  So its not the scariest haunted house but its only $10 and for a good cause. They have the trail setup as if you were walking through a zoo of fears which I thought was really creative and different.


We ended our night out at the Katt's Haunted Forest in the city.  This was by far the best haunted house of the night.  The only bad thing about it was we did have to wait in line for a while but it was definitely worth it.  I was scared during the whole thing. So I think it is safe to say we had yet another successful year of haunted housing!  

Pumpkin Patch

My family and I went to TG Farms Pumpkin Patch in Newcastle yesterday. It only cost $12 to get in.  Once we got in we went over to see all the farm animals.  They have goats, bunnies, ponies and much more.  We got to go in the cage with the goats to pet and feed them.  One of the goats kept following me around.


After we got done feeding the goats we went and did the hay and corn maze.  The corn maze is my favorite out of the two.  We always play hide in seek in it which can get very intense. When we finally found our way out of the mazes we got to go take a ride around the pumpkin patch on trailer pulled by a tractor.  It was actually really relaxing and a neat way to see what all the patch offered.


Once the tractor ride was over we finally got to go to the patch and pick out our pumpkins. It took a while but I finally found the perfect pumpkin now all I have need to do is figure out what I'm going to carve in it!  The pumpkin patch is one of my favorite things to do during the fall and I had a great time like always.  And the weather was beautiful!