Our "Silent Princess", Riley, has Phelan-McDermid syndrome. It leaves her autistic, severely developementally delayed and unable to speak. She is also fast on her feet, devious and a handful! It takes lots of love and patience to chase after that naughty girl. Ha! 

We were blessed to have the sweet Smith family minister to Riley and the other special needs children at our church. It was an honor to snap a few pictures of them recently.

They are serving at a new church now, but I am so happy we keep in touch. They were a tremendous blessing to our family and Riley. Love you Smiths!! 

Those who know me well, know I have a slight obsession when it comes to babies. Umm...hello...that is why I have 7 kids! 

(Just for the record. I like BABIES.....Teenagers suck. Just kidding TJ, Alyssa and Justin. Mommy loves you. #jokingnotjoking)

Anyway.....when a good friend offered me the opportunity to take a few photos of her new grandson in the hospital, I could not resist. 

Isn't he a doll baby?!

Even though I made that trip to the hospital SEVERAL times to have babies, I regret not having more pictures to record those memories. We did always get those infamous newborn "hospital" shots.

Justin, 1-day old, 1998

(Ugh!! Why they got my baby looking all crazy? Looks like he is preparing for a boxing match! hahaha)

Back to this cutie pie!

Oh my heart! He makes me wanna go have another. Wait...... we have 4 kids under 20 years old on our car insurance.....yeah, I think I am good! Ha!

I was TERRIFIED! I take pictures of my kids, Christmas pictures for friends, vacation snapshots, football games..... you get the picture. 

But a wedding?! A Wedding! This is a once in a lifetime event. What if I screwed it up?! It's not like you can say, "Hey, just meet me next weekend and I will reshoot for ya!" LOL! But the opportunity to shoot with a good friend was too tempting to pass up.

Luckily, once I got to the hotel, I got in the zone. And seriously, when you have people as ridiculously beautiful as this wedding party was, you can't screw it up too much! 

Here are 10 (ok, maybe 12! I couldn't narrow it down!!)of my favorite shots for this months "10 on the 10th". 

What a priviledge it was to be a part of something so sacred and lovely. Congratulations to the beautiful couple! 

I am linking up with the fabulous Maricruz. Her photography is stunning! Please keep moving thru our little blog circle. There are some wonderfully talented ladies. 

Good shots without Photoshop are possible. When I started getting serious about photography, the only post-processing software I had was iPhoto. That app usually comes preloaded on iMac's and Apple laptops. (if it is not on your machine, it is available in the Apple "App" store for $5) It is simple, but powerful. 

Of course, you want to get your photo the best it can be "in-camera". Try to get rid of any distracting backgrounds, have good light and the hardest thing, is a willing participant! LOL! My son indulged me here (I owe him a new video game now)

This photo lacked good contrast. Colors are pretty washed out. iPhoto has several options that you can play with. Instagram like filters and sliders that control contrast, exposure, brightness, ect. If you get something you don't like, you can hit "revert to original" and your picture is back to normal. 

Here, I darkened it up some and added a bit of saturation. Finally, I added a vignette. That darkens up the edges and draws more attention to my subject. I LOVE vignettes and put them on almost all of my portrait photos. 

Much better! Disclaimer: I did take this picture into Photoshop Elements to remove a zit, per request of my son! LOL!

iPhoto is great for photo organization, but it is also pretty powerful for punching up your photographs. Play around with it and have fun!