sneak peek--quick takes

Maybe because I spend most of my life surrounded by boys or maybe because I grew-up surrounded by boys, but for whatever reason, photographing sisters is always fascinating to me. The relationship isn’t one that I understand at all, but I am quite jealous of. And these sisters did nothing to help me with my envy. They made being a sister look ridiculously cool and something that I totally am missing out on just as I suspected. It would have helped me a bunch if they could have fought the whole time. Maybe pulled each other’s hair. Made me see that having brother who could really care less about 99% of the things I enjoy and does things like….say……put a dead frog in my bed, just for example ………is actually a better way to go. But they didn’t. They were sweet and kind to each other. They were sweet and kind to their mom. They were sweet and kind to me. :)

Oh, how they were sweet and kind to me! Three words: triple piggy-back ride (hyphen makes it still just 3 words, right?). Seriously? With a side of double cartwheels? Can I have a family stack for desert? Yes? Come on! This is just perfection!

They came all the way from Salt Lake to hang out with me. No, that’s a lie. They came out to see people they know and love and are related to. I was just a side-note, but I’ll take it however I can get it. :)







Now, there few things that I own, but this one I do......"Serious Face!":

"Now Big Happy!"



That's a Lynsey Peterson trademark right there. :)

won't you take me to......funky town(s)

It's only taken a year and a half to organize, but finally my trip to the Northwest is a go. :) I will be in the Portland/Olympia/Seattle area August 5-9. My trip is mainly about spending a little time with my Mama, seeing my sweet cousin and her family, and finally making my way to what I consider my Soul City even though I have never actually been there. :) But when I am not busy using my time-delay to photograph myself jumping off of the Space Needle because my mom is driving me crazy (TOTALLY KIDDING. I mean, I am sure they have guardrails for that sort of thing :), and finally doing a session for my cousin that doesn't take place in my living room, I would love to do another session or two. Shoot me an email if you would like more info. :)

Here are a couple from the last time we rolled around on my messy living room floor. If they are this cute here, I can't even imagine how cute they will be there. :)

You should see the other guy

There have been some requests for me to post a picture of my purple eye. I bet you people wanting to see this are the same people who slow down to look at a car accident too. You are a strange group, dear blog readers.:)

I don’t feel like the iPhone/bathroom mirror picture is really doing justice to the beautiful green/yellow shade that is coming to life right here on my face, but you get the general idea. And, yes it could be much, much worse. I mean what if I had been welding? Or glass blowing? This is why from here on out the only hobbies I am interested in are watching Law & Order reruns and HGTV. Everything else seems to get me into trouble. Plus, today I solved a complex Manhattan murder and redecorated my bedroom.

My mother thinks I should just do up the other eye with some purple eyeshadow and act like it's some sort of creative look I am going for. Also, whoa! Wash my hair much? :) In my defense, it’s been a whopper of a day. But tomorrow…..tomorrow promises to really get exciting when I visit the dentist. Drilling an inch away from my last drilling injury. It feels wrong to be keeping all of this excitement for myself--if anyone wants to come with, this happy train boards at 9am. Pity Party starts just after. This is only the pre-party. :)

sneak peek--family

I would never say that this is my favorite family. Not on a blog that could be read by other people who say Wait a minute…..I thought we were your favorite family??. You start pulling punches like that and people start questioning your credibility. So let’s just say that they are up there. At the top. :)

Last Christmas…..yes, last Christmas…this Mama asked me about a session as a gift for her mother that included her and her 2 sisters and their families, Mom and Dad, and 3 dogs. When you are organizing 11 people (and 3 dogs) for photos, it takes roughly 7 months to get it all together.:) Yesterday it all came together.

They are gorgeous and fun and funny. They are raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. I had sent them an email about my little eye incident (so I didn't scare them or anything when I showed up:) and they showed up in eye patches. I kid you not. They had enough for everyone, and I had totally planned on taking an Eye Patch Family photo, but things got hectic as they often do when you are photographing 11 people (and 3 dogs) and I didn’t get to it. I am still so mad at myself over this one. But, I did get some other stuff. I would have been impossible to not make out with a couple of good shots with these guys though—they make it so easy, it feels like cheating. :)


With Papa. I have photographed this little cutie before (before he grew these fantastic curls :) and this time he was slightly more impressed with my jokes. Or I got funnier. Either way.

Looking very much like his Famous On This Blog little sister:

I dig the space. :)

These beauties and their "kid". Of all the kids, this one was the best fetcher. :)Favorite of the day. The girls on the right are twins, the left is the older sister. Not only do they look so much alike, but their delivery and demeanor....and even the way they do cartwheels is the same. (Yes, they did cartwheels. :)

Everyone needs a good smack to the head once in a while.

Yesterday I was going to get so much done. So much. Work…..clean…….teach my children French. My big plans did not include a concussion and an eye injury. But, hey, what are you going to do? Home improvement is what will eventually kill me.

So, yesterday I am screwing a bolt into a piece of wood…if you must know why, it was because I was making a rack that had hooks for the kids towels on it (isn’t that much less interesting than you were hoping for?), and the board slipped but the drill kept going, and there you have it. Smack. Right to the eye socket. And I remember thinking Sh*t!!!!! [sorry but this is one of those where there is really no substitute]…I gotta lay down. And I remember that I did, right outside the laundry room door. All dramatic and stuff, because that’s the only way I know how to do things. :)

Next thing I remember is my sweet little 5 year old is standing over me saying “Mom, why is there blood all over your face?”. And right about there is where I freaked out. At least I think I did. One would assume that I would. I told Maddox to call Dad and he went and got the phone and I remember seeing him staring at the phone saying “Okay Mom, which number do I push for Daddy?”. Somehow I explained how to hit redial, which as luck would have it got my mom. Redial could have just as easily got a thousand different people who would have been no help, but instead my step-father answered and I heard that cute little voice say “Papa, Mommy is on the floor and there is blood all over.”. What a fun call to get on a Thursday morning, right?

Now obviously a couple of minutes would have passed while they were on their way. I don’t remember a whole lot, but I remember three things vividly. (There was no light. No tunnel. My life did not pass before my eyes. My dead relatives didn’t share any wisdom with me.) This was what I thought:
1.) Seriously, I have to mop this floor. When was the last time I mopped this floor, for crying out loud? I mean, this is disgusting.
2.) Why did this happen right next to that basket of clean laundry that has like 4 pairs of my underwear on top? Now anyone who comes to help me is going to know that I have pink polka dot underwear. And plaid ones. Damn it.
3.) I wonder if I will be able to see by my session on Saturday.


Anyway, people came. My parents, my husband, and my dear friend who lives down the street that I insisted someone call because everyone said I wasn’t making any sense and I believed that somehow she would be able to understand me, all came. And they all got a little preview of what’s in my underwear drawer. And to my messy kitchen with its nasty floors. And my make-up free face covered in blood. And they were kind and wonderful and, as if I didn't owe them enough favors, I think I am firmly in their debt now.

Obviously I am fine. I spend the morning begging people to not call an ambulance and trying to explain just why I was drilling hooks into a board in the kitchen. I spend the afternoon in bed with a headache that felt like someone had smacked a board against my face. :) The irony of this being that the night before I had had a couple of glasses of wine, which isn’t the norm for me and I woke-up with the worst headache ever (I thought) and I said to Joshua before he left for work “I feel like I have been hit over the head”. That irony….she is one snotty brat, I tell ya.

So, I have a black eye. A swollen black eye. And a weird cut. And it looks bad, I’m not going to lie. Today I was asked by someone if I “felt safe in my home environment”. And my husband….my sweet, sweet husband who rushed home, who carried me to bed, who held my hair back literally, who would never lay a hand on me in an unloving way, gets to go around town with his wife having a black eye and a really weird story to how it happened only to get second looks from total strangers wondering what the “real” story is.

So……what did you do yesterday?:)

There are some lessons in this one….boy howdy, are there some lessons. The first one being that I should program our phone in a way that a 5 year old would understand it. The second one being, what your mother told you about wearing clean underwear just in case you get into an accident is totally true. But so is putting away your clean underwear. Just in case your house suddenly and unexpectedly becomes full of people trying to wipe blood off of your face and move you off of your dirty kitchen floor. Then, while laying there unable to form words, you won’t be worrying about everyone seeing your basket of laundry and instead you can focus on trying to tell people not to use your Good Towels to mop up the blood.

Because the injury was right to my eye….my “shooting eye” no less, I wasn’t able to see well for the day, and my big plans of finishing some sessions (and various home improvement projects) did not happen. Neither did returning emails. Or phone calls. And because sitting at this laptop right now sort of makes me want to pass out, it’s probably not going to happen today either.

Have a great holiday weekend. If I owe you an email, or your session, or maybe a cup of coffee or 5 dollars, I will get it to you just as soon as I can.

Also, if you see me around town, please don’t do that scary OHMYGODWHATHAPPENEDTOYOU?? look. It just freaks me out. Plus the story is much more boring than the eye would suggest. From now on I am telling people that I was attacked by that alligator that was spotted in Loveland a while back. He has moved to Longmont and now hangs-out in our various ponds around town. Happy fishing, folks. :)

sneak peek--quick takes

I have been stalking this family for months now. First at swim lessons. My friend Katherine and I would sit on the side during swim class and talk about how hard it was to get the combined 3 kids there once a week (2 of mine, 1 of hers) and how getting them into swim trunks [whine] and remembering towels [whine] was so hard. Then, we saw this family. This family of six. And they were always happy and having fun and never whining about a 9am Sunday morning swim class. And I thought two things: a) I am a wimp. b) I bet they would be fun to photograph. We chatted a bit and I figured once class was over, I may not see them again.

Then there was soccer. Soccer which I was sure that my kids would love. Soccer that was immediately [whine] so hard for me to get my kids to, that we only made it to about a third of the practices. And as I am complaining to Katherine yet again about how hard it is…….how hard it is to get 2 kids to soccer (oh, the misery, people:), I see them again. And I finally introduced myself because I realized at this point that with kids all the same age, and obviously living in the same school district, we will be seeing each other forever (putting just a slight bit of pressure on them liking this session:). It turns out she had been emailing me for a session without us knowing who each other were, and flash forward, here we are. And I think this is my session to include triplets. :)

This family is spectacular—all 6, but I have to tell you that mom is just so fantastic. I suppose when you have 4 kids, you sort of just become fantastic. I imagine when you leave the hospital with your triplets and your older child in tow, the hospital just hands you over a bag and says “and here’s your Fantastic” and you stash it away with your free diaper bag and formula samples and wheel on out of there. One time at soccer I saw her make a funny face at her son and I thought, I want to be her friend. And then maybe she will let me borrow some of her Fantastic. :) Seriously, she has the patience of a saint. And a ridiculous sense of humor to boot.

And the kids. I mean, come on. The kids. Easily could eat them, they were so delicious. It's a lot of kid to eat, but I could figure it out. :)

Mom and daughter have to stick together--they are really outnumbered. :)

I love me a quirky shot

And since I went on and on about mom, I need to at least mention that dad was pretty cool too. Dads more power then kids to make or break a session. I have found that they alone carry the mood. If they are hating every minute, we all are hating every minute. But if they go with the flow, everyone has fun. They are always my wild cards. And this one was an ace. :)

I'm sort of a big deal

I love me a good "outtake". :)

The Pretty Sister

This is Chloe:If Chloe were a woman, going out on a blind date, and her perspective date asked before meeting her, “Is she attractive?”, he would be told “Well…..she is funny. And she has a really good personality…..and, boy is she smart.”.

This is Ruby: She is officially “ours” (though I live in Boulder county, which means that I would never “own” a pet—just share their space while respecting their own views on life and paying their food and vet bills). If Ruby was a woman and went out on a blind date, he would later tell all of his friends “Man, she was SMOKIN’ HOT!....total airhead, but wicked hot.”

I have two brothers who are 9 and 11 years younger then me. And don’t get me wrong, they are really cute and all, but it’s pretty clear I am “the pretty one”. Being the lone girl just makes that a gimme. And, given that I am the oldest one, obviously I am “the smart one” as well. I suppose that leaves “the funny one” up for grabs, which I can live with. So, I don’t have much of a complex over this part of life (which is nice because I have a complex about most of the other parts), but I feel Chloes pain. I felt it even more this afternoon when I came home to see that Ruby had tried to eat a wall while I was gone. A wall. Seriously. A wall. And, poor Chloe, with her itty bitty rat eyes and bulging mid-section is just sitting there saying “she eats walls and all you can talk about is how pretty she is?”.


But, things could be worse.

Big Drama: iPhone update :)

(Also, new image of cute girls running in a field. Because, maybe for you, my cell phone drama isn't important enough on its own. :)

Because not everyone gets my newsletter (what??!!), here is the lastest on my HUGE CELL PHONE DRAMA. :)

Last week you may have felt the earth shake a bit. Or maybe it impacted you more in a sky-going-black sort of way. Or maybe it was just the sudden feeling deep inside when your intuitiveness said "I think someone I know is going crazy right now". That someone was me.

After placing my phone on top of a car, for reasons that I am still unable to completely explain or understand, and then forgetting about it, my dear cell phone...or as I call it, my lifeline....my 3rd arm....my information highway of goodness....landed somewhere on Highway 36 to never be found again. I assume.

You can imagine the devastation. The first day I was unable to get out of bed. The second day I refused food and water. The third day I needed to be medicated. But.....strangely enough, on the fourth day I found myself enjoying the silence. Of knowing that no one could find me even if they wanted to. (Or course, anyone who really knew me would have just checked Target and then Starbucks.) Of being on my own little island, disconnected from the world. I think I could have learned to function like that a while. Unfortunately, there is the whole "responsible parent" and "business owner" thing working against my natural instinct of being flakey and unavailable. So, I got a new phone. And, sure, it's nice to have it and all its tools right there next to me. A part of me that I didn't even know was depressed finally saw the sun again. But I will miss the quiet. :)

Which brings me to.....

Hey! Have you been trying to get in touch with me? You have?! I didn't even know! So, if you thought I was ignoring you or if you were wondering just exactly how long I take to return calls, fear not my friend. I was on an island. I am home now. And anxiously awaiting your call. Or text. Or twitter. :)

This bit of peace I experienced ended up being a nice little lesson for me. To detach. To hang-up. To power-down. On that note, my availability for sessions, quick take or regular, summer or fall, is very minimal. I am however, starting a waiting list for the quick takes!...with a twist event that I will be doing on October 3rd to benefit a nice little not-for-profit that's near and dear to my heart. Shoot me an email if you would like me to put your name on the list for first dibs to schedule one of these mini sessions.





Be careful where you leave your valuables,


Lynsey





Can I just send a little love letter to Steve Jobs right now? I never really gave a care about Apple...being that I am a PC, but after this little phone fiasco, after a week of getting it all straightened out (because who needs phone insurance, right? Not me! Ahem....until last week), wiping my phone remotely, getting a new one and all of that, here I have my sweet little new phone that has everything on it my old phone did. Pictures, Apps, contacts..everything except my sweet little Paul Frank monkey case is all right here. It's like a new friend snuggling up to you after you just got dumped and saying "I know you're sad....I know he broke your heart. I know that just when things were getting good, he left for no real reason. And, I know that I can't replace him.........but, in time, I'd like to be more to you than he ever was." Oh, come here, you sleek, shiny, new 3G! You complete me! And, Straight to Voicemail App? I missed you like crazy. :)

sneak peek--family

My love for this family is complete and total, and borders on slightly unhealthy. :) These girls are pretty much exactly what I hoped my own daughters would be like, before I got cheated out of that whole deal and ended up with these two smelly boys who never want to have a tea party of let me braid their hair. :)

I met them when I did their quick takes session last year and mom immediately went on my list of girls I call when I occasionally get sprung from this mom/work jail cell on Friday nights. I am so lucky that this little photography adventure has introduced me to people I may not have gotten to meet otherwise, and there is not a day that goes by when I don’t think about how lucky I am to be surrounded by such wonderful people. Someday I want to sit down and write about just how grateful I am to have so many lovely people to count as my friends, but it’s been a LONG road to here and I am not quite ready to write that post yet.:) But, there is a wonderful feeling that happens when I realize that I could quit tomorrow and firmly know that I still ended up ahead of the game and this “job” served well beyond its original purpose.

Sniff.

Anywho! Family pictures! Aren’t they cute! And all that jazz! Mom happened to mention during the session that she had already bought frames for these pictures. These pictures that didn't even exist before then. No pressure though, right? :)

Big sister gets lots of play in my website, so I wanted to show one of just little sister. And, this is the perfect one. From the arm rolls, to the "what the heck do you want me to do with this stupid flower" look, it's perfect to my eye in every way. :)

Leslie, stop hitting refresh now. You are making my stats look all crazy. :)