Lots of changes happening....

There's been some changes the last couple of months. First, my landscape and wildlife images will now be under the name "Northern Source Images".

Second is that the blog is now moved to our own domain. The link is http://northernhorsephotography.com/blog/

Hopefully now I can post more often.

Winter Time Thoughts on Warmer Times

I woke this morning to a pounding head and a dizziness. While fumbling to the shower, I called to check on the temperature; still a balmy -42°F. "UGH again?" as I listened to this cheerful recorded voice. In an attempt to clear my head, I stood in the pounding water, trying to breath in the steam.

I have random thoughts while taking a shower, I never cease to be amazed on the weird things that pop into my mind while going through the motions. I thought about how the weather reports had said this would be a La Nina winter, with it being colder and wetter than normal. If there was ever a winter that this was truer, I haven't seen it. With the "Icepocalypse" rain we had in November to the coldest average temperature in December, we've had nothing but ice and cold so far this winter.

Since our summers are usually a reflection of our winter, I recalled about how we had a wet summer. I witnessed more rainbows this year than any year that I can remember. While we had great hot sunshine and lots of sunny days, we still had storms almost every evening. One of my favorite landscape photographers Jon Cornforth made a comment that stuck in my mind that he preferred a cloudy day to a completely blue sky because it added so much to his photographs. Having a clear sunny day washes out the landscape on the photographs, while clouds give texture and offer better light.
Then I realized that without such a wet summer, I NEVER would have been able to capture the amazing images that I witnessed this summer. This summer was by far the best for weather formations, with dark clouds, lightening, rainbows and pink sunsets. I doubt we'll have another stormy summer like this last one again for a while, so I'm grateful for the chance to witness the enormity and awe of the Alaskan summer sky this year. Even thought we're enduring a wet and very cold winter, I think it was worth it. If you want to see more, I linked this post to my weather section on SmugMug.

New Year and New Path

I've been very neglectful of my blog in 2010. Not one post. One reason was that I was the busiest ever on the weekends with my photography, between traveling around the state or shoots booked with clients, I was definitely always going somewhere.... but not always sure where.

I made it my goal in 2010 to figure out just what I wanted to do as a photographer. Landscapes, portraits, seniors, motocross or weddings; I've been trying hard to find my niche.
I ran across this poster and it made me stop and pause. I actually think I'm going to go back and buy it. I don't want to go down the same path as everyone else, I sure don't want to be your average photographer. I don't want to just take photos, I want to capture memories and a moment in time.
I surely hope, with some help from some great friends and mentors far and near, to be able to take my business to the next level and to be able to begin to work for myself and set my own hours and schedule, and get more time with my family.
I'm looking forward to 2011 being my breakout year. What about you?

Onole and Don Wells Wedding

Since September, I have been a very busy person. With kids in school with homework and more, my husband gone hunting almost every weekend and photography projects, I've been delinquent on my blog. Apologies and one of my new year resolutions is to try and do more. I don't think I can do a photo a day, but a post a week will be my goal.

That being said, here is where I left off after my last post. One of my husband's classmates from high school knows that I do photography and asked me if I could do her wedding. I've only done a few weddings so I was a bit nervous, but it was a small wedding and Onole had seen my work and knew my style. The wedding was on 1st avenue in Fairbanks in the late evening with lots of fall colors and beautiful weather... here are some pics for your enjoyment.

Sunflowers at Chena Lakes

Every fall, we cruise out to the Chena Lakes Recreational Area to enjoy the fall colors on the trees with the bright blue skies. Usually, they have a few large beds of sunflowers in all their glory. This year we only found one bed of sunflowers, but they were lovely as always.
You can see more in the Sunflower gallery on my smugmug site. Link included.

Christmas in Ice from 2007

Back in December 2007, I volunteered for Ice Alaska in their first event in North Pole, Christmas in Ice. It was a great event, the carving was very intricate and the amazement by those that attended made it feel like Christmas morning every time I was there. These two pictures are just a sampling of the photos I took during this event. Fast forward to this week and I found out the the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau is using my pictures in their brochure for last winter and also this winter. The links will take you straight to the brochures.

If you get a chance, make the trip to visit North Pole for this event. You won't be sorry!

6th City Race - Fairbanks Motorcycle Racing Lions

Motocross racing is in the second half of the season and the riders are really busy riding like crazy people!