antonio: 2 year celebration.

my friend krista is a big fan of disney.

mickey mouse is very present in she and her son's life.

they take trips to disney quite often...

it's more of a second home to them.

i'm sure when i go someday i will have her

put our trip together for me. :)

being the big fans of mickey that they are,

it was not surprising to me to walk in and see this balloon.

krista's son, antonio, turned 2 and asked if i could come

over again and shoot the party for her.

it was fun to see a framed photo that i took of

his 1st birthday party on the wall.

like i said.

they're all about mickey. :)

antonio's shoes were too cute not to shoot.

krista went through a terrible divorce last fall.

now i don't go around telling people personal facts about

my clients, but i mention it to share this photo.

this photo of krista speaks volumes to me.

she put this party together by herself,

including the inflatable.

heck, she took an almost 2 year old to disney

by herself.

this year of "firsts" has been hard,

but she's powered through it and i'm so proud of her.

you're amazing, krista.

thanks for letting me be a part of the festivities, krista!

[and happy 2nd birthday again, antonio!]

purple.

[cheney, washington--fishing lake]

a little photo i came across yesterday.

i may have to blow this up and hang it in my house.

vacation recaps.

finally.

i'm finished.

if you'd like to view photos and read about

'the whyte house mega road trip',

you can read days 1-3, days 4-6 and days 7-11 at

 'the whyte house'.

christmas photos accomplished.

not many people can say that they have christmas photos for their family done in JUNE. 

i can.

we're finally back from my dream vacation

spot, washington. 

i know...there are gorgeous places like maui.

however, i burn really easily.

burning to a crisp and being in pain is not

my idea of an awesome vacation.

whidbey island, however, has water, beaches AND no burning sun, due to a lot of cloudy days.

i could seriously get use to having a view of water to look at everyday.

while we were on vacay,

we had our family photos taken.

i imagine this fall to be a pretty hectic time

around here with justin's trainings, etc.,

and i wanted to take photos in a beautiful place.

i mean, why spend all of that money on

a spot to vacation and not have seriously awesome photos to remember it by??

that being said, i found mikaela and she

worked her magic. 

you can check out her post on the shoot here.

in the meantime,

here's a little sneak peek.

torture. plain and simple.

thought i'd share something a little different.

still photography related,

but i didn't shoot it.

i did edit it, though.

my canadian penpal, beau, recently spent a month in hawaii.

he was actually in kaua'i during the tsunami.

knowing what his work load is like now that he's back home,

i asked if i could edit his shots.

i don't know that i did the right thing, though.

i'm just torturing myself with these beautiful shots!

i thought it only fair to pass the torture on to you. :)

enjoy!!!

LOVE Wichita.

 today i had the opportunity to accompany my husband to work.  as a community policing officer, he has attended LOVE Wichita projects for the past 3 years.  i asked him if i could come out and take photos this year.  we visited his 5 project houses throughout the morning.  projects were completed by Eastminster(3 of the 5 houses), Maranatha and Westlink, where we attend.  there was a lot of painting, yard work, rebuilding and even some critters at the houses.

early morning before shots.

this homeowner had siding replaced, yard work done and a new fence put up by the westlink crew.  her pup needed to come out and inspect the progress(that and he didn't like the banging!).

an eastminster group found this guy when they moved out an old couch. :)

when their first garage door plan fell through,

they made a new plan.

maranatha replaced rotted boards, did lots of painting...

on some super high ladders, too.

one of our very close friends had his house worked on today, too.

he's been battling his kidneys this year, as they've

decided to fail his body and even had pneumonia today.

the young married group from eastminster rebuilt two porches for him, painted, did yard work, all to keep from future oci write ups. 

on behalf of justin and myself, we thank you guys for all of your efforts today!!

the house project with westlink brought out two other police officers, both friends of justin's.

i thought it was hilarious that they stand the same way

whether they're in uniform or not. :)

you can find more photos from the day

on whyte house photography's facebook page.

clarification.

first off, i want to thank everyone for their kind & encouraging words on my facebook page.  i really enjoyed the photo weekend last week and hearing that you all enjoyed the images as much as i enjoyed taking them is a big plus!  getting that much attention kinda made me sick to my stomach, though.  it was slightly overwhelming.   i'm a behind the scenes kind of girl...i run away from the spotlight...but i thank you, anyway. :)


i seem to have caused a stir with photo weekend...added some confusion about my availability as a photographer.  


i am so sorry for that. 


to those of you whom i have already turned down for shoots, i really did not mean to tease you with photos and then tell you i'm not able to do yours when you asked.  that being said, i wanted to take the time to apologize to those people & others like them, with two reasons as to why i'm not available.


reason #1: i'm married to a navy reservist.

not just any reservist, either.  one that is encountering deployment readiness.  in this case, it calls for special courses, extra training, mandatory inspections.   he's gone a lot.  to give you a better idea of "a lot", there will be a month where he will only work 8 days at his civilian job, the rest will be reserved for military.  and since the arkansas river isn't big enough for his ship to dock at, it means he's traveling. 


reason #2: these two.

yes, i could easily find a babysitter.

yes, i could pawn them onto their grandparents.

or my sister.

or my friends.

however, i don't believe that they are someone else's responsibility.

more importantly, they need stability.

they need some routine in their lives.

they need to know that their mom is going

to be there when they wake up from nap.

they don't need to be shocked that someone else is

there filling my position, even if it is just for an hour.

they need to know that they're my first priority,

not my computer.

my little guy has become very confused by this change in routine. when his dad is gone, he asks if he's at work

or with the navy guys.

when daddy's traveling,

i get asked several times a day if we're going that day to the airport to get daddy.

there will be times when i am able to set up a special

weekend to do photos,

just like i did last weekend.

i don't mind doing several in one weekend.

i think it works better for the kids if they're

hanging out with family for a few hours one day,

as opposed to many random days.

i do want to do another weekend shoot.

i just don't know when yet.

in the meantime, you will see photos.

they'll be free work.

you will see photos from

a baby shoot.

you'll see shots from LOVE Wichita.

more than likely there will be photos posted from our

vacation and my sister's new baby.

also, i can tell you right now that i will not be doing photo shoots this summer.

i loathe the summer.

seriously.

i'm a big baby when i'm hot.

the heat gives me panic attacks. 

it's not pretty.

i'm sorry if anyone had their hearts set on a summer shoot. 

really i am.

i'm a people pleaser, so saying "no" hurts me more than

it hurts you!! :)

i do happen to know some amazing photographers in the

area that have free time, love to take photos(even in the

summer), and do an amazing job at it.

i would be more than willing to brag to you about

those people!

don't hesitate to ask. 

i'm definitely not too busy to answer e-mails! :)

thank you all in advance for understanding my situation!