Prom, Paula & Perry Style

Prom season has kicked off here in the United States. WaaaaHoooo. A huge and exciting time in the life of every teenager and their family. And this past Friday I had the absolute pleasure of capturing a few Pre-Prom moments for the stunning Paula and her handsome date Perry.

Paula is the daughter of Nancy, a good friend of my good friend Mike (I know, a tad confusing, re-read it again, slowly) who booked me to help provide Paula and her family with some long term, cherished memories of this, her first Prom.

The Pre-Prom gathering was happening at Marietta Gardens and once I arrived and saw Paula and Perry, I was pumped. She looked amazing in her hot pink dress. A dress that was reminiscent of old Hollywood glam, that matched her skin tone impeccably and one that I knew would look completely fierce in all the photos. Perry’s James Bond with a twist tux had him looking very suave and demure and his handsomeness popped fabulously against his solid white jacket.

I would have loved to spend a couple hours getting some bold and fabulous shots of these young Prom’sters, but time was limited and understandably both Paula and Perry were anxious to meet up with their friends and get the party started already.

But I have put together a slide show of some of my favorites. So click below if your curious.

Love this photo of Paula. It shows off her killer accessories and hair.

http://kshinkins.smugmug.com/gallery/7939358_amneL/4/515230781_revpq

Confessions

The great Oprah always says “the truth will set you free”. Yes, she stole it from God, but as far as some people are concerned, Oprah is God and as long as people are getting the memo, then the source is irrelevant.

With that said, I have a confession of my own. We all know today is Easter Sunday. The end of lent. The end of 40 days and 40 nights of sacrifice. And just in case you forgot, let give you a quick reminder of what my sacrifice was………CHOCOATE. Did I make it? Well, funny you should ask. It’s kind of a grey area. The short answer is “NO”, sadly, Shinks was a fallen soldier on this challenge. I know, I know, what a complete disappointment, but if you just hear me out you’ll see that it made perfect sense for me to jump ship somewhere around the 3 week.

I’m not a big dessert girl. Cake, pie, pastries, donuts and ice cream hold zero interest for me. I can take them or leave them and more often then not I choose to leave them. Chocolate is my Achilles heel. However, a very interesting thing happened once I made the decision to quit. All of a sudden I found myself eating, of all things, cake, pastries and even a donut, which I absolutely despise. Cold turkey had sent me insane. I had begun to replace my standard drug of choice, with a brand new drug and if there was an unguarded cake or pastry within feet of me, lookout, I could double fist it with the animal focus and aggression of Mike Tyson in his prime. Throw in the fact that now even the comfy jeans required a great big suck in of air just to get the button closed. Things had taken a rapid turn for the worse and as a result, a re-evaluation was necessary. The outcome of my evaluation? Get back on the chocolate, fast. For some reason, as much chocolate as I’m capable of eating, it still appeared to be considerably less than the desserts I’m able to put away. Who knew? Not I. But I’m happy to report that once I decided that chocolate was no longer the enemy, my craving stabilized. Once again dessert held zero interest and I actually began eating less chocolate, sometimes even no chocolate. Crazy.

Anyway, sadly on the day I should have been collecting my boarding pass, my golden ticket for a guaranteed place in heaven, I must instead settle back on the waitlist for a spot that is TMD (To Be Determined).

On a more upbeat note, I am currently in the throws of Easter dinner preparations. Last week we received a great big ham as a gift from Intern Jordy’s (formally Gordy) parents. Thank you so much Paul & Ellen. And cos this little piggy is way to big for just us, we invited a bunch of friends over to share in the feast.




And to add a slice of spring to our dinner table, I got my hands on some daffodils. Thats them reflected in my diningroom mirror. Yes, you can say it, I'm very creative.

Snap Happy

This past weekend, Shinks found herself on assignment, photo assignment that is. My mission? To capture the heads and faces of “willing” volunteers in an outdoors environment, paying close attention to all sources of natural light and shade. WOW, did you get all that?

As part of the photography class I’ve been taking, 15 classmates and myself were let loose into the parks of Atlanta to practice headshots. And obviously for an assignment like this, there needs to be heads to shoot. This is where our “willing” volunteers came into to play. Friends, family, fiancés, grandchildren and even a set of triplets all gave selflessly of their time so we could put into practice the hours spent learning. And let me just say, these guys, were nothing short of awesome.

The hours spent sitting, smiling, tilting and leaning were all handled with the poise and patience of a saint. Not easy when you have the lens of 16 photographers pointed in your face, all of them requesting your head, eyes or hands to be somewhere different from the suggestion of the previous photographer. Honestly, I would have lost my mind, but this group of models; they were troopers to the last and should have been awarded the Purple Heart for Tolerance.

For me, the opportunity was invaluable. I’ve been working on shooting full manual (thanks Matt & Kate Altmix for that push & I promise, RAW is coming), which has turned out to be less scary then I had allowed myself to believe, but it does require a lot of thinking and a lot more practice, so friends and family beware, I will come calling, that much is guaranteed.

And before I show you some results of my work, let me first say a BIG THANK YOU, to all our models. You were the best.

Here we all are, photographers and models getting ready to have some fun (I'm the one standing left of middle'sh, in the white shirt)

Just look at us and our enthusiastic selves.

Now we're into it. This is the fabulous Sydney.......

and her stunning eyes and smile.

Sarah had classic baby-blues, I want them.

I love this picture of Michelle. She was so shy but completely adorable and I wanted to find a way to capture that.

After spending some time chatting about school and how silly boys are, Michelle allowed me snap one last picture. This time she gave me a smile, a Mona Lisa smile :)

What can I say about this little guy, other than this is Bryce and I want to eat those cheeks.

Camping Anyone??

At a birthday dinner last Friday night I had a few too many scoops of wine. No surprise there, right? When it comes to a yummy wine, Shinks has NO off-switch and trust me, I have spent many a night searching for said switch, thinking and truly believing that it lies somewhere at the bottom of my next glass, but it never is and yet again I walk away the loser. Off-switch nowhere to be found, Shinks intoxicated.

Friday night was no different. We were at a fabulous restaurant, with some fabulous friends having a fabulous time and the wine was flowing. And since it was a party, I went with the flow. Fast forward a couple of hours and Shinks is buzzing. Husband now has his hands full as I’m not the easiest to control once my brain becomes fermented. But luckily for him, I was pretty tired this night so it wasn’t long before the buzz wore off and all I was ready to do was sleep.

Once back in the house I made a big effort to sit and converse, but me thoughts were a mess and I could not get my brain and my mouth to sync up, as a result, very random statements and bits of useless information just spewed endlessly from my foggy brain. Eventually I just gave up. The fatigue got me and I knew it was time to retire myself to bed.

Once in my bedroom I looked down on the floor and had a thought. “Damn that floor looks comfortable. I think I’ll just grab my duvet and pillow and set it up right here by the bathroom door. Yes, that’s definitely the best spot in the whole room”. I ran the idea past my cat, Fintan and he agreed. So we put the plan into action. Duvet was pulled from the closet, spread out on the floor, a pillow was added for extra comfort and kitty and I were set. Life was good.

However, a while later I’m woken by Husband. I can hear his voice and eventually his face comes into vision, but I don’t know what he’s saying. I’m confused. I can’t even remember where I am. He keeps saying something but its no good, I don’t understand so I try to block him out and get back to my blissful sleep, but he’s relentless. He gives me another shake and begins to repeat himself. This time however, I understand. His words are making sense, “Shinks, what are you doing on the floor? Why aren’t you in the bed?” I brush off his question and once again, make an attempt to go back to sleep. For some reason I think he’s being difficult, cos in my mind, its obvious why I’m on the floor. But he won’t be silenced, “Shinks what are you doing on the floor?” Ok, now I’m irritated, he’s not giving up, he really wants an answer, so I give it to him, “I’m camping”, I tell him with a tone that’s screaming “Duh, can’t you tell”.

Honestly, to me, in the moment, it was perfectly logical. As far as I was concerned, he was the idiot, not me. Go figure the logic of a person with a few too many scoops on board.

Babies, Babies and Oh Yeah, Babies

I realize not everyone is a baby person, and for the most part, Husband and I are not either. We're still pretty attached to our independence, freedom and the general spontaneous disorder life throws our way, regularly. But for some reason, when it comes to our nephews, we morph into different animals completely. Blabbing, gushing and bragging, as well as gooing and gaaing and honestly, if I were on the outside looking in, I would be nauseous watching us too. But if all our silly faces, noises and expressions result in acknowledgement by way of a smile, kick or wave, then its absolutely worth it.

And right now, I am finally in Ireland to meet my newest nephew. It's been 2 long weeks, but I'm here and I can't get enough of him. I've basically set up camp at Edward and Sarah's (brother and sister-in-law) so I can absorb as much of the little guy as is humanly possible to do in the space of 3 and half days. And lucky for all of you out there, I brought along my trusted camera, so I can capture this tiny packet of pure cuteness.

The camera was put to a couple of hours work today and below is the link to tons of Evan photos.

http://kshinkins.smugmug.com/gallery/7670831_7Nb9W/1/495251603_BTgxC 

I promise all my blogs are not going to be baby centered, I'm just so pumped to finally get my hands on the little guy, so bare with me for the fews days I'm here. I promise I'll be back to my usual bitchy self after Sunday.

Welcome Baby Shinkins

Today at approximately 1.37pm Irish time. Weighing in at 7lbs 12oz, little Evan Thomas Shinkins made his début into the world.

His arrival has sent the whole family into a tailspin. He is the first everything, child, nephew and grandchild and I have been a complete ball of emotion and joy since my brother called to share the news of his arrival. I already knew I was going to like him, a lot, even though I had yet to see a picture of the wee thing. Now that I’ve seen some photos, forget it, I’m head over heels. I cannot wait to get over to Ireland and get my hands on the little fella. Unfortunately, I have to wait 2 weeks before I can make the trip to see him and let me tell you, never has 2 weeks felt like such a lifetime. I’m afraid he’ll be graduating college by the time I get there.

Anyway, “Congratulations Edward and Sarah”, he is PERFECT and ADORABLE and EDIBLE and CUTE and oh yeah, MINE.

See you all soon.

My brother and his new son.

Evan Thomas Shinkins

Dominic & Gianne Engagement

Recently a friend of mine, Dominic, who I’ve known for most of my track career cos he’s a kick-ass sprinter from Bahamas, with a very sizeable collection of medals and records to his credit, called me to share the news that he was now engaged. “Yeah, Congratulations”. But another reason he called was to ask if I would take his Engagement Photos. This request was totally unexpected. Apparently Dominic remembered that I had been taking some photography classes, so once he had popped the question to his then girlfriend, now fiancée, Gianne, they thought of ME.

I was so completely honored; yet terrified by the request. Up to this point the most experience I had photographing living things was harassing my poor kitty, Fintan, and a couple’s engagement memories, well they’re a little bit more important than chasing Fintan around the garden like some sort of crazed paparazzi. But I was excited and flattered by the fact that both Dominic and Gianne trusted me enough to take this risk and if they were willing, then I was willing.

Historical Marietta Square was chosen as the place we would shoot the photos. It’s a beautiful old railroad town with tons of character, perfect, and last Sunday we hit the Square to capture some loving memories.

I had never met Gianne before the day of the shoot, but as soon as she arrived, I was bowled over by how stunning she was. This girl belongs on the pages of a magazine. She couldn’t take a bad picture if her life depended on it. But more than that, she was just so sweet, warm and friendly, I could see instantly why Dominic had fallen for her. That and she showed up wearing some killer boots, a woman after my own heart.

We got into the shoot pretty much straight away and had a blast capturing plenty of romantic shots, serious shots and just some fun shots and even though it was cold and more windy than we would have liked, the sun managed to stay shining, so we were able to tough it out for a couple of hours.

I created a link to a slideshow, so you can check out the results of my first ever photo session. Just click below.

http://www.kshinkins.smugmug.com/gallery/7477627_CBVJf

And lastly, Congrats to Dominic for putting a ring on it and a BIG THANK YOU to you both for taking a risk and giving me the opportunity to flex my photographic muscles.