Diet...schmiet

Bourbon balls...yeah, not typically part of a New Year's diet. I have been going through my photographs lately, adding product to my new store (of course), and came across this one. I know I've posted it before, but I wanted to post it again. Every time I look at it, I remember how these delectable treats melt and flood your mouth with intense flavor! They are just so dang yummy!

The Pioneer Woman (yes...the lovely Ree Drummond) called this photo, "So pretty. So rich!" I just love her. I know we would be good friends. Call me, Ree! :)

Memory Lane

Just added some new pictures and sizes/formats to my photography store yesterday. I'll be adding even more today! Check them out at http://lesliepaladinophoto.storenvy.com!

I'm also working on catching up with my photo editing--that's a big job! I always shoot in RAW format, so there's always editing and converting to be done. Shooting in RAW gives me exceptional flexibility with the image, and that's why I love it.

Currently, I'm working on editing our family pictures from Labor Day weekend 2011. Yep--I'm a wee bit backlogged. :( But, it's so fun to go back through all those pictures and stroll down memory lane. At the time, my son was only three months old and we were camping at Virginia Beach! He's now 18 months, so it's crazy to look back and see how tiny he was.

I already posted a couple of images from that trip, so here's just a reminder so that you can journey down memory lane with me.

New Prints Now Available!

I am so excited to share this news with you! I have opened up a store on STORENVY, and have many of my prints currently available for purchase! I will be adding available photos more and more over the coming weeks and months, so keep checking back to see if your favorites are available for purchase.

AND...just for YOU, and because it's a brand new year, I'm offering a 13% discount for a limited time. This discount expires on 1/31/13, so share the news so that your friends can enjoy the discount, too! Use the code "NEWYEAR2013" to get 13% off on all items.



Thank you so much for your support!!

And they're off!

Where we live, spring means many things. But, one of the unique and really fun things about this area is the amazing horses that are everywhere! Keeneland is just around the corner from our house, and every spring (usually April, I believe), the races begin. Big, fancy hats, and beautiful spring dresses dot the grounds, along with seersucker suits.

We're actually just around the corner from the fall racing season at Keeneland, but this past spring we decided to hit the track for breakfast, and enjoy the morning warmups. We loaded up the kiddos, along with grandma and grandpa, and headed out of the house around 7:00 AM. And it was so much fun! Here's a little glimpse of our morning...

One-day Winter

Hello again! I'm still here...are you?! I sincerely apologize for my long absence from this blog. I picked up some freelance work, on top of staying home with the kiddos, and working my regular job, so blogging (unfortunately) took a back seat. :(

But, I'm still here, and I'm still taking pictures! So, I'll attempt to catch up a bit over the next several weeks, and show you a bit of what I've been photographing these days. Because of my two little ones, I haven't had a lot of photography adventures in the past several months. So, I've found myself trying to find the "adventure" in the everyday. I think that's a great thing to do, by the way. No day is ordinary. There's a spark of mystery and adventure in each and every moment. You just have to see it...or for me, capture it!

Here in Kentucky, we really didn't have that much a winter this past year. That's a huge bummer for someone like me who LOVES winter and snow. But, we did have one bright and GORGEOUS snowy day on March 5, 2012. The drifts were huge, and the sun was bright and beautiful. The sky couldn't have been bluer. It was amazing.

We have an old pin oak in the back yard. It's sick, and probably needs to come down soon. That makes me really sad. I hate to see older trees come down--especially when they are as big as this one. But, with the bright white snow covering it's branches, it was in all its glory.

Dandelion Wine

Dandelions...the bain of so many land owners, and yard lovers...and yet, they hold a special place in my heart. I remember rubbing them on our chins when I was little and then laughing because of the funny-looking yellow residue they would leave behind. I remember blowing the seeds and watching them dance on the wind. But, I LOVE watching my daughter do these things now. It's all come full-circle.

We had so many in our yard this year--probably not helped by my daughter grabbing each "blow flower" she saw and scattering the seeds with her breath. But, I joked that we had enough to gather and make dandelion wine. Shoulda, coulda...

New blooms

One of my favorite things about Spring is the new life that begins to show itself after a long, dead winter. Things that appear to be dead suddenly spring to life again--all things become new!

Hello, Spring!

Maybe you're wondering where I've been...maybe not. Regardless, my nature photography has given way to taking lots of pictures of my kids over the winter. We didn't have an especially "pretty" winter, where we are. It was unseasonably "warm," so there just wasn't a lot to take pictures of, unfortunately.

But, I'm reloading on some really pretty shots of Spring around our house and in the area, and I can't wait to share them.

In the meantime, you can see how much my daughter is enjoying Spring...

Quilty Bokeh...1st week of challenge

To view my submission for last week's Click-ish January Photo Challenge, click here. Check out the other submissions from last week while you're there! This week's new challenge is "black & white." Watch all week long for our member's submissions for this new challenge.

I'm challenging myself this month

So, it's 2012, now. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Most of my photos have been of my family lately, so I haven't been posting a lot of nature photos lately. I'm missing snow right about now. It always provides a lot of photographic inspiration, so it's sad to not have any on the ground right now. But, that's not excuse for not challenging myself, right? That's why the photo group I participate in--Click-ish Photographers--is doing weekly photo challenges in January. Follow along and see what we come up with! And check us out on Facebook as well!

Fairy

I was recently playing outside with my daughter, and she was running around and playing with sticks, rocks, etc. She loves to run under our neighbors' dogwood tree, which she was doing on this particular day. There was an opening in the branches and leaves, and I noticed her peek her sweet little face out of it. I was inspired, so I ran in side and grabbed my camera, knowing that it would be sheer luck if I captured the picture I was envisioning. I told her to peek her face through again, and I snapped a few pictures. Little did I know I would end up with this "golden" shot. She looks like a little fairy! Now I have a wonderful picture of her sweet little face that I can look at forever, no matter how old she gets.

A Lifetime

I've posted this picture on my blog before, so if it looks familiar, that's why. I took this picture shortly after I got my new DSLR. I was so excited. I was trying it out on anything and everything. I think I was just sitting there one day, looking at it, and looking around taking pictures of everything from the plants on my patio, to my child, to the ceiling light, to the carpet...everything! I haphazardly looked down and took a picture of my hand on my leg, and here we are! It's funny, because I didn't have a lot of emotion when I took the picture, but the picture evoked a lot of emotion in me. I look at this picture and see years of ups and downs in marriage. I see over 30 years of life and lessons, hardships and joys. I know that's not a lot, but there are times I feel like I've been through a lifetime's worth of experiences in my young life. I look at this picture, and see the covenant of love that I made with my husband in 2001 (do you know we've been married 10 years now?!), and I see the birth of our firstborn. I know this picture may not mean a whole lot to anyone but me, but it speaks many things to me. Who knew that I would end up with such an emotional picture as I carelessly clicked away?

Crazy

My husband and I can be a bit crazy sometimes. Usually, when one of us is crazy, the other is rational, but there are rare moments when we are both out of our minds crazy. My husband was the crazy one, the Thursday before Labor Day. He convinced me that it would be fun to take a spontaneous, 10-hour drive camping trip to Virginia Beach for the weekend with our two children, both under 3. It sounded fun, but I really thought he was a bit nuts. Not only was it a long drive, but we couldn't afford a huge vacation. His solution...take any food we had in the fridge/freezer/pantry with us. We had an air mattress, and a lot of our own camping gear. We didn't have a tent that would accommodate our family (we had a 2-3 man tent from our pre-children days). He said we could borrow one! My reasons for not doing it were dwindling. Besides, I like that he keeps me young by wanting to do such playful things! I looked online for available campsites at the area state parks. Nothing was available...no wait! There's one! Oops...it's taken. No wait...it's available again! I grabbed it. We were committed. Yikes! So, we threw our stuff together, found a willing friend who let us borrow their family's tent, loaded up the kiddos, and took off for Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend.

It was absolutely gorgeous, and we made some wonderful memories as a family. Was it a little crazy? Sure! But what is life without a little crazy to keep us sane?

Photo Challenge: White

I know, I know . . . it's been a while, huh? Since giving birth to my son in June, I've been a bit preoccupied. But, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm still photographing things, so stay posted! I haven't gone anywhere!

I subscribe to several photo blogs, to keep me inspired and thinking of new ways to capture the things I see. This week's theme at I Heart Faces is "White." Here's my entry:

It's one of my favorites from this past Easter. My daughter found these steps at the place we had stopped to take pictures, and kept going up and down them, over and over and over again. On this particular decent, she picked up her skirts—like Cinderella—and very daintily came down the steps. Whenever she's pretending to be a princess, she gets really serious about it, as you can tell by the focus on her face. I love it!

Cuddlebug

Our newest addition came into the world at 7:41 PM on June 14. Our family of three is now a family of four. Wow! I never could have imagined this, in my wildest dreams. It's a wonderful feeling to actually hold a baby who's been incubating inside for so long. It's nice to have them on the outside! Welcome to the world, little buddy!

There's no place like my 2nd home (Part 2).

There's no place like my 2nd home (Part 1).

There is a little section of the Southern Gulf Coast that is like another home to me. My heart yearns to return there every year, and when I do, I feel like I have returned to a piece of home. My family made the trip earlier this Spring, and it was delightful.

Flowers getting ready to bloom at the local zoo.

There was a lot of fog when we first arrived, but after it cleared away, we were left with a gorgeous sunset and beautiful surf.

Aahhhhhhh!

That's just a sampling. I'll share more later. Enjoy!