I'm the Fireman, Fire, F-Fireman

LiL Wayne- Fireman.....

Maybe a little inappropriate for a public blog, but, what the heck...background music!



Josh, being supportive of my new adventure, encouraged me to come up to his school and take pictures. (OK- really, I think he just wanted pictures of him looking all important in his fire gear :)

I told him I'd love to, but he had to clear it with his instructors first. He called me before hand to tell me how to get there and what to do.

J: "Go to the office, tell them who you are and they will tell you how to find the instructors. They'll all be expecting you and then they'll tell you where to go, it'll be fine!"

Here's what actually happened....

I show up, walk up to the office to see a sign that says "Closed in honor of President's Day"

Well, so much for the office knowing I was coming....

"okkkkkkkkaaayyy", I think to myself.

I awkwardly walk through the big old garage where they keep the fire trucks, looking like a lost puppy.

Some of the instructors see me and I can tell by the look on their faces before I even get close that they are NOT expecting me....

C: "Hi, I'm Chelsea, I'm Josh Woodward's fiance, I came to take pictures?"
I1: "Who are you?"
I2: "What do you want to do?"

Thanks Josh, thanks! lol

(In all fairness, Josh says he told someone who apparently was supposed to tell everyone else I was coming, so it's not Josh's fault)

Luckily the instructors were super nice and told me I could basically go wherever I wanted to go, just so long as I didn't take any pictures of them. I agreed and started awkwardly walking around. Snapping pictures.



*le sigh* I had stalled long enough, time to introduce myself and ask permission to snap pictures. Josh was off running a drill and no where to be found, so he couldn't buffer the situation. I was flying solo!

The boys were all SO great and welcoming. They asked me who I was, they were super receptive to having their pictures taken and kind, so kind. But I was so nervous and so uncomfortable that I wasn't responding well to their jokes.

The guy in this picture....in the middle,


said to me...

JT: "You're Woodwards finace? I'm so sorry...."

Very funny- and now I can think of 100 witty things to say back- but at the time all I could do was laugh uncomfortably....

And this guy...
Noticed bruises on my legs and asked me if Josh beats me...

Again, very funny-

A witty response I can think of now? "only once or twice a week".

At the time?

Uncomfortable laughter.

Oh well.

If any of you boys are reading this, I'm really not as socially awkward as I may have come across... lol

Once I got my groove going and learned to quickly adjust to the MANY different lighting conditions, I got some good pictures of the boys...




A couple decent group shots....




And an artistic win-

Someone had made a comment to me to warn me not to hang around Josh the whole time. Because of this statement, I took it almost to the opposite extreme and barely hung around him at all. The shots I took of him were quick and unplanned, I didn't line them up very well but here are a couple that I managed to get of him....



All and all, the shoot was a success. I posted the pictures on the school's FB page and everyone was pleased with the work I had done. Now that I know how it works, I'd be happy to go back and try and get some more shots.....and maybe a couple more of my boy ;-)

If you're interested in seeing the entire shoot- you can view them on my flikr @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chelsealiz8/sets/72157625971950021/

OR if you are part of a group you'd like photos of and would be willing to let me practice, email me at chelsealiz8@Yahoo.com

Thanks for stopping by! Come again soon!

<3 CB

Sweet Tea

If you're sick of these pictures of Teagan being plastered all over my facebook and my flikr, maybe this isn't the post for you! LOL

Teagan is my niece. I should call her my "almost niece", being that Josh and I are not married yet, but I'm so head over heels for the girl it feels strange to call her anything else.

I felt a very strong attachment to Tea long before I ever met her and I started labeling her as my niece months before Josh even put a ring on my finger. I loved her right away.



This is one of the first pictures Josh ever sent me of Teagan when she was just a couple months old!



I met Teagan the day I moved down to Florida, and I stayed with Mandy and Bill for my first 2 weeks, so I got a chance to know my sweet niece very well in a short amount of time.
This is my first time meeting Tea- my first time holding her!

Ever since then I've only fallen more and more in love with the little girl.




I had been admiring other photographers blogs of children for some time, so when my camera arrived, I couldn't think of a better subject than Sweet Tea.

It was a very special evening for us. We headed down to Cape Coral Yacht club to take some photos on the beach, but also have some fun on the playground. The drive there seemed to take FOREVER. Teagan was so patient in my backseat, just reading books. I was stressing we were going to miss all the daylight!

We got to our destination and headed to the beach. Teagan had never been to the beach before. Being that she's had a couple surgeries and some pretty serious UTI's since she was born, she hasn't really been able to be near the sand and surf. Watching her try to stand in the sand and continually fall down was adorable. She'd get sand on her hand, look at it concerned and then show me her hand so I could dust it off. I snapped this picture shortly after I dusted some sand off her hand. The confused look on her face is priceless.

She held my hand, and we walked towards the water. After walking around a bit and continually saying "it's ok" as she looked up at me like, "what the heck is this all about", she was so happy and running up and down the beach while I snapped pictures.

We did a costume change shortly after. Teagan LOVES to dress up so I had no problem putting this little number on her.

People were watching her prance around and be cute, and I could tell by the smirks on their faces they thought she was adorable. A little girl, probably 8 years old, came over and started talking to me, asking me questions about my camera and our photo shoot. She was sweet. She asked if I wanted help making Teagan laugh and I told her if she could, go for it! I don't know what the girl was doing but Teagan was cracking up. Right as she stopped laughing she made this ADORABLE face and I'm SO glad I snapped it!


We took a couple other great shots of Teagan in her little Hula girl outfit! Check them out!


We put on a 3rd and final outfit and headed to the playground. I was more focused on actually playing with Teagan than snapping pictures while we were there- so I only took a couple! This one if my favorite of our play time! The lighting is off, but just look at that face!!

We finished up our shoot on the pier! She looks so old in these shots!!



And that about sums it up! I headed back to Mandy's for some pizza and to show off my shots of her gorgeous little girl. And while these weren't "part" of the shoot- these pictures melt me.....



Teagan Marie- Not only are you the smartest, sweetest, most well behaved little girl I've ever known, but you are GORGEOUS. You've ALWAYS held an extremely special place in my heart, even before I knew you! The kind of special where, sometimes you do something so cute, it takes everything in me to keep from tearing up! You were my first ever photo shoot! I'll always treasure it! I love you SO much! xoxox

Mandy & Bill- thanks for letting me borrow your kid! <3

If you want to see the WHOLE shoot- you can go to my flikr @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chelsealiz8/sets/72157626074145220

OR if you're willing to let me get more practice and shoot your kids- email me @ Chelsealiz8@yahoo.com

Thanks for stopping by!! Come again soon!!
<3 CB

Create Your Own.....

Here is my umpteenth attempt at hosting a blog- but I have high hopes for this one. My first entry deserves background music. Hit play and enjoy as you read.



This song pulled me out of a creative hiatus. Since moving to Florida, I haven't been motivated to create anything. My art was half-hearted, I tried to write and would get bored within the first few sentences, and even my music collection had suffered.

If you followed my now deleted blog about music, you know the impact music has on me, my life and my creative ability. My friend Sam once told me I was the only person she knew who had a song for every event in my life, significant or insignificant. That's one of my favorite descriptions of me, ever.

This song makes me feel happy and sad, excited and let down, ready to move on and not ready to let go all at the same time. Such has been my experience in Florida to date. It's as though I am always feeling all those emotions at the same time, shifting within me so quickly I don't even notice. As though I blink and it changes. But this song grabbed me, drew my attention to what was going on within me and allowed me to embrace it and create my own.

No, this blog is not going to be some weird and deep outlet for whatever the heck is going on my life, but I had to give you a bit of a back story to how this blog came to be.

I've created this blog to track my newest adventure into the world of photography. In only my first week with the camera, it's become my favorite medium.

Over the past couple weeks I've been googling, "How I started out in photography" or "what to take pictures of" and "how to take a good picture", and walking away unsatisfied, having not gotten the answers I wanted. I wanted someone to spell it out for me, a step by step, no fail program.

But then it dawned on me, there is no "right" way to begin, you just have to create your own story, hence the title of this post. :)

So here I go, starting with the very basics, the only place I know how to begin, we all have to start somewhere- a cliche name for a blog (I mean come on, say cheese?) and a cliche picture of me taking a picture of myself. I look forward to using less and less cliches over the next few weeks ;)



Thank you so much for stopping by my new blog! I hope to see you again soon! <3
-CB