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A big change...

I thought on this Easter Sunday celebrating miracles I'd annouce one of our own! We are adding one more boy to the family! And if you are counting, that means the boys totally out-number me: 3 sons, a husband, and even our dog. 

I'm pretty far along but we were a little shy to announce it sooner because of past problems. It's been 7 years since I've gone through any of this so it all feels new but we are so excited that it is finally happening! And our boys couldn't be more excited. They pat my stomach and talk to the baby daily. This baby is long awaited and will be much loved!

I had Grant snap an iphone photo just to prove it's true. I think this is the only exsisting pregnancy photo of me. I'm not so cute in the last few months of swollen pregnancy. You'll have to trust me on that because you won't be seeing any photos of the last month!

 

P.S. This makes 7 grandsons for my parents and no granddaughters! Quite the turn around from 3 girls and only one boy.

P.P.S. If you have any recommendations on baby products, clothing lines, strollers, things we do or don't need, you know all that stuff I'd be so grateful! Times and products have really changed in 7 years and we didn't keep any baby anything, we moved so often and then there was no room in our little Brooklyn apartment.

P.P.P.S I'll announce the class winner tomorrow morning so you have until tonight at midnight to enter!

A few of my favorite photographs from the last year, and a give-away...

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that I don't talk about business that often, but I've been getting lots of requests asking about workshops and classes I'm teaching and where they can find them. It's official! We are going to offer a summer session of Oh Shoot, the most popular photography class I have ever taught. I didn't teach an online class last summer because I was so busy teaching live workshops for Canon and in France, but the requests for a summer class were so high we decided to offer one session this summer!

The next session of this class will be May 23 - July 11, 2011.

Registration will begin May 9th, 9 pm eastern time.

You will want to be there right at 9 because the extended session of the class has been selling out within minutes each time!

There are two versions of the class:

$126 - Standard class: Includes all videos, class downloads, daily e-mails, as well as a private class forum and gallery. This is a great class for someone who wants to follow along or go at their own pace.

$179 - Extended class: All of the standard, plus comments on your photos by Candice. Class size extremely limited and fills up fast.

Here is the class description:

Oh Shoot! Beginning Photography

Do you have an SLR that's never left the automatic setting? Do the words aperture and shutter speed send fear to your heart? Join Candice for a 7-week, intensive, instructor-led class. You will receive lesson plans, assignments, and video tutorials, be able to join in live video chats with questions, and have your work reviewed by the instructor. You may start out class on automatic but you will leave with an understanding of manual!

Oh Shoot, is a beginning 7-week instructor-led photography online course just for beginning SLR users. In this course Candice Stringham will guide you to a greater knowledge of your camera and how it works. In just 48 days (with a small break in the middle if you need to catch up) you will be well on your way to better understanding of your camera and it's features. This class is PACKED with information, inspiration, and the benefit of a personal tutor as you begin your photography journey.

Let's summarize some of the features of our class:

• I'll walk you through the different modes on your camera and how to use them.
• I'll address basic camera techniques, teach you about finding and using natural light, and composition rules.
• Step-by-step video tutorials let you see and hear the techniques
• You'll get a lesson plan and assignment each week.
• You'll get an email from me 5 days a week for seven weeks (with a small break in the middle for catching up), with encouragement, coupons, and inspiration
• You'll get access to our private class message board, where you can chat with other participants about anything you like and there are T.A.'s that quickly answer any questions!
• I'll be available once a week for a class video chat to answer any questions about the lesson and assignment from the week, it's like being in a live class with me to not only tell you but show you the answers.
• You'll get access to our class image gallery, where you can upload your lesson photographs and get praise and feedback from other students and a critique from the instructor
• All of the videos you'll see will be available forever from your course home page at JessicaSprague.com. No expiration, even after the course ends!
• You'll also get a bonus downloadable handout and video about photography equipment and what to look for when buying cameras, lenses and accessories.

 

Learning photography is a journey, and it requires some investment. But I promise that learning how to use your camera will change the quality level of your photographs forever!

To sign up go to www.Jessicasprague.com

I'd like to give one spot in the standard class away! Post here with your email address to enter and tell me what you want to learn most about your camera. For a second entry, post about the class on your blog or facebook and comment one more time!

 

Please note the contest is closed! A winner has already been chosen! Just scroll up to the posts above.

 

My boys

There are times when I finish the day thinking I can't believe how completely blessed I've been in my life. It's not because of the physical things I have (we all know that those things can come or go i.e. a bad moving accident or a tornado) or my job although I'm grateful for those things. It's mainly because of my boys. I'm not sure how I ended up with them. There are so many times I feel like they are here to teach me to be a good person instead of the other way around. They are both so good hearted.

It's no secret that math is just not my thing. I struggled with it my whole life barely making it through the requirements in high school and college with the help of my very calm Dad and many hours of tutoring. Science wasn't that fabulous for me either. I always thought that I would have to marry someone in Math or Science to make up for my lack of skills, and then I married a theater major. So how it happened that our first child turned out to be a little academic genius I will never know. But there was Grant reading at three, placed in G.T. everything, 100 percent in math and science. He is ten years old and he wants to be an architect and go to Yale. He is taking a summer school class on how to draw renderings and a class on HTML design so he can create his own webpage, by his own choice. He is so goal oriented and organized, and this does not come from Mark or I. I am continually amazed that this little person is mine. I struggle to know what to do to help him reach his potential as I feel like he is already more advanced in life than I am at 32.

And then there is Cole, a brilliant light in everyones life that he touches. He is funny, and friendly and generous. He is not without his own smarts either. He can spell anything, which is also something that I am terrible at doing. (You know this because you read my horribly written blog.) He can memorize something after just hearing it once. He loves to pull out funny movie quotes at just the right time. He can make a friend out of anyone. But the thing I'm the most impressed with about him is his sense of compassion. We cannot have the news on when he is near or he gets really upset at the hurt that people are experiencing in this world. The news of the earthquakes in Japan made him cry nightly for several days until he donated all his allowance he had saved to the red cross through a school fund raiser. He is constantly trying to earn money for some cause or another that he wants to help with.

The other day we were at dinner, just Grant, Cole and I because Mark was in rehearsal. And I had an older woman come over to me and say that she had been watching and listening to us at dinner and she just wanted to thank me for raising such well behaved little boys. She said she had seen them open the door for me, and carry the tray of food for me to the table, they said please and thank you and ate quietly while chatting about their day at school and that she was so impressed that I did such a good job with them. I thanked her but said that the door opening came from their Dad who has impressed upon them the importance of treating their Mother and all other women with respect. (He never lets them talk back to me or treat me unkindly and he is a very good example of that himself) and that the rest of the credit really went to them.
I don't mean to go on and on but its been a while since I've talked about them so you will forgive me won't you?  We hadn't taken official portraits of the boys for quite sometime and since I had the white background up and my lights out for Mark's head-shots I decided it was the boys turn. I recently discovered that we have a Zara Kids here in San Antonio. I have found that it is really hard to find decent boys clothing once they pass the toddler age. I don't want everything to be a graphic tee or skull and crossbones but I refuse to pay Jcrew prices for classic looking clothing. So I was excited to find the simple yet classic look Zara has for boys. Both Grant and Cole have gotten to the point where they want to pick out their own clothes and I have given up trying to buy things for them without their approval because if they don't like it, it just sits unused hanging in the closet. The nice thing about Zaras was that I just let them walk around and pick out what they wanted for pictures and I knew there wasn't anything there that I wouldn't like as well. Win, win in my book.

Here are a few of the images:

 

And just so you don't think that my children are too perfect or that my job of a photographer is too easy. Here is how the photoshoot ended.

I said they were GOOD boys, not perfect. lol. They still hate getting their photographs taken, never-the-less, I love them.

Book Club

We have a little book club in our neighborhood. We meet once a month and whoever is hosting gets to choose the book. My wonderful sister-in-law gave me a copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society last year. I took a while to read it because it is written as an epistolary novel. And I've never liked reading the narritive of a book in letter style, but I couldn't have been more wrong about this book. I really loved it! And you learn to love the letters and the characters that wrote them. If you are looking for a great read with history and a little romance for good measure then you will love this book. 

I loved the book so much I wanted to do something special for book club and since it has been so lovely weather wise here I decided to set up a dinner in the backyard. I wish I had better photographs of it but since I was cooking, setting up, and decorating all myself, I barely finished in time! So I only took one or two as I was setting up and then one as we started eating.

The book takes place on the channel islands just off the coast of England during and after World War II so I wanted to base the dinner on that. I had purchased vintage linen table clothes at Round Top for just ten dollars a piece, so I used those on the table and added some strips of burlap. I used my plain white dishes for the plates and serving dishes. For place mattes I found file folders of the world  from Cavallini on sale you can find them here. I also used silver placecard holders that I bought ages ago from Dear Lizzie on a visit to Utah but have never had the chance to use. I think it added a little elegance to the mix of shabby I had going on.

 

The center piece was all from Marburger Farms and I can't really take credit for it because Jill had it set up in her booth just like this. It consists of a wreath with a factory gear on top of that, a white plate, a vintage linen napkin and a flower arrangement in a mason jar on top. I have to say I asked Mark to pick out white flowers from Central Market on his way home and he designed this bouquet himself! Isn't it pretty? Who knew he had such amazing flower skills!

 

I wanted to add a lot of candle light because the dinner was going to be at night so I added lots of votives and these little buckets that I filled with sheet moss and taper candles. I got mine at the Pottery Barn Outlet but I've noticed that Target has similar buckets to these occasionally in their dollar section.

Here is a quick look at how it appeared at night!

Mark hung lights in all the trees and I made garlands out of an old reciept book, vintage World War II photos, some tags from Seven Gypsies, mini clothes pins and twine. Really simple to make but it made a huge difference.

For the food I served Quiche Lorraine taken from Stephmodo's blog, it's always a hit. With spinach salad, fruit salad, cucumber sandwiches, and pink lemonade. For dessert my very kind neighbor brought over cupcakes and I had one at each place setting on these cute stands! I wish I had a photograph of them I'll take one soon and post it. One always needs a new reason to bake cupcakes!

Hope this gives you ideas for your next party!

 

 

 

The Man I love...

I'm  interrupting my posts on Round Top to post a few new head-shots of Mark. He was in a play this winter that required him to have long hair and a beard. In all of our years together he has never had a beard. In fact it takes quite a long time for him to even grow one. He was teased about it often as it grew in by his students. Just before the play began they decided that they liked the long hair but the beard was out so we decided to get a quick set of head-shots in before it was shaved. Mark likes the look of the lighting that photographer Mary Ellen Matthews used last season for the Saturday Night Live images. It's a very harsh direct light but we went with it! I think they turned out really fun. They will be perfect for when he is auditioning for a classic play or something sinister.

I've always been a clean cut sort of girl but honestly I really love the beard. I may just talk him into growing it back! He looks very handsome, no? And don't be fooled, he may look stern and brooding but anyone who knows Mark knows that he is one of the kindest, happiest, most charming men around. You don't get nominated for professor of the year twice in a row at your University if you aren't. And yes, I slipped that in there because I'm so proud of him! He is an amazing husband, the very best Dad, a fantastic actor, a beautiful singer and a wonderful teacher. I'm so thankful to have him in my life.

 

 

My personal Favorite

One of my Marburger finds

I bought an old tarnished silver urn from South Porch Antiques at Marburger. You can see how they displayed it in one of the photos in the post below.

I love when my Mom comes to visit because I can throw a bunch of random objects at her and tell her what I had in mind and then she creates magic. This time I told her I wanted a spring set up for my mantle but I didn't want it to be Easter bunnies and chicks because I wanted it to last longer. So we rummaged my house for things I already had like the tall glass apothecary jars, antique shakespeare books and the mercury candle sticks. I bought a few packages of moss, paper mache eggs (which we painted and glittered), and little white birds that I glittered in blues, white gold and green Martha glitter. We found a small curvy branch added that to a jar and placed the birds for our own version of an aviary.  I think it's turned out really beautifully! My Mom is pretty amazing at creating displays and we are a great team when working on projects! She just went home two days ago and I miss her already!

Back to Marburger Farms

My Mom visited this week to head out to Round Top Tx for the antique shows again! She also talked me into renewing the good old blog and begged me to post more photographs. You can't say no to your Mother right?

I thought we'd start out with a current post. One of our very favorite parts of Round Top is the Marburger Farms show. We always try to get there early and wait for the gate to open. It's so much fun to wander through the tents and the buildings looking at the displays that the booth owners put together. I thought that you might all like to see some of the photographs.

Almost all of the images were taken in the very first tent.  I got distacted by all the amazingness going on but as you can tell from all the many images it is well worth the price of admission!

I thought I'd start with the French Country images and booths that are so popular right now.

 

These images are all from South Porch Antiques. Karen has amazing styling skills and the booth was so well laid out. Patrick added Texas charm to the booth with his cowboy hat.

The next four images are from the Willows Nest. She has such a great selection and a good mix of new handmade items and vintage pieces.

Magnolia Pearl  is a clothing line that is always crazy popular at the show. I think it has a very Texan appeal and it is not something that I as a former NYCer have come to terms with yet but the styling of the booth is always stunning.

J Hill Designs has her own bedding line and as you can see she also has fantastic styling skills. I really loved her booth. It seemed like the French Country booth owners also have some of the best designed booths.

I've always thought that these plastic letters that are fairly common were tacky but when paired with the vintage paper and clip boards they are really great. Again, it's all in seeing the potential an item has.

We saw this bowl of crochet thread at the East of L.A. booth. We've decided in our travels that everything looks better if you add a black number to it.

This is from the French Vanilla Booth

This what happens when you have a photographer for a sister...

She gives you photos for a present. My baby brother is getting married! He is the last of our family to be married and he picked a lovely girl!  I flew out a month ago to shoot their engagement photographs. I thought I'd share a few favorites here.

I think these all turned out really well. And it was fun to spend time with Brenna and Eli. On the way home  from one of the locations we shot at, we stopped and took a few more for fun. Sometimes I see images that just stick with me and I like to see if I can mimic them. Just to know if I can, like we did in school assignments. Professors would show us an image from the 20's or 60's or current and say...see if you can figure out how they lit this and then we would create it. Sometimes to great success and sometimes it was not even close but we learned either way. When we saw this location I knew it would be a perfect chance to try out the lighting that Mark Seliger used on his cover of Robert Downey jr. I think Mark Seliger is a brilliant photographer. And when every other girl my age was drooling over the New Kids on the Block, I was crushing on Robert Downey in "Only You". I loved that movie. So when I saw this image I just had to see if I could do it. You know, for fun. 

I think we pretty much "nailed it" as my brother said. We shot all of these next images in about 15 minutes as a storm was rolling in and we didn't want to get hit by it.

Rolling Stones/Mark Seliger/Robert Downey Jr.

Utah/Me/Eli

I got the pose reversed, and I wish there was more catch light in the right eye. The sky was different too. But, I think it's fairly close.

Obviously this was just for fun. But we did do these too.

Totally different, but I love them! 

I just hope they like them!

In the land of Oz

One week ago I was sitting in my office and it looked like this...

 

It's messy and cluttered but that is how my office looks when I'm creating and in the middle of a class. 

This is what my office looks like now...

Thats right, it's empty. And no I'm not moving again. Everything had to be moved out because our house was hit by a tornado...yep...you are reading that right. A tornado. And it quite literally took the roof off. The entire back half of the house was ripped open and our roof is currently sitting in the yard across the street. Of course it was raining at the time so the family room, hallway and our master bedroom had rain pouring in, awesome. 

The good news is that we are all fine, and the front half of the roof stayed on so a few rooms were spared. Friends and our insurance agent were there in moments and helped us move everything we could into dry places. I can never thank them enough. And I've never been more thankful for insurance in my life than I am right now. And seriously I'll let you know again in the future after all the repairs are finished but if you live in San Antonio and need insurance, state farm and in particular our agent, is the best! 

Right now they have packed the whole house and they are going to replace the floors, ceilings, walls, and furniture. So everything had to be moved out into storage. We are at a hotel. And everything is fine. I just won't be posting as often. 

After loosing a lot of our belongings 8 months ago and buying all new furniture for our family room and having this happen I'm starting to think that the universe is trying to teach me a lesson. It's been a very unlucky year for us...it can only go up from here right? Please? 

 

Right now.

Right now I can hear my boys up stairs giggling. They think that they have secretly crept up the stairs with flashlights and duped me into thinking they are asleep, when really they are reading an extra chapter from Peter in the Star Catchers under the covers. Grant is reading aloud to Cole in between nervous laughter and I being in my office directly below his room can hear everything. 

But if we are dealing in secrets tonight, then I carry the upper hand, as I love the fact that they like reading so much it's a special act of rebellion. So I will let them carry on for another half an hour before I make lots of noise walking to their bedrooms (giving them enough time to hide the aforementioned flashlights) and go to their door and shake my finger at them while telling them to "Please go to sleep". 

Then I will kiss them on the top of their heads and wish them good night and I will grab the flash lights from under their pillows. Because while I like that reading is their way of rebellion it's also important for them to know that as their Mother I know everything about them, even their secrets. 

It's a weekly tradition. And I love it.