No – not the tickling cough and runny nose that is going around!!  The photography bug!  Ohmigoodness – we have definitely been bitten and love spreading it around!  I absolutely love sharing my love of photography and the knowledge I have gained over the years!  On that note… we have had quite a few of our Creative Bent families invest in amazing cameras and really have no clue how to use them!  I totally understand how overwhelming it can be!  So we decided to hold 2 (maybe even 3 if the interest is there) photography workshops!  Woo hoo!  (Is your heart fluttering yet?  Mine is!)

We are extremely excited about the first workshop (March 4th) in the line up!  This one is designed to cover the basics and to set the foundation for learning all there is to know about photography!  The second workshop will be much more in depth and even have a little bit of time built in to photograph together and practice with your camera!  The third workshop (if anyone is interested in a workshop that will cover this material) will build on the topics covered in the first two workshops as well as talk about what happens after you download your images – post production, digital editing, photoshop, etc.).

This is so exciting!  I can’t wait!  There are a limited number of seats available – so if you are interested you need to act fast!  For more information use the link above for “workshops.”

All the details:

If your little one was photographed in 2011 and you’d like to play with us in our Creative Bent ~ Cutest Baby of 2011 Contest just send us a quick e-mail to let us know you’d like to join in on the fun!  If you have a specific image in mind please feel free to describe it (of course Anna will know which one you’re talking about) – or trust Anna to pick out her favorite from the year!  The contest will be all Facebook based – the little ones entered in the contest will have their images uploaded to a “Cutest Baby of 2011″ folder on Creative Bent’s Facebook page!  Make sure to tell your family and friends to “like” Creative Bent so they can “like” your little one’s image!!  The baby with the most “likes” at the end of the voting period wins!

• e-mails (to be in the contest) must be received by Friday, February 24th
• voting begins Monday, February 27th
• voting ends Friday, March 9th (can you believe March is around the corner!!)
• super fun prize for the winner – TBA  (it’s AWESOME!!)  :)

So… I guess the questions is… wanna play!?

To view an example of a “fusion” video – check out the Koerber Boys 2011.

These two precious kids are Brooke’s boys.  For those of you who don’t know Brooke (because our bio’s section is still “under-construction”) – she is our accountant/office manager, calendar organizer, Anna organizer, facebook-er, e-mailer, and phone girl!  :)  She is absolutely amazing here at the studio and BONUS: she has two adorable kids that I use as my own personal photography models when I have crazy new ideas!  (Thanks Brooke!!)

Be sure to comment on how stinkin’ cute her boys are… she’ll love that!  :)

Baby L came over to play on Monday.  I can’t believe she is already 4 months old!  And you won’t be able to believe all of the beautiful dark brown hair she has hiding under that hat – check out our Facebook page next week to see more images of baby L!  :)

Stay warm!

Christmas is almost here and December is almost over.  As much as I LOVE this time of year I’m happy to see that the rush (at Creative Bent) is coming to an end and I am finally able to enjoy the holidays like everyone else!  :)  

That being said – I can’t wait to blog a little bit about some of the awesome sessions from October, November, and December!!  (what on earth was I thinking trying to start a blog before the chaos of this season)  Stay tuned… more images to come… but I couldn’t resist sharing this image of baby B! Every time I look at it it makes me laugh – and no, it was not digitally enhanced – the stream was actually bouncing off his arm!

Hope it brings a smile to your weekend!

I love the way fall weather feels – the damp cold mornings, the warm sun in the afternoon (not so much today), and the warmth of our fire pit on a night.

I love the sound of the leaves crunching under my feet and the wind blowing them out of the trees.

I love the clothes!!  (What girls doesn’t?!)

I love that Christmas is right around the corner – my FAVORITE time of year!  (I could listen to Christmas music year-round if my mother wouldn’t kill me!)

And I absolutely love the colors!  What a beautiful time of year to be a photographer!

When customers ask if I have an opinion on the best time of year is to photograph outdoors, my answer is always that I love every season for different reasons – and I’m not just saying that to be agreeable!  I really do love photographing outdoors any time of the year – really truly!  But who doesn’t LOVE some fall color in their photographs!

The image above is from one of our recent high school seniors!  She is stunning isn’t she?!  Beautiful weather, beautiful fall color, beautiful girl to photograph… it doesn’t get much better than this!

Enjoy the fall days while they last!

I love this couch.  Seriously, I can’t get enough of it.

For those of you that have been to the studio in the past month for outdoor images know about my couch.  You may not know about my obsession with it… but you’ve probably sat on it, your kids have probably jumped on it, your puppies have probably drooled on it, and it will probably grace the walls of your home in your images!

I think I have a problem.  I really do love this couch!  It’s beautiful, and funky, and heavy as all get out, and grungy, and photographs amazingly, and I like it!  Just thought I’d share!

I feel this is a sad way to start a blog… and I’m a little afraid that it says something about my blossoming relationship with yet another online media!  I’m terrible about texting people back (my close friends/family know to call the studio!), I rarely check my personal e-mail, my hubby set up my personal Facebook account (I’m still unsure of my username/password), and Brooke (Creative Bent’s accountant/calendar keeper/e-mail guru/etc.) updates our business Facebook account… and yet here I am.  Starting a blog.  We’ll see how this goes!

I do really LOVE the idea of being able to stay connected with our Creative Bent Peeps, show everyone the fun and exciting things that are going on at the studio, as well as share a little bit of our personal lives!  Those of you that are already Creative Bent clients know that everyone pretty much feels like family – and for those of you we haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet – I hope this gives you a feel for who we are and what we are all about!

Enjoy the CB blog… and wish me luck – I’m holding my nose and jumping in!