the laura kay blog »

So things are super busy here. This week I am catching up from my TX trip. I have all kinds of things going on right now. I am having a new custom blog and a new site built right now. We have been working on this for a few months and I am so excited it is almost finished! I think it will be so soon that I may hold all blog posts until I can share them on the new blog. Ok so where have I been? We drove to TX from VA. We got there on a Friday and Saturday I shot Brooke and Travis’s Wedding in Houston. Sunday I flew to Midland TX, rented a car then drove 3 hours to Marfa. I went on a girls photographer vacation trip. I met some of the most amazing women! I love each and every one! 13 of us met up in the middle of nowhere Texas and explored around the coolest little town I have ever seen! If you ever have the time to go see Marfa you will love it! So I stayed there until Wednesday when I drove 3 hours back to Midland and flew to Dallas then to San Antonio then drove another hour south to the Frio River. If you look at a map that day was really dumb as far as traveling but it was my only option to get to Will on his 5th Birthday! If this is getting too long and boring feel free to stop here. I am would be amazed if anyone has actually read this far anyhow. BUT I am going to finished just incase anyone cares.) We camped on the Frio with my family and my in-laws family until Sunday. Then we drove 5 hours back to TX. I hung out in Houston for a few days then I flew back to DC to shoot Mary and Chris’s Wedding. Then flew back to Houston. We had a fun 4th of July and then Monday we drove down to Galveston for a few days. Spent a few more days in Houston then we drove back to VA. We drove 4522 miles with 2 kids and our dog Molly. Now I am home and still trying to unpack and catch up on editing and emails. Crazy huh?  We actually have a blog if you want to see all of our work. marfa [trip] . Sadly I have only blogged on there once because I have been so busy. More to come soon on the new blog. I can’t wait!!

Lisa and I traveled to the Island of St. Maarten in the French West Indies weekend before last to shoot Chelsea and Mike’s Beach wedding. Everything was AMAZING and so relaxing! I could for sure get used to the island life. So Friday we just relaxed by the infinity pool, walked on the beach and enjoyed a little mini vacation. Saturday we woke up and had an amazing breakfast and hung out on the beach. I even went snorkeling because the water was so beautiful! If you know me you know I am a scaredy cat of swimming in the ocean. Probably because JAWS was one of my favorite movies as a kid.  So anyhow, isn’t this island stunning!!!! I kept my camera with me at all time because there was always something super cool to take pics of. Stay tuned for the wedding post. 

The Muehlendorf’s went camping this weekend. I have never been to West Virginia and I didn’t even know that is where we were going until half way on our drive. I love that we can be camping in such a beautiful place in a little over 2 hours! It was great. Windows down and good music makes for a super fun drive. Apparently AT&T does not have any cell towers there, but that is a good thing. I had a much needed relaxing time of doing noting but hanging out with my family. We cooked hot dogs, smores, and for breakfast we actually cooked bacon, scrambled egg with cheese and toast sandwiches on the campfire! Coffee from a percolator is wonderful when the sun is coming up. Our camp site was literally right next to this babbling brook that was like heaven listening to all night. It brought back so many childhood memories of camping  and we had so much fun and I can’t wait to get away and go camping again. 

Oh by the way I brought along my favorite little point and shoot (the canon g9) and snapped this pic of our tent. A little blurry but what can you expect for a timed exposure with no tripod.

I just wanted to post a few quick pictures to express my love for Dr. Seuss books. My family enjoys the super silly reads. Kate can read them faster than I can practically and Will just loves to be read to. This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss’s Birthday and the love of his books and books inspired by him. Here are few of our favorites. Read one  today and remember how fun they are!  Will’s favorite is Horton Hears a Who and Kate loves One Fish two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Which is your favorite?

On Tuesday I went on this super fun girls shoot.  Eliesa of Photogen inc. , Sarah of Sarah Rhoads Photography, Danielle of Mind Castle, Melissa of Melissa Louise Photography and my super good friend Brooke of Brooke Schwab Photography went out and had some fun! Cadence and Eli modeled for us and they were so fun and super HOT! We had a blast in old Vegas. We went downtown on Fremont street and just wondered around together. It was so good to get out and shoot with other amazing photog. women. This has really inspired me to do more fun just because shoots. Models Wanted! Also the one single call I attend while I was in Vegas was a completely not planned and I had no clue what it was about when I sat down but I could not have hand picked a better class for me. I was inspired. Really truly inspired! Tanja Lippert spoke about “Dork Energy”. Seriously! I know I am a dork and I am comfortable with it but holy cow! I can not even begin to explain what it was like sitting there in that room. CRAZY!!! Tanja is awesome and I am so excited to try out a few of her tips. Speaking of. This time coming to WPPI was different. I know I talked about this a little bit but here is the difference. Two years ago I went still trying to find myself in this art. Still looking for me and what kid of art I was going to make. I didn’t even reallize that at the time. So instead of leaving with my head spinning and feeling lost I left feeling inspired and excited. I am so blessed to have photography actually be my job. I love my life! 

Well I’m back and I am still tired. I had so much fun and meeting a ton of new people, hanging with friends and getting inspired is what I would say this trip was all about. The WPPI convention was fun! Amazingly I walked away from the huge and amazing trade show only purchasing one thing: a cool new camera strap. That is it! I have come home with a new wish list of lenses but no impulse buying for me this time. So I went with my great friend Brooke and if you want a play by play of our trip read her current blog post. I am amazed she remembered all of that! Anyhow my highlight of the trip was a super fun shoot in old Vegas. I went with 5 other photographers some some girl time and fun shooting and playing around together. Cadence and Eli modeled for us and they were HOT! We went down to Freemont street in downtown Vegas. It was amazing to get off of the strip and breathe some fresh air for a few hours. This fed my hunger for shooting. So here is the sad news: I lost my voice. If you can imagine being in vegas and the point of your trip is to network and talk with everyone and then all of the sudden you can’t do that. ummm. Not  so fun! During the day it was not so bad you could still hear me, I sounded raspy but it was ok.  But nighttime was a different story. Each night we had 2 or 3 parties to go to and the music was so loud no one could hear me. So I gave up and did not make it to all of the parties. Oh well I guess I should not have talked so much the first day. I will write more about my time in vegas and post more pictures soon. I also have to tell you all about what inspired me and what I learned. For now here is a super cool sneak peek!

So our snow day just kept getting better. First Josh came home early and we made a snowman. Then our friends the Jacobsen’s came over with their sled and we went to the hill to have some fun. I went down with Will and tumbled with him. When we sat up he had snow up his nose. oops! We had so much fun and I can say I am so glad we lived here and got to experience this. We need to get some snow clothes before we have another snow day. We all had so much fun today!!! The perfect way to end this snow day was with hot chocolate and coffee.

YAY snow! So this is officially my first snow ever in my whole entire life! We got out first thing this morning and played for a little bit. Kate made her first snow angel which she has always wanted to do. We are back inside warming up letting it snow more and hopefully in a little bit we are going to go sledding and play in it more. I am sure I will have more pictures to celebrate this super cool fun day! 

I just thought I would share this little collection of images. I was playing around just for fun but then I decided I would blog it. Happy Friday everyone! 

Last night I went to CoCo Sala in DC for some food and drinks with other ladies in this fun wedding industry. Maria with the Ritzy Bee invited us to get together and hang out. Being that it was 1. Cold 2. Downtown and 3. This close the the Inauguration is was amazing that I made it. I am trying to avoid Downtown right now because they are already setting up road blocks and events are about to start happening and it is just going to be crazy busy. Poor Josh has to work the whole thing but I am just going to stay home. Anyhow Last night was so fun. CoCo Sala was amazing. I love chocolate and i had a new twist on one of my favorite drinks. A chocolate mojito. YUM! I took my little Canon G9 point and shoot along because I always forget to take a camera when I get together with friends and it is just so fun to take snapshots. Big cameras stay home most of the time. It was so great to see Maria (Ritzy Bee) and Vicky Choy (event accomplished). It was also amazing to meet Laura Auer (Wish Special Events), Chana Brissett , Meagan McKechnie (RSVP Catering) and Kate Headly (Kate Headley Photography). We had so much fun eating and drinking chocolate everything! Thanks Maria!!!

me I never take pictures of my self but for some reason decided to. 

me, Laura and Vicky

Maria and Kate

Maria, Kate, Megan, Chana, me, Laura and Vicky. I think it is so funny that Maria’s face is half cut off. thanks stranger at the restaurant. And doesn’t it look like I am in Chana’s lap. I’m not but it looks funny!