Have you heard?!?! . Personal

So if you haven't already heard Photos by Misty Smith is moving at the end of this month. I would have posted about it later but with the military we weren't sure exact dates and all so I wanted to know what was going on before letting the world know. So where are we going you might ask? We're getting out of the Marines (well Drew is but you know what I mean) and we're moving back home to lil ol Gretna for a while. We'll be moving again in a couple of months or so but for a bit we'll be in Gretna so if you are in the area and have ever wanted photos done by me here is your chance to not have to catch me on the odd weekends/weeks I come home for sessions. I have some big changes in the works for next year so be sure to "like" my page on Facebook so you'll know what those changes are and when they go into effect. Right now we will be moving the last weekend in October and then will be taking a trip to Philly to visit friends the first weekend in November so after we get back from all our travels I will start booking sessions in Va. If you are wanting Christmas photos book before December 12th I'll also throw in some custom Christmas cards for those that book a session with me before that date in Va. I'm excited to be moving back and starting my business up where we grew up, it's going to be another fun adventure. Although I am very sad to be leaving Beaufort, I never thought I'd say it but I will miss it here. I've had some amazing clients that have turned into great friends, I've traveled so much while here photographing amazing people, I've really gotten a chance to watch my business grow here and I'm going to miss it.
Ok before I start to cry I'm going to move on haha.
Last month I got the opportunity to travel to Houston Tx for Ali and Patrick's wedding which was a blast, my best friend Brandee came down from Dallas to stay with me which was awesome since we hadn't seen each other in 2 years!! I also got to see Ashley and Gunnar again (it's been 2 years since seeing them) and I got to meet Cassie and her two handsome lil boys. I was introduced to the ginormous galleria in Houston which made me wish I had a ton of spending money.  Here are some of my favorites of my personal photos from the trip

 My dad picked me up from the airport and we stopped at this church ruin on the way back which was pretty cool



 My kids are growing way too fast, I know I'm behind in blogging my 52 week photos, I have them I'm just very slow at blogging them. My goal is to blog at least twice a week and if I do that I want to upgrade my blog to a nicer one but I need to stay consistent with my blogging before I do that :) I rented the 16-35mm for the Texas trip and got to use it on some shots of the kids too which was fun. I want that lens lol

Jax is getting so big!! He needs to slow down!

Keeley loves her baby Belle

He's finally doing tummy time more and not screaming

We went home for Dana and Matt's wedding and I was able to photograph the kids playing at my parents house
So that's the end of my long personal post I have a ton of client photos I need to blog and lots of galleries to get up for clients so be on the lookout for all of that too :)

Fabric Bracelets . Tutorial

Yesterday for Mothers Day my friend Katie and I went out on a photo adventure where I got to get in front of her very talented lens once again for some maternity photos before Jaxon make his appearance (hopefully sooner than later because the are you carrying twins thing is getting old, no I'm not carrying twins just one big boy that's going to be a football player like his dad lol). The night before when I was getting things together for the shoot I knew I wanted to make something fun, I was going to do a headband but decided to put one of the ones I had made my daughter to good use since she's not a fan lol. I was looking in my fabric bin and came across all the scraps that I had left from Jaxon's quilt and it made me think about a blog Ashley from Under the Sycamore had posted while her daughter was in the hospital and I knew what I wanted to do.

(photo by Kathleen Amelia)
I wanted to make these bracelets which turned out to get a lot of questions on facebook about where I got them so I wanted to share how I made them in case anyone wanted to make some of their own :) I know there are probably a ton of tutorials out there on how to make them but here is mine :)

skinny bracelet
start out with a wide piece of fabric that is longer than the circumference of your wrist


I'm a huge fan of ripping fabric so I cut the two slits in the fabric to start


then rip till you get about an inch or a 1/2 an inch from the edge



then cut a slit in that area, not too wide though


braid the fabric and then knot it off at the end, make sure it will fit around your wrist before knotting it off


take the knot and pull it through the slit at the top and there you go


if it's longer than needed once you get it on wrap the extra around the bracelet and you can tuck the extra around the slit in if you'd like it's totally up to you


The Chunky Bracelet
Start with lots of random strips of scraps, once again longer than the circumference of your wrist, I like to do at least 9 strips


Tie a knot at the top to gather it all together and start braiding


once you get to where it is at a length where it will fit around your wrist (and go over your hand to get it on) take the top knot and insert it into your braiding area and braid a little bit


then take your braiding ends and tie them together so you're securing the braid which will make your finished product look like side by side knots


There is really no right or wrong way to do this, it's just the way I like to do it and it's so easy and fun you can make a ton! I've also done necklaces like this for my daughter to play with which is a lot of fun and a great way to use all my scraps.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and ignore my not so awesome photos, I cannot hand hold 1/15th of a second with one hand very well lol
Be sure to check out Katie's blog for the rest of my maternity photos (which I recommend every pregnant lady do because I felt so pretty doing them!) and Ashley's blog which contains a ton of amazing tutorials and a look into her life with her family
I should have one more blog before Jaxon's arrival and newborn photos (which I know I'm really behind on blogging, I need to fix that before I hopefully get a new blog this fall :) ) So be on the lookout for that :)

Happy, now 2 hours belated, Valentines Day . personal

I'm slacking with this I know but today I spent the majority of the day off the computer and on the couch with my loves watching movies, playing with Keeley and snapping some photos of her in her adorable outfit :) I decided to take a break from crocheting this beanie for Keeley to share some photos from today :) I pulled out my good old Rebel to snag some of these to get a wider POV since I have yet to get anything wider than my 50mm for my 5D, It's crazy how much lighter the rebel is than the 5D.
I've been taking a family photo of us each week since Keeley was born, the photo on the right is this weeks, I can't believe it's week 50, in two more weeks (well technically 3) my baby will be one, kinda crazy. She's already getting to the I don't want to take photos with mom stage (on the left)



She's gotten to where she hates wearing her headbands, hats, anything on her head which makes me sad, but the cute thing is, she'll take them off then try to put them back on



she's learning how to share (see she wants to share her cherios with you)


here is her Valentines day stocking I made her, she wasn't a fan


and I got her to model the stocking I made Brady so his mommy could see what it looks like on


After this beanie I'm going to be knitting up some newborn things that I'm excited about and hopefully borrowing some babies to take pretty photos so be on the lookout for that :)
I hope everyone had a great Valentines day!

new header

I have to say I'm very proud of this header, if you know how to use Flash you're probably like this is the easiest thing in the world to do you're a loser but you know I had no idea how to use Flash until about 3 hours ago and after lots of looking on youtube and trial and error I finally got it right. So instead of posting a photo with this blog the header will be the photo
on a technical note I have no idea how to code it to repeat and will look for that later so there are 33 photos in the header and when it gets to the end it stays on one of my favorite photos
I will have a new blog this week of a fun family so be on the look out for that :)

Wedding album love

I love love love love love flush mount panoramic albums they are amazing and I'm super jealous I don't have one of my wedding photos, so instead I love making them for my clients :) Here are some snapshots of the Rushton wedding album.

can I just say

how much I love

being on a limited budget I can't always own the lenses I want when I want to which is where the awesome people at borrowlenses comes in. I'm able to rent a variety of lenses (or other equipment) whenever I need to and for as long as I want to. The next to my to buy list is the 16-35mm lens, so until I can get it I'm renting it for my upcoming Cali trip to get some awesome fishy photos of the scenery out there :) If you're thinking about buying a piece of equipment but aren't sure if it's what you want, rent it first and see if you like it, it's as easy as that. Click on the link above or at the bottom of my page to be directed to their site :)

there aren't enough hours in a day

I wish I had a blog full of photos ready to post but sadly I don't. I'm currently working on Whitney and Trent's album, editing Dana's shoot and Brooke and Keith's wedding, and doing the normal mommy to a 5 month old and 4 furbabies and wife things. There aren't enough hours in a day and I don't have enough hands but I'll have it all done soon :)
Until then check out Keeley's cuteness, she's already gotten her front bottom two teeth :) her and her new toothy grin :P

new look

whatcha think? I'm still adding to it but it's pretty much done :)
I can't do another blog without a photo so here is one of Keeley when we were home on leave, can you see her two bottom teeth that are coming in?


thanks to I *heart* faces for their tutorial on templates I had been searching for one the past couple of days and the one they blogged ended up being the one that worked the best for me :)

excuse the mess

I'm working on a new layout for the blog so it will be a mess until I get it all right. Check back for the finished project :)

California photoshoots

I figured I would put this on the blog so everyone could see from facebook and myspace.
I just booked me and Keeley's ticket to Cali for Sept 9th-16th. So far I have gotten 8 people interested in a photoshoot on the weekend which is the limit I will take, I will be doing 4 on Saturday in Oceanside, so you have the choice of the pier and beach or the city of Oceanside and then 4 on Sunday at the Del Mar dog beach (near the racetrack) if anyone is interested in that, if not we can do Oceanside again. I have 3 slots open on Saturday starting at 10:00, and all 4 slots open on Sunday starting at 8:00, each shoot will last about and hour and half. So what I need from you to secure your shoot is a $50 non-refundable deposit which goes towards the price of the shoot. The only reason I'm asking for the deposit is I have to pay for my ticket before I get out there and the photoshoots are funding the trip. Message me with the information on getting the deposit to me and the time in which you want for which day.
If you would like a shoot during the week message me about that, I'm not sure how many of those I will take.
I'm very excited about all of this and can't wait to take ya'lls photos :)

example oceanside photos



example delmar beach photos