It's Alive!!!!

www.BrianDawsonPhotography.com

I'll be moving my blog over to it in the next few days. There will be a link to it on the top of the site. Thank you all so much for your encouragement and smiles! You've all made me look good!

BD

Lily's Horse Birthday Party

Kids + horse rides + animal control + pinatas + cake = always good times. The kids loved the horse rides on Bobo and whatever the pony's name was. Apples? Dale? Brennan? Can't remember. Everything was going smoothly with the pony rides down the street until the fuzz showed up. I couldn't believe my luck! I had a camera in hand and was ready to shoot Greg getting maced, but he talked his way out of any tickets or jail time. Actually, there ended up being no problems at all with him hosting pony rides in the school playground. Good for the birthday girl, bummer for me and my camera.



Lily's party had a nice horse/ cowgirl theme to it.







But, the choice of a horse pinata struck me as odd. I mean, the kids are riding horses, petting the ponies, painting pictures of them and then they round out the night by beating the crap out of one. And then they feasted on it's spilled innards. You can see it on the pinata's face. He knows what's coming.





The horse rides were a lot of fun for the kids. There was one little cowboy who came dressed for the occassion, but lacked the courage to get in the saddle. I can't remember if he ended up riding or not, but he won the prize for Best Dressed Party-goer.





Lily seemed like she had a blast. I didn't know if she was going to be hungry for cake after her snacks. First was silly putty.



Then, the horse candle.



My kids loved the party. Torrey got to lead the kids on one of the horses around the park.



And Jake apparently got on a horse for the first time. Hopefully, the last as well.





Finally, Leah stepped in a had her usual amazing photo shoot. This girl loves the camera.





And, then the ride off into the sunset. Of suburbia.

More Moors!

A few Moor shots from our session on Friday and a shot of tubing on the Yampa.

Invasion of the Moors

I'll have more photos to post soon, but I knew Paul and Sal would want to see these ASAP. Here's a sneak peek from the shoot this morning with my nephews and from this last week with the Moors and the Smiths.

The Cobbler's Children...

...now all have shoes! Or portraits, that is! I finally got up the motivation (aka I was told that my wife and the kids and my camera were all in the car) to head out to the park and get some shots of my other two children. I'm pretty sure this is everybody now. It was hard to keep Zach in one place for very long. The park was crawling with rabbits and he would smile for a minute and then tear off after them. The pictures turned out really well, including one great shot of my amazing wife. I also got the best picutres of Leah ever. How did I get such great looking kids?? Have you seen me?? Imagine what they'd look like had Heather married an attractive person! You'd only be able to look at the afterglow of her kids as they passed by you on the street for fear of melting like you just looked into the Ark of the Covenant.







Favorite Leah picture ever!



Took this quick shot of my beautiful wife.





This look is Zach's classic "I made the devil do it" face. You read that right.

Too Good A Day To Pass Up - REMIX!!

Due to some negative (albeit funny) remarks about my previous post, I'm choosing to edit this entry!!! Ok, so my wonderful wife pointed out that I've been taking pictures of everyone's kids but our own. The nice 8x10s we have on our family room wall were taken 13 months ago. I offered to switch them out for 8x10s that I took around Christmas, just to get our pictures within the last year. But, she won out and these shots are the result. Actually, there were quite a few good ones in the bunch. I can't believe how old Jake looks in them. It's one of those times where you see your kid and instantly know how he'll look when he's 16 or 18. He was more interested in chasing the rabbits that were all over the place than standing still for a picture, but we still got some of him. I know I'm getting in a rut by shooting in the same location everytime, but my little town isn't really a cultural hub. Instead of gardens with sculptures and old cathedrals with amazing architecture, we have a Dick's Sporting Goods and the old sugar beet mill. Granted, we also have the Rocky Mountains in our backyard, but whatever.




Could he look any older???

Como!

Torrey and I got back from 5 days at Camp Como with RMCC yesterday. We were both exhausted, but refreshed from a fun week at camp. I was a counselor in a cabin of 11 6th grade boys. I'm amazed at how kids at that age never seem to run out of energy or creative ways to say 'fart'. Even 2 hours after "Lights out"... when you're totally exhausted... and your bunk is 3 inches too short for you... and the whole room smells like a pile of sweat socks left overnight in a sauna. And then, everyone finally drifts off to sleep and you can finally try to salvage the few remaining hours of sleep, only to have one kid start a coughing fit that lasts until 3am. Good times!

Como is a tiny little "town" that's settled in an amazing valley in SW Colorado. The campground is probably three times the size of the actual town itself. And, with 140 kids in attendance, we probably quadrupled the town's population. The camp experience was great for both Torrey and I. It was a time of spiritual renewal and healing for a lot of campers and staff. I found myself wishing that we could do it all over again as soon as Sunday arrived. Can't wait for next year!