Life Through a Lens

New Blog!!

2010-06-26T16:41:00.000-05:00

So sorry for the delay in posting - all my time has been spent on the new blog! As good as blogspot has been to my business in its early days, it is time to move on.

http://www.laurieruthphotography.com/blog

Come on over - lots of exciting things are happening!

My Paris Bride

2010-06-01T13:17:00.000-05:00

You don't think this looks like Paris? It is, I promise, just the one in Texas, however (complete with 35 mile an hour winds that day). I have been chompin at the bit to post these for the past few months and since Miss Friday became Mrs. Bunch this past Saturday - I now can. Jaclyn - you were the definition of a beautiful, southern bride. Congratulations!

Then off to their beautiful church, First United Methodist

And a few from last Saturday - Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Bunch!!!

89 and Fine!

2010-05-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

I wonder what it is like to live through 89 birthdays! To Grandma Norma - you are a star in every sense of the word. Here's to 89 more.

My Spring Mama.

2010-05-11T23:37:00.002-05:00

Who looks this good 7 months pregnant laying in a field in 93 degree heat? She does. More, many more, to come.

Eating my words.

2010-05-06T23:26:00.000-05:00

So remember when I went on and on about my love of black and white (and mostly grainy film) beach shots? Well, two days later I took these. And it just wasn't in me to shoot in black and white with this sunset.

Here is the lovely, lovely Persson family. Their baby Dane is a force of nature! And with his genes, he is going to be quite a ball player, one day. Thanks for the lovely evening, guys! And Eric, the steak you made that night will never be forgotten. best. one. i've. ever. had.

Once the sun did set, we headed home to play (and eat)

Beau is Two (at the Zoo)!

2010-05-02T01:03:00.001-05:00

Guess who is 2 whole years old! Can you believe it? Beau is really into zoo animals these days so where better to take his pictures than at the best one around? We had a great time watching his reaction to each animal, making the appropriate animals sounds (his elephant is spot on) and just getting to live in Beau's world for a while. Happy Birthday big guy! You are pure joy.

Love,

Aunt B

After the zoo, we headed out on Beau's land to what else - splash in the puddles!

Hugo.

2010-05-01T21:03:00.000-05:00

Hugo and I are old buddies, now. He is a regular at the dog park and I have been trying to get a shot of this busy body for a while now. Today, I succeeded! How can you not love this face?

Moffats at the Beach

2010-04-25T00:52:00.002-05:00

Besides a tall golden field in the late afternoon, not much makes me happier than black and white pictures on a beach. I know - you would think I would love the blue sky, the deep color of the water or the golden beach - and I do, I just love them even more in black in white.

Here are the Moffats at shot back in January on a warm, sunny day in San Diego. Oh to shoot these wonderful people in this wonderful place, every day.

Okay - maybe one in color.

The Brier Family

2010-04-19T01:06:00.001-05:00

Meet the Brier Family. It was a photographer's dream shooting on their beautiful land on the outskirts of Grandbury, Texas. And it was quite entertaining getting all of the dogs to sit still in the second to last shot. Well worth it, in my opinion. Enjoy!

Taylor, After Hours

2010-04-05T23:33:00.001-05:00

I enjoy exploiting my family, whenever they will let me. Let's continue with cousin Taylor. I shot these a few months back on a lazy, Sunday afternoon. He had just gotten back from church and with his tie loosened, we were teasing him that he looked like he had just got back from a long day at the office. Thus Taylor, after hours. And yes, his eyes are really this blue.

Hope this helps with the ladies, cousin. (like you need it.)

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T00:38:00.001-05:00

Doesn't he just look thrilled?? Happy Easter from Charles Woodrow and Laurie Ruth Photography!

More Miss V!

2010-03-27T23:00:00.003-05:00

Due to popular demand, here is Miss Violet in all her glory! Sigh - those cheeks, I will miss looking at them. Oh, I almost forgot, here are her adorable parents, too. Dave and Andrea were my very first clients - way back when they were engaged! Congrats, you guys!

I had to.

2010-03-18T21:11:00.000-05:00

Had to post just one from yesterday's shoot...look at those cheeks! Seriously - Miss Violet, those are impressive! More to come soon!

Mr and Mrs. Lerma

2010-03-18T00:53:00.000-05:00

Lindsey and Luis Lerma were married on December 12th in Mansfield with a reception at the Ballpark in Arlington. It was a great day with some serious dancing that night! Congrats you guys!

The Greene Family...from, uh, last year.

2010-03-04T22:24:00.000-06:00

So, this week is the first week I have been able to breathe in oh, I'd say 5 months at least. Which is great! (but tiring). I am so behind in blogging that the only place I know to start with is oh, well, where I last left off. Here is the Greene Family, taken back in early December (I remember this was shoot 2 of 3 that day, whew!). They are lovely. They are adorable. The little boys are ridiculously cute - one full of personality and the other full of, well, wonderful rolls. see below.

Mr. and Mrs. D

2010-02-15T03:15:00.001-06:00

Congrats to Cousin Tanner and his beautiful (and sweet-as-pie) new wife, Darlene! They were married this past Saturday and there was no better way to spend Valentine's Day than to witness the love these two have for each other. Welcome to this wild family Darlene! We love you!

Please help.

2010-02-05T02:46:00.003-06:00

Almost five years ago I moved to Khao Lak, Thailand. It was, and is again, an amazing place. I arrived six months after the tsunami and the destruction, death, and every bit of the pain from that terrible day was still very much there. Six months later. Here we are, 25 days after the Haitian earthquake, and the destruction, death and pain will be there for a long time to come. Please help.

Oh, and for the next week, all proceeds of prints sold from Laurie Ruth Photography will directly go to help Haiti.

(*how I wish I could claim I took this last picture)

Mr. and Mrs.

2010-01-08T05:35:00.006-06:00

I am one bad blogger. December almost killed me with shoots and card designing but I am so excited to show you what we did. Until then, I leave you with two glimpses of today's shoot.

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Moffat - married just 48 hours earlier and blissfully happy in a freezing cold Texas field. Congrats you two - here's to many, many happy years and many, many blue-eyed babies.

Jaclyn and Colby are engaged!

2009-12-17T03:28:00.004-06:00

Oh I have wanted to post these for sooo long!! Holiday card season has ended and now I can play catch up. This is Miss Jaclyn Friday and Colby Bunch and we had so much fun this day. Colby is a brave man to shoot his engagments with his fiance on one side, and mom and sister just out of the shot. Add me and that's a lot of women! I am so happy for them and counting down the days until Jaclyn's bridals - I have some big plans for that one. Congrats you two!

Blaze and Teresa's Wedding

2009-12-10T04:21:00.002-06:00

Remember this family? I shot their daughter Lacey's wedding in June and just had the pleasure of shooting their son's wedding. That's right - two kids, two weddings, one year! Whew. It was a pleasure to spend another wonderful day and wonderful (yet chilly) night with these guys. Congrats Blaze, Teresa and Colt - you make a great family!

Sometimes a perfectly good t-shirt must be sacrificed to save an up-do!

Probably one of my favorite dancing shots I've ever snapped!

Need a getaway car? How about Grandma's motorized scooter!

The Charlands

2009-12-06T02:22:00.000-06:00

I know, I know - I've been gone from here for too long. I am up to my ears in Holiday cards - but excited to see how they turn out. I promise to post a lot this next week - lots to catch up on.

Let's start with the Charland Family. They have an adorable daughter Cadence - who loves to point out things...literally! I've got some great shots of her pointing at just about anything that caught her eye. They brought along Aunt, Grandma and Great-Grandma for extra fun. I love capturing generations! It is an amazing thing to witness four generations of women with so many of the same characteristics and traits, yet years apart.

Lastly, we hit the fields. I've decided my absolute favorite place to shoot is in a sunny, golden, beautifully backlit field. Want to see why? Look below. Oh and warning, this beautiful mama has the most beautiful hair. Just look at it!

Happy Birthday Ruby Belle!

2009-11-22T03:49:00.002-06:00

How is it possible that this child is one? We had quite a day shooting her pictures! It all started out with a pair of fairy wings in a garden. Then, well, we had bigger plans! Her mom and I had a little too much fun with her photo session. I think, towards the end, we had a little more fun than Ruby did. See below.

Then back home for some of Ruby's personality. That was my goal with these - to capture this funny bunny's many faces.

Then we had to stage a little Alice in Wonderland in the backyard. Dixie the Border Collie was the Mad Hatter; Otis the Pomeranian was the Cheschire Cat. Hey, we tried. You try gettng a one year-old and two dogs all to look at you at the same time!

Okay so the next part is where we had a little more fun than the actual birthday girl. Just a birthday cake, right? Sorry Ruby but this was too much fun!

Here is the invitation I designed for the birthday party. It is a four panel accordian fold. Outside:

Inside Panel:

There was quite a bash to celebrate her big day. She was, "Ruby in Onederland," complete with costume.

Here's her present from Mom and Dad..

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Her Highness

2009-11-12T22:41:00.001-06:00

It's her title. This is big sister Holly, Hollywood, her Highness, etc. I needed to test out a few locations for an upcoming shoot and she graciously agreed to model for me. She's always been a star and in my opinion, she's never been more beautiful. One sister down, one to go!

Happy Veteran's Day!

2009-11-12T02:48:00.000-06:00

This is Grandma Norma. She is 88 years old and a whopping 88lbs. to match. She is a force of nature. This week I went to a Veteran's program honoring all of the Veterans in her retirement facility. Grandma may have not carried a gun through WWII, but she certainly served her country. She was a singer for the USO. She traveled to the battlefronts and sang to the troops to keep up their morale. (On a sidenote: men use to climb trees to get a better view of her and when they become too overwhelmed by the site of her beauty, they were known to fall out of the trees!) Anyway, they asked her to sing one of her favorites last nights, "I'll be seeing you" (think the Notebook). My mom and Holly sang with her and they brought the house down. Standing ovation to prove it.

They told the story of each Veteran and had a marine honor them with a medal. It is amazing to see these sweet, little old men and realize how many of them survived plane's being shot down, years in POW camps, etc. Do we take time to thank them for how much they sacrificed all those years ago? Look around you - veterans are everywhere. It is truly a great day that we get to honor them and all they went through.

Here is some background of the night. Grandma was very nervous before her performance. She kept having me take her outside to 'vocalize.' Here she is getting a pep talk from my out of state sister before her 'number.'

The performance. I need to get the video - I'll work on that.

The Veterans

Yes her - she was a MARINE!!!

Since Grandma doesn't even know how to get on the internet, I can post this. This is Mr. Pierce. He is a dapper british chap that lives in her center. They are, well, special friends. Okay so my grandma has a man and I don't. It is pretty cute watching these two.

Showing off her dog-tags (70 years old).

Here are some pictures and clippings from the past.

This is a program she kept from a few years back. A while ago, she was able to go to a reunion for a certain infantry from the war, put on her uniform, and sing to the Veterans. And would you believe, some of the men there remembered her. She had sang to them in the war and she was able to sing to them again 60 years later!

Don't ask. She does this pose at every chance she gets.

And I can't forget the other brave Veterans in my life. Grandpa Bill, who served in the US Army and slept in the trenches on far too many nights.

Grandpa Bob, a Merchant Marine. He's only 17 in this picture.

My Dad - US Air Force and US Navy Pilot. Served in Desert Storm

To all of you Veterans who are here and to those who have gone on, GOD BLESS YOU! Thank you for your service!

One Huge Canvas

2009-11-12T02:22:00.000-06:00

I had to post of picture of this. It arrived on my doorstep for the Ballweg's the other night and I was so happy how it turned out. 24x36'' METALLIC canvas. It sparkles. I'm jealous. I want one. Oh and Henry is almost five..you know, just for scale purposes. This thing is huge!

L and K.

2009-11-12T00:17:00.001-06:00

Meet Miss L. I took these pictures of her almost a year ago. She had wanted some 'just because' pictures of herself (such a great idea - never be afraid to do it - you will be so happy you did). Here are just a few.

Fast forward 9 months to another photoshoot - this time with her man. We traced their favorite spots in Dallas - where they met (SMU library), their favorite spot (White Rock Lake), their favorite coffee spot (Starbuck's on Mockingbird), and lastly - the state fair. Good to see you guys again! Thanks for the amazing Indian food!

The Bride of the Ballpark

2009-11-01T01:29:00.000-05:00

This is Miss Lindsey Thompson (soon to be Lerma). She has loved baseball all her life and what better place for such a fan to take her bridal pictures than the most beautiful ballpark in the country. That's right - bridals at the Ballpark in Arlington. A dream of hers (and mine) came true! This was ridiculous fun. Enjoy!

Sweet Thing.

2009-10-23T00:00:00.004-05:00

Because she just is. Remember this post? Here's baby girl #3! Her mama is superwoman - that's all there is to it. She had to endure a looong bedrest with this one, and with a 4 year old and a 2 year old - that's an accomplishment! My favorite story is that her husband moved a car engine into the kitchen so he could work on it while being close to his wife in case she or the kiddos needed anything. That's a real man! Needless to say, this baby has joined a great family. Welcome to the World Baby Phoebe! You are an angel.

The Beautiful People.

2009-10-19T01:19:00.000-05:00

Not that all my clients aren't beautiful - but c'mon, look at 'em! Meet Brian (Bell) and Chelsea (soon to be Bell). They are getting hitched next April and I was so happy when they asked if they could bring along their new 'son', their french bulldog named, Handsome George Turtle Bell, III. And he lives up to his name - all of them.

Congrats you guys!

The Loisel Family

2009-10-15T12:13:00.003-05:00

Whew. What a week!

2009-09-29T00:26:00.000-05:00

My camera (and I) are very tired after this week. We've been shooting every day and having fun finding new ways to define creativity. And encountering wildlife. In the last 48 hours, I've been stung by dozens of bees (stopped counting after 35 stingers were pulled out) and found a baby python in my house. Yep..baby python. Those who know me know my classic slogan, "I don't do snakes." I have a really bad phobia of them and last night was just the icing on the cake. Time to get back to civilized life. Away from insects and reptiles. Anyway, here are some teasers as to what this week has entailed. More to come soon. I promise.

Bridals on the field at Ranger Stadium (yes, you read that right!)

Top secret project

A wonderful family in the woods (taken just before bee encounter)

Beautiful sister in the field

Stay tuned!

ps - Fall is here! Fall is here! My absolute favorite time of the year -

Can I cover your child in mud?

2009-09-23T17:17:00.005-05:00

Why? Because it is so much fun! (and makes great pictures, if I may say so myself). You remember Beau Travis - now 18 months old! I know, it's hard to believe. He is a wonderfully sweet and energetic child with his mama's eyes and daddy's love of the outdoors. Our only problem here: what toddler wants to sit still for a camera? Our solution: cover him in mud and watermelon juice and let him go wild! I love the way it turned out. And I love this kiddo. And he loves watermelon.

Boomer thought that watermelon looked awfully good.

Off to the mud!

Then to his playroom.

Next to the railroad tracks.

And finally, our attempt at a studio sitting.

He wasn't feeling it so much at first.

Aah, treat bribery. Look at that face!

Beau inspecting my set for me.

Thank you for letting me follow you around for one wild day, Beau!

Love,

Aunt B

McCall

2009-09-15T01:43:00.014-05:00

Dear McCall, Idaho,

How do I begin to tell you how much I love you! When I hear the word, summer, I automatically think of you. Nothing else quite compares. Every happy summer memory I have involves you and over the years, I look forward to coming back more and more. You are beautiful, quiet, serene; the most relaxing place I have ever been. You can't possibly turn the tv on when you are just outside - and that, to me, is quite a place. Here's my dedication to you - my real summer, 2009.

Thank you, thank you Dames!

Love,

Laurie

Happy Birthday Boss!

2009-09-14T17:28:00.001-05:00

Okay - last birthday post of the month, I promise. Happy Birthday Boss! Boss is my mom - I don't know how she got that name because in no way is she bossy but after 27 years, I'm attached to the nickname. Happy 29th BDay - you are far too good to me!

Love,
Laurie

ps - I realize this is a day late - I fell asleep at 7:45 pm last night. Sad, I know.

A little hint of what's to come.

2009-09-13T03:46:00.001-05:00

He loves this dog as much as I do.

Grandpa's 90th Birthday!

2009-09-08T00:09:00.032-05:00

I had to post a little birthday tribute to one great man. Grandpa Bob would have been 90 years old today! I remember buying his birthday cake last year for his 89th. The lady at the bakery was so impressed to be writing, "Happy 89th Birthday!" I remember she said that it made her day to hear that someone was still living such a great life. And a great life he lived.

Happy Birthday Grandpa! I love you. I miss you. Every single day.

Last picture I got of him.

Mansfield High School's Class of '99

2009-09-07T03:19:00.015-05:00

ear Class of '99,
I can't believe it has been 10 years! Even though I was a year younger, I have great memories of your senior year. It was great to see all of you at the reunion last night - you all look great! To see your proofs, click here.
Love,
Laurie (class of '00)

Maine and The Hansen Family Grand Finale

2009-09-04T21:37:00.027-05:00

Maine you are so beautiful.

Here are the last of the Hansen family reunion shot in Maine last month. Before we finish the whole family we need to cover the reason these wonderful people exist. Bishop and June. They understand the nicknames I have for them so I won't explain. They are like second parents to me; far too good to me and have been a great source of support in my life. I love them to bits.

Also, here are some of my favorite candid moments that haven't been posted yet.

a few more precious one of Malei

The 100 year old house they stayed in...it was so cool inside!

Here they are! The grandparents with all 15 (yes, 15 grandkids). Okay, so one is still in Solveij's belly but at least that belly is in the shot.

The original Hansen clan.

Okay I had to include this one; it makes me smile. We were shooting the sisters in the garden and off to the right, all of their kiddos were playing. Something happened, someone fell or cried (can't remember exactly) and they all got this look on their face. Everything was fine in the end but this is a portrayal of four great, yet concerned mamas.

All well again.

And last but not least, all 26 of them! Wow!

Thanks for the great memories Hansens! And thanks for your patience! Your pictures are in the mail!
love, Laurie Darlin

Darlin.

2009-09-03T00:15:00.032-05:00

That's what I've called her for the last 12 years at least. Or Megan-Darlin. She is one of my best good buds and that is how I came to know the whole Hansen clan. When we were teenagers, she used to pick me up for school (at 5:30am!) and then take me back to her house for breakfast. Seriously - that's dedication! Here she is all these years later with husband Steve, kiddo #1 Colin (aka snook), and new baby Cora E. Wish you didn't live so far away darlin!

The Hansen Family

2009-09-02T00:43:00.017-05:00

Meet Tad, Solveij, Micah and Malei Hansen. Solviej is from England and has the most wonderful accent. I could listen to this woman speak for hours. Tad is from Texas and grew up being referred to by one word only- 'boy.' Why, you ask? look below.

Yep - that's right. Poor boy - the only son amongst four sisters. He handled it very well and will be well prepared in case more baby girls are to come. Which, by the way, is a very likely possibility next month. look below.

Yep - baby number three is on its way and I am so excited for them. They don't know the sex of the baby and I can't wait to hear the verdict (the name they have picked out in case it's a boy is one of my favorites). We asked Tad to kiss the belly and he was not a fan of such a pose. This is as close as we got and then he was gone. Oh well, we tried! Now Solveij, on the other hand, knows how to work a camera.

Micah and Malei have some serious energy. I would pay millions for it. When kiddos are this age they usually couldn't care less about sitting for pictures. So I usually just follow them around with the camera and try and catch their personalities. Honestly, this usually results in my favorite work. I simply love capturing candid life.

I've never seen a reflector held that way but I sure appreciated the help! :)

You have a beautiful family - love you guys!

My favorite way to sleep, too.