beep beep

ok, i'm just going to come right out and say it.

i love mac.

now don't get me wrong. i love my amazing husband more than anything. but i really love mac, too. he's a bit short and dumpy but pretty fantastic all the same. we haven't known each other that long -- only about a week, actually -- but my love grows with every minute we spend together. he's smart, attractive, and as corny as it sounds, i feel like he really knows me. like he can even anticipate what i'm going to do next.

oh, how i love my mac.that's right, folks. i've officially left the world of the PC to join the mac movement. and that tiny little 6x6 box is it. that's the whole thing!

this is the point where i really, really want to tell you every detail of how this incredible computer found its way to my desk, but the other parties involved have asked to remain unknown.

ok, i can't stand to not tell you, so how about this? let's just call our friends peter and andrea for the sake of anonymity, and i'll go ahead with the details.

josh and i have known peter and andrea for 13 years now -- or something like that. there are loads of stories to share about our friendship, but i'll skip those so that i don't risk telling too much. back when i made the decision to "go pro" with photography, andrea was a constant sounding board as well as an adviser, a guinea pig, and an ever-flowing stream of encouragement for me. and peter, who's a serious computer brain-child, has answered question after question about "how to make this work" when it came to HTML and other way-over-my-head computer issues. peter and andrea don't live in birmingham, but we've still been able to see them several times over the past few months. and as they always do, they asked about how my photography life had been going at a recent visit together. i shared with them about the ups and downs of owning my own business, and during the course of conversation, we got to chatting about my computer.

in talking with other photographers and in reading some of their blogs, it seems that most pros spend around 5-6 hours in preparing for, shooting, and editing a session. i, however, spend about 15 hours per session on those same tasks. so what's the difference (other than the fact that i'm a way-over-board perfectionist)?

it's my computer.

when we originally bought the thing, we only needed it for casual home use. nothing too big and nothing too involved. so i knew we might have given it a little too much to handle when we loaded photoshop onto it and i could hear it gasping for breath. then when i actually tried to use photoshop, it usually kicked its heels up into the air and played dead. if i had a nickel for every time i've had to do a hard shut-down on my computer because it froze up, i could actually buy a few apple stores. and steve jobs.

anyway, the stories of my computer woes got the wheels turning for our friends who are continually looking for ways to bless and serve others. and a few short weeks later, andrea called to tell me that i had a brand new mac mini sitting on her table and that they would be coming to birmingham that weekend to set it up for me.

WHAT?!?

and as if that bit of news wasn't enough, she told me that they had also purchased some amazing software to go with it! lightroom is a photographer's dream, and it does amazing things to speed up my workflow, and photoshop CS4 is a nice step up from the CS3 version i had been working off of (actually it's many steps above considering that i paid gobwobs of money for what i later learned was a pirated version of CS3 -- bad ebay, bad.)

i sooo want to tell you the many, many ways that peter and andrea have loved us, encouraged us, and supported us through everything from our adoption to josh's move to pearl ministries, but i'll honor their wishes and not say anything more (just know that they're pretty amazing...as evidenced by the fact that they minister to others so quietly and humbly).

now, with all that said, there's been a steep learning curve for this here lifelong PCer, so to make sure i'm ready to hit the ground running when the onslaught of spring sessions arrive, josh and i took the kids out for a walk yesterday so i could grab some photos to edit.

plus, it gave izzy some bonding time with her new beloved car.

and it gave abby something to do to help her burn off some energy.

now jack? he's not a big fan of cold weather, and it was a bit chilly while we were out. he didn't complain at all, but i wouldn't say he necessarily enjoyed the family time.

the girls, on the other hand, loved it.

besides, if izzy ever got bored, she just looked up, saw the moon, and shouted, "look mom! moon!!". again.
(yes, this is how she rode the last half of the trip.)

but my absolute favorite of the day was this next shot. i'm not even going to try to come up with something funny to say about it...the photo just cracks me up by itself.

before i go, i promised a few friends i would get some particular photos up tonight. we all know how much jack loves to play guitar and how jazzed he was to get a "real" guitar for christmas, right? well, we thought it would be fun to let jack take his guitar to church this morning and play it while i was practicing with the band. first of all, he played it the whole way there...

...then when we got there, not only did they let him play it, they told him he could come up on stage to practice with us! he squealed like a girl and ran up to stand by his bestest buddy, mr. steve.

he took really careful notes on how all the guys played...

...and by the end of practice, he knew how to hold the pick in his mouth and how to put the guitar in a stand when he wasn't playing it. he even kicked his leg out so he could prop his guitar up while he was jamming (actually, he's been doing that for a while...i've just never gotten a good picture of it).

i hope your day has been as fun as ours has! ta-ta for now. (stay tuned for some exciting photography deals for january and february...you don't want to miss this!)