Then last summer, I decided to go back to school and finish my degree while working full time. This, my friends, is where the excuses start. Ever since I started back up in school and especially now that I’m trying to start a business while working full time has led me to being very inactive again. I still eat healthy 80% of the time because I’ve just kept up my eating habits so I’ve kept most (not all) of my weight off. I’ve sworn to go back to the gym and even woke up one morning at 5:30 to go before work. Yeah, you read that right, once. I’ve gone back and forth a few times but now that I’m blogging for all the world to see,  really all of my 5 readers, I figured this is a way to get me more committed again. I’d be shamed for life if I didn’t stick to it.

I’m trying to find a better balance in my life. Right now everything is work, then come home and work on our website and the many other things that come along with it. I love what I’m doing but I need to learn how to fit everything in, because that’s not happening in my life right now.

I’ll take words of wisdom if you have them!

Here I am on the left looking like I just ate an entire cheesecake in one sitting.

Now here I am working off my poundage.

Aside from all of the holiday madness, Pat and I have officially launched our new website, obrienphoto.net! The .com was taken, grr! We’ve been working on it every night after work for over a month now and everything is finally coming together. We also started a new blog to go along with it, because that’s just what I need, to mange two seperate blogs! I will have help with it, so it won’t be too bad. For now, we took a couple of my posts from my blog just to have something there since we haven’t had time to write anything on it. Maybe that’s what I should be doing right now instead…oh well, this one is my baby. Anyway, make sure you check out our new site and let us know what you think! We still have a few tweaks to make but it’s in audience worthy condition at least.

Follow us on twitter: @obrienphoto

Here’s a link to our main site:

http://obrienphoto.net

The link to our blog:

http://obrienphoto.net/blog

Last but not least, our brand new fanpage on Facebook. We just launched this last night after eating too much turkey so we’re looking pretty pathetic. Help us out and like us!

http://www.facebook.com/OBrienPhoto

 This year will be different because we are going to Pat’s families for Thanksgiving. They are nice, quiet and peaceful. You know, just a good old fashioned nice time eating mashed potatoes and stuffing while making a few jokes…then I bring him to my family’s parties and I think he wants to run and hide in the guest bedroom for most of the day. We are loud, we are crude and dude, we are rude. Totally kidding (kind of), I really just wanted to rhyme.

My personal highlights are when my grandma gives me and my cousins the “alcoholism sneaks up on you” speech while she’s pouring her forth glass of Bud. Or when my mom and my aunt’s battle like it’s WWIII for no apparent reason (you can try to deny but we all know the truth). I also love when my dad breaks out “The Kenny” dance…I can’t even describe this dance as you barely move, you just have to sway your arms in and out and you have it down. Don’t get me started on his “my back hurts” dance…

In the end, we can all make each other laugh so hard we cry. I think I can speak for everyone when I say we enjoy each other’s company…most of the time. Although we might be a little crazy, I wouldn’t change it for the world and that’s what I’m thankful for this year.

This picture is definitely the wrong Holiday, it was Easter, but it’s the only embarrassing picture I have of my brothers, cousins and I that is on the interwebs. I’m on the far right. Look how happy I am to have my finest outfit on. There are no words for this photo…just, no words!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I went to this show, you know with dirty jokes  and other things I won’t discuss, with my family…quite the normal family outing right? Well, that’s because we’re definitely not normal. First off, my dad just wants to go anywhere there’s a vodka drink waiting for him. “This one’s for the knees”, he says. Oh Papa, you never fail to make me laugh with your excuses. My mother on the other hand…lets just say she’s a little out there. In a good way…I think. People tell me I’m like her so yes, definitely in a good way! It’s completely normal to have your mother teach your friends how to burp the ABC’s at your birthday party right? Or was that just at my household? Anyway, I also went with my aunt who is exactly like my mother and my favorite cousin of all time, Dave. When we get together we’re like Siamese twins and we’ve been that way since we were little kids. Our fun usually consists of ragging on our family, tipping back adult beverages and talking about the Real Housewives….of any city! So the combo of our own nuttiness along with Kathy Griffin’s made for a very entertaining night!

I’m adding this photo even though it was taken with my Droid since I feel the need to provide one with every post.  Excuse my martini squint! I mean, I was just fa-realrealz happy to be at a comedy show.

For the rest of the weekend, I took out my other personality and got all serious and studious. I sat and watched Tamara Lackey on CreativeLive.com all day Saturday and Sunday. She’s a childrens photographer and I wasn’t familiar with her work but I decided to check it out anyway. Although I don’t want to specialize in kids photography, I’m always looking to find new perspectives in the business. Let me tell you, she did not disappoint; especially in the business portion of the workshop. I learned so much about marketing, client relationships and pricing just to name a few. If you didn’t catch the live feed of the session, I highly recommend you purchase it if you’re looking for new and creative ideas. You can thank me later!

Did any of you catch it? What did you think?

Years later, the photography fairy definitely had my back and hooked me up with a prospective male friend. She sprinkled sensor dust all over me and sent me on my way. Today, I call that male friend Patty O’Brizzle. You know, my live in boyfriend, my infamous photography sidekick, my soon to be business partner and my way too many things rolled into one human being, Pat O’Brien (follow him on twitter @obrienstudios). He not only had a camera when I met him but he had a REAL camera. “Oh, the possibilities”, I thought! There’s a but here though, he didn’t want my grubby mitts messing with his camera all over town. Rude right?! For a long time we went out on photography excursions and I was camera-less. How depressing.

Then one amazing day, he started talking about upgrading and trading in his camera. Oh, no no no I thought. I have dibs! What a gentlemen folks, without reservation he handed it right over to me with no strings attached. I still use this camera to this day. I started out taking one picture a day around my house and I haven’t stopped since. Everything I know about photography is because he taught me around our house. We took shots of pretty much nothing but I learned everything. We tried taking pictures in the dark; we tried light painting, we took pictures of my dog like crazy and even took shots of just my feet.  There was nothing fabulous here but it was fundamental to my growth as a photographer.

The point of my story is, to get better, it doesn’t matter what you’re taking pictures of. Just take a picture of anything and play with your settings. See how things change in different lighting scenarios. You will learn that camera like the back of your hand and one day become amazing, famous and rich…oh wait, these are my secret dreams for me.

Here are a few of my pointless pictures to prove they really were of nothing.

Here’s my list of rarely acknowledged likes:

Waking up to crisp cold air and snuggling in my blankets. Oh, and not having to go to work in that moment is usually nice as well.

Running my hands through the sand at the beach with the smell of coconut sun tan lotion in the air.

Reading a good book in a bubble bath. Although, now I have a Kindle and I dread the day I drop it in the bath…but that doesn’t stop me from taking it in! I’m completely aware that I will regret this one day.

Seeing my birthday time on the clock, 5:12. Yes, I have a “it’s my birthday time” song and dance to go with it, obviously.

Being tucked into my blankets like a mummy by Pat and swearing I’ll never move again. My mom and dad used to do this when I was young and Pat has graciously taken over the mummy making role.

Blasting music so loud my eardrums bleed. This also includes sing along sessions with some amazing dance moves not even my mother could love.

Being home alone in silence. No TV. No radio. No computer. No anything.

Random memory that came to me while writing this – when I was young, I would do cartwheels across freshly cut grass after my dad mowed it. I loved the smell and the feeling of the clipped blades of grass beneath me. Apparently, I loved it so much I felt the need to cartwheel all around town to show my enthusiasm.

When I’m laying in my bed and my dog puts her head on my stomach saying, please pay attention to me already, you haven’t pet me in at least 5 minutes! She’s my snuggle bunny. Or should I say snuggle doggy?

The smell of fresh towels right out of the dryer. They’re so soft and cuddly, that I want to make a fort out of them and live in a towel cave for the rest of my life.

These are only a few loves in my life. I could go on and on but I think this is a good start. What are some things you enjoy but never recognize?

This is my dog Kali laying on top of me in bed. This is her pay attention to me look!

As teenagers and through our early 20′s I remember having endless conversations with Kelly about who we’d end up with…or especially who we wouldn’t end up with. We both had our fair share of bad relationships but we always looked out for each other and definitely had no problems speaking our minds about each others situations! Over the years, she had some back and forth relationships that every 20 year old girl went through. You know, pretty much choosing all of the wrong guys! Can’t say I didn’t do the same…definitely some what were you thinking moments back in the day! But through all of this, Kelly was absolutely convinced that she would never get married or at the very least, expected me to walk down the aisle far before her. Then she met Rick…and the whole game changed. Now here we are years later, two women, with the men we’ve been waiting for since those days in high school.

Rick is unlike any other guy she’s been with. First and foremost, I actually approve of him! Not that that matters…well, maybe a little. The truth is, you can see the love in his eyes when he looks at her and for me, that’s all I ever needed to see to grant my approval. Over the summer I was sitting at home, doing nothing I’m sure, and I got a call from Kelly. She had been down in Florida with Rick and he proposed to her while they were there. I could hear how happy she was to be engaged and I couldn’t have been happier for both of them. Plus, now I get to be in their wedding and I don’t care if she doesn’t want me to make a speech, I’m going to grab the mic anyway. I have too many embarrassing stories that cannot go by the wayside and I’ll finally have an entire audience to tell them to.

A couple of weeks ago, Pat and I offered to take their engagement pictures. Not onlt did I want to do it just because we were friends but because I knew I could capture their real personalities. I know her better than any other person on this planet and I wanted to capture how they really feel about each other on camera. We had a really fun day with each other and I’m so happy with what we walked away with. Here’s hoping they feel the same way about them!

These are a few of my favorites from the day.

And just for a throwback, here we are about 5 years ago as two single ladies. Young and havin’ fun! Hence the drink in my hand.

This leads me to the question: what defines me? Here’s the best definition I can think of when it comes to me, Kate Lee.

First and foremost, I am goofy. I constantly laugh and I will act like a total fool to make everyone else laugh around me. At home that usually equals late night dance parties with Pat and literally jumping on the bed. Have I mentioned I’m 27 years old?

I am shy…until you get to know me. After that, you’d wish I’d just shut up again. This is something that I have been working on my entire life and I have come a LONG way! When I was young, I was painfully shy and it ate me up inside. I’ve learned shyness = insecurities. Over the years, I’ve hushed those insecurities and let my real self show. The good, the bad and the ugly. I am who I am and I’m learning to embrace that.

I am kind hearted. I literally want to cry every time I see an old man that needs help or see a bum freezing in the streets. One day I saw an old man fall down some stairs in New York City, I almost had a heart attack! No one else cared and Pat had to scoot me away from the situation because he knows he’ll be consoling me for hours. Don’t worry, the ambulance was there. This was actually a few years ago and the poor guy still has to hear me bring it up. I hope the old man’s ok, really. Old man, if you’re reading this, call me! I’ll come play cribbage any time you want!

I am judgmental, sometimes, but I’m working on it! Hey, if I’m going to give you the good, then I’m going to give you the bad too! I some times take things at face value instead of assessing the situation or even people. Later on, I always learn that I was completely wrong and to be frank, a bitch about it. They say the first step to recovery is admitting your faults, right? Well then, my name is Kate and I can be judgmental. My bad!

Of course these are only a few aspects of me but I think this is a good start. What defines you? What do you love about yourself? What do you painfully admit and want to change?

Here’s Pat and I striking our best model poses in our home “studio”, aka the garage.

This is my proudest moment. I won the ugliest sweater contest and got a Snuggie! Does life get any better than this?? Don’t mind the cell phone picture.

Can we discuss this picture? I mean honestly! Wasn’t I lookin’ good that night?!

What’s scarier than one me? Multiple me’s!

Last but not least, here I am at my happiest. At the beach and with my camera!

This was our first time ever working with children and it was a lot of fun but also a lot more work. In a good way though! He brought lots of smiles to our faces, as well as his mom and dad’s so that was less work on our part. It made the session so natural and organic instead of posed with fakes smiles from everyone. We worked with the situation we were given and got some awesome candid shots. I personally adore candid shots, you get to see someone’s real personality and that’s what I want to capture. Anyone can tell you to pose and say cheese but that’s not what I want to be known for.  I want to have fun, real and loving pictures.

I’m so happy with the way these came out. I learn so much more every time we come away from another session. Mom seems very happy with them and in the end, that’s all that really matters. Although, some times I wonder how I even get paid to do this, I really enjoy it that much. These are a few of my personal favorites from the day.