Keith’s blog

We did out Easter Portraits last week and for the most part I had a BLAST. I was a little worried that our sessions would be down quite a bit this year because of economic conditions. After all was said and done i did just 10 less sessions this year than last. So, maybe the economic scare isn’t such a big deal.

While we’re on the topic of the economy I mentioned in my last newsletter that I’m starting a new web site for my clients that are self employed. If you are now or have ever been my client go to www.ngabiz.comand fill in the form. The form will be there for another month or so. With that information I’ll be making a web page for all my self employed clients. So hopefully it’ll be easier for someone to find you when they’re looking for a product or service you provide. This will be an ongoing project so tell anyone you know who might be able to benefit from this listing (present and previous clients).

Today is St Patrick’s Day. I’ve already gone to one St Pat’s party at my Feiends Randy and Melody Parker’s house on Saturday night. We all had a big time. I’ll try to get around to posting some pictures from there on my FaceBook page if you want to check them out. You can send a friend invitation to Keith Brookshire.

Tonight I’ll be hanging out with friends again at Opi’s Waterfront in Rome. I volunteered to be the designated driver so I may not haver as much fun as the rest of my friends but I’m looking forward to it all the same.

Talk to you soon,

Keith

I’m on Oklahome right now and instead of flying I decided to make it a road trip. The best part is, Dad made the trip with me. We were on the rd for 14 hrs! That felt like almost nothing though. Last summer we made an 1800 mile round trip in 30 hrs when he bought a boat in northern Michigan. That one was a hard trip. At least the day or two after it was hard.

We HAD to stop at the Bass Pro Shop in Memphis and Dad is going to the one in Broken Arrow today. It’s safe to say if Dad’s within 100 miles of Bass Pro or Cabela’s hs’s going to go there.

 The reason for the trip is, I’m visiting another studio for a few days. There are about twenty other Photographers here from around the country so there should be lots of learning and sharing going on. Here is a group from dinner last night.

We’re going to have a lot of fun for the next few days.

Well, oh well, oh well…

Where do I start after seven months of not posting. I guess I’ll just pick up from today and not have much to say about all the missed time.

Today’s a big day for me. For those of you that haven’t seen me in the last few months you wouldn’t know that I’ve been on a weight loss quest. For the last three years I’ve weighed about 240 lbs. Yuck! At the beginning of 2008 I made the goal to lose 40 lbs by the first of this yr. Actually the goal was to also weigh 200. Little did I know the extra two lbs would be a sticking point. By new years I had lost the 40 lbs but I was at 202-203. This morning was the first time I broke the 200 mark. I came in at 199.0. I have to tell you I feel like I’m on cloud 9. Happy Dance!!! As the old saying goes, “I ain’t ever going back again!” Well, maybe that’s not an old saying but it’s a saying and at certain points in my life I’ve found it liberating.

Then, this evening I went out with my friend Rose to celebrate. We did a lot of catching up with each other and closed the restaurant down. It was a great visit and long over due.

Ok, I know I’ve said this before but I think I’ll actually keep the blog updated now. So, we’ll see. Check back soon to see for yourself. Also, if you’re on Facebook.com look me up. Search for Keith Brookshire and send me an invite. Myspace.com is another matter. I’ve been on there for over a year but I’m not so much into that. It’s mostly just personal stuff and personal friends. So if you’re on myspace look me up @ mysapce.com/f8man.

Until next time…

Keith

Last week I photographed Audra Arnold’s baby for her first birthday pictures. These sessions are always fun because you never know how the baby will react to being able to make a mess without someone being right there to clean them up. Any way, we got great pictures. 

And today Audra showed up with THIS

a home made Oreo Cheese Cake. It’s FANTASTIC! Thanks Audra, you’re definitely the person of the day, make that person of the week around here.

I went to Trinity Baptist Church yesterday for the first time. A friend of mine and her two children were all baptized at the same time. She told me it’s been a dream of hers to be baptized with her children for a long time and it finally happened.

Friday night I got to eat at one of my favorite restaurants www.chefhenrys.com. The food and company was great! I also got to pick up some gift cards that I’ve needed to pick up.

The rest of the weekend was spent working around the house. I got a bunch of under brush cleared out and you can actually see through the woods at my house now. Lots more to do though. 

Keith

Tomorrow morning @ 5:00AM I’m hitting the road to Michigan with my Dad. We’re gonna drive straight up (almost 900 miles) and straight back. We’ll be picking up a boat he bought on, you guessed it, e-bay.

 If we slow down enough I’ll take a picture or two to post here next week. I HOPE we get back sometime Thursday night because I have sessions at the studio on Friday.

 If you look back at some of my posts you’ll see that I like a good road trip. It’ll be fun… I hope.

Keith

 EDIT:

We made the trip alright but we didn’t slow down enough for any pictures. We covered 1800 miles in 34 hours. My quick math tells me that we averaged about 54 miles per hour for the whole trip including stoping for eats & and fuel.

Today is the one year anniversary of one of my most life changing events.

June 1^st, 2007 I climbed Half Dome, in Yosemite National Park. I had been invited to go on the trip with some friends more than a year before the actual trip. I looked forward to it and thought it’d be a nice trip. It was just what I expected until I was on top of Half Dome.

The 5,000 ft climb and the 16 mile hike was probably one of the most physically challenging things I’ve ever done. Mentally, I had to have a real heart-to-heart with myself before actually going up the side of the rock too.

Once I got on top of Half Dome I had an epiphany that would change the way I look at life, living and work. I’ve written about it once or twice in my newsletter but the short story is, it was life changing! I can remember it like it was yesterday. All these thoughts hit me in the blink of an eye and I knew I’d never be the same. I decided on the spot, without any thought or consideration to make a LOT of changes. Mostly about how much work I put in.

Being completely honest I’d have to admit that before the trip was over I wondered to myself if I’d still feel the same way about the changes I was going to make over the course of time. That trip to the top of Half Dome is STILL as influential today as it was a year ago.

Here are a few pictures I took on that trip. The first is of me with Half Dome behind me. The second is me on top of Half Dome. To give a sense of scale, there are 20,000 people in the valley befind me and I couldn’t see a single one of them.

May you have a “Half Dome” event in your life.

Keith

Yesterday I went up to

http://www.wenzelstudio.com . He’s from

I’d love to take a couple of high school seniors up there for some night time test sessions. So, if you know of anyone that might be willing have them or their mom to give me a call. Mom or Dad MUST go on the session.

The first picture is a walkway that crosses a part of the river with the

Keith

Here’s one of my favorite Mommy & Me Portraits I’ve done in a while. Cadence is expecting a baby brother in a couple of weeks and I’m thinking she’ll be a good big sis. She came in really willing to do a great job for this session.

We’ve been covered up with Mommy & Me sessions this week. Today, I’ll photograph three Mommy & Me sessions along with six others for a total of nine sessions. No lunch break today!

Keith

Well the Lamb & Bunny Portraits are over for this year. It went extremely well, other than having a hard time getting the lambs here (see Wednesdays post). For the most part all the kids did a great job, the set looked great and as far as I can tell I only screwed up one session. I did a session with one of my lights turned off, NOT good! Any way, we caught it in time to do a redo, AND the kid did an excellent job when he came back in.

Here are a couple from today. The first ones are two of the sweetest kids ever, Abigail & Tripp. I’ve been photographing their family since Abigail was less than three months old and I’ve made friends with the whole family. I think we’re all gonna go the Henry’s soon. http://chefhenrys.com/ It’s one of my favorites and I’m way past due for a trip there.

The second photo is of Hannah. I’ve photographed her since she was a baby too. She’s going through a shy stage but once we kicked everyone out of the camera room except her Mom, Dad and myself she came around quite nicely, as you can see. She must be a good judge of character. 

I’ll be taking the Lambs home tomorrow. I hope it’s easier than getting them here was.

Keith