Exciting news!

My website is up!! You can view it here:

www.amberjohnsonphotog.com

I'm excited to launch it and add one more thing to my business. Things are really taking off and I've got clients lining up. I still love landscape/city scale photography and get to do a lot of that this week. It will be nice to go back to my beginnings.

I've been battling a little demon lately. I've put so much hard work into creating this business and doing something that I love. It's a slap in the face when others don't see what you've put in. 

I will be honest, prior to my first gig, I had no idea how exhausting the photography business could be. I work 55+ hours a week and come home to pour myself into my passion; my dream. Basically, I'm working two full time jobs. I stay up late to finish edits, eyes so dry I can barely see, just to get product back to my client faster. I put the money I do receive back into the business, because those kinds of things aren't handed to me. I work for all I've got. I work to provide for my family. I'm lucky that Mr. Ber has been so supportive. He's really pushed me to follow my dream. 

It's always been hard to accept compliments, kind words, etc; but you know what? I'm really damn good at what I do. That's what matters. I am good at what I do. I feel good about what I do. I make others happy. 

I'm proud of where I've been. I'm proud if where I am. I'm proud of where I'm going. I have an amazing support structure and so many people that believe in what I'm doing. 

This is in my blood. It's what I'm supposed to be doing. 

Tomorrow, we're taking off on a road trip and I get to start my 67 project. I'm so excited!! I can't wait to go and I can't wait to get back and edit. 

I hope you all have a great week!

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." - Herman Melville

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

I can't believe it's happening!

I feel like I have SO much news to share, but really it's just a couple of things. 

1) Mr. Ber was able to adopt Thomas yesterday!!! It's a long, complicated story, but one that has a happy ending. My son has grown up knowing only one father and now it's legal!

 

2) I started Amber Johnson Photography (AJP) and I'm actually seeing clients!!! I got the chance to have a session with a friend's beautiful daughter this week. 

I'm feeling blessed beyond words! 

Now, it's time to enjoy vacation. Tomorrow is birthday #12 for the oldest!

 

Tis the season!

Wedding season, that is! 

Hola! Como esta? I apologize in advance for the lack of posts. I'm a busy lady. Actually, family, home life, and work have consumed me. Let's catch up a little...

I shot my very first wedding today. I realized that I still have a lot to learn (that's a great thing), I am grossly under paying myself, and that I really love doing it! Now that the wedding is out of the way, I can start editing! 

Here's a rough edit of one of my favorite shots of the day.

Until next time...

Go. Do. Create and enjoy! 

 

Hair-y situations...

I've never been one of those women that made sure to be at the salon every six weeks to freshen my cut. I do mean never. I'm notorious for getting a super cute cut and letting it grow out.

I came from a home that didn't spend a lot, if any, on a haircut. For as long as I can remember, my mom gave us haircuts; my dad gave my mom haircuts; and my dad, well, he used a Flowbee. How many of you remember those?? When I got older, I'd spruce up mom's straight-across-the-bottom style by cutting bangs, but I was a Junior in high school before I visited a salon on my own. Sad, but true.

These days, I don't seem to have the time, money, or want to (honestly) to go to a salon. I cut my husband's and son's hair at home and have had my grandmother or mother-in-law cut my hair.

Tonight, I decided to venture out on my own. Armed with my laptop, YouTube, my shears, and some nerve; I decided to cut my own hair. It took a while, mostly watching video over and over, but I did it! I'm super pleased, too! I will be trying this again.

Just goes to show you can do anything you put your mind to.

New toys!

I got a couple of new "toys" in to play with prior to the April wedding I'm shooting. I can't wait to spend the weekend snapping away!

After we received our bonuses, I decided to go ahead and buy a new lens and a 5-in-1 reflector. I can't wait to use them! I also bought some new fabric scraps to make a cover for my existing camera strap.

Maybe I'm amazed...

Had you told me a year ago people would be asking me to do their pictures, I wouldn't have believed you. Honestly, I was just dreaming of one day owning a DSLR so I could take prettier pictures for myself. I knew I loved photography, but I didn't know how much until I got my camera. Seeing someone's reaction to something I created is pretty awesome. 

 

Now, I'm doing my first wedding in April and have had 5-6 inquiries about sessions. It's all pretty surreal. 

You really can do anything you put your mind to. 

Go. Do. Create and enjoy! 

Photo Shoot

We got to get out today and do a little photo shoot. I am hoping to get another session in tomorrow. Here are a few of my favorites from today.

Project Time!

Before it got cold, I took a little road trip with my dad. We drove down to Hot Springs to go through some things that belonged to my grandparents. As soon as we got there, I laid claim to an old Philco stereo cabinet. I could just picture this thing sitting in my grandparent's house back in the 60's. Mr. Ber isn't so impressed with her, but he has yet to share my vision. I'm working on him; slowly, but surely.

I think she's beautiful.

She's been in the house for a little while now, since before Christmas, but I just haven't had the urge to start working on it yet. Last night I got the back taken off and tonight I finished the demo on the inside. It was a lot tougher than I thought! She's gutted, now, but there's still a lot of work to do. Everything came out pretty easily until we got to the radio. It took two of us to finally get it.

Once I get the inside reconstructed, I'm going to start the restyle.  I think I'm going to strip it, paint it, and make some new panels for the doors. I'm not really digging the gold mesh that's going on there. 

Here are a few more pictures of what I found on the inside! 

These are the smallest of the 5 speakers that I removed. Do you see the radio's schematics? That was not fun to remove!

Remember to replace with genuine Philco parts!

This is the beast! As if the dust wasn't bad enough, the radio did not want to come out.

Now, all I have to do is talk dad out of his Dremmel for a few hours and play some more!

Until next time!

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Mr. Ber, y'all!

I want to introduce to you guys, Mr. Ber. He wanted a couple of new pictures of himself, probably for a profile picture change, and of course I was up to it. Practice is practice, right? It was SO cold today, so we didn't stay out long. Mr. Ber is a big fan of cemeteries and it seemed fitting for me to set the tone there. I didn't get many shots, but these two I am so proud of. I'm so lucky to call this man mine!

I can't decide which shot I love more.

So there's the man that stands behind me and grounds this family. He pushes me to do whatever my heart desires and reels me in when my dreams get a little too big for their own britches. 

Until next time, guys...

Go. Do. Create and Enjoy!

The art of self portraits...

Ok, ok, I'm still learning and I don't know if there is any right way, honestly. I spent some time last night practicing the art of self photography. Setting up the shot is a lot more difficult than I imagined, BUT I got this... This is the only shot I really loved and, after editing, thought it held so much emotion. I love it and that's all that really matters.

I didn't use any reflective surfaces like many blog posts suggest. I chose to set up my umbrella and light, my tripod, and sit in the floor and shoot. Mr. Ber doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to make him do it with me. Haha.

Choot 'em!

I neeeeeed to get out and shoot soon. Pictures that is. I've had visions of Spring photo sessions in my head since early this month. Outfits and props are already picked out and my "trigger" finger can practically feel that shutter button. It's going to be a little cool this week, but I'm hoping to get out on my day off and do a little exploring.

Well, hello there!

I hope you and yours are doing well. We've been battling all kind of sickness over here. As soon as one kid is better, the next get sick, and the cycle continues again.

Big news to share! Mr. Ber was accepted to college and he declared his major and minor today. I'm so incredibly proud of him. We're slowly laying the paths that we want to follow.

We finally bought a new sewing machine, too! I'm super excited to get it out and break it in. I'm trying a different brand this time, Singer. My grandmother's would have sworn by the brand, so I'm giving it a go. Also, I'm working on breaking into the photography business. At this point, I'm doing photos of the kids, my nieces, my friends, etc. I'm trying to build a small portfolio and see what exactly I would like to do within the field. I love portraits of my kids, but I also love photographing things that I find. Below are some pictures that I took while we were on vacation last year. I just recently edited them. 

All of these were taken along the back roads of Tennessee and Kentucky. I can't wait to get them on my walls!

Until next time...

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Will you be my Valentine?

As usual, mommy is doing last minute Valentine's Day stuff to prep for Boo's party at day care. Each year, they ask that we bring a box for the kids to collect their Valentines. Until this year, I'd always bought something pre made. This year, I decided to make him something special and it's pretty darn cute.

How are you spending Valentine's Day?

Photo Project

I am starting a year long photography project inspired by a book that my husband and I love; A Journey Through Arkansas: Historic U.S. Highway 67.

I'll be taking a photographic journey through the state, following the old highway (where possible). It's going to be exciting and challenging. I can't wait to get started!

The book that inspired me.

Where my husband grew up.

Photos from a little town to our north.

Be awesome!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've poured some extra time into work and have been trying to catch up after being sick last week. This weekend isn't coming soon enough.

I wanted to share a book with you guys. I'm a big fan of Jon Acuff. He's been a big inspiration to me over the last year. I highly suggest you read Quitter! It's inspired me to make time to do what I love, but be great at what I'm already doing. I'm super excited for the release of his newest book, Start. Check him out.

Shoe fever!

It warmed to about 70 degrees earlier this week and Spring (and Summer) fever hit. Along with it came the realization that I need some cute skirts and accessories for the coming seasons. In my quest to make a comfy, cute skirt, I broke my sewing machine. The talented (and down right awesome) Mr. Ber helped fix it the best he could, but if I continue to sew I will eventually need a better machine. 

Of course, I've spent quite a bit of time blog hopping to find tutorials and gather new ideas. One of my favorites that I've come across is Sweet Verbena. Go check it out now! It's where I got the idea for the shoes. I believe I've mentioned before that once an idea has been planted in my head, I have to do it as soon as possible. Well, after stumbling across this tutorial for the second or third time, I decided it was time for me to try it. First, I need to state that prior to this experience I was terrified to work with dye; now I want to dye everything! Second, finding cheap shoes proved to be a little challenge. Our local Wal-Marts did have the shoe mentioned in the original tutorial, just not in my size. I ended up finding my slip-ons at K-Mart for $6. K-Mart also carries a white canvas shoe with laces that would be perfect for this up-style. I also went to several different stores before deciding on this dye that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I used the 40% discount and got the dye for less than $2. Total cost: $8

Materials purchased.

I followed the directions on the dye packet.

Rinsed with cool water after an hour.

All rinsed off and ready to dry. Remember, it will dry lighter.

Here they are! Dry, bright, and blue! You can see how much lighter they became once dried. 

I'm going to end up with a rainbow of shoes in my closet. Oh, and if you can't find the right shade, head over here to the Rit website and use their color formula guide!

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Sew what?

I may have broken my sewing machine last night...and my heart. I got so flustered while trying to fix it that I just gave up. Hopefully, today will be better and I'll get it back up and running. I really want to complete a skirt by week's end and I'm not hand stitching the thing.

Inheritance

When I married Mr. Ber, I inherited a lot of great people I get to call my family. I'm truly blessed and I love them all. Specifically, I'm honored to know and call Mr. Ber's cousins Sara, Ashton, and Justin family. Ashton is a hilarious lady and has a great blog that I wanted to share with you all. Head on over and show her some love!

Happily Ever Laughter

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Of course I can sew!

What was I thinking?? I'm no seamstress. I can make a cute little girl's dress out of fabric that's already been shirred and I can sew a button back onto your shirt. On a good day, I'll fix that seam that ripped.

I've been wanting a yoga style maxi skirt for a while now. I can only imagine it would be as comfy as my yoga pants. I found a super easy tutorial and had to give it a go. Armed with my sewing machine, my directions, and my fabric, I went at it and I failed. I failed not once, but twice. The only thing that came out of it was realizing I can make the fold over style yoga waistband. 

I decided to go about it a different way and went and bought a couple of patterns for different style skirts and I'm going to try adding the waistband to one of those. Hopefully, this next one will be successful. 

What are some of your biggest disasters? Did you push forward anyway?

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Birthday Weekend

Sadly, the mermaid party extravaganza did not go as planned. Mr. Ber ended up becoming very ill this last week and, at the last minute, I started feeling ill. I feel bad that the "party" didn't go the way that I had planned, but it didn't seem to phase Adele. We wanted to keep it small, anyway. Here are a few pictures from the day. 

I believe we can safely say she enjoyed herself. That's all that matters in the end.

Eclectic is just a prettier word for crazy

You read that right. I've always said I was eclectic, not just my style but also my personality. I'm not saying that I'm crazy, but I like such a wide range of styles and things that I'm not entirely sure how to blend them all together. 

One of my favorite stores sits behind my store and I often spend my hour lunches there; looking for new arrivals and sales. It's Hobby Lobby. Honestly, I just love the store and the ideas that are sparked when I am there. This past visit, I decided to take some pictures of items that spoke to me in one way or another. Enjoy my "eclectic" style!

I love these colors and the design.

I love these pieces on the left. Thinking of this for future living room redesign.

I'm not crazy about the lamp base, but those shades! I love the color and that pattern!

 

Aren't they beautiful?? So romantic! I want for the master bedroom.

Adorable! I have a soft spot in my heart for over sized utensils.

These reminded me of my husband and would work wonderfully in our master now.

From the base to the shades and the color, I love these!

When we build my craft room, I'd love to have these holding all my odds and ends.

What little girl wouldn't want this in her room? I love the different patterns and how well they work together.

Those fans! I think the blue would work in the design I have in mind for the living room.

Love, love, love the color and shape!

Again with the color and I love the distressed look.

The green screams Mr. Ber.

I love this girly mirror. Wouldn't it look great over the settee?

I don't even know where I'd put one of these, but I love them!

For our daughter's room. We're going with a Parisian theme.

I love the washed out color. Crazy since I also love bright and vibrant. The grey really caught my eye; again something to use in the living room.

Like I said, I like a wide variety of designs and styles. I think I've finally decided on a "theme" for the living room and I'm working on one for the master bedroom/bath. I'll post more about those later.

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!