Monday, October 29, 2007

Hometown

When people ask me, "Where are you from?," I really don't know what to answer. The short answer is Leedey (because it's my present-day home) but the long answer is, "Well...I was born in Texarkana, Texas, raised in Nashville, Arkansas until my late teens then we moved to Holdenville, Oklahoma, where I graduated high school. I lived in both Shawnee & Ada, Oklahoma during college. After I married, we moved to Fort Worth, Texas, while my husband was in grad school then we moved to Iowa Park, Texas where we lived for several years--both of our girls were born there. We also lived in Elk City, Oklahoma. So, to summarize...I'm a nomad." :)

But, if I had to nail a place down, I would have to say that Nashville, Arkansas, is my hometown because I basically "grew up" there. Both of my parents were born and raised there and most of my family originates from the area.

I think it's so strange how you can cross a state line and immediately find differences in culture. Oklahoma and Arkansas bump right up next to each other, yet they are worlds apart in culture and the other neighbor--Texas--really is, just like the slogan says--"a whole other country." It's not really the "big" things that pop out as being different, but the little things like:

*In Arkansas, you get a "coke" when we want a soda, but in Oklahoma, you get a "pop."
*In Oklahoma, you just eat "lunch" while in Arkansas, you eat "dinner." Oklahomans eat "dinner" each evening when Arkansans are having "supper."
*Oklahoma doesn't have quite as much historical architecture as Arkansas since the state was settled later.

I recently visited Nashville for a wedding. Here is a few glimpses into my hometown:


Traditional Main Street America. I really love old Main Street storefronts and I hope they don't disappear due to Wal-Marts and mini-malls. Sadly, this Main Street has seen better days. Most of the stores were full when I was a kid, but now there are plenty of vacancies.



I miss seeing old Victorian style homes like this one. We just don't have this type of architecture in the west and, if we do, they are just new homes built to look old.


This is one of the oldest churches in town. It doesn't have an active congregation and has, instead, been transformed into a museum. They were doing some restoration work when I was there.


Who doesn't love Dr Pepper?!? As you can see, there is a Coca-Cola bottling plant in town. I still remember touring the plant as a kindergarten student and seeing the vats of dark brown syrup being mixed. The best part of that field trip: we got samples!

Other random facts about Nashville, Arkansas (thanks, Wikipedia):

*The largest find of dinosaur trackways in the world was discovered by an archeology student in a quarry north of the town in 1983, the site of a prehistoric beach. A field of 5-10,000 sauropod footprints were found in a mudstone layer covering a layer of gypsum. Casts 65 feet long and 7 feet wide were made and put on permanent display, first at the courthouse and finally at the Nashville City Park, while many of the original tracks were disbursed to local museums. The full extent of the trackway was never excavated. **I remember going on a field trip to the excavation site when I was in kindergarten or first grade. They asked us to stand inside the tracks to see how many kids would fit in one--I think we managed to get 5 kids inside!

*William T. Dillard, founder of Dillard's, opened his first department store here

*Peaches used to be the biggest cash crop for the area but now it's cattle and chickens (Tyson Foods and Pilgrim's Pride has many, many commerical chicken farms in the area). The Coca-Cola bottling company in Nashville used to produce a glass-bottled peach soda; it was yummy!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Vici Cuties

I think there must be a dominant cute gene in the DNA of western Oklahomans because I keep finding so many cute kids in our area!



Monday, October 22, 2007

Senior Coffee Table Books

Wanna see something cool? This is one of my recent senior coffee table books. It's 10x10--pretty big--and comes with a leather cover. As you can see, the pages are designed by my favorite graphic designer and they are super-cute! {Don't worry...there is a more "masculine" colored design for the fellas!}

This book belongs to Mallory She hasn't seen it yet, but it's in the mail!

The book includes ALL the proofs from your senior shoot, so even if you don't buy a copy of each photo, you will still have a copy in your keepsake book! Sweet!
On the left-hand side, you will see the FAQs section. I like to include a lot of interesting tid-bits about you and the things that make you uniquely YOU!

There's even space at the back of your book for friends to leave their "John Hancock" and lots of wonderful observations about you. I'm not sure if this is still a big tradition in high school, but we ALWAYS had to get our pals to sign our yearbooks. "You're the best~Don't ever change!" ...those sorts of inspiring quotes. LOL! : )

These books come standard with our Pomp & Circumstance senior package. For more details on all our senior portrait packages, check out the Four Seasons Photography website at www.fourseasonsphotos.com.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Little People

Check out these little cuties from a recent daycare session!






Four Seasons Photography specializes in on-location photography including daycares and preschools in the western Oklahoma region.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Kendra & Cory

More scenes from Kendra & Cory's quaint outdoor wedding!













(Cory's a smart guy--he brought out the comfy-yet-cool shoes for the reception!)


You can view their wedding day slideshow here.

Megan Franks of Four Seasons Photography in Leedey, Oklahoma specializes in on-location portraiture.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Kendra

Here's a little sneak peek of Kendra from her wedding a couple of weeks ago. As you can clearly see, she was a beautiful bride. BEAUTIFUL! She thought I was crazy planting her in front of this gold wallpaper, but I thought it looked classic and distinguished. To get the "are you crazy?" look off of her face, I told her I would make it black and white, but I dunno....I'm not sure which one I like better.....





Monday, October 08, 2007

Photographer Speak

I was driving along one day when it occured to me that we photographers speak a weird language. Consider these words commonly used in a room full of photographers:


f/stop

apeture

shutter speed

ISO

ambient light

strobes

depth of field

dynamic range

histogram

bounce or "foof"

chimp (not the monkey variety)

levels/curves tweak

etc..... etc..... etc......

Yea, we're a bunch of weirdos.



Saturday, October 06, 2007

October Blog Special

Yep, the beginning of the month snuck up on me! Never fear....the October Blog Special is here!

With any purchase of $150 or more, receive a set of 20 wallets absolutely free!

As always, you must mention the blog special in order to receive it!

Friday, October 05, 2007

Flying & FEMA

Last weekend, I hitched a ride with my parents to a wedding in Arkansas. Luckily, they have a small plane so it was only a two and a half hours by air rather than 8 hours by land. God bless airplanes!

We flew into the airport at Hope, Arkansas which is about 17 miles away from the farm where I grew up. Even though I spent much of my childhood in and around Hope, I had never seen the airport or heard of its history.

I knew something was special about the place when I saw the hangar (most small-town airports do not look like this):



When I asked my parents about it, they began to tell me a little bit of the history & I saw this on the hangar:



The area was known as "The Proving Ground" during World War II. Basically, the Army used the area to test bombs and ammunition. Inside the airport, they had old mortar shells and other ammunition and several photographs of the events that took place there. Pretty interesting.


But maybe you're not a big history nut. How about a little recent history? Remember the big hurricane a couple of years ago on the Gulf Coast? Oh....what's-her-name???? Ah, I remember: Hurricane Katrina! Familiar? Well, you'll probably recall the devastation and how FEMA had to come in with temporary housing for people after the storm. Ever wonder what happened to all those mobile homes? Probably not (I didn't either), but check this out:





Yep, these are the THOUSANDS of mobile homes leftover from Katrina. Some are used and some are brand-new, but all are for sale. So, if you're in the market for a mobile home, you know where you can find a hand-full or two. LOL!



This was the view from my window for the majority of the flight. We flew slightly above the clouds. All the fluffy whiteness made me crave cotton-candy!


These were my pilots, affectionately known now as "Pop and Nana."


And one blurry picture of me in the backseat. Flying, by the way, is a great way to catch up on homework!


And for my Okie friends, this is the view of Oklahoma from above. I believe we were somewhere in between Watonga and Woodward. I wish I had taken one over Arkansas. It's always strange to see how two places that are so near one another in location can look so vastly different!



Hope you enjoyed the flight!