On Wednesday, August 6, 2008, Maddox entered the world!  I went into labor in the middle of the night, but could never have made it through the entire labor without the help of an epidural, and the incredible support of my husband, Travis.  The experience made me fall in love with him all over again, and every day when I see him interacting and caring for our little boy, I am amazed at how lucky I am to have them both.

 Meet Maddox.  Born at 1:14pm, he weighed 8#1oz and was 20″ long.  He is in perfect health, but is so small that he doesn’t even fit into his newborn outfits!  He is absolutely amazing, beautiful, handsome, and quite simply, perfect.  We took these in the hospital when he was two days old, using natural light from the windows, just before we got him dressed to go home.  Ignore the little pressure lines on his arms, he had been sleeping and was all dented up from the blanket and his little shirt.  :)

I love how the depth of field is so shallow on this, and the focus point lands on the eye hidden under his hand.

For someone so tiny, he has huge feet!

He was not happy about being undressed! 

He did calm down after a bit, though!

He is truly incredible.  Thank you again to everyone for your support and love over these last few months!  I am sure this won’t be the last you see of him on here! :)

I got a little too excited at Walmart tonight when I realized that the milk expires when I do!  Travis just rolled his eyes at me.  It is totally silly, but it kind of feels like a milestone.  I am starting to feel like I will be pregnant forever, so seeing that milk is set to expire on and after my due date gives me hope!!

The images show up rather small on my blog, so if you would like to see them a little bigger and with more detail, go to to my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendiandtravis/sets/72157603210251836/

I noticed the collages are also a little soft.  I’m trying out a new program to create these in and save myself time, and for some reason it reduces the quality of the images.  I’m not going to change these, but will not be using the program in the future, so that no sharpness or quality is lost!

One nice thing about meeting a bunch of photographers is that one ends up with really nice shots of themselves!  One night several of us decided to start handing off our cameras to each other to do headshots.  I believe my camera made it into the hands of the extremely talented Jeanann Wilkerson, and I must say, she made me look good! :)

On Sunday, a handful of us traveled to the marketplace in Tonalá.  Wow!   It was amazing!  From food to clothes, Christmas decor to glass blowers, candles and knick-knacks, jewelry - you name it, you can find it at Tonalá!  I picked up a lot of little things for home, including the most unique metal photographer sculpture.  We spent a couple hours walking around and still didn’t see everything there was to see.  I had homemade helado de fresas (strawberry ice cream), pomegranate seeds, fresh meats and cheeses, and a yummy lunch at a local cafe.  We conversed with the locals and bartered with the vendors.  It has been a few years since I’ve had to speak the language on a daily basis, and I was amazed at how easily it came back to me!  (in case you all didn’t know, I was a Spanish minor in college for a couple semesters before finding my real passion, and have studied the language since my mom first enrolled me in a class in the 5th grade).

Going to the market.  On the left, that is a house, sort of.  Yes, someone was living there.  In the middle, the line of cars waiting to get into the market.  On the right, ruins.

Here are a few from the Tonalá Market.

Yes, you have to pay to use the restrooms.  :)

On the way home, we stopped at this beautiful cemetary and walked around.  The way they honor their dead is admirable.

The following are a few from the different pueblos that we visited.  The people were so friendly and welcoming, and I am especially thankful to the family that let me use their bathroom during our shoot.  I drink a lot of water!

In the one on the bottom left, I asked the two men if I could “tomo un fotografia” of them, and they scowled and shook their heads no.  I gave them a smile and asked “con mi?” (with me?) and they got these big smiles on their faces and scooted over to make room for me!  It was so funny!  Look how happy they are!

Now that I am done shooting for the summer, I figured what better time than to sit and go through my images from Mexico and figure out what to blog?  It wasn’t an easy task, but I narrowed it down to my, oh, 100 or so favorites!

I’ll split this up into a couple different posts so that it isn’t totally overwhelming! :)

My trip started out in St. Louis, where I hopped a plane to Houston and then to Guadalajara.  It was a lot of waiting!

I’m not going to be chronological here, and instead will just share a bunch of collages of highlights of the trip.  First, the hacienda!

We stayed at La Hacienda El Carmen, a beautiful resort tucked away about an hour and a half outside of Guadalajara in Ahualulco del Mercado, Jalisco.  It was breath-taking and amazing!  I shared a suite with Erin Glaser, a talented photographer from California.

Our suite, the Alcoba Dona Ampara (I can’t figure out how to do tildes on here!)

There were real, live peacocks roaming the grounds, and they were so entertaining!  I spent several minutes during lunch one day playing with this guy, who kept hiding behind the ferns and peaking out at me, trying to figure out where to go to get around me.

To answer a few commonly asked questions:

-Yes, I am still pregnant.
-I am due August 14.
-Yes, I am ready to have this baby!

:)

Not much longer!  If you have called recently, and gotten my voicemail, you’ve heard that I have officially started my photography “maternity leave”, and with the exception of events already booked, will not be taking new clients until October 1st.  I check my email almost daily, but it may take me a bit longer to get back to you as I’m usually exhausted by the time I get to it.  Office phone messages are checked once or twice a week and will be returned as soon as possible.  I almost always have my cell phone on me, so that is still the best way to reach me, but again, it may take a little longer to return messages.  If I am having the baby, I can promise I will not be answering my phone.  :)

Once October comes around, I’ll be back in full swing.  I’ll try to post pictures of our little boy when he gets here, too!

The last weekend of October, I am co-hosting a small photography workshop in Burlington, and we are looking for subjects to photograph.  I am in charge of finding bridal models, and wanted to come here before going to the pros as I have for other conferences and workshops.

If you are interested in some unique bridal portraits in your own dress, doing a “trash the dress” session, or just getting dolled up and having some fun, please shoot me an email at contact@inspiredimagesbywendi.com.  If you don’t want to use your own dress, or do not have one, we do have access to a few.  We are also looking for a couple “grooms”.  Grooms are just asked to show up in a nice suit, tux is not required, just nice pants and jacket if possible.

Interested parties, please send me the following information:
-Name, address, phone, and email
-Age (you must be over 18, this is simply for release purposes, no risque images will be taken)
-Size or measurements (note that wedding gowns do not always match the same size as your street clothes; if you do not know what your wedding dress size is, and we select you to model, I can arrange to get you sized)
-Any prior modeling experience (previous exp. not required)
-Why you are the perfect person for this!
-A picture, if possible

What we will provide:
-Hair and makeup
-Wedding gown, if needed
-Food and drinks

What is asked of you:
-Positive attitude and lots of smiles, and the ability to not smile if asked! :)
-Ability to take direction
-Patience
-3-4 hours of time, possibly more once we figure out the timeline for hair/makeup

As a thank you for your time, you will receive a set number of edited images from each photographer in attendance, either in the form of prints, images on disc, or in a small album (this will be determined once we know how many photographers will be in attendance).

I look forward to hearing from you!

Last night, I was motivated.  I thought about doing dishes (because my husband has been slacking this week), laundry (because I’ve been slacking this week), sewing some material that I bought two months ago into a blanket for baby, unpack more stuff for my gallery, organize the closet in the nursery, pack my hospital bag, and a few dozen other things.

What did I do instead?

I started updating my website!

I know, long time coming, right?

While on maternity leave, I will actually be working with a web designer to completely revamp my site into something truly custom and “me”, but until then, I updated the galleries on my site with some more recent work that speaks more to the style.  Devan and certain blog-stalkers (no names!) have been on my case for a while now because it had been way too long since I’d done anything on it, and even though I had everything sorted into files on my laptop, they hadn’t actually gotten up yet.

It isn’t quite done, I was having issues with my FTP client last night uploading everything, so the homepage slideshow isn’t loading yet, and it took me a couple hours to get it to upload the correct size of vertical images for the galleries, but those are at least up.  Minor updates were made to the info pages, too.

I hope to get the homepage fixed tonight, so patience, please!  In the meantime, puruse the galleries, let me know if something isn’t loading right, and enjoy!

 And whatever you do, don’t tell Travis (my husband) that I crawled into bed literally seconds before his alarm went off to leave for work this morning.  He has to get up at 2:40 to drive to work in Illinois (he is carpooling with a coworker), and I hadn’t even gotten my pillows adjusted and blanket over me when his alarm went off.  :)  He gets after me for staying up too late, but I don’t like stopping in the middle of things!  Besides, I likely would have been laying awake in bed anyway since I just can’t get comfy anymore!  :)

Speaking of patience, I am patiently waiting to have this baby.  Today is 36 weeks, which means if I go into labor, I could be delivered!!!  I was showing progress at my appointment on Tuesday, but the docs think I can make it quite a while longer.  Travis and I are hoping before the end of the month, but aren’t holding our breaths.  Last night while I was working on the site, Baby Boy was pushing and playing and keeping me entertained, and I will really miss that!

I just wanted to extend a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to all of my amazing clients and friends.  The last few weeks have been rough as we’re dealing with the last stages of pregnancy and issues with the gestational diabetes that is taking over.  I ran into two of my wedding clients today, and hearing their words of encouragement and support and excitement over my little baby made me realize just how amazing the people I work with and for are.  I have received so much support from all of you through this journey, and it means more to me than I can even begin to express.  THANK YOU to everyone, to my clients and my friends (and my blog-stalkers) for everything!

 And because so many of you are from out of state, here is a quick snapshot of my “growth”, as I call him. :)  This is a true snapshot, too, shot in “P” mode, which means I let the camera do whatever it wants, taken in the mirror at the bottom of our steps, in fading daylight after our appointment this afternoon.  I have a hard enough time balancing on the steps and holding a heavy camera, and was exhausted from a long day at the doctor’s office, so nothing fancy.  Devan did my maternity session a few weeks ago, so I’ll share a few of those when we get them.

 As of today, I am 35 weeks and 5 days, and I quite tired of being pregnant, but with the exception of a few Braxton Hicks contractions, there are no signs of labor anywhere in the near, near future.  Only 4 weeks to go!

On the business side, I am officially on “leave”.  I will continue to answer my phone as able, and am setting aside one day a week to meet with clients and potential clients, but otherwise I am not shooting or setting other appointments until mid-September.  I will continue to take orders for prints and albums, though there will be a bit of a delay depending on baby’s plans.  I will be placing orders to my labs once a week, and as we near my due date and the first month after baby arrives, once every two weeks, and will be shipping once a week as well.  I am attempting to check email daily, though as we get closer, and especially right after baby arrives, email responses will be delayed.  I don’t like to make people wait, but unfortunately, I am having to swallow some pride and admit that I can’t do everything and be the “ninja photographer” that I’ve been dubbed by a few clients! :)

I’ll update as I can.  The mother-of-the-bride requested that I send an email out to everyone once baby gets here, so if you are interested on being on the “baby annoucement” email list, let me know!  And if anyone wants to send flowers to the hospital while we are there, I only ask that you don’t send balloons.  Silly confession, but I am terrified of balloons and will likely spend more time crying than the baby will!  Yeah, it is a ridiculous fear!  My husband is afraid of clowns.  You can bet our kid will never have a circus-themed birthday party.  :)