Mia's getting more wardrobe and make-up looks than Madonna lately.  I've seen her in 2 sweaters, red nails, au natural of course, and most recenty sporting her new Halloween costume over the course of the ast couple days.  Yep, Kylie's always callin' Mia "pumpkin', so (possibly coincidentally) her mom whipped up a little somethin' to go trick or treating in.  She also sent Mia a pretty sweet fall pillow cover for her kennel.  I'll have to get an image of that up in a later post. Hey, check it out, Mia knows exactly what to do with her new diggs... here she is asking for a treat within 10 seconds of putting it on.  We've been tricked.

The mandatory shaking of hands before goods are exchanged.

How can you not give this face a treat?

So, let me start this post with a brief back story.  Shortly after Kylie and I got engaged the discussion came up about getting a dog.  I have always been a dog lover and was ready to get one that day.  Kylie didn't seem to have the same enthusiasm but agreed we could get one as long as we waited until after we got married so that it wouldn't bond with me and say "Hey, who's this?" when Kylie moved into the house after the wedding.  Understandable.  I think it's fair to say, though, that the idea of getting a dog was something Kylie was a little more indifferent about... fine if we did, fine if we didn't. Fast forward to today.  Kylie would give our little Mia a kidney if she needed one.  If the house was burning down and Kylie only had time to save one thing, I'm not convinced she wouldn't at least hesitate for a few seconds before choosing me or Mia... and then take Mia.  I'm (hopefully) kidding about that last part, but she's pretty smitten with Mia-girl.  She's definitely stepped in love... and a few other presents from Mia.  So much so, that she loves to dress her up in sweaters and rain coats and bows. (say it with me now, "Oh my!") Anywho, yesterday Kylie dropped Mia off at the groomer and asked if I could pick her up later in the day.  To my surprise, below is the animal I was presented when they brought her out.

Here's a Top 10 list of things that went through my head when I first saw her... 10. I'm sorry, ma'am... that's not my dog. 9. Bwahahahahaha! 8. [insert image of tear trickling down my cheek]  That's so sad. 7. Uh-oh... is that PETA calling? 6. Umm, we asked for Pantone 1795 C.  That clearly looks more like Pantone 1935 C. 5. $49 for that? 4. As of this moment, Mia, the neighborhood dogs no longer want to be friends . 3. It'll be okay; maybe I can find some socks to cover those nails. 2. What? No matching red contacts to make her eyes red? 1. What's that?  The nail coverings last 6-8 weeks?  Oh good, I was hoping they didn't come off after only a day or two. The other funny (or sad) thing about this is that Kylie asked them to cut the hair on Mia's ears a little shorter this time while leaving the rest of her hair a little longer.  Apparently the groomer 1) got confused or 2) thought the shorter style would better accent the nails. The image below show's another Kylie purchase... pretty much sums things up.

I guess the good news is that the nails coordinate nicely with Mia's Buckeye outfit.  Thank goodness for that.

While the wet weather is wreaking havoc on my fall shooting schedule, it's also providing moments of solace like this morning.  With the warm front that came in overnight, there was a peaceful fog at day break.  The fog acted like one big softbox to create some beautiful light... I love the soft shadow it creates under the tree.  Simple scenes like this are some of my favorites - a single tree standing in the middle of a field on the farm land across the street from our housing development.  I hope they never sell the land because scenes like this are hard to come by around here.

This past Saturday we met up with the Groffs for a little family photography fun in Frisco.  They're such a fun, relaxed family... truly a pleasure to photograph.  We met up for the session at the business campus where mom Cathy works, and lemme tell ya, this place was fantastic.  Seriously.  If my parents had taken me to a place like this when I was little for Take Your Sons & Daughters to Work Day, I might still be there.  I'm thinking about secretly vacationing there in the spring. I can't show you all the images yet, or else there'd be no surprises when they come in this weekend to view their photos.  No fun.  But, here's a little preview of what's to come... Beautiful Caitlyn and wild man, Josh... [Note: I believe I was literally eating leaves when this image was taken.]

The kiddos went all acoustic on us towards the end of the session.

Love this family "portrait".  This image in an instant tells a story about their personalities.

More to come...

Wow, where did the last 7 days go?  It's been a week since my last post, the longest dry spell since this version of the blog went live back in April of 2008.  I've missed you, blog.  Rest assured, though, I've been prepping for the busy fall photography season that started this weekend, so I'll have lots of images to share over the next several weeks.  In fact, a little sneak peek of one of this weekend's sessions will be up sometime tomorrow. In the mean time, speaking of resting here's Miss Mia chilling in her kennel tonight.  Kylie and I are very proud of our little girl... she's recently learned to go in her kennel all on her own before we leave the house.  Sometimes, like tonight, she just goes in there on her own when she's tired even if we're home.  I just put the camera on the ground, cranked it up to ISO 4000, and got lucky on the first try when I took this image without being able to see through the viewfinder.  Shaggy girl... she's gettin' a hair cut this week, though.  She looks thrilled, doesn't she?