Patrice Lyn Photography is looking for High School Juniors that would like to earn free Senior Portraits!  Being a Senior Spokesmodel is actually fun and simple!  You get a free shoot in the spring/summer of your Junior year and receive complimentary spokesmodel cards to hand out.  This gives you the opportunity to earn all or part of your Senior portraits for free!!  Applications will be accepted until April 30, 2010.

Please fill out the application to be considered as a 2011 Senior Spokesmodel for Patrice Lyn Photography.

Please join our Facebook Fanpage here for more fun!

email me if you have questions:  patricelyn@patricelynphotography.com

Cheers  

P

Ok, so I may be a little biased since this is my great Niece and all (yes, I said “great” - I’m the youngest of 4 siblings!), but is she not the cutest?!  There is a lot more to this little mini shoot than just the cuteness, but suffice to say, it was a VERY quick shoot!  I wanted to thank my Niece for going with my vision/idea, it wasn’t the easiest thing to do with a 1 year old, but I think the results were worth it!  Oh and the little bit of greenery that you seen in her hand; that was her Dad’s idea - didn’t it just complete the scene?!  Love you guys to pieces!

Blessings,

Patrice

It is always this time of year that we start to look back at the previous year(s) and reflect.  I have a piano that sits in my house, the one that was in my house when I was a little girl growing up and that I practiced on for my weekly piano lessons.  I walk by that piano 10, 15 sometimes 20 times a day, depending on how much I am trying to get done that day ;).  My girls (8 and 5) sometimes sit down and play Jingle Bells or Hot Cross Buns on it and will eventually play more after taking lessons, but I have maybe played Alley Cat on it a few times in this past year!  Here’s the truth, I can’t play much on it and I come from a VERY musically inclined family.

I remember growing up and during the holidays, or any family gathering for all that matters, there was always a music session.  The piano was played, violins, guitars, banjos, harmonica you name it; yet I don’t seem to have the musical talent!

I want to be able to sit down and play that piano, it is therapy, but how many times am I going to walk by that piano in 2010?  Ok, so first up, the toned down version of  “Lean On Me”.  So call me, email me in a month and I will play it for you!

This is a long, rambling post, I apologize but the idea is for you to stop and reflect.  I could reflect on much more, but we will save that for a later post ;).

I wish all of you a safe, happy and healthy holiday season!  I will see you in 2010!!!

And just because it is fun to have a visual, here is an outtake of my night shoot with my girls for our Christmas cards.  You will notice my dear husband/lighting assistant to the far right.  I could not get the plug to stay in for the small tree so he graciously held it whilst I took some images.  Isn’t he awesome?! 

Blessings ~ Patrice

I have been thinking about this blog post for quite sometime now and I just really need to make it happen (a.k.a. write it!).  Since it is the eve of Thanksgiving, I thought it appropriate to make this post.  I have so many things/people that I am thankful for and I am reminded by them every day.  I think we all are, it is just that we need to stop, take a breath and take it all in.  We are all so often too busy in our lives, we know all the sayings like “Stop and smell the roses” etc., but do we really take that advice to heart?  Seriously, stop reading this right now and take a  deep breath ( hopefully it is somewhat fresh air ), go ahead do it….

Now, did that make you stop to think about the things/people in your life that you are thankful for?  Well, maybe at least it gave you a feeling for where you are in your life.  I have so many thoughts swirling through my head right now that I start to type a sentence and then I backspace and start all over again, so here is what I am going to do;  Here is a list and not in any chronoligical or priority order, of what I am thankful for:

* My 2 beautiful daughters, they are in my heart, eyes, soul and head at all times.  I can’t get enough of them!

* My husband, he is the nearest and dearest to me.  He listens to me, he encourages me, he loves me.  I love him.

* My family, I seriously do not know what I would do without them, they are the spokes to my wheel that keep me running smoothly!  I have the most wonderful sister, brothers, sister-in-laws and nieces and nephews that a person could ever hope for.  I LOVE them!

* Photography, I know it is going to sound sappy and like a little self-promotion here, but I do LOVE photography, it fills my heart and soul with joy.

* The Lord, he makes it happen.

I want to end this post with some images of some of my favorite clients!  You may recognize one of these girls from earlier posts, but here she is with her sister.  I am so thankful to work with these girls and their Dad, they are always up for my ideas!  Happy Thanksgiving to you all, may you enjoy your family and friends!

Cheers,

Patrice

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 I had the pleasure of photographing this family in honor of their parent’s 50th wedding anniversary.  It is all too common that our families get spread out across the country and the time between visits seems to get longer and longer.  This family was no exception, they mentioned that they had not all been together in one location in at least 10 years!  Thankfully, we have special occasions like a milestone wedding anniversary to celebrate and to use as an excellent excuse to have everyone in one location at the same time.  When I arrived at this house on Chapin Parkway in Buffalo, the children were all out in the back yard playing, the house was full of family and the kitchen showed significant signs of a wonderful dinner being prepared for all.  It was such a joy to meet and photograph this family and the children were all such a joy, another wonderful afternoon doing what I LOVE!

Cheers,

Patrice

I’ve been thinking, (I know, you can see the smoke right?!), but seriously I would like to make a commitment to try to write a bi-weekly post about why there is “A reason for a bounce in my step”.  Sort of parallel with what a person is thankful for, but adding a little fun with the “bounce”.  This past weekend, my husband and I took our girls to Brown’s Berry Patch in Waterport, NY.  We had a traditional fall day of apple picking, hay rides and pumpkin fetching from the pumpkin patch, along with some other fun activities which is what has led me to this post.  They have an awesome section called the “Barnyard Adventure” and within that area is what is called a jumping pillow.  Now I’m not sure that I can explain this and do it justice, so check this out - Jumping Pillow USA.  If you don’t know me, I still have A LOT of kid in me, so needless to say, I had the best time on this thing!!!  I jumped and tried to do splits in the air whilst my husband jumped next to me trying to make me go even higher by timing his jump just right ( I think I may have had more fun than the girls ).  We then moved on to what was like a pipe that you got inside of and then the people standing outside of it could turn it so that you had to walk to keep up, kind of like a gerbil’s wheel (if you can picture that).  Well, of course I had to give this a whirl as well, but this adventure didn’t turn out so well for me.  My husband was able to keep up, I, on the other-hand could not, so I fell and ended up twirling around on my back until I could get myself out of it!!!  Insert hilarious photo here - I’m hoping that I can get some photos from our friends that were with us since I was just too busy being a kid and not interested in taking pictures.  I will come back and insert some photos if I can persuade our friends to share them with us, because I know it would be better with the visual!

The reason for the bounce in my step today is that I left a dirty house behind, I left the weekly grocery shopping behind, my husband left the lawn mowing chore behind and we just went and spent time as a family.  I am forever grateful for my family and when my oldest daughter said to me numerous times, “Thank you Mom, for today”, it left a bounce in my step.

Cheers, may there be a bounce in your step,

Patrice

Mr. T - what can I say, I had an awesome time doing this shoot!  You have the most unbelievable personality and this session rocked!  I truly hope that you have a great senior year at Kenmore East, you deserve to soar above and I know that you will!!!

My word for the day that I think is under used…. groovy  

P

This is an old concept, I know. I’m sure I have taken various tests numerous times throughout the years to see which side of my brain is dominant, but just today I was thinking about it again and thought I would try another test to see if perhaps it has changed for me.  Nope, I’m still the same person :)  I have a right brain dominance.  What does this mean you ask?  Well here is a good definition:  ”Most theories suggest that right-brain dominant people are guided by the more emotional, intuitive right hemisphere”.  Well, that is a good thing because visual artists need to be emotional right - do you agree?  That doesn’t mean that my left brain doesn’t have a good say in things, I just prefer the right brain way of doing things! 

I found a really great and different video that will test you without having to answer any questions (because sometimes you can “fake” the answers on a test), here you can’t!!

Have fun, leave a comment if you wish to tell me which side of your brain is dominant!

This time of year is my favorite, the warm days and the cool nights make for awesome sleeping, but they also make for very interesting early mornings.  The fog is amazing at this time of year in the early morning, so here is a capture from this mornings fog on my neighbor’s pond.

See you tomorrow…

Hugs and Blessings,

P-

I stumbled upon a challenge from another photographer that I thought was unique and interesting, but more importantly, a challenge that would bring my skills to the next level.  It may sound as though it would not be challenging by the simple explanation of it: take one photo a day for 365 days, but oh-contraire!  Just in the very first day, I found this challenge to be a learning experience.  You see, there are so many things to think about in order to achieve an interesting photograph.  There is always the technical part of it,  ie: the exposure triangle ( ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed), but there is also composition, the rule of thirds, motion or stillness….so much to think about in order to “get THE image”.  Just the mere fact that this challenge makes you think about those things, the creativity starts to flow and since this is for your own personal sake and not for a customer, you have the freedom to play around with different settings to “get THE image”.  What makes a photograph interesting is different for everyone and what strikes a cord in some may not for others, but I hope that I can provide you with some interesting images throughout my journey.  I don’t know that I can promise there will be 365 images by the time I complete this, but I certainly will make my best attempt, time permitting.  I may even reach out to you for any ideas along the way because, heck, input is good and I value your opinion :)  Here is the link to the talented photographer that has created this challenge: http://www.tasra365.com/

So here goes day #1   and I might add that we were sitting around a bon-fire when my neighbor Todd, mentioned how beautiful the moon was and that is what I should photograph today and so I did.

Until next time….

Hugs and Blessings,

P-