With it being Easter weekend, I have to share what happened as I left Vegas last week. It’s one of those things that you almost can’t talk about for a couple days so you write it all down to make sure you don’t forget. But then you realize that you’ve got to share this story b/c you can’t believe it really happened.

The morning I left Vegas I had to return my rental car so Greg and Carmen map quested it for me. When I got to the address there was nothing there. Come to find out, the rental car was supposed to move their location but they were behind schedule and map quest didn’t know it. So I missed my flight.

The lady at Alaska said there must be a reason I missed my flight. I’m thinking ‘I just need to get home to my kids!’ The next flight wasn’t for another four hours. When it finally came time to board, they said I didn’t have a seat. There had been some mistake, and I would need to wait another six hours for the next available flight.

I started crying. Pascaline had been through some tough things when I was gone, and I just needed to get home.

A man walked up to the counter and asked if he could help. The ticket guy told him what had happened, and the man looked at me and said, “You can have my ticket.” The ticket guy tried to tell him he would have to wait six hours for the next flight, but he said that was fine. He said he needed to do this.

I stood there in shock. How do you say thank you. I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t stop crying. The man leaned forward and said, “Ma’am, every day I pray for the same thing. I just want to hear God’s voice, and every day I don’t feel like I hear any thing. But today I heard Him. He told me to turn around. That’s when I saw you standing here. And then He said, give her your ticket and tell her that I love her. Tell her that I hear the cry of her heart, and I’m taking care of her.”

I was speechless.

The man was in tears with me. He shook my hand and said “just receive. If your heart can hear that God cares and sees you, I can wait six hours for my next flight.”

So often I find myself praying for miracles to happen, the impossible to work out, the friend or family member that is hurting to be healed. And yet, my heart is also hoping that God just remembers my name in all the cares of the universe. This random man name Jim helped me remember that He does. I’m so thankful for people who take risks. His risk to help me and share with me went so deep. He’ll never know how much it meant.

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter! Much love, Me Ra

The day before I flew to Vegas, I first went out to Denver, Colorado for an engagement shoot. But this wasn’t like any engagement shoot. Brittany and Greer are two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

Last summer, Brian and I shot Brittany’s sister’s wedding, Shannon and Rob, in Sonoma, CA. And bottom line…we fell in love with their whole family.

Here’s one example of how great they are! It’s embarrassing to say, but I totally forgot to book a hotel! And I didn’t realize it until they asked me where I was going to stay that night. Talk about feeling embarrassed! Brittany insisted I stay in their beautiful guest room, and that night they even took me out to this fantastic sushi dinner with Rob (Shannon’s husband–the coolest guy!) and a group of their friends. I even got to reconnect with some of the friends who were at Rob and Shannon’s wedding. (Brian was so bummed he didn’t make this shoot! :))

Here are a few of my favorite photos, but you’ve got to see their slideshow to see them all! And the music that they picked is perfect b/c it rained the whole day. But we still had a blast!

Their two dogs are so sweet! You can’t help but fall in love with them, especially the chubby one.

Their wedding is in September, and I honestly feel like it’s to far away. I wish we lived closer. Their family invited Brian and I and the kids to their cabin in Vale, CO, and we are so excited to vacation with them next winter. If you know them, you know what I mean when I say this family, Brittany, Greer, Shannon and Rob, are the kind of people who have experienced things and endured pain that makes them so beautiful. You simply can’t get enough of them.

Congrats Brittany and Greer! I hope you love your slideshow. I loved my time with you and can’t wait to see each other again! Much love!

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To see our day job, visit our website.

To learn more about me visit About Me Ra.

For information on Me Ra’s popular photography workshops and DVD series for parents, visit DVD series and “Documenting a Child’s Life.”

So many wonderful things happened at WPPI last week! But the best things were all the people we spent time with! I didn’t have my camera, but thank goodness others did! Here are a bunch of fun photos I’ve found on other blogs! I’ve also included their links for those of you wanting some visual inspiration!

The first day we got together with two beautiful, amazing photographers, Carey from Barefoot Memories and Amber from Holritz Photography. Carey, Amber and I are conspiring on some fun stuff for women in 2008 so Brian and Nathan (Amber’s husband) got some fun promo photos for us. These are from Amber’s blog!

And Brian trying to make me laugh (b/c it’s so hard!).

He loves Nathan too!

I had to steal this one too of Dane Sanders. If you haven’t checked out his site, you must. Dane is such an incredible guy that is giving such good stuff to the photography industry. I had the best time hanging out with him and talking about fun ideas for 2008!

The next day David Jay and I had a blast speaking at the Pictage booth on the tradeshow floor. Thanks to the beautiful Daria for shooting this! Check out her website! She’s a sweetie and incredibly talented! After I finished my talk I had a group of women wanting to chat about motherhood, balance, work, all the above. Engaging with these women felt like water to my soul. If you were one of those women, email me b/c I don’t know if I got your cards and would love to stay in touch!

Later on in the day Mike Colon and Denis Reggie did a talk in the Pictage booth. I think so many people would agree that Pictage did an amazing job of hosting an awesome show! Mike and Denis deserve so much credit to where our business is today, and every time I hear them talk I learn something new. This picture was from Mike Colon’s blog. (Thanks Mike! So great to see you and catch up!)

During the Pictage cocktail hour, we met these two great photographers, Tom Flint and Corey McNabb. Check out their work! They are so fun and cracked me up b/c they put our business card in their name badges and just walked around the tradeshow like this. I had to grab a picture!

Brian and I also got to know Forest and Raya Carlisle. Our associates, Bleu and Ginger, have been telling us how cool these two are forever, but wow, Brian and I just fell in love with them! Forest and Brian are two peas in a pod with how techy they both are! And Raya, ladies, you have to visit her blog! She has got to be one of the most creative women I’ve ever met. Plus, she does incredible album design with her business party Shelly and their business Pink Penny.

Enna Grazier and I finally got to have coffee and talk face to face! She and her husband Matt are another amazing husband and wife team on the east coast. And I had a blast with the LaCour team. We both had interviews with the new HBO series, and Rachel and I could have talked for hours about our passion for women needing women in the photography industry.

And if you’re wanting one last link, here’s a video Steve Depino posted on his blog. It’s a fun recap! Enjoy!

I’m leaving so much out (like my video partner in crime, Josh, buying me lunch! You’re so awesome!), but I figure these links should inspire some of you this week! With 10,000 photographers coming together, how can you go wrong at an event like this? Inspiration was everywhere. I came away feeling so thankful to not only do what I do, but be in an industry full of people I respect and admire. Much love to all of you!

In the midst of crazy traveling schedules, big DVD projects, speaking engagements and home life, I’ve found myself pulling within to a place of reflection. ‘How am I doing with all that is going on around me? Could I be doing it better? When I speak about the juggling act women do, is it an “act” for me or am I doing it well?’ These are just a few of the questions that swim around inside my heart.

I tend to see all that is in front of me and all that is behind me in finite detail. Not a strength. This intense detail is to much, and I know I need to let some things blur around me so I can be connected with the present. If this makes any sense, hold on, this is depth of field.

When I got home from WPPI, I was so hungry for time with the kids. So we got out the eggs and started painting for Easter. I found myself working with depth of field as I took their pictures and in turn, processing all the above thoughts.

How much foreground or background did I want? How blurred should it be? Did the blurriness accentuate the story of them painting eggs, or did it take away from the story?

I love the shot above b/c you can see the intensity of Blaze focusing, but his face is purposely blurred so we feel the tension of a two year old trying to handle the egg without breaking it. In the foreground I chose to have Pascaline’s arm come in and out so we feel the “activity” of it all that much more.

Their hands in focus and their smiles blurred in the background is another fun way to experiment with depth of field.

What is depth of field? To me, it’s what I choose to blur in the front and back. And one step farther…it’s also the why behind choosing to blur those things.

The recipe? These photos were all shot at a 2.8 aperture for the intense use of blur, a 100 ISO for the best color saturation, and around 160th to 250th of a second.

Simple tricks that helped set the scene…I had us paint outside b/c the natural light was way better then inside the dining room. I purposely put white grocery bags underneath their paints so the white bags would act as a natural reflector of light on the kids. It was the end of the day, and a little more light coming up from the table would only help.

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Exercise for Depth of Field in Process!

1. When you paint Easter eggs this year, take it all outside in late afternoon when the sun has a nice glow to it.

2. Put white grocery bags underneath as their work space. The more light coming off the table is great for details shots too!

3. Set your ISO at 100, your aperture as low as possible (mine was 2.8) and work on taking photos that have foreground and background blurred around your kids.

4. Have them hold their painted hands up, focus on the hands and notice how their faces blurred. That’s you using Depth of Field to accentuate the story of their colorful hands!

5. Frame a different picture with stuff like egg cartons and paint bowls in front of your child and then focus on their hands so both their face and all the stuff in front is blurred. How did focusing on their hands accentuate the image?

6. After you’ve captured some fun images that focus on depth of field, don’t forget to grab your detail shots too!

She wrote her name. So sweet!

7. And don’t forget the silly faces that come from a fun activity!

8. And just the other stuff that is simply to cute not to shoot!

Just like momma, getting all those eggs photographed and documented!

Photography offers so many lessons for life. Depth of Field seems to be close to my heart these days–being intentional about what I blur before me and behind me, what I can and can’t control, and what I need to focus on for today.

Enjoy the exercise and remember, don’t stress if your shots are not turning out right. This is all about growing and practicing and having fun–and what could be more worth while when in the end you have captured your children?

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To learn more about me visit About Me Ra.

For information on Me Ra’s popular photography workshops and DVD series for parents, visit DVD series and “Documenting a Child’s Life.”

To see our day job, visit our website.