Good Afternoon! Its a beautiful day here in Cali. I have the sliding glass door open and there is a crisp cool breeze coming in and cooling the room down. I dont know if it is me or that the house was stuffy and warm cause these menopausal days I cant tell the difference. I am always running hotter than anyone else.I cant wait until winter when that will work in my favor! haha…

Well Mark is steadily improving so I think we are good there today. He went in to get his contact lens out this morning. His eye isn’t painful anymore and doesnt look swollen anymore. His eye still looks like it is irritated but he isnt complaining so that is good!!!

Thank you for all your prayers!!

Yesterday we worked hard to get our Latteri wedding off to the album company in Italy! We got it off and cant wait to see it when they send it back all beautifully done in their exquisite way!

We have one more wedding to do as well. Once they choose their 80 images we will ship that order off too. I imagine that will happen soon as they are anxious to get their book as much as we are in seeing it!

Oh we just picked up two location shoots today. We will be shooting this weekend and then next weekend….I was just praying this morning for God to bring us jobs that will fill in between weddings. And of course for more weddings cause we just love doing them! Our kids or I should say our “adult kids” are getting some really good experience shooting with us. We hope that they will be able to do this to supplement their incomes as time rolls along for them. Right now Lindsay is using her money to get herself through the last leg of her college career. Brian being 18 just got a job at a Jamba Juice store. So between working there and picking up weddings and photoshoots with us and doing heavy yard work for us in the backyard…they are doing pretty good.

So I am trusting God that we will always have work….  

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Some random shots that I took early on  in my camera career!

Kerri

EDIT (by Mark): Sunday, 8/13  Update:

Well, today is better than yesterday. Still hurts, but a different pain, and less. Still have to watch my time on computer, as the screen is too bright to look at.

Yesterday it felt like there was somethig in my eye, which there was – a protective contact – but my eye was just very sensitive to it. I had to keep puttng anethetic dropsinto my eye, and eventually just took a vicodin to sleep.

Today it’s just sore, like an after surgery sore, but I can tell that my vision is going to be better when I get through the next few days. (When I got up this morning I had about 15-30 minutes of good time, then they started hurting again. But during that time my vision seemed to be great! Praise God!) Now I just need to get through the next couple days.

Then I can start looking through the lens again! (and of course finish up the projects that are waiting…) Talk to you soon!

Mark

Just as the Dr. said the third day would be the most painful and it is…Mark says it feels like something rubbing under the contact that they put on after the surgery. So he is taking a vicodin and going to bed….poor guy.

If it still hurts like this when he wakes us we are gonna call the Dr….

Oh here is a cute shot we took for our friend for her business card. She is a real estate agent and we were so excited to do these for her…

She and her husband came over last night to proof their “family photos” and I shot this as they were leaving…! How awesome to see your work on things like the side of a car!!! haha….I love it!

She is such a great gal!!!

So…if you are looking for a realtor she is your girl!

Have a great weekend!!! I’ll keep you posted on Mark….

Thanks you guys for your prayers!

Love Kerri

 PS they have a slideshow on our sidebar in case you havent seen it…so if you havent go check it out…what an awesome family!   

Thank you for all your prayers!  I woke up today not quite sure what to expect.  After my eyes woke up, I could tell that my vision in my left eye is going to be better than it was. WAHOO!!

My right eye had PRK surgery, and takes longer to recover so its too soon to really tell there, but it seems like that eye will better also. I am SO looking forward to throwing away my reading glasses. Perhaps I’ll run over them in my car…

For those who don’t know he difference betwen LASIK and PRK, here is a short description. (If you dont like medical stuff, skip down…)

In LASIK, they cut a flap on the front of the eye, and peel that back (sounds good, huh? you’re squirming aren’t you?) then the laser “reshapes the front of the eye – takes about 10-20 seconds – and the flap is put back. You recover from this type of surgery fairly quick,and have good vision usually within hours, and it only takes weeks for the eye to heal.

In PRK, they do not cut a flap – this is for eyes that the front surface is either not thick enough or irregular and not capable of producing a healthy “flap” for LASIK. This is what I had in my right eye, as there was a problem with my front surface. In PRK, there is no flap,. They “grind the front surface down,  (now you are really squirming, arent you?…) and resurface that with the laser. Again, 20-30 seconds) The healing for PRK is longer as the eye essentially has to grow a new front surface. In PRK, your eye isnt fully healed for 6-8 months, sometimes longer, however your sight does return sooner, but it’s not as clear as it will be when the eye is fully healed.

I had my eyes corrected for “monovision.” My left eye is for distance, and my right eye for near, so I’ll be able to see both! Not only will I be able to see distance, to take a picture, but I’ll be able to see the camera back to!!

It’s been challenging these past ten months (after my initial surgery) to shoot. I’ve been using reading glasses to see the camera back as well as my computer monitor. I’m typing this without my reading glasses, and I can see the screen!! And this is the day after surgery!!

It will only get better from here. Praise God!

And again thank you all!!!

 
              Mark

Having eye surgery is scary for anybody and if you depend on your eyes for every aspect of your job it really increases…Mark just got done having an enhancement done on both eyes this morning. Some of you remember last September Mark had Lasik and PRK done. Unfortunately it caused him to trade his good up close vision for good long distance…NOT good for a photographer…sooo today he had monovision done. He has been so depressed over paying all that money last year only to get worse vision…so hopefully this will work this time!

Pray that this works for him…he is laying down and resting…

Here is a few pics of the procedure..

.

Sorry I was using Marks camera and his diopter was set for his eyes…doh!

Kerri

B l o w i n g   B u b b l e s

(click picture for larger images)

I saw this baby and her mother interacting on the shuttle from the parking lot to Marine World. The mother was blowing bubbles with her gum and this baby was trying to eat the bubbles! It was sooo cute.

These are old pictures from last year that I took with my Canon Rebel. The only thing I have done with them for this post was to turn them into black and white or sepia. Then I made a quick collage. I wish I had my Canon 5D when I took these…I did this collage in a neat free program from Google called Picasa 2. If you like taking photos and being able to EASILY do some editing it is a neat program!! These would look really great with a Diana action (see Chris Fawkes) on them but I dont have that action on my computer. Maybe I will have Mark show you from his computer when he is done with editing the last of the wedding pics. Then you can see what a Diana action is…

Try the Picasa program and let me see some of your photos! You will love it!

New slideshow for Katrina’s Dad…

www.lydellphoto.com/slideshows/Katrina

EDIT: (Mark)

Ok – here’s the show! This one has a special story to it.

This is from the wedding we shot two weekends ago (when it was 117 out!) The bride wanted to have her first dance with her dad to Butterfly Kisses, but with all the details she was taking care of, that song didn’t get to the DJ, so they didnt have it for their dance….

We could tell that the Mom and Dad really would have liked to have heard that song that night. I tried to use it in the slideshow we put together for them after the wedding (which is in a prior post, and you can see it at www.lydellphoto.com/slideshows/Ledet) but it didn’t fit – it was too long. So the last two fays we worked hard picking out just the right pictures that would make this special show for Chris and Bill.

They were such a great couple, and we were blessed to be a part of the wedding. The entire family were such great people. It was fun to put a show together to bless them.

I waited to post this until I knew they saw the show, so enjoy. All you Dad’s out there, beware!!

Mark  

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all doing well! I wanted to let you know we have a special slideshow coming up tonight…Be sure to come back for it…God bless!!!Kerri