It's begining to look a lot like......

FALL!!!!!! At least in Garmisch, Germany it is.


I am finally back home in Naples for more than just a couple of days. Had a great time at the http://www.edelweisslodgeandresort.com/.

Adam Barker of Adam Barker Photography put on a great workshop for us. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate most of the time but I still got some beautiful images. But then again it is hard not to in such a beautiful place.
I must say a bit of what he taught, I already knew, but I still learned several new things. He critiqued 10 images of all of the students and I was very happy with what he had to say about my work. Obviously my work is not perfect but definitely very nice things to hear  about what I could have done better and what I did right etc... If you ever get the chance to attend one of his workshops go for it. You won't regret it. I have attended several workshops in general over the years and don't regret any of them. You always learn something!
I made some great new friends. Look forward to keeping in touch with them.


These are not my favorites from the workshop so be on the look out for more :). I have to decide which one I am submitting to the contest to run in the Stars and Stripes paper. And there are 3-4 more images that I like better than these that I have to choose between.

This image is from the last morning of my stay at the resort. It was the day after the workshop ended. We finally had a nice sunrise after the rain and snow. So I took advantage of it.

This is the view of the Zugspitze from the Riessersee Hotel. Don't you think this is a perfect location to shoot from? I sure do.

This photograph was made the last morning of the workshop. After the freshly fallen snow had arrived on the Zugspitze.
So tell me what you think.

It's been a while......

I know it has been almost 2 months since I have posted. Life has been crazy busy. We were actually out of the country for a little over a month and I didn't want to advertise that we were not home. I am working on client portraits and slowly downloading all of the images (at least the ones I can find cards for) from our trip. I will post some as I get to them.
For now here is a video of my families one day trip to Austria........

 

Hope you enjoy!

Sorry been trying to post for 2 days. The quality is low because the internet connection is that bad.

Birthday Special for August and September 2012

Here is the Birthday Special that was mentioned yesterday. The date will be August 30th at NSA Naples Support Site. Contact me to book yours today.

Upcoming Promotions and Giving Back....

Yes it has been awhile but I think things are settling down and I have a few moments to breathe. 
 
Since this post is about "giving back" I thought it would be good to start with a quote.

 “There’s always an opportunity to make a difference.”
~Michael Dell

Don’t miss out on these exciting upcoming sessions and promotions!

Birthday Sessions:
Attention September birthdays! We have a special just for you! Call for a free portrait session and 8 keepsake wallet-size portraits.

Senior Facebook Parties:
I am excited to host senior Facebook parties. The last 2 Wednesdays in October I will be celebrating my seniors and future senior clients with a complimentary mini portrait session, one portrait to use as a profile
picture, and of course a little music and fun. Profile pictures will be retouched and then posted to my studio
Facebook page, where you can tag yourself and update your profile quickly and easily. No purchase necessary, so come on down and bring your friends! Sessions are by appointment only between the hours of 3:30pm and 7pm (or dusk) on the last two Wednesdays in October, so be sure to RSVP today!

Home for the Holidays
There’s something special about gathering your family together in the warmth of your home. Celebrate that magic with our Home for the Holidays portrait sessions. Whether you have a gorgeous fireplace, staircase or back yard setting in mind, I will create the memory of your dreams. Sessions are available through November, but spots are booking up quickly! Call to
reserve your session today!

Santa Paws Charity Event
I am pleased to announce my first ever Santa Paws charity event! With your help, we are raising money and pet food donations for AWL (Animals witouth Limits). More details to come.

Together we can make a difference!

Availability for these exciting new sessions is limited, so call or email to reserve yours today!
+39-342-362-4584
Breezy@BreezyCranfordPhotography.com

Send your friends my way! Prizes to be had :D

Today I reached 600 likes on my photography facebook page: Breezy Cranford Photography Facebook

Thanks to Chad Thompson, a hometown friend. He won a print from me from our trip to Paris. I just haven't decided which photo yet. Thanks again Chad!

Now I am offering another contest for my page. This time I have to get to 750 likes. This contest will be for the most referrals to my page. So if you like my photography and would like to win some of it, then please pass the link along to your friends. You can keep up with my blog from Facebook as it will let you know when I update the blog. So no need to subscribe or stalk my page lol.

If you refer a friend please have them post your name in a thread on my page so that I know who sent them.

I am sure it will take a little while to reach the 750 since we just broke the 600 mark earlier today. So if you are in Naples the prize could be anything. And for those of you in the states it could be just about anything too as I plan to be home mid Jan. 2013 for a couple of weeks. I will be in VA, NC and GA if all goes according to plan.

Start sharing my link now and get your name on my list.
They can go directly to my facebook page here

facebook

or

they can go to my website and get to the facebook link or back to here.

website

Thanks for all of the support!

I will announce the price the closer we get to the 750 and can also post the referals if you guys would like.

He sure is a handsome young man....

If I do say so myself. I can't believe he is 14. Time sure does fly by. Austin's birthday was Saturday. We spent a quiet day at home per his request. He requested dinner and a cake lol.

Yes those are snow capped mountains behind him, along with an orchard and vineyard. Love the view from our balconies.

Austin is a chocoholic to say the least. We were at the NEX early last week and I told him to go to the Ice cream store and tell me what he wanted on his cake. We always do ice cream cakes for them. He came back and said they didn't have anything but plain chocolate ice cream and chocolate cake.
So he asked me to make him a cake. HAHA. I am crafy with a camera but when it comes to baking and decorating yeah um not so much.
Any way here is his chocolate cake um I mean brownie cake lol. Thought I had a cake mix but didn't so we improvised and make the "cake like" brownies instead of the usual chewy ones. He requested the chocolate ice crean, crushed oreos, semi sweet chocolate chips, M&Ms and chocolate icing.

It was so sweet even he couldn't finish his slice lol.

Here are a couple quick snaps of his cake.

And yes I know that is an ugly cake. I think it is the ugliest cake I have ever seen. But he was totally happy with it and that is all that matters :D

Man that sure is a lot of fire!

Yeah he blew them all out.

Thank goodness we didn't set off the smoke detectors.

Buon Anno Neapolitan Style!

As you can tell we had a pretty good view of the Naples Firework display to ring in the New Year. This was a first for us. We have never seen fireworks like this before. I swear I think they set off as many fireworks as the entire US would set off for New Years lol. We had a 360 degree view of them! They lasted until well after 130am. Snoopy just had to come to the roof top with us as she didn't want to be left out. So after putting her back in the house a couple of times we let her stay. She was fine with the initial  erruption of the right at midnight. But once a couple of our neighbors set them off right in the street beside of our house, she was gone lol. Those went right over our heads. We had a great time roasting those weenies and marshmellows, and drinking hot chocolate.

Happ New Year to everyone. Hope you enjoyed the photographs.

When in France, do as the French!

We did the best we could with our non English speaking waitress and our non French speaking selves lol. We knew what this was before ordering, but Sommer said bring it on.

Then when it came out this is the look she gave lol.

Still debating on it. Do you know what it is?

OK I might as well give it a shot she said.

OK that wasnt too bad. I will try the whole thing now.

Back Off! She said to Austin lol

And incase you hadn't guessed, it is sea snails lol. All of those were an appetizer.

She finally let Austin try one.

He wasn't too sure about it, but in the end he said he liked it.

This is what the little boogers look like out of their shells.

Hey mom try one she said! I was very skeptical, can't you tell haha.

OK better just get it over with or I won't do it.

It wasn't too bad, not as bad as I had expected that is for sure.

And Gary tried it, he put a little of the mayo mixture on his though.

He liked it too.

Sommer asked to take the rest of them home with her and the waitress thought she was crazy or something. Her and Gary both agreed they were better hot than they were cold. And yes Codey refused to try them at all.

Any way this was a cute little place on the river in a little village between Juno and Sword beach I think. I will know specifics when I look for the papers that we brought back. There was a fresh fish market right beside of it. Pictures to come soon from that too.
Sorry mom hope it didn't make you sick. Sommer just said we had to share them with ya'll. HAHA.

On this Veterans Day

Our family would like to thank all verterans today.
Here are 3 photos from our trip to Normandy, France earlier this month.
My husband and 3 kids were honored to be able to raise the 2 American flags that fly over the NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY.We were there early to capture the fog which you can see in the distance and we were asked if we would like to help.
The last image was taken at the La Cambe German Cemetery also in Normandy. I love the colors in this one.
To all Veterans of the past and present we thank you!
MA1 Cranford we are proud of you and thank you for everything you have done for our family and our Nation!

Paris!

These are as we watched night time fall.

This one is my favorite I think.

We went to France on the 25th of October. Spent 5 days in Normandy and then headed back to Paris for an additional 4 days. Here are a few night images of the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) that I took on our last evening there. I love the beautiful sky in these. Most had nothing done to them at all but cropping. I did boost the colors just a tad on the first but the majority are straight out of camera.
Hope you enjoy and I will post more about the trip soon.

Decided to play with this photo today while on break from my creativelive class and while waiting to hear back from a client about some birth announcements.
I took this image while in Sicily. We had just entered NAS Sigonella when it started storming. The light was bright and no rain yet so I jumped out of the car and started tracking the lightening. I was fortunate enough to catch one strike. Unfortunately within about 2 minutes of getting out of the car the bottom fell out. So it is nothing spectacular but I am happy that I finally captured some lightening. I have tried off and on for years. I hope with the rainy season upon us here in Naples that I can practice this even more.
So tell me what you think!

Mt. Etna

Man I can't believe it has been just over a month since I have posted anything. There has been lots going on though. G had surgery, the market playces oh and yeah our week long trip to Sicily. Here are just a couple of teasers from Mt Etna. We got to see her burp on the 28th of Sept. It was really a great thing to witness. I only wish I had gotten more shots. Unfortunately she started while we were having dinner in Catania apparently. As we were heading to our room, my middle ones said the mountain was on fire. And sure enough she was burping. By the time we got back to our room, which was a "perfect" few she was almost finished. But that was the one thing I had hoped out of the trip, and I got it so all in all even with the bad weather it was a pretty good trip. I will post more soon.

This was the view of her the morning she errupted. It had been raining and cloudy up until then so we weren't able to see her peaks until that morning.



And this was the only shot I got of the actual erruption. The rest are of the lava flow. These were taken from the balcony of the apartment we rented.

I had 2 photos picked in a contest for Italy

Just wanted to share for any of you who missed my share on Facebook yesterday. I entered a contest (was able to keep all rights to my photos etc...) never enter when you give up the copyright to your photos.

I had 2 of my 3 images submitted picked as a finalist in thecontest on Walks of Italy Blog. Unfortunately I didn't win the grand prize but that is ok. I won a discount code to use towards any of their tours. How cool is that? I am sure we will be able to take a couple of tours in our time left here and a discount makes it even better.
You can view all of the winning images along with my 2 here:

http://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/all-around-italy/announcing-the-winners-of-our-travel-photo-contest

This was the 3rd images I submitted. This is the view from Sorrento, Italy. Hope you enjoy.

Oh yes, yesterday at NSA Naples we had a Market Playce. Lots of vendors came out, I believe there were 16 of us and only in the second month! I think it is great that we can all represent our hobbies and businesses. I had great feed back about my photography, style and quality. Looking forward to working with some great people here in Naples!
So all in all yesterday was a great day!

Market finds

Some ladies had talked on Facebook about going to a Market that isn't too far from where we live. Gary and I got up at a decent time considering he is still on nights. We headed over and got there about 930am. We parked on the side of the road as we weren't sure exactly where it was but we knew we were there because of all the cars haha. Will have to post pics of the parking next time. Any way we made our way through, strolling along, at a fast leisurely pace cause it was HOT! If something jumped out at me I looked but for the most part we just wanted to see if it was worth going back to another time. Gary looked for a small shovel to use in the BBQ to get the ashes out. No luck there. I didn't know what I was looking for but I told him when I saw it I would know haha. Don't think he liked that too well. Any way we came upon this one vendor that had canning jars, so I asked how much in Italian. He wanted over 5E's a jar and that didn't include the lids. said no thanks. At the corner of his table on the ground in a bin I saw some glass bottles, again asked how much. He wanted 3E each or 3 for 5E. And so here are my 3 limoncello jars. On our last swipe through the fruit and veggie vendors were ready to pack up. I saw a crate of zucchinis left and asked how much again. I got an entire crate, 2 plastic grocery bags crammed full for 4E. and he tossed in 2 bananas also. So all in all I think it was a good day. We decided if we are just going to "look" we go early. If we are there to "bargain" shop we will go late morning, when they are ready to go home. Can't wait to venture out to another market soon.

1 Tequila, 2 Tequila, 3 Tequila, Floor....

The Navy paid for Darius Rucker to come out some of the Naval bases and put on a free concert. The kids and I got to go. Unfortunately, just like every other event, Gary had to work.

Darius put on a great show and we are thankful he took time out to come and play for us.
Thought I would share a few pics from the show.
Enjoy!