I have a HUGE respect and love for the professional photography business. I hold professional photographers in the highest regard and hope to feel one day that I can count myself among them. I am pretty snobby about the difference between a mom with a camera + editing software and someone who truly is talented and deserves the title of professional. Even with all of the growth I have achieved the last few years, I still do not consider myself to be a “professional photographer”. Perhaps I’ll be able to see myself that way one day in the future when my kids are grown and I open a full-time business.

     I have come to a point in my journey to becoming a “professional photographer” that I had to make a choice. Photography is too expensive and time-consuming of a hobby to do it for free. I really want more equipment, lenses, and camera bodies and starting to take on paying clients is the only way to get them. I am hoping to just do 2-3 shoots a month or so, we’ll see how it goes.This is not a job, I am still a stay at home mom, but this is a passion of mine that I would like to share with anyone who would like to hire me. I don’t know why I feel the need to explain it in detail that way, but I just had to preface my announcement of…

     Please, click on the link above and look at my site and blog! It has been 5+ years since I worked as a web designer for the BYU Law School; so my CSS, html, and javascript skills were pretty rusty—but I managed to dust off my brain and create something I am really proud of. Sam didn’t even help me once, this was my chance to prove to myself that I still can do something on my own—and I did! Anyway, please wish me luck as I start this next endeavor. I’m nervous and excited all at the same time, but I really feel like I can give clients quality pictures that they will really love.

     Oh and for anyone who was wondering about my name, it took me a lot of thought to come up with one. I don’t like how “Lori Burkman Photography” sounds or pretty much any variation of my name in that context. I didn’t want it to be something totally random or cliché though like “klassy klicks photography”, so I really had to think long and hard about what I’d want to be. After some time, I realized that my initials are LB—and when said aloud those sound like elby… and that was that! I pronounce it like shelby minus the sh.

    Though I have been investing a lot of effort into photography lately, I definitely havent forgotten the importance and value of candid shots. I think that my phone pictures are sometimes my favorite pictures I have because they are not about a great picture, but just what my kids is doing and I love it.

I told addie to wait to turn the mixer on until I could help her. She got ahead of herself and turned it on anyway… on full blast. She cried for a good 5 minutes because she felt so bad.

When we were in beaverton with her cousins:

Simon took a dive while running in the front hallway and just look at the mellon of a bump he got on his head!

Then these are probably my favorite. I turned around in the car and they had fallen asleep holding hands!:

Then this one I took with my big camera with the flash in the dark of her room. We gave her those gloves 2 days ago and this is how we found her when we checked on her at midnight, do you think she likes them?

     I absolutely LOVE all of the fun activities that are available during the month of october. I am a huge Halloween fan and also just love the harvest season and the change of weather. For instance, this is what I am currently surrounded by as I drive around (pic taken from my phone):

I especially love how many trees we have around here that are multiple colors. Like, most of the tree is green, then 1/4 of it is bright orange with red tips. Seriously, it is just mind-bogglingly beautiful!

We used a groupon for a local farm pass and had a really great time. Sam took the morning off and we went on a monday. It had just finished raining when we got there so hardly anyone was there and we had practically the whole place to ourselves. They had such fun activities! Really cool 4 wheelers and trucks that were power-wheels so the kids could ride around on them all by themselves (Addie LOVED that), and they also had this awesome cart up on a ramp that the kids could go down like a rollercoaster and it spit them out onto a strip that they just sailed down for 50 yards. Addie, being her fearless self, went down it probably 15 times. There are baby animals and a hay loft and a rope swing over the hay, it was just so fun! Then we also got a train ride and a pony ride, what more can you ask for?

Addie yelling “ride ‘em cowboy!”

We put simon on for a pic, but he was much more interested in touching the horse than smiling for the camera:

And can I just point out how much I want a pot-bellied pig?! I am ambivalent as to whether or not we ever get a dog or a cat, but I am rather insistent that at one point in time, I get to own a pot-bellied pig. One small one for in the house (they can be trained for kitty boxes, just so you know), and a big fat one to live outside. They are just SO sweet! Just look at this perfect example of pot-bellied splendor they had at the farm:

     We were so lucky that our dear friends the Paternosters bought a house in our ward about the same time we did. I simply cannot imagine our ward (or life in Renton) without them! They are some of my favorite people and I’m glad they are our friends and also that our kids are the same ages and get along so well. Erik and Marcie, you rock and we love you for life- just so you know!
     I bought some new photography equipment last week and invited their kids over to our place for a photoshoot so I could practice with it. Addie simply adores Brooklyn and Troy and is so happy to have pics with them! We will definitely print them soon and put them up in her room.

     Addie had her first ever field trip today and it was fantastic! We went to the most amazing pumpkin patch (Maris Farms) and I am so glad that her school went or I don’t think I ever would have known about this place. They have essentially everything one could hope for from a harvest/halloween experience: corn maze, petting zoo with baby animals, a huge play area with cool playground toys, bouncy house, spook house, hay ride, apple cider, and of course- tons of pumpkins!

Her best friend at school is Lilly. She had the same boots on today and they thought that was pretty cool.

They had this super cool corn arena for everyone to play in. It was probably 300 sq ft of corn kernels laid out 3 feet deep. Simon wasn’t quite sure what to make of it:

I wanted to make sure Simon got in on the action too. At first he was really into it!

But then, not so much:

And they had a super fun old-school truck just begging for some pics :)