We are excited to have so many great people in our lives. Keeping in touch with everyone is always a fun challenge, and we are continually excited to spend time with our family and friends. In an effort to stay in touch with each of you we did the unusual for us and actually mailed out holiday cards as we have intended to do now for years. Thanks for stopping by our site to read our letter.
This year has been pretty routine for us. Jason continues to work for the fire department, he continues to teach “disaster prep” classes, as well as CPR classes and will occasionally fill some call time at a Nebraska hospital. While he is always very busy with work, he still manages to drive me to all of my doctor appointments.
Our exchange student daughters are all doing well, Debora is a Sales Director soon to be an Executive Sales Director with Mary Kay in Brazil she has a beautiful daughter whom we have yet to meet, but we enjoy listening to her sing to us via skype. Agnes is in medical school in Hungary she is focusing in on women’s health but has yet to actually decide her area of expertise that she will practice. Agnes (Agi) was able to visit us this past year, we had a day filled with Old Market Art adventures and piles of hugs. Fernanda will soon be entering her last year of law school in Brazil as well she plans to come visit in 2011 and we can’t wait. Our hope and dream is to visit each of our girls in the near future as we miss each of them terribly and are incredibly proud of each of them.
Having received a camera at the end 2009 has proven to be the highlight of our 2010 year. Every opportunity Jason or I have gotten we have taken our camera with us to capture the environment around us. Most often Jason goes out with his camera while I am still sleeping and will bring back pictures of his morning adventures. These pictures will range from something as simple as a framed piece of grass to an eagle majestically living its life. Jason excels at the technical aspects he is always tweaking and is never satisfied with his very discerning eye, he continually seeks technical improvement in the images that he creates. I enjoy the emotional and creative aspects I can often be found watching the birds that settle in the trees around our home that readily snack at the feeders outside our windows and have been very excited to capture several varieties of birds with our camera.
We began putting pictures up on this blog site several months ago, friends began noticing the pictures that we posted on our Facebook pages, the next thing we do we were getting hired to shoot memories with our friends and family. We have had word start to spread and are now being asked by people we have never met before to shoot their memories. While this is a “hobby” for us, we’ve taken it seriously from the very beginning.
Having a great camera is only a small part of the equation to get a great picture. We have taken classes from local photography instructors, as well as international photography instructors. We’ve begun to develop our photography style, we are always excited for our next photography project where we are continually applying our latest knowledge to the shoot. By the time we have finished one project we have usually expanded our knowledge and are already working to refine and further develop our skills and expand our creativity.
I have been doing much better compared to the beginning of the year. Addition of new doctors in my care plan has brought about definitive diagnosis and is brining me some much needed improvement and hope. While I am still not driving, I finally have hope of being able to drive. My Service Dog Luka continues to help me as he has for years since the accident. He is amazing and fabulous, and we enjoy taking pictures of him and his friends as well. A few of the shots we have included in slideshows below as well.
Having a camera in my hand gives me a sense of independence and I find the creativity involved in obtaining the shot I want to give me a sense of accomplishment like I would receive before when I was out and about building my Mary Kay business. Additionally I have enjoyed the finishing process that the digital world of photography provides. Much of this manipulation of the image was done in darkrooms in the past, these techniques are at my fingertips. While I am by no means an expert, this is another area in which I like to explore what is possible.
You can see some of my experimentation on the photographs on the holiday card we sent out. I love experimenting with different techniques to see what emotions are brought forth. I love looking at a picture of a place or a person and have a memory or a sense of what they were feeling or expressing pass over me. Jason and I really love emotion evoking images we’ve discovered. His opinion often differs from mine he is great at leveling out my creative expression. Additionally I had the pleasure of wearing a dress that my mother used to wear. It has been an inspiration of mine for a long time.
We hope you enjoy the images that we shared with you. We also hope that you will feel free to come back to our site and see what new adventures we have been up to. If you are new to this type of site, please check out the bar across the top of the page, as it offers other tabs with more information, including one labeled Help which will give you a run down of how our site works. Please feel free to scroll below as well, and at the very bottom of the page you can look in our archived photos, as well as choose to follow our site and receive updates.
If by chance you would ever like your pictures taken we hope that you will consider asking us to take them. Jason went on a trip this year to Yellowstone National Park the pictures he took on his trip are below. My sisters and their children all got together this year as well and the pictures we took as well as many other adventures are featured as well. Next year we have plans to shoot Jason’s family and we are going to continue taking photography classes and developing our skills. We’ve a passion for this and hope you will find our images life enhancing and emotion provoking.
We’ve been so busy taking pictures, that we are behind in posting so feel free to check back as we will be posting additional adventure pictures as well.
If you have already been a supporter of our passion we are deeply grateful that you have placed your faith and the creation of your images in our hands. We are blessed by you!
We wish each of you the best holiday season ever!
Blessings,
Jason & Tonja
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