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While my business is a HUGE part of my life so are a lot of other things like family, crafting, travel, cooking and vintage things. This is the place where I get to share those things. Thanks for reading!Folks We Love
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Tag Archives: Photography
A Glimps of Vermont, Winter, and Peacefulness
I was pulling together a few photos from Vermont for a friend and stumbled upon this one. I realize I was supposed to share more from my Vermont Trip this February, but it just hasn’t happened yet. I’m sorry. I’ve failed.

When I ran across this image, as I was digitally shuffling through so many of them, I was instantly reminded of the peacefulness I felt in Vermont. Since I got back from that trip I’ve been going non-stop with photo sessions, graphic design work, etsy sales, events for family and friends, birthdays, anniversaries, more photo shoots, travel, and just life. It’s gotten really really busy. And I’m not complaining at all, I enjoy it, but I’d lost sight of the clarity I found in Vermont.
We’ve got a few more trips planned in the coming weeks and I’m hoping to find that clarity again, to escape for a bit and refocus. To breathe again.
Also, I want to do a photo session in the snow. It’s on the bucket list.
5 Things: Raw Milk, Ten, Yard Work, Youth, Puerto Rican Food
1. Raw Milk- I spent all of last Thursday on Gramen Farm in Tomball, Texas, starting the work on a brand new project. A cow licked my arm. Their tongues are HUGE. I learned tons and tons about raw milk and farming. I met some really amazing folks who I think will become fast friends. Best of all I came home with a trunk full of delicious raw milk, kefir grains, soap nuts, local honey, and farm made soap. It was a good day.

Making kefir with raw milk and kefir grains.
2. Ten- Ten is the number of photo sessions I did in April. (Also, how the heck is it already May? When did that happen?) For a lot of studios 10 is a measly number, it may be the number of sessions they do in a day. But considering I’m a 1.45984 man operation boutique photography studio (Bill helps out when he can, which is reason for the decimal) and I spend at least 2 hours prepping for a shoot, 2+ hours on the shoot, 4+ hours editing, 2+ hours putting together custom artwork, not to mention client meetings, answering e-mail, and actually placing orders to our vendors as well as all the other stuff that goes with running a business, it’s been a crazy busy month. The thing is I LOVE IT.

Part of my workspace, it's definitely not always this clean.
3. Yard Work- When I was not working I’ve been outside. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the yard. At dinner Bill and I planned out our dream back yard, I even sketched it out. Our vegetable garden is flourishing and we had an influx of plants after the Plant Swap on Saturday. Bill makes fun of me because I just go out there and stare at it. But it’s relaxing and it makes me smile.

Our current project, making a path around our raised beds.
4. Youth Group- Our youth group is growing. Oh yeah, Bill and I lead a small in home youth group (it’s hosted by another family). It was an opportunity based out of a desire of a few kids that sort of just fell into our laps. We’ve been doing it for almost a year and last night we had 23 students. In a living room. Twenty-three. What? Yes. 23. It’s blowing my mind that A. that many kids want to listen and have discussions with us. and B. See reason A. I’m amazed.

5. Puerto Rican Food- My best friend is Puerto Rican and we have some very good friends here in Houston who are also Puerto Rican. And they have been teaching me how to make Puerto Rican food, which is delicious and makes me happy in a way I can’t describe. So a few weeks ago I took on the task of feeding 12 people with what I’d learned from my friends. The verdict was I succeeded. Rice, beans, flat steak and Tostones (twice fried plantains). My next task, Mofongo!

Yummy Puerto Rican Food

Making tostones, Bill did the smashing.
Posted in Five Things
Also tagged gardening, kefir, keifr grains, puerto rican food, Raw milk, tostones, Youth
2 Comments
Jaclyn ~ A Senior Photo Session With Horses
When Jaclyn e-mailed me and said she wanted to to her senior photo session at her horse stables I was a tad giddy. I love horses. My uncle shoed them for a living when I was little and he had a horse named Major and I would go with my uncle to the stables and ride. And then he would let me clean Major’s stall. I was quite proud of myself every time I looked into the stall after I had cleaned it. Little did I know I was doing an unwanted chore. And I’m about 99% sure my uncle had to go back into the stall and redo everything because quite frankly I was little and poop is heavy. And thus my love for horses was born.
Bill wasn’t quite sure about the horses. He’s from Philadelphia and I guess in that city horses aren’t as natural an occurrence as they are here in Houston and the surrounding areas. When we met Jaclyn’s horse I walked right over and pet his head. Bill stood back and stated quite frankly, “wow, that’s a big animal, I’ve never been this close to a horse.” He eventually warmed up to them and both of us stood in awe as Jaclyn maneuvered her horse and went soaring through the air as they jumped over a fence we had placed in the middle of the field.
Here are a few of our favorites from her photo shoot.














We’d love to hear your thoughts on the shoot! Leave us a comment.
Posted in DP&D Photography Sessions, Photography, Seniors
Also tagged horses, houston senior photographer, senior 2012, Texas, Tomball
2 Comments
Melissa ~ Whimsical Senior Photo Session
Melissa and I worked together to style her senior photo session. The goal was dreamy and whimsical with a touch of mystery. She has a great eye for fashion and picked out all her clothes. This was actually the same location we did the photo session with Tiffany and her girls, but to our surprise all the the tall grass had been mowed which completely changed the landscape of the location. It also revealed a plethora of blackberry vines which Melissa, Bill and I ate from throughout the shoot. Oddly enough, Melissa eats blackberries every morning and so it made the session even more “her”.
This lady is a fantastic woman. There is so much about her that reminds me of myself at that age. She’s beautiful and thoughtful and just all around awesome. And I’m in love with her photos…




(Because I take a feet shot of every client. It’s kinda my thing.)




(This one was an artistic experiment, I’m still not sure if it works.)



(Berry Picking)









And that is Melissa.
PS. I’d love to hear your feedback on these images; which is your favorite, likes, don’t like, etc. Just leave it in the comments.
Posted in Photography, Seniors
Also tagged houston senior photographer, senior photography, spring texas, whimsical
4 Comments
Five Things : Galveston/Anniversary, Busyness, Photographer, Garden, Fabric
1. Galveston- Just after Easter Bill and I went to Galveston, TX to shoot Riann’s one year photos and decided to use the time there (since we had to get a hotel anyway) as a mini anniversary getaway. Our 3rd anniversary was actually this past Tuesday but Bill is in Atlanta for work so we thought it was appropriate to celebrate a little early. We stayed at the San Luis Resort and I highly recommend it. All the rooms have a balcony view of the ocean, they’re huge, and the pool has a swim up bar. Awesome. We spent a lot of time exploring the island, looking for shoot locations and trying out the local fare. I always forget how great Galveston is, I spent a lot of summers there as a kid, and it’s a stones throw from our house (or like an hour’s drive). I need to take advantage of that more.

1. Our feet in the sand (I need a pedicure, don’t judge). 2. The view from our room at the San Luis Resort. 3. A DELISH shrimp Po-Boy from Shrimp N’ Stuff, go there, it’s AMAZING. 4. Breakfast at ShyKatz Deli, adorable little place, great food, great atmosphere. 5. Bill drinking a giant orange juice at Easter breakfast with mom before heading out to Galveston. 6. The new Pleasure Pier, opening soon!!
2. Busyness – In high school I went to a church by myself, not that my parents didn’t go to church I just really liked this one church so they let me go there. It was them allowing me to define my own path and faith. Anywho, on father’s day they gave all the dads this book called The Man in the Mirror. Somehow I ended up taking one home and since I read just about everything back then I thought hey, why not. One of the main things it mentioned was that it was ok to be busy but you had to be busy and balanced. It’s something I’ve always strived for but I think the busy has been outweighing the balanced lately and I’m working on that.
3. I am a photographer. – When there is a desire deeply rooted in your heart it becomes the thing you question the most about yourself. It’s personal and it’s tied to you. I constantly have to remind myself that I am a photographer. When people ask me what I do and I say it out loud I always sound silly to myself, or like I’m faking them out. But I really am a photographer (along with a lot of other things: wife, counselor, graphic designer, christian, daughter, gardener…), and sometimes it surprises me. For example I did a photo session with Tiffany and her two adorable girls and I don’t know if it was their beauty, or the location, or that it was the magic hour or a combination of all of those things but when I finally got the photos on my computer a few of the images made me gasp. I questioned if I actually took them. I don’t mean to sound conceited or anything but they blew my mind a bit, I surprised myself. This both frightens me and excites me, because I think it may mean I actually am a photographer. (You can see more images from their session here.)

4. My Garden Is Growing – We planted our veggie garden a few weeks ago and it’s doing VERY well. I’ll actually be picking our first banana pepper sometime this week. My parsley, cilantro, cucumber, and basil that I planted from seed all came up. I worked in the rain on Sunday putting weed block (that black plastic stuff) all around the outside of the raised beds so I can eventually build little pathways around them. The whole thing makes me SO happy that I just sit out there and stare at my plants. (This picture is actually from two weeks ago.)

5. I Have a Fabric Addiction – I bought more fabric recently from Five Monkey Fabrics on etsy, from Paper Thread Fabrics and Joanne’s. I have about 5 or six sewing projects going all at once. The quilt for the living room, a second quilt (though it’s just in the planning stages), the fabric rose tree skirt, reusable swiffer dusters, a vintage half apron, and this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess. I have SEVERAL others in the hopper too (top of the list is this burp cloth tutorial from Made for all my friends who are about to pop out kiddos). Basically my pinterest has been filled with sewing ideas and fabric swatches.

Posted in Five Things
Also tagged Five Monkey Fabric, galveston, gardening, Paper Thread Fabrics, Pleasure Pier, sewing, Shrimp N Stuff, ShyKatz, The San Luis Resort, TX
2 Comments
Why Hello New Year
We’ve hit the new year and here at Diliberto Photo & Design we’ve started at a full sprint. Senior photography sessions, for the love of couples sessions, family sessions, and corporate photography sessions are filling our calendar quickly. We’ve also got loads of corporate graphic design jobs starting as our business clients are gearing up for a new year and a new start to marketing efforts. Basically the first four days of the year have been busy and insanely satisfying.
The first session of the year to hit our client’s section of our website was Annika’s Senior Session. We had a few hiccups at our first location but we found this fantastic field and went to town! Here are a few of my favorites from Annika’s session.






I also put together a few samples of an artistic story board and custom graduation invitations using the photos from Annika’s session. Creating them was quite fun and as we round the second semester of many seniors’ last year I’m looking forward to creating them for all my seniors.



Posted in Photography, Seniors
Also tagged artistic storyboards, Custom Graduation Invitation, diliberto photo and design, senior photography
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Where The Wild Things Are Inspired Photo Session
This weekend I had the pleasure of shooting Ezra’s one year old photo session (I shot his sister’s one year photo session a few years ago). His mom wanted to do a Where the Wild Things Are themed photo session which I thought was the best idea ever. I got to work doing research on the book and the illustrations and put my creative thinking cap on and started building a few props for the session (with the help of Bill of course).


On Friday morning we ventured out into the parks of Houston to find a great spot. There is a cluster of crepe myrtle trees I’ve wanted to shoot at since high school and Ezra’s mom was a trooper as we pushed a baby and a whole lot of props through a park and across a busy street to get to the location. It was worth it because the photos turned out great. Ezra is such a happy baby and he was super cooperative, plus he’s cute which helps a lot.








Posted in Families & Kids, Photography
Also tagged baby, One Year Old, Themed Photo Shoot, Where the Wild Things Are
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The Taylor Family
This weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the Taylor family. Jennifer and I worked together to come up with the photo shoot theme. I’d been dying to do a cooking baking family session and the Taylor family loves to bake together so it was perfect. We had great fun and there was even a cookies and milk picnic!


Posted in Families & Kids, Photography
Also tagged Cookie Baking, family, Houston Photographer
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A Tulsa Wedding Part 2
Sorry the photos are a bit out of order. These first few are shots of the massive amount of wedding prep that went on. Bethia did an amazing job putting together all the details and arrangements. Bride, Groom, family and friends all did their part to make it all happen. It was wonderful.


Even right down to the cupcake wrappers.

I love this picture of towering cupcake boxes with Joel’s head peaking over the top. It makes me giggle.

Now down to the rehearsal, here’s all the guys plus Bethia’s dad’s fingers.



Yep I’m a big nerd.

Told ya.
AAAANNNND now back to the wedding…

This is Tabitha’s son Asher (Tabitha twirled in the amazing light for me back in A Tulsa Wedding Part 1). I’m totally in love with this kid. He’s super squishy and insanely smart for a 4 month old, plus he’s cuddly and totally fell asleep in my arms at the wedding.


Here’s Bill signing the photo wedding guestbook that we put together. It was so cool to see everyone’s notes and signatures in it.


And this is Steven, Asher’s daddy. We had a photo war.

All of a sudden there was this weird moment of man love between Bill and Joel. I’m not really sure what it was all about and Bethia and I laughed about this photo later.


I eventually changed out of my gray suede wedges into sparkly toms. I guess a few other ladies did the same because I found these shoes abandoned on the floor.

And finally a picture of Bill and I.

And no wedding is complete without a twirling bride.
Looks like I took more pictures than I thought…so stay tuned for Tulsa Round 3 or if you missed it check out A Tulsa Wedding Part 1.
Posted in Life, Party Styling, Photography, Travel
Also tagged Tulsa OK, wedding, Wedding Styling and Design
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Fall Ball :: An Ode To Little League Softball
I love softball. I love baseball. I’m pretty sure this has been established.
I’ve got a few friends and their girls are playing fall ball this season. Bill and I love going to their games. It’s fun to watch and with luck you get to see a crazy parent cheering loudly/swearing/yelling at the coach/punching an umpire. It’s good times.
We went to a night game recently and I brought my new lens to take a few pictures of the girls in action. The field lights weren’t quite bright enough but I did get a few decent shots. I’ll have to go again during a day game to get those “wow” shots.



I love the above pic, its the girl child and her dad, one of the assistant coaches. She’s gotten really good this season, I’m excited to see more games.
Anyone else playing or watching fall ball this year?









