This past weekend, I visited HorseNet Horse Rescue in New Windsor, with my sister, Amy, and my niece and nephew. They’ve been volunteering there for the past five months or so and have been bugging me to come check it out.  I’m so glad I did!  I’ve never been a horse-person, so I admit that I couldn’t really relate to what they were doing just from them talking about it.  Once I was there, it didn’t take long to pick up on the different personalities of the horses. They all have their own histories and quirks. HorseNet is a non-profit, 100% volunteer run organization and they specialize in older horses and blind ones, but will take in pretty much any horse in need of a home. I’m going to copy some of their details along with the photos below. Amy got the scoop from some of the folks who run the farms.

This first one pictured is a noisy donkey named Clyde and he is my nephew, Scott’s, favorite. I can’t believe how old this donkey is!

“Clyde–50+yr old burro from a wild herd in the Grand Canyon.”

This is a sad one. Sassy got sick and had to be put down yesterday, so I guess my photos may have been the last ones taken of her. I love how she’s just peeking at me….she stuck her whole head over the fence a few seconds later and almost licked my camera.

“Sassy – registered name “Sibling Rivalry” is a Standardbred, trotter.  I assume she raced in her day, then was used as a broodmare.  She has been with HN for at least 5 years.  As far as we know she is not trained to ride but could pull a cart.  She is in her 20′s.”I really liked this horse. Gobie came right up to me and was sniffing me just like a dog would sniff a new person. That’s my niece, Caroline, in the photo on the right with him.

“Gobie (along with Robie, Blossom, Sweet Pea, Shane and one named Chance) came from a farm in Western Maryland….they were left in a big herd to breed, interbreed and basically run wild – there were like 30 or so of them all together and the Humane Society tried to find homes for all of them….Gobie was adopted for a while, has had a saddle on him and a rider, but that has been a while ago and he was a bit of a nut when the person got on – but he should be trainable for the right person to work with him with patience – not force. He must be 8 or 9.”This next one is my sister’s favorite, Charlotte. Amy is giving her a peppermint candy treat! Just a few months ago, she was emaciated from neglect and didn’t even want people to approach her, but she’s really come along.  Amy told me to be careful if Charlotte puts her ears back as that could mean she’s about to bite you.  I think Amy likes her resilience and the fact that she’s still got some attitude on reserve.

“She was one of the 29 horses rescued from a horrible abuse case in Garrett County. When she arrived she was under weight and infected with intestinal parasites and lice, but after a lot of treatment and care she is finally recovering wonderfully.”
Here’s Scott looking for trouble. I asked Amy to put him in a nice shirt (actually, I just asked for anything but an “ugly t-shirt”) because I knew I’d be taking photos.  It didn’t take him long to dirty it up!The brown horse is blind and named Mercy; The black one is a huge horse named Vice that my niece is especially fond of.

“Mercy was spotted by someone in the front yard of a huge house with expensive cars in the driveway–he was completely emaciated when he was rescued–he was within hours of death–his eyes were badly infected thus the loss of his sight–he is now about 6 yrs old–which means that he was very young when he was being starved.”
Here is Amy with Charlotte again.  

Anyway, I’ll be back to weddings and portraits in my next posts, but thought this would be a nice change!  All the volunteers at HorseNet are wonderful people for taking care of these innocent creatures, and I’m happy to give them a spotlight.

What better time to update my blog than when I’m snowed in? The cabin fever hasn’t set in yet, but it probably won’t be much longer before I must escape. Anyway, here are a few more pics of cutie-pie Bailey:

Yes, it’s the back of her head….but isn’t it just so fuzzy and adorable???

Snuggles from Mommy:

Now this is one of the best parts about being a photographer.I loved seeing this collage that Becky put together of some of the photos I took of Bailey as a newborn.

Yay, love me some babies!

Here are just a few teasers from my weekend. I’m glad that the snow didn’t stick around too long – it’s pretty at first but then I just want it to go away!

I got to visit with my cousin, her hubby and baby Bailey who is 8 months old now and as cute as can be.

I think Scooby is wondering what the return policy is on babies:

I also got to hang out with Julian this weekend, who is 20 months old now and super-energized.  In this first shot, I imagine that he is challenging me to try and get a nice holiday shot of him.

Gotcha!

More later!

A personal post….yay!  I just got back from a Royal Caribbean cruise with my family a little over a week ago and wanted to share some pics here.  It was great to have so much time with my family while also seeing some new places and doing fun stuff on the ship.  I’m not used to seeing my niece and nephew every day, so I’m feeling some withdrawal now.

Here is the pool on the ship.  I think we’re actually still docked in Baltimore in this photo, so you can see that nobody wasted time getting their vacations started.

Here is a photo taken by budding photographer, Caroline, using my camera. It looks like something I would take, doesn’t it?  That’s me and my sister in the background.

My sister, Amy, took this one of me and the kids. We’re all dressed up for dinner onboard, and no, Caroline and I were not trying to match.

After 2.5 days at sea, our first stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Here is our foggy view as we entered the port.

This is the bow (front) of our ship with a Carnival ship in the distance.

I made Caroline and Scott go stand in this apartment complex entrance.  It just grabbed my eye.

My fave pics of this stop were taken at and around Fort San Cristobal.  The stone walls and breaking ocean were breathtaking.

A rare, quiet moment for Scotty, who recently turned 5:

Still San Juan.  You can see a cruise ship docked in the distance if you look close…not sure if that is ours.

This guy on the street was putting his parrots on people and selling photos that he would take. I have to apologize for taking this shot as I didn’t realize at the time that I was stealing his business!

After San Juan, we headed to St. Thomas. Rather than stay and shop there, we went on our own adventure to Trunk Bay on St. John. I didn’t take many photos as it was raining on and off, plus I was in the water most of the time!  Here is my mom lounging on the beach with my dad.

Here is a pic from Labadee, which is Royal Caribbean’s private beach in Haiti.  So, technically we went to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but we didn’t actually see much of either….just these guarded tourist traps, lovely as they were.

The other budding photographer:

Here are my mom and dad on the evening I squeezed in some posed family photos.  Thanks for a wonderful trip!

I didn’t get even one shot of Scott behaving.  Not one!  What a goofball.

My sister has a Creative Memories T-shirt that says something like “Be nice to me, or I’ll crop you out of my photos.”  Scott was axed from this one, though I think he was actually hiding.

Here is me trying to get a nice photo with my darling niece and nephew.

]]> http://jmyersphoto.com/2009/07/21/my-familys-caribbean-cruise/feed/ 1 http://jmyersphoto.com/2009/04/27/welcome-bailey-baltimore-baby-photographer/ http://jmyersphoto.com/2009/04/27/welcome-bailey-baltimore-baby-photographer/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:24:12 +0000 Jill http://jmyersphoto.wordpress.com/?p=399

I was so excited to meet my cousin Becky’s new baby last weekend.  That makes Bailey my cousin too, right?  Yay!  She is a sweet little baby doll with a head full of luxurious dark hair and she gave me a variety of expressions at just three weeks old. 

Love those little hands!

I think I caught a little smile!

I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season!  I just wanted to share a few pics from the weekend that kicked off the season for me. The Howard County Dept of Recreation & Parks organized a day trip to New York to see the Rockette’s holiday show and I went with my parents and niece.  We lucked out with the weather…it did rain a bit, but was unseasonably warm.

Here are my parents. My facebook friends may have seen some of these pics already. By the way, if you’re not on facebook yet, get on it! 

Caroline is almost nine…I can’t believe it.

One of my favorite parts of the day was visiting FAO Schwarz. I can’t decide if this muppet pic is funny or creepy.

I don’t know what this building is, but it has this crazy curved design.

We had a few hours of free time before the show, so we visited Central Park, ate lunch at a cafe, and checked out the huge Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. They just put the tree up, so it had scaffolding around it so that they could decorate it.   The outdoor ice skating rink and Rockefeller Center were behind me when I took the photo of Caroline below.  I liked this view better.

Showtime at Radio City:

Any guesses on what this is?

Here are some photos from my recent trip to Ocean City with my family. I have to admit that I’m not crazy about OC like I was when I was little. It’s just so overdeveloped and crowded. My favorite places to be during the trip were the beach after 5pm, or in our condo looking out at the ocean.  Of course I took tons of pics of my niece and nephew. I think by the time I have my own kids I will be all pictured out….haha.

Here my sister lit by the dim, warm lighting at Cowboyz Saloon where we ate an unnaturally large amount of fried bar food and did a little line dancing.  Yeehaw…

Sleepy-head in the morning eating his pancakes with M&Ms. = )

Here is a pic my sister took of me and my niece playing skeeball at the Boardwalk. 

Here are the kids meeting our dinner on lobster night. As tradition dictates, my dad gave the victims little crying voices as he put them into the steamer.  Disturbing, yet funny at the same time. Really.

Ice cream at Dumser’s….yummy.

I’ve been busy with all sorts of random things, but thought I’d post a few personal pics to keep you in the loop. I just bought a digital point and shoot, so I’m planning to take more photos at places that I would normally not take my camera. Taking one of my good cameras out on a sailboat in the bay just doesn’t strike me as a great idea….at least not while I’m still learning to sail.  I don’t think I would be so much worried about the camera as I would be about getting distracted and falling in myself or getting whacked in the head by the boom. I do have my occasional klutzy moments, so I could totally see that happening!

Anywho, I’m rambling. Here are a few shots of my family from when we had steamed crabs at Crossroads Pub in Dayton. This was in honor of my 31st birthday and my brother-in-law’s bday which is just two days after mine. I love me some steamed crabs. Yum. Note that these were NOT taken with a point and shoot…no way could I get this super shallow depth of field with one of those.  My 50mm 1.4 lens rocks.

Here is my sister checking out the pics she took on her camera. Note that she’s wearing a Creative Memories t-shirt (she’s a consultant), so this should count as a product placement shot. I should get paid for this.

My nephew Scott had a good time…especially playing with the crab mallets. = )

Here is my dad. He was picking crabs and giving the meat to my niece who hasn’t mastered the art of picking yet….he used to do the same thing for me when I was little!  He was missing out on eating the crab himself, but will do anything for his babies. 

Caroline looks so old to me in this photo. It actually freaks me out a little bit. It seems like just yesterday I was helping my mom take care of her while my sister worked when I first got out of college and moved home for awhile. She was just a little, helpless baby-doll.

Yep, we bring our own knives as serious Maryland crab eaters.  These are actually my dad’s. I bought him three of these for Christmas that I found on e-bay as he had lost a few over the years. They were made by a company called Carvel Hall in Crisfield, MD which is no longer around.

Here’s my mom showing off her next victim:

We should have crabs at least one more time before the summer ends….maybe in Ocean City next month!

Honfest was this past weekend and I had to stop in at least for a little bit considering that it’s just a few blocks from my house.  My cousin, Becky, went with me…she grew up in B’more, but had never been. Shameful, I know. I think everyone should go at least once. Once was actually enough for me, so I just took a few pics and we basked in the air conditioning during lunch at Dogwood. 

The first pic below is Becky with a beehive. We actually didn’t meet until we were both in college at the Savannah College of Art & Design. My dad said, “hey, you know you have a cousin at that school?” before I left for Savannah and gave me her name.  Becky and I were even in the same dorm, so it was great to have someone to connect with right away. I was a mid-year transfer student and she already knew the ropes. We’re both back in Baltimore now (she and her husband are architects here) and reconnected via Facebook. 

I admit that I photoshopped the heck out of this, but I still like it:

I’m cheating. This next photo is from last year when I took my niece and nephew.  I feel like I’ve posted this somewhere before, but can’t think of where. I didn’t have my blog yet. Hmmmmm…mystery.

Sorry I’ve been blog delinquent. I’ve been experiencing a mixture of busy with bouts of lazy in-between. Ha! My nephew had his 4th b-day party last weekend at Full Moon Farm in Finksburg, which is a horse farm. It was 98 degrees that day, so he was red-faced and grouchy by the end of it….actually, I think we all were!

This photo cracks me up. I don’t know why that girl is jumping like a crazy woman…apparently Scott and Caroline are wondering the same thing. 

Cowboy Scott

The kids all got a chance to ride a horse, of course.

Here’s my brother-in-law striking a pose unknowingly:

Caroline looking cute. They’ve both always loved cowboy hats like their daddy…it’s not just for the horse farm.

I think Scott was crying just a couple minutes before this pic, but he managed to pull himself together for a little playtime with his gift from Nana before leaving. Boys will be boys!