While I do have three sessions I need to get edited on the vacation, we won’t have phone or Internet service because we’ll be on a cruise.

We’ll respond to voicemails and emails when we return on Sunday. See y’all soon!

Select your card, photo, colors, and text for a truly unique card to send to all your friends and family! We’ve also got traditional, linen, and pearl papers!

Need to schedule a session? I’ve got a few left for this year, so call or send an email to kelly@kellyniemannphotography.com to reserve your spot!

New Cards for 2009

2008 Cards

Front:

Back:

Card prices are in addition to session fees. Prices are listed as follows:

Contact me today to schedule your session!

The 570-foot Nashville was built in 1966 at Lockheed Shipbuilding in Seattle. The ship was launched on Oct. 7, 1967, and commissioned on February 14, 1970.  She was decommissioned today. The ship will be towed to a maintenance facility and remain in the Navy’s inactive fleet in Philadelphia, where she’ll join the Ready Reserve, in case she’s ever needed again.

Photographs are not allowed from the dock, but with permission, I was able to take photos on board the ship.

This is a wide angle shot of a berthing. Within this small space, 18 men would sleep here during deployment.

Right outside the berthing, this cold, hard operating table is the aft BDS (Battle Dressing Station). You can see the berthing to the left.

Here’s the Line Room. This massive rope is used to tie the ship to the pier.

The Well Deck is used for keeping an LCU or LCAC (Landing Craft Unit, Landing Craft Air Cushion) which transports Marines serving on the ship from sea to the shore. The back gate is lowered and this low area is flooded with up to 8 feet of sea water.

The ship’s massive flight deck holds up to 8 aircraft at once.  (Some of which include the Cobra, Super Hewie, 43, 52, 68, Ospry and Herrier.)

VERY hard at work…

The Focstle. Each link in the chain weighs 67 lbs, each anchor weighs 25,500 lbs. The Wildcat pulls the chains and anchors up for sailing

The Bridge. Some navigatin’ happens here. 

The Captain’s Bridge Wing. Its like I’m the captain or something… (I don’t think I was allowed to sit here.) 

One of the sailors painted this on the Shore Power Cable Box for the “final cruise.”

I also got a special tour of the engine room. This is Main Machinery Room #2. When the ship is sailing, on a normal day, this room gets up to 145 degrees. During the last deployment in Africa, this room was reaching a consistent 165 degrees and must me manned at all times.

The Throttle Board in the Machinery Room. (You can see the back of it in the photo above.)

Here’s another view of the empty Well Deck.

A well worn hat…

After the tour, we chatted about a sailor’s life on the mess decks. I captured a few photos of the reluctant sailors.

BMSN (SW) William Eric Whale, Undesignated Seaman Daniel Jay Martin, and BMSN James Dale Shirley.

At the end of the day, when we were hot, stinky, and tired, the cameras were turned on Lauren and I… 

Spending the day on the ship allowed me to catch a glimpse of the sacrifices that our US Navy Sailors, Marines, and other military personnel make daily so that we can enjoy our personal freedoms.
Thanks, guys for the awesome tour, and your service to our country.

Congrats to Jill and Kevin!

Since I was late to the boat before Christmas, and since need knows no season, I decided I’d make up for it this summer by running Cans for Comments from Memorial Day to Labor Day in 2009.

My goal?  To donate at least 500 food items to the Houston Food Bank by September 11th.  But I can’t do it alone, I need your help!  So what do you need to do?  Leave me a comment!  About anything, about nothing… on a new blog post, or find an old one.  Don’t stop with one comment, leave a few!  Stop by every week and comment on new posts.  We’ve got 105 days to get those 500 cans, so comment away!

And since no blog post is totally complete without a photo, here’s one from Tricia and Nathan’s Day After session last fall at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum.

On Saturday I shot a lovely wedding, Sunday morning was a fun loving couple’s engagement session, and on Sunday evening, a beautiful, hazel eyed senior…

To celebrate all this craziness, I’m giving a sneak peek!

During the ceremony, Robby and Courtney share a smile as the priest made his 7th remark about having kids.

While it was storming outside, that didn’t keep us from getting some sweet photos of the lovebirds…

This is the view  Amruta and Satyajit get to enjoy every day out their window!  [me = jealous]

I cut though some buildings (this one being a former mattress factory – turned lofts) with this adventurous couple to find the best spots.  I loved the walls and the raw wood framing the windows, and even though I didn’t have a flash on me, we made it work. 

How’s this for some straight-out-of-camera goodness?

I *heart* the ground…. and Meghan’s gorgeous eyes!

Chad and I spent this year’s flying to Las Vegas and enjoying a romantic dinner at Red 8 in the Wynn. We didn’t come just for Valentine’s, we’re here for WPPI, the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Convention and Trade Show at the MGM Grand.

We get to attend some awesome classes to learn new things about lighting, Photoshop, art, business, marketing, leadership, posing, vision, storytelling, and much more. We also have the opportunity to meet and speak with our vendors and labs, and checkout new products and other offerings to offer you, our clients and friends.

We will be a little slow responding to phone calls and emails this week, and we won’t be able to schedule any sessions or meetings until or return on Friday, but if you need anything, don’t hesitate to leave me a message or shoot me an email.

Thanks!
Kelly

On January 1st I shot a wedding of some long-time lovers… they’d been together for over 12 years!  Tanya and John had a wonderful little ceremony in a charming church and Tanya’s cousin, Dawn, put a wedding announcement in Houston Chronicle.

In fact, I even received a phone call while on vacation from one of the editors of the Chron wanted to verify that those were really their names…  (Keep a look out on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno!)

While I was also out, I received another call from the videography company that filmed Teresa and Rick’s wedding, and they used my photos to create a slide show set to music for the couple.

http://www.teresaandrick.com/slideshow.html

You can also click on “Love Story” to see the video of their wedding and to see some of me “in action” (as Rob from “Don’t Get Married Without Me” explained).  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing…  I seem to be laying on the ground, standing on furniture, or holding the camera high above my head in most of the video I’m in.  :p

More blog posts coming soon!  I’ve got 19 in the queue!

As some of you may know, I have been going to school for a loooong time.  Sadly, I graduated High School 8 1/2 years ago.  I’ve been taking courses at my local community college part-time through the years while working, running this business, trying to be a good wife, etc.  Well, I finally finished my final course last week to “graduate” with my associates degree.  I’m not sure what I’ll do now (my choices are to continue on to get my bachelor’s in… something, or have a life ), but I’ve got my 2 year degree and a measly 3.6 GPA, and no one can take away that “accomplishment.” :p

In other news, I’ve joined a “Biggest Loser” style weight loss challenge with some other wedding photographers over at www.fitphotographers.com.  Come check us out, and cheer us on with some comments!  Don’t look back too far, although.  I’ve got my “before” photos on there that I’m not too proud about.  The good news is that so far, I’ve lost 7 lbs!