Columbus Ohio Family, Baby, and Senior Portrait Photographer | Cathy Blackstone Photography » Cathy Blackstone is a Columbus photographer specializing in family, baby, child, maternity and senior portrait photography

So we go to Myrtle Beach for a baseball Tournament.

I offer to take family pics of anyone who wants one.

I wanted to take them at a pier. I love piers.

So Ellie and I go investigate the main Myrtle Beach pier. Holy homeless people under it – so I decide without further investigation to have everyone meet up at a different pier.

HAAAA! It was in a complicated location which required going through a mobile home park and paying a 5$ entrance fee. This mobile home/camping park was like something out of a Hollywood movie. Think 1960. Golf carts everywhere. I was expecting Baby and Johnny (Dirty Dancing) to make their appearance any given moment. I truly didn’t know that places like this existed let alone be crowded and bustling with activity. Kids were dead silent staring out the windows while driving through it while I kept saying WOW over and over again, lol. Looking back I should have been snapping pics but was too stunned. It was a secret city within a city.

So we get there and surprisingly enough everyone else does too. We walk down to the pier and there is mini sand dune that all the kids automatically start playing on. I start shooting family pics while others wait, but this little dune was quite the attraction. So I start snapping the kids jumping. Then some parents start jumping. THEN THE COACHES START JUMPING.  Nice little gift for a photographer with intense pressure to have your settings right:)

Love little unexpected moments like this….

and last but not least for his effort and commitment..

Oh how I wish I could have been in front of  him for this one but my camera would never be the same:)

If your pic didn’t make it (Evan, Eric jr.) I am SO SO sorry. It was a hard shot – lots of blur – lots of images trashed:(

I’ve had a few epiphanies this year with Ellie. She’s my quiet and easy one but really wants to be heard – and I haven’t been doing the best job listening thanks to the other 3 that aren’t quiet and easy:)

She has asked for two things consistently for the last 5 years. TWO THINGS. Horseback riding lessons and a cat.

Horse Shmorse I thought. I kept thinking it would pass but it didn’t. I made excuses for years – too expensive, too far, no time – all while bending over backwards to get Jackmajesty to his games and practices.

So one night awhile back after Jackson did or said something that made me realize he feels way too entitled I had a “coming to Jesus” moment about Ellie.

Life was getting easier. It’s not all about the first bearcub. Time to get on it.

So to avoid therapy for her and hatred towards me in the future I finally made the calls.

Lucky for us we got hooked up with Lauren at Wilson Hill Stables in Galena. Ellie LOVES it. Loves the barn, doesn’t mind the smells (Brynn can barely – sometimes doesn’t – get out of the car), loves to clean up poop and sweep and groom. CRAZY.

Today after a week long camp – and I think she has been riding for about 3 months now – her instructor had a “show” to show us what they (Ellie and another student) have learned. It was really interesting and cute and fun. I learned a lot. I’m getting it. I’m slow on this. I’m getting better:)

Oh – and we got her a cat too.