Fun times at Ascarate park

           Water had always been a big part of life for both my husband and I growing up.


My husband is from upstate New York. His grandmother lived across the street literally from Lake Ontario. Big open water was always present for: fishing,swimming,boating,or whatever  else they could come up with.I'm from Colorado. Growing up we had rivers and lakes;nothing as grand as Lake Ontario,but beautiful all the same. We went camping often and thou I inevitably got sea sick I enjoyed getting on our family's canon and fishing the afternoon away. We lived in Georgia for seven years and there we had so much water between small streams,lakes and the ocean.

            

Our little bit of Texas, El Paso, is pure desert.Water to play in...find a swimming pool or drive 3-4 hours! That is with the exception of a park that if it had not been for getting completely lost one day I never would have found, Ascarate Park .http://www.epcounty.com/parksandrec/ascaratepark/lake.htm
Ascarate Park is defiantly kind of a smorgasbord of outdoor activity for family. On the 448 acres there is a golf course, baseball fields, a playground,a duck pond,walking and biking trails,places to picnic,and a 18 acre lake.

I won't lie,there are some things left to be desired at Ascarate Park. As you drive in,past the boat rental place there is a large area that has what looks to be an old race track,a room that looks like it could house a meeting room that are all but abandoned.If but to good use they would add considerably to the park but since they are not they are a bit of an eye sore. The place can get a bit dirty with litter. To fix those two issues would mean  money dedicated to fixing and maintaining this little hideaway.I found an story from the El Paso Times(link below) talking about just that,fixing up the park.I am glad to report on our lst visit there was evidence that work was underway. We will likely be on to our next home by the time they are finished but I can't wait to read about the  completion,
 http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_18728825

Overcoming fear

I haven't blogged in a bit. I'd love to tell you I had a great excuse but I don't. I would like to find a blogging circle or something,a group of folks to hold me accountable for keeping this thing fresh! I would gladly return the favor! This blog is about me:my life,my photography,my business but it is also about over coming a fear.



When I was younger I sang in choir and acted.I acted in high school,and with two local theater group afterwards.I taught at a theater camp. In my early adult life I worked in radio. I was a late-night DJ and a promotions intern. I worked on the sale floor at Lowes years latter and was one of the top sales people in our district because I was well spoken and could sell the customers on the benefits of buying what ever it was they wanted, may that be mulch,mowers,or microwaves! I have no issue talking in front of people. I feel like I can get my point across well with the spoken word, the written word is a whole other world!

                                                                                 I had teacher after teacher and my parents(who are both very bright people) tell me if I just tried harder,proof read more, didn't rush,or studied I would do better. I did try,I prof read multiple times, worked at a snails pace,and studied regularly and I never got much return from my time investment. I'll admit by high school I didn't study like I should or spend the time like I did when I was younger. Why should I, it had never helped in the past.    
                                                                                                                                             Before any one points out that grammar is in no way tied to dyslexia let me say,I know that, but when you are discouraged about English and no matter how hard you try you grades continue to be lacking you quit paying attention and you miss those finer points.                                      

My inability to communicate via writing turned from a problem in school to something that hampered me in my work life and turned into nearly a phobia! The wonder of Facebook helped a little with that.I wrote,but just little snippets and when well meaning people did point out my errors, I felt incredibly stupid. Facebook posts don't constitute quality writing thou! I know I needed more and decided I would start a blog.                                

I hope to turn my photography love and small business into a career. I would love to be able to share the world  I see and actually get paid to do so! It would be a dream to make a living  traveling the world seeing amazing things and being able to capture that in images.I want people to love what I capture of them enough to put on the walls of their homes. I want to flip thew a magazine and see one of my images. I want to pick up a book one day and have every photo in it be my work


                                                                                                          Without getting a grip on writing those dreams are out of reach. There are many wonderful artists out there but the famous ones or even the ones able to support their family off what they do have to be more than artists.They have to be able conduct business,marketing,promoting themselves, communicate with their clients,staff, and outside world often in writing and sound professional and educated in doing so.


 I may have better quality art then my the person down the road, I may be able to tell my client face to face all the ways I am the gal for the job,but in all likelihood my clients first glimpse of me will be in written form:  a flyer,on Facebook, via Twitter,threw email, on my website, or my blog, and if they see a heap of errors it might leave them thinking I am lazy or simply don't care about the small details and as a photographer it is all about being active and seeing the small details!                                                                                                                             .
 


Hopefully thew this blog and other forms of public writing I can over come what is holding me back and make my dreams happen! Wanted to share with you a few of my favorite images from the last two years or so. Enjoy!




                                                          

Easter in Roswell

There has always been  for me,and I'm sure its the same for many, a fine line between sticking with tradition,keeping up with the Jones,and making you own way.

Normally for Easter  the kids would be dressed in in their best spring outfit.We would do an Easter egg hunt followed by a day of them playing with new spring/summer toys: jump ropes,bubbles.hula hoops while the hubs and I cook a big ham dinner with all the fixings.Same thing year after year.Dress up,eggs,play,eat. I had mentioned to hubs that I just wasn't "feeling" Easter this year and really wanted to do something completely different,but I had no clue what.

Early Sunday morning he tells us to get ready we are going out of town. I have been pinning for the Grand Canyon since we got to this part of the country, so i was thinking maybe that is where we were going. We throw on jeans and tee-shirts, pack up a picnic lunch, get in the car and start heading north. I know we can't be going too far because the older ones have school the next day. We eat our lunch in Ruidoso,NM. It is beautiful. The pine trees and mountain air reminds me of home.As quickly as we are in those beautiful mountains we are out of them and back into the desert.

 An hour passes and we pull into Roswell, NM. Aliens for Easter! well if that isn't different I don't know what is! Half of every thing is closed due to the holiday but what we do find open is quite interesting.Also because of the day there are only a handful of other tourists to contend with. We go to the museum and learn all about what happened in the early days of July in 1947. We snapped a few dozen images, got a few souvenirs,and picked up a book. As we passed back thew Ruidoso we stopped at a roadside dinner and ate hamburgers as we watched the sunset over the hills of pine. Was it conventional, not at all, but I couldn't have asked for a better Easter!

 

Here are few links for you. The first is about the crash itself 

http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case1134.htm

The second is to the museum we visited

http://www.roswellufomuseum.com/

Easter

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

about me

So after looking at my webpage, http://heatherhughesphotography.weebly.com/ , it was suggested to me that I wright an about me section. I am clueless as to what to mention. It is a business page so  do they care to know I'm a mother of 4? Do they want to know where im  coming from as much as where I am located?  Do I keep it like a resume or more like a glimpse of the Heather my friends and family know?
Do I write it as me or in third person? SO many Questions!



Hi, My name is Heather. I feel in love with the art of photography as a young girl. I loved looking at images of days long since passed. My great grandparents(nanny and papa) on their wedding day looking so youthful and fresh it is an glimpse of them I never could have  pictured only having known them in their 70's and 80's. I can see some of myself inthe beautiful hand colored and blank and white images of my grandmother as a young lady. I'm glad someone took the time to capture the beauty of my mother at 16 so that I her daughter could appreciate it. I'm equally glad my parents took the time to have portrait of me done as a little girl. Those images are timeless and priceless. I hope to be able to capture moments like that for my clients.

thats all I have at the moment...where do I go from there?