Thursday, May 29, 2008

Playing Chase


A and his mommy met me at the playground a little while ago. Since he just turned one, and is walking like such a big boy, this adorable guy needed to have this time captured!



He liked to chase my camera! He was such a cutie. I would try to put him in a general area with his mom, and of course .6 seconds later, he was up and we were off playing chase!






And 'the tongue', as his mommy would say!
I love little traits like that which are so fleeting and true to babyhood.
:P



What a sweetie.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Peaceful Babe


M and I met when we worked at a preschool together. She was a teacher, and I was in the office, right across from her classroom. She asked me then to take some pictures of her, her boyfriend, and his daughter. Soon, she and her boyfriend became engaged, and she asked me to take her bridal portraits as well as their engagement pictures. Months later, I photographed their wedding. Now 2 years have passed, and a new, little life has entered the picture. Baby D has arrived, allowing me to photograph this sweet family once again.



This little guy was so calm and cuddly. It was hard to keep shooting and not just stop and snuggle with him!






I think he may grow to be a funny little boy! Already making silly faces...



And of course, Daddy couldn't be more proud.



As an Atlanta Braves fan, daddy will soon have a slugger on his hands.
(I love his painted nursery! Not only a jersey for dad, but on the other wall, there is a jersey for mom, and one for baby D, with their names on the back. Such a cute idea!)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

An Important Quality for Marriage...


... is to be able to make each other laugh.



M & G have that quality solid! They are so goofy with each other, that just looking at each other makes them giggle. When I asked M to make a serious face, she couldn't do it! She was laughing too much. So then, to bring the laughter down, she says, "okay, think about dead puppies".... which of course is such an absurd thought, that it made all of us crack up even more!



We had their session at the site where their wedding ceremony will be. Well, not right here on this dock, but behind them, across the lake, at a friend's home overlooking the water. How lovely does that sound?!



The sun rose fast during our morning shoot, which is normally a troublesome feat during a photo session with toddlers. Though when adults are the subject, and they will actually sit still for you, I love the halos that result from the backlighting the overhead sun gives my subjects. It adds a little pop!



G & M, good luck with the final details, and we will see you 6.21!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Chosen


This baby girl is very special.



Her parents wanted her for years, longed for her, dreamt of her, prayed for her, and gave so much of themselves knowing that one day, she would come.



Baby C is adopted.



She is a part of such a caring family who will love her and provide for her with all their heart and soul for the rest of their days.



And she even has a big sister now, (who responds to 'Heidi'.)



C's mommy and daddy were both born in Italy, but they met in the US. Her mom's parents live close to home here, but her daddy's parents still reside in Italy, and came to visit her while she is still brand new.
It was fun being in their home and all six adults speaking only Italian to each other. Even the dog only knows Italian! The one word I walked away with that day was the word for 'little hat', (which I thought was 'cappellini', but after doing an Internet search, evidently it's 'cappelletti' - which also is the name for a type of pasta, so I may have this wrong all together.)



A & F - I am so happy for you that your blessing has arrived! She is a beautiful little girl, and rightfully so, that she is welcomed into a beautiful family, inside and out.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Windy Times

K is graduating from high school in just a couple of weeks, and of course, couldn't be more excited!



She wants to attend the Art Institute of Austin to study graphic design.



(Can I just say that Denton never ceases to amaze me with AWESOME urban session locations!?!)



K is very creative - I loved her colorful outfits & jewelry!






She has great, full hair, and as a member myself of the thick-hair-club, being that it was a windy evening when we had her shoot, I knew the wind would most likely be our enemy. But too, like in the picture above, the wind worked with us, and was at times a mighty friend!



She was so easy to photograph. She was relaxed and, I think, had fun giving me great posing and natural smiles.

Go to the "Flying the Coop" gallery on my site to see some more of my favorites of her! There were too many!

Sonora swells my heart!

Meet my niece, Sonora!!!



She was born this past Tuesday, the 13th.
She is the first baby in our family, so you can imagine how we've all anticipated her arrival and already shopped, shopped, shopped for her! She does not live here, so I have not seen her, until I was sent this picture today. She is beautiful!
My mom is with her and my brother and sister-in-law now, and oh, how I wish I could be there too! The rumor is, that my brother and his new family will be visiting in September, so I will just have to count down the days until then, and continue shopping for my gorgeous niece!

Love you A & N, and beautiful Sonora!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Big Accomplishment


M is officially a TWU graduate!



She called me a couple of weeks ago because she wanted to take portraits in her graduation garb to have cards made to send to family announcing her big accomplishment!
She double-majored, and is looking to begin graduate school soon!



I have seen quite a bit of M lately! This photo shoot was on her campus last Friday, then at her graduation ceremony last Saturday, I ran into her there as she was lining up with her classmates while I was photographing for her school, and then again this afternoon, when I was at her school's library on a shoot for them, I saw her there! Three times in one week on her campus.... I said to her that she must think I never leave!



Congratulations and good luck in your bright future!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Baby Doll Eyes

I haven't seen Miss E since she was a newborn, but at 6 months old now, that newborn look has faded, and she has become a little doll baby!



I think she just has that porcelain skin, and bright blue eyes that you see little toy baby dolls have. Precious!






Big brother, E, loves "baby sister"! He gave her lots of hugs and kisses and had no problem snuggling next to her!



I couldn't decide the cropping on this picture. I like how in the full-length version, you see brother holding her hand, and her cute, curled toes...



But in this one, you see brother's cute expression more, and I just like the cropping better in general... I was torn, so I just posted both!


*My friend, K, and her little Andrew are here now, and we are going to spend the afternoon together. More blogging tomorrow!
:)

Monday, May 12, 2008

1 month later, and already grown

I photographed A one month ago, but we decided to cut that session short and try a re-do.



And what a re-do we had! He was such a happy, little guy, and definitely wins the award for great eye contact! My littlest clients are usually too interested in mommy & daddy to look at the crazy lady wielding a camera in their face, (and of course, how can I compete with their favorite people?!) But A was a pro. He'd play with mommy and daddy, smile, then look at me!






Love that finger! Sweet little guy is pondering something.






Can't you tell he's grown?
I sure can.

What happens when you put a little guy down that learned a new trick?

Friday, May 9, 2008

R.E.L.A.X.

(I feel like I need to fill you in on our anniversary events since I let you know that it was our day!)

"Relax" - that was our theme.

The morning started off with my hubby bringing me flowers, a card, and making our favorite breakfast.
Then I had a shoot later in the morning, then when I got home, I had to finish packaging some orders, and we had to pick up some pictures from my lab and mail them out on the way to our destination. (Work doesn't stop just because it's a special day!)
But after we arrived, it was all about relaxing...

We booked a room at Hotel Zaza in uptown. It was wonderful, to say the least! We walked around the swanky hotel and felt so spoiled just getting to be there! (We never splurge on ourselves. We're really quite easy to please and simpletons, *see extravagance of "favorite breakfast" listed in the paragraph above*, but giving ourselves some R&R was deserved, we felt.) We were pleasantly surprised with how nice our room was. We didn't splurge too much and get a suite, or anything, just their standard room, but even that was nicer than other "4 star" hotels we've stayed in! We had dinner reservations @ 7, so we didn't have too long to lounge, but one of the reasons we booked Zaza was because of their pool area, (or the "Urban Oasis" as they have dubbed it), so we made our way down to the pool to what....? RELAX before dinner. (Oh, one of our favorite things was that in the lobby, they provided little chocolate mousse/fudge/truffle bites, which we probably took more than the average person should, but they were there for the sampling, and we were treating ourselves, darn it!) Down at the pool, the water was too cold to get in, so we rested in the hot tub instead. We put a towel under our heads as a pillow, sipped tea, and let our bodies float carelessly. Oh my, I'm missing it already...
After laying out to dry off, we went up and got ready for dinner.
The restaurant was one block from the hotel, so we just walked over there. It was so fun being around the new buildings in uptown, and the busy-ness of being in Dallas. We really never go down there to hang out, so it was like we were visiting from out of town! (When we came home Thursday, we both said 'I feel like I've just been on a road trip', like we went on vacation!)
Our dinner at Sambuca was absolutely delicious. It was kind of funny.... I ordered lamb chops, and Stuart ordered a rib eye, and as soon as our food came out, after we tasted our own dish, we both gave each other a bite of the other's, and Stuart looked at me, (after I had figured out I evidently wasn't quite a fan of lamb), and asked if I wanted to trade! So as our waiter walked by us to see how we liked our food, I was fishing my lamp chops off my plate and putting them on his, as he was shuffling his steak onto a side plate to give to me. A little comical, but it worked out!
One of the best parts of the restaurant is they have a stage for live music! It sort of seemed out of place, because the decor inside is very "posh", but we really enjoyed the one-man-acoustic-guitar
performance we had! He played the whole time we were there. (We left after a couple hours, but he was still playing!) He played songs everyone would recognize and we hummed along to ourselves. After we finished eating in the first hour, our waiter pointed out the little alcoves/nooks they have on the side of the dining room with pillowed seating to lounge and ...what..? RELAX. Of course we took him up on that offer and spent our second hour there in that corner all to ourselves, sipping our cocktails and listening to our acoustic concert. Yes, it was as serene as it sounds.
Relaxing does make a person tired, letting your body know just how hard it has worked when you actually stop and don't let it work. (Does that make sense?) So we made our way back to our hotel and fell asleep at the crazy-party-animals-that-we-are hour of 10:30!
After sleeping in until 9:30 the next morning, (Yes! 11 hours of sleep!) we went back down to the pool and just waded our feet in the water and laid out as we read the paper and drank coffee for an hour or so. (RELAX) Check-out was noon, and we were walking out of the door at noon! (We wanted to soak up every ounce of the Zaza goodness!)
After we left, we drove down to the place where Stuart was going to pick out my anniversary gift to him. Knowing that he loves getting his hair cut where they put a hot towel on his face, and spend a little time pampering him, (... yes! I was surprised to find out as well that men like to be pampered! And why shouldn't they? I think the "macho" thing is all for show...) I thought he would enjoy this store. We got him "the 4 elements of the perfect shave" combo. (He used it this morning and loved it!) And with a purchase after a certain amount in the store, he can go back and get a traditional barber shop shave for free, (the real reason why I wanted to get him something from this store, because I know he'll love getting that shave!)
Anyways, so we walked around the mall there, and had lunch, (more relaxing...) then made our way back to Denton. After dropping our things off at home, we went to see Baby Mama! (I know, the fun doesn't stop with us!)
:)

So our amazing 1.5 days of anniversary celebration has certainly set a precedent for future anniversaries!

Now it is back to work. Which we are blessed to have such amazing clients who I cannot wait to photograph in this soon-to-be-summer sun!
Did I mention we're pretty booked?! If you would like a Birdseye session, we are currently booking mid-June. (5 weeks out)
Also, for newborn and maternity sessions, please book those as soon as you know that we are the photographer for you. For maternity, we want to try and capture you in full bloom, but before it gets to be too uncomfortable for you to move around easily, (34-36 weeks) - so those, of course, are very important to be scheduled timely! We try to reserve some slots for last minute maternity sessions, and surprise newborns that come early, but we only have a few that we are able to hold.

And now, some snapshots from our past two days:
(bear the poor point & shoot camera quality!)



(yes, I'm blinking, but it's the only one of the front of the restaurant... I should stay behind the camera...)