Have you received your July edition? (you North Texas locals....and by North Texas, I mean Denton...)
This was a fun shoot! We have been using young children on the cover for a while, so I loved the idea of using teenagers, and even the homeowner's cat showed up! It is very summery, comfy, home-like, Southern & casual. I think it turned out great! It makes me look forward to snuggling on a blanket while watching fireworks and eating fried chicken, and well, watermelon!
Well, I have wanted to make a slideshow public so you all can have a look into a complete session, and upon their mommy's approval, their slideshow is now viewable by all of you!
When you have a look: - turn your volume up - make sure you have a couple minutes to sit back because there were too many adorable pictures to narrow down greatly, so there are quite a few!
On Sunday evening, I had the pleasure of meeting A, (and her hubby), so we could update her head-shot for her portfolio.
She is a beautiful, local actress whom you may have seen on a commercial for this company!
Gorgeous eyes!
We had a fun time romping about my town. Sometimes I have a location in mind that I want to shoot at, and then other times, as it happened on Sunday, if a new locale catches my eye while driving, I whip over and decide we're going to shoot there!
Moms of little guys! I know there are so many choices for little girl diaper covers, with their names embroidered on the hiney, and frilly cute lace, etc., but then when it comes to boys, there are not too many options! Well, I found this store on Etsy that has baby boy boxers and...yes! They embroider his name on the hiney as well! So cute! When I have home sessions, I love to get babies naked so we can see their little fat rolls, and all the baby cuteness, though I'm not brave enough to get them completely in their birthday suit, for fear of an accident! So rather than seeing a diaper with Winnie the Pooh on it, it is much much cuter to see your little guy in tiny skivvies, and especially if it is personalized with his name on it in a bright, fun font!
Okay, enough chatter, here are some pictures from the store's page...
*I don't know why one picture is tiny, and the other huge!*
I just wanted to pass this find along! To get this cuteness, go to the store's page here. *(Well, and of course the store has absolutely precious little girl diaper covers as well!!!)
V's friend purchased our Chickadee Package for her as her baby shower gift.
You know what that means?! I am the lucky one who gets to watch this sweet couple grow in to a family.
V has had a wonderfully smooth pregnancy with their son, N.
In fact, she has not even had any cravings or any of the typical changes that a woman may feel while pregnant. Her husband, though, was looking forward to running out and fulfilling her every whim, caring for her, and making sure she is pampered, the way she deserves.
One late night, he asked her if she wanted some ice cream, thinking that is a normal pregnancy craving, and V honestly answered that she didn't really care for any. When she saw that he was really hoping she would have said yes so he could go get it for her, she changed her mind and complied that ice cream sounded great. So, the dutiful husband went out on a hunt to satisfy his with-child wife, but being that it was so late, the fast food chains were closed, so he resorted to the second-best and returned home with several ice cream options he purchased at a gas station! He succeeded in providing for her, though!
*(Um, so urban maternity shoots are my new favorite! V did great finding a dress. I had a vision in my head of a downtown location, with her all glammed up, and she rocked it!)
Not only is she glowing, but the daddy-to-be is definitely glowing as well. I am looking forward to seeing them again in just a couple weeks when their son has made his entrance into this world!
As of my visit yesterday, baby H has only been in this world for 9 days. He had many loved ones waiting on his arrival, including his soon-to-be friends pictured above on his "buddy board" that his mommy made!
While changing his outfit, his mommy noticed his sweet, curly legs and said "come look!" So brand new.
While I was photographing H & his mommy, I caught his daddy gazing on, and when he noticed that I started to include him in the captures, naturally, he thought he was in the way and moved out of the shot, to which I stammered, "no, come back!"
What chiseled, wooden table is complete without a handsome, little man?
This shot was his mommy & daddy's idea. I love the different textures. The fuzzy pillow, hard wood floors, colorful tapestries, and the freckled cowhide. Not to mention the cuddly sweetheart.
I love wedding photos or wedding rings in shots with newborns. Because of their love, he is here.
This little girl is a sweet, small bundle. She may look like a newborn here, but she is really 4 weeks old, and just around 7 lbs. It's funny though, because while she is small like a newborn, after 2 weeks, babies' features start to change already! They lose the wrinkliness of skin, and curliness of their legs and arms, and don't sleep as heavily. She was so good to me though. We got her to catch a couple naps during our session, so we were able to capture sleepy and awake pictures! *Normally with a brand-new-born, it's hard to get them to wake at all. It's either we want the babies to give some awake time, or sleepy time, we are hard to please grown-ups!
She is blessed to have all of her mother-figures as a part of her life. This is grandma #1, then...
Grandma #2, and great-grandma were there also! (Of course with her proud daddy.)
And not to leave out the woman who actually carried her! (I loved the monkey on the door! She has a cute monkey-themed nursery.)
Great-grandma loves to hold and help out with her every chance she gets.
And even their doggie wants to be a part of the caring-for-S activities!
A happy place for S.... lying on her soft monkey chair with the warmth of mommy and daddy.
We will get to watch her grow together! See you again soon, S!
Bloggy Land! I have not meant to forsake you! Things have been super busy around here and I just don't know how photogs who update every day do it! I would love to, that's my goal, but unfortunately, until I hire an assistant, that probably will not work out as such!
Well, first of all, Happy (belated) Father's Day to you daddies! I hope you had a wonderful time with your kiddos!!! We celebrated with my dad and family a week early because this past weekend was my hubby's birthday, (but we'll get to that next.)
The fam came up to our home and my wonderful chef of a husband made a delicious spaghetti lunch (with from-scratch sauce!), and garlic rolls, and salad, and I made the dessert. (An angel food cake cut into layers with a filling of Cool Whip, vanilla pudding, and crushed pineapple mixed in between the layers, then topped with strawberries. Yum-O!)
After lunch we hit the 'ole horse shoes in the backyard, (a new addition)! My mother-in-law gave us the horse shoes for Christmas two years ago but we had never gotten them out because my husband sort of has a vision for landscaping our backyard, and he wasn't quite sure how to incorporate the horse shoe set-up. Well, we have friends who live on some land in Sanger, and in exchange for my husband helping them landscape their yard, (his favorite pastime!), they let him have some of their flagstone rocks that grow out of their land! So with the rocks, my husband made two horse shoe pits as a new, permanent fixture in our backyard.
He got a ringer!
Afterward, we just relaxed and talked on the porch for a while until it was time for them to leave. A wonderful, family day!
This past Saturday was my husband's 26th birthday. He loves to go camping - strictly the traditional, tent sleeping-grill cooking- fire building type. So we went! We left Friday afternoon for Lake Tawakoni, east of Dallas.
In the past when we've gone camping, we have left our dogs at home with a doggie-sitter, but we knew they would LOVE it, so we caved and took them along this time. They were pretty good. I know they had a great time! Around our campsite we left them off their leash, just to see what they'd do, and surprisingly they stayed pretty close to us and would obey us if they strayed and we called them back. Oh boy, when we first arrived, after the 2 hour car ride, they bolted out of the back and straight in to the trees and down to the lakeside. Pearl, our wily one, ran headlong into the lake water! It was so funny though because I don't think she's ever been in a pool of water before, to where she could actually splash about, and boy did she splash! She stomped around and ducked her head under water, and kept opening her mouth, like she was biting the water! It was hilarious!
Here is a video of it - (After we saw her reaction to the water is when I thought to get the camera, so she's a little simmered down by this time!)
We took several walks around the park. Their beach area was beautiful! Everything was so clean and well-kept. There were several little guys buzzing around on their bicycles and you could hear laughter from the boats on the water. By the lakeside there was a breeze and it felt wonderful to sit at the picnic table and relax.
I would have liked to go swimming, but we couldn't, so we just dipped our feet in the water. (A little ailment of having the puppies with us - dogs aren't allowed in the beach area, so we would have had to tie them up if we went swimming, and with Pearl's barking maniacally, that would have lasted for about .36 seconds.)
Stuart cooked a wonderful dinner of steak and grillin' beans.
Steak tongs compliments of the Great Outdoors...
Highlight of the trip: spending quality, fun time together in the fresh air. Downfall of the trip: ....remember that video of Pearl pouncing around in the water? Well, not only was it, oh about, 118 degrees in our two-person-sized tent at night with no air moving whatsoever, but throw in two stinky, sweaty, fur-shedding dogs, and well, that's a night that could rival the luxury of our last trip away.... kidding... of course....
Today, I got a new summer do, hairdo, that is!
How is it possible to take a hand-held-self-snapshot without it looking like you're 12-yrs.-old, taking the picture for the sole purpose of your friends on Myspace? Well, now that I mention it, sort of similar situation here, being that blogs are the adult version of Myspace, (equal amounts of addiction and life-neglecting while perusing the sites), and I took the picture for the sole purpose of showing you all!
...this was the least cheesiest shot...
And then tonight, to top off these fun past couple days, I invested in the Canon 5D!
I'm so thrilled I could giggle! I have a busy week of shoots, and not to mention a wedding this weekend, so she will be broken in quickly!! Hoorah, indeed.
I think it's safe to say he's put on a few pounds in the past couple months!
W is now a growing 7-mo.-old, sitting up like a champ, and drooling with the best of 'em!
We had a fun morning last Saturday, playing at a park near their home. (I love his summer hat!)
It was hilarious - as soon as W got up on his daddy's shoulders, he just started cracking up. Like, 'what's this new world up here?!' Pretty exhilarating for a little guy! (And for daddy, getting to make his buddy that happy!)
He has definitely discovered his feet! I love that trait at this age.
Go for it, W, never again will they taste so good! Wait... that sort of sounds like I would know based on trial and error... W, that was just an assumption on my part.
Happy summer, little man! Enjoy this new world of the warmth of sun on your face and the coolness of water splashing between those toes.
Meet 2.5-yr.-old, T, perched on his daddy, holding the simplest, most enjoyable, natural, outdoor toys! (It's so cute how most little boys all gravitate toward the same instinctual behavior...jumping, picking up sticks, looking at rocks, rough-housing with daddy, finding lizards, etc. Little boys just being themselves!)
Though his baby sister, 9-mo.-old, E, is too small for most of those toddler activities, she certainly enjoyed being outside as well, and was good at hunting for pieces of grass, or other various items that, when you are pint-sized, sitting on the ground merely inches from the world below, need to be inspected! (We just tried to keep Mother Earth out of her mouth.) But look at those sweet, baby teeth! She has to keep her gums soothed somehow! :)
The main goal of our meeting was for a precious family tradition. Being that T is 2 & a 1/2, it was time for his portrait to be hung on the wall next to his daddy's and other family members who have had this time captured as well at this age. What a wonderful family tie that these kiddos can pass down to their children, going to Gramsy's house comparing the portraits of loved ones during their toddler years.
Who wouldn't want to preserve this fun-loving age?!
(Oh, little E, I envy your outfit selections! Your mommy has you in the cutest clothes, just so you know...)
Before you know it, it will be this beauty's time to share in this 2.5 tradition, (though she'll never be this precious age again, as well, so here's to being almost 10 mons.!)
Meet our newest Chickadee Planner, beautiful K - resting as snuggly as she did in her mommy's tummy like in her first photo framed behind her.
She was so calm and content for her whole session! Her mommy timed it just right that she was a full, happy baby during her morning shoot, which made her so easy to mold and curl as only newbies can. (This is the hat she was given in the hospital. Love little mementos like that!)
Oh, that foot! Precious.
As you can see, she's already melted her daddy's heart.
We wanted to be sure and see those pretty eyes for some shots, so we woke up K at the end of her session, and she was happy to see her mommy!
Last week I met this fun-loving family, (with a mommy that has awesome style for matching everyone in a non-matchy way!)
This 8-yr.-old little man was truly that... a little man! Speaking with him, he is so intelligent and we had a logical, mature conversation about the difference between girls that are friends and a "girlfriend". (His friend at school is a girl that is a friend because she is good at playing games, and fun to hang out with, but she is not his "girlfriend" because he does not love her. You have to love her if she is your "girlfriend"....)
He is a big help with his little sister, as well. She took a little while to warm up to playing together while we took pictures, but big brother explained matter-of-factly that "she is 3, and is kind of shy at first."
The two little ones share their mommy & daddy with cousin J. Having a teenager to look up to is something they will never forget, well at least brother is old enough to remember, but I know that little M loves having a sister-figure around as well!
J is 16 and loves the color lime green! She was excited when she moved in with her aunt & uncle because she was able to paint her room any color, and of course she chose lime green!
And ballerina, M, is the life of the party! She danced for me, and we sang "The Wheels on the Bus", and she introduced me to her security blanket, Ninny, oh and her Island Princess Barbie... or the doll had some title of that nature...
The family finished our morning with playing Frisbee on the courthouse lawn - great idea, S! It was a wonderful morning, and I had a fun time meeting you all!
As much as I love the bold colors of childhood that pop in a primary-toned environment, black/white's drama and emotion evoke the softer, and sweeter side of portraiture.
While editing away this past week, I decided to share my favorite black/whites of recent clients' sessions. There are several, so scooch down in your chair, and get comfy...
*This one was actually an outtake. We took the blanket off and pacifier out for the 'real' shots, but I loved how sweet and serene she looked here, so I kept it! I love that... when outtakes become one of my favorites.
If you'd like to get a closer view of the cuties on this blog, click on the pictures to make them larger! (Then back-arrow back to the blog once you're done with the larger view.)
graduate of UNT with a B.A. in Photojournalism, married her college sweetheart, Stuart, in May 2005, brought home two irreplaceable puppies from the SPCA, and now have settled happily into married life living north of Dallas-Ft. Worth.
