My assistant, Alex, and I had a photo shoot Monday morning, and we came into town right as the parade was starting. We parked at her house and walked over to a street on the parade route, where she took a bunch of photos with my camera and I socialized. She has come a long way as a photographer in the 4 years we’ve been working together, and I’m very proud of her! I’ve never been comfortable photographing events of any sort, but Alex really excels at it. I’m hoping she’ll go into photojournalism in college, but she also has a love for music and may pursue that. Here are a few of her images. To see the rest, go to my Facebook Business Page.

Creating my end-of-the-year slideshow is one of my favorite tasks of the year. It’s also one of the most difficult; choosing a single favorite image from each session is no easy task. I took on less sessions this year due to Campbell’s arrival, but I was surprised when I went back through my year’s work how many images I had. Thank you to all of my clients, friends, and family for your support in 2010!

Let me announce a resolution of mine for 2011: keep the blog current. Note: I rarely am successful with my resolutions. Still, I promise to try.

I took these portraits several weeks ago, during a blizzard. Luckily, I only had to drive three blocks, and these cute kiddos didn’t have to leave their family room! I worry about taking children’s portraits in studio settings, as sometimes it’s hard to capture their little personalities. However, these girls were amazingly, unbelievably good. Their parents lucked out not once, but twice with these little cuties.

On Sunday, I took the kids to the pumpkin patch. One of the kids was very cooperative for pumpkin photos. One was not. See if you can figure out which was which.

I just want to freeze today forever…the kids are both at ages that I am enjoying SO MUCH. My friend tells me that every age is just better and better. I have a hard time believing she’s right, as now is pretty amazing and I can’t imagine it getting better, but I hope she is!

The two cuties were unbelievably good for their photos! I am wondering if they are this good all the time…if so I am quite jealous. They were my last portrait session of the season, which is kind of bittersweet!

Then they busted out the fun holiday PJ’s!

Another group, eager for the holidays! I have photographed these kids before, last time outdoors when it was absolutely frigid in October of ’08. It was nice to be indoors and warm this time! They are the cutest little things ever. The young lady is the same age as my son and she reminds me of him so much!
The did a great job for their individual shots…

but we had a hard time getting them to stand together.

Here’s where they get their good looks:

My son is at an age in which when he is in the right mood, it’s pretty easy to take his photograph. So, I knew his personal Christmas portraits would not be a problem. See?

And then there were some silly ones in between:

I thought it would be really cute to have Lily in the photos, as well. Tyler is old and gets too nervous around the camera/flashes, so I knew that wasn’t a possibility. When you’re a 13-year-old dog, you receive some allowances. Lily was not spared, however; we even made her wear funny hats. You can tell how very much she enjoyed it.

We skipped family photos this year. I was soooo busy this fall that I did not have the time or energy for a single extra session. I might try to get a cool one of us in the snow if we have a nice gentle snow that is not crazy cold & windy (unlike this last one).

You may recognize these two from a much warmer time of year: click here if you don’t.  We didn’t use a barn door this time, but we did use their shop!   It was fun to see them again and even more fun to see their cute little Christmas outfits & hats!

Didn’t have any trouble getting this guy to smile:

Is that little hat on that cute little head the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

Together:

We were looking for a good Christmas card shot, but of course threw in a few more!

Such cuties:

“All I want for Chrsitmas is my two front teeth”

Grand-prize winner for best toothless smile:

What a happy little cherub!

“Please, Santa, bring me lots of toys!”

The card shot:

We struggled to find a place to get a Christmas tree this year. We like fir trees, and it can be hard to find a nice one. I won’t list the places that did not work out, but I wanted to share where we did get a nice tree for a great price: K&R Greenhouse right here in town! I had no idea they even sold trees, but I’m glad I found out in time to buy ours there. I love shopping local family businesses and do so whenever I can.

Dragging the tree to the car:

The best part of going to K&R was looking at all of the poinsettias. There are hundreds!