Confession: I get nervous when clients want to use their own property for portraits. No matter how beautiful the scenery is, sometimes the lighting is just not right for portraiture. Confession #2: I am even more nervous to take this risk for group portraits, as for groups you need an even larger area with which to work. Confession #3: After spending some time at this client’s property, I kind of want to move in. With them. Their land is gorgeous (and ideal for pictures) and they are so much fun. And at least one of them is a really good cook.

They had some fun ideas for their session and we laughed a lot!

 

 

When I was pregnant with my son (my oldest child), I was so hoping he was twins! My mom is a twin, and several other people in my family have had twins. I have known several sets of twins, and they seem to have such a special bond. One of my past clients told me the likelihood of having twins increases the closer you are to age 40, so maybe I should talk my husband into just one more baby. And now I shall find out if he reads my photography blog or not, haha! These two were actually preemie twins, so we did the photo shoot when they were almost six weeks old. They are so incredibly cute, and it’s amazing how you can already see their little personalities emerging.

Little boy, I.:

Little Miss M.:

Every time we tried “together” portraits, one of them was awake and the other was asleep, or one was happy and one was not, etc. We did get a couple of cute ones, though. Here’s my favorite:

Remember, the best time for sleepy, curly newborn portraits is in the first two weeks for full-term newborns. For preemies, it depends on how premature they are, and of course, we wait until it’s completely safe and healthy for them to be handled for portraits. If you are pregnant now and are hoping for newborn portraits, contact me with your due date and I can leave a space in my schedule around your due date. Obviously, babies come when they come, but if I have a slot saved for you, I will be able to fit you in, as I have a set number of sessions I do per week/month. This is especially important if your baby is born July-December, as that is my crazy busy half of the year when it’s harder to get a session on short notice. Of course, sessions with older babies are super cute, too!

Once again I teamed up with Amie from Edibly Divine for a cake smash! This time, instead of a giant cupcake, we decided to do a bit of a fancier cake. A bit extravagant, yes, but what would you rather have in 20 years…memories of how the cake tasted or gorgeous pictures of your one-year-old with the cake? This cake was only mildly damaged during the “smash”, so most of it was still usable.

I think I say this every time, but I wanted to keep this baby. I wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and RUN to the car and speed away. But, her mom and dad and auntie seemed a bit protective, so I didn’t dare try. I DO plan on going back to visit and photograph her again, though! Oh my goodness, she was so sweet. She hardly fussed at all and was very cooperative with our moving her around.

She was so sleepy and good that we only got a few awake shots, but here’s a cute one!

Sleepy smiles are the best! They are real smiles, too. That whole “gas” thing…WHATEVER.

We tried out a bow.

Sooo cute and cuddly and curly!

I love this momma and baby shot. They are so happy together! You did miss this few seconds right before this when Momma couldn’t stop laughing!

There are no parents more proud of their little one than these two!

This is the year of maternity and newborn portraits! I have more coming up, too… Check out this stunning momma and her cute little boy.

I love shadowy maternity images that accentuate the edge of the belly. She has the most perfect belly, seriously.

I try to always do a silhouette, as I think the outline of a pregnant body is so beautiful!

I told you–perfect belly! I love her nails, watch and bracelet in this image.

I actually photographed her little guy as a newborn, and it was fun to see him again. He was sooo sweet with his momma!

Oh my goodness. It’s been over a month since I updated here? Well take it up with my daughter. Ever since she learned to stand up in her crib, bedtime is later and later and my time to blog is less and less (I do all of my blog/Facebook/online playing after the kids go to bed). But she’s so cute I don’t mind.

I’ve already done the newborn session for this family–that’s how delayed I am on posting maternity images. Here are a few of my favorites from the maternity session. I’ll share the newborn ones in a few days.

I’ll be honest…3 month portraits are challenging because the baby isn’t really sleepy/curly like a newborn and can sit up and smile at you like a 6-month-old. However, this little guy did amazingly well! He seemed really mature for his age. He did a great job holding up his head for very long periods of time while on his belly and in the Bumbo chair. He has gorgeous blue, bright eyes! We did all of these in his nursery.

His older sister sneaked in for a few. They are 7 years apart–just a year more than my kids. I love this span, as the older sibling is so incredibly helpful. Everyone asks me if it’s hard to have two kids, and I can honestly say that having Campbell is so much easier than when Evan was a baby because now I have Evan to help me so much! At the session, this mom agreed that her daughter makes things so much simpler. Yay for mature, helpful older siblings!

I have a few maternity and newborn sessions coming up…stay tuned! Here’s my most recent. Baby is due at the beginning of March, but she was having regular contractions the other night, so I think it may be sooner than that! I think this is the first maternity session I’ve done since having my own pregnant belly…I have to say I really miss that belly of mine! I love baby bellies! These were all taken in their home. I prefer to do maternity and newborn sessions in the clients’ homes because we can include the nursery.

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.