Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Blog maintenance

Sorry to any of you that subscribe to my blog in RSS... I may have just filled up your feed. I started doing some blog maintenance and updating tags on some of my older posts and RSS seems to see some of them as new.

Anyway, it's been a busy week. Since I haven't gotten any real posts together, here's a shot my friend Mary took of my little dude at Dylan's soccer tournament last week.



Happy Tuesday!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Really good genes

Clearly, good genes run in this family.

This is Robbie, Michelle, Maddie, and Molly



And this is Brian, Melanie, Carter and Abby



In case you can't tell, Robbie and Brian are brothers. I look forward to working with the Cowsert families each year, so I was really excited to wrap up my holiday sessions in SC with them! We did portraits of both families, as well as a big family grouping (with grandparents!) and a bunch of the four cousins. Since we shot everything in one big session, I decided to create a giant post of all their images. Check 'em out:









These girls are soooo gorgeous.



























Coordinating extended families for photos is always a little chaotic, but getting portraits with your whole family is totally worth it. Thanks again to all my favorite Cowserts! I hope the extra-long post makes up for the fact that I forgot to share yesterday as promised. : )

Friday, November 12, 2010

Dragons and birthdays and updates, oh my!

My Little Monster is 4 months old today, so I am using that as an excuse to share belated pictures of him all dressed up on Halloween.



Turns out he was incredibly cranky that day. Good thing he was able to put on a happy face for pictures.





Oh look, there is Dylan! So this can also be my excuse to give a late birthday shout-out to my husband. I had big plans to make a special birthday blog post for him this past Monday, and then Monster decided he was going on strike against naps and smiling again so the blog post got kicked to the curb. Happy belated birthday Dylan!

And now I am off to do a happy dance. Holiday sessions are edited, Christmas cards are designed, and for the next few days at least, I am totally caught up (other than posting the last of my SC sessions on the blog tomorrow)! And don't forget about the holiday ordering deadline next week (11/19).

Happy Friday!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Why I like kids more than trees

Trees are easy to photograph.* You can count on them to keep the same pose for extended periods of time. They don't move while you change your memory card, adjust your focus, or reposition for better lighting.

Trees are also boring.

Kids are the opposite of trees and the opposite of boring. This is why I am a children's photographer and not a nature photographer. This is why I love John Dickson and Henry.



If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll remember my friends Adam and Amanda from their session this spring. Their littlest boy, Henry, was due two weeks after but born the day before mine (still not bitter). Since I was in the hospital with my newborn this summer, I couldn't photograph theirs, so I was SUPER excited to add their family to my fall schedule in Greenville, SC. We mainly focused on Henry for this session, but of course got John Dickson and family pictures as well. And I have to tell you that Henry has the greatest godparents ever- this photo session was a gift from them! Besides the fact that I was excited to be a part of it, I think that is such a sweet, sweet gift to give to the parents of a new baby. High-five to Betsy and Brandon!

Despite everything everyone tells me about the Terrible Twos, John Dickson makes me want a two-year-old. I often think Brody will be a lot like him- absolutely crazy and absolutely awesome.









And then I look at Henry, and he makes me want- well, a Henry. A sweet, laid-back, roly-poly Henry. Brody could take some notes from him. (Except maybe not the part about not sleeping at night.)









This is the "mom, why am I naked in a park?" face









I love all these facial expressions- I couldn't choose just one from this series











These kids rock my socks off and make me sad that they live 547 miles away.

*I guess I should clarify that I don't think nature photography is "easy"- it is quite beautiful and complex. I'm just really not very good at it, and certainly can't photograph a tree the way Ansel Adams could. But you know what I mean. I heart kiddos in front of my camera. I like things with eyeballs.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

A growing Christmas card

I am that girl that keeps all the Christmas cards we get each year. (That's right. When I die my children and grandchildren are NOT going to be happy as they clean out my attic.) But I can't help it- they create this sense of connection to the people I love that makes me so happy. I even have a few family members and close friends that still send out a year-in-review type Christmas letter, and call me old-fashioned, but I love it.

Most people these days send photo cards or include a family picture, and I love seeing how kids have grown and families have changed over the course of a year. This session excites me because their Christmas card will be so different this year- they are now a family of four! I do fully understand that pregnancy leads to babies, but it still sometimes kind of blows my mind. This time last year, Stephanie was sporting a big beautiful belly and she, Hud, and Ashlynn were getting ready to meet their new addition. One year seems like such a short time to go from this



to this!



Little Michael was born in January and might be the sweetest little baby on the planet. He was happy as can be the entire morning of our session- I never heard him fuss once.



Stephanie's parents also joined us for the session which I loved. These past few months I've really grown attached to pictures of grandparents with their grandkids. (No reason.) Anyway, here are my favorites of Ashlynn, Michael, and their parents and grandparents from our session at Cater's Lake in Anderson, SC.





















It makes me smile so big when I get to work with families more than once. How cool is it to watch a growing family?