Miss Emery (& mashed potatoes)

One thing I know for sure is that when Brooke schedules a session for one of her little girls, it's gonna be awesome.  She puts a lot of thought into their outfits and whatever props go along with it.  Makes me VERY happy.  {Brooke, I know that you are reading this because of your confessions of stalking my blog - which I am totally grateful - Kudos on a kick butt stylized session.  You rock!}

I started photographing Emery as a newborn.  Her third birthday just passed and she celebrated with a ladybug theme.  We started the session in a field full of cotton mashed potatoes - that's what Emery called it  :-)

  

Mommy & Me Session: Courtney + Ava

It's not gonna be hard to tell how much I loved this session because of the enormous sneak peek I have created.  Just a little girl and her mommy having a little bit of fun and showing lots of love in front of the camera.   I love the colors, the warmth...the whole idea of a Mommy & Me session makes me giddy.  How sweet of an album is this gonna make?

See what I mean?  Happy Monday!! :-)

Ellis & Hughes Family

2 sweet families, both of them repeat clients, beautiful people.  In the same place at the same time.  I love it when a plan comes together.  :-)

The Ellis Family...

The Hughes Family...

The Reids

Once again, it gives me the greatest joy to be able to capture moments for my [twin] sister and her gorgeous family.  Just looking at these photos makes me smile.  I'm smiling now.

I think the greatest photographs show real emotion.  Laughing, joking and being silly and not worrying about the camera/photographer smiling back at you.  *no cutie pie, freckle-faced little boys were harmed during this session* Still smiling.

My sweet & sassy niece, Lyndi.  This little ladybug is gonna make my sister's hair turn grey wayyyyy before mine does. ;-)  I may be a little prejudice, but I think she's incredibly beautiful.

And without any direction at all, they bust out this little shot and it's undeniably perfect.  My smile has now transformed into a perma-grin with a little bit of fluid in the eyes. ;-)

 That freckle-faced nephew has the most loving nature.  If you need a hug, just ask him.

 Okay now they are just showing off.  They canNOT take a bad picture.

  

The Smith's

I have a feeling that there are gonna be some great family sessions making their way to the blog in the next month.  Fall has arrived and Christmas is just around the corner.  It will be 2013 before we all know it!
I wanted to share some images from The Smith's family session and a story of what happened literally minutes before the first snap.  I was ready to start shooting - had my 70-200mm lens aimed, pressed the shutter button for a test shot... {crickets chirping}.  I looked at it like it had just told me a bad joke, pressed the shutter button again....Nothing. Happened.   I played it off with my "oh I wanted to use my 85mm anyway" attitude while trying to figure out in my head what was going on.  I was seriously on the verge of crying.  That lens is my work-horse, I depend an awful lot on it.  [Fast Forward 3 days later] Robert and I were just about ready to ship it off to have it repaired because something was wrong with it, something major...obviously.  One last resort to figure it out and save myself a huge shipping charge.  The thought of being without my 70-200 was killing me.  GOOGLE IT.  [Summary]  I found a video on YouTube that showed me how to safely clean my lens - like Q-tips and rubbing alcohol to clean the contacts kinda clean.  Well, not me, Robert.  He did a phenomenal job and the 70-200 is back in business.  Woo-hoo!  Moral of the story:  Clean your lenses.
[Rewind 3 days before]  So, I'm pretty pleased with how well I did with shooting a family session with my 85mm.  Yay Me!

The Grands

Grandmother of these fabulous girls is the one who schedules the appointment.  I love that!

This is not the first time that these 3 have been in front of my camera, so it was so good to see everyone again.  Enjoy!

The youngest of the grands, Miss Gracie (below).  I so wish you guys could hear her say "Lordy Bee" :-)

Laurel

Man, are you in for a sneak peek treat.  Miss Laurel and her sister, Jade, seriously blow me away.  I love working with them and I love the images - enjoy!