santa baby (rochester baby photographer)

ohmygoodness this little one is toomuchtohandle...

and my use of words typed together are outofcontrol.

I had the privilege of taking care of Jonah for about 2 months for a couple days a week. He is one of the most laid back babies evah. Until you try to make him take a nap...



I bought this plate last week with my inspiration coming from Tasha over at Homeshade Photography. I brought it along with me not knowing if I would really be able to use it since he's a kinda wobbly sitter... but turns out, it we easier for him to sit on the plate than on the floor! I think it's cuz he had something to hold onto :)







I knew this shoot would be amazing from the time we started talking about it... Jonah is so stinking cute and he is an excellent poser, I think ;)



I've seen so many pictures with cute letter blocks and i finally got to do one myself! He was sooo distracted when we put them there! I think it looks really cute and you can totally tell it was supposed to say snow ;)





i'm sooooo glad I had my new camera for it too! I'm telling you what, the 5D is amazing. I feel like my photography has gone to a new level because of it. Plus I get to spend phenominally less time doing post editing... because the camera takes them so great to begin with!

Thank you guys for letting me capture your amazing baby! This is literally the fastest turnaround I've ever done on pictures :) hopefully, i'll start making this a habit...

at the pumpkin patch (Rochester family photographer)

Ok, so I seriously did this shoot like over a month ago... but there's this little thing called a LIFE and a JOB that have been getting in the way of actually finishing it up!

Bee is very talented in the graphic design area, and while I try my hand at it in some arenas, there are some things I just don't touch. So when I decided I wanted a brochure for my business I knew she was the one to ask.

So we worked out a little traderoo. although, she's so sweet, she probably would have just done the brochure for me... but I wanted to give her something in return.

So we planned this all out. I found this really great pumpkin patch and was soo excited about the location, but when we got there... not gonna lie, little Jordyn wasn't so into it!

She was all but ignoring me and I was slightly freaking out on the inside (hey y'all, i'm just bein real!) So I started shooting like crazy just hoping that she would give me some good stuff... and turns out she did.



Don't they make the super cutest family :) And you can't see, but there's a baby hiding in this picture too *grin*




There is a whole sequence of these pictures, but this is the last and (in my opinion) the cutest!







Thank you guys so much for thrilling me with your willingness to do these pictures. I had a lot of fun and I hope you did too!

a family of 9 and 5 hours later... (Rochester family photographer)

This was by far the largest family I have photographed. Nine in all! and the 5 hours of which I speak only accounts for the time I spent taking the pictures!

I won't even go into how many more hours it took to narrow them down... it's daunting I tell you. And that's the main reason I haven't updated in so long!

You may remember this face from a couple posts back, and now you can take a look at the beautiful rest of the fam :)







One of my favorite things when getting ready to take pictures is when my clients have an idea in mind, or a specific place to go. This was Sherrie's find and I am so glad she found it! Seriously, how cool is this fireplace? I fear, this may not be the last time you see it ;)

My personal favorite style of photography is close-ups. I've probably mentioned that before, and I'm sure I will again... but I'm always wanting to get right up in there and take a face shot.

And awesomely enough, that's Sherrie's favorite style as well :) So you can guess how much fun I had with this!

The one thing I struggle with the most as a nanny is the idea of having my own kids one day. However, getting to know this family has done the opposite of what you would think about my desire for kids. The difference between seven kids versus two or three kids is HUGE! There is a need for personal responsibility when there are a lot of kids around. Their kids are responsible for themselves and eachother, and I found that so refreshing. It made me realize that kids are indeed their own person, and while they will always need guidance, I don't need to hover (like I end up doing most of the time!)

They are all so well-behaved and honestly, the idea of having a family of my own like this someday is really exciting :)

So here they are, in order from oldest to youngest...



Connor




Jordyn




Mckenna




Avery




Whitten




Chase




Justice




I saw this pose just before I did this shoot and was sooo excited to have two sisters to do it with! How beautiful are these girls and how amazing are their eyes? the contrasting colors are almost too much to handle! I'll definitely be doing this shot again, because I really do like it :)




I love the fact that this job is always pushing my past my comfort zone and forcing me to try new poses and shots. This family was perfect for doing this stuff, since having fun was the main thing that she wanted captured. It's not easy! Onward I forge, trying new things and after enough shots, I'll end up with one like this that makes me smile everytime i see it :)



Notice the baby's face here. All that little guy wanted to do was be on the ground with as much access to leaves and sticks as possible. Pick him up, he cries, set him down, he is in heaven :) If he could talk, I think he would be saying, "look ma! stick!"




I feel this shot becoming something I do often... I'll have to work on finding new and different creative ways to do it... and with stuff other than shoes. but I seriously loooove this :)




Besides the fact that I think they both look amazing in this picture, I also wanted to point out how incredible I think the light is. I have read other photogs blogs and found that many find the light just before dusk has an element of warming magic. It's absolutely beautiful and casts an unmistakeable glow.

Thank you Sherrie and James for choosing me to capture your family at this time. You and your family is a blessing to me and I can't tell you how honored I am to know you and have you in my life...

Christmas mini-sessions

I've been brainstorming today while I sit here backing up my computer. Ugh.

I had a thought a couple weeks ago to do some mini-sessions but wasn't really sure how to do it. But I figured it out! And I hope you are as excited as I am!

Last night (my first night with the 5D!) I set up a mini studio in my dining room. It was really quite simple, but the pictures were turning out great! My mom was shooting, I was shooting... and neither of us were wearing make-up or trying to do anything special. We were just playing.



This is my 2nd favorite shot of the night, if you'd like to see the first, go here.

But it occurred to me, if it's this easy for me to take pics in my DINING ROOM why don't I have y'all over and help you make a FABULOUS Christmas present for your family :)

So here's the deal!

The mini-session (up to 4 people) will be $50 and include:
- the time and talent of the photographer at my home studio set-up
- 10 final images
- digital reproduction rights
- a single set of 4x5 permanent proofs

aaaaaaaaaaaaand!

***25% off cards and print order for any booked referrals!***

This offer is open to anyone in the area (or anyone who wants to travel to the area :)

I have 2 dates and 2 locations open for booking.

Saturday November 22 in Avon at my house

and

Saturday November 29 in Brighton at my friend Melissa's house


Please contact me asap if you would like to book for either of these dates. I already have one booking and I haven't even posted this yet!

contact@amandaslakesphotography.com

Christmastime is upon us!

The Christmas season is quickly approaching! I have been in some serious denial about this fact. I am usually playing Christmas music by now... not sure what's going on with me this year!

Anyways, I am totally excited about pumping out pictures and Christmas cards and making cool new stuff. And I need your help!

That's right, I totally need your help... you see, I don't do this stuff for the money (ha!) I do it because it's so much fun! But I need YOU to want this stuff, otherwise I'm making fake Christmas cards to sit on my computer and take up space.

This is an example of a card that I just put together. I took this family's pictures over the summer, but I am more than happy to work on designing cards using any pictures. If you have pictures that you already like, I'd be more than happy to work one up for you!



Please email me at contact@amandaslakesphotography.com for information on pricing. Since I haven't done a whole lot of this, you'll be getting a really sweet deal ;)

storyboards and other such things

I realized recently that I have cards and storyboards as options on my website, but I have no examples of them!

My amazing friend Melissa is getting married in May and I had the privilege of taking her engagement photos. She was happy, Jim was happy, I was happy :)

As is customary in recent years, we decided that a "save the date" card would be forthcoming, so I designed one and the final product turned out cooler than I could have hoped.



In real life, they are actually much smaller than you see on your screen :) I printed two on a 5x7 and then we bought big sheets of magnet with stickyness (i know how official and professional that word is, that's why I used it). We put the cards on the magnet and then cut them apart, and they are sooo very cool. It's obviously not an entirely original idea, but it still looks great!

Then, I made a storyboard earlier in the summer for a family shoot I did at the beach. When I pulled it out of the packaging in all of it's 11x14 hugeness, I was completely blown away. Really, it is so different to see prints in real life than to look at them on a computer screen.



After Melissa saw this storyboard, she knew right away that she wanted one for herself. So I worked this one up.



I know not everyone is into this kind of thing, but for those who are, I want to make sure that you know what's available to you from me. My storyboard prices start at $45 for an 8x10 or 11x14 print. I personally think that these look best as 11x14... they can of course be made smaller or larger, but that is my personal preference.

It's a good size, not too small, not too large... just right ;) haha, enough with the goldilocks, I'm off to get my next post ready about Christmas cards!

to all 2 of my readers :)

I love you dearly. I do :)

I have a favor to ask of you though! I really really reeeeeeeaallllyyy want to get this blog out there into the blog'o'sphere.

If you already have me added into your reader, then THANKS!!! And if you haven't then would you pretty pretty please add me :)

I don't even know how I got all the readers I have on my notsoextraordinary blog... it just sorta happened!

Well that's about it, I have more pictures to put up this week. It's been such an amazing fall... and now that we're goin into winter I am more than apprehensive to see how this season pans out.

I am moving into the arena of indoor photography most recently. I have studio lights that I am bringing with me so that I can still do on-location stuff and am hoping to mainly do infant and maternity type pictures that way. Another idea I had was to do mini-sessions for Christmas cards.

I would probably set aside a day and schedule people to come to my house where I would set up a mini studio for the day... then take a family, or individual kid shots and fast-track them so that they could go out in time for Christmas. Would anyone be interested? haha is anyone reading this?

Just some thoughts, I might try to give some legs to that idea and ask around some past customers. Thanks for the add if you linked me :) I <3 bloggy love!

Sneak peek!

Can you believe this gorgeous lady has 7 kids?!



Unreal!

Sherrie is one of the most beautiful people I know, inside AND out! She loves the Lord and is committed to Him in every area of her life.

I can't wait to get the rest of her family pics up here for you to see :) This is just a sneak peek at the entire session. I took them on Friday and only have worked on the ones of her so far as she's sending a brochure to the printer THIS week for her ministry. You can check out her website here, byGraceministries.org.

More pictures to come soon!