all in the family

I have been waiting what seems like forever to share these pictures!

I'm sure you will be able to tell that these are from the summer, since my location is currently under a foot of snow...

Every summer, for the last 4 years, one of my brother's 3 kids have come to visit for a week by themselves. Well, last year (2007) marked one year so far for each kid, so 2008 all 3 of them stayed with us.

I have wanted to take these chillens out for years. And I do mean years. I have wanted to get my camera on them for so long and am soooo happy to have finally done so! Trust me, this will be happening again. I'm sure they thought this was going to be tortuous, however, it was quite fun... and they tried really hard, but there was no mistaking the actual laughing and fun they were indeed caught having :)



Here they are! Standing here in order is Raelynn, Robbie and Nick. Today is Robbie and Raelynn's birthday! They are 13. I can't believe it (and in case you didn't figure it out, by the whole today is their birthday, they are indeed twins :) Nick's birthday is in one week on the 31st and he shares that with my mom. We love birthdays around here... so we all try extra hard to make sure we're born on a good day :)



In order to get one good shot of them all running I probably had to take 75 pictures. No kidding. Now there's something worth remembering! I do NOT take perfect pictures every time. I just take a million pictures :)



I think this picture took on a real mid-twentieth century look when I rendered it in black and white. The houses in the background are such cool beach houses! You'd never guess you could find that in good old Rochester



They all thought it would be cute to do a play on "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" because there was 3 of them. I really liked it :)



That particular day, the water was very rough and in fact, the county closed the beach. Meaning, we could still be on the beach part, but not go in the water. Oops. We found that out the wrong way lol! But they still climbed all over the pier and it ended up being a really cool set up





Robbie



Raelynn



Nick









This is one of my favorite shots from the whole shoot. I had a lot of favorites honestly, but this one strikes me each time i look at it...



But this one is my favorite favorite :) I just wish we could see Nick!

I am so happy to finally have these pictures, and even more happy to share them! Especially with my brother and sis-in-law. I hope to be able to do it again next summer. I know for sure though that I am going to be taking pictures with my other brother's family of 6. That will be an adventure for sure, and I can't wait!

a little about color

A couple posts back when I announced that I was going to give this blog a new look, I mentioned that I wanted to use some pretty outrageous colors... possibly some funktastic complimentary colors...

But, it just didn't work. yet another dimension to my out of control crazy personality. I wanted lots of color, but then I realized that since I am indeed a color junkie my pictures could speak for themselves. Instead, I decided to go with a more neutral look that will compliment the pictures. What a concept.

Anyways, these colors will soon also be reflected on the website, and I will surely let you know when that is updated. If I've taken your pictures this past year, you can be sure to find yourself on at least one of these! So if you don't see yourself here, you're probably on the site :) So go check it out.

And i need a picture to make this post more interesting... what to pick what to pick.



my mom took this last year for one of american mum's wordless wednesday with a twist contests. i think it's hilarious... and since chocolate cake sounds really good right now, i think the picture is appropriate... yah. I know, I'm out of control :)

A grand adventure about to begin...

The journey to motherhood...

There is a true beauty that is within all women who are expecting...



I wanted more maternity images to add to my portfolio, which is how I met Tammy... the mom -to-be of the adorable little Raiden you will see in this post in just a second.

I do in fact attribute much of my decision to give photography a "go" as it were to the special lady who insisted I do my first maternity shoot, which can be seen here.



Before I did this pictures with Tammy, I had only done one other maternity session, and I just love them. These pictures are actually pretty old as I took them in the beginning of November just after I had bought my strobes. Plus, I was still using the Rebel at that time! So much has changed in just a couple short months!



I love learning my way through photography... and my very favorite part is that no one person or session is ever the same. I may do some of the same things with people as a way to get started, but honestly, I have found that once we get comfortable with each other, the session unfolds... and inevitably, I will get one or two images from each session that I just look at and go "wow, where in the world did that idea come from?"



I thought the little Santa hat was appropriate although this little guy was born at least a month before Christmas :)



I love baby feet... and hands... and noses... and hair... oh heck, I just love babies!





I find this picture hilarious because I think it looks like a baby on a gong lol! Is gong even a word? You know what I'm talking about?



Believe it or not, this baby was not happy to have his pictures taken... and he was awake and crying in this picture! Like i said in my post yesterday, the key to taking good newborn shots is patience... I am willing to hold out and wait if you are :) So let's just sit around while baby finishes up eating... and drifts off to sleep... once they're asleep, we're golden! That is the KEY!



I'd really like to get better at taking this shot... at least ones like it. I just love parent/baby pictures... there will be more to come as I keep doing this :)



Again with the feet. I saved this image for last because it is only rivaled by one other shot (in this category) that I have ever taken. I just love this one. All the details and the little lines...

Oh, and I wanted to mention this, to all the other photographers that may be reading this blog... the first pictures of mama were taken with the rebel and my tamron 17-50 f/2.8 lens, but the baby was shot with my new 5D and the canon 50 f/1.8. I love the clarity of the 50mm lens, but I can't wait to do a shoot with my newest addition the canon 28-70 f/2.8... I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm planning to go out and capture some of the beautiful snow and ice we have around here right now :)

I'm going to try and enjoy this weather... lol

Kate Jacqueline

All this poor little baby wanted to do was stay warm... act cute... and look around...



But we wouldn't let her. We said, no baby, you must take cute nakey shots and go to sleep!



8 day olds, however, cannot be reasoned with.



She did quite well though, for being on her own terms... and I don't blame her... if someone had tried taking pictures of me when I was that little, i probably would have reacted the same way :)



I've learned a lot about the whole newborn picture taking thing the last couple months... It's hard! You never know how a baby will react to what... I'll keep trying though, for sure :)

Just know, if you ever are thinking about hiring me for your newborn pictures that I am a very patient person when it comes to this. Ya gotta be! If i come over to do pictures with you, and it's taking what seems like forever, I don't care! it comes with the territory. I will take as long as I need to, to get the right shot. So don't worry that you're inconveniencing me... ever. I love my job and I want to share it with you.

Sarah Grace

In my short photography career, I have only had the opportunity to photograph 4 newborns. When I first started doing this, I was sure that I wanted to focus my efforts towards infants and babies... however, it's a lot harder than I thought!

This is baby Sarah Grace. She was only a few days old at the time these pictures were taken... and up until I arrived, she had never stayed awake long enough to eat enough to make her fall back asleep.



Apparently less than one week olds are smarter than we may think ;) She was awake most of the time we shot here, with her eyes opening and closing as she was fighting very hard to stay awake for her shoot. Her one little eye would stay just a hair open deeming her the nickname "popeye."



However, these turned out to be my favorite newborn shots to date. Mom has amazing taste and was totally jiving with any and all ideas I threw out there. This waffle weave duvet cover sustained more than its fair share of the consequences of leaving a naked baby on it!





I have literally been itching to get these little headbands on a baby as small as Sarah.





Here she is with her three older siblings. Momma wanted a picture with the baby and then the other kids hands all around her... I just love it :)



The last in the series... because she just could do no more... "Gosh, could I please just go to sleep now?!"

What a great family this is, and I so hope that I have the opportunity to photograph all of them together this summer. ohhhh that is something i cannot wait for! :)

a new look

I am currently in the process of redoing this blog... so if you are visiting and things look a little "askew" please do not mind the mess! I am not talented enough to do it all at once and make it pretty right away :) nor do i have the time! So I'm facing the facts and letting you know that it is going to look a little crazy, but whatev! I'm a little crazy... so i guess that's ok

Also, I might add, that I am trying to come up with a good color scheme... I like the black and all, but it's getting kinda boring for me... this is what I really like... I'm not sure if the world can handle my extremeness... i'll try to break you in slowly ;)

so after saying all that, if you have some color schemes that you think go well together, I would love to hear. I'm a fan of complimentary colors that aren't your typical red and green, blue and orange deal. like shades and hues of the color wheel, the ones people don't think of right away. but whatev, let me know if you have any suggestions! thanks!