Grace's 2 month session

This was a special session for Grace and her family because Grace's grandmother, aunt, and great-grandmother were also able to come. We were able to get a picture of the great-grandmother with her two daughters, and also a four generation picture with mommy and baby Grace. Very special! Of course we were able to get some precious ones of Grace too.. such a doll. Enjoy!

Help me Vote!

My cousin has been nominated "Best Photographer" for the 2nd annual San Francisco Fashion Awards. He is pretty amazing and talented... you can vote here:

http://www.sanfranciscofashionawards.com/index.php?/online-voting/vote-here/

Its the 13th category down I think.. Best Photographer. His name is Kyle Hailey.

You can see some of his work here: http://www.uimagine.org/

Thanks!


And on a different subject.. someone asked me yesterday if I know of anyone looking to sell an upright Bass (which I dont) - so if YOU know of someone who has an upright Bass they dont play anymore and would like to sell, please contact me. :)

Mary Campbell

Sorry I have been MIA .. I took two weeks off because I had family come in from out of town and hosted my husband's family reunion here. But, I'm back in gear for any summer sessions.

Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting a new little girl. Mary Campbell is only 3 weeks old although she seemed more mature than that. The christening gown was an important image for this family as the gown itself has been worn for many generations.. it was very old and delicate. The rest are some sweet moments shared by the family... enjoy!

Brayden's six month portraits

Brayden did so well today (or technically yesterday since its now 1am) even though it was a challenge to get him to smile big. He is such a cutie.. and so is his cousin who came along! These are some of my favorites from his session:

Addison is one!

This session is from yesterday evening. Addison is now one and was so adorable. Big sister was a bit jealous, but thanks to their entertaining parents, we got some nice shots. Here are some highlights:

Ashley - maternity session

This session is actually from last Thursday, I just haven't had time to get them posted to the blog. Ashley wanted to get just a few images of herself with her daughter before having her next baby. Her daughter had other things in mind so we really weren't able to capture very many, but what we did get is so sweet! Here are some of my favorites:

Madeline turns One!

Madeline is so cute! She made her mommy work really hard to get her to give a big smile and show off her 4 teeth.. but they both did a terrific job! Enjoy some of my favorites:

Julianna

Julianna starts her senior year in August, so hopefully some of these can be used as her senior portraits. Julianna did a great job Saturday willing to do just about anything I asked. I am happy with the results.. here are some of my favorites, and more in the little video at the end. Enjoy!

Annelise

Annelise didn't want to be in very many pictures, but she did a great job when she did get in front of the camera. Here are some of my favorites from Saturday's session:

3 month old Ava

I had another doll face yesterday - three month old Ava. She did really well and we actually were able to do a lot with her before she got too tired to continue. I look forward to working with her again for her first year panel! She's going to be fun! Here are some highlights from her session yesterday evening:

Presley 7 1/2 months

Presley has such a doll face! She would give me such adorable little smiles .. until I picked up the camera. Then she would sit and stare at the umbrella lights being simply fascinated with them. So even though she isn't all smiles in her photos, I think we still were able to get some precious images of her. Here are some of my favorites and a mix of what we did.

Miranda's Highschool Senior Portraits

Miranda was a little camera shy but so sweet and beautiful, I really loved working with her. I was hoping to be able to do at least some shots outside, but it started raining when Miranda arrived.. and then the sun came out and made it way too hot and steamy. So we stuck with the studio. These are my favorites from her session:

Aubrey's One Year Portrait Session

It is amazing how fast time goes by... it doesn't seem like its been a whole year - but Aubrey is now one! She is such a doll and I love some of the images we were able to capture of her. I dont usually use the same editing techniques on indoor portraits that I use on outdoor portraits, but I played around with some and I think it added some punch to the purple. I like the results. Here are some of my favorites:

Baby Kara

Kara will soon be 3 months old and had her portraits taken this morning. Her parents worked very hard at getting her to smile, but I think she may have been a little too tired today. We still got some precious images of her! Here are some of my favorites:

Vacation Pictures

So I'm sharing with you some of our vacation. I only took the first five pictures and then the one of my husband surfing.. the rest were taken by my husband Ted. I got severely sunburned from my knees to my thighs the very first day so I wasn't out exerting myself much after that. And I was on vacation.. so I wasn't lugging my camera around much either! All in all, we ended up with only 397 pictures from a two week vacation (that doesn't count the ones I took of the family on the beach).. so enjoy these few:

This is my husband with his new skim board:

Teaching one of the kids how to use it:

This child is so adorable.. this should be on a postcard:




The kids posing for a picture as they've been digging quite a hole:

Monkey made from fruit .. this one was on the cruise ship:

Ted trying out the surfing on the cruise ship:

I got ambushed in Jamaica by women wanting to braid my hair:



And this is what a crazy hair style I sported when I took the braids out!


Here is a small video clip of my husband trying out the surfing on the cruise ship the first day:

Perry Family on the beach

Some dear friends of ours spent almost a week with us on New Smyrna Beach in Florida. I had never taken family pictures on the beach before so it was an experiment for me.. and what I learned most was that the sun sets too fast! I thought the sunset lighting would be the prettiest for colors in the sky, but it went by so fast that we finished in the dark practically. I still think they are really sweet.. and I LOVE the first family picture. I will post some actual fun vacation photos later when I get a chance to weed through them. But for now, enjoy my first attempt at beach portraits.

6 month old Eli

Before I left for my trip we did a really quick session of Eli. He was about to grow out of the outfit chosen for his 6 month image for his panel and I was going to be gone for two weeks. He is such a sweetheart and quite a handsome little man. Here are two from that little session:

Intimate Maternity Portraits

Since two of these are of a more sensitive nature, I have waited a while before sharing these so it wouldn't be obvious who they are of. I had never taken any like this before, and she was comfortable enough to allow me to experiment. I love images that dont actually reveal anything we normally keep hidden but are sweet and romantic or sexy - and also shadowy. These are the only two poses we did, and I think they're nice.

It's a Boy!

We had our ultrasound yesterday which revealed that I am definitely carrying a little boy. He is healthy and weighs 11 ounces. I was hoping for a girl since there are plenty of boys in our family already, and almost everyone I know that is pregnant is having a boy... but I know we will have a wonderful time being parents to a little boy too. :) He'll be adorable and say the cutest things.. and hopefully be interested in everything his daddy will be doing so he can learn how to work on cars, fix household problems, build things, and be very helpful in his later years. lol And a boys name was one thing we could agree on even before we tried to conceive so we dont have to try and agree on girl names anymore!

And just a reminder to anyone else reading this... the studio will be closed from April 24th to May 10th. So if you were hoping to have pictures back by mothers day and didn't order them by Monday - its too late now. I wont be able to do it. I also will not be replying to emails during this time, and I will be screening my calls but most likely not returning calls either. Sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.

Abigail

Abigail will be turning three in a few more days, and as is typical of that age group, she wanted little to do with having her picture taken today. I think she did pretty considering. We ended up outside down the road and got some really cute ones that I think her parents will enjoy more than the ones we got in the studio. There's just nothing like outdoor portraits for children!

Jasey

Yesterday I had a short notice session with sweet little Jasey. She has such a sweet personality, and although she wasn't too sure about the lights that flash - we got some cute ones of her.

Caleb and Micah

When you have two young children with any age difference, its always a challenge to get them to look at the camera smiling at the same time. Always! Caleb is three and Micah is 5 months so today was no exception. Hopefully with my editing skills some of the created ones will suffice. At the bottom you will see two examples of my combining images to try and make one more pleasing. Aside from that, they were both very cute little boys and I think we got some good shots of them individually. Here are some from todays session:









Here are two of my efforts at combining images to make new ones. You can click on them to see them larger:

Ella's 1 Year Portraits

Ella came from out of state for this session. She is such a sweetie! She started her session by coming up to me and giving me a hug. We were racing inclement weather so we started with a few portraits outside - but Ella seemed to prefer the indoors yesterday. We still got some darling pictures of her. Here are some of my favorites:

Maternity portraits

This session was from Saturday. Jennifer knew exactly what she wanted after having browsed my portfolio... simple, sweet, and classic. I really enjoyed meeting them and look forward to meeting their new baby in a couple of more months! Here are some of my favorites from their session:

Shelby and Chase Married

Shelby and Chase were married on Friday April 3rd. Its hard to believe that this was my last wedding. Due to changing circumstances I think its best that I quit weddings and just continue with my portraiture. I enjoyed the journey and met a lot of wonderful families over the years.
Here are some highlights this wedding:

Lucia's 3 month portraits

I'm just getting all kinds of beautiful babies lately!! Lucia is no exception certainly and was a delight to photograph. Here are some of my favorites:

Jaden's 7 month portraits

Jaden is such a beautiful little boy. He was happy this visit and we got some precious pictures out of him. Here are some of my favorites:

Caitlyn's 6 month portraits

Caitlyn is so beautiful and full of curiosity.. I would love to know what she is thinking about all the time. Anyway - here are a few of my favorites from her session today. Enjoy!

The Smotherman-Collier Family

These little guys sure kept their parents busy during the session.. but we had plenty of fun. I think they're cute. Here are some of my picks:

Abby's 1 year portraits

We didn't get many smiles out of this little one but she was just as precious. These are three of my favorites to share:

Madeline's 9 month portraits

Madeline has changed so much in just three months that I hardly recognized her at first! She's still beautiful, and was able to surprise her mom with just how well she sat up on her own for her photo session! Here are some highlights:

Brandie and Justin's Wedding

This wedding took place March 21st but I'm only just now getting a chance to go through and choose some pictures to share with you. Again.. I initially chose way too many to share and have tried to narrow it down, but there's still a lot. Brandie and Justin both were very pleasant to work with, and their wedding was beautifully done. Here are some of my favorites to share with you:

















And if you feel like watching a 3 and a half minute video teaser of their wedding, you can see that below:

Sweet Little Lexi

This little sweetie was not feeling very well so she really wasn't up for pictures. I think she did pretty well despite not being her usual self. Either way - she's still a cutie! These are some of my favorites:

Brandie's bridal Portraits

As I mentioned in a previous post.. I took a lot of pictures of this beautiful bride. We had so much fun working with her and shot at two different locations in Columbia. I did actually delete a few from my original run through of choosing pictures for the blog so that it wouldn't be AS lengthy, but its still long for you.
Her wedding was this past Saturday and I should have some pictures from that to share shortly. Enjoy!

















And I have to brag a little on my husband. He doesn't usually shoot with me, but he tagged along. I gave him a really good lens (the 70-200 f2 on my sturdy tripod) and let him do what he wanted. Of course, I did the posing in everything, but he chose different angles, and then I photoshopped them. These are my favorites of his:

The Billa Family

This beautiful family is from Ghana and was given the gift of a portrait session with me. It was such a pleasure meeting them and I enjoyed our photography session.. they are so sweet and gracious .. and beautiful.

Some personal news...

Well, it has leaked out on Facebook so I might as well post it here too. After eight years of marriage, my husband Ted and I are expecting a baby in September. I will be 13 weeks along tomorrow, so a little past the 3 month mark now. Too early still to tell the baby's gender. So far, it has been tough on me. Actually, this is the first week that I've actually felt okay. I've been in the hospital twice already and had to go get some maternity clothes a few weeks ago because I can't fit anything. It should get better from here - but I appreciate everyone's patience that has come into the studio for portraits. I've had a lot of support and you've all been wonderful. I will still continue to work as normal, probably up until late July or August and then I'll start having to cut back some. I hope to be able to pick up again soon after the baby is born.. maybe early October when the weather is prime for outdoor fall portraits. I will keep taking each day as it comes so dont hesitate to call and book your portraits! A lot of Saturdays are already accounted for between now and when the baby is due so if you need a Saturday, you might want to schedule it sooner than you usually would.
anyway.. thats my news to share with you!

Brandie's bridal Portraits

We had a gorgeous day on Saturday for bridal portraits. Brandie is a beautiful bride and was a lot of fun to work with. I actually picked out 27 of her bridal portraits that I wanted to put in the blog somehow.. but then realized I can't post any of them until after the wedding so that no one sees her in her dress ahead of time. So.. you'll have to wait two more weeks to see some of her portraits, unless she gives me permission to post some of the headshots. Until then.. sorry.. but you have something beautiful to look forward to!

5 week old Peyton

This little guy is so precious! He wasn't feeling his best, but thats okay. At least in my portrait studio, you can take all the time you need for feeding, cuddling, and calming your little baby. It was a pleasure meeting this baby and his family who drove up from Alabama to have this session. Here are some of my favorites:

Las Vegas

For two years or more I have been wanting to take one of Scott Robert's workshops. I am drawn to his style, his editing.. and the images his students walk away with are equally captivating. I had always been booked with a wedding or some major event when I would finally get his class dates.. until now! As soon as his February class in Las Vegas opened up, I signed up! I'm really glad I did - it was quite the experience.
Unfortunately, I only got one day of class in because I ended up spending all of the second day in the hospital and was just a vegetable the third day.

The first day though, after a morning discussion, we were taken to a Neon Boneyard. That is where all the old neon signs get retired to. It was pretty cool! We had a few models that braved the cold and wind and let us experiment with them. Here are some of the images I was able to get. I can't take credit for the posing of the first one, but I had asked permission to capture it because its not a pose I would have thought of and I thought it worked well with that setting. The rest are my own though. Enjoy, and feel free to leave your review and constructive criticism for me.

















And I just want to relate a funny experience from this day. My husband is the man in the red shirt.. and as I was shooting him in the last three images seen above, my class moved on to another section of the boneyard. We didn't hear them call out that they were leaving! We come back to the middle only to find everyone gone! We yelled and got no response. So now we found ourselves locked in this area surrounded by 8 foot fencing topped with barbed wire. Neither of us had our cell phones - not that we knew anyone's number anyway. I remembered in the very back of the lot part of the chain link fence was broken... attached at the side poles but detached from the top one. So I sent my husband and the gear through this hole.. and then climbed through myself. We were still fenced in another lot, but at least that fence didn't have barbed wire over it. So we climbed over another fence and got out. Another person walking by was able to direct us to our group who had moved across the street. It was pretty funny.. but I had the gnarliest bruise ever on my knees! It was a good seven inches long on my right knee and turned all shades of green, black and purple and was tender for almost a week. But I got a good story out of it! Who else can say they were photographing models in a private Neon Boneyard and accidentally got locked in and had to climb through and over two fences! lol

Dawson and Dylan

Here is another session from February 10th that I'm only just now getting a chance to post here. This was supposed to be a session for Dawson being 1 and Dylan being 5.. but Dawson wanted nothing to do with pictures that evening. So we had fun with Dylan who was just adorable! I'm attaching a few of my favorites:

Luke and Leah

This is a session from last Tuesday.. I'm still catching up from having attended a photography workshop in Las Vegas. Baby Luke is 3 weeks old and his sister is 3 years old and the most precious thing! I've never met a 3 year old who was so agreeable despite not wanting to do something! Anyway.. here are some of my favorites from Luke and Leah's session:

Staying Busy!

I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep up with regularly updating the blog lately. I have been crazy busy.. and sick! So instead of featuring the latest sessions individually - I'm just going to give sampling from some of the sessions. I think I'm forgetting a couple, but I also have two more I haven't even edited yet. So.. here is what I have to share for now:

Jonas

This handsome little fellow is 3 months old and such a happy boy. I enjoyed having him and his big brother Asher in the studio yesterday. They both did such a great job. I was impressed with how well Jonas could hold his head up while lying on his stomach.. that allowed us to get more without the bean bag which gives a greater variety in image choices. Anyway - here is a small selection of my favorites:

Little Eli

This little guy is so cute.. I wish you could hear his little chuckle. He is almost four months old and such a doll. I really look forward to photographing him again at 6-9 months when he is sitting up on his own better; I just know we're going to have fun with him. Anyway.. here are a few from yesterdays session... enjoy!

Caitlyn

I've had so much going on since new years that I forgot to post this session! I had the privilege of photographing this precious 3 month old girl last Saturday. She'd had a rough week already but they all did a great job. These are some of my favorites"

Six Week Old Brayden

This poor little man was not feeling good yesterday and was fussy the entire session. I felt bad that we couldn't get everything the mom had hoped for, but we still got a few that turned out nice.

On the Intimate Side of Life

I had to make sure it was okay to post these on here first. The other day I had a more intimate session to do.. nothing too revealing, but sexy and fun pictures to make a gallery on their bedroom wall. It was a bit different.. there were even more that I loved, but here is a small, but more private, sampling.

New for 2009

Hi Everyone! I hope you have stayed healthy and safe as we moved into the new year. We had a good and busy 2008 and I'm sure 2009 will be another exciting journey through time.

Unfortunately, because of the slumping economy, several companies are increasing their product prices - including my labs. I am hoping not to pass that on to you. So for now, although prices I pay for your prints have risen, I am holding off on raising my own print prices. I am making some other changes though.

My in-studio portrait sessions during the week are no longer $30, but are $40. I am also increasing the price for Saturday sessions since it takes time away from my own family. Saturday sessions in the studio are now $50. This is still a really awesome deal considering that I spend 1-2 hours with you during your session, and then more hours making creative and enhancing edits to your images.
Location portraiture has increased to a minimum of $65 and is still based on mileage.

To help my current clientele make the adjustments.. I am also implementing a referral program. In the next month or so, you will receive a letter from me. Inside will be 5 referral cards with your name on them. Your friend will need to bring the card to their session so I know who to reward. Once they make their first order - I will send YOU a gift certificate for $20. If you want more than five, let me know! These referral cards are only good through December 1st of this year.. so your friends need to have their sessions before then.

Its already looking to be an exciting year. I will be taking a 3-day photography workshop from a world-renowned photographer Scott Robert Lim in February. I have been trying to get to one for 2 years already but I'm always booked for a wedding when he has a class. I'm finally getting to attend one .. and although Spain or Italy would have been amazing places to take the workshop... mine will be a little closer to home - in Las Vegas. I'm sure it will be exciting.

In April I will be headed to New Smyrna Beach, Florida for a "working vacation". I have a family session on the beach already scheduled. This will be a new experience for me as I have only taken pictures of my husband and myself on the beach while on vacation. I'm looking forward to the challenge though - its a family with 5 young children so I will have fun creating some sweet beach portraits. If you plan to be in that area the last week of April - let me know if you'd like to have portraits on the beach too!

If I don't plan a vacation ahead of time - I wont get one! So.. my husband and I will be leaving from Miami to go on a Caribbean cruise for the first time! I'm a little nervous about being off land - but my friends have told me that its a fun experience. Who knows, maybe it will inspire more photographic opportunities too.

Aside from that... I have my 10 year high school reunion before my trip, and a family reunion after my trip! I have a handful of weddings in the books too.

Thank you to everyone who has shown their support this past year - I hope to see you soon!

Amanda

Addison's 6 Month Portraits

Its often difficult to get all children to look happy and look at the camera at the same time.. we managed a couple today that are close enough I think. Here are some of my favorites from today's session:

Unexpected Snow!

I knew it was expected to snow, but I thought they said it wouldn't stick, and certainly not accumulate unless you lived on the plateau. Although 2 inches and less is hardly accumulation - it's still fun and pretty to see!! I took a couple of pictures out my window this morning. Nothing exciting, but still pretty.