Trio

Of all the age groups I photograph, I think 2 and 3 year-olds are the most unpredictable. Not that they aren't fun little people to be around (some of my favorite subjects are this age) but they are the approximate age that is quickly bored with sitting still and not quite old enough to bribe.

I have a few tricks up my sleeve for clients of this age that I will blog about later for all you parents at home taking notes on how to shoot your preschooler. ;)

However, with this session I discovered one more trick to use. You see, I started the shoot with individual shots of the kids and I started with the two eldest, by the time it was the three-year-old's turn he was raring to go and barreled over to me for his "turn" to start. He did NOT want to be left out of anything the "big" kids were doing!

This is the eldest; lovely Miss Addie.


The middle child is handsome Mr. Zane.

Last, but not least, is Mr. Noah, who was such a breeze to photograph!



I love this picture in black and white as well, but her eyes are such an electric blue that I just had to post the color version.

Ethan

Way back in June, I took some newborn pictures of a little man named Ethan. Here is one of the pictures so you can see how beautiful and small he was.

I got to see him again in October and he has grown so much! Look at his chubby little cheeks and puckered lips! Isn't he the cutest?

Sisters

The other day I photographed a gorgeous family of sisters. Aren't they lovely?


This is Anna Beth, the eldest.


This is Corinne, the middle sister.

Last is Lilah, the baby.

Lilah got an additional outfit change as we wanted to do some official two-year-old portraits of her.

Lilah was a trip! I got some of the sweetest smiles from her because she was so thrilled to play peek-a-boo with her dress. :)

Pray for Amy!

One of my sister's dearest friends, (and former roommate) came to visit the other week. Amy was an Art/Design major at Baylor and is now going to use her talents to influence people for Christ in Dresden, Germany. Amy is leaving in January, and will be in Germany for two years working with the International Mission Board. Pretty awesome, right? Anyway, Amy needed prayer cards made for people to hang on their refrigerators, and we thought we'd get that out of the way when she visited.

It's an interesting thing, photographing another photographer and it's an even weirder thing to edit images of another photographer while they watch! Everyone has their own way of editing, mine is soft, smooth colors and the liberal use of actions and curves. Amy has a different way of editing (which is probably technically better too, since she has had classes in editing) and she likes edgier, higher contrast images. It was fun, I'd edit an image one way and Amy would edit another in a totally different direction. I definitely learned some new techniques!

This is my play on this image...

..and this is Amy's play on it (and the finished card.) I edited her last name out of this for privacy on this blog, the card generally doesn't have the white edit bar in it.

It was interesting shooting for the express purpose of a card, because all the images needed to be asymmetrical to allow for writing on one half!

After the card was finished, we headed to Downtown Bryan to try for some more creative shots.

This is my play on this image...

..and this is my roommate Beth's play on it.

Bush Library

So, odds are if you live in College Station and have a shoot with me soon I'm going to try and talk you into doing it at the Bush Library. It offers a lot of variety, a lake, flower gardens and pretty cool architecture.

I shot this beautiful family at the Bush Library Gardens and it was a blast! (This is as close to "autumn colors" as College Station, Texas gets, by the way.)


This is Andrew, he's three and likes trains, puppies and cars.

His parents were behind me in this shot and kept telling him to "Smile!" Now, he was smiling but not a particularly convincing one, so he kept reaching up to feel his face to make sure he was still smiling. So adorable.




This picture was an accident, but I really like it! I was shooting Ellen, and Andrew ran up and gave her a hug. Since I had a fixed 50mm lens on the camera, I couldn't zoom out and just got this tight crop of the two of them. They were so sweet together! It was delightful to be around siblings who were so kind to each other and seemed to genuinely like each other.



Miss Ellen was such a self possessed 10-year-old and has some of the prettiest skin of I have ever shot.

Kitten..Cat..Nameless One

My roommate, Elizabeth, received a kitten as a gift for her 21st birthday. It's a wee, girl kitten and we, err, Elizabeth, is at a loss as to what to call the little thing. Chief contender right now is the name "Cat".

Names that have been suggested and rejected are as follows.

Sprinkles, after Angela's cat from the Office.
This one was rejected because Sprinkles meets a bad end in the TV series and is a rather hard name to call a kitten, you keep wanting to shorten it or add a diminutive "ee" ending. Sprinkly is not a good name for an indoor animal...regardless of how you feel about your carpet.

Tiramisu
This was my idea because the kitten follows people around demanding to be held with loud meows. Since Tiramisu means, "pick me up" I thought it would be funny. Alas, it too is more amusing in concept and failed the "yelling out the backdoor" test .

Wayne-bow
This was amusing to us because my sister (and another roommate), Hannah, is a speech pathologist and we thought it would be funny if everytime she called for the cat it sounded like she had a problem prounouning her R's.

So, Internets, help us name this kitty. Take a look at her sweet face and leave a name that you think fits her in the comments.





"Wait, the Internets are helping name me!?!?!?!" (Yes, I messed with this picture, her eyes do not generally look this sad.)

This picture, however is untouched of her grumpy face after a well-needed bath.

Rose Garden

Most of the time the first question people ask me about a shoot is, "Where should we have the shoot? What looks good in pictures?" Of course, there are many answers to that question, but for the most part the background of a image isn't as important as the face that the picture is of.

It helps when the shoot is held in a lovely place, but it's not essential. That said, I was so excited to get to do a shoot in the Rose Garden in Tyler Texas. It's one of my favorite locations and provides pleasing natural backgrounds, and look at the gorgeous kids I got to shoot there!

This is the eldest, Blake, who has the coolest green/hazel eyes. He was a total gentleman and so easy to work with.

This is Lauren who is a total ham! I think she would have been delighted if I blew off the family shoot and spent the entire session just shooting her. :)

This is Kate who, in the interest of diversity, wasn't so thrilled about having her picture made. However, we got some pretty shots of her too, it just took a little more effort.



I adore freckles! I was so delighted when I met Kate and saw her lovely face.




We did get some shots of the entire family as well, but I'm leaving those off the blog so those of you who know this family will still be surprised when you get your Christmas cards! :)

Kaylee and Camryn

Halloween is coming up, so if you have a session soon be sure to break out the costumes for a shot or two!

Pictured below are two sisters I have photographed since I have been in College Station. Aren't they lovely? Their mother had Halloween outfits made for them and wanted some shots of them in the dresses.


Kaylee is getting to be such a big girl! Since I've last shot her she has managed to lose most of her front teeth. How cute is this smile?




It's always great when you get to a shoot and have children who enjoy being photographed! These girls have been well trained. :P Here they are "bumping noses".








Golden girl Camryn! Love her backlit hair and her sweet smile (for her daddy who was standing behind me).