On the Road

Tomorrow I'm heading to Tyler for 2 days to shoot the Knight family as they bring their newest child home from Ethiopia!

The Knights are best friends with the family I used to nanny for, and are completely delightful people. I'm so glad to get to see (and photograph!) this new chapter of their lives! They have a blog of their adventures as they add baby Mezekir to their family, it can be seen here.

Here's a link to the last time I photographed the Knight children, just as their family was starting their adoption journey. The next time they'll feature on the blog I'll get to include pictures of all 4 of their children!

Now for the boring business news; I'll be staying with my family in Tyler and they are 1.) moving house and 2.) own ancient computers so e-mailing may slow for the next two days. Rest assured I'll either e-mail you when I get back into town or contract you on my blackberry if you're desperate!

Ethan and Reid

This is Ethan, he's four years old.

He really liked having his picture made ;)





This is younger brother Reid, he was too busy to slow down for pictures, but with a face that cute it not hard to get some good ones anyway!

Mini Sessions, Mega Shoot

Do you know I have a facebook page for my business? It's true. At first I was conflicted about getting one, especially with the "became a fan" terminology. It just seemed a bit egotistical. What was really the point of sites like that except to bask in the number of your fans? "They like me, they really like me!" But I got one anyway, because it seemed like the thing to do to stay current and now that I'm uploading shoots to that page the reason I have it is evident, it WAY easier to upload images in that format then to blogger. So, to get sneak peeks faster, join me on facebook here.

The other day I did a mega shoot of lots of little mini-sessions for one of our church's home groups.

It went really well and I think I've found how I'm going to conduct bluebonnet shoots next year. Mini sessions are 10-30 minutes long and get you about 20-30 images, and really that's about the length of time a child will stay enthralled to be in the bluebonnets anyway. Win/win.:)

We started with Katherine and her parents





Then sweet sisters Evelyn and Maeve

This is Maeve

And this is big sister Evelyn.

Next in line was Ella and her parents



I know I posted this image before in color, but I really like it, so I'm going to post it again ;)

Next up was Kate and her parents!





Then Ethan, Mira and Natalie.



Ethan was SO into having his picture made. Love it!

Sweet Mira was a tiny bit more reserved.

Miss Natalie just wanted to be photographed with her mama.

Then I shot Addison and her parents.

Isn't she delicious?



Then Caleigh and Reese

Caleigh's getting teeth! Love it!

This chair is definitely the best 5 dollar garage sale purchase I've ever made! It lifts the kids up off the grass/flowers so the texture isn't an issue and helps to keep them in one place.

Last but not least is Reid and Grace. Grace is the same baby who is in my blog header, just a little bit bigger!

On Workflow

Right now is perfect weather for shooting, flowers are out, it's (relatively) sunny, and it's not too hot or too cold. Perhaps not coincidentally, I'm also busier then I've ever been which is awesome! It's sad to me when my busiest season is in November. November is cold and outdoor vegetation is dead and it gets dark earlier, so if you are thinking about a shoot spring is an awesome time to schedule it.

However this increased work flow has made it a bit harder to schedule things and to keep things moving in a timely fashion. Right now I'm shooting 2 shoots a day (around 4 hours of shooting), I'm scheduling/e-mailing for about an hour a day and then I need to be doing about 8 hours of editing to keep up with my backlog of shoots. Obviously that's not a workable business day, but it is something I can do for short periods of time, while I figure out a better solution!

You know what the best thing about shooting lots of shoots? Getting to see more sweet faces each day :)

This is Davis the 6-week-old I shot yesterday morning.

Then yesterday afternoon I shot William and his big sister, Faith. Gorgeous kids aren't they?

The Sun Came Out Today!!!

Let's all give it a round of applause!

Sweet little Miss Kate

Cute Miss Caleigh

Adorable Addison

William!

Ethan

I love shooting newborns. There are elements that are the same with every newborn shoot; a tiny baby sleeping on blankets under a window, peeling skin, frequent feeding breaks. However it the difference that keeps it interesting, the way the new siblings interact with each other, the decoration of the nursery, the personality of the new little person. I always leave feeling a bit in awe of how a whole human being can fit in a package that small!

This is sweet Ethan.

I love baby feet and how they fold their legs up like they are still in the womb.

Look how big (relatively) his hands are!

Ethan and his big sister, Haley.

Ethan took a feeding break so Haley and I popped outside to shoot some pictures of her in her sweet dress. Her Aunt Stacy made her this dress and hairpiece. You can find her Aunt's store here.



Ethan's thinking, "Wait a minute! I though this shoot was about me!"