Logan & Lawson

This pretty family did their shoot on the ranch of a local motivational speaker and it was the perfect backdrop!

(For some reason the blogger image sizing has changed...and this change makes my websized files look  awful, if you want to see the image with more clarity click on the image)

This is Lawson

And this is Logan!

 

 

These parents set up this really fun camp site for some of our images! Isn't this the best set up? Just classic boy! 

When you get a shot like this...

You also get a lot of shots like this.....

 

Then we ended the evening with a cake smash! :) 

Skylar & Hunter

Here's a fun family shoot I did at Research park this fall. I really liked how this entire session turned out and thought I'd highlight some of the areas that helped make this go so smoothly.

First of all, this family was super easy to work with. They came to the shoot fed and pumped up about taking pictures. (A good combination!)

They picked jewel tones for their outfits, (jewel tones photograph best) and they had a fun monochromatic color scheme, which feels fresh and really helps keep the focus of the image on the people.

I feel like I'm strongest as a photographer when I shoot nature settings, as I like shallow depth of field in images and I like filtered backlighting, both of which I find easier to do in a natural setting. I also like how the greens and golds of the location complimented their purple outfits.

For some reason blogger's changed their photo sizing again, which makes the images on my blog look less sharp then they should. If you want to see the photo in closer to it's true clarity you should be able to click on the image to see a larger/sharper file.

A big girl, with new big girl teeth taking one last photo with her special bear. Love it

Skylar really has the best smile.

They were having a contest to see who could kiss their dad on the head longest. Obviously Hunter cheated (and won) and Skylar is the best sport ever .;)

Here's an interesting comparison shot of two images I shot this fall on the same rock outcropping at Research park. Frequently I'll have clients tell me they need a new location for images as they're already shot at X, Y, and Z locations. While it's true that a new location can make images look fresh, a location should be picked for three reasons; because it's easy for the client to use, because it compliments the color and styling of their clothing/shoot, and because it has pretty light. A location will shoot COMPLETELY differently at a different time of year, with a different photographer, with differently aged children, with different outfit choices, and with different lenses.

These shots were taken with the same lens/camera, with the same photographer in the same location and they feel completely different. Besides the color of the leaves/grass changing, the color of the light also changed from September when Hunter was shot to November, when Dalal was shot.;)

What's Happening with Abbey

Here's what Abbey's looking like now, much better than the previous post, don't you think?

This is Abbey and our niece Meredith who is 7 months old 

Abbey was diagnosed during her stay at Children's with Type 1 diabetes. Of the 25.8 million people in America with diabetes, only 5% are Type 1 diabetics. Because of this, there's a lot of misinformation about this form of diabetes. Abbey will never be able to use diet and exercise to control her diabetes, she  requires insulin on a daily basis. Right now she is taking 8 units of insulin at every meal, and 26 units of insulin at night. After 6 months to a year of giving herself injections she will be eligible for a pump.

The hardest part of this has been the very strict schedule she needs to be on for eating/snacking/giving herself injections. She eats at 8am, 12, and 6pm. She must get 60 carbs with breakfast and lunch and 70 with dinner. When she eats her scheduled snacks they must be under 15 carbs. It's has been a task to adjust the crazy teenaged activity schedule of Abbey and Michael to make sure Abbey is eating at EXACTLY those times and with the amount of carbs but Abbey is exactly the person for the job. Abbey is very type A, analytical, organized and practical. She has been enjoying the educational meetings she's been attending and I'm certain next year she'll be leading them.

So. Why did this happen? Well, that's something type 1 researchers aren't so sure about. They think to get type 1 diabetes you must have three things, a genetic propensity, a propensity to autoimmune attacks and (this is the contested point) an environmental or virus trigger. In Abbey's case, my grandfather's family had a few cases of type 2 diabetes (we have no relatives with type 1), she has a thyroid disorder (thus the proneness to autoimmune disorders) and they think the flu triggered her ketosis. It is thought that without the flu Abbey would have eventually gotten diabetes, but in a less dramatic fashion.

Abbey had underwent a full work up by a pediatric endocrinologist on the 30th of October, as she was losing weight and having difficulty concentrating at school (very unlike her) however, at that time she was still having high/normal blood sugars, so the coma she went into on the 18th of November was a complete shock to all parties. In part because of this, we get to help type 1 researchers who are studying triggers for the onset of the disease. The researchers were quite happy to hear Abbey has 6 siblings! It's a nice pool for them to draw data from ;)


Abbey, Israel and our niece Meredith (she's kinda a happy baby, everyone wants a picture with her)

Abbey's support system at home, My parents, and brothers Israel and Michael.