The E Family :: New Beginnings

He may not have his mom's nose or dad's smile, but he is theirs. 

Finally.  

This May marked a huge day for this couple.  They officially became their lil man's parents.  

When I meet families, you can definitely tell the role each parent plays in the family.  When fathers act just as goofy as mom to get their kiddos smile, wait patiently for a tantrum to subside and come up with fun poses it melts my hearts.  When moms have poise and a gentle demeanor to show their tot that they 'mean business', you know they love their child fully.  There are no better hands for this lil man to be in except for this mom and dad. 

May you have many more joyful moments with the loves of your life!

As you scroll through, we had many fun 'pinspirational' poses!  I encourage families to bring ideas to make their sessions fun and unique!  But I always gently remind them that the ideas they found on pinterest or their sis-n-laws family photos were not taken by yours truly.  Photography is an art.  Just like any famous painter (take Starry Night by Van Gogh for instance), an original can be imitated, but never duplicated. The same for photography.  Imitation is the best form of flattery.  So we flattered some photographers during our session!  ;) 

Imitated, but never duplicated.  But I think we NAILED IT!

Imitation is the best form of flattery...so we did railroad tracks instead of a construction site.  We ALL love it! 

Spring in the Arboretum

May Mini Sessions were at UK Arboretum!  There was LOTS of exploring with the curious tots I had lined up for the evening.  Scroll down below to get the play-by-play!  Enjoy!

This little angel is our God Daughter.  She holds a unique spot in our hearts -her birthday is our wedding anniversary!  No excuse to forget, eh? 

The rocking chair image was the first shot taken of the evening.  How.lucky.am.I?!  Trust me, it hardly happens this way and it is not indicative of my photog skills...just that the stars, planets and Lord were on my side! 

Have ball, will smile!  Lots if frames taken just for this one image!  Had to wait for the perfect shot of a smile and without the ball in the picture.  The things we do! 

Here's little Miss E!  Well, she was little the first time I took her pictures, but she just celebrated her THIRD birthday in the spring!  Shy at heart, she took a little while to warm up.  What I like about places such as the Arboretum is that is allows the tots to explore and kinda warm up to me.  Nothing may be sweeter than a little girl exploring the flowers and following trails! 

 

Love the dimples!!

To keep the tots involved we sometimes play silly games and just keep the camera rolling!  Here we are hopping like a bunny!  Hop, hop, CHEESE! 

This commentary is more of a technical one...I love the low aperature with the tiny spriggs and blooms of this plant.  It just frames little Miss E as she gets a close up of the flowers. 

Up next: the G kiddos!  With the two kids being less than 2 years apart in age, I was one lady on the move to capture any picture I could of these two together!  We started with Big Sis for an easy start.  ;)  

Ummm...how much more angelic can we get?! 

Keeping up with the exploring theme...a caterpillar found the rocker nice and cozy...with some probing fingers as well! 

Blazing trails for some cute action shots!

These last two images I think define childhood:  INNOCENCE. 

This Cupcake Just Turned 1!

 Little Miss O turned one in April!  You may have seen her sneak peak floating around facebook awhile ago (below).  The E, I mean L family (I get hung up on maiden names sometimes!) had many referrals to go by!  She was roommates with a girl who was in my Life Group (post college/pre marriage days) and has 'friended' some of her former roommate's friends on Facebook...one of which happens to be my Maid of Honor.  So she's seen my work pop up several times in newsfeeds.  What a small world!

Grandma came along as a helping hand, can you tell what she was doing to get Miss O's attention....tongue wagging!  Can you say Monkey-see-monkey-do?!  Precious!

 I'll take a moment for a technical side note...I upgraded my camera at the end of last year (squeaked in that end of year business purchase..woot woot!).  I needed a 2nd camera for those 'just in case' moments...like when a shutter blade breaks in the middle of an engagement session...not.fun.  So I opted to upgrade a few models.  I figured the few extra mega pixels and bells and whistles wouldn't make that much of a difference in my images.  Holy. Cow.  Where I've noticed the biggest difference is taking pictures of the tots' eyes!  I've never had such clarity and crispness in my images before.  Well done on the upgrade I must say! 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this cupcake's session!  I'll have some running commentary below ;)

 'Cuz who doesn't like pictures of their little princess picking flowers....

 I probably could've put ALL the pictures from this series at the gate up...but it may have been over kill...but they were pretty adorable with Miss O toddling along.  At one point she almost lost her balance but had a quick recovery!  Ever snapped a pic of a toddler over correcting when they are about to tumble?  Pretty cute!!!

 More tongue waggin'!

 When we brought out the blanket she plopped right down and started flipping through pages! 

The End

The H Family :: BIG News!

The H family are near and dear to my heart!  Mrs. H was my maid of honor and we still keep in almost daily contact about the ups and downs of raising two kids in close age.  Potty training and tantrums seem to be the topic of convo lately...can anyone else relate?!  Not to mention her 2nd son and my daughter are a week apart in age!  I was flipping though the pictures and thought to myself, 'Hmm, I wonder why I didn't do baby C's newborn pictures....OH YEAH....I had a newborn of my own!!'  However, hopefully with their big announcement (you'll see!) I can put more of my photog skillz to use in the future.  ;) 

Enjoy!

April Mini Sessions :: UK Arboretum

Just making an 'April' post near the end of May.... ain't no thang!  

Based on the delay, you can tell my schedule has been pretty busy this spring.  Fortunately I've only had to reschedule ONE session due to weather....and it turned out we probably couldn't gone on as normally scheduled.  

I kicked off this spring at the Arboretum and we caught the daffodils just in time!  First up is a lil 6 month old who may have the sweetest grin I've captured!  This session just also goes to show how small my world is getting...his mama and I went to high school together!!  'Mayberry' as my husband would say!  Take a peek and comment below if you'd like.  Scroll down just a bit further for the next family of the evening. 

 

Quite a pair these two lil ladies are, I must say!  Just nearly 1.5 years apart in age I've been able to watch this pair grow up!  I actually did lil sis' 1st year package.  I see them more often now that we practically live down the street from the C Family. 

One thing I've learned from being a parent is to roll with the punches.  More often we probably find those 'perfect' images on Pinterest and pin them to our boards in hopes of one day capturing a similar moment.  How often do they turn out just like that pinned pic?  Wellll...let's just say if you need a paci to keep one tot happy during the session, it just documents the phase of life you're in.  It sure doesn't mean epic failure of family photo night!  Just smile and nod because one day they won't need the paci and they'll need mama and dada less...and you'll want to hang onto those memories forever.  So for those perfectionist and future mamas out there...silly faces, frowns and pacis are acceptable in my book.  :)  Enjoy!  Don't be afraid to comment and leave some love for all of us!