Welcome To My Blogsite!

I've needed to create a blog for quite some time to complement my photography site, so I'm thrilled to introduce my new blogsite! This provides the best of both worlds: a place to view my portfolio and get session information, and keep up to date with my recent sessions, promotions, and products. So please, kick your feet up, relax, and stay a while. I hope you enjoy your visit and come back often!

The sweet little baby girl in the photos below is the brand new daughter of the couple featured in my last maternity session, blogged here. They are awesome people and I was really excited to meet their baby and have a small part in welcoming their beautiful daughter.

Well, little miss C has to be the most alert, awake, content little 10-day old I’ve ever come across.  She was wide awake for many hours–and while I was perfectly happy to take beautiful lifestyle photos during this time (I love awake newborn photos), the sleepy shots are just as beautiful and timeless.  So we waited.  We walked.  We shushed.  We rocked.  Baby C?  Wide awake. What eventually worked was turning the TV on quite loudly to a raucous boxing match.  No joke.  She passed out and we finally were able to get some good sleeping shots too.

Again, I ramble too much.  I again want to say how much I absolutely love lifestyle photos with newborns–the love they capture between parents and their new baby is priceless.



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So, let me just get this out of the way.  I am a terrible blogger.  I’m at least 10 blog entries behind at this point, and I NEED to just take a full day to try and get caught up.  I blame Facebook, as I am much better about posting recent images on my business page than I am here.  I need to be better about this!   However, the clients in these beautiful maternity photos do not use Facebook (nor do they want their images posted there), so I’m making sure to share the photos here.  I’m hoping it will be the kick start I need to get back into blogging regularly.

This maternity session was at the most gorgeous location I’ve had the opportunity to shoot to date.  Mom & Dad are both avid horse riders, so she suggested having the session at the farm where their horses are boarded.  And Oh. My. Goodness.  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more beautiful farm–the barn was meticulously maintained, beautiful yellow flower fields, a pond, lovely warm spring light….and, you guessed it, their gorgeous show horses.  This was supposed to be a mini-maternity session, but let’s just say I have a lot more photos than a standard mini session offers! :)

Also, Mom & Dad are some of the most genuine, down-to-Earth people I’ve met in a long time.  It’s been a pleasure working with them–we just finished their beautiful daughter’s newborn session this past Saturday.  Anyway, enough talking from me, enjoy the photos!

Love the yellow flowers. <3

This was taken on the unfinished second floor of an old barn used to old antiques.  I love how it turned out!

Simply gorgeous.

Her horse is her first “baby.”  So sweet!

And I have so many awesome photos like the ones below–I think they are the cutest couple EVER.  I get a big smile on my face every time I look at these. :)



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OK, so I’m pretty sure this was my favorite newborn session to date.  I was in this lovely family’s home for longer than normal (6 hours all together), but I had SUCH a great time and I am totally gushing over the images that we were able to capture of their 11 day old baby girl.

 And oh my heavens–she is one GORGEOUS baby girl.  She looks like a perfect little doll.  I couldn’t get over it!

She was also wide awake for the first half of the session.  I’ve learned to love these awake times–while I of course make sure to get lots of peaceful, curled-up, sleepy shots that everyone loves, photos that capture those beautiful new eyes as they take in this big new world are just as breathtaking.  We were able to get some great shots of beautiful Siena wide awake.  I absolutely love them and I know mom & dad do too. :)

I’m sure I’m about to post way too many pictures…enjoy!

I’m totally loving using the natural setting of the home for family pictures–so natural and peaceful.

So, Grandma made this quilt for her new granddaughter.  And could this picture BE any cuter?  Seriously??

Wide awake, and in deep thought.  Love it.

LOVE.

And some of my favorite sleepy shots now.  Such a gorgeous child.

These pictures are some of my favorite newborn pictures EVER.  This was a beautiful sunny nook in the back of the house, with awesome vintage yellow chairs.  Even better?  The blanket is mama’s baby blanket, and the table was in dad’s baby pictures too.  Just. Perfect. :)

LOVE! :)



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This was an extra special newborn session–this lovely family won a photo session with me through a silent auction for the Lymphoma Society, hosted by my cousin.  Her daughter has leukemia and they host a a very large and very successful auction every year.  I’m proud to participate, and was really excited to hear that the winning bidder was interested in a newborn session.  I’m a sucker for newborn photography. :)

I tend to like things simple with newborn photographs.  I’m of the opinion that beautiful babies don’t need a lot of props to make a gorgeous photograph–they are most beautiful in their own skin.  Too much “fluff” is distracting–when I look at a photo of a newborn, I want to see a beautiful baby, sweet and simple.  Mom and Dad shared that sentiment with me which I was delighted to hear. :)

I love this one–you can already feel the connection between a mama and her baby girl!

Happy Girl!

Baby’s Great-Grandmother made this blanket for her–a tradition in the family.  I love that we got one of her smiling with it!

Love these classic shots

One of my new FAVORITE newborn photos.

 Her nursery was amazing!

And the proud new parents–so much joy in their faces!



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I often hear women say (sometimes without even knowing I’m a photographer), that they would never want Maternity pictures taken.  It all stems from, of course, a woman’s propensity to be highly critical of herself and her appearance.  We worry about looking fat, swollen, maybe we ended up with a nasty pimple or too from all those crazy pregnancy hormones.  The reality, however, is that a woman is never as beautiful as when she is carrying the life of her unborn child.  Looking back on my own pregnancies, as difficult as they were, those months of enjoying every kick, every roll, and all those belly rubs, are SO fleeting.  I miss my big belly!

 So, I was totally thrilled do do this maternity session for this GORGEOUS mama.  Beautiful belly, beautiful skin, beautiful eyes–she has it all.  I’m behind on blogging, so I’ve actually already had the pleasure of photographing her newborn baby girl (I hope to get 3 blog entries up while my baby is sleeping!  Wish me luck!).

So, for all of the pregnant women out there who may be reading this blog, I would really encourage you to think twice about having maternity photos taken.  Believe me, not only will you miss that big round belly, you’ll start to forget what it looked like.  Capturing the beauty of pregnancy is a gift to yourself you will cherish forever!

At the request of the beautiful mama here, I’m only going to share a few photos.  But, I love each and every one so very much. :-)

One of my favorite maternity photos to date–she wore this dress on their honeymoon, and I love the soft light and beautiful blue backdrop from the nursery walls.

Cutest. Couple. Ever.  They’ve known each other since middle school!

I love how sweet mama looks here!

….And, a perfect, beautiful, baby belly. :)



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I love photographing newborns.  But, I have to be honest, I especially love photographing newborn baby girls.  In short, I have two little boys.  My life is pretty much overrun with cars, blocks, bugs, dirt, potty-talk and rough-housing.  SO, it gives me great joy to buy girlie headbands and girlie props for a newborn session with a sweet little girl.  :)

I also had a special place in my heart for sweet baby Z, because she was only about 5 1/2 pounds when I came to take her photographs.  She reminded me SO much (in terms of size) of our now 15-month old son when he finally came home from 6 long weeks in the NICU at 5lbs 12ozs.  So it was such a joy to snuggle this sweet baby girl, she was a dream to photograph, AND has been blessed with an awesome family.

I love this one of baby & Mama

See, smiles!  You can see how tiny she is in her Daddy’s hands.

Smooshy baby faces make me happy!

:)

Just because I love these two pictures together

I can’t tell you how much I love the fact that Big Brother is wearing his super-cool bug rain boots with his pom-pom.  This, to me, has “family” written all over it, in the truest sense of the word! :)

And, super-cool Big Brother was also super-sweet with his new baby sister. <3

Thanks for having me into your home for this wonderful portrait session B Family!  I had an awesome time! :)

 



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I met sweet little G when she was 13 days old.  To be honest I was a little bit worried about how the session would go since she was awfully close to the magical two week mark, after which it becomes more difficult to get those curled, cozy, sleeping newborn photos.  But much to my surprise, and my delight, she was an absolute dream to photograph!  She was asleep when I arrived, slept while I set up my gear, and actually stayed asleep so we could start taking photos right away.  This, my friends, has never happened.   The wonder continued, as she was a great sleeper, woke once to eat, and was even a pleasure to photograph while awake!  I love getting eye contact in pictures with newborns.  Their eyes are surprisingly expressive. :)   T family, you were a joy, thank you for having me into your home!

Momma had a belly cast made while pregnant, and her baby blanket.  I think this is one of my favorite newborn pictures ever!

Such a sweetheart!

I love when I can capture a baby smile!

SO much personality already!

She’s already got the pout going strong…I think Daddy will be in trouble one day. ;-)

Love these…

Happy Easter to everyone, have a blessed day!



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Seriously.  I can’t think of another family I hold in higher regard than this one.  The father is the Pastor who married my husband and I 7 years ago this August.  He and his wife have some of the biggest hearts of anyone we’ve ever met, which is clearly evidenced in the fact that they’ve adopted six–yes, you saw correctly–six children from Russia.  These children are will greet you with a hug and warm your heart in the deepest ways, which I’m sure has quite a lot to do with their awesome parents.  I hope the teenagers won’t mind that I’m referring to them as children in this post. ;-)

Their youngest daughter Juliana battled a rare form of bone cancer several years ago, which had gone into remission until last month.  You’d never know from her bright smiley face and sweet, bubbly countenance in these images that she’s currently undergoing chemotherapy again to fight this cancer back into submission.  I know they will appreciate ALL prayers that you can offer up on her behalf.  I can assure you there is no one more deserving. :)

I could not have been more honored to photograph this family.  It was a dreary, cold day, but everyone was in great spirits and we had a wonderful time.  They’ve inspired me in a profound way, but more to come on that at a later date.  Here are some of my favorites from the day.

Beautiful sisters, Lindsay & Juliana…I can’t get enough of this photo!

 

All the kids–with the lovely cherry blossom tree!  Love it!

I think R was a little camera, shy…but seriously, isn’t she gorgeous!?

 

I asked them to pose for the cover of a super awesomely cool magazine.  I think they did a super awesome job. ;-)

 

The fam!  Eye-contact+smiles from 8 different people = Miracle!

Sweet little Juliana, she was so proud that she had picked a flower for her daddy!

 

I love these pictures, and couldn’t pick one.  Seriously, have you ever seen 6 siblings do nothing but laugh together?

 

Mom and Dad, you guys rock. :)

 

Future models of America.

 

I have many more, but I’ll stop here!  Thanks for looking…my first “official” blog entry!! :-D



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I love this boy. I love every face he makes. I especially love this face–so much personality, so much life, and he looks even more like my husband than usual.

:)

 

 

You talkin’ to me???? :)



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