The P Siblings

This session was great.  I love these kids, they are so sweet, so genuine, so kind.  They are also good friends of my kids.  The goal of this shoot was to get a Christmas card photo with all 3 kids and let me tell you, it took well over an hour and was one of the last shots I got.  I have never worked out so hard as I did chasing after the adorable toddler trying to anticipate his every move and get into position to take the shot while trying to rope the siblings into the shot as well.  But in the end, I got exactly what I wanted!

Swap-tastic!

A new photographer friend of mine was in town over the weekend and we decided to do a photo swap.  This means that she agreed to take photos of my family and in exchange, I photographed her family.  It is great practice and a wonderful way to get family photos without getting a tripod, a remote and hoping that everyone looks good since you aren't behind the camera to check.  It was so nice to have someone to talk shop with and discuss strategies.  Plus, she has the most adorable family!  And check out her precious baby bump!

The 2 year old twin challenge!

I decided to take on 2 year old twin girls!  Crazy, I know.  But I figured that my twins were once 2 years old, I can do this.  No sweat.  Well sweat I did!  These two gave me a great workout as I chased them around the botanical garden.  They were so much fun and are the sweetest little girls.  I just adore them!

The "so close yet so far away" session

Here is a family session that has me going through a rollercoaster of emotions.  I was elated to feel like I got a good connection with them so that the portraits feel less posed and a bit more genuine.  However, I took a risk by opening up my ap too much and didn't get as good of focus as I would have liked.  They should be sharper.  Many of them are, but a handful fall short.  I also had to compromise on some quality since the sun was setting fast and it was getting dark in the woods.  This meant upping my ISO to a level that it a bit hard for my camera and I had to edit a lot of noise out of the photos.  Finally, it was so yellow back in the woods that getting the color right was quite tough.  So I'm very happy with the "moments" I captured, I just wish that I had done better with the quality of the image.  So this is a live & learn...they aren't practice sessions for nothing....but the perfectionist side of me is quite deflated.  Like I said before, very mixed emotions.

 No, this isn't a photoshop miracle....the dad is ACTUALLY hanging from a tree like a flag.  He's super strong and this is his cool human trick!

More of baby R

I just finished editing the rest of this session and wanted to share a few more...this baby is just too cute for words!

 The following shots are done on a family quilt that is very meaningful to the family....