P, cousins cubed, and siblings squared

The last of the shoot for Ella's 18 month and Joshua's 3 Year, some solos of Penny and then group shots for the cousins and siblings. I love these kids.



My two kiddos, I love them.

Red Shirted

He just can't believe they are going to the Rose Bowl.

Puddle Stomp

At last, the much anticipated, rain shoot. This shoot was such a blast. I had so much fun with this family!



Ok I'm not a videographer, but how could you not run some video. Wish I had two cameras so I could have used a different lens for the video, but somehow I know the kids will love watching themselves on the computer!

The Princess and Her Squires

I met this little princess along with her three brothers at the Cox Arboretum. I neglected to adequately inform the parents of this merry band that a shoot with 4 young active children can be quite the workout! Or as dad said it, we had a little session of "photo-cize." These kids had so much fun hiking the trails, it was such a blast running after them! We only got a family shot or two by cornering them on some stairs and having a contest for who could laugh the loudest (in that series, look at the last one, and the pout on little sister's face, the shot and lighting isn't the best but that pout is priceless). What a wonderful shoot you all, I hope you had as much fun as I did.

No grasshoppers were harmed

This was a shoot full of surprises and laughter. Little man didn't want to get out of the car, and Mom was worried he'd be shy the whole shoot. Nope! He was my super child model and the Princess Puppy was the one we had a hard time getting to smile. Wonderful siblings who were kind and playful together, it was a great adventure and a beautiful evening. Hope it was worth the wait for the proof gallery!

Princess

Alison is just a few weeks younger than my daughter and is a lot of fun. Where my daughter guffaws like she was raised by sailors, Alison has the cutest little tittering giggle, and she giggles a lot. We had so much fun and she was just so darn cooperative and happy I didn't have to take a bijillion photos hoping for just a few good ones and a bunch I could make look nice artistically. Besides we had left her little brother and bot my kids with a friend who already has three kids, we didn't want to be gone too long. Just an absolutely delightful session, I honestly was beside myself, I'm used to uncooperative toddlers and grumpy preschoolers.

Baby Sister

Mom deserves a gold star for venturing out at midday in 90 degree heat with a 4 year old, and pregnant. Surprisingly it wasn't as steamy as we feared it would be and both mama and big sister were radiant. The proof set is only 10 shots, which qualifies this this as a "mini-shoot" but with ten winners like these, who needs a full 30 proof set?

Big Sisters are cute too

Presenting Trevor's Big Sister . . . Mackenzie
These are all a surprise for mom who was busy with the wee man, feeding him and doing mom stuff.

Enjoy Yourself, Invite Me to Your Party!

Here's a great idea, sit back, relax, and enjoy your party or event. Let me worry about where I put the camera. Watch your baby eat her first birthday cake and be with her, I've got the pictures covered! Okay really this is my niece and my brother didn't hire me to come out, but I wouldn't mind doing more parties/occasions. It was a lot of fun. So if you've got a party coming up or an event you just want to be part of and not photographing, invite me, I'll take pictures, lots of them. I can't help myself. Oh and below, my daughter's birthday, I managed to get these while chasing them through a park, but just an idea of how having a photographer along can really be fun for your next occasion.

This is Penny

This is my daughter Penny, for her birthday we got the family a membership to Franklin Park Conservatory. She was excited to say the least. A few days after this we were set up to have family pictures done with another photographer, Amanda, of Mom-a-razzi, as part of the Littlest Heroes Project. This "portrait shoot" of Penny was a little different than most of mine, knowing Amanda would most likely get a slew of head shots and great cheesy smiles in a few days, I wanted to stand back and just try to capture Penny, what it is like to spend a few hours with her. This everyone, is my daughter, all 4 years of her.



If it's pink she'll find it. The large rainforest room with the koi pond and butterflies is her favorite. She spent most of the day in there, watching the butterflies. Running and not being able to stand still for a millisecond.



In the Palm House, there is a fountain, you can get quite wet.
I love this set of photos, the wave/splash I caught in the first one, her zeal and delight; paired with her literally shaking water out of her dress, she was dripping wet. I love that in both photos there are water droplets caught in mid-air, on the left on their way up into the air, and on their right on their way down from her dress.



Splashing is fun, just a little.



She's very effective at air drying.



One word: goober
This is my goober at her best.



Penny had not ever been to this courtyard. She remembered it immediately from her cousin Ella's 9 month pictures, she wanted to be "just like Ella" and recreate this specific shot. There's a little bit of a difference between a 9 month old and a 4 year old.



Penny's way is pretty cute too. She wouldn't get down, this is how she rolls when she has found something that amuses her. She pretended to be Ella for a long long time.



Then we went walking and she found a stick that she pretended was a flute, because, well, everybody needs a magic flute.



And then she ran around and found little weeds that were glorious flowers and danced and played, and looked out at a world that was full of fairytales and magic, because she's 4, and her daddy bought her a butterfly.

Sometimes a true portrait of a person isn't in a perfect head and shoulders shot, or in getting them to look at the camera, sometimes it's in following them on their fairy wings and capturing a snapshot here and there.

Princess in the Park

I posted this to my family blog but I want to put them over here too, as my daughter for now, is my oldest subject and I want to show some of the kinds of pictures you can do with an older child. That and I will probably use several of these for her 4 year portraits as they were taken only a month before. That is if she doesn't give me something I like better later, there's always time for more pictures. Anyway here they are, I'll put the invite up once I finish it:

Last week on one of our sunny days I took the kids to Inniswood to run around. Penny, who is super excited about her upcoming birthday party, chose to go there so we could see if it was ready. She had to wear a party dress, to practice. She was very excited.



There were TONS of people there, as we picked a day they had free programs for kids at the park that day. Seriously packed, it was hard to get pictures of Penny without people in the background. And I was actually trying to, as I needed/wanted some for her birthday party invites.



I managed to eek a few natural smiles out of her. Between the random people and Josh charging me right as I was about to release the shutter, it was a miracle I got anything usable.



This left one, well she looks 20, or like a mini-beauty pageant with over-teased hair. You got to love the mid jump on the rope bridge hair. All her good smiles were on the rope bridge, she was all about the rope bridge today, she wants it to be part of the parade she wants to have for her party. The whole thing keeps getting more elaborate.



I think these last two pictures have potential, but I just feel like they are missing something. The last one has all the extras as I was trying to mock it up as the invite but then aborted. I need to practice taking that photo in that part of the waterfall garden, there's an angle or some thing that I am missing. The photos just don't have the oomph I hoped they would. Maybe there just needs to be more plants actually alive and colorful.