{Miss Lou}

My Lou turned two in early May, but between welcoming her new sister and trying to schedule for pictures around a photo-phobic two year old, I was unable to do her pictures until this past week. The weather was perfect - warm with a beautiful late day sun - and we were able to shoot at a beautiful location... my in-laws' back yard (see the previous post!). Lou was in a great mood and for the most part, she was bruise and scrape free... a rarity for my little tomboy.

I've commented in the past that it is truly difficult to photograph my own children, but I captured her perfectly on this day. At times, giggling...and at times, her true personality would shine through.

Wait...can I use the word "shine" when I'm talking about a face like this??

Oh yeah...here we go...she shines!

My Dream Garden

In one word... JEALOUS.

These are a few - just a few - of the flowers that populate my in-laws' garden and yard. I've been working on incorporating bokeh into my photographs...playing with depth of field and composition. Floral photography is ideal for that experimentation. I had so much fun! Enjoy!!

{Miss A}

After 9 months of imagining poses for my new baby, its quite disappointing that I couldn't shoot her newborn pictures with the creativity I had envisioned. But, she's still a beautiful baby and I am excited to show off her first official photos!!

A trip to Brookfield Zoo...

Although I like to take pictures of my kids at the zoo, just to document the day spent with the family, I can't help but try to take some nice photos of the animals. Its good practice for composition and dealing with unruly, uncooperative subjects... a lot like photographing a 3 or 4 year old!

So, today I kept my 28-75mm lens on the camera (as opposed to a longer zoom lens), but I got some nice, crisp shots of a couple different animals! Especially the penguins... my favorites!!!

Honorable Mention...

After waiting until the very end of April to hear word on the Bella Baby photo contest for March, I was disappointed to see that I didn't win. However, after looking through the gallery of entries, it was apparent that this was the best month so far for our photographers! Some of the entries were just breathtaking!

I did receive honorable mention for my photo! That was enough to brighten my day... so thank you to those who gave me some input on which photo to submit. I sent in my entry for April without consulting anyone else... Since I only photographed a handful of babies last month, I knew my "winner" right away.

To see March's winners - and my honorable mention - visit the Bella Baby Photography blog!

A model in the making...

Although today was Lou's birthday party, when all was said and done, Bug was the one still standing...and singing...and dancing...and posing. So, I'll have to take Lou's official "2 Year Old" portraits another day. Instead, today I took more pics of my little supermodel.

The girl loves to pose and I love to photograph her... I truly believe my daughter is one of the cutest little girls I have ever seen. No...strike that. Most BEAUTIFUL little girls I have ever seen. Grown women would die to have her hair color (you can't BUY those highlights!). I would love to have ever had her freckles... and those big brown eyes?? Gorgeous.

Okay, enough motherly gushing... here's two of my favorites from today.

A Photographer's Kids...

The WORST subject, by far...

Ask any professional photographer, "Who is your toughest subject?" and I'm sure the response (especially from parents of little ones) will be, "MY KIDS!"

On one hand, I have my Bug... the performer. The actress. The model. If she sees I have my camera trained on her, she goes into these weird contortions, with one hand over her head, the other on her knee. One fist under her chin, the other hand out in space... its strange. "Vogue" for her generation?! Ask her to smile, and you get all sorts of weird facial expressions... its bizarre. She's cute - don't get me wrong - but I just want to capture her as she is...

And then there is Lou... ask her for a smile, she says "Cheese" as she looks anywhere but toward me. Ask her to look at my camera, she says, "No pictures!" Ask her what's on my head (a silly attempt to get her to look in my direction) and the little smart alec says, "a barrette." (No...seriously, that's what she said, although for the record, I did NOT have a barrette in my hair!)

So, last night we took a walk. I brought my camera with the intention of taking a few photos of flowers; maybe snapping a few shots of my kids. Nothing serious... but they were being so cute, picking dandelions for daddy & me, that I started trying to take some serious photos.

I actually got a few good ones. Never mind that Lou still barely smiled for me. Never mind that their hair was whipping in the wind. For me & my kids, these are awesome pictures. Thank goodness I'm better with other people's kids!!!!

A Sneak Peek - {Mr. B}

Its been a while since I've photographed someone other than my own kids - outside of my Bella hospital babies. So, when my friend Julie said I could photograph her little boy, I jumped at the chance. He's just shy of 3 weeks old; so, older than I'm used to, but that's even better... it was an opportunity to work outside my comfort level. Shooting in someone else's home (I'd love to shoot in Julie's bright kitchen more often!), dealing with a 3 week old baby (trying to get him to sleep while my kids and Julie's older son played with toy fire trucks!), and trying more creative poses than Bella allows...

So, thanks again Julie for letting me photograph {B}. He was wonderful and so adorable. Here's one picture...you know I had to play before doing anything else tonight!!!

A Beautiful Family...

More often than not in the hospital, moms don't want to be photographed... if I think they are really up to it, I might give them a little push ("Let me take the photos, and if you don't like them, we delete them!"). Sometimes, I just drop it. Luckily, this dad told his wife, "You look cute" and so she decided to take pictures with her baby. Face it, moms... although we are the ones who spend most of the time with the baby, no one is going to be following you with a professional photographer to take pictures of your moments with baby. So, let me take the pictures now. You may regret it later, when you have no pictures of you with your newborn.

Anyway, I love the photos I got of this little family. So, I thought I'd share!!!

My Art & My Sister's Art...

Every member of my immediate family is an artist... Dad once drew an amazing picture of my mom with charcoals. It was so life-like that you'd think it was a photograph. AMAZING. Mom is a painter. She is one of the few people I know personally who can paint with any type of paint. I always thought watercolors were a child's toy, but my mom can actually paint with them - for real.

My siblings? Both brothers can draw a motorcycle to scale - complete with every part, pipe, switch and gleam of metal. Or they love to draw a mean skull. Basically they can draw minute detail... and both have, at times, been known to tattoo themselves or others... My youngest sister never fully developed her artistic ability, but was actually leaning toward poetry as a teenager.

So, that leaves my older sister and myself. I love to draw, but am I good? I don't know...for now I'll stick with my photography. My sister draws, paints, sculpts, etc... but give her some card stock, some ric rac and a stamp and its amazing. So, she did the invitations for my recent baby shower, as well as the decor, favors, etc.

Anyway, today I'm sharing my photographs of HER art... enjoy!

Cake pops made by my sister... sheet cake, crumbled up and mixed with frosting, then dipped in candy coating. Heaven!!! And SUPER CUTE, made to look like a baby rattle!

Hershey's miniature candy bars, just rewrapped by my sister. Cute!!

The favors... bags & labels handmade by Samara!

Samara's first attempt at a diaper cake! Can you believe she'd never done it before?!

THANK YOU!!!

Thanks to all who voted for which picture I should submit... it was pretty close, but #2 took the lead spot with 10 votes. Fortunately for me, each picture received a few votes... and it was really interesting to see which ones people preferred - and why!!

So, I'm emailing my submission now... will keep you posted (if I win... which I should... right?!).

The Best Of March '09 - Help me Choose!!

Every month, I submit my favorite photo for a contest held among the Bella Baby photographers. And each month, I am neither the first nor second place winner. In light of that fact, and now that we no longer have a monthly theme, I am having a heck of a time picking my potential winner... so I'm asking for help.

I have to submit my photo by midnight tomorrow, March 31. So, look through the pictures below and either email me or comment below... which would YOU submit?!

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