{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!!!!