Yesterday I decided to take the day off, which is always hard for me to do, but I did it.  I spent more time with my family and doing things that I needed to do.  Today I am working and I realized that this would be my last blog of the year, so of course I had to say something.

I just want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year filled with much success, joy and love.  Learn from your mistakes and try to be the best person you can possibly be.  That doesn’t mean try to be perfect, it just means do the best you can.  Help those who need help and make sure to take care of yourself and your family to the best of your ability.  Thank you all so much for allowing me to share my experiences and thoughts with you.  Below are some of my favorite images from this year and I look forward to creating more great images!

As a child photographer I have learned that my schedule is not necessarily my schedule when dealing with children and especially with babies.  Many parents like to take pictures with their newborns while they are awake; however I prefer to photograph them while they are sleep.  Considering that many of the babies do not want to go to sleep while I am there, I tire them out by photographing them awake with their parents.  One of the things I have to be careful about when they are awake is their eyes.  Since they can’t see very well yet and don’t have control of their eyes, they very rarely “look” in your direction.  Other times when they do look, their eyes may be crossed.  I’m sorry, but not matter how cute your baby is, crossed eyes are not cute.

As I was saying, I prefer to photograph babies while they are sleep.  That way there is no worry about crossed eyes or jerky movements which inevitably cause the baby’s hand to be in their face just as I snap the shutter.  Even with all of this, I love photographing babies.  This last session I had was wonderful, even though she wouldn’t go to sleep after two feedings and a diaper change.  She was determined to say awake, but she kept yawning signaling that we had to keep working to make her tired.  Her parents took this time to get a little something to eat and relax a bit while I tried to rock her to sleep.  Finally she went to sleep!  And when she went to sleep, she really went to sleep.

I was able to move her from prop to prop without her stirring too much.  It was great!  No, I didn’t go crazy with the posing, but I wanted to get a good variety of shots.  Mission accomplished! What a great session!  What really made my day was when the parents told me they didn’t want the pictures that were taken in the hospital because they had their own personal photographer to take them.  Wasn’t that sweet?  I certainly thought so!  In case you’re wondering why I called this post “My Little Fuzzy Wuzzy” is because her father nicknamed her fuzzy because of all of the hair that she as a newborn had on her body.  He’s such a guy!  Anyway, below are some of the images from the session.

After a while, Elizabeth finally woke up.  Yaaay!  Her mom fed her and then it was on! She had two outfits.  One was a Christmas outfit and the other  was just plain cute.  While Elizabeth had on the Christmas outfit, she wouldn’t smile much.  She seemed to be in a good mood, but we don’t think she was feeling the frilliness of the dress or the red, sparkly stockings.  At any rate, I was able to get some really sweet shots.

Next came the soft pink outfit.  No frills, just nice and comfortable.  She smiled much more and was rather mobile.  She would roll over or try to crawl somewhere.  I don’t know how many times her mother had to catch her from falling over.  I even have an image where she has a smile on her face as she is falling to the side.

We had such fun that day.  It took a while to get started, but it was well worth it.  I love photographing the babies!  I have another session with a newborn today and I am so excited about it!  Can’t wait to share those images either! Anyway, below are some images of Elizabeth and her mommy.  Enjoy!

If that sounds good to you, then boy have I got something cool for you!  Photo jewelry! Yep, that’s right.  Instead of carrying around images in your wallet or on your phone, you can now wear it!  How cool is that?  Just in case you’re thinking it’s some cheesy jewelry, I’d like to inform you that that is simply not the case.  Not only is it fashionable and beautiful, it is sturdy as well.  It is guaranteed not to fade or yellow.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.

This is a sneak peak of what I will be offering for the holidays, as well as for other occasions.  If you subscribe to my monthly newsletter, you will get even more information on the jewelry.  It’s not too late to subscribe!

This session was pretty much like my other sessions except for two things.  In the bedroom shots I decided to use natural light since a lot of sun was coming through the windows.  Even though it was sunny, it wasn’t quite enough sunny enough for me to shoot without a tripod.  Luckily Justin went back to sleep after a series of shots and I was able to shoot without any movement.  Yay!

Next we moved down to the basement and I set up my backdrop and light for other shots. I don’t use very many props, but one that I do use is what I like to call my “Moses basket”.

In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Brown is a natural in front of the camera.  He loves having his picture taken and always gives me “good face”.  Sometimes I wonder are the sessions really about the children or are they about him?  At any rate, please enjoy the images from the session!

Every time she started to go to sleep, she’d wake back up.  There were some shots where she was asleep, but after two captures she’d startle and wake back up.  At that point we decided to photograph her awake with her mother, grandparents and even the family dog.

Evidently all of this photographing and changing positions and clothes tired her out. Before long she was in a deep sleep and ready for her close-up.  She was dressed in a beautiful white and pink dress with a pink bow headband.  Unfortunately I couldn’t take more shots because her mother had a doctor’s appointment to go to, which limited my time.

What I have found out from photographing newborns is that you cannot be in a hurry.  You are on the baby’s time not yours, so make sure you allot enough time for the session.  My average newborn session takes about 2 to 2.5 hours.  This session was around that long, but could have been longer if we had more time to try more poses.

Even though she wasn’t sleep the entire session, I could see the possibilities when the baby is in a deep sleep.  I was able to pose her a bit more without worrying about arms and legs flailing about or not cooperating with the positioning of the head, hands, feet or whatever.

Because no one knows everything about anything, I always learn something new after each session.  What I have learned from this session is that I may have to tire the baby out first and then I can start the second part of the session.

When she first arrived, she stood in the middle of the pavilion with her hands poised in a very dainty way.  She was basically frozen, just looking around as other children and adults walked or ran past her.  It was like she was trying to take it all in and didn’t quite know what to do.  It was actually priceless.  What came to mind was a princess being put in a room with commoners and not knowing what to do.  Of course I captured this moment, considering she was still and all.

Next there was a pinata, which seemed to be the most difficult pinata to pop ever.  All the children got to whack it twice, with 3 to 5 hits per try.  Mind you, some of the children couldn’t hit hard enough to break an egg with a stick let alone a pinata, but it was still difficult.  Before it was over, most if not all of the adults had taken a swing at it too….hard swings.  The men took huge hits at it and finally the candy came out…reluctantly, but it came out.

After that there was an Easter egg hunt, a dance contest and a game of musical chairs.  All in all it was very entertaining, especially the dance contest!  Cake and ice cream were served and then the children went to play on the playground.  Now how much more fun could that be?

It was a beautiful day to have a party outdoors and an even more beautiful day to capture images.  These are special memories for her family and friends, who I believe will cherish them.

Children have this way of showing you who they are without any pretenses.  It’s absolutely wonderful!  When I photograph children, I like to play with them and let them know that it’s ok for them to be themselves in front of the camera.  Sometimes they show me a little more than I’m ready to see, but I still roll with it.  Like little Caruso kept showing me his backside and his “stinky feet” as he would say.  It was hilarious!  Ok, there are only so many images I can take of his rear before we had to move on to other images.

Basically they pretty much were ready when I got there.  Between Caruso helping me and Taylor dancing for me, I felt pretty warmed up by the time everyone was ready.  They even had their portraits taken before their mother and father joined the fun.  In fact, she was surprised when I showed her some of the images because she didn’t know I had already taken some.

It was a beautiful session and we had great fun.  In fact, Taylor told me she wasn’t ready for me to go.  Now that’s what I like to hear!  Well, I’ve told you about the session, so now I will show the children’s portraits and will share some of the actual maternity session in my next post.  Enjoy!

Working with children is always an exciting endeavor.  This time was no different.  Their son, who is 5, was particularly interesting.  I don’t think he was having as much fun as everyone else and later on I found out why.  Evidently I was supposed to be a “boy”.  I guess only boys take pictures and since I was a girl, he didn’t want any part of it.  He has a great dislike for anything related to girls.  Now how funny is that?  I never would have thought that and I have a son!  At any rate, we were able to get some good shots and everyone was happy.

To do something different, I suggested that we shoot the portraits outside.  For those that don’t know, I live in Georgia, so the weather can be a bit screwy at times.  Believe it or not, it was a beautiful day to shoot outside.  It started out a little chilly, but gradually warmed up and so did the kids.  Out of all of the children, I had only one that told me he was not going to smile.  Sometimes you can try, but if they are determined not to smile, you just have to let them be.  Others tried that, but I was able to pry one from them. Well, to be honest, I had a little help from their classmates.  It’s funny how your friends tend to want to clown around with you don’t want them to.

At any rate, it was a successful endeavor and I will be providing the proofs this week.  I believe they will like them because I know I do!  It will be great to see them again too.