When I arrived, I was greeted at the gate by my client’s daughter, mother and nephew.  They welcomed me in and showed me around so I could get ideas as to where to photograph.  Their home was so beautiful and there were so many options as to where to shoot.  I love that.

First we started out on the balcony.  It was a beautiful balcony with lots of trees and grass behind them.  There was even a pond off to the left of the house.  Because the lighting wasn’t what I wanted, I brought my strobe onto the balcony to help.  After I got it set up and was testing the light, a gust of wind came and knocked my light over!  Oh no!  My poor bulb burst into a million pieces and put a hole in my umbrella.  Yikes!  I cleaned up the mess and proceeded to set up my external flash with portable light box because I didn’t bring an extra bulb with me.

Throughout it all, they were very patient (which I truly appreciated) and were quite ready once I was all set up.  After taking images on the balcony, we moved into the living room. Mr. Watson decided it would be rather interesting to take more portraits in front of the fireplace, so he started a fire.

Once we finished shooting in front of the fireplace, we took pictures on the staircase.  The staircase was beautiful!  There was a window that had lots of sunshine flooding in, which was glorious to view, but not much  fun to shoot.  At any rate, we did it and I was glad.  Next, portraits in the foyer and then out on the front steps of the house.  I’m not sure what it is, but I love photographing people on stairs, especially graceful looking stairs.

Considering the session was around 1pm or 2pm, the sun was rather high in the sky.  It was a beautiful sunny day, without a cloud in the sky.  I had to position them so that they weren’t squinting into the sun, but trying to keep their faces from being put in shadow.  I’m so glad it was a gorgeous day!  We finished up the session with portraits in front of the water fountain.

After that session, my family got together at my dad’s house to bring the new year in.  What fun!  Believe it or not, I didn’t even have my camera.  Glad to have survived another year and am looking forward to what 2012 will bring.

Have you made a New Year’s resolution?  I did, but mine is the same every year.  My resolution is to be happy.  That’s it.  No, I don’t need to lose weight.  I don’t need to find a new job, I just want to continue to be happy.  I think that’s pretty simple and if you know how, easy to do as well.  I already do what I love for a living.  I have a wonderful son and husband and yes, we even have a great dog.  All of our needs are met and even some of our wants and my family and friends are happy and healthy, as are we.  What more could I ask for?

So, do you have any resolutions for this year?  If so, I’d like to read them.   Just drop me a line on this blog or on my Facebook page.  My next blog will be of one of my last sessions, so stay tuned.

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!

This year my sister who lives in Arizona and owns The Painted Pretzel and her family are coming.  I haven’t seen her in about 3 or 4 years.  Both of my brothers and their families are coming as well. One from California and the other from North Carolina.  Then I have sisters that are here and cousins as well.  This will be the first time in a long time that all of my sibling have been together.  Yaaaaay!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Family of course is the best part of it, but then there’s the food!  I love to eat!  My mom is hosting this year and all of the guests are bringing the side dishes.  I can hardly wait!

At any rate, I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday!  Until next week…

As you know, I am not an event photographer, but I do enjoy capturing images of the goings on.  If you’re not familiar with Clarkston, Georgia, then let me enlighten you. Clarkston is a small city located between Decatur, Tucker & Stone Mountain.  It is very quaint and also very diverse.  Many inhabitants in Clarkston are refugees from various countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.  You can drive through the heart of Clarkston and feel like you are no longer in Georgia!

Anyway, the community center has an annual celebration that brings the different cultures together and shares the delights from each.  We enjoyed ethnic food, dance music and all around fun.  It just doesn’t do it justice to try to explain, so below are a few images from the night.

I initially received the call from LaShonda, who then scheduled a free consultation in her home.  That’s when I met Matt.  They are such a cute couple.   They had plenty of questions and were excited about doing the session.  Even Matt was excited, even though he wanted to make sure that the session didn’t interfere with his Saturday afternoon football.  I assured him that I would make his participation in the session quick  and painless and that we would try not to impact his viewing schedule too much.

We also talked about the name for the baby.  They seemed to like names that began with M.  The funny thing is that every M name they liked, there was a relative who was named that particular name.  Matt liked the name Malaya, but LaShonda wasn’t convinced yet.

When I arrived for the session I could tell they were excited because both of them were ready.  In all my  years as a photographer, no one has ever been ready when I arrived!   Imagine my surprise, but I guess at some point it was bound to happen.  Since they were ready, they talked to me while I set up and assisted where they could.

During the session the football game was on so that Matt wouldn’t miss too much.  He actually was quite attentive and I didn’t have to call his attention away from the t.v. However I did give him breaks when I photographed LaShonda by herself.  I think he really enjoyed that.

We really had a wonderful time and I got to see them again this past Saturday for their viewing/ordering session.  It was such a pleasure to see them and to watch their faces as they viewed their images.  By the way, they officially decided on the name Malaya.  Below are a few images from the session.

Most of my clients are people who call or email me that I’ve never met a day in my life, but every once in a while one of my friends will ask me to photograph them and or their family.  This is always an exceptional joy because they are not just asking me to do it because I am their friend, but because they like and admire my work.  That is a really big compliment and I hope they know it is greatly appreciated.

My latest session was with my friend Dawn and her family.  I’ve know Dawn for some years now, but this was the first formal portrait session I’ve had with her.  I was so excited to photograph the Mullings, besides it’s always great to see them anyway.

When I arrived, Dawn’s daughter Sydnei answered the door.  She was sweet as usual, even though she wasn’t feeling very well.  Darn allergies!  She welcomed me in and informed Dawn and Damian that I was there.  At that point they were still getting ready, so I went ahead and set up in the living room.  As I was setting up, Dawn came out to greet me, as did Damian and we discussed the best place for the images.  It was good to know that we were all on the same page.

Dawn and Damian have been married about the same amount of time my husband and I have been married, and I’ve known Dawn longer than that.  I mention this because Damian knew he knew me from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place me.  After Dawn explained to him where he knew me from, he realized it was ok to welcome me with a hug.  You’d think after that many years you’d remember, but I digress.

When I photograph families, I like to get the dynamics of the families…basically natural interactions.  With some people it’s easier than others.  Some families you can just have them sit next to each other and they just start interacting.  Others, I have to work with and tell them things like “act like you like her.”  The Mullings were more like the former.  At times I would rearrange the order, but they would take over and act like I wasn’t even there.  I love when that happens because then I can get some really candid and yes, even silly moments.

They are a very fun-loving and loving family and my goal was to capture all of that in their images.  I believe I was able to do that, but I think I might be biased.  At any rate, we had a fun session and even though Sydnei was under the weather, she was a real trooper.  Below are a few from the session.  Enjoy!

Before we left my husband was given two sets of directions. One set from his friend and the other from his mother.  All I know is that I was given a set to navigate with.  So we all hope in the minivan and head on our way.  After about the second turn my husband deviated from the directions I was reading,  which in turn threw me off.  We got on the freeway and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be looking for at that point.  When I saw a sign that said “To Cape Cod” I told him to go that way.  Unbeknownst to me, that was not the way his friend wanted us to go.  Ooops.

Fortunately we got to where we were going, even though we ran into some horrible traffic.  It seemed that everybody and their brother were going in our direction.  The only thing that would have made it worse was if we here going to Hyannis instead.  Once I got to the point where the driving directions matched written directions, we were able to follow the directions to their home.  When we pulled into the quiet retirement community, people stopped and waved.  I wasn’t used to that in Massachusetts, but we waved back.

The home was beautiful!  They came out to greet us and that’s when it started to rain. The rain was definitely a good thing because it had been so hot. Things cooled off and we got to relax on their gorgeous deck with a view of a beautifully peaceful pond.  We called it a lake because it was huge.  Anyway, the women went grocery shopping, my husband and his friend went to buy fresh lobsters and mussels and the boys stayed at the house playing video games.

When every one returned, the women were in the kitchen seasoning hamburgers and making fruit salad and regular salad and of course chatting up a storm.  The men were on the deck grilling, boiling lobsters, drinking beer and talking about stuff that men talk about.  After my six year old held a live lobster (which he would only do after my husband’s little brother held it) it was dropped in the pot with his friends.  We all ate and then parted ways.  The men and boys went kayaking and swimming while the women stayed home and talked.  I think that was the first time I really got to relax on a vacation.

The next day was pretty much the same.  We had planned to leave in the morning, but we were having such a great time we decided to spend a few more hours there.  Finally it was time to go and we had to make the trip back to Boston.  This time traffic wasn’t so bad on the bridge, but the freeway was murder.  Fortunately we arrived safe and sound.

The next day we went back to downtown Boston to try to see more site, but were unable to see much as it was raining all day.  Not only was it raining, but it was in the low 70s so I felt like I needed some pants and a sweater.  We went to a mall and got some clam chowder from Legal Seafood.  Yum!  After realizing that it was not going to stop raining, we went back to my mother-in-law’s.  Once there we packed to leave the next day.

There wasn’t too much that went wrong going home, except for the fact that this time my son’s bag was pulled out to be searched.  We had already consolidated the liquids into one bag to be checked, so we weren’t going to have that problem again.  Of course they didn’t find anything in the bag, so we packed up and went on our way.  Once home, my husband’s little brother realized that he didn’t have his wallet.  He thought he left it at the house on the Cape, but it turns out that he left it in the minivan.  Evidently a family that rented the minivan found it and notified the rental agency.  Of course all of the money was gone, but the wallet was there.  I have my theory of what happened, but this post isn’t about that. The wallet was mailed back, finally after much consternation.   Oh yeah, we get to look at all of the pictures that were taken!  What can be better than that?