Family, Remember to Capture those Memories

I love, love, love my photography job.  I get to share in so many special moments.  There are weddings, births, holidays and more but there is another moment I love to get to share.  It's just a plain family shoot with the "whole" family.

In the beginning, it's not a big day.  No one (except the Mom or Grandma who scheduled) is excited about the shoot.  In fact a lot of family members come under protest.  They arrive and look at me like it's all my fault.  The shoot usually starts out a little slow and stilted.  As a photographer, you start out making sure you get the shots you MUST have before anyone bails.  As the shoot continues, it's fun to watch the transition.  People start loosening up and enjoying themselves.  After awhile, those that were unhappy at the beginning start coming up with ideas for poses.  We play, we joke, we have fun and we make memories.  I love it when a customer walks away and said, "We had so much fun."

This shoot was a large family shoot.  Becky contacted me and told me she was going to try to pull off a session with her parents, her children, and her children's families.  I don't know if she begged them or threatened them, but she got them all there.  The first person I realized that wasn't really excited was Grandpa.  He would let me take a picture and then ask if he was done.  After another, he would again ask if he was through.  The first picture we took was of the Grandparents.  We took the official posed pic and then I asked Grandpa if he wanted to give Grandma a kiss.  He grinned and then obliged.  I love it!  It has become one of my favorite pics.  See what you think:

Ok, so tell me that isn't the most adorable picture ever.  It makes me smile every time I look at it.

After this, we worked on getting the whole family in one shot.  We thought it was important for everyone to be with their own family but we wanted to show a creative post that would how they all fit together with grandma and grandpa as the center of it all.  This turned out beautiful as a large print.  After grandpa saw the first print, he ordered one for his house too.

I spent about an hour and a half shooting lots of poses including each family unit, the cousins, the brothers and sisters, some individuals and more.  I appreciate Becky and her family for letting me have a small part in making some family members in the trees on a beautiful Fall afternoon.

 

Sending Christmas love to Afghanistan

I've been sitting on these pictures for awhile.  Kyle is a Navy Corpsman currently serving in Afghanistan.  I was honored to shoot Kyle and Brandi's wedding awhile back.  When I found out they would be apart on Christmas because of Kyle's deployment, I wanted to do some, small something for them.  I contacted Brandi and we got together for this shoot.  Brandi and Kaylie along with Brandi's Mom (Kayla) showed up with a plate of Kayla's incredible homemade cookies.)  Oh, how yummy they were.  But anyway, back to the shoot for Kyle.  We shot for 3 hours and quickly went through the proofs.  We put the pics in a book and mailed them with hopes Kyle would get them for Christmas.  About a week before Christmas, Kyle's unit was moving and all mail was shut off so our Christmas surprise was put in a holding pattern.  I got word today, January 5th,  that Kyle finally got his Christmas present.  

Special Requests

Even though I would like to claim them, some of my best shots aren't my ideas.  Many of my customers come in with ideas for shots.  Some have a specific plan while others have an idea in mind that we are able to take and run with.  I love it when they have an idea and tell me I can use it as inspiration for a unique memory for them.  Here are a few of those inspirational ideas:

 

Kyle is proudly serving our nation in Afghanistan.  Brandi brought in his boots for us to use in our surprise photo shoot for him.  While we were looking at his empty boots trying to decide how to use them, we realized the empty boots told the whole story.

This photo is an example of a not-so-perfect shot becoming perfect.  Who would want a picture of a child not looking at the camera.  I was getting ready to chop this picture from the final proofs when inspiration hit again.  I think it is perfect as she looks over to the words on the side.  Can't wait til her Daddy is home safe to say her evening prayers with her.

This spunky young lady and her Dad came in with Mom and her new little brother for a newborn shot.  Her Mom had seen a picture similar to this and asked.  I think it turned out precious.

And here he is....that sweet new baby brother of the dancing feet in the above picture. 

 

The Guthries

It's always so much fun to take pictures of families but this one was even more special because this family is part of my own family.  I got to take pictures of my baby brother and my favorite sister-in-law with my spunky niece.

For my Mom's Christmas, I promised to try to get family pics together for her of everyone of her kids, grandkids, and greats.  It is a challenge to get everyone in to the studio for a shoot but I am up for the challenge.  Jim and Tammie and Gab were the first to come in for their family shoot.

Miss Braeleigh - 4-years-old

How about some sassy pics of an adorable 4-year-old.  Miss Braeleigh is always fun.  We've come a long way from her 1-year-old photo shoot in her purple tutu. 

My new painted tires!!!

The last ones were some of my favorites.  We just turned her loose into a field right at sunset and let her run and play.  Just absolutely gorgeous!

Poppy and Marigold - Twin Newborn Photo Shoot

So excited today!  Got to do my very first twin newborn photo shoot.  After searching for lots of photo ideas, it was time to get to work.  I've found that with a newborn photo shoot you can have a plan buy you better be ready to adjust to what works.  I love working with the Scraper family and they blessed me with this opportunity.  I also was able to go with them to the hospital on delivery day to take memory pictures for them.  I will blog and post those later.  Here are a few shots from today's session.

Christmas Card Frenzy!!

Ok...so I'm a little behind.  Christmas time always involves a lot of Frenzy around our house but family photo shoots and Christmas card orders make it an even busier time.  The Williams family donned their awesome bright colors and met me at SS Park for their family photo session for 2011.  Crissy knew she wanted to do the Merry and Bright Christmas them so I got excited and started working on the card.  It was unique and different to add all of the bright colors rather than the traditional reds and greens.  I thought it turned out awesome.

 

Another one of my favorite families contacted me about doing some Christmas Cards.  Siloam Springs  Park was our destination of choice and we had a blast getting shots of little Mr. Wyatt.  We went with a beautiful green and cream color theme on the cards with snowflakes all over the card's front and back.  This view is the front of their cards with the back of the card sharing the news that next year, there would be an additional family member in the holiday photo.  Congrats!!!!

 

When another good friend contacted me in November about doing Christmas cards with their photo shoot images, I immediately started snooping on her Facebook page to get an idea of possibly what design would work.  Lo and behold, I found this wonderful and incredible artwork by her father-in-law, Mark.  I've always been a fan of Mark's work so I knew that I wanted to include it as part of the Bradford calendar.  I loved it!

I enjoy designing and wish I had more hours each day to work on cards, photo editing, and more but my teaching schedule keeps me pretty busy.  Before I sign off for the day, I want to leave you with my absolute FAVE picture I took from this holiday season.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!