One of my Favorite Families...

I photographed one of my favorite families again recently and the occasion was their daughter, Maggie, 18 month portraits. I know I've said this before but I absolutely love to see how the children are growing and changing between sessions. Its sometimes difficult to visibly see the changes in your own children from day to day, but step away for a period of time and the changes seem huge. Maggie certainly is no different. The last time I photographed her she was crawling at an enormous rate of speed and was only days away from walking. Her crawling speed has definitely transferred to her feet. She was blazing! Unfortunately she was also cutting some teeth and wasn't in the best of moods. So in between tears we did what we could to capture her personality. Her parents, Melody and Todd, are great folks who I have a tremendous amount of respect and affection for.

What a Fun Session...

I had the opportunity to photograph a very personable young man the other day. Grant is 15 months old and absolutely full of energy. Although ultimately the joke was on me, it was quite fun watching his Mother do her best to contain him so that I could create some portraits. I was confident all along that we were getting some strong images, yet it seemed as though every time his Mom would place on the background Grant would be gone in a flash. Yes another child doubting my reflexes and sports photography background. He seemed to do far better when we opted to loose the formal background and just let him be within his own environment. I thoroughly enjoyed the session as well as the resulting images. Here are just a few samples from the group...

Egad, I'm behind...

I'm quite embarrassed to say this considering that its now February 10th, but Happy New Year! That shows you just how far behind I have gotten in the first month plus. I truly hope everyone is having a great start to their New Year and pray for health and prosperity for all of you in this crazy economy. The economy has already affected one of our dear friends and vendors, Karen, of Polka Dot Kids Boutique in Marietta. Unfortunately due to slow sales, she was forced to close her doors. Obviously we wish her the best and I know that we'll keep in touch. I'll be posting some information here on some work she'll be doing that I think many folks will be interested to hear.

On a positive front I'm going to be collaborating with a relatively new and local children's clothing designer, Elisa Gollatz. She started her company, KKnoodles, in Charleston, SC and moved to Marietta with her husband and three children almost a year ago. She has really adorable designs that truly allows kids to be kids. The initial photo shoot that I did is actually for her 2009 Fall Line. A brief sampling of some of those outfits and images can be seen below. I'll do my best to get things back on track blog-wise in the coming days...

Family Fun...

I had the pleasure to photograph one of my past clients that has recently moved out of town. They moved to the Northeast just in time to enjoy all of the crazy weather fluctuations that area has endured lately. Not only did they decide to enjoy Christmas back in the South, but they had some other family members come in town to celebrate along with them. It made for a nice time to create some family portraits as well as do some fun, relaxed pajama portraits. All in all it was great to see them again and I hope they enjoy the sampling of images from the session...

Tis' the Season...

I had a session yesterday which truly started to put me in the Christmas spirit. With the hint of a chill in the air, the mood was set. I first photographed Katelyn about this time last year and seeing how she has grown and matured is amazing. Having a chance to observe the love of a child by the parents also never gets old. And getting to do this for a living is an absolute blessing. Creating portraits of this family in a beautiful Christmas setting was very cool (no pun intended). I hope you enjoy the samples below...

Cowboy Up...

I had the opportunity over the weekend to photograph a family from my daughter's Preschool. Two year old Walker was just a ball of energy from start to finish. He is one independent boy and at times I thought I was looking at my own two year old son. They share many similarities and both are/were able to put my sports background to the test as they moved pretty quickly. Walker's parents are great and although I sensed a small bit of frustration because of their son's busy feet, it never showed through. I only witnessed the pride that they had for their son and that is the image that resonates with me. Part of what I love about my job is watching these children be their own person and do my best to capture their personalities. I hope through the "teaser" images, a glimpse of that personality will be evident...

Future heartbreakers...

I photographed a brother and sister yesterday who were adorable and are definitely going to be heart breakers down the road. Hopefully that is road is very long and far from now. In speaking with their Mom during the session, we discussed how fun and innocent this age is (2 and 4yrs) as I have children the same age. I was mentioning how part of me would like to keep them at this age for a while longer as I dread the thought of teenage rebellion, etc. But we can only love and nurture them the best way we know how and prepare them to be their own person. This is why I enjoy creating portraits of children, siblings interacting and families as a whole. I'm being entrusted to capture and record the emotional and physical bond between family members in a portrait.

These two children, Harrison and Hollis, were so well behaved and polite; it was a joy to see. I certainly understand that even though I'm photographing the kids in their own environment, I still am a stranger with equipment and lights flashing and potentially making things uncomfortable. Both Harrison and Hollis who is only 2.5 yrs old listened well and followed directions to a T. Sometimes I cannot get parents to follow directions, but that is another story... Regardless, this is so much more satisfying than the professional sports and advertising photography ever were. Documenting the relationships of a family really puts things into perspective for me.