Playing Blog Catch-up...

I got behind a few days with my blog and will do my best to catch up as I can. Things have been thankfully crazy good with no let up in site so I'll do my best to stay on top of my blogging.

I had the pleasure yesterday of creating portraits of Heidi Morris' children at the East Cobb Park. For many of you who already know and those of you who don't, Heidi is the current President of the East Cobb Park. I spend a great deal of time there with my family and we thoroughly enjoy it. It is a nice clean, well maintained park that is really convenient for my family and seemingly the perfect size. Heidi has done a tremendous job with the park and has big plans for it. We cannot wait. For those of you who haven't been, you really must check it out.

Back to the session. Her kids were really fun to work with. I do feel a little sorry for Ella because she has to at times deal with two older brothers who are full of energy and possible mischief. I felt like I was traveling in time back to my youth and looking in a mirror. All in all they were very well behaved and did quite well despite the hot, humid conditions. I hope you enjoy the small sampling of portraits above...

Children's Portrait Session

I had the pleasure yesterday of creating portraits of two amazing young children. Their mom had them dressed in their Sunday finest and I was doing my best to capture the images I wanted before they got dirty or wet. When we walked across the bridge and they saw the creek, they mentioned getting in the water. While I was up for that and their mom seemed to be also, I was hoping to finish the session in the water rather than start it there. Luckily mom and I prevailed. They were really a joy to work with and seemed almost in tune with one another. As many parents with multiple children can attest, being in tune with one another is certainly not a given. These two were not only in tune when they needed to be but played off one another quite well for kicks. Case in point, as the session was winding down and they were starting to tire, one would yawn while the other smiled and visa versa. It was quite comical. Talk about toying with the photographer! All in all I had a great time and hope they did as well. Please enjoy the above images.

Family Portrait Session...

I just created some family and children portraits of a really fun family of four. The husband, Aaron, is a policeman which leaves his lovely wife Amy to handle the kids. She/they obviously do a wonderful job as the boys were very easy and fun to work with. The only real difficult part was trying to get the youngest, Andrew, to smile. Someone else commented that he has far too serious an expression at his age. Perhaps that expression comes from watching too many Braves games with his Dad, a definite Braves-aholic. I myself am a huge Braves fan and covered them for many years when I was doing my professional sports photography, but I'm probably getting an ulcer watching them lately... Honestly though, I had a blast during this session and thankfully they agreed to any idea that I presented even though the heat and humidity was starting to get intense. So without me rambling on too much more, I'll let the images above speak for themselves.

Front Lobby Images for PLAY in Roswell

I was extremely honored and excited to get a call in June from Colleen MacDonald who owns PLAY in Roswell. This is the new and improved home of her former Activity center for kids, The Playroom, in Marietta. She and I became friends last year when I offered to provide her with some gift certificates for various events she had at her aforementioned location. I then also did a portrait session of herself and her daughter for the holidays. Anyway, she contacted me and asked me if I would produce some images of kids playing in her new location that she could then display in the front lobby. Of course I jumped at the chance as it would be not only a fun opportunity to get creative but also be great exposure in her incredible facility. She basically gave me free reign to Play and be artistic. It certainly wasn't hard to find willing models as all the kids there were absolutely beaming with excitement as they were going from one area to the next. My "concept" was to not only capture great portraits of the kids enjoying the facility but to do it in a visually graphic way. By this I mean I would utilize the play areas and objects that the kids were using and the different shapes of each. For instance you can dive into a pit of foam squares, play with large balls or get into a pool of multi-colored balls. Go through a tunnel or slide down a curvy slide...

Anyway, I cannot wait to create more images as she continues to grow and expand her facility. She has plans for a rock climbing wall among other things. But if you have not visited yet, I strongly suggest doing so as it is awesome. They have daycare facilities for the kids, Wifi for adults, a private changing and nursing area for new moms and many other amenities. The images I produced as well as a partial view of her lobby can be seen above. I'd love to hear your comments.

Portrait Session...

My wife Susan recently asked me to donate a couple free sessions for a 2nd Anniversary event that the Atlanta Area Moms Online Board (http://www.atlantaareamommies.com) was having. Its rare that I refuse a request from my wife so I happily obliged. One of the winners contacted me soon after to set up the session which we did last Friday. What a wonderful family! They have a 21 month old boy named Nathaniel who has an incredible personality and was also full of energy. We did a number of portraits on backgrounds at their home and then traveled to a local park to do some more. I'm hoping for his mom Carrie that he expended most of that energy and then had a good afternoon nap! I had a really fun time meeting Carrie, Mark and of course Nataniel and hope they enjoy the tiny tease of images captured above.

Family Portrait Session...

I had the opportunity to create individual and family portraits of a local family of five. We had a really fun time despite the heat and humidity. The children ranged in age from 6 weeks old through 11 years old. They were absolutely full of energy with the exception of the 6 week old who slept through most of the session. The whole family was in and out of a nearby creek and were totally up for each and every idea I had as far as creating portraits. They wanted to have a very natural and minimally posed session and think we accomplished that pretty well. I really enjoyed photographing Heath and Lori and their kids who I first met at the Ultimate Playdate at East Cobb Park back in May. I hope you enjoy the above portraits!

More Fun with the Kids...

These were meant for an earlier post but never quite made it. I have now promised my wife I would post them primarily for family but also for my regular readers too. We took these actually on the 4th of July late in the day and had a blast letting the kids run wild. The only drawback was the fact that they were soaked for the ride home and had to sit nearly butt naked for the short trip. Anyway, lets get to the portraits...