Project 52

It seems like every photographer hobbiest has to participate in a yearly challenge. Either a 365 (yikes, I definitely don't have time to take 1 picture a day for a year) or a 52 (much better, I can handle 1 picture per week). There's tons of groups out there that give you a prompt or word of the day, and you just see where the creativity takes you.

Here's a cute one for this week's prompt: Anything With Wings. I had big plans to go outside on a nature hunt to find something with wings, but the winged creature found me instead.



It's been fun, even though I hesitated to do so at first (commitment issues...so if I miss a week please don't point that out). Already I've learned so much about my camera settings and forced myself to be more confident with the manual settings. Some of the prompts also give you challenges for the post-processing and editing of images--and that's fun to learn new things.



The other week we had to do self portraits with the camera's timer, then add in different elements like motion, lighting, props, different posing options, etc. Eeeeeck, so hard for me to be on the other side of the camera. But wow, you learn a lot about how hard it is for your clients and a lot about your camera settings.



People ask how I learned to take pictures. The answer: I didn't. I just mess around and play a lot. Anybody can take cool pictures.

So grab that fancy camera you got for Christmas and challenge yourself.

I'll try to post more from my Project 52 throughout the year on this blog, but if you want to follow here is the Flickr link.

Baby Cherry | 3 Months

Normally 3 month olds are difficult models.

They are past that deep sleep newborny age, and when they are awake their arms/legs sort of flail around when they get excited.

Lucky for us, Cherry found her hands and gave us some sweet pious snapshots in her blessing gown (one that her mom wore when she was a babe).

Cherry got this cute smocked bonnet for Christmas.

(with little stitched cherries ta boot!)

One thing I love about my friend's house is she so good about printing off her pictures and displaying them. Isn't her staircase cute? With the eclectic frames and mismatched prints (canvas, gatorboard, and regular paper)--very simple to keep adding onto.

Have you printed and hung any recent pictures? Go do it :)

Click for a few more picts.

Elephants & Pettiskirts | 3 Yrs

Well I truly can't believe my first little baby is turning three. I'll spare you the "it seems like it was just yesterday" and post that on my personal blog :)





Apparently I thrive under pressure because like our last spontaneous photoshoot, this one was even more last-minute and we were battling the fading sunlight.



It was 3:30pm and I walked out to get the mail, thought Hey It's Warm! and knew it could be my only chance this frigid winter to take her 3 yr photos (along with some hat pictures for Curtsay Designs). I much prefer taking pictures with outdoor light. The light was amazing (cloudy) and they turned out perfect.





I woke her from her nap, threw some stuff in a bag, and drove down the rode real slow looking for something that would work. At first I thought railroad tracks would be cute, but they are very active tracks and I wasn't sure I could grab her quick enough if a train came roaring down on us (good idea too, because we heard 2 trains blow by that hour).





So I was tickled pink when I came up to this old hot dog joint. Can you locals guess which one it is?





I'm in love with these pictures.





They capture her so perfectly--everything that she loves at this sweet age. Everything that makes up her funny and innocent little world.



Dressing up in tutus and pettis,
cowgirl boots on the wrong feet,
funny faces,
lollypops,
tears over broken lollypops,
and of course elephants.









It just goes to show that when taking pictures you can make any location work.
You don't necessarily have to plan an elaborate photoshoot--spontaneity is good!
And if you let children be themselves, well-- your pictures will speak straight to your heart.



So grab your camera and go take some pictures of your babies and their favorite things~



Of course there's more.

Curtsay Designs

My friend asked me to take pictures for her Etsy shop, Curtsay Designs. She crochets children accessories, and also sells the patterns as PDFs if you want to make it yourself. Very reasonably priced, the hats are about $10 and the patterns are only $3.



She even took a special request and whipped up an elephant hat for my little gal. It's adorable!











More pictures are here!

Elephants in Topsail

Over Christmas while we were in Topsail, we were out at the fish market and of course I had to take pictures in front of this bright green wall.



I love beach towns--so full of bright paint and photo opportunities!



For those of you that don't know my toddler, well she is completely obsessed with elephants. Like majorly.



I was going to use these picts for her birthday party invitations, but the sun was shining and it was warm out today (since when is 50s warm?!?) so we went out and took her real 3 yr old photos which I will post soon.

Zoey | 6 Months

Remember Zoey, my most frequent client so far?



Well she just keeps on growing---how dare she!



The "sitting but not yet crawling" milestone photoshoots are my favorite. It just happens to be my most bestest and beloved-est age since becoming a mom. Seriously, babies at this age are scrumptious and so lovable!



They can sit up (yet not escape), smile (but not talk sassy), and look at you with pure adoration (instead of that mischievous glint that starts appearing a few months down the road).



This teddy bear hat is from Curtsay Designs, and I will be photographing more from her collection soon!




When considering whether or not to have your child's milestone photos done professionally, I say if anything you should definitely capture them at this age. Well, who am I kidding--I say capture them at EVERY age. But the sitting up age, and the first birthday "cake smash" age are favorites for sure.

More pictures of smiley Zoey.

Baby Grace | Newborn

It was so much fun meeting this little darling and her mom.



Grace was only 6 days old and already her accessory closet is 10 times the size of mine--she had a bazillion headbands, hats, tutus, blankets, flowers, and everything in between so we went a little crazy.





She took awhile to fall asleep and didn't really want to be posed/touched. Newborn pictures are hard in that you just never know what to expect. Some babies are oblivious and let you pose them all sorts of ways, other babies do not like to be disturbed. So you just have to work around them and I always tell parents to manage their expectations--we may not get to do exactly what they envision.





On the flipside, no matter what we end up doing I can promise that you will ADORE your pictures no matter what. Who doesn't love staring at sweet squishy kissable cheeks?



This one would look lovely as an announcement printed on pearl shimmer paper, or as a huge gallery wrap canvas with a metallic finish:



The baby's nursery was done in this fabric which I love:



Grace's mommy said it best. "These pictures have stolen my heart" and I'd have to say the same.



Thanks for letting me be a part of this special time, and I can't wait to see what little Grace brings to her milestone photos! She'll be in stilettos before she's crawling :)

View more--including pictures of the nursery!