The Monkey's off my back!

Clear back far and away in May, my good friend and photographer mentor, Suzy Oliviera, and I arranged to photograph some of the kids in our neighborhood as they were getting ready for Prom.  Well here it is the evening before September and I just finished editing some of these.  I wasn't too happy with a lot of them, but after I went through and tagged the ones, that were the better of the bunch, I decided to go ahead and edit them so I could give these pretty girls the photos of their prom...(if they even care anymore????)  This cute thing is Mariah. She and her mom let us invade as they were getting her all ready to go.  The mirror was a fun thing to try...

 Of course we had to get the whole "date coming to the door" scene and watch them struggle with pinning on the flowers, etc.

 I got this of her date waiting for her to get finished primping!

 This was cute of her mom helping her do the back of her hair....

 Even though this wasn't his car, we staged some shots next to it for the fun of it!

 Here are the 3 beauties, Deanna, Kaylee and Mariah.

 They were chatty and cute with each other while Suzy and I were shooting away!

 Giggly Girls!

All three of them should be models for a dress shop!

 So we found out that the administration wouldn't allow us in to the actual prom (liability issues...Whatever!)  So we made up our own mock version.  I can't wait to see Suzy's since I wasn't hooked up to the strobe for very long!  But I played around in Lightroom just to get the effect right.

Thanks, Kids, this was way fun and I learned so much from this!  Hope you like!!!

Baby A

 I met this eight-day old sweetie yesterday.  We had a fun morning with her mom and dad who are just crazy  her!  Can you blame them?

 What's not to love about these little feet?  So perfect!

We even caught the tail-end of a smile!  I love those spontaneous smiles!  Gas? Whatever!  Who smiles when they have a gas bubble!  I do anything BUT smile!

She slept the best during the whole session while she was laying in the basket!  Jen and Eric, you can borrow it anytime!

 I always have liked the contrast of soft newborn skin in the strong arms and hands of their father.  I just love this one!

 Such a perfect little body

 Sleep, baby, sleep!  Isn't she beautiful?

Nephews and Niece

 These cute kids are my cute nephews and niece!  Originally we were were just going to shoot Alec for some senior pictures, but decided to include three of the other kids, too.  They are all very photogenic and it didn't hurt that they are all have gorgeous skin and just got back from being in Hawaii for a month.  Nice and tan!  Little Gabby was hollering at me the whole time to shoot her as she struck new poses!  It is so funny to me that most of the little girls I've shot lately are NOT camera shy!  I love it, since it makes my job so much easier.  These boys were pretty natural, at least showing off their pearly-whites.  So cute!

Alec
He is 17 and loves LaCrosse.  He is so sweet and I love his personality and sense of humor!

Brigham

He's a sweet seven-year-old and has such an easy personality!  Very Loveable!  Love Brig!

Gabby

Batten down the hatches!  This little spitfire definately rules the roost at their house!  She's pretty funny (not intentionally) but she demands things her way, and suprisingly her brothers all comply!  She was sure that this shoot was for her and was always looking for places and ways to pose for me.  I even complied!  If this is any indication of the kind of grown-up she will be, WATCH-OUT world!

 Noah
This 11 year-old is VERY independent and has a strong personality.  I can't believe grown-up he's getting and he LOVES his little sister!

Maybe we'll get Zack next time....Missed ya!

Fairies in the Orchard

These cute little girls had me come and shoot them playing dress up.  We had a fun time this morning playing in the orchard.  Here are a few pictures of the girls.  I was all over doing this since I only have boys and felt so girly to be around so much "pink" today!  I loved it!

My Virginia Peeps

My sister, Michelle, has been here this past month from Virginia, while her husband has been deployed to Afghanistan.  It's been fun being with her and her family.  Especially that little baby!  We adore her!  she's spunky and cute and fun and my kids have been enamored with her.  We are so sad that they are leaving tomorrow.  She will be home-schooling her kids this year, so she wanted me to take their "School" pictures.  So we went out and snapped a few shots of each of the kids.  This is "G".  She is the most feisty of the three and I wasn't sure how well she would cooperate.  Well, as you can she, she's a natural!  Funny girl!  I loved it, though because I didn't have to do much but shoot.

 This is the baby!  She was so funny and the kids were all standing around making her laugh and play.

Not tickled about that hair band!  But luckily she's easily distracted!  Like my sister Sarah said,
"There's a price for beauty!"

 This is "P" and he wasn't too into this stuff.  He was anxious for this whole thing to be over, but I thought these turned out well, inspire of that.

We had fun shooting in my other sister's back yard.  She's got some great trees and places where I could shoot all natural light.  I used a reflector for a few shots, but just nice natural light!  Better than any school pictures I've ever seen, if I don't say so myself!

How Do They Learn This Stuff?

These sweet little girls are my neighbors.  I took them out for an impromptu shoot tonight because I couldn't resist the natural light.  Perfect!  My question is How do they learn how to pose like this at such a young age?  Aspen is truly a natural and I'd definitely use her as a model again.  She wasn't afraid or intimidated by me or the camera at all!  LOVE IT!

My Special Guy

This is my little eight-year-old.  He had a special day this past week and was baptized.  He was so excited and happy.  He's such a good boy and wants to make good and right choices.  I love this boy.
I got to use my new 50mm 1.8 lens.  I'm lovin' it!  Stay Tuned....