Gorgeous Family in their Gorgeous Family Room

Over this holiday break, I had the opportunity to visit the K family to see their Kids As Art display. Wowza! It literally took my breath away and I momentarily wished I was a product photographer because I know that my snapshot here does not do their beautiful room justice. Their basement family room is designed in palette of brown, beige, and orange, with green accents. The children's portraits could not have been planned any better to become the centerpiece of this room. Special ceiling lights were installed to really showcase each portrait. Everything is sheer perfection!

The two side portraits are 24x24, with the middle portrait being 24x30.

(my own) Kids As Art

If you follow my blog, you might recall the 24x30 canvas gallery wrap I gave to my father over the summer.

I loved it so much, I temporarily hung it on my wall just to photograph the kids with it before I gave it to him.

On Christmas Day I finally photographed this art piece at it's final home, hanging in my parents' living room. Just wanted to share this with you all.

Merry Christmas!

It has been a great pleasure working with all of you this past year. Wishing you all the blessings of the season. Merry Christmas!

Kids As Art, and some great news!

You may recognize this family from a session we did in September. At that time their middle daughter S, now 5, was at the tail end of her treatment for Wilm’s Tumor, a form of childhood kidney cancer. This is an especially Merry Christmas for them because tests recently revealed S to be cancer free!

She has been collecting symbolic beads for various milestones along the course of her treatment, and today she showed me her “NED” bead. NED stands for No Evidence of Disease. The NED bead has become the centerpiece of a special Christmas ornament on the tree this year (and as I was driving home from their house, I was doing a mental head-slap for not photographing that ornament. Doh!).

The family ordered a 16x18 canvas gallery wrap wall portrait for their family room. It's displayed over their couch and has the family's mantra "Moment By Moment" along the wrap sides.

S is also one of the 2010 Ambassador Kids for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, an organization that raises funds for childhood cancer research. Check her out here!

Sneak Peek - Father and Sons

You may recognize little A from earlier in the fall, when I was honored to shoot his 1-year session. He brought the rest of his family to meet me this past weekend. I love to see fathers having fun with their kids. Isn't that just the best?

This last one really makes me smile. I was instructing them to go cheek-to-cheek, but A kept kissing his dad anytime his face got too close. Totally adorable!

Happy Hanukkah!

Growing up in a mixed religion home, I have taken lots of "menorah with christmas tree" pictures over the years. This year I had seen some online tutorials about how to change the shape of lights in the background and thought it might be fun to try to do a Star of David. It totally worked!

I wish everyone a very Happy Hanukkah!

Almost 8 months old!

Look at this little cutie who I met yesterday. He was so easy-going and cooperative. I swear those are his real eyelashes. No photoshop enhancement performed. Jealous? I am!

What to Wear

There is time for one more "what to wear" suggestion for those last-minute holiday portraits.

As with other earlier "what to wear" ideas, notice that no two people are dressed completely alike yet all of the outfits compliment one another. One great technique for planning your family’s wardrobe for a portrait is to imagine that you are dressing one person. If you lay the clothing for everyone out on the bed, just make sure it all works together. Happy Portrait Session to all!

Thing 1 Turns 7

Happy Birthday today to my firstborn, the child who is at the same time the light of my life and the reason for my gray hair. She wants to be Beethoven when she grows up, not really realizing that Beethoven was his last name. She thinks being Beethoven is a career choice.

Thing 2 Turns 4

Happy fourth birthday today to my sweet baby boy! He wants to go to dinner tonight at Sweet Tomatoes in honor of his birthday. That's his idea of fancy. :)

More Kids As Art

I got to visit some of my favorite clients today to check out how they have incorporated the “Kids As Art” idea into their home. When I got there I saw that this was an easy idea for them as they have photographic art throughout the house, including a gorgeous wall portrait over mantel from their wedding day.

Here is a 16x20 linen print in the TV room over the mantel.

And two 16x16 canvas collages in the dining room.

Thanks to the B family for letting me create these art pieces of their adorable daughter and for letting me stop by this morning with my camera.

Twins!

I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph some preemie newborn twins today. They don’t look like preemie newborn twins, you say? Well that’s because they were born at 36 weeks and weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and 7 lbs 10 oz! I am in pain just thinking about that. Their mom is totally a super hero, as I got to witness today. With these two little guys plus a 2-year-old big sis, this family truly has their hands full.

This was the first set of twins babies I have worked with in about 5 years, plus I was on location at the family’s home, so this was a fun and challenging day for me. These babies are both so big and strong that they would have nothing to with any type of traditional newborn posing techniques. One of them can already even hold his head up! It seemed that we could not get both of them in the same mood at the same time (one was awake while the other was sleepy, one was crying to be fed while the other was content). As their mom said “Welcome to my life!”

T, I hope you enjoy your sneak peek. More to come later this week!

Happy Halloween!

My daughter wanted to be something scary this year. I love how it's so obvious it's her with those little red glasses showing right thru the mask.

Wall-e woke up with a fever this morning, so I am glad I shot this picture last weekend at the park district Halloween party.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!

Grandparents & Grandkids

It's always fun to capture the relationship between grandparents and grandkids, but even more fun when it's my own family. Here are my awesome in-laws (and no, they are not paying me to say that! LOL), my kids, and all their cousins. I just love this shot so much, I had to share it.

Rapunzel, my new photography assistant

Remember this 3 year old's session? Well now big sis is 5! Over the summer I was suggesting that their mom get in the photos, and this time she did! What a gorgeous family, huh? I am especially thankful for this family because they have been clients of mine since their oldest was a newborn, and they drive over 45 miles to come see me twice a year for the girls' birthday sessions. Thank you for all of your support, for sticking by me as my business grows and matures, and for bringing these gorgeous girls to see me. It's always a blast! Next time maybe we need to get Dad in the pictures too. :)

For this session, Rapunzel was my photography assistant. Rapunzel Barbie, that is. You can see her in one of the photos below.

I tried a little dreamier-looking processing on these last two.

Sneak Peek - Three Little Elves

This might simply be my favorite holiday photo ever. I love these hats, plus the expressions on all three kids is just priceless. I would print this one on a billboard if I could. LOL!

Here are a few more, minus the hats.

Sibling Sneak Peek

I do indeed love all the adorable babies who come to visit me, but it's also fun to work with older kids because they have a lot more patience. Here's a sneak peek from a weekend session. These two should really be rewarded for their patience because they stopped eating breakfast mid-meal to make it to their session on time. B&L, I hope you guys got some extra cinnamon rolls out of that deal!

What to Wear

"What should we wear to our family portrait session?"

Many people think that everyone in the family needs to wear the exact same thing. While I have definitely shot these types of portraits, I would like to challenge you to think outside the box a little bit. One great technique for planning your family’s wardrobe is to imagine that you are dressing one person. If you lay the clothing for everyone out on the bed, does it all work together? Does anything clash?

I picked a brown/beige/red palette to illustrate what I mean below. Notice that nobody is wearing the exact same outfit, yet each item complements everything else in the grouping.

As always, I recommend that we have a clothing consultation before any session!

Edited to add one more example, courtesy of Rachel at Verve Life Portraits:

Kids As Art

This 14x20 is a beautiful canvas art piece in the master bedroom!

Sneak Peek

I can't believe it's been a year since I have seen this little cutie. She's grown so much since last year, and now she's a big sister too!

Christmas Cutie in September

Why, yes I am shooting holiday portraits in September. Don't roll your eyes! Other photographers out there know that we need to start shooting holiday sessions in September and October in order to meet client demand for sessions and also to meet the holiday order deadlines for some of our specialty product vendors (custom holiday cards, photo jewelry, plaque and float mounts, canvas wraps, etc).

This little cutie was born around Thanksgiving last year, and her birth announcement had a photo of her wearing a little knit santa hat. How cute for this year's family card to replicate that idea, but now she's a much bigger kid!

And she was having such a great time with her Dad, I just had to combine these images together.

Hair Envy Strikes Again!

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that in the past I have had hair envy over a baby. Well, it’s happened again. Look at the full head of hair on this little guy! He came in for a baby parts session so I knew I had to get a close up of that gorgeous hair with the lighting set to really showcase its spikiness. He brought along his sister, whom I had the honor of creating a baby parts collage for just over a year ago. I can’t believe how much she’s grown. She’s certainly not a baby anymore!