2008 Holiday Order Deadline

To guarantee receipt of your portraits before Christmas, the final day to place orders will be November 7th, 2008. This will ensure enough time for portrait retouching, any custom design work (such as storyboards, albums, or greeting cards), and delivery of boutique items such as jewelry and purses.

If your holiday session has already occurred and you are considering boutique items, I would encourage you to order them now. I have already noticed some of my vendors’ turnaround times increasing as the holidays approach.

Please note that I will be accepting orders after November 7th, but will not guarantee delivery by Christmas.

Seven Months Old

I just adore this little one. If we include her in-utero session, this is the 4th time I have had the opportunity to photograph her. You may recognize her from a couple of months ago because those baby blues are hard to forget!





I am truly floored that I was able to work with two babies this week that did not cry on my mirror. Several photographers have asked me how I do this reflection shot, and the real trick is a glass mirror. Plexiglass mirrors are ok but the reflection is much crisper in a glass mirror. The downside to a glass mirror is that is it COLD! I have tried everything from space heaters to heating pads, but nothing really warms it up adequately. Most babies cry as soon as their bellies touch the glass (hey, I'd probably cry too), but not this little one or the little one in the previous post above. And I am sure you can guess another side effect of putting a naked baby on cold glass.... tinkle time!

There's a first time for everything....

and I can honestly say that this is the first time I have had hair envy over a 6-month-old.







What a gorgeous baby, huh? This was a Baby Parts session, and there are so many cute shots of her that I am not sure how we will choose just 9 images for the collage.

At the end of the session her Dad showed me that he had her newborn footprint tattooed on his arm. I thought that was just such a cool idea so I had to take a shot. Look how much her feet have grown in the past 6 months!

Holiday Gift Idea

Looking for a unique and special holiday gift? Check out these cute little photo charms. Your image is sealed onto a 1cm square black lip mother of pearl tile, finished with sterling silver, and is being offered for a special introductory price of $80. Chain not included. If you have had a session earlier in 2008, you can still order a charm using those photos. Lead time on these charms is 4-6 weeks, so call today if you would like to have one for the holidays!

And why yes, that is indeed me modeling one of the charms. For those of you who haven’t heard, I am doing a photographic challenge this year called “365.” It involves a self-portrait a day for an entire year, and this image here is my self-portrait for today. The 365 has been a lot of fun and somewhat of a creative kick-in-the-pants. I’ve met a lot of other really cool photographers around the world who are also participating in the challenge. If you’d like to see my entire project starting January 1st, click here.

Couch on the Lawn

I see life as a series of photo opportunities. So Saturday morning when I looked out my front window and saw a COUCH on my neighbors' lawn, I couldn't just go back to folding laundry, now could I?



The story is that they were donating this couch to the Salvation Army but it was temporarily on the lawn while they were loading up the truck. Anyway, I think it made a nice backdrop for an impromptu family portrait.

This couch is now gone so if you are seeing this blog post and thinking to yourself "I would like to have some outdoor family portraits on a couch", I will be happy to shoot them for you but you will need to provide the couch. LOL!

Sneak Peek

I am always honored when people travel from distant suburbs to come see me. Photographer friends of mine not from the Chicago area have a tough time understanding how someone can live 15 miles from me, but it can take a hour to get here. It's Chicago traffic, and it stinks. Therefore, I just want to say thanks to M for bringing her two little cuties over last Thursday. I had a lot of fun and we got some great shots!

Do the right thing....

It's almost time. Are you ready?