The cobbler’s children have no shoes and the photographer’s children are horrible in front of a camera! Sad fact but I swear it’s true. For Mother’s Day I really wanted a new picture of my kids… oye. This is what I’m up against. As I sit her enjoying my margarita I’d like to wish all my wonderful clients an amazing Mother’s Day, I can guarantee you your children we better behaved for portraits than mine were :)
Meet Ellie. She is precious, with oh so chubby cheeks and big eyes. What a darling baby girl.
And some mommy bragging… Last week my littlest Vaughn turned 5 years old! Crazy that my baby is five. He keeps us on our toes for sure, but he is such a joy and blessing. In other news, I tried to take some artistic shots of my littlest two together and yeah… my days may be numbered for this type of thing :)
And lastly, it was dance recital weekend around here! All the dance moms out there know this means two full days of dress rehearsal and dance shows, exhausting but fun. My daughter had 8 different numbers and 8 different costumes this year. She sprained her ankle on Easter and we were touch and go all week, but I’m happy to say she pulled it off. I couldn’t be a prouder mama of my beautiful Julia.
Babyhood is so short. I love what I do because I get to freeze all the little nuances of being brand new. Gia is pudgy, and so soft, her little hair is fuzzy, she smells so sweet and… new :) Gia also has a big sister that just adores her. By the time Gia has memories of Sophia, Sophia will be a teenager… but, with these images we were able to catch “it”. All that love and pride is right there in Sophia’s eyes, in the ways she hold Gia and breathes her in. I love it when this happens, when a picture goes beyond someone posing for the camera.
And since I’m already being a complete sap today, we’ll just keep it rolling. This is my son Luke, he turned 8 years old on Saturday. I have no idea how the time has sped by so fast. Luke is so smart, he’s exuberant and joyful, he’s a caring friend and a great brother. We are so blessed to have him. And before you ask, yes I really gave birth to him. There were no Swedish nanny surrogates involved :)
One would imagine that a photographer’s kids would be perfect little models. I’ve found two camps of photographers, those lucky ones for which their child is their muse and they just can’t seem to snap a bad frame of them, and… the rest of us. I’m not gonna lie, photographing my kids is painful! Each and everyone of them is so difficult to photograph, they are so gorgeous… I would be excited to have them as clients, and yet they’re mine… and, yeah. I have this stunning 12 year old daughter, we are close, we love each other, really get each other… put a camera between us and we are a nightmare :) Forced expressions, irritation, mutually annoying, but as her mommy it is my duty to do my best to capture her at this stage. Not quite a woman, not quite a kid, I am in awe of how perfect she is to me, and yet I can’t seem to catch it all on camera. So here she is, part gorgeous girl, part preteen snark, a lot of really mom??? But, in the end I love them and I love her.
Now that all the cards have been sent and received I can share my family Christmas card! Since Jason and I started our family I’ve given a lot of thought to the Christmas cards we send out, trying to capture the essence of where we are as a family that year. I usually remote it and take our Christmas photos myself, a fact that amazes our friends and has produced some comical results over the years. This year I felt our family was at a crossroads. Our first born is in high school, 14 years old… he’s grown two or three inches since these photos were taken in late September. He’s 5’11″, taller than his mom and quickly catching up to his dad. Our daughter is 12 and in jr high, also has grown two or three inches since these photos were taken, nearing 5’6″ now. Our little ones are 7 and 4, attending preschool and elementary, not babies anymore. I really felt the need to freeze time, catch us right now with all my chicks in my nest. I NEEDED to hire a photographer. My oldest son didn’t understand, why would you hire someone when you take such amazing pictures of us? Because I can’t give myself what I give to others, I can’t capture that connection, that essence of “us” with a remote. I turned to Mindy Harris of Pastel Photography in Charlotte North Carolina, who graciously flies around the country photographing other photographers families. These pictures are everything I hoped they would be, us frozen in time, crazy, funny, chaotic, perfect.
Last weekend my daughter and I were looking through our family photo albums and it made me realize I’ve been neglecting photographing my little ones, bad mommy! I have this OCD thing about wanting pictures of all four of them but the logistics of that are just so hard with the big ones getting older. Truth be told I have a million pictures of the two older ones together when they were little, why not the younger ones! I’m going to make a concerted effort to photograph them more often and catch that “littleness” day to day. So here are my babies Luke and Vaughn :)
People always comment about what amazing pictures I have of my kids and I joke that photographing my own children could drive me to drink… not so much joking. My 3 year old son is truly, truly, terrible to photograph… yet still, occasionally I try. Here he is in all his disagreeable glory. He does keep us laughing and always on our toes! Good thing he’s cute, I think I’ll keep him :)
You never know what you’re gonna get! Now that Christmas cards are all sent out I’ll share some of my own family’s Christmas shoot. Every year I set out to photograph my family, 4 rambunctious kids from pissy teenagers to tirading toddlers, 2 french bulldogs, and a partridge in a pear tree. I do this photo shoot with a remote determined to be in the pictures myself. This is at best a stupid proposition but somehow it all works out. This year we dragged a couch out to a loading dock for an “urban” shoot… as urban as Santa Clarita gets. My stroke of genius was to bring my mother in law along to jump around behind the camera, kids can’t scowl at their Nana, right? Little did we know when we made these plans that it would be 51 degrees out with heavy freezing wind. We nearly made a Popsicle of our Nana. We can’t thank her enough. I am a fan of outtakes. My kids know this. If you do something stupid during a photo shoot it will likely end up on the card or on the wall, this year was no different. Enjoy my family, all of their noise and craziness makes my heart sing. This is us. From my family to yours a very Merry Christmas!
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Every year I take on the task of shooting the 11 grandkids for my mother in law’s card, every year it’s miserable :) My little one makes me work for it for sure. This year I was left singing the wonder pets at the top of my lungs on the side of the road. Briefly, it worked and the little bugger smiled! We were rained out the weekend before so we also had to try and get pictures for my sister in law’s card at the same time. While we were rushed and losing light I am in love with the results. The last picture in this post is one of my favorite images I’ve ever taken of my nieces and nephews, and I’ve taken many. Older kids who listen are awesome.
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A disclaimer, this is a thoroughly gratuitous mommy post :) My youngest son Vaughn is, um, a challenge to photograph. When I try and take pictures of all four kids he is a downright nightmare. The best luck I’ve had in photographing him is to prop him up on something high and throw marshmallows at him. I really wanted to get some beautiful outdoor pictures to highlight how insanely cute he is right now. I took Vaughn out to Hart park to tromp around and hopefully get some pictures. I had no intention of hiking up to the mansion, but Vaughn, as usual, got his way and had the last laugh…
