I have so much blogging to catch up on this week, expect lots of posts from me! I’ve just returned from Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention and trade show in Las Vegas. My website company Showit asked me to come and speak on a panel about finding your niche in the portrait industry and creating a successful portrait business through specialization. What an honor. I was lucky enough to speak with outstanding boudoir photographer Jennifer Rosenbaum of Jenerations Boudoir in New York and amazing high school seniors photographer Holli True from Oregon. We had a great time and hopefully shared lots of useful information with those in our class. I went to plenty of classes as well and nearly ran myself ragged with vendor parties, get togethers, classes, seminars, trade shows, oh my. I brought back so much fantastic information I can wait to implement in my business and I got to see some amazing new products I can’t wait to use as well. Another thing I brought back is the early Beta release of Showit’s HTML5 mirroring, holy amazingness! If you are not an internet geek what that means is my full website is now available in all it’s gorgeousness right on your tablet, smartphone or ipad. It kind of rocks, check it out. Best of all I got to hang out with dozens of amazing photographers and friends. I’m a lucky girl. Here’s a few highlights from my trip:

 

I don’t think I can have a blog post without babies, can I??? Some of my sweethearts are growing up and came to see me in the last few weeks for milestone shoots. Stella and Jacob are both two years old now and sweet Cassel is 21 months. Time is flying!!!

 

Meet 5 month old Evan! Evan is a new baby planner with me, since he started a bit late with me we’ll be photographing him again at 9, 12, and 18 months. Isn’t he adorable???

If you read my blog you know I’m a blubbering mess when my baby planners graduate. Juliana I’ve been following since she was in utero, we photographed her as a newborn, at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months and did an anniversary session for her parents, what a year! This slideshow isn’t so much a baby story as it is a family story… get a tissue :) Juliana’s year ended with an outdoor family shoot that’s one of my favorite outdoor family sessions ever, feels like it almost needs it’s own blog post so be sure to watch through to the end of her sideshow for those images.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very special newborn session, one it seems like I waited forever for! Meet my friend Janet and her lovely family. Janet’s son Zack was premature, born at just 31 weeks gestation. He is a happy and healthy boy now but spent months in the NICU and has suffered many health effects related to his prematurity. Last year Janet became pregnant again but her little girl Corrine was born at just 23 weeks, too early to survive. Corrine lived for just 30 minutes. You can imagine the excitement and panic when Janet realized she was pregnant again, with fraternal twins! Every week we all counted down, it was a long and scary road. There were months of bedrest, weeks of hospitalization, medical procedures to try and maintain the pregnancy. We all breathed a sigh of relief when she passed the week she lost Corrine, another when she reached 28 weeks and survival rates went up, another when she passed Zack’s gestation! Every week Janet’s friends got a bit giddier, how far could she go? By sheer will and determination and some amazing medical care the girl made it 37 weeks, delivering FULL TERM HEALTHY TWINS. Last week when we shot the twins newborn session several times we all just stepped back to look at them and cried… and now I’m crying again. What a miracle to watch unfold. A cause that is near and dear to Janet’s heart is the March of Dimes, doing the hard work everyday to prevent prematurity and support the families of premature babies. If you are so inclined please click on through and support the March of Dimes, every little bit counts.

You may remember this beautiful family from last year when I shot their maternity and newborn sessions. They are getting ready to have little boys 11 months apart, they are truly blessed :) I love a maternity session with kids, older siblings always steal the show. Make it a chubby baby plus maternity and I’m in heaven! I had to include some outtakes because I love them! We were trying to get this dramatic drape shot in the window light and mommy kept getting goosed! If anyone can handle the chaos that’s coming with grace and humor it’s these two. Enjoy Eric and Katie!