A New Little One

My dear friend from grad school asked me if I'd be willing to take some photos at the birth of their second child.  We were very excited anticipating the big day, especially since they were not finding out the gender of the baby.

The day of the birth, they called me when my friend was dilated to 5cm and said I should probably come soon.  I arrived about 40 minutes later and the dear little girl had already been born!  She was delivered 30 minutes after they called me.  We were sad to miss those first moments, but since I arrived only 10 minutes after her birth I still got some great stuff.  Enjoy my latest project!

Later in the afternoon I returned for the introduction of big sister to little sister.  I felt so enamored by the feeling in the room as these two beautiful girls met.

Thank you to my friends for letting me be there on this very special day!

A Day In the Life of a 2 Year Old

I had the idea to do an hour by hour shoot with my sweet little gal.  Spending time with her inspires me and this is the most fun I have had in a long time with my camera.  I'm sorry there are so many pictures, but hey, she was awake for 13 hours!  :)  

7:00am - Waking up

8:00am - Bath time

9:00am - Playing in her room while I get ready.

10:00am - Buying her Christmas presents for her brothers (and imitating Jessie's yo-del-le-he-ho!).

11:00am - Munching on a cracker while we wait to pick up her brothers from preschool.

12:00pm - Crying because I gave her the Winnie the Pooh plate instead of the Star Wars one.

1:00pm - Nap time

 2:00pm - Sweet girl still napping.

3:00pm - A diaper change after waking up.

4:00pm - Playing in the basement by the Christmas tree.

5:00pm - Getting advice on which was the best dump truck.

6:00pm - Best part of the day...Daddy is home!  Washing hands after dinner.

7:00 - Getting ready for bed by pretending she's wearing a funny hat. (I remember doing the same thing, but pretending my shirt was my long hair...wish I had a picture of that!)

8:00pm - Pretending to be asleep, but who can sleep soundly with a flash?

After I took this last picture, she hugged me and then asked to hug the camera :)  She loved being the center of attention today!

This project made me so happy, and helped me to see the little things that I love about our everyday life.  It was such a good way to documenting this little miss at 2, and I am thinking I may do it near each of my children's birthdays!

Advanced Pro - Homework #3

Meet my parents :)

My mom has wanted pictures for a long time now and my step dad wasn't too keen on the idea.  When I told her a little bit about Beloved, she said that he would be the true test of whether or not we could get authentic expressions.  I hope I've done them proud!

FOR REVIEW:

After inviting them to give a little squeeze...where they wanted to :)

After my mom trying to get a blush.  He didn't really blush, but he was liking whatever she said!  This face is SO him!

Looks of gratitude

Despite the blizzard conditions, they were such good sports!  I felt like I was really limited with the angles I could do because the flurries would distract from their faces if I moved too far away.  I had an umbrella stuffed down the back of my coat to protect the camera which also made things interesting when moving around.  We went back to their house and did some inside, but I liked these ones best.

Interaction really allows for me to let go during a photo shoot.  The Beloved approach has changed the way that I think during a session and gives much better results.

Advanced Pro - Homework #2

 I found this homework assignment challenging.  I scheduled a shoot with a family of 6 and spent a lot of time picking specific things that I was going to try, making lots of notes.  My first mistake was the time I scheduled...with the time change, I hadn't accounted for the sunset being so early.  I had basically 15 minutes of good light.  And it was getting COLD as the sun was setting...and the kids were hungry.  I left feeling really discouraged.  

So, without looking at the pictures on the computer, I scheduled another shoot.  Again, I spent a lot of time organizing the kinds of poses that I wanted to do (remembering to not be so literal...hoping to get less frustrated) and got more and more excited to have a more relaxed take on the posing guide.  Then, to my dismay, the father of this second family was on call the day of the shoot....and of course, he got called in.  I was a little more ready this time to accept the limitations and did a mother daughter shoot, throwing out most of the ideas I had planned for the family.

Still a little discouraged, I uploaded ALL the photos onto the computer.  As I started looking at them, I kicked myself, realizing that I didn't need to be so hard on myself.  Much of what I captured the families are going to love, and while it wasn't the original plan, it worked out great!  (And I have tons of photos to share!)  I heard recently the phrase that "all frustration comes from unmet expectations."  Therefore, I not only take on Brooke's motto of "embracing limitations" but add that we can also "change our expectations" so we can be happy and proud of any creative work!

FOR BROOKE'S REVIEW:

SOME OTHERS:

I would love to hear some comments from class members!  It is fun for me to see from other photographers how they deal with difficulty during a shoot and what they come up with at the end.  Hope this is helpful for you!

 I think the little guy is biting his dad's ear here :)

AND SOME MORE FROM THE SECOND SHOOT...

 Does this say "I'm done" or what?!

 Dad made it home right as we got back to the house, so we did a few on the porch.