My kids are gorgeous | Northwest Arkansas Children’s Photographer

Posted on March 11, 2010

My children, while often the subjects of numerous snappies throughout the day, are typically my hardest subjects to shoot.  The REAL photos? The ones that I want on my walls?  Yeah , I’m horrible at those with my own kids.  I see some of my photographer friends who have all these AMAZING photos of their children and I’m left to wonder, “What’s wrong with mine?”  Surely I’m not the only photographer whose children run from the camera, give funny faces, look down, pick their nose, or other wise will not give me what I want.  I must say that I’m close to giving up on getting those ‘perfect’ photos of my own children.  I’ll leave that for another photographer when we get family portraits later on this spring. They’ll listen then, right?  Right?  Oh, boy.

The past week was spent just taking fun photos.   Not really putting that much emphasis on getting the ‘perfect’ photo, just a fun photo.  I took Tates out to a field to experiment (sun was way too high for the hour we had to ourselves. We must go back) and got one or two that I really love. I might have cornered Blaze and told him that we WILL be attempting SOME sort of photos while we was over for the weekend.  Paeton?  Well, she never. stops. moving.   I think I might have got a foot in the frame.   And I took some video of the baby, but since I’m very new with video, I’m not sure if that will ever go on the blog!   Not sure yet how to do that. :)

So, here are some of our lovely little photos from the past week.   I like them.  They make my heart happy.  And that’s all that matters, right?

Oh, one of Paeton! I present to you Paeton with cat and string.

Look at all the dirt on him! That’s some hardcore playing.

This one will now replace the one on the wall that was taken at the very end of 2008. Because that was the last time he let me take a photo of him that didn’t involve a toy cameo or unwashed hair or a really goofy clown face. I’m happy.

He maaaay have been a little tired of the photos.

Tatum and the field.

My kids. They’re gorgeous.

Family Time | Northwest Arkansas Family Photographer

Posted on March 8, 2010

I recently sent out a casting call for families to help me out with some ideas that I had.  This lovely family volunteered to let me come into their home one beautiful Saturday and capture a little bit of their family life.

I love games. We don’t have either of these games but I’ve been requested to purchase them after a certain little girl saw these photos. I think that is a good idea. :)

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And then we moved on to a little bed play and story time. I loved it. The boys were so adorable!

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And possibly my favorite of the entire day, some Mama love!

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Isn’t this just so much fun? I am in love with lifestyle sessions. I love how they tell a story. I love how they pluck out moments of a family’s life and make them stand still to treasure forever. They make me happy and I look forward to doing more.

H family, it was such a pleasure working with you. Thank you so much for allowing me to come play and experiment! I hope you enjoyed your sneak peek.

A Little Walk About | Northwest Arkansas Family Photographer

Posted on February 1, 2010

Once upon a time, this little (maybe not so little. Maybe curvy) lady decided to round up her cozy little family and take a walk.

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Our little neck of the woods is in the process of creating wonderful walking trails that span several cities. The trails are all paved, so strollers and bikes are a real treat. And they are full of lovely curves (like me) and nature filled scenery, so it is completely possible to be walking amid a fair number of people and still feel as if you were all by yourself. I rather enjoy it.

Anyway, so we decided to talk a walk. John had been complaining earlier in the month how I never seem to take my camera out with us anymore. And that is true. I don’t do it often enough. Mostly because I’m still looking for The Right Camera Bag and don’t feel like dragging my current one out and about unless necessary. (Actually, I know where I will probably get The Right Camera Bag, but she currently doesn’t do messenger style bags. Get on the ball, Ketti! ;) I don’t know how much longer I can hold out since her new spring line is just so fabulous.) I thought that a family walk would be a perfect chance to take some snappies of my little brood.

Tatum insisted that we bring her bike. The poor thing is really too small for her and we have not yet got her a big girl bike. I’m waiting for spring since I don’t feel like hanging out in the garage and watching her do circles because that is what we would be doing if we got her a bike right now. Soooo, we said yes, she could bring the bike for what would probably be the last time she rides it before it is passed off to her sister.

A Little Walk About

John pushed the Paeton-head in her stroller and I had the baby all tucked into a sling.

A Little Walk About

A Little Walk About

(Yes, I realize that the tag is in focus and the adorable baby is not. You try to manipulate your hand around a DSLR while holding your arm out far enough to get the said baby in the frame. It wasn’t easy. :) )

A Little Walk About

Why, hello, handsome man, father of (most of) my children.

We stumbled upon some wildlife on our trek. Squirrel, mostly, but there were deer! And deer that were rather used to the humans often found walking through the woods. See?

A Little Walk About

See the X? That is how close I got to get these.

A Little Walk About

A Little Walk About

As you can see, everyone was totally impressed with my wildlife photography exploration.

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Ok. Maybe not. But they are so cute.

A Little Walk About

a Little Walk About

* You may notice some differences in my editing. I’m using family photos to explore Lightroom. I’m starting to really like it.

Mr. B | Northwest Arkansas Baby Photographer

Posted on January 21, 2010

I got to spend part of this morning with a happy little guy and his wonderful mommy today.  He is so sweet and did so well for his photos!   Here is a little peak into our mini-session.

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Isn’t he adorable?!

The Little Guys | Northwest Arkansas Lifestyle Photographer

Posted on January 5, 2010

I have four kiddos.  Four beautiful, bright, funny children that light up my life.  There are days when they drive me insane, days they make me want to cry (and sometimes I do) and days when I think I just can’t do it anymore.  Mostly, though, there are days where I am completely amazed that these little people are mine.  That they need me.  That they love me no matter what.

It’s cold.  It’s snowy.  The baby is asleep and I should totally be taking advantage of this time to finish cleaning the living room, but I’m going to share these little snappies of my babies instead.  I edited them in Flickr’s PicNik mode for fun.

I don’t have nearly as many photos of this guy as I would like. Not only do we only see him on the weekends, but he has hit a stage where he is just too cool for photos. Today while chatting on the phone, I actually got him to agree to a little mini-session the next time he comes over. I’m super excited!

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He just HAD to include the new PSP he got for Christmas. This is actually his 2nd one. The first was stolen a few months ago and he has been such a sad panda over it.

Santa brought a Wii this year and my sister gave us the New Super Mario Bros. She is rather obsessed with it and plays whenever she is allowed. I find her concentration game face hilarious!!

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Bright, blue eyed beauty, huh? She got her intense eye color from her dad. She got her dirty face from cereal, I think. She’s pretty amazing these days. Lots of pretend play, learning to talk, and recently, attempting to master the potty.

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Peanut! Little peanut! We can’t forget her. I love this photo because she looks like she is saying, “Um, Mom. Why aren’t you picking me up? And why did you leave me way over here?” Well, doll, because Mommy has to clean the house sometime!!
Two months tomorrow. Wow.

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Notice the spring attire on the older two? Apparently they don’t notice the snow on the ground. I made them change into something warmer shortly after this was taken. And see how sad our couch is? Santa apparently didn’t think I was good enough last year to bring me a new one. One of my goals is to get a new one sometime this year. This one had a good life, but I’m so ready for a change.

Supper needs to be made, a certain baby needs to be fed, and I need to inspect just how ‘clean’ is defined by a five year old when it concerns her room. She says it is done, but I have my doubts.

Last Days of Warm Weather | Northwest Arkansas Children’s Photographer

Posted on November 29, 2009

I was able to go outside and enjoy the end of a beautiful day with my two oldest girls recently.   It was nice to let them just run around like crazy children while I tried to snap some photos of them. I got a ton of cute shots of Tatum. I also got a lot of cute shots of Paeton running away from me. ;)

Here are a few of Miss Tot.

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I think I may need to put her hair in pigtails more often. She looked so adorable.

They did surprise me and let me get this photo of the two of them together. I do believe this will be on our wall soon!

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Perhaps right along side this one?

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The little stuffed animal is named Peepers. He was a gift from Daddy to Aryah, but Tatum has sort of adopted him until she is bigger.

I’m going to miss the warm weather. :(

A Very Special Little Guy | Northwest Arkansas Family Photographer

Posted on September 28, 2009

Meet Leighton, one of the toughest little guys I know.  And he is really cute, too!

A little back story.  I met Leighton and his mommy, Laine, through my sister.  Autumn was the assistant director of the daycare that was the sister company to Laine’s dance studio, Kaleidoscope Dance Academy.  Autumn encouraged us to enroll Tatum into the dance studio shortly after we moved back to Arkansas, which we did, and we love.  Despite being at the studio every week, it was a couple of months before I finally met Laine face to face.  Why?  Because not only had Baby Leighton been born early, he also had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.  Basically, the left side of his heart did not develop properly.  Because of this,  his mommy spent most of her time at Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.  In fact, Leighton spent the first seven months of his life at Children’s.  The little Tin Man, as his family calls him, had a pretty tough road to travel along, but on the 5th of February, Leighton received the best gift- he received a new heart.  As you are about to see, he is doing so very well.  He is a special little guy and I was very honored to be able to take his portraits.

(I’m trying out a few new ways to display photos on the blog. I think I like how it looks!)

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Oh, Leighton, you are just too cute!

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Are they not one of the most beautiful families you’ve ever seen?  And super nice, too.  Some people get all the luck.  ;)

I hope you enjoyed your sneak peek, Laine.  I’ll have the rest ready for you as soon as possible.  See you at dance!

Wishing Flowers and Toothless Grins | Northwest Arkansas Children’s Photographer

Posted on August 31, 2009

Oh, my.  What can I say about this session?  So much!!  I’ve been doing sessions with this family for quite awhile now, but this is the first one with just the boys.  When their parents contacted me to do a session with the little men, I was super excited.  I mean, look at these two!  Gorgeous little boys with absolutely amazing eyes, but not only that, these two kiddos are so very well behaved.  I knew it would be a really fun time.  I was right.  :)

I love a grin that is missing some teeth.  :D

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I also love little fingers playing with little toes.

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These next two, now…wow. I’m totally, absolutely, over the moon in love with them. If I had a studio, they would both be up on the wall in canvas. But I don’t have a studio and since my own kids might wonder if they have two brothers that I’ve never told them about, I really can’t hang these up on my own walls. I guess I’ll just have to make do using them in a sample album or other such thing. What else is a girl to do? ;)

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See? See?! *sigh* I love them! There are few things better than blowing wishing flowers on a beautiful end of summer day. Unless, you know, its having pictures taken while you are blowing on wishing flowers on a gorgeous end of summer day with amazing light. :)

Speaking of the end of summer, I only have five more dates available for September. If you are interested in a session before the start of my maternity leave, please contact me as soon as possible! :)

Big Brother and Little Sister | Northwest Arkansas Children Photographer

Posted on August 4, 2009

Meet K and K!  Their mother and I went to highschool together about a million and one years ago.  Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that long ago. :)   Our ten year reunion was only last summer.  Anyway, she asked if I would be willing to try and capture her two kiddos looking ‘like they love each other.’   Since I also have children six years apart, I know how difficult this can sometimes be!   This session was a challenge as the kids thought that some cool rocks and a stray cat were way more interesting than my camera, but I think we did a pretty good job.  ;)

Here is a quick peek into the session for Mama K. Enjoy!

I’m very glad now that I decided to bring my chair to this session.  I haven’t used it in awhile but really wanted to use it in this field.  It came in super handy as little K was fine to sit in it as long as she didn’t have to share with her brother.

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This one cracks me up.  I had asked little K is she could give her brother a kiss.  Big K was okay with the idea until he realized that little K was going to kiss him ON THE LIPS!  Oh, the horror.  He quickly bolted away, but not before I snapped this.  I love it.  :)

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Filed Under children | 21 Comments

Because She Is So Darn Cute! | Northwest Arkansas Children Photographer

Posted on June 20, 2009

Ok, I’m back with just a few more from Little S’s session. She is just too precious not to show off a bit more. :)

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I told you! Soooo cute. And she was really sweet, too.

Filed Under children | 6 Comments

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