A very quick sneak peek

For a very beautiful girl. This was the most amusing and diverse session to date. She got in THE FOUNTAIN. In her dress! I don't have a pic from that yet, but here are some great ones and I've barely scratched the surface. "K" and her mom (also beautiful!) were a blast!! Thanks, ladies :D

A rep, an intern, the works!

This is "C", my new rep for a local (finally!) high school, as well as hopefully doing a little intern work with me this school year. We had a great time finding some new spots and stealing chairs during this session. I've got a couple of new favorite shots out of it, too!

She has such a natural look and air about her, I love it!

A very special session

I'd like to say this was an official "Think Pink" session, but I can't get them to respond to my inquiries about donating my services. Regardless, I was asked by a friend and uh...well she's the very cheerful receptionist at my salon. Does that make her a business acquaintance? She's facing a really tough time in her life with more optimism and good spirit than I face a typical Monday with. She's certainly taught me a great lesson. I can't wait to do her remission portraits.

And this gorgeous girl

Wanted some headshots for a modeling application *fingers crossed*. She definitely has my vote! Tall, beautiful, and told some of the best/worst jokes I've heard in a while, which makes her a winner in my book. Helen Keller, indeed.

So far behind...

I haven't blogged any new work stuff in a while, and it's not for lack of work! First off, these are from a wedding I helped a local photog friend with (Melissa Zihlman Photography). Mostly the shots I had to catch that evening were fairly run of the mill, but I did get a few that I'm proud of. Rest assured, however, that I am NOT interested in doing weddings!

Let there be light!

I got a new toy! Studio lighting! It came yesterday and I set it all up to test it out today. What fun this is going to be, especially this holiday season (I hope). It's a whole new thing to learn, but I'm so excited about figuring it all out!

Here are a few test shots on Gillian from today. I'm blown away by how sharp and clear the focus is. I didn't do any web-sharpening on these at all.

And yes...she's going through an awkward teeth phase. Poor kiddo.

The dancer

This one, believe it or not, is 12 years old. She is a dancer and wanted some photos with her tap shoes. I know Mom is probably dying to see these, so here is a sneak preview!

Beautiful Miss M...

Love. This. Photo.

Had a very quick session this AM just to get a single shot for this guy's ad-from-parents in the football program. Mostly we took goofy shots because he's in the Crew. For you non-Southlakers, it's the kids who run up and down the football field with letter flags and do pushups when the team makes a touchdown. Just a rowdy bunch of non-skirt wearing cheerleaders, if you will. I didn't plan on getting one like this (he was tired):

Some kids for a change!!

These two gorgeous little models belong to my daughter's AWESOME kindergarten teacher. I guess ex-teacher, now! This session was actually a Christmas gift, but who had time then?? I'm glad we ended up having a nice warm day for the session instead.

I bet you can tell from the pictures, but "N" is a very reserved and thoughtful guy, while "G" is ALL HAM. Cute ham, though.

A little late...

Younger sister to the girl in the previous post, "A" was just as fun, creative, and beautiful. The *session* ended up being a little scary, but we were troopers! And I'm so glad we stuck around, we got some crazy wonderful shots! This may very well be the last time you'll see this location from me :)

Here we go again!

Another GORGEOUS girl. A tiny bit past senior, but close enough for our purposes. This is a teaser, M...I haven't even come CLOSE to wading through all the pictures we took today. I had a blast and I am so very very happy with these!! I know you will be too, can't wait to share all of them.

And thanks for helping me find my bag ;)

Such a great read

For clients or potential clients wondering why we "charge so much" for prints...

Why custom photography costs more

Airplanes and "D"

So to continue with the previous post, having decided I was going to focus more attention on growing my children/baby photography side of the business, and having grown a little bolder from my weekend in Chicago...I had the very good fortune to be seated on the plane behind the ONE baby flying to DFW from O'Hare. Most people would not consider that fortune, but most people wouldn't have noticed how insanely cute he was, either. I can't stress the insanely part enough. INSANELY cute. And I
thought...what would Audrey (tell me to) do? And so as we were taxing in DFW, I asked if they were from the area, and then gave them my card and asked (as non-creepy as I could) if they'd be interested in letting me photograph their son as a model for my portfolio.

They were gracious enough to smile and take my card, but I thought surely they'd be weirded out by a stranger asking that question. I crossed my fingers that they'd keep the card and look at my site and see that I wasn't a total nutjob, and maybe even email me back. They did!!! And we set it up quickly and he was...get this...EVEN MORE CUTE. And very, very interested in seeing his pictures on my camera.

So here you go...my current favorite (non-related, though this is what my kids should have looked like) model, "D". A special thanks to his mom for trusting me, and also for not letting me get lost in the parking lot.

Oh and happy belated birthday, little man!!!

Different directions

So my weekend in Chicago really did inspire me to make a number of changes. Like simplifying my pricing structure...that was easy. Deciding to take my business in a slightly different direction than I had planned...well that was actually pretty easy, too. I love my seniors, they are so much fun and I can be so creative with their pictures. Those pictures are what I consider my "brand", and I intend to keep it that way. However, seniors (high school in case you still haven't figured that out) tend to be somewhat seasonal, and there was always the question of what I'd choose to supplement that business.

Instead of trying to do a little bit of everything to please everybody and show that I CAN do it, I think I'm going to go back to doing kids and babies. What I originally started out to do. What I really thought I wasn't so great at because I struggle with the whole gootchygoo thing. Maybe that will develop over time...

This means I'm probably not going to pursue the headshot side-business thing right now, too. I'll still take them if they come to me, I really don't dislike doing it. What I dislike is that it takes out two of the things I love best about my photography...spontaneity and creativity. If I don't have those, I'm afraid I'll burn out.

To keep this from getting too long, I think I'll continue with the story in another post. Yes, that one will have pictures!

The...no...THE Workshop

Where to begin!? I got to spend the weekend in Chicago, thanks to my husband and the greatest birthday present EVER, with the one and only Audrey Woulard. This is like meeting...I don't know, pick your favorite celebrity, only imagine that you actually had something to learn from them and they were willing to share it with you. Ok yeah. That!

My head is still swimming and my adrenaline is still pumping with all the information and direction I received. I have so much to do!! There are some changes to make to my website, people I need to contact about various things, choices I need to make on whether or not I'm going to pursue certain things, and then of course I wanted to look at the pictures I took this weekend. We didn't take a ton, but I still wanted to see them on the big screen and maybe try a different way of editing than I normally do. So of course I did that first! Now mind you, these aren't my typical clients (that may change soon), so when I say "different" editing, I mean different from teens. It was so simple and straightforward though, it will definitely influence how I edit children's pictures from now on. I like my style for teens though and I'll stick with that.

These kids were paid models and there were about 20 of us trying to take their photos. Audrey reminded me that we were shooting there to learn more about the light than we were to get the great eye contact and interaction that we'd get one-on-one, so I took that to heart. After several images of the older boy that were all looking alike to me, I just stopped shooting and talked with him about his guitar for a while. Paid model or not, he was clearly a little overwhelmed with the activity and I can totally relate to that.













If you're reading this and we met at the workshop, please email me so we can stay in touch!!