Baby

My friend Audrey had a cute little baby girl.  Her name is June, I think that's such a precious name.  Her sister Chloe is my favorite little person.  She once called my light switch a witch, and told me to "flip the witch", repeatedly.  I loved it!

This is just a preview of the girls.  This may seem unprofessional, but I'm going to own this learning process by sharing the good and the bad.  So, here it goes.  I lost a roll of film.  All 36 frames....nothing.  I've never loaded a roll of film wrong in the past, but I did this time and everything I took that I thought was so amazing didn't even make it onto the film.  This makes me very sad, but hey, one more thing to always check and make sure I take care of before I go on a shoot with all film.  :)

A new little.

I think I just set a world record for getting these pics edited so quickly.  What can I say?  I guess I'm just highly motivated since my little one will be here any day...or week. :)

Meet Mr. Preston in all of his cuteness.

Thoughts, goals, and a baby

A baby changes everything. At least that’s what I’ve heard, and not really understood, until now. Expecting my first child in May has completely thrown my goals in a different direction, well, maybe not in a completely different direction; however it makes sense to delay some of them and focus on baby for the time being. Let me explain.

I have this goal of having a photography business. I want to be a natural light photographer and my focus will be in portraits and even weddings in the future. My style is simple, clean, bright, natural, and in a word; you. Over the summer I had a lot of time to put myself out there and I even had a few paid jobs which has given me a lot of confidence in my ability to create a successful business despite the saturation of photographers out there. I feel like with more practice and learning my style will become more evident in my work, my ability to focus and frame photographs will become second nature, and posing my subjects will also become effortless. These are a few of the things that I wish I had time to work on right now, but if I’m honest with myself I know that some of these goals need to be put on hold for a while.

It’s not easy to focus so much on such a big goal of mine for just a few months and then be forced to put it off to the side while I focus on the work I have to do in front of me and the growing boy inside of me. But I’ll do it. I’ve realized that this baby is so very special to me already. I’ve waited a long time to be at this stage in my life and I’m moving forward knowing that things will be different when baby is here. He will be my focus, my life, my one main goal will be to take care of him. Photography will be much lower on my list of priorities.

So, despite my sadness and feelings of being left behind in the world of building my own business while many friends and family members move forward I’ve also realized that there are some advantages to waiting. Here are a few:

• I can still make money with what I do. I just won’t raise my prices or be able to offer fancy print packages. I’m just not ready yet.
• I have this time to practice and perfect my skills. When it’s time to open that business it will open in a big way. I’ll be more than prepared.
• I will finally be able to take pictures of my own baby.
• I have more time to discover and read books and blogs. There is so much to learn just from observing and then figuring out how to get a similar look in your photographs.
• I can focus on my current full-time teaching job, which I happen to enjoy a lot as well.
• I learned how to take photos on film with my canon AE-1 and there are a few amazing photographers out there who use film.  It's possible that I may inherit a medium format film camera, so I want to learn why photogs are turning back to film, what the benefits of film are, is it cheaper, what kinds of film are out there, and just the overall pros and cons of film.  The thought of going film professionally is very intriguing to me...very intriguing.  I'll have time to really think about my options with film and digital.
• I can learn how my friends have built their business. I’m not about to reinvent the wheel with this one. I will beg, borrow, and even steal ideas that seem to work. Seriously, why not?
• Opening the business after the baby is a bit older and we’re adjusted to one another will make it easier to focus on it. Baby will be number one for me.


Anyway, I hate to have to slow down and back away from this business for a while, but in the end it will be more than worth the wait. Besides, I waited a while until I found the right guy and he was completely worth the wait! This baby will be more than worth the wait too.

On another note, here are some cute shots of my friends’ baby. He loves to have his diaper changed so I snapped some shots of him in his moment of pure joy. :)

A fall baby

My friend Amanda had her third boy about a week ago...he's so cute!  I hope my baby is just as cute and happy.  More to come later...in the meantime I'm going to daydream about my little one coming in May. :)

Baby details.

This little boy was such a joy to shoot!  He was awake and very interested in his world around him.  Here are some detail shots of little B.

Baby Feet

I LOVE this shoot that I just finished of my friend Rebecca's new baby!  Here are his feet. :)

Freedom = time to catch up!

I just finished editing this shoot of my niece Kaybrie.  I can't tell you how good it feels to be done with school and to be able to spend time taking and editing photos!  These pictures aren't the best since they are grainy (Canon 20D @ ISO 800 = grain) and I should have used my flash, but I liked the natural light and I thought I would try it.  Anyway despite the grain my new niece and her family really make these pictures spectacular!

More from Saturday

Here are a few more from Saturday.  Taking pictures of family is so much fun and I love how the kids seem to be more at ease and comfortable with a familiar face behind the camera.  The pictures of the kids really show how they each took to their new baby sister.

Sneak Peak of Kaybrie!

Here is one little shot of the new little one.  She didn't want to sleep at all while being photographed...so cute!

I just love baby feet and Lightroom 2!!

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I've been feed, napped, and in a word; revived! :) I should be making my review packet for my students' Spanish final, but I just couldn't help but edit a couple pictures! Don't you just love baby feet! :) I love our angelic the top one looks and in the second one how Christie's hand looks humungo (sp?) compared to Ellie's little feet. :)

Ellie Lynn's Debut!

Ellie is the cuttest baby and she was so much fun to photograph! She was sleepy, then awake and just so adorable! These are just out of the camera, although for a couple of them I changed them to black and white for some definition. Enjoy, touched-up photos will be up soon. :)