“Do you think I’ve gone round the bend?”

“I’m afraid so. You’re mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

It never seems to happen like I plan.  The idea for this shoot started out as something completely different.  I found the skirt last year at a time when Giuliana was obsessed with ballet and princesses.  I could picture the joy on her face when she got the chance to twirl around in it.  I thought it would be amazing for Grace’s newborn portraits.  I envisioned Giuliana finding her new baby sister swaddled in a basket, deep in the woods.  That shoot never happened.  It turned out to be much too lofty a goal for a sleep deprived new mother.

The summer came quickly and I had a new vision for the skirt.  I could see Giuliana running down the beach at sunset, the tulle of her skirt skimming the shallow water, stomping in tide pools, twirling in sunflare.  That never happened either.  Then autumn approached and I pictured Giuliana as a woodland fairy gathering fallen leaves and picking apples.  You guessed it… never happened.

And so, the skirt collected dust atop a pile of props in our studio basement.  Every time anyone tried to pull a prop, the skirt fell down and consumed them in a maze of tulle.   Everyone began asking me, “Are you ever going to use that skirt?”

I was.  But when?

I had started thinking that perhaps I would wait for a snowy day and finally get the pictures of Giuliana in the skirt before she outgrew it.  I was waiting for the perfect winter day.  I needed fresh snow cover, but warm enough temperatures that my kids wouldn’t freeze or be miserable.

Coincidentally, this past Friday I started looking around for a favorite photograph I took of Giuliana in the snow a few years ago and found that the original is gone.  All I have is the watermarked version from Flickr.  Do you remember this one?

Still grieving the loss of my favorite snow photo, on Saturday morning I saw the forecast for the weekend and decided I would FINALLY use that skirt for once and for all!  While I was at it, I would recreate my old favorite portrait and include Grace in it as well.

Contrary to popular belief, Giuliana does not like modeling for me and no amount of bribery will change her mind.  When I tell her we are going to take pictures she gives me a giant “aaaawwwwwww  I don’t want to!” and proceeds to hide behind the nearest large object while sucking her finger.  She’s a typical four year old, only probably worse because she’s had a camera in her face her whole life and she’s a pretty shy kid.  I actually showed her the “Princess Skirt” that I bought thinking it would be her dress-up dream-come-true and she immediately whined, “Mom, I’m not wearing that!  It’s silly.  It’s too big.  I don’t want to do pictures.”
Given her aversion to having her picture taken, whenever I do a photo shoot with her, I have to turn it into something fun so she forgets she’s having her picture taken.  As I hurriedly shopped and plundered the studio for the shoot, the idea for a scavenger hunt came together.

Giuliana ended up having a ball running through the woods, trying to sound out the words scribbled on tiny slips of paper and finding each of the treasures I had hidden for her amidst the snow.  Sweet Indulgence was the icing on the cake, giving us some sweet little confections to scatter throughout our set.  G has never met a jellybean she doesn’t like!  We even brought Grace out at the very end for a quick snap to pull off the infamous bunny tea party, version 2.0.

It all came together even better than I could have planned.  Sometimes, things just happen that way.  Here is my Alice, in her winter wonderland.

“Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

L’s beauty just takes your breath away.  Like all two-year-olds, she much preferred to run around the studio, play dress up, and act silly rather than be placed amidst a bunch of props and told to smile.  One thing I’ve learned from my own two year old is that when you can’t beat em’, you must join em’.  And joining them is truly more fun anyways!  So we ran around, broke out the tea cups, wings, and magic wands and had fun being kids.  I think we captured L’s beauty and whit perfectly.  Enjoy your preview!

I had so much fun photographing the T family this week.  With two kids under three years old, we had our share of silly songs, peek-a-boo, and funny noises for the morning.  I think the best photographs of toddlers come from actually acting like a toddler yourself.  They find you relatively amusing and give you a few real smiles in between the “cheese” faces!  Enjoy your preview T family.  Can’t wait to show you the rest of these!

I LOVE first birthdays! It is an amazing milestone to celebrate and parents are always thrilled with the images that capture their little one’s budding personality. What a personality E had! She was one of the happiest little one year olds I’ve ever photographed. The second I picked up the camera, she would look my way and give me a huge grin. And smiles ARE contagious because I’m smiling looking over these once again! Enjoy your sneak peek mom and dad. I can’t wait to show you the rest because EVERY image is a keeper!!

I had a blast photographing our mini sessions last Friday! For anyone unfamiliar with our mini sessions, they are only about 1/4 of our regular sessions in time, lasting only about 15 minutes. With little time to warm up to the camera, we jump into the shoot feet first (literally!). Kids can run around, play and jump on the bed, all while I chase them around trying to capture all of those little expressions in between. High Energy! Mini sessions aren’t for the timid, that’s for sure! Of course last Friday turned out to be the DARKEST day in my studio all year. It was pouring rain outside and the light was terrible. Needless to say my camera settings were a challenge trying to photograph 12 children who were under 3 (hello slow shutter speeds and small fstop numbers)… but I do love a challenge! All of these little ones were absolutely fantastic. Sweet and fun and full of personality! Thanks for such a refreshing day!

Here is just a little glimpse of the fun I had with the G family last week.  They kept me laughing the entire session!  I don’t typically photograph families this large in my teeny studio, but our day turned out to be close to zero degrees with the windchill, so we were all happy to be indoors instead!!  There were so many different combinations that we photographed that I’m only sharing these two little previews so as to not leave anyone out…. or have a mammoth 2 page preview!  The love of this family was certainly a joy to capture.  Enjoy your preview.

These two little boys were so much fun to photograph. Mom and I actually went to highschool together, but with both our last names changed, I didn’t realize it until she walked in the door! It was fun catching up and meeting her two handsome boys. The session was mainly A’s 6 month portraits, but we got some adorable brother and family shots as well. I can’t wait to show you the rest!

I wasn’t originally going to post the sneak preview from my mini sessions until their galleries went up, but we had such a fun day I just have to show it off!  I loved meeting all of these gorgeous kids and even with only 15 minutes of shooting… I’m STILL going to have a hard time picking favorites!  Here are some that brought me a smile from the day.  Enjoy your preview.  More fun to come!

Oh brothers!  In her pre-session questionnaire all mom said she wanted was a picture of both boys smiling, with eyes open, looking at the camera.  Any parent of young siblings knows how hard that can be to capture!  Well I’m happy to report we got it!  It’s funny I took over 400 image at this session.  Most consist of T squeezing R and R crying, or R smiling and T running out of the scene!  haha  Of course those all end up on the cutting room floor and only adorable shots like these make it into the final gallery.  But, those outtakes do give me a good chuckle along the way!  Enjoy your preview and your two beautiful boys mom!

A and M visited the studio just before Christmas and after meeting them, I know Santa must have been good to them both.  They were both so sweet and fun capture on camera.  Their beautiful blue eyes stole every scene.  Enjoy your sneak preview F family!