I allays begin the session with more traditional poses. This is usually when everyone is at their best and the kids are OK with sitting for a bit and the adults may still be feeling awkward in front of the camera and appreciating a bit more guidance then I give toward the end of the session.

I am a big time sucker for a grassy field (although I could have done without the deer carcass but what can you do?).

Ben and Melissa, thank you so much for asking me to take you’re families portraits. I don’t think you know just how much it meant to me! I had such a great time with your family and I love the way your session turned out despite the last-minute change of locations. I hope you give me the honor of working with you all again!

I first photographed Luke when he was around three weeks old  and again when he was close to a year. It is amazing to see how much he has changed and watch his personality develop from mellow baby to an exuberant and friendly young boy. I feel so privileged to photograph his whole family once again.

I met the family last October for big sister Ellie’s first birthday portraits. She is such a funny little girl and was quite gentle with her new little brother.

Christine and Rob, we are so happy for you and your new family of four! Now that the baby is here, let’s set up another “Just Dance” dance-off so I can laugh at the guy’s “Beyonce” moves. We are so happy to count you as friends and look forward to watching your sweet children grow.

I normally encourage people to schedule their newborn session within the first two weeks of their baby’s life. Newborns at that age tend to sleep deeper and are easier to maneuver. Rowan was closer to 8 weeks but by the end of her session she decided to go ahead and sleep hard for us. She was perfectly perfect.

Introducing Rowan…

Her chubby little cheeks were amazing.

Rowan is very lucky too have Ryan as her older sister. Sometimes three year olds like to give me a challenge but Ryan was just as good natured and lovely as could be, plus she likes to dig in the dirt-a girl after my own heart.

The face on the right met me at the door, his name is Puck and he is Ryan’s good buddy. I could have spent a good hour just photographing him.

I mean seriously, look at those faces!

Kristin and Dave, what a beautiful family you have! Thank you for making me feel so welcome into your home and for being such a great help during the session (and please thank Fran too). You each were such a pleasure to work with and I look forward to seeing you all again!

Adia has such a sweet and fun personality. I think I could photograph her all day…

Lucas was not walking last time I photographed. He is on the move now and making up for lost time with some major energy…

Misti, I am so sorry you had to wait so long to see these! Thank you so much for giving me your families time. I enjoy you all so much!

There is Samantha…

and Savannah..

and I could never chose favorites. They are both brimming with wonderful yet incredibly different personalities. Seriously, how can you not love these girls!

I won’t mention what happened to spark the next series of pictures. I will say that, I couldn’t have planned it nor could I have planned for cuter expressions.

There was no rain but I really wanted to use umbrellas. So we did.

Savannah would sit serenely for a number of images before getting s mischievous look in her eye and launching a surprise attack on Samantha. Once again, I couldn’t plan it and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I am so thankful that their Mom, Heather would let it happen. Yeah for cool Moms!

Thanks ladies, you were awesome! I hope I get many, many, more chance to photograph you both!

Family sessions are the sessions that I enter into with the most fear and trembling. You never know what you are going to get with kids. That being said Kristen and Bobby’s boys were an absolute blast and pleasure to be around. I loved these kids! In fact I loved this whole family. I have photographed Kristen before and was very excited about doing her family pictures! After we finished with family pictures they dropped off the boys with family and Dustin joined us to shoot  Kristen and Bobby for a couples session. Because I had so many pictures I loved from both parts of their session I decided to post the couple pictures tomorrow. Here are some of my family favorites…

Coulter, the youngest…

and Noah, the big brother…

I loved how affectionate these boys were with their parents and each other. Noah gave his brother a nice hug (and kiss) without any prompting from me. Too sweet.

And Coulter just reached his hand up to give his Dad a little touch for a good ten pictures. I swear I didn’t ask him to do it! Kristen and Bobby you are doing a great job with your boys!

Kristen picked out this drainage ditch as a possible location and I loved it. It was super cold during the session so we ended soon after these pictures were taken. I definitely have some more ideas for this spot and I would love to get another family out there for some pictures.

I had such a great time with you and your boys did such an awesome job, especially in that cold! You all made it too easy on me. I will be posting your couples images tomorrow and I can’t wait for you to see them!

Heather with her girls…

and Mark and his girls…

After Christmas card pictures at their house we headed downtown to get some relaxed and fun photos.

Umm…smokin hot parentals.

I know I said no family pics but I think I can get it away with at least two…

Sneaking in another family picture. Mark’s request…

Heather and Mark, thank you so much for spending your afternoon with me. You and your beautiful daughters are sweet friends to our family.  Thank You.

After attending the lighting workshop last month I am still trying to figure out where and when to incorporate lights into my session. I let Ellie warm up to me while she was safe in moms lap and used my new lights…

I love the versatility that the lights offer but in this situation I wanted to get Ellie’s sweet face into natural light. We moved into the backyard where I shot with and without the lights…

Rob had a great idea for another location so we loaded up in our cars and headed off to acres of golden fields. The sun was just beginning to set and the temperature was dropping rapidly (at least to Christine and I) but that didn’t stop us because we are tough!

The image above is Ellie’s, “I-am-officially-done-with-pictures face”.

I need to give some major credit to Rob. Husbands have in their power to make or break a photo shoot. Let’s be honest, the men are usually the ones who join the session out of obligation and duty not because they want some beautiful pictures to hang on their walls (sorry to generalize, I am sure there are Men out there who just love a good photo session).  If Rob didn’t want to be there I wouldn’ have guessed. He had a great attitude through out the shoot and made things so easy on everyone. Thanks Rob! You get my Daddy session of the year award!

Ellie decided she was overdue for a nap and we took advantage of that time to get some shots of just Christine and Rob. At this point, I started to get jealous of their wedding and engagement photographer. They have such an easy and loving chemistry with each other and it is always so refreshing to be around people who genuinely like each other and are concerned with making each other happy. *Happy sigh*

I also loved that they laughed at the appropriate times…

So Christine, Rob, ad Ellie. I had such a great time with the three of you and if you are the only bad thing about your session is that Dustin was not there to meet you all!

This was such a great and mellow family.  The children greeted me at the door and at once begin to tell me all about themselves and show me around. Although Cassies pregnancy was the focus for the session I had to grab a couple pictures of her super sweet daughter and son.

There was Mandie…And Matthew…

There was also major drama when a spider skittered across the floor. I think some kind of record was reached at the ear-piercing screeches that ensued. Luke showed up just in time to save the day and prove that Daddy-Long-Legs are not so bad after all…

See, proof that it was a maternity session. Maybe I got sidetracked with cute kids. Normal for me.

Here I am being sidetracked once again. Really, this family was so gracious to let me hi-jack their Saturday afternoon (and evening)…

Later in the evening after it cooled off a bit, Cassie met me at the uber-awesome location she picked out. Mandie came along and we had a very windy mini-session.

Cassie! Thank you so much for letting me take pictures of you and your sweet family. You all were so fun to work with and I appreciate you letting me into your home and giving me so much of your time! Congratulations on  baby Michael and I hope that my camera and I can be sidetracked by him in the near future!