Archive for 'We are family'
I admit I was very nervous to photograph this session. Ben is also a photographer and the pressure to take a fellow photographers portraits was a bit nerve wracking. However, my anxiety and fears went totally unfounded as they were so fun to work with. The kids, Caleb and Allison were great: excited, and enthusiastic at following directions. Melissa did a great job in styling their session and I think I want her on staff. Ben and the whole family was open to anything I suggested. This is one of my favorite family sessions so far…
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!
Yes, I am way behind in blogging sessions and yes, I am attempting to catch up!
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 admit, I have had a very long and unplanned break from blogging. I am always amazed by photographers who blog several times a week and how they do it. Especially during the Christmas card rush! Anyway, we are back home from visiting family and I plan on blogging the remainder of my family sessions from the last several weeks.
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!
When we first moved to Amarillo, we did not know a soul. Heather was the first person to invite me out of my house. At that time, I had a newborn and a two year old and her invitations were greatly appreciated. I loved her for it then, and I am so glad I finally got to return the favor by taking pictures for her and her sweet family. Not only is Heather very sweet and kind, but so are her precious girls, Samantha and Savannah (and of course, you too Mark, you are also very sweet).
They wanted a family picture for their Christmas card, so I am not going to post any of those. I’ll leave that surprise to them, but here are some others from the shoot.
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.
Ellie’s mom, Christine got in touch with me months ago about doing a session for Ellie’s first birthday. After talking with Christine I couldn’t wait to meet her and her family. I loved these guys they were such an awesome family. They were easy-going, laid-back and mellow; the perfect clients once again!
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!
While dealing with insomnia and blog-hopping one night, I came across the Family blog of Luke and Cassie. I was immediately smitten and wanted BADLY to take maternity pictures of Cassie who was in her third pregnancy. I left a blog comment offering her a session and went on to the next blog not expecting to hear back. I was very surprised when she not only wrote back but also agreed to the session! Honestly, If that had happened to me I don’t think I would have trusted the wacko leaving random comments on my blog (not that I am a wacko, other people are wackos).
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!
I was very excited to get my first email notifying me of a family in Amarillo that had requested a session through the Littlest Hero’s Project. If you don’t know about the LHP, go here to check them out. This was such a great experience and I loved meeting Misti and Tim and their awesome kids Sidney, Adia and Lucas.
I also want to say a special thanks to Kembra of the Uncommon Twists for opening her beautiful garden for our shoot. Not only does she have a plethora of well-tended plants for sale but she also has an gorgeous, manicured and landscaped area for weddings and special events.
The family…
Adia was born with Down Syndrome and a heart defect. She had open heart surgery when she was 4 months old and weighed only 7 pounds.The surgery was successful and she is now two years old and soo amazing!
Aida’s older brother, Sidney was diagnosed near a year ago with Burketts Lymphoma.He had a large tumor wrapped around his small intestine and by the time he was diagnosed he had stage four cancer. Sidney has completed six months of aggressive chemotherapy. The majority of that six months was spent in the pediatric intensive care unit. His prognosis is wonderful and the doctors expect him to carry on with his life cancer free.
Sidney with his little brother, Lucas…
After the family session we went into downtown to get some images of Sidney. I always get a bit intimated when shooting seniors, because I am a major geek and seniors are ALWAYS way cooler then me. Not only was Sidney one cool cat but he is also super smart and ambitious and plans on teaching music at the university level.
Mitsti and Tim, thanks for giving me the opportunity to celebrate with your family by taking your photographs! Watching you with your kids was such a treat as I could see how proud and in love you are with each of them!
It is crazy how creative I have been with my blog post titles lately. For real.
I’m going to be brutally honest. Family photos are not what I consider my greatest strength. I am always on the fence if I should continue shooting them. Props to those photographers out there like Bobbi and Mike, The Image is Found, and Pastel Photography, they can rock some serious family sessions. It takes major determination, skill, and patience to photograph a family. But then I get families like Heather, Marc and their two boys and it makes me think, “I love families! Why would I want to stop photographing them?”.
These guys were ideal clients. Relaxed, patient, easy-going and nice. Really, I couldn’t have asked for better.
Their boys are Nathan and Morgan, and like boys their age, they are very much interested in not having their pictures taken. Especially when surrounded by a plethora of farm animals…
Nathan is three.
Morgan is about a year and a half.
Heather and Marc, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and your precious boys and I hope to see you all again!
If you are in the Houston area and interested in a session, please contact me at leah@thesaltedimage.com.
Libby’s Mom, Shelley, wanted some pictures to commemorate her daughter’s third birthday. We headed to downtown Amarillo for a fun photo session where I once again fell in love with sweet Libby (see her last session here). This little girl is so amazingly sweet, personable, and smart!
She is also quite the professional hair-twirler!
I love the outfits Shelley picks for Libby they are adorable and so unique!
Did I mention she is turning three!
Yes, three!
It was a pleasure to have Libby’s grandma along with us for the shoot and it is obvious that Libby and her grandma are quite smitten with each other. I loved having the three generations of ladies with me and watching them interact and love on each other.
I am always so impressed with Shelley’s gentle and quiet demeanor with her daughter.
Her patience and calm makes me feel like uber-spaz, but in a good way.
Libby you are so sweet! I could just eat you up (also, of course, in a good way)!
Shelley, thank you for the second opportunity of photographing your precious girl, she is such a treat! Happy third birthday Libby, I hope it includes lots of red flavored slushies!