Flu, Flu, go away…

Well, for the last 8 days I have been sick with the flu. The cough, nose, throat, body ache, laying-in-bed kind. And if you read my last post you know that I DON’T HAVE TIME TO BE SICK!!!!! Well, I was finally able to finish these images for these awesome people last night, who have been so kind to me while waiting for their photos (as you can see from their attire, this shoot took place WEEKS ago!)

So a little bit about them…

There are times in our lives when we meet people who are truly deeply in love, deeply connected, and just overall great people. They enjoy each other, they know how to live life to the fullest, and they radiate kindness and peace.

In honor of their coolness, I am going to do a CONTEST. If they get 25 comments on this post, I will give them a free 5×7 print. So help them out, people! Leave a comment so that these folks can have a free photo of their choice!

Copycat. Me. I am a Copycat.

When I arrived to this session a few weeks ago, we were looking through this little guy’s clothes that mom had picked out for the photos, and I saw this great little Paul Frank sweatshirt. I said, “Oh yay! We will totally do some in this, I love Paul Frank stuff.” Then she proceeded to tell me that Paul Frank had a limited time line at TARGET. You are kidding me!!! (I believe I said this about 10 times.) Wait, Paul Frank boys clothes…in my price range?  D o e s .   N o t .  C o m p u t e .

So this is where the copycat part comes in:

After the session was over, I immediately drove to Target to buy Paul Frank stuff for my boys. And it felt dang good!

Here is proof. Ian and Cy’s picture on the first day of school, lol!

Now here are the photos from the session! You may recognize this family from a maternity and a newborn shoot last year…

Enchanted forest, old castle, and lollipops?

Seems like a weird combination, but for these three awesome kids, it worked perfectly.

This shoot ended up being the culmination of many ideas that have been rolling around in my head since I started my business in 2006. I have wanted to do a shoot at this location for a long time now, and have also wanted to add some deliciously colorful and sweet lollipops to some kid sessions as well! So when the opportunity arose to do both, I snatched it!

Of course we had to do some nice photos pre-sugar. ; )

Now, ON TO THE CASTLE!!

Now, bring on the SUGAR!!!

Also, a shout-out to Blakelee’s Chocolates and Sweet Things on Water Street for providing the gigantic lollipops!

Whimsical? Ehem…Did I hear whimsical?

I love shoots like these.

I love having full permission to do what I do, and I LOVE hearing a client describe their goal for the shoot like “You know, a few casual family photos and then something whimsical.”

International Adoption Picnic recap

Well, minus the downpours of rain, the picnic was wonderful! I think everyone who attended had a great time. I was able to squeeze a few family mini-sessions in before it began to rain, and they were so much fun. It was a privilege to meet so many adoptive parents and kids from all over the world! I was especially excited to meet a little 8 month old boy who was just recently adopted from Ethiopia (for those of you who don’t know, my husband and I are adopting a little girl from Ethiopia who is now 8 months old!)We are still waiting on our court date, and when we know that date we will have a better idea when we travel to bring our little girl home. Being at the picnic only made me more excited for the day we meet her!

So here are just a few of my favorites from the day. A special thanks to Sara Lawrence from RavenLark Arts who helped me design the beautiful canopy that you see in the photos. I could not have done it without her help!!!