One thing that I try to stress over and over again in my professional photography workshops is to have a plan, but be willing to accept it when that plan has to totally go out the window. For this session, we had an amazing plan and Linsey, oh, Linsey worked so hard coming up with most ADORABLE campfire and s’more set up. The weather was perfection, the light was stunning, the outfits she put together were bright and happy, but when we first got together that night, I didn’t think anything would end up bright and happy. You can read all of the details in Linsey’s perfectly written blog post, but I’ll sum it up for you in four words: kids will be kids.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: in my heart of hearts, I honestly did not think we were going to pull this session off. Bless them, they drove all the way in from the Houston area and Linsey was trying so hard to keep everyone happy and cheerful. We were getting desperate. Some lovely stranger at the park even ran to her car to get us a band-aid for the little guy when he fell. I think everyone at the park took pity on us that evening. When it was clear that it was hopeless, I finally took Linsey aside so we could re-evaluate our situation. I said, “We have to come up with a Plan B in case we can’t pull it together before the sun goes down. What are the three most important things to you that you want me to capture in this session?” She looked at me with her big beautiful eyes and said with complete and heartfelt conviction, “I need to look pretty. I need the kids to smile. I need our family interacting together.” Not too much to ask at all. We can do this. I know we can do this!

And wouldn’t you know it that as soon as we had decided to call it a night, miraculously, the kids rallied and we accomplished our goals for the evening: 1) Linsey looked BEAUTIFUL, even when she was surrounded by tears and chaos, 2) the kids DID smile, and 3) everyone came together and looked like they were having the time of their lives. Whew!!!! Thank you so much, Linsey, for hanging in there that evening and for not giving up on me ;-). I hope you can look back on these images and maybe have a little giggle to remember what we went through to get this. And in case you can’t remember:

P.S. You can check out Linsey’s beautiful photography HERE!

This had to have been one of the most natural, relaxed, easy-going families ever. And that always results in natural, relaxed, easy-going family portraits. I especially loved the last series with just the two of them. Their connection was tangible! And could those children be any more adorable?! I think we could have played all night in the creek! (Another fav HERE).

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, photo sessions with older newborns (4-6 weeks old) are quite fun! It’s really neat when you get to see some personality peeking through and all of those adorable looks babies give when they’re being so expressive. Such a lovely morning spent with this family, basking in the glow of parenthood. (My favorite image from this session is HERE.)

Side note for photographers: it came up in an online conversation recently how lucky I must be to work in all of these homes with tons of great light and beautiful decorations and I wanted to say that in spite of how things may look on my blog, that’s not always the case. This home did have several sources of beautiful light and there were some lovely decorations, but if worse came to worse, I could have potentially shot the entire newborn session in just one of these rooms. Additionally, while the room shown in the last two images was really pretty, but the light was actually not that great. I had to shoot at a pretty high ISO to get this look, but I’m a big fan of backlighting (duh!), so it worked in my favor for these shots. Truly, if you can find (or create) just one small area with beautiful, soft light, you can find a way to make it work for  you. In my upcoming 2013 workshops, I will be taking you INTO a client’s home for a newborn photo session demonstration and you can see for yourself just how to make it work for you. Hmmmm…maybe I should go ahead and challenge myself and say I’ll show you how to shoot a session in just one small spot? If we have to, we will! The discount deadlines for early payment for the workshop fees are quickly approaching, so don’t miss out.

…”It’s a GIRL!” and everyone–and I mean everyone–in the room felt their joy! Major congrats to you guys…little girl, your mama is pretty amazing!

Let me preface this that while the title of this post is a “walk in the park,” with little miss in full speed, it was more like a dash in the park. We couldn’t have had more perfect weather on this day and it was really fun to watch this little one explore her surroundings with 100% curiosity, 100% confidence, and 50% balance, LOL. Um, I know why her mommy is so tiny 😉

…things aren’t always hunky-dory. I find it somewhat humorous that one of my most “liked” images on Facebook came from a session where sooooooo many tears were shed. Bless her heart, for as adorable as she was (and as STUNNING as everyone looked), it was just NOT baby girl’s morning that day. Somehow, we managed to get through (and mom, we have *plenty* of wonderful images coming your way). Will blog more soon, just thought this was a nice reminder of how much effort can go on behind-the-scenes (moms, dads, and photographers alike) to create images that look effortless.

I didn’t realize the significance when her mommy suggested this place for her 9 month photo session. And then…while we were shooting, her mommy said that one year ago they had gotten married there. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! Well now that is an idea I totally dig! Loved the urban, city-chic vibe of this photo session. And I loved that we plopped down an adorable little girl with chubby baby legs right down on these fancy, urban, city-chic couches ;-). That last image up there? That’s my fav. (Recognize her? To review, you’ve seen her here, here, and here ;-). And another newborn baby grows up right before my eyes. Sniff, sniff 🙁

Our photo sessions are always fun, always colorful, always an adventure and I’m going to tell on myself here…they’re always easy. They just seem to flow naturally…very organic and not forced and that’s what makes it so easy…even when it’s 150 degrees outside…even when someone is having a crying fit, it’s still easy because they both embrace parenthood with a GREAT sense of humor and a relaxed nature. I am pleased to say that I learned a new word at this session:

hangry

adj. han·gri·er, han·gri·est

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