Friday Photo Challenge Week 2: Shadow

I'm totally phoning it in with this one. I shot this last week right before a wedding we were shooting and never had chance to reshoot it! I did take some 4-year pics of Ben today, but he was not exactly thrilled with taking pictures of his shadow again. Not to mention it was 1pm and the shadow casts are so short that time of day, anyway! So I give you my shadow pic! One thing I do love to do to shadow pics is flip them. Much like John's awesome shadow pic from this shoot, I flipped it to give it a little more interest. It always makes me a little dizzy looking at them upside down, but I still think it's kind of cool!

What I really wanted to do was get a pic of Ben jumping so it was just his shadow and then flipping it, but I might do that again sometime to see if I can actually successfully do it. But if I were to shoot this particular image again, I'd either shoot wide open to give the shadow more depth or I'd shoot at a really high f-stop to get it completely in focus. I'll have to play with that another time. :)

f/3.2
1/1000 sec
ISO 200

The W Family | Arlington Family Photographer

I think most people would agree that taking pictures of 2-year-olds is hard. It's even hard for parents to get good pictures of little ones that won't sit still or are more interested in what's going on around them than staring at a camera. So when some friends of mine called to see if I could take their family pictures before baby #2 comes and to also get some 2-year pics of their son I was excited! And scared. Two year olds are hard! I think I cried when we came home from our own family photo shoot when Ben was 2. He just did not cooperate! So I always come extra prepared for sessions with toddlers. This session was no exception!

So we started the standard family picture so he wouldn't have to sit still long. He did really good!


Then dad had to pick him up since there was so much to explore at the park we were at. And he still did great!


After that I started to get a little creative because, well, he's two. But he was not a fan of my big bucket.


And the lollipop I brought broke the minute he bit down on it.


Now after this I was chasing him around and totally broke the strap on my flip flop. My favorite brown and silver flip flop. Awesome, right? Luckily the mom (owner of this great etsy site) had brought an extra pair of shoes since she was over 20 weeks prego and let me borrow her shoes. Thank you, Amber!!

So we were back on track. He loved running on the bridge and being held over the edge by his dad.


And lying down on the bridge was one of his favorite things. And included two of my favorite images of their session.



But the clencher was when his dad pulled out the bottle water and soaked the little guy! This kid LOVES water. It was the perfect way to end their session!

All in all shooting toddlers is a tough job, but I honestly have the most fun doing it! I can't wait to take pictures of his new baby brother in a few short months!

Baby Liam | Dallas Newborn Photographer

Since my company name does include design, I'm always excited to get to design things here and there for clients. I never use pre-designed templates and always work from scratch to create one of a kind things (like this really cool birthday party invite). So this is the baby announcement I created from the images I took of my sis-in-law's new baby Liam. After a shaky start Liam fell right into the perfect newborn sleepiness that every photographer hopes for in a newborn session and he was just amazing! I have to thank my friend Julie of Coco 1981 for letting me borrow her awesome chair! It really made this session for me!

Kamille | Bridal | Arlington Wedding Photographer

I really only want to share one image from Kamille's bridal session. She's an amazingly beautiful girl and was picture perfect in her entire session. The girl does not take a bad picture! I was so thrilled she gave me a little creative license with these. I've wanted to shoot at this pecan orchard down the street from my mom's house that's owned by old family friends, owners of Hickory Stick Bar B Q (seriously, go there!) Then when her mom suggested bringing the antique couch that belonged to her grandmother I was so excited!

This may very well be the most perfect bridal portrait I've ever taken. It's just so her. And I love everything about it.

The K Family | Arlington Family Photographer

I really feel that being a portrait photographer helps families tell stories about themselves in pictures that you can't do in words. It's a rare opportunity for most people to get to meet a family and see how much they care and love each other, and I get to do it a few times every month. I love this about being a photographer more than anything.

I get a lump in my throat every time I scroll through this family's images. Partly because of the circumstances surrounding this session and the tremendous honor I felt in being asked to take these pictures. And also because it hit so close to home for me having lost my dad over 10 years ago. I will only share one image from this session out of deep respect for this family. But I would be remiss if I didn't share with you the portrait of a family so supportive of their wife and mother, who are now devoting themselves to the memory of her bravery.

See, Sue fought a long battle with lung cancer, something that as a non-smoker came entirely out of nowhere for her and her family. After a few schedule changes to accommodate her treatments we were finally able to take this family portrait the night before we left town to shoot a wedding. A week and a half later Sue lost her battle to cancer. I was honored to take their pictures, honored to have met Sue, and honored to have given a family a gift that is priceless.

Krystal + Randy | Dallas Wedding Photographer

We met Krystal and Randy last May when we shot their engagement session and they have been some of our favorite people ever since. Krystal is beautiful and poised but loves to have a great time. Randy is laid back and cool. They LOVE their Longhorn football! They are perfectly in love and we were so excited to be a part of their wedding day.

Their wedding was held at the beautiful 1899 Farmhouse. The wedding was coordinated by Stephanie Kuykendall of One Event Design and the amazing cake was created by Opulent Cakes.

Friday Photo Challenge Week 1: In the Grass

I came up with an idea the other day after reading another photographer's blog. I wanted to do a weekly photo challenge for myself and anyone else who wanted to join me. My sister Mandie is also a photographer and I ran the idea across her because she comes up with all these harebrained ideas too. Luckily she actually liked this one and now we have our first Photo Challenge week! Any other photographers who read this, we would love for you to join our challenge. Just leave a comment and I'll send you the details!

So after making a HUGE list of challenge ideas we decided our first week would be In the Grass. Because it's scorchingly hot here in Texas and the grass will only be green for so much longer! My image today is not the most fantastic image ever, but it's an idea I had for the opening spread of a wedding album I'm designing for one of our May brides. I felt like the grass and their wedding invitation really sets the tone for their wedding experience. Beautiful sunflowers and green accents ran throughout their whole day and it was just gorgeous. This is an image I shot this morning (I love when brides send us wedding invitations!) and I may look for a patch of grass that hasn't been mowed to match their free-spirited style a little better. If I do I'll update this post with the new image. But for now, here's my contribution to this week's photo challenge!

Loved | Arlington Family Photographer

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted! Life has been so busy! I'm hoping to get some time to be able to blog the many many sessions I've been working on. I have some really amazing things to show you guys! Thanks for sticking with me!

I absolutely LOVE this family. And the best thing about them is how much they love each other! They were fresh off the plane from Hawaii where they had the best time together, and you can really tell! Such a talented and just fab family. :)