I always write about how I strive to get connection in my photos. In fact, capturing real emotion and pure connection is what fuels my passion for photography. When I photograph my clients, we are strangers when we start our session and I feel like I get to know them through the process of taking and editing their photos. So when I photograph people I know, it’s a little bit different for me. Instead of getting to know them through my photos, I already know them and their personalities when we start. Then, when I take their photos, I absolutely adore getting to see their personalities shine in what I capture with my camera.

I know these two families because my daughter has been in preschool for the past two years with the middle son from the all boy group and the oldest son who has two sisters. I can’t even begin to tell you how incredible their school and their teacher has been. All of the parents are really involved and I am so fortunate to have made such good friends with the other families. I always refer to them as “my mommy friends”. These two families are no exception. Get this – the moms are sisters and the dads are brothers. How easy does that make holidays with the in-laws? They aren’t the only families that I know that have done this. Pure genius, I tell you.

Anyway, I already knew everyone’s personalities. I knew their smiles. I know how they bat their eyelashes to make the other moms swoon. I’ve seen them play and fight and joke around and be bashful. Knowing all of that made it so much more fun to capture the emotion, their personalities, and connect with them through my camera.

I just adore this photo. This captured their personalities that morning exactly. I love it when my camera is able to freeze a feeling like that.

Here are both sets of kids. Cousins.

The two sisters and two brothers.

You know I love my walking shots.

If only I were 6 years old again. I’d be chasing this little guy all over the playground.

I had to title this post “Sweetness” again. That’s what I titled their post from last spring. You can see those photos HERE. Sweetness still applies, because that’s all I feel from these three. There’s this quiet happiness I feel from just being near this sweet little family, and it makes me happy to be able to capture the love they share.

Every family I photograph emits different energy and I feel something slightly different with each of them. Some are pure laughter, some are joy, some are love, some are affection, some are passion, some are content. This family is my Sweetness.

Look how much he’s grown! Little man just turned 2 years old a few days before our session.

I love the photo on the left. Picture this… a little two year old boy trying to be a stinker and get away with something. He had his back to a big cement pillar. He slowly was inching is way to the side to sneak around the back side of the pillar and make a toddler escape. Can’t you just picture him inching over, little by little, trying not to get noticed?

Boy, do I love this city.

One of my favorites from the session. I think 2 years old is one of the cutest ages. Add Mommy and Daddy tickling a cute toddler and I have nothing but a big fat grin on my face.

I can’t wait to photograph them again next year.

Few things make me smile more than seeing a family that truly brings joy to each other. These three certainly know how to make each other laugh. They shared such a serene sense of peace and shear happiness. It makes me feel good to witness such wonderful and loving relationships. It makes me feel better to be able to capture it for them to forever cherish.

I met this adorable family out at Edgefield. You know I love variety, and getting to shoot in a location where I normally don’t shoot makes me a very happy girl. We only explored a small part of the grounds. Good thing too, because I’ll be taking this adorable little man’s 1-year-old photos in August. I don’t know how I end up with such great clients, but after every session I could totally just hang out with them. Especially a family like this one. When you’re around people who ooze and radiate love for each other, you just want to absorb as much of that positive energy as you can.

I mean… just look at this guy. Does he not radiate joy and happiness? The smiles on mom and dad’s faces never went away the entire session.

A D O R A B L E

Happiness. Joy. Love. You feel it?

I love this shot. They didn’t know I was shooting. They thought I was getting everything set up. They’re looking at their son who is sitting in the stroller to my right. I have no idea what their little man was doing to make them smile so big, but I can only imagine it was super cute.

Daffodils and cherry blossoms. I love Oregon in the Spring.

Dad is standing to my right. I have no idea what he is doing, but it had to have been hilarious. I offered to pay him to come to every session with me to get the kids to smile.

Oh my God. Now I’m funny too.

The story behind these two photos will make you laugh… For the one on the left, I told them to stand together like they were at prom. If you know my style, you know I don’t ask people to do those sorts of things because I seriously want a posed shot. I ask them to do that so I can get the shot on the right. Funny thing is, I actually like both shots equally.

So happy! Look at those two little chompers.

I have to brag here a bit. I’m particularly proud of this photo. It wasn’t raining that day, thank goodness, but we had high overcast skies. The only thing in the sky was a dull ugly grey color. No detail whatsoever. Just ugly grey. When you live in Oregon and you’re a photographer, I suppose you have to figure out how to photoshop the occasional blue sky. Makes the photo a bit more interesting than ugly grey, right? How did I do?

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to look at my blog. I appreciate each and every comment that you all leave me!

Meet my new baby boyfriend and his parents.

Such an expressive little man. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many expressions during a couple hour period on such a young little babe. He was so fantastic. Absolutely perfect, I tell you. Happy the entire time. He is so inquisitive. Nearly impossible to keep still in one spot. My camera was set to continuous focus mode almost the entire session because trying to photograph this little cruiser and still be able to get him in focus was like trying to hit a moving target with an arrow. He has such personality, such charisma, such joy. And boy does he love his mommy and daddy.

I’ve been to their home three times now for the pre-consultation, the session, and then their ordering appointment and this little guy had me wrapped around his little finger with each visit. His parents are absolutely fantastic too. They had music playing during our entire session and I swear, you couldn’t have chosen a better play list for me. I loved every song on their mix. Coldplay, John Mayer, Goo Goo Dolls. I loved every single song. They even had fresh baked cookies out for me (not a requirement, but I promise I won’t complain if you do it for your session). I enjoyed myself so much that I invited myself to just come back and hang out with them sometime.

One thing I know for sure… taking photos in my clients’ home is completely fantastic. Selfishly, I love the change of scenery. I have my favorite locations around town, but my creative juices really start to flow when I’m somewhere completely different. Unfamiliar layouts, lighting, space – all those factors make for new interesting photos. And for my clients, having photos taken in a place where they share all of their most intimate memories simply gives extra meaning to them.

I hope you all enjoy the photos as much as I do.

My favorite:

Puffs are goooood.

Super cool wall. They have the best style in their home.

Another favorite. Look at those two little teeth!

Yup. Love these too.

I can never get enough baby tooshie.

He has the coolest room. The wall decals were so awesome, as was the color of the walls.

Another favorite of mine.

I am baby. Hear me ROAR!

Look at that fine motor coordination. Such determination to get that delicious puff.

What a lovely session this was. This baby is my step second cousin. Confused? Let me explain. She is my stepmom’s sister’s son’s baby. I did their extended family photos last August. She is just a complete angel and reminded me so much of my sweet little girl when she was a newborn. Her mommy and daddy are so fantastic. Sometimes brand new parents are a little anxious and nervous about having a little precious fragile newborn. Not these two. They were so comfortable, so at peace, so completely and obviously in love with their sweet little princess. They made it look easy. I can’t wait to see how much she’s grown next time I’m in California.

My absolute favorite shot from the session.

This shot is just so peaceful to me.

She is so incredibly loved.

Four generations of women. Can you believe it? I hope I look like that when I’m a grandma and a great grandma. Sheesh. I’m looking forward to getting their five generation photo in 20-30 years.

I call this one “Daddy Hammock”.

Such a beautiful little baby. She looked a lot like my first born did when she was that little.

This session was special for me because of a couple reasons. Most importantly, the wonderful lady in the photos below is my OB and delivered both of my babies. I’ll forever know her as the first person to touch both of my precious babies. Secondly, she’s a repeat client, and I LOVE repeat clients. Not only do I already know them which makes the actual session all that more fun and easy, but it is so awesome seeing the kids that I photograph grow. When I took this little man’s pics almost exactly one year before, he was drooling all over, couldn’t stand very well on his own, and had short straight blonde hair. I was completely giddy when they got him out of the car and I saw his curls. Aren’t they just the cutest? He had the personality to match. He sure loves his mommy and daddy too. He wanted them to be in all the pictures with him!

Our session was funny because we waived back and forth as to whether we should do it as scheduled because of the weather forecast. It called for 70% chance of showers on the day of, but the next available day a week later called for 60% showers. I left it up to them because I didn’t want to make the call – if I did, the weather would have most certainly been better on the day that I didn’t choose. Anyway, we raced through the session and ended up with a great variety of photos in a record 35 minutes! Just when we got to our cars, it started to pour. It sprinkled on us quite a bit and I was thrilled that you could see the raindrops in some of the photos.

Dr. O – thank you so much for continuing to use me as your family photographer! I adore how the photos turned out. Enjoy your sneak peek!

I’m so glad we did the session when we did. I bet if we went to this same spot one week later, half the leaves would be gone from the storms we’ve been getting.

Those curls!!!

He, much like my son was at this age, is a binky addict. The only way to pull the binky out and get smiles instead of tears was to maintain a constant supply of dandelions. Adorable, isn’t it?

This one is my absolute favorite. I have no idea what Dad was doing behind me but it was obviously extremely funny. I tell you – I should hire some of these dad’s to come along to my sessions and dance behind my camera. Can you see the rain drops?

I love this shot. I don’t love what happened after this shot.

Poor little guy. After all that running, he fell down on the path. I have no idea what he landed on, but it was sharp enough to cut through his jeans and leave a pretty deep gash in his knee that resulted in a lot of blood. As hard as it is for me to even look at this photo because it just breaks my heart, I really love it at the same time. Every single mom out there looking at this photo knows exactly what this mom was feeling. You can see it on her face. She just wanted to make the pain stop and see her little boy smiling again. This photo, to me, is complete and total tenderness.

Of course I’ll leave you with a happy photo!