{Sneak Peek} My Family - holiday portraits

One of the most difficult jobs I get each & every year is taking our family portraits. It's not that I couldn't give that job to someone else and I'm sure eventually I will, but I really love this challenge. It takes a little planning and an extra dose of patience, but in the end it's totally worth it.

This year I started the 'plan' with a little inspiration from Pinterst for our clothing. Out of the previous 6 Christmas card photos we wore black/red and/or some variation of the colors, with the only exception being the year we announced Grace's *girl* status, which we wore pink/black/grey for. We ended up going with an earthy, neutral sort of 'John Deere' color scheme (which if you know me well or have been to my house, you know that I've got a small collection, so it's not all that surprising).

 

Once I had all my clients images caught up and ordered, I decided I better get going to get our photos taken.  About a week before Christmas I said, 'Today is the day', and without an actual shooting place in mind we set out to make some other deliveries & just happened to be going the 'back way' and when we drove past a place I'd been wanting to shoot forever and the lighting was perfection, I knew we had found our place. 30-45 minutes later, we ended up with these, mostly taken on the tripod with the camera timer, as my remote has decided to malfunction outdoors, the couple of me with the munchkins were taken by the hubby.

I must say these are probably my most favorite family photos to date. I love how they came together and even with shooting via the tripod, for the most part, everyone, is paying attention.

{Real Life} Happy Everything

This greeting is actually coming a little late, but with all that is Christmas, here's our wish for you.

I really LOVE how our card come out this year. Everything about it, from the photos, that we ended up shooting in a place I've been wanting to shoot at forever,  to the shaped Christmas-y text (which just so happened to be inspired by several things I saw floating around on Pinterest, a great source of inspiration, not only for everyday, but especially for the 'creative' side of me).  

I'll be back later this evening, with a look at the rest of our photos and to announce the winner of the Black Friday give-a-way!!! 

{Sneak Peek} Lots of Family

So the other day I blogged about being behind the lens & in front of it when we did family portraits with my dad.  Well the next day, it happened again!!! I know right!?!  Go from not having pictures, to twice in one weekend, it was crazy.  Although this session wasn't quite as smooth, warm, or sunny, we made it work & got some really great images.

My most favorite by far, is this one of this kiddos all together.

 And here are the rest of my favorites from the day.

 Pretty sure my little brother is the master at all things funny facial expression:

 I've heard it time & time again, this one's gonna be trouble...but here's what most don't know....this one right here, is already trouble!!! Full of attitude & drama!

 Not to be out drama-ed or attitude-d by her sister though, she just knows how to look a little more innocent!

{Sneak Peek} Morris Family

I've known this family for a while, well at least Mom. We sort of went to school together, she's a few years younger than me and we do live in a small town, so it's pretty common to know everyone. A few years ago I had the honor of photographing their wedding and you might recognize the little miss from a session this spring.  They are very busy and the little Miss is on.the.go.  Really, she was constantly moving usually at a quicker pace than the rest of us..or not liking my camera. But despite the challenge I came out with some pretty awesome images for them.

This is pretty much the view we got of miss B the entire session:

 I really LOVE this photo of mom & dad. ♥

{Sneak Peek} B Family

This peek is a bit shorter than normal, but I had an absolute blast photographing this beautiful family.  I could say a hundred nice things about them, but I'll just to sum it up with one word, when I think of them, "blessed".  ♥ 

I will message you a more detailed peek & be getting your full gallery up in the next day or so.

{Entered} The Preggo Cravings | I {heart} Faces - Black

This week the theme at I {heart} Faces is black.  That leaves a whole lot open to interpretation. I'm choosing this photo I did of my sister this past spring. We were shooting her maternity portraits at the local baseball field, doing some fun stuff to surprise dad to be, since they're huge SF Giants fans.  It just so happened that the Ice Cream truck was coming down the road when an idea just sprung into my head.  The only thing missing was a jar of pickles!!!  The Ice Cream Guy was a kid we grew up with, kinda like cousins, so we 'borrowed' his truck for a few shots & this just happens to be one of my favorite from this past year of shooting.

Be sure to swing by & check out all the submissions. :)

{Sneak Peek} It's a "Mom" Monday

I met these two lovely ladies at Preschool.  Monday's is now my regular work day, never passing up an opportunity to sharpen my skills, we met up one Monday a couple weeks ago for a morning of "Mom's time out" (aka: kids are at school, hang out with girlfriends, chat & just be free for a few hours). What a fabulous morning we had. I'm very blessed to call these gals my friends, and they're gorgeous, making them perfect to be models for the morning.

See you ladies tomorrow morning.  Looking forward to our next adventure...