{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.

{Sneak Peek} The Jones Brothers

These little cuties get to come visit every couple of months, partly because I'm Auntie, but also because we like to torture them with photos.  This session is probably went the smoothest of any and all it took was a little semi-bribery.  I simply told Little B he could cooperate, even though he hates pictures, or we could make it take, all.day.long.  He quickly obliged & was so cute, hamming it up with his baby brother. I think he really does like to have his photo made. 
I also did a something a little different than my 'normal' style of shooting all outdoors, on-location.  I set up my little portable studio in the kitchen (which, made me decide my house, is just 2-sizes too small).

Anyways, here's a few (okay, more than normal) of my favorites.

{Sneak Peek} Dustin & Raine

I talked with these two during the summer about doing some 'western' inspired images and then Dustin's horse decided he was better suited on the ground than on his back, so we post-poned...for a while.  I'm so glad we finally go to put this shoot together. We ventured around their property, down by the creek, up with some old equipment.  It was lots of fun. Thank you guys so much.

 This one, although not exactly ready for the wall (needs a little fine tuning to get the weed out of Dustin's eye) cracks me up. The horse couldn't have picked a better moment to try & grab a bite. ;)

 Another one of those fun moments...

 I really,really love this one.

 Oh.my.gosh.  If only the car was complete...and not a blast back to the Flintstones era, complete with 'foot' pedals.

{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} Stillman Grankids

 One of my favorite subjects, no doubt, is children. I love their innocence, their laughter & yes, even the challenge of getting them to cooperate.  These little ones were no exception. Very well behaved & lots of fun. Each one of them so different from the other.  Some may say this first photo resembles something of the Little Rascals, but really they were so good for their session. I'm so happy to have gotten these great images for their family.
 We met at a cute little park in town, right around sundown, it was chilly & despite being a bit sleepy from all the activities from Thanksgiving the day before, everyone was troopers.

 Thank you so much for a wonderful session. I'll be chatting with you soon.