Baby J

I had the pleasure of taking some pics of little Baby J and his parents. He is actually cousins with The H Girls from my Valentines shoot. He is a little over a month old so I knew that some of the newborn looking stuff wouldn't work. I have not photographed a baby yet so it was a new and exciting experience!

My Handsome New Nephew

My new nephew is pretty dang cute! I was lucky enough to get a few newborn shots of him at 5 days old. Big brother was napping so I didn't get any of the whole family, but I was able to capture a few great moments! 

This is my second newborn shoot, but my first lifestyle type shoot as normally I shoot outside or in my house where I know where all my light is. This house (which is my father in laws house) has the worst light ever! Then it was cloudy and began to snow. Needless to say I was very nervous on how my lighting would be. However, I think they turned out decent enough. 

I can't wait to get some with big brother! 

The H Girls

How freaking adorable are these two little girls! I was certainly lucky to be able to take their pics for my Valentines Mini Session. They loved the candy, of course! I loved that they are both so photogenic! I am really enjoying the vintage backdrop. The lace belonged to my mother, and the suitcase belonged to my great grandmother, so not only does it look just darling it is also very sentimental.

Broke My Vow Valentines Pics

So I broke down and did a few pics of Tristan for Valentines Day. I have been wanting to work on my vintage editing, so I did a vintage background. These are just a few of my favs!

My January Vow and Valentines Pics

My poor son has been the subject of my photography for 8 months now, and I can tell the kid is getting sick of the camera in his face. Not to mention, sometimes it is good to just put down the camera and enjoy the memories with your child instead of concentrating so much on capturing them. So I vowed to not take any pics this month of the little man, and spend more time connecting with him.

However, this leaves me with the itch! The itch to take pics, especially with the oh so cute Valentines Day coming up. The heart and flower backgrounds get me every time. Not to mention my absolute LOVE for Boudoir photography. So if anyone is interesting in doing some adorable Valentines pics of their kids (like these of little man from previous years) or doing some Boudoir pics as a gift for their husbands, let me know!

Baby Lyrik and My First Newborn Shoot

I have known for awhile now that I would be doing a newborn shoot. I tried to prepare for it as much as could. Stalked newborn photography stuff on Pinterest, read lots of blogs, and tried to come up with lots of ideas. I tried hard to remember what happened at Tristan's own newborn shoot (you know cause 2 years ago is actually a VERY long time in mommy world.) I felt prepared. The day came, my amazing husband helped me set up the white sheet on the wall. I had the portable heater going, the white noise on. I had all my props nearby, as well as baby wipes and burp clothes. I was nervous to handle a newborn again. They are so tiny! I snapped away, and this is a little storyboard of my favorites. Lyrik is so gosh dang cute, and his mommy and daddy are just sweet as can be. It was a great shoot!

Baby Reece and My First Studio Attempt

An old friend from high school asked me to take some 1st birthday pics of her adorable daughter, Reece. I said of course! Besides the holiday pics, most of my photoshoots have been done outside. However, I have read up a lot of indoor make shift studios, and I am thankful my house gets pretty decent natural light. So I taped up my white sheet, got some balloons and streamers and made a make shift background and snapped away. Reece was a doll to photography, very different than my own child who will not sit still for anything. So I got a lot of face shots of baby Reece. I put together this cute little storyboard of some my favorites. I just love her big brown eyes!

I have to say that my little studio did great for my first time. Of course there are always things I want to change, things that ironing the sheet so I have to do less smoothing in photoshop. There was a big sliding glass door to her left, and my front door was open to the right but there just was not enough light from the front door and there was more shadowing that I would have liked. But overall I am very happy! 

My Christmas Photography Wish Come True

My sad kit lens does not do well with indoor pics, and it does not do well with Bokeh and the beautiful blurred backgrounds that are ever so popular right now. So I made a nice little wish list to Santa (cause I swear I have been good ALL year) for a Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens. Well Santa (a.k.a my amazing husband) decided to bring it to me this year...and early too! I spent Christmas playing with my new lens, and was just so blown away by the pinpoint focusing I could do. Well in all my excitement I forgot to change my white balance and all my pictures ended up with an orange tint. Oh well, thankful for cooling photo filters! That is what this journey is about, learning. Boy, did I learn my lesson on that one. Here are a few fun pics (some edited and most not) that I took with my new lens! Big thanks to my loving and supportive husband!

New Years Goals

It's a little soon to be thinking about the New Year, but I can't help but feel like I have major photography goals in 2013!

First off I am taking a college photography course which will take up a lot of my time, and I really hope it is not as boring as it seems. There is just a lot of technical stuff I wish I had a better understanding of. I think this will help me learn more about my camera and "become one" with my camera.

Second, a new lens! I really really want a new lens. Something with a better aperture, and that I can take better indoor pics with.

Third, more photoshoots! More and more and more of them! A lot more practice. And not all with my son, who is getting really tired of mommy sticking a camera in his face and not playing with him. After Christmas mommy will be taking a break from photographing her son in hopes she has not destroyed any love he had for the camera already.

Things I want to capture next year

• Birth photography
• Couples 
• Snow/winter photography
• Boudoir
• Newborns
• Babies
• Unique themes
• Birthdays

And of course, I want to keep up with my blog! Keep documenting my journey. 

Christmas Shoot

Just a few of my favorites from the Christmas themed photoshoot. Did not get much bokeh this time around, but wanted more full body shots anyway.

Milk & Cookies

I have had in my head for awhile that I wanted to do a Milk and Cookies photoshoot with Tristan, and I have been preparing for it for weeks. I got the cute Starbucks coffee jugs, drank the coffee and cleaned them out. I got a big bag of cookies. I had a red plate! Finally along with our Christmas themed photoshoot yesterday, we did Milk and Cookies as well. The kiddos had a blast! Who doesn't when you are eating cookies though? And the pics are super cute. This is my very first storyboard I have ever created, and I am pretty proud if I do say so myself. There are tons of things I want to change looking back at it now but hey, you live, you learn. Next time will be ever better!

Christmas Bokeh Photography

Today was my test run of Christmas Bokeh pictures. With my kit lens, I have to be very close to my subject to achieve somewhat of a decent Bokeh, but I am happy with the few I did get. I happy I was able to do it at all. I hope next Christmas I will have a better lens. These two are my favorites.

Tomorrow will be the full on photoshoot with themes and everything! I am excited, but very nervous. Toddlers are hard to photograph! Too much going on for them to want to sit still with a camera in their face. Tomorrow they shall be bribed with cookies.

Finally!

Tomorrow is my last day of a very hard semester. The hardest semester I have ever had in my college career. Tomorrow marks the end, whether it is good or bad it is still the end and I am still thankful that it is over. That means I have roughly three weeks or so where I can concentrate on photography! Anyone looking for a photoshoot?

Then next semester begins my first photography class. I can not wait! I hope it is as exciting as it sounds, and not truly boring like the history of the camera and it's parts or something totally not useful to me. I hope I can continue to grow myself as a photographer, and I hope I can continue to learn and capture moments.

Indoor Photography

Indoor photography is just plain hard. You lack natural light inside which usually means lowering your f-stop and upping your ISO. My kit  lens only goes down to a 3.5, so I am forced to up my ISO but then the photos can become very grainy looking with a lot of noise. I guess I could always use the flash, but that produces horrible light with a ton of shadows. So alas, I am struggling with taking pictures inside. I am thankful my house house tons of light and most of the time I can get good pics with it.

Tristan's Girlfriend

My son just might beat my record someday. I met my husband when I was twelve and we have been together ever since. Tristan met his girlfriend when he was 6 months old (she was just born!) So if they marry someday like we joke that they will, he will seriously have his mommy and daddy beat, by a lot.

It is fun to watch them now because they interact with each other and play and laugh and (sometimes) share. They love to hug and kiss each other. It happens so quickly that I don't catch a lot of good pics of it but today I got this one which I thought is super cute. Indoor photography is hard for me and something I am still learning, the quality kinda sucks and it's grainy but it still melts my heart!

Besides, if they do marry someday, I will have a whole slideshow of embarrassing pics!

What I Love to Photograph Most

"If you want to learn what someone fears losing, watch what they photograph."

My son is the reason I bought my camera. I wanted, no I NEEDED the memories and I needed them documented (thanks to my total lack of memory capability.) So first and foremost the number one thing I love to photograph is my son. And boy did I luck out with his beautiful blue eyes!

Welcome!

Welcome to my photography blog! I have been dreaming this up in my head for awhile, and finally have gotten around to doing it. It is by far not in any way shape or form fancy or professional but that is okay with me. I was just looking for a place to share my work, share what I am learning about, what I am struggling with, and what goals I have. I have been on the photography journey for only 7 months so I have a lot more to learn, and so much more to capture!