It was fun to see how Jude has changed and grown from his three months session.  He has such a big personality and had us all laughing with his happy squeals and airplane trick!

I love every part of my job: meeting new clients, brainstorming session ideas, puling together all the parts and pieces, taking the pictures, editing, proofing, designing custom products… all the way down to packaging prints.  Each step of the way gives me another chance to use my creativity and skills to spoil my clients!

I’m a sucker for the boutique business experience so if you are too, we will get along ; )

Here is a little look at part of a client’s order that I packaged up and sent on its way today.  Two beautiful 11×14 canvas galley wraps, 5×7 flat press printed birth announcements, all proofed images presented on CD with custom case (this option to purchase the digital files is new to this season), and last but not least three mini accordion brag books (I gift these to all my newborn session clients who pre-book and schedule their newborn session within that curtail first week or two after birth).   All these little pretties will be arriving at their new home tomorrow : ) I had a wise man tell me when I first brought my son home from the hospital, “Print the pictures you take of him, surround yourself with those memories.  They will make you happy.”  He was right.  Moms, surround yourself with images of your children.  Never once will you look at a picture of your little ones hanging on your wall and think, man I wish I never bought that.

It was a perfect way to spend mother’s day!

Congratulations again and HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY Jasper!!!

She delivered this beauty and I was to excited to wait for Adam to hang it up, so me and my iPhone level app tackled the job.  It looks great and I love it but I have to say… I thought this 30×40 canvas was going to look huge over my green chairs in the studio but now I’m kinda wishing I would have ordered it as a 40×60 ; ) a big picture of my momma love  is great but a giant picture of it would be better!

Maybe I will have to find a wall for this one in a that 40×60!

I love having pictures on the walls.  They are like windows to those memories.  Pictures hold emotion and that is why the experience behind an image is just as important as the image itself.

I’ve had a couple clients remark that, “even if not a single image turns out, just the experience of the session alone was worth it.”  It always makes me smile when clients tell me I did good at the end of their sessions.  They haven’t even seen the images yet and they are satisfied!  At that point the pictures are just (cream cheese) icing on the (red velvet) cake.  MMMMmmm my sweet tooth is pulling me towards my pantry now!  There is another plus about being up blogging this late, midnight snack!

Have you ever been somewhere and seen someone who was obnoxiously happy?  I’m not talking drunk or anything like that, but just someone who seems to be oblivious of the negatives of the world around them.  It’s annoying isn’t it?!?  Or at least it is when it isn’t you.

I used to proudly call myself a realist, but being real was just as bad as being pessimistic.  Why wallow in self-pity and mull in self-doubt when you can just be happy?  It is a simple concept, but the nature of a realist and a pessimist make it an impossible idea to grasp.  The thought that just changing your attitude towards life can in return change your life seems radical, but as crazy as it sounds IT WORKS!

- I will pick on Adam to help prove this to be true ; ) -

Our internet was not working correctly and we needed to call the 1-800 number to see what the issue was.  Adam got on the phone with a later admitted “bad attitude” out of frustration over the situation and after ten minutes of back and forth he handed the phone to me and exclaimed that he had gotten no where and was at his boiling point.

Two minutes later, after having a pleasant chat with the man on the other end of the call, I had a technition in route and a promise to have the problem resolved ASAP.

Adam and I were in the same situation and shared the same end goal, but we went about it with two different mind-sets.  Adam knew he was going to have a hard time and so as soon as one thing seemed to go sour he highlighted that, magnified it, and let it define the situation (in this case it was a hard to hear/understand costumer service rep).

But if you go into situations with an open mind and an open heart, eager to soak up any experiences that come your way and believing that those experiences (whether good or bad) contain growth, you will always walk away marking it as a positive one.

It is not easy to choose to be happy, but the opposite is not fun.  There is no reward in being miserable.  No benefit to being angry, and no good to come out of arguing.  The grass is greener on the other side, and all you have to do is walk through the gate.

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Our new way of thinking pushed us out on a family outing this week that we normally would shy away from simply because we always regarded the extra work involved as outweighing the benefit and enjoyment.  As sad as it sounds taking our children out to explore on the river was always an idea that was plagued with the packing and unpacking of all the stuff we would need, the issue of dealing with the cold and often muddy water mixed with the hot sun and bugs, we can’t forget about the ticks, and giving up that time that could have been spent working or at least getting projects done around the house!!!  We could sit and come up with dozens of reasons why not to go, but we didn’t.  Nope, instead I let the  flash of an idea of an afternoon spent exploring build itself into something that promised to be a grand adventure, something that then seemed so magical and inciting no amount of work or but-what-if’s could pull us away.

The day turned into exactly what we had dreamed it up to be – it was a grand adventure and one that will soon be repeated!

A – I shoot Nikon, but as far as the Canon vs. Nikon debate goes it really comes down to personal preference.  When I was researching getting my first DSLR I found matched reviews on both brands, but what made me lean towards Nikon was the rumored Canon focusing issue.  I have not played around with Canons enough to know if it is true, but I do know of two very experience pro photographers who after shooting Canon for years decided to make the switch over to Nikon on account of “soft focussing” with their Canons.  To me this was enough to push me into buying Nikon and I have not been disappointed with my Nikon equipment’s performance.

Q – What are your thoughts on naked baby pictures? maternity belly photos? breastfeeding pictures?

A – love, Love, LOVE

It is interesting some of the conversations Adam gets into on account of my photography.  He has been approached on several occasions about my more “controversial” work.  He was even asked once what his wife’s deal was with all the babies, boobies, and bellies on her (my) site.  His response was simple, yet answered the odd question perfectly – “It’s her thing”.

When he told me this story I got all huffy puffy over the remark and asked him if he went on to talk about how magical pregnancy is and how important the bond between a nursing mother and child is.  I asked him if he described the pure beauty that surrounds motherhood and the innocence of babes.  I then went into a rambling of how sweet little baby chub is and how quickly children grow and loose that baby look.  I expressed my stresses over how society sexualizes women’s bodies and even our children’s.  I went on and on and on and my wonderful husband listened despite hearing it all before : ) Adam was right and his answer was sufficient… it is my thing.

I am passionate about a lot of things, but I understand not all share these interests.  I’m not overbearing and I would never intentionally push my feelings on someone else or bash them for theirs.  Yes, this is my thing and from what I’ve seen it is several of your things as well.  But above all else, my passion is helping other mothers express, capture, and share the beauty of life and love, wether it mirrors mine or not.

Love looks different to everyone : )

In short: a high aperture = deep depth of field and a low aperture = shallow depth of field.

The below two images where taking with the same camera and lens with the focus set on the open flower facing this direction.  The first image was taking with my aperture at f/5.0 and for the second I dropped my aperture down to f/1.8 and then adjusted the shutter speed for correct exposure.  That softness of the background you see in the second image is what lowering the aperture does.

I prefer to shoot with low apertures, because I love the look of creamy backgrounds and the extra pop it gives to the focused on subject.  But there are times when higher apertures are needed, as is often the case for large group shots (in order to keep every one “in focus”).  So when you look at my images and wonder how I get the eyes to pop and the background to fade you will now know : ) it’s a low aperture and the focus set to the eyes.