Tag: fall

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: Hattie’s Gold Hope Project

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September is childhood cancer awareness month.  As many of you know, I am a volunteer photographer with an organization called The Gold Hope Project.

The mission of The Gold Hope Project is to gift families battling pediatric cancer with a free portrait session. Photos from the sessions are then used to raise awareness & funds for pediatric oncology research and treatment.

Through my work with the Gold Hope Project, I have had the honor of meeting some truly amazing little fighters, and their families. The short amount of time that I have spent with them has changed me for the better. I want to share a little about them with you.

If your child is currently fighting childhood cancer, or is a survivor under the age of 18, click here to apply for a free Gold Hope Session.

How I got involved with The Gold Hope Project

I’ve had the honor of working with a few childhood cancer fighters on my own before I signed up as a Gold Hope volunteer.  My little friends Arya, Katelyn and Finn have been such an inspiration to me that I knew I wanted to be able to photograph more heroes like them.  I love that the Gold Hope Project  offers this gift to families who are going through so much, all while raising awareness and money to fight this awful disease.

My buddy Finn was an amazing little 3 year old who completely touched my heart and recently got his wings after a long fight with Rhabdomyosarcoma. The faith and strength with which his family fought this battle has been an inspiration to me, and to our entire community.  While I am heartbroken, I feel blessed to have known this super hero for even a brief time. If I can give just a little something to other kids like Finn and their families, then I want to do that.

Hattie’s Story:

I met Hattie last December, just a couple days after Christmas. She had received a bone marrow transplant just a few months earlier. Her family actually lives in Knoxville, but had temporarily relocated to Nashville for her transplant and recovery. Lots of families fighting childhood cancer have to deal with the additional burden of living away from home. This creates extra cost, and also the strain of being away from family and friends to help them get through this tough time.

Hattie was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at the age of 9 months. She had known hospital life for half of her life so far at the time of our session.  Hattie loves superheroes and her favorite Disney princess is Belle. She also loves elephants, just like me. She watches the movies Moana, Secret Life of Pets, and Coco over and over.

Our Time Together:

I met Hattie on a rainy day in December and she stole my heart. We had hoped for nice enough weather for an outdoor session, but did not get so lucky. Very soon after our session, Hattie was able to move back home to Knoxville because she had completed her treatment in Nashville. This was great news, but also meant that we weren’t’ able to wait for more pleasant weather.

The Factory of Franklin was kind enough to waive their normal photography permit fee, so we chose to do the session inside of the Factory. Hattie was not feeling well at all just before our session, and had been sick as a side effect of her treatment. But this little trooper pulled through and did an amazing job for her photos. She was just the sweetest little thing. Her mom had said to me before that Hattie makes a lot of funny faces, and she was not wrong!! We captured some of the most adorable expressions on her.

Hattie had the cutest doll with her at the session that was handmade by volunteers at a non-profit called Feel Better Friends. The doll was made to look just like Hattie, and they even had matching hats. There is a link on their website to donate if you’d like to help more kids receive these cool dolls.

I have followed Hattie’s story since we met, and am happy to report that she’s at home with her family in Knoxville dand doing great. Please pray for her continued remission.

Where to Read More About Hattie:

Hattie’s Gold Hope Session Blog

Hattie’s Website

Earlier this week, I blogged about my first official Gold Hope Session with sweet Kelly. Read about her session here.

I still have a few Fall Portrait sessions left. What are you waiting for? Book yours today.

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: Kelly’s Gold Hope Project

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September is childhood cancer awareness month.  As many of you know, I am a volunteer photographer with an organization called The Gold Hope Project.

The mission of The Gold Hope Project is to gift families battling pediatric cancer with a free portrait session. Photos from the sessions are then used to raise awareness & funds for pediatric oncology research and treatment.

Through my work with the Gold Hope Project, I have had the honor of meeting some truly amazing little fighters, and their families. The short amount of time that I have spent with them has changed me for the better. I want to share a little about them with you.

If your child is currently fighting childhood cancer, or is a survivor under the age of 18, click here to apply for a free Gold Hope Session.

When I first shoot a session for the project, I have to wait until the images are featured on the Gold Hope Project website before I can share them myself. This can often take a while because there are so many sessions with families all over the country. As a result of this wait, I have not blogged these sessions yet. I thought that September would be a great time to go back and introduce you to all the amazing little ones I’ve met in the past year.

Kelly’s Story:

My very first official Gold Hope session was this past October with this amazing little girl, Kelly.  Kelly was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma a couple months before her first birthday.  She has stage 4 advanced Neuroblastoma. This is a very aggressive cancer with a very aggressive treatment plan. This poor sweet girl has been through a lot in her short lifetime, enduring many hospital stays and tough treatments. In the words of her mama, she is the bravest and strongest little girl, and always tries to do everything with a smile on her face.

It’s been about 10 months since I met with Kelly and her family, but I have continued to follow along with her story on her Facebook page. On September 9th, she will be admitted in the hospital for hopefully the very last time, for a very hard last round of treatments. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.

Our Time Together:

Kelly’s session is probably one of my favorites of all time. She was just absolutely so much fun to be around. Her smile was infectious, and her joy comes through in the photos, and when I look at them, I can’t help but smile.

The light and the weather were magical that day, and everything just came together perfectly. One of the things I love about toddlers is that they are so fascinated by the world around them, and find wonder in the things the rest of us take for granted. Kelly was even more so enamored by the beauty around her, having spent a good portion of her life in hospital rooms. She had so much fun exploring the park, and it was a gift to imagine what the world looked like through her eyes.

We played hide and seek, and she giggled so hard when her daddy would jump from behind a tree. Kelly loved the bubble machine that I sometimes pull out at sessions. She showed me one of her favorite Eric Carle books (Brown Bear, Brown Bear) and we listened to her favorite song from the Moana movie.

Kelly had to have surgery not long after our session, so I was so very thankful that she was able to enjoy our time together.

I hope that her family was able to find a few moments of joy, leaving behind the burdens and stresses of fighting cancer. I’m so glad they were able to take a break from all the worries and just enjoy their beautiful little girl.  I hope that when they look at the photos, that it brings them back to those happy memories and gives them hope of more beautiful moments in the future. 

Where to Read More About Kelly:

Kelly’s Gold Hope Session Blog

Kelly’s Facebook Page

Some Facts about Go Gold for Childhood Cancer:

  • In 1997, a group of parents picked gold as the official color for the childhood cancer awareness ribbon. The color gold symbolizes how precious children are and the resiliency of childhood cancer heroes. Unlike other awareness ribbons which symbolize one specific disease, the childhood cancer ribbon stands for dozens of diseases. You can learn more about the different types of childhood cancer, including brain tumors, leukemia and other solid tumors like neuroblastoma here. 
  • The color gold symbolizes how precious children are and the resiliency of childhood cancer heroes. Unlike other awareness ribbons which symbolize one specific disease, the childhood cancer ribbon stands for dozens of diseases.

I still have a few Fall Portrait sessions left. What are you waiting for? Book yours today.

My first real family portrait clients

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I cannot believe it’s been almost four years now since I began on this adventure as a professional family & children photographer.  I was thinking about that during this session because I consider this family to be my first “real”clients.  I had been photographing lots of families before I considered myself a real professional, but they were all close friends who I knew very well.  This family was the first ones who hired me who I didn’t know really well when they had their first session, so that’s why I consider them my first real clients.

It was for a maternity session and included the big sister to be at a session at Harlinsdale farms.  I was nervous about shooting with people I didn’t really know, but I just fell in love with them right away, and not long after that, was blessed to photograph Grayson’s birth. And each year since, I look forward to photographing their family photos.  I talked yesterday about how I had a weekend of shooting my ideal clients, and this is definitely one of my favorites.

Each year I say how easy these two adorable kiddos are to photograph and they were the same way this year.  There is just so much cuteness and they clearly love each other sooooo much. It’s not just the kids though.  I adore mom and dad as well….they are always playful with the kids and we have so much fun just capturing memories. It’s always such an easy session and they are just simply beautiful.

My ideal family portrait clients

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I want to apologize for the large amount of photos in this blog post.  I really am trying to get better about that, but I easily had enough photos from this session for three blog posts, and I had a really hard time choosing.

I first met this beautiful family last year, when they hired me for an extended family session after I had photographed sweet Lily’s preschool graduation photo and I just fell in love with them.  There is just so much love, and joy and togetherness with them that is just beautiful to be around. 

In photography workshops and facebook groups, they talk a lot about finding your ideal clients.  That’s not something I thought about at all before becoming a professional photographer, but I quickly realized how important it is to find clients who are a good fit for my style.  This past weekend, I had three family sessions, and I walked away from them all thinking about how exactly perfect the clients were for me. 

I can’t put into words exactly what makes them so perfect, because a lot of it is just a feeling.  But there are a few things that I know I love to see in clients:

  • They are familiar with my style of work and have come to be because that’s the style that they want, not just because someone recommended me or they found me in a google search (those are all great ways to find me, but my point is that they did look at my photos and made their final choice based upon my work.)
  • They put thought and planning into their wardrobe selection, but also understand that the primary subject of the photos are the people themselves, and have chosen clothing that they are comfortable in and feel themselves in. 
  • They value photos as priceless artifacts of their time together, and after the session, they take the time to print the photos and enjoy them. (I was so excited to hear how this family printed and enjoyed their photos from last Fall!)
  • They aren’t looking for perfectly posed and put together photos, but are interested in capturing real memories of their time together.

I feel so thankful to have so many amazing clients who are not only clients, but who have become friends.  I love being able to see them grow each year ❤️

The best weekend for Family Photos with Fall Color

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First of all, I want to say that any time of year is perfect for a family portrait session. The important thing is to get them done, and to do it regularly, preferably at least once a year as our littles ones grow so fast and are constantly changing.  Beautiful memories can be captured any time of year. I’m now booking January photo sessions, and those can be absolutely beautiful (you just need to dress warmly!)

With that being said, lots of my clients really want that gorgeous fall color, and ask me when they should schedule family portrait sessions to get that color.  I always hesitate to answer because mother nature is unpredictable and I cannot promise you we will get beautiful fall color at all.  Sometimes, an early freeze or drought conditions or other things can put a damper on that beautiful autumn color.  

But I can tell you, after some experience and actual forecasts, when to schedule your session to get the best chance of gorgeous color, and that is the first weekend of November (the last weekend in October is a good second choice).  That’s when our fall colors peak here in Middle Tennessee.  I find a lot of clients who assume it happens a lot earlier than that, and that’s probably because it does up north. Our friends in Michigan saw their autumn peak several weeks ago (and now they are getting snow!). 

This beautiful family portrait session from this weekend is a bit past the peak.  The sessions I did the weekend before had a lot more color, but I can’t share those with you at the clients request (some are surprise Christmas gifts, and we don’t want to ruin the surprise!) But I’m so glad that this family had such a beautiful day! We had actually rescheduled this session from earlier in October because of rain.  Are they not absolutely stunning!  I’ve known this gorgeous family for years, but this is the first time I’ve been able to photograph them.  They were so much fun to capture and I hope they love the photos as much as I do. 

The autumn leaves are going to be gone very soon, so get out and enjoy this absolutely gorgeous color while it lasts!  

Repeat Portrait clients are my favorite

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One of my favorite things about my job as a family portrait photographer is getting to know families, especially when they come back for repeat sessions.  I photographed this beautiful family around this time last year and just loved getting to know these three beautiful sisters, so I was so excited to see them again this year. 

Last year I wrote: “They are totally my happy place. So much energy, and wonder and joy.  They were just perfect.”  I would say exactly the same thing about our session this year.  Only one thing was different…

Last year for their session, I wrote about how important it is to tell me if one of your children is particularly shy before the session. That lets me know that I need to maybe approach that child a little differently and give her time to warm up to me.  

But you know what’s great about being able to see client again and again?  This time, the children remembered me, and they knew that the session wouldn’t be scary or boring.  They came into it knowing we’d play and have fun.  This makes it especially easier for kids who may be a little shy.  Knowing me coming it to it, they feel more at ease and have an easier time getting into the session.

And I got the chance to see how much they’d grown over the year, and hear about their new interests and what brings them joy.  (New Harry Potter fans are the BEST.)  

Downtown columbia tn senior guy portrait session

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I can’t believe that once upon a time, I thought I would hate senior sessions. When I first started in photography, families and young children were definitely my comfort zone. But with some encouragement from friends, I gave senior sessions a try and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed them.  It’s so fun to get to know these young people, and also to try to capture their personalities and passions in photographs.  I just love that Dylan brought his guitar to this session, and my favorite photos from it are ones where he is playing. 

I also love the ability to get creative with backgrounds and lighting. I can do that to some extent with younger kids, but they just don’t stand in one place for long.  I love the look and variety of downtown sessions, but don’t recommend them for my young clients because it’s not a safe space for them to roam and explore freely. But with seniors, it’s just perfect. Downtown Franklin is great, but I also have grown to love shooting in downtown Columbia.  It was just the perfect weather and perfect location to commemorate Dylan’s senior year. 

I want to photograph things that are important to your family

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I’m sometimes asked by potential clients about what props that I include in a session, or if there are any props that they should bring.  That’s kind of a complicated question and for me, depends on how you define “props.”

My gut response is that I don’t do props.  But to me, a prop is something fake or staged for a photo.  So what I mean when I say that I don’t include props in a session, is that I don’t show up with a wagon full of cutesy stuff to include in your family photos.  I don’t create an elaborate scene of decor or other items.  I prefer, generally, for people to be the main focus of a photo, and even for my studio type work (like Santa sessions) I prefer the backdrop to be simple and minimal.

However, I do love to include YOUR stuff in photos.  The end result may be the same to someone who just looks at the photos as an outsider, but to me, this is a very important distinction.

One question I ask clients when they book a family session with me, is for them to tell me about some things that are valuable to their family.  The reason I ask this is that I like to include MEANINGFUL objects in family session photos.  Nothing that I bring is going to be meaningful to you.  I could buy a bunch of brand new cute stuffed animals.  But I’d rather include your daughters well loved ones.  I love including books in photos, but only if they are books important to your family.  I do bring some quilts to each session to use if we need them, but if you have one that grandma made, I’d much rather use that.  


I fell in love with this family right away.  I mean, they had me at Harry Potter.  I do believe I could have just shot the entire session while these kids happily read their books.  And I loved that they lived right next to Henry Horton Park.  What an amazing back yard!! This is the place where they take lots of walks together as a family, so it means so much more to look at these photos of them together, because it captures their lives as they really are.  What about you? What are the things (or places) that are really important to your family? Have you ever thought about including them in photos, either your personal photos that you take or ones you’ve hired a professional to take?

No, we aren’t doing photos with Satan…and other reasons I need a copy editor.

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So apparently I invited the “I heart Spring Hill page” to come have photos made with Satan at Spring Station Middle School. 👹

So two things:

We will be doing photos with SANTA 🎅🏻, not Satan 👹.  Satan isn’t very festive. 🎄  (Click the link at the bottom of this blog post to get your tickets now..don’t wait as they are selling out fast.) 

Also, I should not be allowed to type things.  Pictures really are my specialty.  And if pictures are worth a thousand words, then I have millions and billions so I should just quit typing.

It’s not that I can’t spell, it’s that I type quickly as things are coming into my head, and then, even if I re-read it multiple times, I SEE it like it’s correct.  Have you ever seen those tricks of the mind things where they delete all the vowels from a paragraph, but somehow you can read it anyway because your mind subconsciously fills in the blanks?  That’s what I do when I try to edit my own work…I don’t even see the error. I mean, you guys, OF COURSE I meant Santa.  

I’d like to say that was the first time I royally goofed in type, but sadly, it’s not. 

So I actually have a copy editor.  She’s really good at it and bonus…she’s free.  Unfortunately, she’s also 12 and at school all day.  I could wait, and I know I should, but I get so excited to show these beautiful families their photos, and I know that they are usually on pins and needles waiting to see them, that I just can’t make myself wait.

So instead, I ask for your grace and hope that you’ll love me for my photos and not judge me for my typos. And a big shout out to all my amazing people who are kind enough to point it out to me when I invite an entire town to photos with Satan, or who help point out less interesting errors. 

With that, check out these photos from a session that I so look forward to each year.  Lucky Ladd Farms is one of my favorite places and the Ladd’s are one of my favorite families to photograph. (Check out their website to see lots of pictures of my baby girl, who has been in love with their farm since she was teeny tiny.) 

What exactly is Lifestyle Photography?

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This beautiful family was able to take a last minute opening that I had available, and I am so glad they did.  We had so much fun running and playing in the leaves. 

I thought I might take the opportunity to talk about exactly what it means to shoot lifestyle photography, which is what I consider most of my sessions. To understand lifestyle photography, it helps to understand a few other types of photography.

One type of photography is classic posed portraiture.  These are what you think of when you think of a photographer telling you exactly where to stand, how to hold your chin, elbow, etc.  While I believe there is a time and a place for specific posing, this is not the type of photography that inspires me.  I do, however, try to capture at least a few of these shots throughout a session. 

Another type of photography (one that does inspire me), is documentary photography.  In documentary, the photographer doesn’t give guidance at all, but is merely a fly on the wall capturing what happens as it unfolds. I LOVE documentary.  I love to capture real life moments and emotions.  My birth sessions are documentary, as you can imagine.  In that setting, I am dictating nothing, but just capturing the story that is happening in front of me.  

The problem with using a PURE documentary approach for family sessions is that if I tried to be a fly on the wall and just capture what was happening, it’s likely, at least at first, that your family would stand around awkwardly, not sure what to do with themselves. Probably after enough time passed, they’d forget about me and start going about life, but unless something particularly engaging were happening it may take hours and hours to get a full gallery of images that showed a variety of things. 

So that brings us to lifestyle photography.  Lifestyle photography, for me anyway, is a balance between posed and documentary.  My goal at lifestyle sessions is to capture images as I would at a documentary session, but to hurry things along a bit, and if possible, make them happen in pretty light.  Instead of being a fly on the wall and waiting on your children to play, I’ll suggest they race (on the pretty bridge), play in the leaves, play ring around the roses, or play Simon Says with me.  These are things they might do naturally, but probably not in the span of an hour long photo session unless I asked them to.  

I want to capture real emotion, but instead of waiting on it to happen organically, I might whisper to your kids to go give you a big hug.  I don’t believe that the fact that I asked for it, makes the emotions any less real. It’s a combination of posed and documentary because sometimes I tell you just what to do, sometimes I just suggest an activity and sit back and wait for a moment to happen, and sometimes I act like a documentary photographer and hang back and capture moments that I notice have happened organically without any interference from me.  

This is the combination I find that works best for me at my family sessions, and I think it helps clients to feel more relaxed and natural as well.  As my friend Emily said recently, “my favorites are the posed candids.”What exactly is Lifestyle Photography?This is the combination I find that works best for me at my family sessions, and I think it helps clients to feel more relaxed and natural as well.  As my friend Emily said recently, “my favorites are the posed candids.”

The junk in my trunk

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I’ve photographed the birth of both of these beautiful babies, and documenting their growth through photographs is truly one of the greatest joys of my job. This is my favorite session so far, probably because this age is my absolute favorite.  For both of them, the world is still so new and interesting and every tiny thing is a wonderful discovery.  I will never ever get tired of photographing toddlers.

Every now and then, there is a photo that stops me in my tracks as I am editing, and the one below of sweet Charlotte running towards her family did that for me in this set.  Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as that overwhelming and enthusiastic love a toddler has for her parents? 

I recently received a really random text from an acquaintance. She said she new it was an odd question, but wanted to know if there was any chance that I had any sparklers…well past July when they were available at stores and fireworks stands. She needed them for a birthday party she was helping to plan.

I told her that of course I had sparklers. I keep them in my trunk. How many do you need?!?

The sparklers had recently come in handy another time too…I was at the birthday party of one of my closest friends four year old, and they had forgotten candles for the cake. I ran to my trunk and brought her sparklers and we lit those as we sang “Happy Birthday” to the guest of honor. In some ways, it was more fun than candles and maybe that will be a thing from now on.

The sparklers led me to think about the other random things I carry in my trunk, so I thought I would list them for you in case you were curious. So here it is – a list of things actually in my trunk this very moment.

  • Sparklers
  • 6 quilts in various colors
  • A bubble machine
  • Bubble Juice
  • An extra camera bag with camera (not my main camera…I carry that inside)
  • A lightstand
  • Some bottles of water
  • A lighter
  • Some smoke bombs
  • Three clear umbrellas
  • Sophie the Giraffe
  • Yummy Earth Suckers
  • Organic Bug Spray
  • For Real Bug Spray
  • A Tide Stain Remover Pen
  • Wet Ones Wipes
  • Rain Ponchos
  • Sun Screen

Sometimes, I don’t use anything in my trunk, but I like knowing it’s there if I do need it.  For this session, I pulled out the umbrella, though we didn’t need it thankfully as the rain stopped just before we started, and lots and lots of bug spray.  I also stuck a poncho in my bag just in case I had to protect my camera from the rain.  And of course, the suckers came out after the session.

What about you? What do you have in your trunk?  Is there anything in mine that you are surprised about?  Anything you think I’m missing? 

10 moments I want to capture for you

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I feel like I was super lucky at yesterday’s marathon sessions.  I had three sessions scheduled with a 15 minute break between each session.  Between my first and second session, it rained fairly hard.  But then stopped in time for my second session. It caused some humidity and so vengeful mosquitoes, but we made it through. 
I warned this family ahead of time that I was going to struggle with their names.  These girls are Kaylie and Morgan.  My own girls are Megan and Kayla. The similarities helped me to remember their names, but I did, as I knew I would keep mixing them up because Megan is my oldest, but for these two sisters, Morgan is the younger sister. 

I finally managed to retrain my brain by the end of the session, and I hope they forgave me.  What a fun family to work with! I so enjoyed getting to know these girls and their parents. They were so fun to work with and naturals in front of the camera. We had a fantastic time. 
Before a session, I have a survey that asks clients what their most important shots are.  That helps me to balance the priorities of the session, but I always have in my head a list of shots I want to be able to include in a clients gallery. These girls made it easy to capture those shots.

  1. A family shot with everyone looking at the camera. (Not my favorite, but I feel like I need to include it.)
  2. A candid family shot, that shows emotion. (My favorite)
  3. Individual close-ups of each of your children.
  4. Full body & candids of each of your children.
  5. A more posed sibling shot, if possible. (May be difficult if they are super young.)
  6. Mom & Dad together. (It’s important to capture where the family began.)
  7. Details (feet, hair, lovey, hands, etc)
  8. Mom with the kids
  9. Dad with the kids
  10. Fun, create shots of everyone having fun.

Did I miss anything? What would be on your shot list?

Mom was there too

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Lisa said something in her questionnaire when she booked me that really struck a cord with me. 

“I have almost no pictures of myself with my children that aren’t selfies since I am always the one behind the camera. That’s usually how it works though, right?” 

Yes, that is how it usually works, and it sucks. I’m so glad that we were able to get Lisa on the other side of the camera with her beautiful family. It’s hard, and as moms we have SOOOO many reasons why we don’t have enough photos of ourselves, but it is so important to our children that we get in the pictures too. In the years to come, the photos we give to our children are such a gift, but they don’t just want to see photos of themselves…they want to see mom (and dad!) in the pictures too.  

I just love taking photos of mothers with their babies, and this session was no exception. This group was such a joy to capture and made my job so easy. 

And can we just talk about the clothing choices for a minute?  I love the color tones so much. The burgundy and the blues against the backdrop of the green trees was just perfection.

So moms, what’s keeping you from getting in front of the camera?

Extended Family Portrait Session at the Factory at Franklin

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Pam contacted me for a portrait session after I had photographed her grand-daughter Lily at Spring Meadows Academy.  She wanted to have photos made with all of her children and grandchildren for Christmas.  We had originally chosen an outdoor location, but then decided to move it to the Factory at Franklin because of the cold.  The Factory is great because it has some outdoor locations, but then if you get cold, you can go inside for some shots to warm up. 

Can I just say that I am falling in love with the color Mustard?  I’ve always loved blues in my photographs, but I’ve had several clients lately who have used mustard in their wardrobe choices, and I just really love the pop of color it brings.  

I’m going to be real here for a minute…groups this large are hard.  Especially with so many young children.  My passion has always been for candid images, but with a group this large, the sheer amount of combinations you want to try to get leaves little room for just letting the children play and capturing what happens, but I do try to fit those in anyway.  Some of my favorites from this session were at the very end of our shoot when the kids were playing on the chairs in the factory. 

But these adorable kids did an awesome job and were so patient.  I think my absolute favorite is the photo of all of them taking a sucker break on a long bench.  All my little clients know that I travel with Yummy Earth Organic Sucker in my bag, and I’ve never minded including suckers in the photos sometimes, but I kind of adore the suckers in that photo.  All the kids are doing their own thing and enjoying their break…not posing at all, just staring at the ceiling or whatever.  And then there is 12 year old Dahne just looking at me like “how did I get stuck with all these little kids?”  LOL  I guess if you know my style, it’s probably not surprising that I love that photo. What about you? What kind of photos are your favorites?

Chelsea & Molly – Mother Daughter portrait session with extended family

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I don’t get to see Chelsea enough these days, so it was so good to hang out with her for her annual family portrait session. For the past two years, I have taken photos of just Chelsea & Molly, but this time, they decided they wanted to include Chelsea’s parents and brother in the session.  Are they just a gorgeous family?  I adore the colors they chose to wear for this session…and Chelsea’s beautiful scarf really brings it all together.  

I cannot get over how old Molly is getting. All my photo babies are growing up.  🙁  Sometimes with tweens, it can be difficult to get real genuine smiles and expressions at photo sessions.  By now, they have begun to get that uncomfortable feeling that we as adults sometimes get when a camera is in our face, and adopt the cheesy fake smile. This is primarily our fault as adults for screaming at them for years to “smile and say cheese.”  But this time, I had a game plan and brought a secret weapon…my 9 year old. Her methods are unconventional as she stood behind me for half the shoot singing ridiculous songs in a loud obnoxious voice for Molly, but she did manage to help me get some genuine smiles and laughs, so I’ll call it a win. 

I just adore these two and love photographing them.  Such a gorgeous mother / daughter combo both inside and out.  <3

Way too easy photo session with Alys & Grayson

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I’ve been taking Grayson’s photos for literally his entire life, since the exact moment he was born, and I always look forward to their annual photo sessions.  It almost didn’t happen this year because Margaret didn’t get on my Fall schedule in time, but I had a cancellation for this past weekend and when I posted the open spot on my booking calendar, she jumped at the chance.  I’m so glad she did because I just adore these kids.  

You guys know that toddlers and preschoolers are my favorite age to photograph.  I love everything about them, and especially their wonder with the world around them and their straight up inability to be anything but 100% authentic.  They are always amazing, and adorable and full of life.  They are not, however, usually cooperative.  And that is completely OK with me.  I try to alleviate parents fears about little ones “mis-behaving” and let them know that I do not expect, nor need, cooperation.  My goal is to capture them being themselves, and exploring the world around them.  To get family shots, sometimes that takes a ton of shots just to get one good one.  Siblings shots are also challenging, so I guide them to play games together in order to get them in the same frame, having fun.

But I swear, Alys and Grayson just don’t require any of that.  For the second year in a row, 10 seconds into shooting, they give me a beautiful, adorable hug where no one seems to be choking anyone (seriously…95% of the time when I ask siblings to hug, someone gets choked.)  They would even stand in the pretty light for me so I could get portraits in the exact spot that I wanted. I feel like these two maybe should go into modeling. Like for real.  I know I could just photograph them all day long. 

Yes to Puppies at family portrait sessions

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I am often asked, sometimes hesitantly, if it’s ok to bring the family dog to a photo session.  The answer is always, one million times, yes.  Unless your dog is a terrifying, savage beast who is going to maul me, then perhaps not.  But for cute, adorable puppies, always yes.  

Here are my top 10 reasons to bring your puppy to a photo session:

1.  They are adorable. 

2 They help to get for real, not fake smiles from your children.

3. Puppy kisses.

4. They are part of the family, so why wouldn’t you?

5. Tiny kids holding puppies is adorable.

6. Tweens & teens holding puppies is adorable.

7. Grown ups holding puppies is adorable.  

8. Puppy kisses.

9. Taking the puppy for a walk is a great photo op, and a real moment.

10. Puppy kisses

It’s only reasonable that I’m going to Disney World

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I just love working with repeat clients.  It’s so much to see the children grow from year to year at their annual family portrait sessions. Scarlett & Jackson are two of my favorite repeat clients.  The two of them are just so full of life, and wonder and energy.  We have so much fun playing & exploring together.  I just love the dynamic the two of them have together, and they always keep me on my toes. I find myself smiling as I’m editing their photos because of their adorable faces and their beautiful spirit. These two definitely embody what I love about children’s photography.

In addition to their family portrait sessions, I have also regularly shot birthday parties for this beautiful family.  You may remember Scarlett’s gorgeous Fairy Birthday Party, or her adorable Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party.  Or big brother Jackson’s amazing Star Wars Birthday Party a few months ago.  Nicole throws the most amazing children’s parties, but I imagine they are a LOT of work.  While chatting at their family session, I learned that this year, instead of a birthday party, Scarlett has chosen to go to Disney World instead!! 

So, I think it’s only reasonable to assume that I’m going to Disney World to photograph Scarlett on her birthday, right?

(Good thing we are already planning a family trip to Disney ourselves, otherwise Nicole might find me hiding in her trunk.)  😉

Family portrait session for a survivor

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Elizabeth Yancey is one of the strongest women I’ve known. Exactly one year ago from the date of this session, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Over the past year, I have watched her kick cancer’s butt, all while being an amazing teacher, mother, wife and human being. She is such an example of faith and grace and courage.

I chose the date of the session for her but didn’t know at the time that I had chosen this anniversary. But what an honor it was to be able to capture this milestone for her and to photograph a true survivor.

I had such a fun time photographing the ‘Yancey Clan.’  I always marvel at how beautifully different each sibling in a family can be, and these are four amazing and unique children. 

Whenever someone books a session with me, I ask a series of questions.  Clients do not have to answer most of them, but it does make it so much easier for me.  My goal when I photograph a session is to capture your family in a way that really highlights who they are as individuals and as a family.  It really makes it easier on me if I know a little about them before I try to do that.  Elizabeth thoughtfully answered each question, and that really gave me an advantage at the session.  I knew the kids a little beforehand, but her answers helped me to know how to approach them.  I knew that Wylie would be the easy one.  I knew that Moses would have to be coaxed out of his fake smile, but that being silly and letting him be active would be a good strategy.  I knew not to overwhelm Nonie, as she is shyer than the others so I approached her quietly.  I knew Wesley would warm up as the session went on (and boy did she!! Peekaboo!).  

But most of all, I knew what these pictures would mean to Elizabeth, as a way to mark this milestone and show that they “not only survived but are thriving.”  

Please take a moment to vote for Elizabeth’s favorite charity and read her story on MyGivingStory.com.  

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

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The entire time I’ve been editing this session, I keep thinking about Christmas.  The lovely reds in the clothing they wore for their family portrait session just put me in the holiday spirit.  Can’t you imagine how beautiful they will look on a Christmas card??

I know this is going to be a controversial statement, but when it comes to Christmas, I say bring it on!  I have a friend who put up her Christmas tree this week.  She wouldn’t normally do that, but when her three year old begged her to go ahead and put it up, she couldn’t say no to his sweet little face.  She posted about it on Facebook and got a lot of crap for it from some sad, scroogy people (Y’all know I love you anyway.)  We need more joy in this world, and if a Christmas tree brings some of that, then just go ahead and put it up.  And if it’s not a source of joy for you, then don’t put it up.  To each her own, but stop scrooging other people.  And yes, I made up that word. LOL

Ok so back to my beautiful friends here….I’ve been photographing them for years and years. They have been through so much lately as a family and I’m so glad that they could take some time to be together and create these memories.  I think that it’s important even during the rough times to stop for a moment and capture what matters most to you. 

My sweet friend Zaffer is autistic, which can lead to some unique challenges in taking family photographs.  Over the years I have learned more and more about what works for him, and we are sure to take his needs into consideration for the session. It’s always worked out well enough, but I was so blown away with how wonderfully he AND his sisters did for this session. It’s ALWAYS an adventure photographing three young children, even without special needs, but they all just knocked it out of the park this time. Looking at his beautiful smile just makes me all teary eyed. 

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