Worth the Trip!

I use to travel to B'ham a good bit to take portraits of customers up there. As my personal life has become more complicated with children's scheduling, I have all but totally cut out travelling to sessions. I hate to turn away customers in other cities but the logistics of getting those sessions arranged are just not manageable at this time in my life. I have one exception- my Shoefly kids! Twice a year I take a trip up to B'ham to photograph five adorable children whose mothers own a fantastic shoe boutique. I call it my fall and spring Shoe Safari, and I love those hunting seasons! The shoe store is named Shoefly and Meg & Jana are the owners. I have loved watching their families grow through the years and loved photographing their little ones. This is Dorsey & Robert- aren't they so cute...and happy! Dorsey has a precious smile and a sweet tooth and therefore a very willing portrait subject...thank you Smarties! And with Robert it takes nothing more than a little jumping around to make him giggle. As always, this little family made me smile to see them interact. Thank you for another great session!

On a different note, I found one of the best inventions every mother should know about on my last shoe safari. I tried to figure out how to work this little nugget into the session blog but couldn't for the life of me come up with a way to do it! So I am going to use this blogging platform to share a random find of mine. It is called the Yummy Tummy and Meg & Jana introduced me to this little jewel. With all these low rise jeans, I think every mother out there can relate to the dreaded 'Muffin Top' that rears his ugly head when these all too cute designer jeans are coupled with the form fitting tops. Unless you are an avid pilates attender I'd venture to say the trimmest of moms knows what I am talking about! Why didn't I think of this?! So, take it or leave it but I felt like it was my civic duty to share this wonderful invention with all my mom friends!

Surprise!

Look at these beautiful little girls! This is Jessi & Lydia and they are indeed as sweet as they look. I must admit that the Lydia I know is not as stationary as the one in her first portrait appears, so I just had to include the second one of her because the Lydia in motion is the one I know! This family use to live across the street from us and I just adore them...simply wonderful people. And I must admit a bit of an inspiration for me. See, Lydia & Jessi actually have an older brother. When my third child was born, Lydia was almost two, Jessi was almost four and Andrew was right about six... just like my family but about two years ahead of us. Throughout the years, I have watched these children grow, and sort of anticipate what my life will kind of look like in two years. When I was nursing a newborn, I watched this family scramble to get all the kids in the car for church. When I had three toddling around, I watched this family at least attempt to eat at a real, live restaurant, and now this year I watched as this family had all three kids in school...wow, I was going to make it too! At this session, I even thought to myself, "They have made it! They are making it through an entire studio session without even one MINOR meltdown! Dreams DO come true!" :-) Then at the end of the session Jessi proudly announced their news- her mommy was having another baby! I could have dropped my camera! Indeed my jaw DID drop and I looked up at Kelly (the mom) as she giggled at the very apparent shock on my face. Looking back I laugh at what I must have looked like, as if I had found out I was pregnant again! Yes, it was a surprise to them as well, Kelly explained but with that new mother twinkle in her eye. But the more I thought about this family and how I'd watched them through the years, I remembered there was one thing very different about our situation. See, Mark and I debated between two and three children. When Elliott came along as our surprise number three, there was no question that the next move was to the urologist. However Kelly and her husband debated between three and four children. As time moved on, they decided that three was the number they were going to decide on. But oh how God must laugh at all our "plans" knowing what He has in store for us. About 10 minutes after I told Mark we were pregnant with #3 he said, "It probably is better this way because I don't think we ever would have had the nerve to actually choose to have the third." So true, and yet what would our life be without precious Elliott?! Yes, God knew He'd have to take things into His own hands, and He did, and I am happy He did. So, I truly believe this Baby #4 for this family was God saying it was just in His plan. I am thrilled for this family and will love, love, love on this little one when he/she arrives, thanking God each time that Mark I debated between two and three and not three and four! I am so happy for this family's little surprise...surprises are the best!

Hmmm... seeing the big picture helps!

This is Jack & Whit! This session was actually photographed a few weeks ago. I haven't blogged about it yet because quite honestly I hadn't really looked at the portraits yet. See, this was not a super session...and I really get upset when that happens! I feel responsible as the photographer and so I was a bit disappointed after the session. For this reason I hadn't really been anxious to look at the portraits until recently. As a matter of fact, the mom and I had already decided to reschedule the portrait session so I wasn't even sure if I was going to blog about the first session. But after I looked at the portraits I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few that were precious, and one shot in particular that I absolutely love. Okay, so the story... Jack & Whit's mom had called me to schedule their session a few months ago. I knew both Jack & Whit but I wasn't sure that they knew me so I had them come over prior to the session so we could meet. All went well and I was super excited about the session because these boys' eyes are captivating! The day of the session arrived and the weather was a bit questionable. We decided to go forward because coordinating the mom & dad's schedule was sort of tricky. We got there and Jack (the older boy) was on! What a dream he was... so laid back and cooperative and did I mention how beautiful his eyes were! But precious little Whit, well, let's just say he wasn't haven't a great day. Oftentimes sessions with children Whit's age can start out a little slow just to get them to feel totally at ease. But Whit didn't get easier throughout the session but instead a little harder. He would not let go of his dad, and even then he wasn't particularly amused with the fact that I was following him around. By the end of the session, I felt like we had a ton of great portraits of Jack but not so much of Whit, and none of them together (which was something in particular every mom wants). So, I broke the news to the mom that I really thought we needed to reschedule another session. We both were a bit at a loss...was Whit hungry, was he sleepy, what could it be? As they left I off-handedly mentioned that sessions like this had occurred before and the next day the child woke up sick. In any instance, I really wanted to try again another day. So the mom, dad, & I all left that day confused and bummed. I even called my photographer friend on the way home and told her how disappointed I was because these boys were so darn cute but I just couldn't get anything. She eased my mind reminding me that sometimes that just happens. UGH...I just hate it when that happens. Why couldn't I figure out the magic trick to make him giggle? to make him laugh? to make him just crack a smile?! Eureka, the next morning his mom called to let me know that Whit had woken up sick the next day! Bless his little heart, he didn't FEEL good! And there I was trying to make him be happy and follow him around trying to get just anything I could and he was probably thinking, "Good grief, would this lady just leave me alone! Can't she see I don't feel good?!" I am sorry Whit! So I should have known something was up! The only thing that made me feel just a bit better was both Whit's parents are pediatricians and they didn't see it coming either! But like I said, I was pleasantly surprised with many of the portraits but this last one of Whit and his dad is one of my favorites. Knowing the story behind the portrait however makes it more impactful. As we were going through the session and Whit was becoming more and more unhappy, his dad was who he really wanted to keep him from crying. As we were walking along I half-heartedly joked that Whit's age is one of the most challenging as a parent because they are so on the go but really have no means of effective communication to tell you what they want (or how they feel!). The dad's response reminded me of how precious every stage is. He said that he had been in Iraq in the service during his oldest son's second year of life and so this stage was all new to him. Oh my, I have always had a respect for the men and women who protect our country and knew they made lots of sacrifices to do that. But I guess I had never really thought through the fact that there are moms and dads missing entire stages of their children's lives so they can serve their country. So when I saw this last portrait of Whit & his dad I was reminded of how lucky/fortunate/blessed I am to live in this country. But that circumstance is not without sacrifice from many brave men and women who are also moms and dads...and seeing the dad's wedding ring reminds me that those men and women who fight for my freedom leave behind husbands and wives as well. What emotion that last portrait stirs inside me because the dad is savoring these 'challenging' times and thanking God for every minute of it. Thank you Matt & Nicole, Jack & Whit for the sacrifices you made to defend me and my country!

One Cool Kid!

So I am really having to hold myself back right now. I try to just put a sneak peak of the session on this blog but this little one was just a model baby! This is Crews. What a cool name, huh?! And this baby goes with his name...he totally took the session by the horns and worked the camera. He was such a total cutie, and when he smiled, his face lit up! Now, I went into this session doing what I advise all parents NOT to do...try to create a portrait during the session. Hmmm, so that needs some explanation .... what I mean is that the best portraits are usually those that just happen. Anyone with children know that they are totally unpredictable. Sometimes in the bad way (i.e. you go on vacation and your usually super sleeper wakes up four times in the middle of the night) and sometimes in a great way (when your four year old sees you kneeling to pray and he instinctively joins you without you even knowing it...yes, Graham did that this morning...almost made me forget his totally horrible trantrums that enveloped his entire four year old year!) Either way, children are just that- children! They don't come to a session with an agenda and neither should we. So, before this session I saw a composite of a baby about this age with three totally different expressions...a happy one, a solemn one and a crying one. It was too cute. I thought, I am going to try to get this with Crews. So usually a session is lengthened in an attempt to get one more great smile out of a baby, or a captured giggle, but no, this session was different- I worked to get him to CRY! Yes, this baby was the happiest little fellow...he was so tired and yet whenever we set him down to take the picture, he'd see the camera and SMILE! So instead of recreating the portrait I had in my head an even better one evolved- one that showed the REAL Crews! When will I learn- children always have something better in store than I could ever create on my own! Thank you Crews for a totally fun session! You are one cool kid!

Brothers are a gift from God...

So, if you had asked me before I had children my perfect birth order it would have been Girl-Boy-Girl. That way the middle child has his own identity and the girls have a sister. That sister relationship has always been a desire of mine...I had a much younger sister which I parented more than 'sistered'. When I went to college I lived with a girl once that had an older sister...I was fascinated by the way they interacted with each other... they really TOLD each other when their pants made their rear look big or they were wearing too much makeup. The flip side of that is I witnessed some NASTY fights! I remember the first time I saw one I thought that their family was being ripped apart...two days later they were shopping together as if nothing ever happened. Odd! Anywho, so God didn't give me sisters, instead he gave me brothers. Hmmm, I had never thought about the uniqueness of THAT relationship! However, now that I have brothers I am thrilled that they have each other because what a neat relationship as well. They'll have each other to tell them just how bad their batting average is or that it is time to quit bugging that girl because your neediness is just creeping her out! Hmm, brothers are fascinating as well. Of course, they get into some knock down drag out fights as well...even at ages three and four I worry that if I were not there to physically separate them Graham and Elliott could do some serious damage to each other! And don't feel too sorry for Elliott- he throws a mean punch too, and when all else fails he pulls Graham's hair or bites him. After they fight I always tell them both, "Brothers are a gift from God," and I make them repeat it back to me. I am certain that'll be a topic of torture in therapy sessions later in life! Sooo, the session, yes, this session was with two brothers. Sometimes in a portrait you catch an expression on a child that gives you a glimpse into what they are going to look like as a teenager...this one of Walker (the older boy) did that for me. Whoa! He is going to be quite the catch one day! And Owen (the younger brother), what a cutie HE is! Back to that two-year-old smile from my last blog...just so sincere! But the last portrait of them together is my favorite. They are looking at a man putt on the golf course...it is cute that Walker has his arms draped around Owen...I don't remember but that could have been directed by the mother...but the way Owen has his hand gently holding his big brother's hand in place, THAT is what got me! The interaction of those chubby little hands as they enjoy an quick moment of rest investigating a sports demonstration. Don't kid yourself, this moment lasted only a moment...just enough to snap the portrait...but oh, it is the perfect reminder that brothers truly ARE a gift from God!

A Happy Boy!

Age two is such a fun age! Such a challenging age as a mother but such a fun age for a child. Meet Knox! Age two...all boy...and all smiles! The great thing about this age is when you capture the child smiling it is because the child is genuinely happy about something...so sincere! And with that blond hair and blue eyes...how could it not melt anyone's heart! This is the third time I have taken Knox's portraits and I don't think this child can take a bad picture! Picking a portrait to post on the blog was challenging because I would melt everytime I captured that sincerely happy boy! Nevertheless, these two portraits are my favorites...the first because of, well, there is no explanation necessary...look at those eyes! And the second because it shows the emotion in action...happiness is full swing! With the mom and dad's hands in the portraits, both supporting his little boy upside down and Knox with a smile from ear to ear with total, complete trust in his parents. A perfect picture of what childhood should be at this age! Happy parents, happy family, happy boy!

Oh My, and I thought I was busy!

So, many of you know I had three kids in less than four years. To be perfectly honest it wasn't planned that way, but it just sort of happened. When my baby Elliott was brought home from the hospital Graham was still one and McKinnon was three. It was a crazy couple of years to say the least. I actually told Mark one time that I thought we may have bit off more than we could chew! Ha! Like there was anything we could do about it! Anywho, when Ouida told me she was expecting Baby #3 I was floored! She had just had a baby! And before that another baby. So she took my chaos and raised me a year...she had three babies in less than THREE years! Three beautiful little girls! The advice I give mothers of babies so close in age is this: get a babysitter! Consider it the cost of doing business over the next few years...consider it an investment in your sanity...consider it as a down payment on an averted trip to a mental hospital! Don't try to take three to the grocery store, don't try to take three to the preschool open-house, don't try to take all three by yourself anywhere you don't have to. Your baby needs diapers, you buy her diapers. Your baby needs formula, you buy him formula. Your baby needs a mentally stable mother, rent yourself a sitter! And I am pleased to say Ouida has taken my advice! The morning of this session she just brought Virginia for her three year portrait and baby Abby for her three month portrait. Virginia could not have been better behaved! She was patient, and well-mannered, and just a dream! Look at those eyes...in all her portraits I am always captivated by her eyes and this one shown here is even more powerful than I have seen in the past. I have a feeling she'll be breaking my Elliott's heart one day! And Abby was just as easy! She was so content...she slept and cooed and slumbered some more! Ouida- you are an inspiration- with all the chaos in your life, I've only seen you with a smile on your face! Keep up the good work, and tell John we know a great urologist! :-)

True Friendship....True Emotion

Okay so the last blog was about mybestfriendMarti. There is more to the story...see I am very lucky to have THREE friends from childhood that I talk to on a very regular basis. I now realize this is a quite unusual situation...all three of us have known each other since eighth grade. MybestfriendMarti and I have been best friends since third grade...Tracey (affectionately known as Ogie since we share a first name...I am called Higgins to this crowd) and Mandy (nicknamed Nubby) have been best friends since preschool. The four of us (two sets of best friends) ran around together growing up and are still best of friends. Growing up with a friend gives a completely different dynamic to a friendship because they know your entire history...history that can't be explained really to anyone that didn't actually experience it with you. So, I feel very blessed to have these three long-lasting friendships! They know me better than I know myself at times and have seen me through the good times and the bad...the presentable and the ugly...the happy and the sad. True friendship I thank God for! So, again you ask, the blog??? What does this have to do with photography. Well, in case you haven't noticed Young Photography has the tag line: True Joy, True Peace, True Emotion. Whenever I photograph a session, I try to capture joy, peace and true emotion in each child. Each aspect demonstrates a varying side to childhood and each makes me smile when I succeed in capturing it on 'film'. So this session was with Mandy's children. The main objective was to create a canvas of her youngest child to hang beside the canvases we did of her two older children a few years ago. I love this first portrait simply because it demonstrates who Emory is... happy, relaxed, easy-going. She was easy to photography because while she was busy, she was also interested in our crazy antics we displayed to get her to stay still. But this second portrait is the one that makes me smile the biggest. Mandy wanted to try to get a portrait of all three of her kids if they would cooperate, so we attempted it. Since Kiesel is a dog park, there are, as expected, a lot of dogs. When setting up this portrait all three kids were sitting nicely in a very formal pose. As I started to snap the portraits, a rather large dog entered the scene and voila, true emotion was captured! Apparently Carson has a fear of dogs and when she saw this canine her fight-or-flight response took over and she was "out of there!" It looks like a Heisman Trophy pose! Too funny, but the expression on the brother's face is what makes this priceless. You may not be able to really see it as small as it is shown on the blog, but you can tell the slight upturn on Maylon's eyes...he's smiling...on the verge of laughing! As his younger sister is in a total panic, running for her life, he didn't respond as her protector, as her defender...only a brother would respond with a chuckle at such a response! Too funny...true emotion captured indeed... intense fear from a sister and sibling smugness from the older brother! All ended well and we got a precious portrait of the three children in a very traditional pose, but THIS is the portrait that tells the whole story!

mybestfriendMarti

So, any of you that have spent more than say 5 minutes with me know I have a best friend. If I haven't told you her name, I feel certain I passed on some of her advice to you or parlayed her into some story that started out, "So I was talking to a friend the other day..." 9 times out of 10 that 'friend' is Marti. My neighbor friends affectionately call her mybestfriendMarti (all slurred together like that) because it got to a point that they were like, "We KNOW who Marti is now!" Yes, mybestfriendMarti is just that...my best friend and her name is (who would have guessed) Marti! We've been best friends since 3rd grade and we talk, oh 10-12 times a day. She lives in Atlanta and while it baffles our husbands, we do truly talk that much on the phone. Now, realize many of those calls are just 30 second calls to quickly express a thought, but yes, some of those calls turn into political discussions or mom-venting or theological debates of how the Holy Trinity operates exactly. Indeed, we talk about anything and everything you could think of. And one of the things I love most about Marti is the fact that we have so little in common...hmmm, that didn't come out right...we actually have a lot in common too, but we have a lot not in common. For example, she just got a nose ring (gasp!). I mean, I think I would consider a belly button ring, a shaved head, a tattoo of an eagle's wings spanning the width of my back before I would have considered getting a nose ring! Now I am really laughing because I know Marti is howling at the thought of me at the pool with my kids and a tattoo of an eagle spread across my back under my Mom-tankini! That being said, after we talked through her REASONS for the nose ring, I completely understood and respected her decision...and actually thought it was cute when I saw her! Okay, this blog is digressing from where I wanted to take it! :) Okay, so another thing that is totally different about Marti and me is her love of foreign missions. Oh, that sounds bad too... but I am just going to say it, when I was growing up and the topic of foreign missions came up in G.A.'s (Girls in Action...a Baptist thing), I would tune out. Considering that G.A.'s is actually BASED on 'Missions in Action' (Girls in Action, Girls in Action, Mission Studies and Mission Action, Growing, Living, Loving, Girls in Action, Girls in aaaccccttttion now!) I tuned out a lot. I promise I am not a bad person, I just have a hard time really identifying with people who live so extremely different from me (as I type this, I realize this is a fault I am sure God is taking issue with me about!) Anywho, Marti LOVES foreign missions...and she truly has a heart and a gift for it. When she called me one of her 10-12 times a day a few years ago and said she wanted to host a Belarussian child for six weeks over the summer (she had just had her second child), I thought she was crazy! I could see her doing it in a few years when her newborn was say, sleeping through the night!, but now? Are you crazy?! But she really felt called to do it and so enter Angelina (pronounced with a hard 'g') Angelina lives in a town in a Belarus by the name of Mogilev. This town is close to where the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant had its melt down in 1986. There is still extreme radiation fallout from this disaster, and it adversely affects the health of the children growing up there. What they have found though is that if the children can be removed from the environment for just 6 weeks/year, their immune system has time to build up enough to protect them for the rest of the year. I am so glad Marti followed her heart because Angelina is a total delight! This is her fourth year coming to stay with Marti and her family and every year we try to get together and get some portraits of her. This year she grew up so much! Isn't she beautiful?! And she truly is just as beautiful on the inside...she fits in perfectly with Marti's family here in the states. If you would like more information about this mission, go to www.abro.org . Angelina, we miss you already and look forward to your trip back next year! Thank you for the joy and love you've brought Marti and Lane through the years! And to mybestfriendMarti, thanks for reminding me of God's bigger plan!

Oh Yes, I remember...

Isn't it funny how our memory works? I've often said that God had a grand plan when He thought through the procreation process, and a pivotal part of that plan was the erasing of our memory of the first few months of new parenthood! I saw a special on the Learning Channel once that explained that after childbirth a chemical is released in a mother's body that actually acts as a memory blurring agent, because let's face it, if we vividly remembered the pain of childbirth, it wouldn't make a second chance at procreation so appealing! I believe that whatever that chemical is, it must extend into the first few months of a new parent's life...oh and somehow it gets in the dad's system too! Hmmm, maybe it is the lack of sleep that aids that chemical reaction! (Can you hear my Chemical Engineering background coming out! Ha!!!) Anywho, I remember distinctly thinking when I was a new mom that if I made it through, I was going to make it my personal mission to help other new parents through this challenging time. I do believe that is another reason I love newborn photography so much. Meet Alex! What a precious angel he is, don't you think?!!! Looking at these blog portraits you would think he was the Johnson & Johnson commercial baby...you know, the one that sleeps all night and giggles and coos the other 12 hours of the day and never causes anyone a minute of anguish! But like most one month olds, Alex is still figuring out sleep...his little tummy (as my two year old always said) "got grass", and getting him to sleep was a challenge. Actually a two hour challenge. And as we bounced and shhhhed and walked around in circles in the dark and in the light and in the middle, it reminded me of a blurred memory of mine, yes, new parenthood was hard! There is a book I usually recommend to new moms called MotherShock- it likens new motherhood to culture shock in a very comical, but real way. So true! But then, magically after two hours the miracle happened...Alex fell asleep and the Johnson & Johnson commercial started rolling! As I look at this first portrait of Alex with his parents, the memories started flooding back...yes, parenthood is hard, yes, parenthood is NOT what I thought it was going to be, but YES, parenthood is so worth it! I rarely have to instruct new parents what expression to make when they look at their new sleeping newborn...it comes totally naturally...it just comes through as totally, unabashed love. And these new parents were no different... I love the way the parent's heads with Alex's head sort of create an upside down heart shape... such a natural outpouring of love happens during new parenthood! So, to all you new moms and dads, hang in there! Yes, it IS hard, harder than I ever expected, harder than I ever dreamed, harder than I ever could have imagined, but truly it is the best, the greatest, the undeniably hands down most super experience I'm still having every single day ...and no chemical in the world will ever make me forget that! Thank you Alex for your sweet, sweet self...and shhhh, sleep well tonight!