Real Simple Magazine + Professional Photography

I am happy to share this very WISE article, entitled, "Get Professional Photos of your Children" -- found in Real Simple magazine, or at least on their website. It basically validates hiring a professional photographer to do quality photos of your children -- to not to miss out! I always acknowledge the fact that everyone can take photos in today's age of the digital realm -- making it accessible and easy to print from home, print books from online vendors and the like. But there is a reason we are pro's - many of us have invested many hours in school, conventions, trade magazine, forums, workshops, equipment, and more! So we can do this job for you! Click here to read it.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Today has been a great day. I am still buzzing with excitement from the press the charity I am partnered with received today on The Today Show! It was the first national coverage the foundation has received since it's inception 3 years ago (this month!). There have been a few local stories done on the work we do across the US but nothing of this magnitude and nothing in the DC Metro Area (yet)! I think it was done with great feeling and clearly explaining the purpose of what we do. I know some people have a hard time understanding why people would want photos of their baby who has passed. It's a rare thing to hear that but I have read postings on forums from other photographers who have received scathing letters undermining their work for the charity. It's shocking, but true.

I personally love that I'm able to provide something for these families under their tremendous amount of pain -- to give them something they will forever have, validating the existence of their baby despite the short time they were together. I cry, I mourn, I grieve but I am filled with love for the baby and the family when I am there and truly believe that God has given me a gift to do this and he protects me from feeling too much in that I am able to move forward and not dwell on the reality of the situation. I do this as I want to give thanks to God for my life, my healthy children and my wonderful vocation.

Jennifer's belly

What? 2 blog entires in one night? The madness! I'm getting worried that March is here! It means 2 weddings, spring portraits kick in, orders from late winter that are suddenly happening and Harry's 5th bday this week to plan for! Where did the slow days of winter go? It's a mixed blessing. Work=fun! So I'm trying to crank thru my 3 shoots from last week and get it done before spring really reveals itself to me with more work.

Jennifer is due in April with baby #2. Her other baby is 7 years old! So she almost has a built in babysitter! NICE. She found me, oddly, thru Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep as she met a woman recently who is having a baby this spring with Trisomy 13 and had contacted the charity for their services. No matter how often I hear cases that request our services, it still pains me to hear it. Jennifer wisely deduced that if I work for the charity, I must photograph babies. Love that.

We had a great time. Jennifer was very laid back and comfortable which just makes my job easy and fun. Since I still feel I'm on the learning curve for maternity, I shot a lot and she was patient. I shot with 3 fabric pieces, 2 backdrop colors and various lighting scenarios. I had a great time, she was a wonderful model and I think we ended up with some great belly-beauty shots!

Something different for me

Well this is certainly not something I do regularly -- I save it for those expensive 'headshot' photographers who know what they're doing. I really didn't -- I was somewhat 'winging it' but felt my brain had enough technical know-how and creative thinking to execute this - and I'm referring to the indoor lighting challenges that come with properly exposing the outside light with the subject inside! Backlight presents enough challenges to explain.

I was asked by my lovely and loyal friend, Heather, to help her father-in-law out with some shots in his downtown DC office. His office is moving in a couple weeks and wanted to document this location/view from his office. No doubt he did! Take a look at this! I mean, this is not something you see often in DC. At least I haven't. His office was as close to the Capitol as you can possibly get without being INSIDE the darn building. This is a true view from his office. I was stunned. To help it all -- we had a beautiful winter day with no clouds and the trees outside his office were still naked from winter. Perfect day, perfect time of year!

And I am throwing in a pix of Heather and me for good measure. She was my trusty photo apprentice holding the remote flash about 5 feet away to help with reflection in the office. Otherwise, I could not have done this.

A Proud Mom

On a personal note, today was special. My "big boy" Jackson had his first 'confession' at church (I'm Catholic). His first communion will be in late April -- not to be confused with first confession! Anyway, he has been nervously anticipating this big day for weeks, if not months, now. And naturally, it's a pretty big deal to go in and admit your faults and wrongdoings -- even at 7 years old! He has been well prepared thru CCD and his parents and grandparents encouragement and hopefully wise words. I was quite proud and even shed a tear as I saw him stand in line and then come out with a smile on his face. My mom gave him a beautiful gold crucifix and gold chain she bought in Spain -- had it blessed by our priest this week. Jackson is wearing it and in one photo (my favorite one) he is looking down at it as he reflects before going in for his confession. I was trying to get the photo with the crucifix in the background but it didn't work too well. Also note the tears in my mom's eyes as she celebrates having my big, little kid journey his way to Catholic (and Christian) faith!

Baby Addison

A few weekends ago I posted some images from Kim and Dan's maternity session at their home. Well I'm happy to present Baby Addison here today! She was born about 2 1/2 weeks ago and they brought her in for her debut photo session!

She was as I had hoped -- sleeping most of the session. The only time she opened her eyes was when we stripped her down to her naked skin! Then we got a few wails of protest. So most of these images are with her dressed and more comfortable. Even with my heat turned up to 75 and a space heater, it's hard to get these little ones to tolerate winter air! Nevertheless, she is divine clothed or unclothed. Her face is precious. Look at her lips. I am so happy for Kim and Dan -- they both were incredibly relaxed and it transferred to Addison since she was so content and sleepy the entire shoot! Again, I love this -- one of my bridal couples moving on to family photos! I'm so honored to be documenting these important milestones in their lives! What a great job I have.

Growing Christian

Because I'm a perfectionist, I asked Janene to bring Baby Christian back for a 2nd shoot in January. They came in December the first time when Christian was about 6-7 weeks old along with his 2 older sisters...but as I have learned, working with babies who are in-between the newborn and holding-their-head-up phase, they are harder to shoot -- the involuntary 'flailing' movements make it hard. So for this round, I had Janene hold him for many of the photos and he did do well solo as he was stronger and even smiling this time.