Fall Mini Sessions

The holidays are approaching, and it's a great time to start thinking about holiday photos.  I'm going to be holding a weekend of Mini Sessions on October 17 and 18.  Mini sessions are ideally suited for capturing the holiday card shot or for that perfect gift for Grandma and Grandpa.

• Price: $75
• Location: Legacy Park in Brambleton
• 30 minute photo session for up to 5 family members
  
• 15-20 photos available online for proofing
  
• Includes one digital image for use in a holiday card OR one 8x10 photo
• Prints available at standard pricing (contact me for price list)

Full service sessions are also still available for several weekends this fall.  Regular session pricing starts at $150.

Workshop Review

As I said in my previous post, I had the most amazing weekend at the Me Ra Koh Confidence workshop this past weekend. One of the most exciting parts was the opportunity to do two different styles of photo shoots while gaining feedback and constructive criticism from not only two renowned international wedding photographers, but also working with and observing the 19 other women in attendance. The first day, we focused on moms and babies and learned how to better take advantage of low lighting and difficult surrounding situations. Can you believe that these shots were all taken in a hotel conference room, and that mere feet away was a table with left over lunch dishes on it? I have to say that of all the shots I took this weekend, this first one is far and away my favorite. This beautiful baby was only 6 weeks old, but her mom seemed to already be so in tune with her. I don't think I ever managed to look this comfortable and beautiful at 6 weeks post-baby.

There were actually a total of four babies and moms who came down to help us out on Saturday. One of the moms is actually a neighbor of mine who recruited her friend to join us at the last minute. These shots of their two babies together make me laugh every time I look at them. He was really putting the moves on her...


This final little guy was a miracle baby - born very premature, but at 9 months he's thriving and was super flirtatious with all the ladies that were taking his picture.

On Sunday we had another opportunity to watch Me Ra in action as she lead us on a series of family shoots. There were only three families that came, so it was a bit more challenging to get good shots without stepping on the other ladies toes - or winding up in their picture. For these we headed out to the streets of DuPont Circle. There is so much variation in the architecture down there it's hard to believe these were all taken within 100 feet of each other. I only had the chance to get one shot of this little cutie, but I really like the dynamic that I caught.


This family was just great. The two little boys reminded me so much of my own, both in their coloring and demeanor. The older brother was so serious and not happy about being there until we got him to loosen up and have some fun, then he started smiling for us. It really helped when Dad made some crazy monkey sounds. One think I took away from the shoot is that if I act goofy the kids don't really care, but when Dad and Mom go crazy, the kids can't do anything but laugh.

What a weekend!

Wow. I had the most amazing weekend. I had the privilege of attending a Confidence Workshop with Me Ra Koh and her hilarious husband Brian. I met such a diverse and amazing group of women - each looking to better herself and her photography for both personal and professional reasons. We covered so much material - from shooting in low light to coaching families to post processing to the meaning behind it all. My husband and friends have asked me several times about how my weekend was and what I learned, and while I was able to rattle off info about my light meter and editing, I still don't think I've been able to process what I really learned about myself. I think that's going to come a little later.

Here are a few images from the weekend. These are shots of Me Ra and her husband Brian in action.


We had two different groups of models come in over the weekend, Saturday we did Moms and Babies, and on Sunday we had some families come down. Those were great and I got some shots that I'm very proud of, but I'm not quite ready to post those right now. Instead, enjoy some colorful shots from the DuPont Circle Farmer's market that I stumbled upon on Sunday morning when I went out looking for breakfast. There were so many beautiful colors and textures, I was so glad I had my camera. These people take such pride in their produce, it was fascinating watching them set everything up and stage everything just so.

I'd never seen purple peppers before! I was fascinated.

Pop Quiz

Which of these kids has a Mom who takes too many pictures of him?

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Things have been a little crazy personally here as we get used to our school and sports schedules, so I've been letting photography things slide a bit. I am working towards a total overhaul of my brand, and a more official business site in the coming months. My biggest news right now is that I'm going to a workshop this coming weekend here in DC that I am so excited about. I know I'll have a ton of photos to share along with my experiences there.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures that I took over Labor Day weekend, when we went on a surprise trip to Cary, NC to see my sister-in-law and her family. We had other plans which fell through, so we called them up on Friday and invited ourselves down for the weekend. My niece HC is the exact same age as Big C, and my nephew G is about 6 months older than our little guy. The older ones have such fun playing together, and it was fun to see the little ones try to keep up. I was hoping to do a real family shoot with them, but we since we were total pop-ins, we didn't have the chance. In spite of that, here are a few pictures of the cousins having fun together.

My beautiful niece HC

My nephew G rocking the sit-n-spin.Snacktime on the big bench

How stinkin' cute are these two? Apparently I didn't get any of Little C. He was there and had fun, I promise.

The Wheels on the Bus...

So today was finally the big day. The first day of school. Finally. We were so excited this morning we could hardly stand it. Big C couldn't sit still. This is what he did all morning. He was running laps in our bedroom, and practicing his sliding. Here he is mid-slide.

He's in afternoon kindergarten, so the bus comes for him at 11:20. Which means we started eating lunch at 10:45. I think its going to take some adjusting to that schedule. We were ready by 11:05 and took the obligatory pictures on the front steps.

We measure Big C every three months on the 8th in order to track his growth (yes, we're ocd engineers), so this morning happened to be a measuring day. I knew he'd grown a lot this summer, but I was shocked that he was an inch and a quarter taller than on June 8th! Here's my big guy walking up to the bus stop.Being the first day, the bus was running a bit behind schedule, so we had a little time to kill. After running up and down the street about 10 times, he tried to do a handstand....

The bus was finally coming! We all had our hugs and kisses and then the bus turned the wrong direction and went down the wrong street. We were a little dismayed, but they figured it out.
Finally coming!
He climbed right on with a hello to the driver Miss J and never looked back.

And off they went... He had a great day today and skipped the whole way home from school. I think he's going to like it...