so much love in one family.  Good stuff, that’s all there is to say about that.  Enjoy!

Now that i’ve gotten that out of the way, get a load of this beautiful family.  Jennifer called me a few days before this session asking if we could fit it in.  Her sister-in-law

owns a little boutique and had sent her these fantastic outfits to use for some advertising.  She asked if I knew of a good nautical location to do the session and I

knew the marina would fit the bill to a “T.”  We fit this little session in in the 20 minute window before sunset, but we got so many lovely pictures in that little

window of time.  Having gorgeous models and divine lighting sure made this photographer love her job!

A little lovey moment is pretty much out of the question when you have a two year old boy in the mix!

When Roxanne called me and told me about her 4 children, two of which, you will see, are 6 month old twins, I started getting excited.  I have this thing for shooting large families and I knew that the age dynamic in this crew would make things challenging, but I love a challenge.  Mister T and Miss M were absolutely perfect to work with.  At 7 and 5 years old, they are in that golden age window where they are super childlike and spontaneous, but still able to follow directions, do specific poses, ect.

Baby A and her sister E, with their big blue eyes, stole my heart from the second I met them!  These amazing miracle babies were born at 29 weeks gestation and have come a long way in the last 6 months.  While they haven’t quite caught up to the normal 6 month old milestones, but did a great job smiling for the camera, looking into the lens and being perfectly happy smiley girls.  I loved seeing how big bro and big sis were so attentive and helpful to the little ladies.  I bet that Roxanne and David enjoy having that extra help!

I’m sure it will be a treat to you as much as it was to me to meet this awesome family.  The kids were so wonderfully well behaved and their classic styling is as good as it gets.  A BIG HUGE thank you to the Feeney family for allowing me to spend the evening with you guys!

Heidi and Brian and their little threesome of world changers are our small-group Bible study leaders.  Every Thursday they are gracious enough to open their adorable arts-and-crafts style home to about 15 people and let us invade their space for food, fun, fellowship, and a bit of kid-craziness thrown in the mix.  Brian is also an elder in our church and he and Heidi are super hands-on, creative, awesome parents who we feel blessed to be in community with.

For this mini session we scoped out an empty lot just near town that had some dogwood trees that were starting to chance colors.  Since we live a bit south and east of the real mountain-y part of the state, it takes a bit longer for our trees to start showing their fall colors than it does elsewhere.  I think a couple weeks from now will be splendid, as far as autumn colors goes, but right now we are just starting to see and feel the glory of fall.  It was a super windy afternoon, so I had to be careful not to get the girls hair blowing all over the place.  Otherwise, we had a great time, even though Miss Kate, their youngest daughter was pretty adamant about not wanting to have her pictures taken.

A word of advice before I show you pictures of this gorgeous family…..sometimes, no matter how hard we try, a kid is just not going to be in the mood for pictures.  The best thing a parent can do in this situations is not stress about it and go with the flow.  Kids totally catch on if you are stressing out about the “perfect” photo session and, usually, they take that opportunity to try out their stoic look.  I’m definitely NOT saying that Heidi and Brian were stressed (anything but, actually), but they were great about not making it a big deal and keeping this carefree.

A couple notes about this session, and things to keep in mind when you book your session:

1) The evening we shot these pictures, it was super overcast.  Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it just give the pictures a different feel than a bright sunny evening does.  If you want sunflares, golden haze, and dreamy yellow light in your pictures, you might want to have a backup date just in case it’s not a sunny day.  It doesn’t have to be cloudless, but when the entire sky is clouded over, it does affect the way the pictures come out.  Just something to consider.

2) This was a mini session.  A mini session is about 30 minutes long and includes about 15 edited images on disc.  Sometimes things go way better than expected and I end up with way more than 15 images.  If you just need an updated family picture, a Christmas card shot, or just want to catch some captures of a child reaching a milestone, a mini session is a great way to do that and not break the bank in the process.  Mini Sessions have a $100.00 fee and can be booked at any time.  I do offer special stylized mini session twice per year, in the spring and fall.

For this session, the incredible Whipple family brought me to their family plot of land that has been theirs for generations.  A gorgeous tract of riverfront acreage with sweeping river views and stately pine trees make this location another favorite I will have to add to my file.

Our family met this awesome group in a total “God” way, and they have fast become some of our nearest and dearest.  In short, my mom called us one evening and said, “You guys have to meet this family I just met at church!  They are missionaries with dreams of sharing Christ’s love on a sailboat.  Here’s their number!”  It was one of those times where Austin and I just looked at each other and laughed at the absurdity of the whole thing.  After getting over the awkward fact that we were just going to be calling up total strangers and asking them to dinner, we dialed their number, and the rest is history.

Over the last 9 months we have gotten to know this crazy awesome family, we have been so blessed by their encouragement, friendship, and heart for God.  As we spend time dreaming, praying, and planning together, I feel so confident that their dreams and our own will someday and somehow collide and I can’t wait to see how God orchestrates our futures!

I try to avoid being on this side of the camera, but i’d be amiss if i didn’t take the chance to get a shot with this amazing mamma.

In case you couldn’t tell, they really love each other.  Like, a lot.

“Happy Day Hands!!”

This is what happens when you tell a toddler that Dora lives in the camera lens.

That said, it was good old fashioned word-of-mouth that brought this gorgeous family to me.  The Patrick’s live about 3 hours away in Raleigh, but they came into town to visit friends of ours and we managed to set up this photo shoot in the evening, just before they made the trek back home.  As “fortune” would have it, it was gorgeous all day until right when it was time for us to start shooting.  Luckily, it wasn’t actually raining, so I said a little prayer and we started snapping away.  Amazingly, the heavy clouds held it together, and we had a great time with some really beautiful light as it peeped through the dark cloud cover.

The location I used for this shot is the same one I posted a couple days back, and I have a feeling it’s going to get a lot of use in the future.  I love that it has the river right there, a little beach, some grassy areas, and big pine trees that the light comes streaming through.  We shot this session at around 6:45 until 7:30 in the evening.  If you are planning on or thinking about booking a session with me, you should know that the ideal time to do a photo shoot is either first thing in the morning after sunrise or right before the sun sets.  That’s not to say that I won’t do pictures at other times, but to get that nice golden light, doing the pictures in the evening makes all the difference in the world.

I did this family session for my sweet friend, Jen and her duo of Calebs…..hubby, “Big Caleb,” and son, “Little Caleb.”  This is the 4th session I have been able to do with this gorgeous little group, and it’s my favorite so far.  The first time I met the Thorps, little Caleb was just 5 months old and he stole my heart with his blonde curls and big blue eyes.  He has grown into a busy and mischievous little 2 year old who is so fun to hang out with.  When Jen told me the location I wanted to shoot, it was like an “ah-ha” moment.  I had been back there a handful of times, but had never considered shooting there.  It’s definitely going to be used again, though.  The light was just ridiculously perfect.  I could shoot there every day and twice on Sunday’s and not grow tired of it.

The blue truck you will see in some of the shots is my husbands second baby, Ole’ Bessy.  She’s a ’65 Ford and he is generous enough to drive it to locations for me and wrangle the Tres Frijoles while I shoot.  Jen was so creative and had some fantastic ideas for her session, so it made my job really easy.  I say it all the time, but I really do have the best clients.  They are always so inspired and crafty and come up with these amazingly fun ideas for unique and memorable sessions; being a photographer is so much fun when you get clients like that.  

The location we used is this boat shed off the side of the road that is quite literally, falling into the river.  It’s definitely not OSHA certified safe, and it’s amazing none of the wood we were walking on gave out.  I always tell my clients, when i’m shooting near the water, that if I start falling in, be ready to catch the camera!  I can swim and have insurance.  It does not.  That said, nobody fell in the water and these pictures ended up being an engagement session that I was really satisfied with.  The colors in the wood and metal have become so rich with aged patina and being near the water seems to make any session just a little bit more special.

This is an older session, but I wanted to put some engagement/adult stuff up here for you guys to check out.  Kyle and Lauren are now married (their wedding pictures are super adorable too!) and living in Virginia.  Maybe I will get to do some baby pictures for them someday