Best Face Photo from January 2011 - {Albuquerque baby photography}

I don't very often enter the iheartfaces contest, but it always seems like such a fun idea.  This week's theme is "best face photo in January".  It was hard to pick - I haven't even processed all my pictures from January yet - but this one is a big favorite of mine.  Check out their website - they are a lot of fun.  Thanks!

Baby girls! - {Albuquerque baby photography}

I have met the most darling babies lately! I love baby portraits any day, and all of the babies I've met lately have been especially fun.  This little girl below was a little serious, but we still got plenty of smiles.  (And I like some serious portraits too!)  She just turned one year old - happy birthday!
















I met this darling little girl a year or so ago when her daddy came home from Iraq.  Now she is 2 years old and full of personality!  (Oh, she was last time too!)  Her mom had specially ordered this headband and hat, she got 2 year old portraits from a friend from out of state, but so sadly the memory card was lost!  She got a few portraits but wanted some more.  Her daughter was so perfect, it took maybe 10-15 minutes and we got all kinds of great pictures.  Thanks for coming! :)

Soccer senior - {Albuquerque senior photographer}

I met this gorgeous senior a couple of weekends ago. She actually came from Gallup for senior pictures, and I really enjoyed meeting her. I have a. lot. of pictures for her that I love. I had a hard time narrowing down what to post (which you may notice here).

We did some studio pictures inside first. She is a soccer player - I love it when seniors bring sports equipment or props. And I love soccer especially so I was really happy with these.














And then we went outside - I was nervous that it would be freezing cold, we've had such variable winter weather, but it was totally fine. It was a lot of fun - she is (as you can tell) really photogenic! And Old Town is nice any time of year. All of this adds up to... oh my, 175 proofs. That may be my record for seniors. :)












Thanks so much to this amazing girl & her mom - it was great to meet you!

Some business changes for 2011

It's a new year, the time of year when I reevaluate my photography business. I look at what works, what doesn't work as well; where I am, and where I want to be next year. (Really I should do this in December, when I'm not doing as many sessions, but December is pure survival mode for me...) I don't have a lot of business changes that I really feel like I should make, but there are a couple, and I thought I'd mention them before I "officially" change them on my website.
1. This last fall I found the most amazing lab to have portraits printed at - I've always loved the collection of labs I use, but the quality here is even MORE amazing, the details are even MORE crisp, and the colors are even MORE beautiful. And... perhaps not surprisingly, the prices are a bit higher. So I'm going to adjust my print prices a bit, but nothing major.

2. I've always offered clients who have an online gallery 30 days to put their order together. This has been one of my biggest problems - by the time 30 days goes by, it's almost like I'm starting from scratch when I prepare an order. So I'm going to reduce the time to 15 days. And I really prefer people to come to me to get their order together - that way they can view the images on my large screen, and I feel sure that they're getting what they really want. If you know me, you know I'm very reasonable, you can always talk to me about your timing - but the new default is going to be 15 days.

3. This isn't a change I'm making necessarily, but I just wanted to mention that I'm generally booking AT LEAST 2 weeks in advance. So please keep that in mind if you are planning a portrait session. Even this January, which is usually a pretty slow time for photographers, I'm busier than usual.

4. My session fee is going to change for large groups. It's normally $75, and I apply $50 of that to your purchase as long as you do so within 30 days (now 15 days). Large groups take me easily twice the amount of time to proof and edit, so to keep me doing large group sessions at all :) I am going to adjust the session fee based on the number of people involved.

That's all I can think of at the moment - someday soon I will update the official webpage, at which point I consider the changes final. (And I really need to update my images too! That is a fun job that I just haven't gotten to.)

Today my daughter put on her "pioneer princess" dress. I was doing a session anyway, and I couldn't resist some antique portraits of her. She even wore her cowgirl boots, which is as authentic as it gets for us. The dress is actually vintage 1970's - my mom saved a few fun dresses from when I was little.

Newborn princess with some fun props!

If you know me, you know that I love newborn photography. This session was (of course) no exception. This little girl is one week old here, and I loved getting to meet her & her mom. Her mom was so much fun - she had a bunch of really great photography ideas, she brought some great props, and then... the baby was not sleepy. I can always get babies to sleep eventually, and she did sleep, but she never slept very deeply and never really relaxed. I was still really happy with what we got - I love these pictures. But the moral of the story is that you never know what you'll get with newborns. :)

One year old princess - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

This little girl turns 1 year old on Saturday, so she came for birthday portraits. I loved her darling pink outfits, bows, and I love high-key photography so the whole session was a blast. Her mom was awesome :) - she worked so hard to get some really good smiles. Usually I'm dancing around like a maniac with toys on my head, but her mom did all the work this time (and the baby wasn't very interested in me anyway). So we did a little bit of everything, and ended up with a bunch of really great portraits.



I loved her special bear. I love pictures with special animals, blankets, etc. (My kids have TONS of extra-special things to keep track of.)

Newborn baby boy - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

I am so happy for this really nice family - their second son was born just 2 weeks ago. He was one of the most mellow newborns I've ever gotten to work with. He slept for a little while at the beginning, but then he was awake for the rest of the time. He was happy and laid back the whole time, so I never tried to get him back to sleep. I really enjoyed him - what a sweet little personality he has. He had a cute little furrowed brow a bunch of the time - obviously he's very thoughtful! :)