Sunset with a mountain view

It's winter! And we live in Albuquerque... It's just not so beautiful here right now. But we do have a couple of good things going. It's not really too cold (or at least not all the time) and we have some great mountain views.

I love this family. We go way back... in fact if I went through my archives I could find a picture of the older boy here from when he was about 2 years old.  Instead of that, I will link to some gorgeous senior portraits from a few years ago, here and here (evidently in those days I wasn't as busy or as good at choosing just a few images to post). I also did their engagement portraits, and they were so gorgeous, I loved them, but I just searched my blog and I never posted them! Sheesh, what is wrong with me? I do have some newborn portraits here, which I also loved. Anyway, here they are, braving a kind of chilly evening on the mesa with me.



I love the evening light! And the silver lining of potentially cool temperatures early in the year is that the sunset is at a manageable time for kids (though in general I wouldn't suggest sunset sessions for babies - this little guy is so happy that his parents knew he could pull it off, and he did!).


There is always a variable amount of time spent waiting for the sun to go down enough. This time there was a little rock climbing.


Sometimes I don't leave quite enough time, which makes me tense when I feel like I'm racing the sun. But this time it worked out perfectly.


This is one of the last few minutes of sun, combined with a flash off to the left to make the shadows work. I love it.


We were down to our last little bit of sun, and they were sitting down getting ready and.... the sun set. It was funny how instantly it seemed so much colder! It's always interesting to me how sunset is a specific event if you're watching it. Time for a couple more pictures and then quick off to warm up.


Great job to these awesome boys!


If you're interested in more information about a family photography session, my website has lots of info about how I do sessions. Or you can call or email me if you have questions or would just like to chat about it, no pressure.

I love doing sunset sessions on the mesa like this one, but there are other good places around Albuquerque, even in the winter! For lots of other session locations, see this blog page here.

These sweet faces want to say - happy Valentine's day!

Happy Valentine's day! Here are a few fun pictures from my Valentine's mini-sessions last week. Thanks so much for all the moms who brought me your kids! How cute are these guys???



Mini-sessions are quick and easy and a lot of fun. I don't charge a session fee and I like to get them done as quickly as possible (don't you wish your pediatrician felt the same?)

I started a couple of years ago doing mini-sessions for birthdays, but sometimes it's fun to combine that with holidays. This time I included custom designed Valentine's cards for clients who wanted them.



I know a full portrait session is a significant investment, so I designed these quick mini-sessions to fill the gap when you need pictures of your child but not your whole family.


Kids and I get along. Sometimes if your child is a little shy it takes a bit of time to warm up (though that was certainly not the case with this darling girl). But I have worked with a lot of children through the years, and all the time I hear from moms that they are amazed at how many natural happy smiles I have captured.


I usually schedule a little longer of a time-slot for babies. If they are too young to sit up unassisted, it might be better to schedule a longer baby session, but if they are at least a year old these tend to work really well.




I love it when I can capture a child's true smile - that is always my goal.


Another thing I like about mini-sessions is that I get a chance to work with a creative theme. I am restless with these and I am always working on something new and different. I enjoyed the rainbow hearts, but something else fun will be coming soon!


When I see sparkling eyes and sweet smiles like this, it reminds me all over again of why I love being a photographer.


If you like my photography but a full session is a bigger step than you want to take right now, you can sign up for my newsletter and find out about mini-sessions! I send it out something like quarterly.

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Or you can follow me on Facebook, or just call or email and I will make sure you know when one is coming up!

This session has kisses, escaping balloons, a pink cake, lots of giggles, a vintage suitcase, and some sisterly love

I have an extra fun session to share today. It's a double birthday session - these are sisters who are both so very fun to photograph. The baby is just finishing up her "Baby's First Year" of photography, and I'll tell you what, I'm a tiny bit sad that she's turning one year old because she is so happy and darling in front of the camera! (Check her 8 month session out here!)





And here is the picture that really makes me miss having a baby. I miss those kisses!


Big sister is another of my favorites. I have loved her smile ever since she was a baby herself. (See her 6 month session here.) She likes photography so she helps me out with ideas, helping the baby to smile,


and I love that she wanted to wear the same hat she wore for pictures when she turned one year old herself!


Her parents brought balloons, and even though two of them escaped up to my high ceiling, she was okay with it and kept on smiling. (This would not have been the case when my kids were her age.) The second awesome thing about that is that her parents brought extra balloons just in case this happened, I love it. (We got the balloons back down later with a ladder.)


We liked Baby's princess hand in this picture.


Some babies don't love changing clothes, but she didn't mind at all. I love this outfit, it just (again) makes me miss having a baby girl around!




This is the age for standing up and loving it!




I don't think I can pick a favorite picture from this session. But maybe this is it.


And here's that birthday hat again. How many babies keep hats on for pictures? Not many.


After that it was time to get out the cake! Babies are so funny with cake smash photo sessions. Sometimes they love it, and sometimes even if they like cake they don't want to eat it right then.


She never minded having the cake around, and she didn't mind having her fingers sticky (that is often a problem), but she did not want to eat the cake.




Here she is waving bye-bye because she is all done with the cake. I love it.


Notice that she is so happy, and there is a little frosting on her, but there is very little frosting near her mouth. Today was not the day for actually eating cake. (Bonus - with a little re-frosting, the cake is still good to use later on.)


Any cake smash session with smiles is a success in my book! I'm just glad she was happy, and I'm so grateful that this awesome family has trusted me with their baby photography again this last year!


I have a bunch more baby photography, along with some info on my baby plan options, on this blog page - check it out!

I offer four different options for baby photography collections. If you are interested for yourself, or if you have a friend or family member you might like to gift a collection to, I have an online magazine with more information that you might like to see. You can send me your email address below and I will email you a link right away.

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A beautiful location for photography in Albuquerque

Last fall one of the locations I used for family photography is one I hadn't blogged before, and it's a really nice one! I realized that I should post some pictures so that I can refer back later. Isn't it beautiful?


I have had the honor of photographing this family for a few years now. Their kids are growing up in such cool ways! I really enjoyed getting to see them again.


It was a really good day for photography - there was a lot of bright color still in the trees, but lots of on the ground to play with also.




My assistant and I got out a lot of jokes for this guy. He didn't love the Laffy Taffy jokes (really, who does?) but he did like the anti-jokes. "What did Batman say to Robin before they got into the car? Get into the car!" "What's brown and sticky? A stick."


I have a thing about leaf-throwing pictures. Love.






When I mentioned that I had mustaches in my camera bag, it seemed like a great idea to get them out. If you've never worn one, fake mustaches are kind of gross because they shed into your mouth. But it's worth it! (For a little while anyway.)


Thanks to this great family for making it fun!


If you're interested in more information about a family photography session, my website has lots of info about how I do sessions. Or you can call or email me if you have questions or would just like to chat about photo sessions.

I love doing sessions at parks in town, but for images of lots of other session locations, see this blog page here.