Etherdox Photography - Albuquerque Children and Family Photography

Oh So Silly!

2012-01-30T13:30:00.000-08:00

Ah, I am such a summer person. This pictures were taken last summer at White Sands. It was at least 100 degrees out, a very SILLY time to go to White Sands. And, we didn't take nearly enough water per person, though we were thoroughly warned by the park management (silly of us). We have some very silly sledding pictures, including some funny ones when my youngest fell off the sled and got a mouthful of sand, but this is the one I picked to submit to the I Heart Faces photo challenge this week. It was silly of us to think that throwing my son off the white sand cliff would necessarily result in a soft as powdery snow landing ... though it's a funny story to him now...

Head over to I Heart Faces for some more great entries!

The truth about a photography session - {Albuquerque child photography}

2012-01-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

So I have been thinking a lot about photography. About having a photography business. About what I like & what I don't. I do like blogs - I like other photographer's blogs and I like having one myself. (Except when I go a month without updating it.) One thing I've noticed about photography blogs is that - I'll just speak for myself here - I think I tend to post some of my favorite images from a session, try to come up with a little text that's slightly different from the last post (it's not my strength!), and try to "let the images speak for themselves".

And I think we (photographers) want to make it look easy. We don't want it to look like we make mistakes that drive us crazy, so we don't talk about that kind of stuff on our blog posts. (I'm sure some photographers do, but I haven't seen much of it.) I want to change that this year and show more of what really happens.

I'll start with some images I took of my daughter today. It's a good object lesson because taking good pictures of our own children is notoriously hard for photographers. Nevertheless she is just about to turn 5 years old and it's time to do some serious photography before she grows up too much. :) I had something really specific in mind (which I didn't get). I also had some really specific lighting I wanted to use, and I wanted to use my kitchen because I love the new color and curtains. I set up a bunch of lights and tinkered around with them for quite awhile. This next image is the best one I got with first the lighting setup I used. It's actually a nice smile but the lighting is not what I'd had in mind (although I do think it's kind of pretty and soft).

She is such a reader (or rather "reader" - she "reads" books and figures out what is happening from the pictures) that I wanted to include that. It's really hard to get a 5 year old to look natural reading to themselves when they know you're trying to take a picture. This was my favorite. (The rest looked a bit awkward.)

I got plenty of strange looks like this one. Plenty of images didn't make the final cut. :)

And some really sweet ones, like this one, that I love. I turned the flashes off and went to all window light and a reflector, which was more what I wanted.

She is such a happy girl - I love it when I can get her laughing in front of the camera. (Instead of a stiff smile with her head turned at a funny angle like usual.)

And this - I love. Window light is perfect here, with a reflector to fill in the shadows.

She thinks it's really pretty to lie down for pictures. Sometimes I agree. :)

And I wanted to use some fun props - she had a blast with the tea party toys. I get these out for little girls a lot - sometimes it really works. (Keeping it real - sometimes not.)

This picture is the closest I came to the original idea I was hoping for. It's not what I had in mind. It's really tricky to coach little people on how to look natural while kind of posing the way I want them to! But I realized that she was at the end of her cooperation attention span, so we finished up and I treated her to a bunch of marshmallows. There are tons of pictures that I love, and there's always another day to try again.

Albuquerque Senior Portraits

2012-01-20T20:27:00.000-08:00

It's January! Usually the slowest month for photography anyway, I've been spending the month 1) spending time with family 2) painting my kitchen (almost done now) and 3) working on a lot of business strategy, streamlining things, lots of things like that.

I'm so excited about the first big project I've finished - it's my new website, http://seniors.etherdox.com. I love high school senior portraits, and I decided I want to try to focus more energy on them.

My new senior website has a ton of galleries, so you may see someone you know! It also has senior session choices that make more sense :) (a problem I'd definitely been struggling with), and some hopefully helpful information too.

I also have a new Model Program - I'm excited because it will start with a short model session with a theme (of my choice... but we'll discuss, don't worry. It will have to fit your personality!)

So please help me out & check out my new website. If you're looking for a senior photographer, I'd love to work with you!

Some senior portraits from last year - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2012-01-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

I did some senior portraits last fall that never made it to my blog... come to think of it, I did a lot of photography last fall that never made it to my blog! Seniors especially I like to blog, because for one thing, senior sessions are some of my very favorites. For another thing, some of the coolest locations get turned up for senior portraits. If I blog them, then I'll remember some of these places and won't forget to go back!

This gorgeous senior came here from Gallup! How flattering is that??? (Honesty constrains me to admit that she was also coming for the weekend to take the SAT. But still!) She wanted some studio portraits and then we went downtown for some great urban style.

If you know me at all, you know we love soccer in my family. And I love it any time a senior has sports equipment to bring, or we can actually go do something athletic. (Okay, I can't count standing around with a camera around my neck as "doing something athletic", can I?)

Great juggling - no lamps broken or flashes knocked down! :) (It's the only time I'm happy to have "high balls" in the house. Usually it's my son kicking it too hard... at the window...)

She had some great outfit choices. I love to have something more formal too - what a beautiful dress!

One of my favorite fun urban locations - easy & not dangerous. (A great combination, right?)

And I always love jumping pictures. Gorgeous. Thanks so much to this high achieving senior and her mom - I loved getting to meet you!

Next senior! Some of the teenagers I know I would just love my son to grow up to be like. This senior is one of them. I don't anticipate my son being a football player, unless he radically changes his build in the next few years, but I do really hope he grows up with some of this senior's other amazing qualities. Such a great guy. (I can say this without just guessing because I am friends with his mom.)

I realllllllly wanted to make it to a football game. It's really hard to get a press pass at Milne Stadium. Football season is, naturally, my craziest time of year personally and professionally. So the opportunity presented itself for me to get an actual press pass at the last game of the year. So cold, I think that's the day it was snowing and blowing like crazy, and I had only like an hour between another appointment and one of my own kids' games, but I still thought there was barely enough time to make it. I ended up only being able to be there for the first 15-20 minutes of the game, which was hugely disappointing to me, but I got a few things I was happy with. And I did really love the press pass!

First he makes the tackle.

Then he helps the tackled guy back up. That's why I want my son to grow up like him.

Marathon post! I was thinking of breaking this post up. But let's be realistic, I'm not really getting around to blogging like I want to. So here's another senior session. This session - so much fun! I loved it. And this was kind of a marathon session to go with the marathon post, appropriate I guess. We went to the botanic gardens, and something about the botanic gardens just makes sessions long. I guess there are just too many great places for photography!

I always WANT to do photography in the farm house, but it's so dark in there. Somehow it really worked this time - I think the sun was coming in the door and I had the big reflector or something. How fun is this???

It wasn't quite fall yet but the colors were amazing.

I loved getting to know this amazing, fun, creative, energetic senior! I ended up with twice as many proofs as I usually do because she was a.m.a.z.i.n.g with expression! Great happy smiles, great serious faces, everything in between. Thanks so much!

Albuquerque engagement photography

2012-01-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

New Year's resolutions. I almost always refuse to make them. This year - total reversal! I'm setting goals all over the place. One resolution - keep up with blogging. :) Okay, I'm always better at this after the holidays are over, so an improvement in blogging won't be that shocking. But how about all those other goals? We're painting the kitchen red right now, for example, and this wasn't my goal but my husband just welded the most amazing panels for our back yard. Just the tip of the iceberg.

I am so excited for my niece, who is getting married next year in July! She and her fiance visited for the holidays and we thought it would be fun to do some engagement photography here. They're from the Pacific Northwest, so Albuquerque is actually the opposite of their home. Just think of how green and verdant their wedding photography will be next year. We had a lot of fun and miss having them around!

Newborn photography

2011-12-29T15:53:00.000-08:00

If I hurry up, I can blog more than once before December is over! I managed to finish up the Christmas rush, and I'm supposed to be taking December and January off from shooting. I am really ready for a break, and I need to some serious time to work on some business issues, marketing, revise my website, etc. Not to mention spend a lot more time with my family!

But... of course I have a few exceptions to my time off policy... and a beautiful newborn is one of them. This darling little girl is a Christmas baby - she is 9 days old today and I had a great time with her and her parents earlier today working on these portraits. (It seems like just yesterday that I did their wedding portraits!)

She didn't sleep for a super long time, but fortunately she slept deeply and I was able to do a lot of fun things with her while she slept. She hates being on her tummy when awake, so I was happy that she didn't notice it while sleeping.

I made this little bluebird hat earlier this fall. So sweet. I have a nest that I keep meaning to use with it, but she woke up (with a shout) and we were done before the nest came out.

And she was really calm for a lot of awake portraits too. That's pretty unusual for me with newborns, so I enjoyed it!

Lifestyle photography

2011-12-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

Oh blog, how I've missed you! I haven't had a spare second to post, even though I've been having a blast with fall photography. At this point I'm not taking any more sessions for the year, except I make exceptions for newborns and for my "Baby's First Year" clients. I'm also taking January off to try to rest and spend some time with my family. Then in February I'll be ready to go again!

As a photographer I haven't specialized in any certain sort of photography, even though it can be a good idea for your business in general to do that. One of my problems is that I honestly really enjoy lots of different sorts of photography! But I think it's a good idea for potential clients to know what I like. If you like what I like, that's the combination we want. :)

So with that in mind, I'm posting a recent family session. I do a lot of family sessions with small children. This is not always easy. (In fact I don't think it is ever EASY, exactly.) But it can always be a lot of fun. I prefer the lifestyle photography approach - I don't love formal posed photography, especially with small children. But as we start the session, I always try to get some nice semi-posed family portraits first.

Here the older two kids were helping me to get the lighting right.

Then the whole family together. (I LOVE a good grassy hill!) The light was perfect on the day we did these.

Sometimes after we try to do something more posed, we have to run around a lot next. These two were great at dancing together. (Then I have to admit that they were rolling down the hill after that - I felt a little bad, but they didn't get too grassy, and the pictures were great! One thing to know about me is that I don't do a great job of keeping your family clean when we go out on location.)

Then it was time to move to a new location.

After we have enough family portraits that I feel satisfied, we move on to other combinations.

Usually I would have done baby portraits first after the family, but she kept sleeping instead. (How darling is that?)

And after we've done everything we can think of, we look around for an opportunity to play! We swung on the swings, had a big leaf fight, ran around, and finally ran out of time. We had a lot of fun, and I love the pictures that we got in the end.

Three month old - {Albuqurque baby photographer}

2011-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

This darling little guy started off a little less than excited to be in his 3 month old portraits. But he loved being held by his mom (when you are having a baby session with me and I start saying "sometimes the best pictures are the ones where you're holding the baby" - don't feel like you're the only one!). And he seemed to really like his cute cookie monster outfit. He has the most gorgeous smile! It was worth waiting for. And he's grown a ton since his newborn session last summer.

Newborn sweetness - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-11-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

This absolutely darling newborn got sandwiched into my schedule - in between schools, the hospital project (which is how I met her - her big sister is one of the NICU graduates), and a bunch of fall family photography. I am so glad it worked out to get to do newborn portraits with her, because I absolutely love them! Thanks for working with me!

Artwork in the Hospital - {Albuquerque child photographer}

2011-10-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

It's that crazy time of year! I've been working like crazy -I would love to blog and show some really fun fall portraits, but I'm too busy doing everything else. :) I do have to share this - this project has been one of my favorites and I'm so excited to share it. A couple of months ago I got asked to do some artwork for the new Rust Medical Center in Rio Rancho. The artwork company that the hospital hired to fill the hospital with art (which is beautiful by the way) hired me to help with the NICU. I got to meet 8 different families who had babies who "graduated" from the NICU, and do portraits of their children. Then we added text describing their interests and printed them HUGE - 24"x36" - and hung them in the NICU. They also plan to redecorate the old Presbyterian NICU downtown with this artwork - I'm really excited about that too.

So I'm posting the 4 portraits that we have finished. I blurred out the names, because I'm just never comfortable publishing anything about children's names. But you get the idea - if I was a parent with a baby in the NICU, I think I would love to see these. It's been so inspiring to meet with this children and their parents and hear their amazing stories! I have 4 more portraits to go.

Urban senior portraits - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-10-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

Senior portraits! I love urban settings - I was so happy that this gorgeous senior wanted to go downtown. We thought we might get stuck in a torrential rainstorm - we certainly had the dark thick clouds, but luckily we escaped with just a few drops. I found a couple of new places that I really like, along with some old favorites. I love the color! And I need to say some good things about my latest senior here - she is amazing! I've known her for a long time - she used to babysit my kids, they loved her - and it's so fun for me to see her grow up into the wonderful person that she is.

I have driven by this field of flowers before but never stopped. It's perfect!

Canvas Sale - this weekend only! 50% off

2011-10-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

I just ordered some canvases and they are so fabulous! They are gallery wrapped, which means the canvas is stretched around a frame and your picture goes all the way around the edges. They don't need to be framed - they arrive looking amazing and ready to hang.

This weekend only I am offering 50% off canvases. If you've had a session with me and would like a canvas, just call me or email and we can get it ordered. You will love it! (You may have to leave me a message... crazy schedule this weekend...) My normal canvas prices are here.

Senior portraits in the pool and on the mesa - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-10-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying some senior portraits. And I really loved working with this amazing senior. I've actually known him since he was something like 11 years old, and he's impressed me ever since I met him. He's done so well academically, athletically, and has been really involved with Operation Smile (he went to Thailand earlier this year - I think it was this year - and has more travel plans with them for later).

He was not extra happy to do butterfly, it's not his stroke. But it's best for photography :) and he humored me.

Backstroke is his fave but it's harder for me to work with. But by chasing him back and forth by the pool I got some I really like.

He also runs cross-country so we went to the bosque where he runs trails. Now I kind of want to run trails too, except in past years I used to turn my ankle when I ran off the asphalt.

We had to think a little about how to incorporate Operation Smile into senior portraits. I love how this worked.

And... the sunset snuck up on me... but I'd intended to use flash anyway so I think it worked. The clouds were dramatic and I love the twilight colors.

Tea party in a magical fairy garden - {Albuquerque child photography}

2011-09-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

One giant school carnival down, one to go! We had a seriously great elementary school party last night. I'm still exhausted but it was a great success and hopefully everyone had a great time. One more to go this next weekend...

This week I went with this darling little girl and her mom to this beautiful garden. My smallest assistant, who came along to help me, right away realized that it was a fairy garden! She had a tea party and we half-expected to see fairies out of the corner of our eyes. We figured that they would like the smurf cookies the best, because they're strawberry flavored. :)

Family lifestyle photography - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-09-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

It's that busy time of year again. Obviously I've been having a hard time keeping up with blogging. This time of year would be busy for me even if I didn't have a photography business - I have three soccer players this year, five practices a week and three games (with so much overlap, unfortunately). It's school carnival time for both the elementary school and the preschool, and I'm in the middle of those. I feel kind of maxed out on my volunteer hours right now, but it's all stuff that's important to me so I can't quit. I find myself sitting at the computer late at night after all my meetings are over, trying to keep my eyes open and get sessions sorted and proofed, not to mention marketing, etc... I feel like I'm working at a snail's pace and I apologize to clients who may be waiting. The school stuff will slow down in a couple of weeks and that will help.

This family came to one of my school fundraisers. Their session was so perfect. I love it when I can capture children like this. Their girls started out blowing dandelions and from the first second I loved everything they did. I'm always hoping to capture the relationship between family members, and I thought this session was a great example. A lot of fun and a lot of love! As I was sorting through what to blog I was ready to post them all :) (but luckily I restrained myself... a bit...)

Summer vacation days - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-09-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

On the first day of September, I feel like reliving my summer vacations! We had a great time visiting family in Colorado. It was sooooooo beautiful there - everything was green and lush. (It was hard to come back to dry dusty Albuquerque!)

I'm so lucky to have such gorgeous nieces and nephews. This is my youngest niece, my youngest brother's daughter. It's so fun to have a baby around! A baby in a meadow... I wish I had a meadow here!

Before we headed up the slopes we had some fun in town. My brother had a summer job driving the Kona truck and we all enjoyed that.

We love to eat breakfast out on the porch - my daughter loved the butterflies warming themselves in the morning sun.

We tried so hard to catch a fish. They jumped, splashed, and totally taunted us, but nobody even got a bite.

My kids created this delicious treat - it's a food sculpture of a campfire. Mmmmmm.

We love the little pool. It was pretty busy until our big group showed up - then, surprisingly, everyone else left! They left us to do all the splashing, and lollipop-eating, ourselves.

Baby's First Year - three month old session - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-08-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my newest "baby plan" friend! This darling little guy is three month old and I loved meeting him. He was all smiles and really sweet personality. And don't you just love his hair! I love seeing babies over their first year - they change so much and it's amazing to get to record some of that. Often I start with newborn portraits, but it's good to know that it's not too late to start recording your baby's first year even if you don't get around to getting portraits when he or she is brand new.

Senior portraits in the river - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-08-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

It's senior portraits time again! I loved getting to meet this gorgeous senior, my first of the year. She had the perfect location picked out (thanks for the tip!), brought a friend, and we had a great evening. It was hot & sticky out, but she looked beautiful throughout - photoshop didn't even have to take off any shine... I don't know how she pulled it off! :)

She told me she really likes sepia-toned pictures, so I did a few here.

I love sunflowers - I've had a hard time finding them this year!

I hadn't been to this spot on the river before. It's a little deeper than I usually use, but that didn't slow her (or her friend) down a bit. She got a little wet...

and then really wet. :) I love it - water makes everything more fun!

Okay, I should have your gallery done next week - thanks so much & I will give you a call to set up a time to see them! :) :) :)

Five days old - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-08-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

This little guy was only 5 days old when he came for newborn portraits. (I think!) He was so darling and sleepy - I think he slept almost the whole time. In fact I usually get some pictures of newborns awake, and this time I don't think that happened. I was so happy that his mom called right away after he was born.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and I actually have shade in my yard in the afternoon. I love taking newborns outside. :)

Her dad is Irish - I love it when parents have props that mean something to them.

A summer evening in the bosque - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-08-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, you know that we spend a lot of time and energy on our favorite sport, soccer. Now, some of that time & energy is spent watching soccer on TV. :) (We discovered espn3 replays online!) But a lot of it is spent at soccer practice and games for our *THREE* soccer players. (My youngest starts this fall.) We so much appreciate their coaches, and all the time and effort they put into the great teams that our kids get to play with.

This is one of our coach's family - they are tons of fun and I loved going to the bosque with them. Their girls are beautiful, photogenic, and had lots of great posing ideas. :) (And great at soccer too!)

I guess they traditionally have a jumping picture - one of my favorite sorts of pictures -

First day of school - {Albuquerque children photography}

2011-08-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

First day of school. (Okay, it was Tuesday, not today.) Not my favorite day. My chest gets tight when I think about it. Fortunately for me, the kids both got the teachers we were hoping for, and they have good friends in their classes, so they are pretty excited for it.

Too many backpacks! People need to pick and then clean out the rest!

Everyone was up kind of early - a bit of nervousness maybe? Happy, just early.

My kids are great readers - when he has extra time you can often find him like this:

Big enough to get ready WITHOUT my help - please Mom!

Good morning, sunshine! (She doesn't start school for a few more weeks...)

Ready for the day!

Cereal - the breakfast of champions! We don't eat anything else (for breakfast...)

You just can't trust the school lunch menu those first few days... we have to pack lunches.

STILL not time to go???

Finally.

Greeted like this on the playground - I'm feeling a little better already...

Still looking a little nervous :)... but glad to be with friends.

Soaring like an airplane all the way home! You know that video on Sesame Street: "I'm a little airplane now..." - it's on youtube. (So glad she's home with me still.)

Family portraits in the (hot) bosque - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-08-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

This amazing family is living in... China! They were here visiting home for a few weeks and we managed to schedule a family session - this was actually their last day in the country before going back. (What an honor! :) )We went to the bosque (this was the day after it had rained again, and the bosque had just been reopened to the public) and braved the heat. We saw (and counted) bugs, lizards (very hard to catch), and a stork flying overhead.

Their kids have grown so much since I last saw them! They were a lot of fun.

As you can tell!

Best wishes to them in China - I hope everything is going well there!

Baby IN the cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-08-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

I love one year old portraits. This little guy came, with his family, to my house for his portraits, and we had so much fun! He was happy to do anything - play on the slide...

Splash in the fountain...

And the most fun of all was eating cake! This has got to be my favorite cake-pictures cake ever! He liked the frosting dots.

Some babies don't like to have sticky frosting on them - but he didn't mind at all! My kids are still laughing about the baby sitting in his big cake - what a really fun way to eat.

Sometimes cake pictures end in meltdown, but he was happy till the end. Then he politely signed that he was done - I was impressed. :) And I love his pictures. Thanks to his great family!

Three boys & a baby girl - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-08-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

I absolutely loved meeting this family. They have a new baby and three gorgeous boys. Their grandma wanted them to have a chance to get newborn portraits and something fun for their whole family as they are making some changes in their lives. I thought the boys' blue eyes and grins were perfect. And they were so sweet with each other! We did boy pictures first while their baby sister got ready.

Their oldest didn't want to smile with his teeth. So there are a bunch of funny pictures where he's trying to avoid smiling with his lips open, and finally at the end I caught him with something funny. (I wish I could remember what!)

I love this picture of them all together! How sweet is this? I'm sure it's just like this every day, right? :)

Their baby girl was a little old for newborn pictures. I gave all my warnings about babies not usually sleeping well for pictures after they are two weeks old, and then she slept through at least an hour of pictures. :) What an amazing baby! Her mom had a big bunch of darling pink & fluffy stuff - great props for a beautiful overcast day of outdoor baby photography!

I love my grungy fence, but it's trying to actually fall apart... we may have to fix it (but not paint it!)

This may be my favorite picture from the whole morning!

I loved getting to meet you all - thanks so much for coming!

Fall Minisessions - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-08-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

I am often asked about fall minisessions. This isn't quite fall, but I'm participating in two sets of school fundraisers to support some great local schools. I have minisessions planned for both August 26th-27th, and September 9th-10th. Please see the flyers below (click on them for a larger view).

If you'd like more information, please contact me. If you'd like to book a timeslot, just contact the school's representative as shown on the flyer (so I'm not double-booking). And let me know so I can look forward to seeing you!

August 26th - 27th (click on the image to see it larger):

September 9th-10th (click on the image to see it larger):

Two year old fun - {Albuquerque children photography}

2011-08-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

This beautiful little girl just turned two years old (or at least she had... this blog post somehow got lost in the shuffle & is a bit old now). And, like many two year olds, she was not too excited about pictures. "I no want to" was a phrase we heard at least once. :) But fortunately her family had lots of patience, I'd brought a bunch of props, and we had plenty of time. I followed her around the park and we ended up with all kinds of pictures that I really like.

The tea set was a little interesting for her. Especially with some marbles to hide in the pots and cups.

She was an awesome dancer to "All the Single Ladies" on her mom's ipod. She thought it was "All the Single Babies" which I thought was hilarious.

She was not very interested in "Princess Horse" but did ride her a little bit.

And I was so happy that she did really like my umbrella! Her umbrella pictures are some of my favorites.

Summertime fun - {Albuquerque children photography}

2011-07-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

Whew, summer is going so fast! We had a great trip to Colorado, thanks to my family for all their support and love! Then a whirlwind week of shooting sessions, and now I'm again swamped in proofing. :) I hate that school starts so early here in August. So I'm going to try to be a fun mom for a couple of weeks, along with finishing as much work as I can!

To combine the "fun mom" thing and some work, I put up a "reading tent" in our back yard. I used it for a really fun family session which hopefully I will blog soon. And then we brought beanbags out in the back yard and read some stories. Only one of my kids wanted to be bribed with candy for a picture in the tent, but I thought they were really cute!

Beautiful girls at the park - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-07-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

This family was so much fun. We went to a local park and had a great time playing with their two darling little girls.

More wedding previews - {Albuquerque wedding photography}

2011-07-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how many proofs most photographers come home with after a wedding. But I came home with a. lot. I'm still going through them and there are some great images to share - and to give the bride & groom more previewing fun:

Summer minisessions - {Albuquerque child photography}

2011-07-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun with our "bubbles on the grass" minisessions! I love doing portraits in my back yard, because we spend a lot of time trying to make it nice for portraits & it seems a shame not to use it! My amazing niece was here and did some photography with me. And the families who came were fabulous - I mean, it was HOT and everyone was happy and a great sport about it. Every group got such really fun pictures. I'm just finishing most of them now - here are a couple sets. It's a long post. :)

Wedding day! - {Albuquerque wedding photography}

2011-07-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

I had the huge privilege and pleasure of photographing a really amazing wedding recently. I loved getting to know the bride and groom - they are such truly good and nice and FUN people. So I was really looking forward to their wedding day. It went perfectly! It takes awhile to process all the pictures from a wedding, so I'm going to start them off with some fun stuff from before the ceremony.

We met the bride at Arte de la Mano - they took great care of the bride and her friend! They looked GORGEOUS when they were done! I was very impressed.

The bride made this - very inspiring, I've just been loving netting...

Then it was on to the hotel where they finished getting ready. LOVE the shoes! (I think they hurt by the end of the night though...)

And many, many more to come!

Baby birthday cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-07-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

So many of my "Baby Plan" babies are growing up! This little guy just turned 1 year old, so we celebrated with some portraits and cake. His parents like high-key portraits (with the white background) and so do I:

Next we went outside to splash in my fountain, which I'm always so happy to use since my family made it for me last year:

He definitely liked the splashes!

And then it was time for cake. He did a great job - happy and sticky are just what I like with cake pictures. And he said "Mmmmmm!"

Nothing like some frosting between the toes... :)

Family reunion at the park - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-07-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

Some families do such a great job with their clothes for family reunion portraits. This is one of my favorite ways to do it - each family wears a different color and they all look great together. This combo was especially appropriate since it was right around July 4th. This session was so fun for me - the adult children gave their parents a family photo session as a surprise, so they all showed up with their cameras and tripods (which they all got out later on too!). It was a beautiful day and we got a lot of great family portraits.

The youngest little guy had a short attention span, but it helps to have a whole bunch of aunts, uncles, and grandparents dancing around behind my head to try to get him to laugh! It worked!

We did some more traditional family portraits, but before long almost everyone was in the trees.

And since we were at the park, we had to do playground pictures too!

What a fun family! It was great to meet you all!

Double the fun! - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-07-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

I had a great time with this amazing family. I can't imagine life with two sets of twins... I think it would be so perfect after the first few years, but those first years would be tough! The boys especially had some great ideas about where we should do pictures. They weren't too excited about the blanket, but they liked the tree stumps! The girls were a hoot too - they had their best smiles when they were riding piggyback, and their dad was a lot of fun. (I love pictures with fun dads. Moms are usually fun but it's an extra treat when the dads are too.)

I just found out that this area, along with the bosque, is closed until the drought eases. So I guess I'm glad we got pictures when we did! Here's a quick preview for their great mom - see you tomorrow!

Engagement session at UNM - in the smokey haze - {Albuquerque engagement photography}

2011-06-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

I had a blast with this amazing couple when we hung around UNM one evening for an engagement session! They both recently graduated from UNM and had lots of great ideas for places for pictures. (I didn't go to UNM so all I really know is the duck pond... I needed to spend some time there looking around!) They are getting married very soon - I'm so excited that I'll get to be their wedding photographer this weekend. I couldn't have found a nicer couple to work with. And with that I will wish them the all best as they prepare for their big weekend... :)

They were nonstop funny all evening. I think at least 1/3 of their pictures turned up to be laughing pictures - that's just how the session was. I loved it.

This was one of the smokey nights from the huge Arizona wildfire - I was really worried that the smoke would be chokingly thick, but it was okay. We did have the bright red sun in the background a couple of times, but I didn't pause to set up additional light so it would show very well. I was just grateful that the air wasn't too hazy!

I can't resist posting newborns! - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-06-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Looking back I'm posting my newborn sessions, but not the others! I need to work on posting a better variety of my session. :) But this little newborn was so darling - she was a little "old" for me to be comfortable saying I can get her to sleep for portraits, but then she ended up being an amazing sleeper. And one of my favorite things about her session is that she was smiling so much of the time! I got all sorts of darling little sleep-smiles. I'll post a few below. Thanks to her really nice mom for bringing her!

A new baby boy - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-06-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

It's always so nice to see old friends - especially when a new baby is involved! We got to know this great family a few years ago when our boys were in preschool together. Then when the boys went on to elementary school we unfortunately kind of lost touch. So I was thrilled to hear from them when their new baby boy was born, and of course I loved getting to meet him while he is still tiny. The rest of our kids spent the afternoon playing in the water in our back yard, while we had just as much fun with their baby brother inside. He was a great sleeper - we got all kinds of great newborn portraits with him!

They love baseball...

Their older son is a big dinosaur guy - in fact I think he's been serious about dinosaurs for a few years, because they both loved dinosaurs in preschool too. Anyway we thought it would be fun to have his baby brother sleep in a dino nest for pictures.

Thanks so much for coming! It was great to see you - we'll have to have another water party again soon!

Mr. Personality - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-06-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

First I have to add a plug for my Bubbles minisessions on the 24th. I still have some timeslots open!

This little guy has to be one of the most fun babies I've met. He always seems to have a big smile on his face! I have been taking his pictures all year and they have all been fun, but this session took the cake for happy smiles. We wandered around the gardens, while we were waiting for the grass to dry a bit (I've never been there before when they were actually watering the grass... I have to say, it kind of messed up my plans!), and he was thrilled everywhere we went. Happy birthday to you!

Giveaway for summer minisessions!

2011-06-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited for my summer minisessions! My schedule is starting to fill up, but there are still timeslots available. I decided to offer a gift for one of my sessions, just because I love these mini accordian books so much. I'll pick one session at random and give you one of the smaller 2.5"x3.5" accordian books, with 14 images from your session. That's a $55 value - and they are amazingly fun! You will love it. I have some more information on my website if you're interested in the accordian books.

Please contact me if you'd like to book a timeslot!

Summer minisessions - June 24th - {Albuquerque children photography}

2011-06-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I did any minisessions, so I'm excited to announce that I'm planning a really fun day of portraits on June 24th. The theme is "Bubbles on the Green" - but I also love the idea of sidewalk chalk, so that is another option. These will be 20 minute sessions, going on all day. For more information, please see my website or you can contact me to reserve a timeslot.

Thanks to my sweet little model for helping me out with some ideas of what we might do on the 24th!

Engagement session in the bosque - {Albuquerque engagement photographry}

2011-06-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

I was honored to be asked by my son's teacher to take her engagement portraits. She is one of our favorite teachers ever - and we have had some excellent teachers! We're so happy for her that she's getting married this summer. I had a blast with her and her fiance - they were tons of fun. She is a swimmer so it's appropriate that immediately we were in the water. :) (Somehow when I go to the bosque I always end up in the water.)

I'll post a few favorites and I'm putting a slideshow at the end.

Best wishes to this amazing couple!

A little more Old Town - {Albuquerque portraits}

2011-05-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm having a hard time getting sessions blogged... I'm not sure why! I've done a bunch of really fun sessions - in fact I had more sessions last month than I could keep up with. (Maybe that's why I'm behind with blogging!)

I just finished proofing this really fun session - this gorgeous guy is a big brother to one of my "baby plan" babies. I really enjoyed meeting them at Old Town - what a great place for 'tween pictures. We did it a little different for an older boy, and I think it worked really well! They are a military family so they move around a bit. His mom wanted pictures that would really say "Albuquerque" - and Old Town really has those great southwest colors!

He had great smiles and he was really good at serious pictures too. Love it. (Not everyone can pull off a serious face. :) )

Photo Challenge | Yellow

2011-05-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

I thought my little flower princess might be a good entry for this week's theme: Yellow. She loves to dress up and she was thrilled when she saw that she could shrink down to the size of a flower princess and play in our roses. Her personality is like sunshine (most of the time).

Check out more great entries at iheartfaces.com .

Another newborn sweetheart - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-05-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have another really sweet newborn to post today. I loved getting to meet this little girl - she had a darling little personality and was so photogenic! The newborn stage goes so fast - I know it doesn't seem as fast to parents who are sleep deprived, but looking back I hardly remember what it was like. I'm always so honored when parents choose to have me work with them for newborn portraits. Before they know it, their baby will be on a regular schedule, will stretch out, might not need to be changed 20 times a day, and their feet will go all the way to the bottom of their pants. :) (However their socks will still always fall off for quite awhile.)

I LOVE her smile here. I wonder what she is thinking?

Her dad is very accomplished in martial arts. I loved their idea of having her wear a gi.

Wide-eyed newborn - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-05-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

I found these newborn portraits in my "to be posted" folder from a couple of weeks ago. I have only been blogging a few of my sessions, but I know I really meant to post this one! This little guy is so gorgeous - I loved getting to meet him! He was really mellow awake, so we did a bunch of pictures with his parents and of his big bright eyes. Then we got him to sleep, but.... every time I took the blanket off at all, he would wake up. So the naked pictures are awake & naked - which doesn't always work very well, but it did this time! I enjoyed him and his family very much - thanks for coming!

Baby session at the park - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-05-13T23:39:00.000-07:00

I've had a few people ask me lately if I do pictures at this park down the street. Yep! I've done a few sessions lately but none have ended up posted yet. This is the perfect session to post - this little guy is one of my "baby plan" babies, who I get to see 4 times for portraits in their first year. His parents are the nicest couple - they are students and just seem *on track* to me. (If you know me very well, you know I'm BIG on education.) I love seeing their relationship with each other and with their sweet son. He's had a tough time this spring and I was so happy to see him looking really good and healthy! Sometimes park pictures are so perfect - he was happy and the day was pretty, a great combination!

He was ultra-fascinated with the ducks. I mean, we could barely get him to crack a smile or look my direction when the ducks were in sight. :)

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | Motherhood

2011-05-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

One more Mother's day portrait of my family to post. This one for the "motherhood" photo challenge at iheartfaces.com - I love these kids!

Head over to iheartfaces.com to see a lot more great entries!

Mother's day family portraits - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-05-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

It's Mother's Day! (Or, well, it was yesterday.) Our family tradition is to take family pictures on Mother's Day, when everybody is happy to cooperate with me and we have a good time. (Maybe my husband would disagree about being happy to cooperate, but he's a great sport and I appreciate it.) This year I decided to stick to simple and we did pictures in our own back yard. The kids were super good and we got some family portraits that I love.

Lots of fun silly pictures. This is just one of many. We call it "tickle party!"

My big girl is growing up so fast.

Every time I look at a picture of my son I wonder where all his teeth went. He lost a bunch, and some aren't even trying to grow back! He doesn't seem to care.

Sometimes it's hard to get a good smile out of your own kids. :)

And here is my drama princess, always avoiding eye contact with the camera.

All these, plus a bunch more silly pictures, a quick fire ant attack, a bunch of marshmallows everywhere, and everything done in maybe 30 minutes? I love my family. Thanks guys!

Newborn session - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-05-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

I met this newborn's family through Operation Love photography - though I hadn't actually done their OpLove session yet, that was the next week :) (soon to be posted!) We did maternity portraits too so I feel like I know them well, and it is such a privilege to meet families that sacrifice so much for our country.

Their little newborn was perfect. And I love his big sister - she's one of the smartest two year olds I've met, and I've met a lot of two year olds. :) She was so good and patient, holding her baby brother for pictures!

I got this new bucket for newborn photography - I love it! I meant to buy something else entirely and fell in love with this instead. The funny part is I'm sure I'll eventually go back & get the other one too. :)

Beautiful senior portraits downtown - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-05-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

A preview for my last senior of the spring. I'm so glad I did just one more senior session - this is a really beautiful set of images. She wins some of my personal senior photography awards :) - most outfit changes in the least amount of time, best school entrance for photography, best serious pictures. (Sometimes it's so hard not to smile!)

We did some studio photography and also went downtown. She is a volleyball player and we had some fun with volleyballs in my living room.

She plays the guitar, and isn't it a beautiful guitar? :)

I'm always looking for an outfit to go with my black & white background (thanks!)

She goes to school downtown, so we went there for some really fun pictures.

I loved getting to see the inside of her school. They have a great marble staircase in their entryway.

Her outfits were coordinated perfectly, right down to the perfect shoes. I love these!

Of course I had my ring light ready. I love the pop it gives!

It was absolutely lovely to meet this senior - thanks so much to her & her mom!

i heart faces:soft & sweet

2011-05-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

When I saw the theme this week - "soft and sweet" - for the I Heart Faces website I had to enter this picture. More previews coming soon for this sweet family and their new *soft* baby. :)

Check out more great entries at iheartfaces.com .

Maternity session at the park - {Albuquerque maternity photographer}

2011-04-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

I loved everything about this beautiful maternity session. (Except - getting to this park right now is totally difficult - all the streets that access it seem to be closed. With some determination we managed to get there.) I loved meeting this couple - I love their interaction and loved getting to see their relationship. Thanks so much to them for sharing a bit of yourself with me.

Senior portraits with color! - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-04-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

I'm almost done with my senior portrait posts... one more very patient girl is coming up, but not tonight (sorry!). Here's a really neat girl I met who wanted to use some of the great colorful walls we have in Albuquerque. We went all around town and I love the color we found. It was a huge pleasure to meet her and her parents. She has so much poise - she made the whole morning a lot of much fun.

I love the blue and green - so happy she wanted to start here!

Her mom has a gorgeous Corvette. I always tell seniors that we should do car pictures if they love their car. I love it when people take me up on it. This is my first Corvette. :)

I've been wanting to use this fence for a long time. So happy to get to try it! And I was right, it's perfect!

Obviously I can't get enough of this aqua wall. (It will turn up again soon...)

More senior portraits, lots of fun - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-04-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

I enjoy senior sessions every time - but this senior had me cracking up the whole time. We went all over the place, even did some studio pictures too. He played football and basketball and brought his snowboard (I love props!). Right down to the correct goggles and hat. :) He told me he wants to move to Colorado where the snowboarding would be even better - I know he'll be successful at whatever he tries! Thanks so much to him & his great family!

I loved the snowboard.

Here's my ring light again... love this.

Senior portraits in the evening light - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-04-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

It's been so hard to keep evening appointments this spring - our Albuquerque spring wind really makes things difficult. I was so happy when this senior's evening session turned out PERFECT. It was warm out, no wind, and the light was beautiful. Obviously this girl would look gorgeous anywhere, but the light and the setting all came together really well. I really enjoyed this session. It's so fun to work with seniors that are confident, happy, and so photogenic too!

I loved that she specifically wanted pictures with her dad and brother.

She had the best accessories I've ever seen!

Senior portraits at the pool - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-04-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have been working on senior portraits like crazy! The problem is that of course all the seniors need their proofs back well in time to order pictures to send with graduation announcements, which needs to be soon! I booked more than I should have, and in fact if you're a senior wondering if I might have an available appointment, sadly, the answer is no. So I am low on sleep but I'm having a lot of fun with these images.

This girl is a very competitive swimmer and in fact got a scholarship to UNM because of her swimming success and talent. We met at West Mesa to do some pictures there. We actually did a lot more pictures on other days in other places, but this is what's ready to post, and they have been waiting sooooo patiently that I thought I should post what I have.

I love the medals shot. :)

I brought my ring light to the pool. Obviously I am excited about my new ring light. :) And what a fun portrait!

Perhaps she was laughing at me, as I was trying not to slip & fall into the pool, while quickly walking alongside her as she swam?

Okay, who looks this gorgeous just after they step out of the water??? :)

Senior portraits at the school - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-04-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

My next senior portraits are for this really great guy. Originally his mom had asked if I could do pictures with him and his friends. Then their schedule changed, but we still did some portraits at the school, and rescheduled the friends photo shoot for later. I'm so glad it worked out, because it was a great session and I love how they turned out.

His mom had the idea to use this sign. I have to admit I hadn't noticed it in the past, but it was perfect for senior portraits. I love the colors behind the sign too.

One thing I've been serious about this spring with senior portraits is off-camera flash. Our blazingly bright mid-day sun here in Albuquerque is so hard to use for photographers. We tend to head for the shade, but this year I decided that the blue sky and full sun is worth working for! I've been really glad because this is what is really looks like here, right?

I love the football shots - I'm always really happy when seniors bring sports equipment or props of any sort. I think it's so important that senior portraits aren't just a quick shot in a studio - wearing a drape or jacket - but can really highlight your personality.

Senior athlete - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2011-04-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

Senior portraits are back in full swing! Some seniors like to do them the summer before school starts, and some seniors are so busy that they wait until the end of the year. (When, of course, they are even busier, but a deadline can make all the difference - for me too!) In fact I think this amazing girl probably would have been happy to do them earlier in the fall but I was busy enough to put it off. Anyway!

This girl, who was voted most athletic in her class, is not only a great all-around athlete, but she's a great all-around person too. She is upbeat, smart, and has great university goals. I'm happy to know her! I loved doing senior portraits - even though it was freezing cold and eventually her chin froze up :) - she was lots of fun.

Not only was it cold, but also windy. Not exactly a photographer's dream! But she was a great sport, and sometimes it's fun to have movement in your hair... (sometimes...)

Once we got off the mesa and down to Old Town, it was much nicer. I guess standing at the edge of the mesa is a windy place to be. :)

And she's also a musician - she is an excellent violinist. (I've heard her play a few times, so it's not just hearsay!)

This is one of my favorites!

I did manage to get some volleyball pictures of her last fall. I really enjoyed seeing this game. I think she was team captain, and played a bunch of the time, which was great for my purposes. :)

Look at those catchlights! - {Albuquerque portrait photography}

2011-04-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

I am so excited - I got a new ringlight! They are so much fun - I bought it thinking of senior portraits (of which I am doing a. lot. right now) but they are also really fun for kids or anything informal. You can see the really neat circular catchlight it creates in eyes.

So if you're coming here for portraits, I just might get it out!

A really amazing newborn smile! - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-04-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

I met this sweet little baby last week - she was so perfect for newborn portraits! She is just 10 days old here. She was awake and happy, then went to sleep and let me move her around all I wanted. Her eyes were so clear and bright - I was glad she was awake for pictures too. And keep reading for the most amazing smile...

I guess it's only amazing if you know that newborns don't smile when they're awake. Usually when they fall asleep you can get pictures of those sweet little sleep-smiles. But this was a fully awake smile, and I got 3 frames of it, so it lasted! Amazing, right?

And here's a sleep smile, also very sweet. :)

Wishing for a pretty yard... {Albuquerque child photography}

2011-03-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

I am SO ready for it to be green out! The weather feels like spring (including the horrendous Albuquerque spring wind) and there are spring bulbs blooming. But everything is still brown & dry! I can't remember the last time we had rain... could that be the problem? :)

My daughter had been wanting me to take her picture, so we went out in the bare front yard for a few minutes. She was so sweet and cooperative (any photographer will tell you that their own kids are usually the hardest to work with!) and laughed at my silly jokes. I love her. She is growing up so fast.

Her brother wanted a marshmallow too (that's how I bribe them to be in pictures for me). I don't know how he eats with no front teeth!

They are such good buddies - I love this picture of them together. He really does take care of her, and she adores him.

Newborn baby boy - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2011-03-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

This little guy was born a nice big size -he is just barely 2 weeks here (I think) and for sure looks big & healthy, not like a tiny newborn. He slept perfectly, the whole time! That doesn't happen very often - I loved it. It's so fun to get to work with these sweet little people - a blessing in my life.

Southwest color for my friends who moved to... Washington DC??? {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-03-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

In the last 2 months our family went on a fabulous vacation, came home, and 3 weeks later left on another fabulous vacation. It's been, well, fabulous! But now it's time to get back to every day life (my kids still pretend they're in a roller coaster every time we drive somewhere) and back to work. If I ever get caught up (ha) maybe I will post some alligator or beach pictures. Ah, I miss the warm sun!

Before I left, I think it was before I left the second time, I went with my friends to Old Town for some family portraits. They just moved to Washington DC - I miss them already! Their girls have been so much fun for me - they are really some of the sweetest little girls I know. They were absolutely perfect for pictures, even though it was kind of colder than we'd expected. Their dad is extra-funny and played some jokes with my hair that made them laugh.

I'm in love with the owl hat!

There was some boogie-woogie going on here (I think that's what it was!) Great dancing, girls!

Darling six month old little girl - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

2011-03-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

This little princess could not have been more fun! She was in & out in just a few minutes, complete with 2 changes of outfit! (Which sometimes is hard for little ones.) It was such a pleasure to see her & her parents again, they are great. Six months old is a fantastic age for portraits - it's so fun when they can sit up and really interact with me or Mom & Dad. I'm looking forward to seeing her again when she's turning one!

Operation Love family portraits - {Albuquerque family photography}

2011-02-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

I was honored to meet this great military family - the dad was about to be deployed and they came for some family portraits. (Then I left on vacation and took forever to post their session, my apologies...) They are so much fun - I really hope they love these pictures.

For more information about Operation Love sessions, you can see their website.

The photos and other content of this publication do not imply any endorsement or recommendation by the Department of Defense.

More baby birthday cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-02-24T18:25:00.000-08:00

We just got back from an amazing vacation to Florida, and I'm scrambling to get my act back together. :) I have lots of sessions to process, but since I've been neglecting blogging lately I thought I'd post a few from this little princess's session earlier this month. She is so gorgeous! She's always been so smiley and happy, and this session was no exception. She just turned 1 year old, so we did some pretty portraits first, and then got out the cake!

I don't think I've ever gotten so many perfect pre-cake-destruction pictures. She was happy AND patient! She kept eating & never had a melt-down (which often happens with cake pictures, maybe they are just too much fun or too much pressure or something :) ), with huge smiles all the time (which doesn't always happen either - sometimes babies are really serious about their cake!). Too many to post, but here are a few that I loved.

Baby birthday cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-02-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

I have been having so much fun lately with babies! This little guy just recently turned 1 year old, so we had a birthday cake session. One of my very favorite sessions to do! It's especially fun when they like the cake :) (which doesn't always happen) - he was enthusiastic and happy to the end. What a good boy!

Smiley baby princess - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

2011-02-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's February already! How did that happen? :) I definitely had my busiest January ever, but I've been keeping up pretty well. I recently did these portraits - that I LOVE - of this darling little baby. She is 6 months old and smiled the whole time she was here.

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

2011-01-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

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}

2011-01-26T06:18:00.000-08:00

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}

2011-01-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-14T23:12:00.000-08:00

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}

2011-01-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

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}

2011-01-08T00:55:00.000-08:00

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! :)

First birthday cupcake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2011-01-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a long time since I managed to post anything. Now I'm out of the habit! I worked some insanely long hours, almost finished everything before the holiday, and then we had a nice long Christmas trip to visit my parents. I was ready for a good photography break :) - but now I'm back and ready to work. (And I'm going to lose my google rankings if I don't start posting again!)

While we were in Colorado, my cousin brought his darling little girl up for her 1 year old pictures. She was DARLING - I loved getting to see her again. It was a little tricky to do portraits in my mom's dark house :) without any of my favorite light modifiers. But they brought one of her favorite chairs, which was so much fun. And the baby was perfect.

The baby was doing a great job of standing up by herself... then she took her first steps and walked to her mom! First steps on camera! I wish I'd managed to switch to video, but I always forget about that when things move fast. I did get some cute pictures.

And she got to eat a cupcake too - she wasn't super enthusiastic about it but she seemed to like the frosting. :)

I was so happy to get to spend a little time with my cousin & his family! Thanks for driving up & sharing your daughter with me! :)

Baby in the park - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2010-12-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

Oh, hello, do I have a blog? I guess I should post every once in awhile! I'm almost all caught up from my November sessions. They were so very much fun - and I thank all my wonderful clients for their patience, because I definitely overbooked my time.

Here's a session I just proofed today. This darling little boy is growing so fast! We went to the park and it just happened to be the PERFECT day. The leaves had just fallen in bunches, in fact they were wafting down onto us, and hadn't had time to blow away yet. The baby got to play in the leaves, it wasn't too cold out, and he had the greatest fall outfit on! He was so happy and fun. Thanks to his parents!

Black Friday special - {Albuquerque family photographer}

2010-11-26T06:42:00.000-08:00

My Black Friday special is now posted on my Facebook page - this is my best sale all year. Just leave a comment (on facebook) if you are interested.

A few previews for some veeeeeeery patient people still waiting to see their fall pictures. I'm hoping to finish all of them this weekend. There are some great ones!

Birthday cake on the beach! He was so funny - he dug into that cupcake with zero hesitation, and ate it ALL. I hope he didn't eat too much sand. :)

Two sets of twin boys in one day!

Thanksgiving special #4 - {Albuquerque family photographer}

2010-11-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm not sure if anyone is watching today... (except I'm here looking at Black Friday ads :) so maybe other people are too?) I'm posting my special for today on my facebook page. I'm thankful for you all...

(Here are some example slideshows - in case I can't get them to update to my facebook photography page before it's time to get into the kitchen!)

Thanksgiving special #3 - {Albuquerque family photographer}

2010-11-24T04:22:00.000-08:00

I have a new special on my Facebook page - this is a good one for clients with sessions done earlier this year. This is fun! Just leave a comment (on facebook) if you are interested.

And a couple quick favorites from recent sessions. This baby was darling - he had these big wide eyes! He's a new "baby plan" client - I'm so happy that I'll get to see him again soon!

And his parents brought his Halloween costume - isn't he the cutest little bat?

And this family is another huge favorite. They've been meeting me for pictures for a long time and this year I was so happy with their session in the bosque. Their kids *gorgeous*, happy, all smiles. And fun!

Thanksgiving special #2 - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

2010-11-23T05:03:00.000-08:00

I have a new special posted on my Facebook page - if you are interested in this one, meant for your next session, just leave a comment (on Facebook) and I'll put you on my list.

This whole posting every day thing is going to be good for me. :) Here's a few favorites from one of the sessions I edited yesterday. This little girl is just turning 1 and is finishing up my baby plan too. I have loved getting to meet with her throughout this year, and her final session is my favorite yet. Isn't she beautiful? And she was SO fun playing in the water. I love that we live in a place where 1 year olds can play in the river in November.

Thanksgiving special #1 - {Albuquerque family photography}

2010-11-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

I just posted my first sale of the week on my Etherdox Photography Facebook page. It's a great one! Head on over and check it out. :) To get this special all you have to do is leave a comment on my Facebook page.

And a few recent pictures that I love. Some indoors & some out. Some of my favorite families! I'm working hard, trying to get through all the sessions I have stacked up.... there are still a bunch of them, so if you're waiting, thanks for your patience! It's been quite a fall.

Thanksgiving Week Specials - Announced on Facebook

2010-11-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

I am truly thankful for this amazing year of photography. I've been much busier than any year before, and I love the challenges and opportunities that presents. I'm so grateful for my wonderful clients - beautiful babies, talented seniors, and happy families. I have enjoyed every session - just did a mental check to see if I can honestly write that, and it's true!

I've been busy enough this year that I haven't done much in the way of specials (or newsletters, for that matter...) so I thought Black Friday week might be a good time to give some really good discounts. And a giveaway too. Some of these will be for future sessions, some can be for sessions from the past, and most would also make a great Christmas gift. These will be one-day specials only and they will only be found on Facebook.

I will post the specials on my Etherdox Photography facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/etherdox.photography - so starting Monday November 22nd, check every day that week for a new special. To get the special offer or discount, just leave a comment (you will need to "like" my page) or press "like" for that post.

It feels so ironic - that just when I have the most sessions I could be posting, I have the least time to do it. I've had so much fun in the bosque this fall. The weather and color have been so gorgeous, and I've enjoyed every fun family. Here are a couple different families with some pictures that I love:

Military session in the bosque - {Albuquerque family photography}

2010-11-13T06:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, blogging really takes the back burner when I'm so busy! I want to try to keep up a little bit, and this session is a great one to post. I have spent the last 2 weeks in the bosque, and we've had beautiful weather and beautiful fall color. This is one of my favorite sessions - a military family, where the serviceman was home on leave. He had just recently met his new daughter - who is just about 1 month old here - on this leave. It was an honor to meet them for family portraits.

This is an Operation Love session, which is a service some photographers provide as a small token of appreciation to our military servicemen and women. For more information, you can see the OpLove website.

The photos and other content of this publication do not imply any endorsement or recommendation by the Department of Defense.

A cowgirl princess in the park - {Albuquerque children photograper}

2010-11-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

This little girl is just turning 2 years old. Time goes so fast! She is the younger sister of my son's soccer teammate and it really seems like she was just born. Her mom wanted to do pictures during soccer practice, which was such a great idea. She was a little slow to warm up, so we spent the whole hour running around the park with her, and ended up with some amazing portraits. I had a hard time choosing what to post!

Lots of fun in Old Town - {Albuquerque family photographer}

2010-11-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy to post a preview for some of my favorite people. :) This was a really fun Old Town session - everything was perfect, the kids were amazing, and I hope they got ice cream afterwords because they earned it! (One of the benefits - for kids - of doing pictures in Old Town is the ice cream parlors!) Thanks so much, I loved this.

Their daughter has grown up sooooo much - she's gorgeous!

He's just the same age as my daughter - I can't believe how fast they're growing up! He was SO good & happy. And so handsome! :)

I love all the family shots, but this one is my favorite.

Sale on Greeting Cards - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

2010-11-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

Now's the time of year when I start wishing I didn't need to sleep at all. And I thought I was busy in August! :) Blogging is definitely taking the back seat, but I'd like to keep posting some favorites when I can. I have a huge backlog of sessions, did 2 more today, 1 more tomorrow, and I think 10 more this weekend. Ummmmmm, when will I do anything else? Luckily it's the last week of soccer - that will help.

I am SO excited - my favorite lab has started offering press printed cards (and other things too). Their quality is amazing - I have switched to them for all my photo printing, even though they are more expensive. It's worth it! Now they are doing folded & flat cards, including the die-cut cards I showed here, and they're having a sale through December 1st! I know this will just be annoying to any of you who are waiting on your sessions, but I'm going to do a sale too.

Greeting cards are 20% off for the month of November. Hooray! Even die-cut cards.

I'm going to order my own Christmas cards ASAP, but in the meantime here is a darling baby announcement I just ordered. I can't wait to get them back! (To his mom - you can have the 20% off too, how awful would it be to post your cards & not offer that to you? :) )

And, here's a really sweet baby I met a couple of weeks ago. He was so happy! His session was perfectly easy, even though he is 3 months old, which can be a tricky age for photography. I loved getting to meet him - just look at these beautiful smiles!

Just six days old - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

2010-10-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

First of all, I have ONE open slot left for this Saturday in the bosque. I'm doing 30 minute minisessions and my 4:00 appointment got changed. So if anyone is interested please contact me!

This little princess... oh my, I loved getting to meet her. She is only six days old - the younger the better for newborn photography - and she was so amazing! She is the 4th child in her family, so she's bound to be flexible and independent. Her family is one of my favorites for photography - they're all over my website, thanks :) - and she is no exception.

She was smiling a bunch, but only for a second! I thought I had missed them, but then when I looked at my images I had actually caught quite a few sleeping smiles.

She is my most successful binky-pulling subject ever. Usually that just makes babies mad, but she would settle right back down after we put the binky back. The only downside was some binky-mark removal in photoshop later. (Worth it!)

Halloween beauties at the park - {Albuquerque children photographer}

2010-10-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

These girls are such beautiful princesses! Well, a princess, a fairy, and Minnie Mouse. Their grandma sewed these costumes, which astounds me as my Halloween costumes usually involve a good amount of electrical tape and craft foam. Anyway we went to the park to capture some of the magic before their visit was over.

Sometimes two year olds don't want to stay with their sisters for pictures. At all. This is normal. (And I even got like 3 pictures of them together before she was permanently done with it.)

I love it when you twirl around and the skirt really goes out! That has always made a dress a favorite for my girls.

The lollipop helped some, but...

the swing helped a lot more. We even got some pictures with her cute hat!

And then it was play time! I love pictures at the park.

Newborn twin girls - {Albuquerque newborn photographer}

2010-10-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

These little girls just melt my heart - they are so beautiful and sweet! I went to their house for newborn portraits, and I was so excited for twins. They were perfect! I was reminded of my extreme respect for moms of twins :) - how do they manage it? - because they did not do a lot of both sleeping at the same time. But they were serene and darling when awake as well as asleep. Even when I was posing them both together, which was probably a little smooshy.

Their big brother got in a few pictures in the beginning. He did such a good job taking care of his sisters!

Every time I unwrapped them, they would wake right up. So I decided I was very happy with their gorgeous knit blankets, and we stuck with mostly keeping them wrapped up.

And they did both doze off together for a little bit. I love these pictures of them together.

I am much slower posting this preview than I meant to be! (My apologies to their really nice mom!) I do school portraits for a couple of charter schools, and it takes a huge amount of time. And the schedule is really tight. Anyway I'm finally to a good place with my orders & proofs (for a few days anyway) and I have time to proof sessions again - so if you're waiting for me for something, I'll be getting back with you any time now. :) Thanks for your patience - this fall has been even busier than I thought it would be.

Holiday cards 2010 - {Albuquerque family photographer}

2010-10-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when I saw these new cards at my favorite lab! I've actually seen them a couple of good places - they are the newest thing I guess. They are really very flexible - I'm posting a couple of designs but I'll surely come up with more before the season is over. I love the impact that sending a die-cut Christmas card makes. (Now... this will give me extra incentive to actually get a Christmas card of my own done... BEFORE Christmas this year!) I have some more information on my website.

If you are interested in holiday greeting cards, I am offering a 20% discount on a purchase of 50 or more die-cut cards for any of my clients having a fall session. Just call or email me if you have any questions! These first six cards are 5x5" or 5x7" flat double-sided cards. You can have text or a picture on the back as well.

And some regular rectangular cards too - these are newly designed for this season, but I still have the old designs from last year too.

Two sets of brothers - two of the boys are actually superheroes

2010-10-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 sets of brothers. Really fun guys. I have 3 brothers myself so I remember both the fun times and the otherwise :) - we'll just keep thinking about the good times because that's all we had with these boys!

These are my running friend's sons. (Running friends are such very valuable friends - both getting me out of bed in the morning to get a run in, and making it possible to do so safely in pitch-black darkness.) She didn't like her son's school pictures, so she brought them over for maybe 4 minutes one afternoon. They were so happy and fun that that's all it took! I hope she likes these much better.

And see, they are also either Spidermen themselves or Spiderman experts.

And here are some great boys we've known for a long time - their mom is such a nice friend. Last year we did some pictures with them with the gorgeous yellow leaves, and this year we went to Old Town. They were honestly so cooperative & happy, for really quite a long time, I was impressed. (My kids were along & were pretty naughty - they seem to save that behavior for this family... not sure why....)

This is trickier than it looks when you're not real tall. :)

"The grass isn't too wet!" I said. Well, yes it was. Fortunately they were good sports about it.

Halloween cards - {Albuquerque portrait photography}

2010-10-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's almost Halloween time! It seems like I just made last year's costumes, and now I'm getting those requests: "Mom, WHEN are you going to make my ______ costume?" I'm meant to be making a very scary fraction costume (or maybe my amazing husband is making that one) and an octopus costume. And I'm hoping to convince my 3rd child to wear something in her EXTREMELY EXTENSIVE dress-up drawer.

Anyway, I was looking through my card files and found these fun Halloween cards I designed last year. I know there's not a lot of time left before Halloween, but if you're interested in some kids' costume portraits, please email me or call. 10% off Halloween cards through the 31st!

How a newborn photography session works

2010-10-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

I just proofed one of my favorite newborn sessions ever. As I thought about how it all went, I realized that it might be helpful to new parents considering a newborn session to get a feel for how these sessions work. So I thought I'd talk about it a bit.

First of all, the younger the baby is, the easier he or she is to work with. They curl up easier and they sleep longer and more soundly. (In general. Everything to do with newborns is different! But this is usually true.) So when people call me with a 2 week old.... I am always sure to warn them that we'll get something they like, but it's hard to predict how well an "older" baby will sleep. I usually suggest newborn portraits be done at 10 days old or younger, and I'm thrilled when I can get a 3 or 4 day old baby!

This darling little guy was 12 days old. I've never seen long blond hair like this before! He arrived asleep in his carseat. We carefully moved him to a blanket, where we got a couple quick sleeping pictures.

And he immediately woke up. This is pretty typical of what happens when you bring a baby asleep in his or her carseat. Now I do really like to get some awake pictures too, and he has especially nice bright focused eyes, so I love these.

But his mom had something specific in mind that she really wanted. And for that we needed him to sleep. You can do lots of cute things with newborns awake, but they don't hold a pose :) so for some pictures I just need them to sleep. His mom fed him for awhile, he was sleeping nicely, but when we put him down he woke right up. Repeat. :) (This is really normal.) I am pretty good at getting newborns to sleep, but he slept so lightly that even uncovering him woke him up every time. We were running out of time - by this time it had been about 90 minutes, and we hadn't even come close to getting the shot his mom came for. Luckily I had a friend who could get my kids from school so I could stay home a little longer. Some parents aren't prepared for newborn sessions to take a looooooong time, and it can be frustrating when the baby just doesn't sleep soundly enough to move. It always works eventually if we have enough time and patience!

Eventually his mom fed him again and we moved really fast. Just in case, I got a quick picture on the suitcase covered :)...

but he kept sleeping and we got the perfect image! I love it.

His mom had seen this baby announcement on my website and wanted the suitcase picture to go with it. (BTW I never post real names...)

She also wanted to try the cocoon, and he kept sweetly sleeping for some great pictures.

Then he coughed and spit up about a cup of milk, soaked everything, and woke up. Very wide awake. This is normal. :) I just plan to wash all the blankets, etc., that I use after each newborn. Especially when we do naked pictures it's best to expect things to get wet. Sometimes parents are uncomfortable with that but please realize it almost always happens. :)

Anyway, he was perfectly happy awake, so we took some lovely pictures with his mom.

And since he was still happy, we did a few more with his fun polka-dot blanket (I need to get some polka dots, I love them).

And since he was STILL happy I grabbed his darling sister and had her hold him for a few pictures.

So there are a few things I would like prospective newborn clients to know.

1 - Newborn portraits take some time. Sometimes a lot of time. Bring lunch! :) On photography forums I see photographers who take 6 hours for a newborn session. I've never done that, but it always takes longer than people expect.

2 - If you have a pose in mind, great! Let me know and we'll focus on getting that first. But newborn sessions are unpredictable - I never get everything done that I want to. I make sure that we get as much of a variety of poses and setups as your baby can do. I love it when parents bring props - a baby tutu, shoes, a toy, a football, a special blanket, etc. We'll use those first.

3 - Don't get frustrated if Baby has a hard time getting to sleep. Bring a book! I always get them to sleep eventually, given enough time. I've found it's best to bring a wakeful, hungry baby to a newborn session. You can feed him or her here, and hopefully that will lead to a nice long restful sleep. It doesn't always work but it's more likely to than most other methods. (I do sometimes do newborn sessions at the family's home. But I find most people like to bring their babies to me - that way I have all my props, the light is predictable, and they don't have to clean up their living rooms. :) )

4 - If you have other children you'd like to have with the baby in pictures, I usually do that first. I suggest simple clothes, and if the baby is awake I don't try to put him or her to sleep. Then when the sibling(s) are done, it's sometimes helpful to have a grandparent or someone else to take them home. That way if the session is taking a long time (see above!) it doesn't stress anyone out. That said, this baby's older sister played very happily with my daughter, and they both had a great time. (As a side note, there was leftover cake from a birthday party 3 days before up in our outside playhouse - which obviously I didn't know about - and they ate it! My apologies to her mom.)

5 - As in the pictures above, I like to use parents as a prop to hold their baby. I suggest wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, and we pose you in front of the black backdrop. Then the focus of the portrait is your hands and the baby's skin. Beautiful! Sometimes I get moms' faces (even when they don't think they want to have their face in the picture, they usually love it).

If you are interested in newborn portraiture, please contact me before your baby is born. Unless you have a specific induction or c-section date, we obviously can't set a specific session date. But I can be planning ahead, and be ready when Baby is born. I love being on new parents' hospital call list! :) Newborn photography is so unique - it's such a fleeting time of life, a precious & rewarding time to capture. Please let me know if you have any questions!

First birthday cake! Well, sort of. - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

2010-10-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm having trouble keeping up with my blog! But this session was so fun I have to make time to share it. It's another session with a good story. This little guy is one of my baby plan babies - he just turned one. I have loved this year of photography with him!

Anyway we planned to do some nice portraits, and then cake pictures. (You know I love cake pictures - I practically beg moms to do them on the last session of the baby plan year.) He warmed right up to me and we saw lots of beautiful smiles.

We played in the grass...

And I brought over the little slide, which he loved.

He was completely uninterested in my treasure box of stuffed animals. :) But he was really happy to stand with his dad.

Then, it was cake time! He has had cake before (I always ask, because some babies cry when they get sticky frosting fingers)...

but this time he was NOT interested in the cupcake.

At all.

So we tried a popsicle instead, in case he was interested in that. Not so much.

But when we tried the combination of popsicle and slide, it turned out to be fun after all.

And sticky. :) Thanks so much to his nice parents - it was great to see you again!

Senior portrait preview - mesa top at sunset

2010-10-08T22:48:00.000-07:00

This is such a crazy time of year. I have been working like mad but not posting much - I especially have to apologize to this senior. I really like to post senior previews ASAP and it's been longer than I like for sure. But...... I love his pictures! Sometimes it just feels like everything really comes together, and this was one of those days.

Okay, here's some background. I can't believe this amazing senior is really a senior, because he's also my neighbor and we've known him for enough years that it doesn't seem possible. He's been a really great neighbor to have, and has even watched our dog while we were gone, including the trip that I think our dog spent 100% of the time escaping from our - fully fenced - yard. I don't know how he found her in the end, but she was back in the yard when we got home. And thanks for that.

ANYWAY. He's the student body vice president at Volcano Vista, wow, and active in theater too. I hope we can set up a time to go do some pictures on the new stage at the high school! How cool would that be? And a really nice, personable, friendly guy. It was great getting to spend some time with him & his mom (who I love).

Sometimes when people want to do studio-style portraits in warm weather, I do them outside in the back yard, because it gives me a little more room & the light is nice there too. At some point I realized, why are we doing pictures in MY back yard, when theirs is so nice? They have put a ton of work into their really beautiful yard. So across the street we went.

Then we waited for that gorgeous sunset lighting and went up to the mesa. Oh boy. I came home & told my husband that I should ONLY shoot in sunset light. Why mess with anything else???

Kids in the back yard - {Albuquerque children photography}

2010-10-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

I found some things I did a few months ago with my kids. My girls are always happy to dress up and go outside for pictures. So this is their version of all dressed up :) My son refused to wear the funny bear costume that I wanted him to run around in (what???) but consented to get a picture with the dog instead. Love these good kids!

She is obsessed with roly-polys - there are some of them crawling around on her hands.

Senior portraits downtown - {Albuquerque senior photography}

2010-10-03T00:36:00.000-07:00

I had another blast of a night with this amazing girl and her friend. I REALLY like doing senior portraits. It's so fun! This year I've done a lot more of them than in the past, and I just really enjoy it. So anyway, we went downtown. Can I just say - downtown is a great place for portraits. She was a ton of fun, again, and I love it when people bring a friend.

Love, love, love this. Is this the coolest parking lot ever???

One great thing about bringing a friend is that there is someone there to make you laugh. I love the genuine laughing pictures.

I found this really neat sculpture - I love it! My husband likes to weld, so metal sculptures capture my interest.

We happened to catch the last reflection of the sun on its way down.

Three month old baby girl - {Albuquerque baby photography}

2010-10-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

This darling little baby came for her 3 month old portraits. She was super happy and sparkly. We played with her for awhile - and then she got very serious! For all our coaxing, we had a hard time getting any smiles towards the end of her session. So I was very happy when I looked at my card and found lots of sweetness. Three months old can be tricky - they always smile and coo at home, but sometimes not so much for the camera. This is not the first time when I've had a mom tell me she was surprised at how many good images I ended up with - great to hear. :)

Senior portrait preview II

2010-09-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Just finishing up this senior's slideshow - there are so many fun pictures! That's one of the best things about senior portraits - you get to really know the senior a bit, get to see what's important to them. I had a great time with this amazing guy and his mom - it was a really fun session and I thank you for trusting me with your senior memories. I could pick any number of pictures to post :) - but here are a few more...

Etherdox Photography - Albuquerque Children and Family Photography

Oh So Silly!

The truth about a photography session - {Albuquerque child photography}

Albuquerque Senior Portraits

Some senior portraits from last year - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Albuquerque engagement photography

Newborn photography

Lifestyle photography

Three month old - {Albuqurque baby photographer}

Newborn sweetness - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

Artwork in the Hospital - {Albuquerque child photographer}

Urban senior portraits - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Canvas Sale - this weekend only! 50% off

Senior portraits in the pool and on the mesa - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Tea party in a magical fairy garden - {Albuquerque child photography}

Family lifestyle photography - {Albuquerque family photography}

Summer vacation days - {Albuquerque family photography}

Baby's First Year - three month old session - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Senior portraits *in* the river - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Five days old - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

A summer evening in the bosque - {Albuquerque family photography}

First day of school - {Albuquerque children photography}

Family portraits in the (hot) bosque - {Albuquerque family photography}

Baby IN the cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Three boys & a baby girl - {Albuquerque family photography}

Fall Minisessions - {Albuquerque family photography}

Two year old fun - {Albuquerque children photography}

Summertime fun - {Albuquerque children photography}

Beautiful girls at the park - {Albuquerque family photography}

More wedding previews - {Albuquerque wedding photography}

Summer minisessions - {Albuquerque child photography}

Wedding day! - {Albuquerque wedding photography}

Baby birthday cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Family reunion at the park - {Albuquerque family photography}

Double the fun! - {Albuquerque family photography}

Engagement session at UNM - in the smokey haze - {Albuquerque engagement photography}

I can't resist posting newborns! - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

A new baby boy - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

Mr. Personality - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Giveaway for summer minisessions!

Summer minisessions - June 24th - {Albuquerque children photography}

Engagement session in the bosque - {Albuquerque engagement photographry}

A little more Old Town - {Albuquerque portraits}

Photo Challenge | Yellow

Another newborn sweetheart - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

Wide-eyed newborn - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

Baby session at the park - {Albuquerque baby photography}

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | Motherhood

Mother's day family portraits - {Albuquerque family photography}

Newborn session - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

Beautiful senior portraits downtown - {Albuquerque senior photography}

i heart faces:soft & sweet

Maternity session at the park - {Albuquerque maternity photographer}

Senior portraits with *color*! - {Albuquerque senior photography}

More senior portraits, lots of fun - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Senior portraits in the evening light - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Senior portraits at the pool - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Senior portraits at the school - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Senior athlete - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Look at those catchlights! - {Albuquerque portrait photography}

A really amazing newborn smile! - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

Wishing for a pretty yard... {Albuquerque child photography}

Newborn baby boy - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

Southwest color for my friends who moved to... Washington DC??? {Albuquerque family photography}

Darling six month old little girl - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

Operation Love family portraits - {Albuquerque family photography}

More baby birthday cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Baby birthday cake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Smiley baby princess - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

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

Baby girls! - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Soccer senior - {Albuquerque senior photographer}

Some business changes for 2011

Newborn princess with some fun props!

One year old princess - {Albuquerque baby photographer}

Newborn baby boy - {Albuquerque newborn photography}

First birthday cupcake - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Baby in the park - {Albuquerque baby photography}

Black Friday special - {Albuquerque family photographer}

Thanksgiving special #4 - {Albuquerque family photographer}

Senior portraits in the river - {Albuquerque senior photography}

Senior portraits with color! - {Albuquerque senior photography}