Birthday cake smash sessions - inside and outside, messy and not so messy.

What's my favorite age for baby sessions? Okay, there's no way I can choose. :) BUT - I do love a good cake smash session! One year old sessions are especially fun, because you get a really good combination of laughs and giggles, more formal portraits, and piles of messy cake. One year olds are also at a really happy age for portraits - it's easier to hold their attention than it will be in another few months.

Today I have two recent birthday cake smash sessions to share.  One is inside, a studio session, and one is outside at a park.  Both turned out beautifully and it's fun to see the differences in how they work.

This little princess came for birthday portraits, and I was blown away at how gorgeously striking she is.(I remember when she was just born...) :)


She was a little serious for me, but her mom and grandma and I worked really hard to get some smiles.





I so love babies in tutus with beads!  I know I have some like this with my daughter... from quite a few years ago!  (It goes so fast!)






 She liked the taste of the cake, but she did NOT like sticky frosting on her fingers!  (My kids were the same.) 


So she was much happier after her mom wiped her fingers clean. 


It was yummy, but she was ready to be done before long.


And sometimes some playtime in my back yard goes over really well when cake doesn't. 


I met this little guy at a park in the evening light - which was absolutely gorgeous, I left vowing to do more evening sessions!



He was so happy and funny.  He did keep trying to eat sticks, etc., but he was good-natured about putting them back down.




I love the stairs at this park.  He did too.


In fact he really liked crawling up the stairs.  We did some chasing. :)


He did like the cake!  And he certainly didn't mind having sticky fingers.  







I think his mom had some work to do when she got him home.  But we all had a great time, and he was such a happy guy that we were done with everything in well under an hour.  What a fun way to spend an evening!

 If you are interested in a cake smash session for your baby, please give me a call!  I have more examples posted here, or you can look through the cake tag on my blog here.  I'd love to talk about setting something like this up with you too!

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

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

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18 month old photography - keeping it real.

I love baby photography. And I love child photography. In between babies & children - the 18 month old and 2 year old age range - yes, I love that too. But!   I have been known to tell people that this age range is the toughest to photograph. (Maybe another contender could be 15 year old boys. Which is because of their comfort factor, not because I don't like them!) 

18 month olds, two year olds - they are fast, and they don't sit still for a camera. They aren't particularly susceptible to bribes. And if you try to make them do anything against their desires, they cry. I can confidently say that most parents of this age of child have enough memories of their child crying - they don't need me to preserve them forever. This presents a challenge to a photographer! :)

So the trick is to take their picture somewhere photogenic-ish, where they are happy, and where it doesn't matter if they're also on the move.  This is potentially possible in a studio, but sometimes it is more successful at a park or somewhere fun, where there is lots of room.

This park is down the street from my house.  It's busy and fun, and I like that it has a pond.

One thing that it's important for parents of this age of child to know is that realistically, their child is going to spend 99% of their time at the park with me running around.  I will chase them, try to get them to play peek-a-boo with me, try to help them want to slide down the slide with the best light, and hope that they want to swing.  But the odds of them sitting nicely on a bench and smiling are... low.  It's all about action shots!


But it's pretty likely that life with your 2 year old is all about action, right?  We want to capture your real life, right? :)  Perfect.






This little guy's dad really likes the high-key look (which means the background is all white).  So we started out at the park and then swung by my house for a few studio portraits.  Keeping it real - he was NOT happy.  The attention span for portraits at this age is very. short.  We had already exceeded it.  So we did every funny thing we could think of, at a frantic pace, and eventually he laughed and smiled for about 15 seconds.  Got it! :)


I hope this little guy got a treat after we were done - he earned it!  It's hard work having everyone focused on you & you alone for an hour.  Isn't he darling?

If you have a child this age and would like portraits of him or her, I would love to meet you guys!  It can take patience and I feel like that is really one of my strengths.  I have more samples of my child photography here - please contact me to set up an appointment!

Good Stuff for Kids (with busy moms!)

I have been thinking! My blog has been a little frustrating for me - first of all I don't make much time for it, and second of all, it's seeming really one-dimensional to me. I love using it to show clients previews, and it's great for giving people location options. But I really think I could/should be doing more.

In that interest, I thought through my hobbies. I am one of those people who has a million hobbies - my husband too, we like to try lots of different things. But what is most important to me? MY KIDS! :) I have 3 kids - two in elementary school and one in preschool (but not for long!) and we have found some really great things in our pursuit of fun, projects, learning, and life. This seems like a great forum to share some of those things.

Since I have two girly-girls, we are fans of hair blogs.  Neither of my daughters has  lot of patience with having their hair done.  And both of them have kind of tricky hair - super fine and slippery.  Anyway we have looked through lots of hair blogs and my favorite is http://www.girlydohairstyles.com/ - she has a facebook page also where you can search through hairstyles. 


I like her blog best because her daughter has short hair (some of the time) and her styles work for my girls better than the other ones I've read.  She does great messy buns (which is not my strength, but we just don't have enough hair in my family to do any other sort).  My little daughter has super thin wispy hair still, but I have hope because her sister eventually grew nice thick hair.  Eventually.
 

My little daughter was so thrilled with this hairdo that she actually kept it in the whole day.  Shocking!


My older daughter is growing out her bangs.  Awkward!  We need ideas for keeping them out of her eyes and there is some cute stuff to work with.  She doesn't have much patience for fussy styles, and her hair slides out of them a lot anyway, so we go for pretty simple.


The next picture is my older daughter a couple of years ago at my brother's wedding.  She consented to let me work on her hair for awhile on this one. :)  In fact she picked this one for the occasion I think.  (Okay, ack, she is growing up so fast!)


I know some of you will already know everything I might have to share, but that's perfect, because I want to hear from you! What are some of your best successes or best finds for your kids? 

Spring senior session - graduation is coming!

It is almost graduation time! I am doing some last minute senior sessions for some seniors who wanted pictures when it's green out (or maybe they are thinking they want a session with no horrible wind!).

This amazing senior is one of my very favorites.  He is smart, honest, & hardworking.  He's got a plan for his future.  He can fix cars.  He's been taking care of our house & dog for us when we go on vacation for a few years, and our silly dog has never been less paranoid when we're gone.  I mean, anyone who goes out of his way to be nice to a really goofy dog - good person.  Now - how many senior boys are actually - really - happy about going to get senior portraits done?  Raise your hand?  I know.  This guy - happy, for real.  These smiles are not faked.


We went to one of the petroglyph parks, and it was BRIGHT out.  In my brain there was going to be shade in the late afternoon - there was not.  But luckily 1) it wasn't actually hot out, 2) I'd brought some flashes and could work with the sun.  What a great location for high desert natives. :)




I am so happy that the bosque is starting to get green.






We made one last trip - up to the mesa top at sunset.  Perfect light.  And we timed it just right too.


I love it when the sunset really works.  Much better with a few clouds.

If you or someone in your life is looking for senior portraits, you can get a lot of information on my sessions on my website: http://seniors.etherdox.com, including how to book a session.  I'd love to work with you too!

I love doing sessions at great places like this these, but for lots of other session locations, see this blog page here.

April birthday portraits - {Albuquerque children photography}

I had so much fun with my birthday portrait party earlier this month! I have some fun images to post here, but I first want to announce my May birthday portrait party date: May 18th. I am going to do them in my yard (weather permitting) - my husband welded me this amazing big screen that I really want to use. So plan on outside pictures, and email me or call if you have someone with a birthday that would like to come!


I had a great mix of ages, some old friends and some clients I hadn't seen in a long time. Thanks to all of you - it was a huge pleasure. I love your kids!

My daughter had to get into the mix.  Here she is showing how fairies hold their hands.


This next one might be my favorite of the day.  How sweet is she???






"How old are you?"










Both sisters have April birthdays!


And this gorgeous girl turned 16 in April.  I love that she brought some of her favorite things with her. 



In general these sessions were about 5 minutes long, really quick & easy!  I scheduled 15 minutes just in case, because I know some children have a warm-up period.  We really never needed it.  Looking forward to seeing more of you in May!

If you're interested in more information about a family photography session, my website has lots of info about how I do sessions. Or you can call or email me if you have questions or would just like to chat about it. For lots of ideas for other session locations, see this blog page here.