Happy Mother’s Day! I hope you’re being pampered by the kids in your life.

Here is one of my first attempts at a self-portrait (taken a few months ago, with a remote-control shutter-release). Baby Z was all kinds of squirmy, but I still just love this photo – It’s a reminder to me to slow down and squeeze my kiddos every chance I get.

What are some of your favorite photos of you with your kids? Vacation-type photos? Professional portraits? What do you love most about your favorite family photos? 

Little Miss O enjoyed helping out along the way. This is a good age for tasks such as pouring pre-measured ingredients into the mixing bowl, stirring with a whisk (usually requires help), smearing icing on cupcakes, taste-testing, dancing around with a sugar-high, doing some more taste-testing…

Yum. So, there you have it. I realize I have very few photos of Miss O over the last 6 months doing anything other than eating or playing. Oh well. I swear she runs around and even looks at the camera and smiles sometimes too. Maybe I’ll manage to document that soon as well!

Hope you’re having a great week. If you enjoy baking , try these out! An awesome bonus is that they freeze incredibly well. I froze them and took them out as desired up to 2 weeks after freezing. We just zapped in the microwave for 30 seconds. I’m sure there are better ways of doing things, but this worked really well for us. Let me know what you think!

These photos (below) are meant to be similar (cropping/posing-wise) to the photos I took of each parent with their little man last year, around his first birthday …It makes it easier to see how much he’s grown over the past year (plus, it’s fun to see how much they absolutely adore hugging on him!)…

 …He is such a cutie pie!…

…Gosh, I love that genuine smile (above), and Dad’s idea to have Percy (is that the green train’s “name”?) perch on Mom’s Baby Belly (below)…

 What a sweet family… 

Sawyer is one lucky little guy (and don’t you love his name?)… 
What a gorgeous day for outdoor photos! Thank you to this sweet family for letting me run around photographing you…you were so patient and fun to be with! I hope we can get your little “Mr. M” and our little “Miss O” together soon. They would have a blast, I’m sure! Happy Weekend!…

This weekend I’m so excited to photograph this Gorgeous Family again – They are now expecting Baby #2!

…Photographing your own kids isn’t always a walk in the park….(check out “Mr. Grumpy Face” below…)Your own kids know all of your moves…

I’m finding that, to photograph Miss O (who is 2 1/2), I basically need to chase her around the school yard, following her while she does what she enjoys. And then maybe, just maybe, I’ll catch a bit of a grin (or a smirk), during those rare moments when she pauses to take a breath. Grin or smirk, I love getting photos of her at this stage…

I really adore her boundless energy and enthusiasm (even though along with it come temper tantrums). Kids are so genuine. Photographing them may be physically tiring at times but it is never, ever, boring! Hope you’re having a great week.

(Baby Bob’s Dad is from Scotland, hence the tartan scarf we used in some of his individual portraits. These two images, above & below, are some of my favorites. I love how sweet and comfy he looks in these.) 

And a few of Baby Bob’s super sweet Big Brother…

Just look at those “Baby Blues”…

I love how tiny Baby Bob’s hands look next to his Dad’s…

 And how peaceful he is, snuggled up in Mom’s arms…

Thank you to Baby Bob’s Parents for this wonderful session! What a pleasure to work with you and your sweet boys. XX

…Whatever she ends up doing in life, I suspect she’ll continue doing it with incredible energy, enthusiasm and heaps of personal style.

 Yummy…chunky oatmeal-nut cookies with just the right amount of chocolate… 

…please excuse the random finger-chop in the photo below. I didn’t want you to see how grubby her little hands were, lest it ruin your appetite!

More Heart-Day fun? Last year we made these simple DIY Photo Valentines. And, if you’re looking for more kid-friendly V-Day ideas, you can always check out The Artful Parent (one of my favorite blogs). Mmmm, now get out there and do something sweet for your Valentines!

If you’ve ever worked with me before, you know that I love carting around my lights and stands. I was actually hesitant about taking a class in which we’re limited to only window light. But, the neat thing I learned is that this limitation forces one to really focus on the qualities of light and on how to be resourceful in one’s given environment.

Below: O loves dressing her Baby Dolls (she calls them “Baby Dolfs”) in her brother’s clothes. I love how the window light behind her highlights her wispy hair. 

Above: O really focuses on tasks…At least for a minute or two at a time. Here she is completely engaged in putting my clothespins back in their jar. This is one of these moments where I wish I could have backed up more to get more of the scene, but I was tucked in a corner already. I still love this image for the tones, the mood, and the memory of how engaged she can be in a self-assigned task.

Using window light alone often results in images with a “grainy” look, something I don’t normally care for in children’s portraits. But, I’m learning to appreciate it’s purpose. Learning to work in low-light can be useful, particularly if it allows you to capture more candid moments that might otherwise be lost while you run off searching for your flash equipment… …The photo above, for instance, was taken at my camera’s very highest ISO setting. It’s full of grain, but it turned out to be one of my favorites, as this is often how little O looks first thing in the morning, clutching her teddy bear sheepishly. Then she gets a little goofy…

…and because on this particular morning she was in a fantastic mood, I just kept snapping away while she started reading to Mr. Bear and eating breakfast at her little table… 

My personal photography style may be more clean and colorful, but I have enjoyed pushing myself to work in different lighting situations during this workshop. I think we all learn by stepping out of our comfort zone a bit, don’t you?

{By the way, that’s our handsome little Baby Z…at two months. He’s a happy little guy!} I hope you’re having a great week and doing what you can to savor the simple, everyday moments (it certainly isn’t always easy)! 

I hope that you are drooling a little bit. If not, I didn’t do the cupcakes justice. Because they are…scrumptious. And so pretty to look at too. My husband likes the strawberry cupcake (below)… …My current favorite is the lemon.Celebrity Cupcakes are “sourced locally and organic whenever possible, including dairy from Texas farms, organic milk, fresh fruit and cage free eggs.” If you live in Houston, you must hop over to the store and order yourself a treat! They are located in Rice Village.

{ You can even make some cupcake flags for your Valentine. }