Oh Baby!!

This past weekend I had the exciting opportunity to attend a workshop in San Diego, put on by the photographers at Baby as Art. I have been drooling over/stalking their website for the past year. What they do as photographers is inspirational to say the least. I really admire their work because it is clean and simple and the baby is clearly the focus of their art.

The workshop was great, Carrie and Britt were excellent instructors. They were both so patient with the babies and with the questions we asked. Carrie also opened up her home to us, allowing us to spend the night (and ask more questions). I learned so much from how they interact with babies and families to photoshop conversions. I really didn't want the weekend to end.

I took the following image which was styled by Carrie and Britt. I came home with the raw image and applied what I learned at the workshop. I am so excited to begin photographing newborns and using what I learned this weekend.





Right now I am looking for a newborn (5-14 days old) to work with. In exchange for letting me practice I will give the parents a CD with hopefully 10 edited files and one free 8x10 of their favorite pose. So if anyone knows of anybody who is expecting or has a newborn (5-14 days old), have them send me an email! After this final practice session I will begin charging my regular setting fee and cd's will only be available for purchase with a minimum order.

Enjoy!

Henry Walks!!

Henry has choosen to spend the majority of his life being carried around by people. Does this mean my son is {gulp} lazy? No I like to think of him as cuddly. He loves to be close to his parents and sisters, who did their fair share of carrying/dragging him around. A while back he toyed with the idea of crawling. He got pretty good and started to choose to crawl many different places. After weeks of his knees being worn on the cement and carpet, he has decided to try the walking thing out. I must say for walking all of two days he is getting pretty good, well good enough for me to miss holding him close all day long.


Henry's poor knees worn down by crawling.

Now You See Us ...... Now you don't

We are back in Kennewick! But are getting ready to leave for one last summer trip. This summer has been very busy but magical (hence the title). We have had so much fun visiting with family and seeing new sites. This summer is the first summer that we got to see all cousins. We have great family on both sides.


Lots to blog about but for now one special picture of hide and seek.

Traveling

Wow what an exciting week so far. We have spent a lot of time in the car but have seen so many interesting things on the way. Indian Reservations (casinos but they have to lure you in by calling them something else), Yellowstone (lots of wildlife and mountains), Mt. Rushmore (the girls earned their Jr. Ranger badges), the Mississippi River (home of their music teacher's famous song), Chicago's sweeping skyline, lots of public restrooms and McDonalds restaurants.


Here are a few of the pictures so far.


Going towards NE entrance in Yellowstone.




Henry at Mt. Rushmore.

Ballet

Saturday was the ballet recital. This is our fourth year attending and waking up in the morning to go to a dress rehersal and coming back at night to compete with a large crowd to find a spot suitable for watching three hours of dancing. The whole day we have to contend with the weather and limited amounts of shade. This year was different, this was a day that a little girl has been talking about ever since last year when she had to sit and watch her older sisters dance, you couldn't help but feel excited for her. Her big day had come.
Bright and early Saturday morning we were greeted by a smiling face at our bedside declaring "today is the day." We went to rehearsal early that morning and she was not too sure about all of the activity going on around her. Her teacher led her on stage and she still seemed unsure. As I waited for her backstage I wondered what she was thinking about her first experience on stage. She came running up to me and asked when she could do it again. All day long she kept talking about going "up to the stage." The actual performance that night was a different experience, she knew what to expect. Before the dance started she looked up and saw Stephen way in the back waving and she waved back, smiling from ear to ear. This time waiting for her backstage I knew that she had a great time. After watching her sisters dance we decided to pack up and call it a day. She did not want to leave after all she was a BIG girl that danced on stage. That night a very sleepy little girl curled up in my arms and right before she fell asleep she smiled and asked if we could do it again tomorrow. A dancer is born.

More Baby Pictures

Little Baby L was so much fun to to take pictures of. She was perfect and let me pose her any way I wanted, plus I got to visit with her mom and really cute big sister.
I took a Photoshop class in Portland a few weeks back and one trick they showed was adding text boxes around the photos. Here is my attempt at it.

Six Days New