Playing catch up around here. Better late than never.

I always love when people contact me and they actually have an idea of what they want their session to look like. It’s almost a relief because really, no one knows YOU like YOU. When Patti called to schedule her session she had various ideas of what she was looking for. There was nothing set in stone or hard core about it but we had a jumping point to where we could work together to get to where we were both comfortable. I had so much fun with her and her family. Her husband, Ron is the head coach for the Johnson football team and so we had tons of fun hanging out up at the highschool combining some fun shots with some more traditional shots that she & Ron would both be happy with. They also brought their dog, Holly who may have been the most well behaved of the bunch! She rocked. Here are some faves from their session.

Apparently great family sessions are in abundance these days because last weekend I got to spend time with another spectacular family. It never ceases to amaze me how mother’s can manage to walk, talk and breathe when they have more than 2 children. I have 3….I don’t know how to do it.  Ethel made it look easy. She has four rock star children and her youngest, Grace, is actually just a month older than Parker but her attention span is LIGHT YEARS ahead of his.  It’s such a hard thing to get a family portrait done but once again, I got a family that made it look pretty effortless. I should also mention that Ehtel was referred in to me from Carrie, who has her own rockstar family! Thanks Carrie and Thanks Ethel, Jim, Jimmy, Ryan, Ty & Grace! It was a true blessing to spend time with you!

Last weekend I had another great family session.  Stacy owns the AMAZING event planning company, Bleu Print Events by Design and I’ll be working with her and her supa star partner Michelle on some events and weddings in the coming months and I am beyond excited about that.  I’m even more excited about these two amazing women and what they are doing in San Antonio.  If you are a bride looking for an event planner, get off of your computer right now..( but come back soon!) and call Stacy & Michelle. Seriously, spend about 10 minutes with them and I promise you will be begging them to help coordinate your wedding.

After I had met Michelle but before I actually had a chance to meet Stacy in person she contacted me about doing a family session for her husband’s birthday gift.  We ended up having two different sessions since, as many of you know, children sometimes have their own agenda that doesn’t always conincide with what we have in mind. I know *gasp* can you even imagine? I can’t even get my 7 and 6 year olds to dress before noon, I don’t dare ask them to cooperate when I whip out my camera. Two sessions only meant that I had twice as many favorites to choose from. Here’s a sampling of some of my very favorites.

Thanks Stacy! I am thrilled to have the chance to work w/ Bleu Print and it was a true pleasure to spend time with your beautiful little family!

A couple weeks ago before I left for vacation I got the wonderful pleasure of working with a family that was beyond phenomanal. I swear to you I’m not just saying that either. Truly and honestly photographing families is super hard. Much harder than you would imagine. When I first started doing this I thought I would looooove shooting families and that it would be just cake for me since I… 1) love kids 2) have a teaching background 3) have 3 kids of my own 4) really, how hard could it be?  I quickly realized that it’s hard to strike while everyone is in a decent mood and it’s not completely uncommon for at least 1/2 of the family to hate the idea of the family portrait and they’d rather have their eyes poked out or something as equally as fun. I don’t fret too much over “everyone look here and say cheese” since that’s not what I particularly love to shoot but I know that most families want at least ONE formal shot and sometimes you’ve got to fight for that one.

I say all of this to tell you that when I left after shooting Anne, Troy & their four amazing kiddos I really enjoyed doing family sessions again. It wasn’t so much that everyone was in a great mood and the kids were all well – behaved (though that did help tremendously) it was more that Anne & Troy really embraced each one of their children’s personalities and just let them BE! And I am all about just “being” Just living out loud and letting YOU BE YOU. So it was cool to see that.

I am super super sad to say that the wonderful Hatch family is being transferred to Dallas after just one short year here in San Antonio but I know this family is going to plant roots and grow regardless of where they may be.

Thank you Anne & Troy for letting me come into your home and BE with you & your family. I wish you all the best!

Here are a few of my supa dupa faves from their session!

watch for these next two to show up on the website. i just love these cuties! check out those personalities. they are twins. gotta love that!

a couple weeks ago i got to hang out with another amazing family. (i so love my job)

carrie called me several months ago to book a family session and was referred to me by another good friend and local photographer Sandi Hicks.  i was super excited when Carrie said she wanted to have the session at her house. i love it when i get to go into a families house and get to hang out with them. everyone is sooooo much more comfortable. the kids are totally into it since they can run around and play and it doesn’t feel like you’re doing a photo session.  it’s much more laid back. if we need to stop we can. if the kids need a snack, ok. if they want to answer the door w/ their favorite megazord in hand…awesome.

that’s what it was like w/ the quails. little james wanted his megazord nearby….totally ok. we started outside and then worked our way inside. the kids totally rocked. carrie and big daddy james rocked. it really made me enjoy photographing families again. it was really quite effortless. no need to make any of them look good….as they are all flippin’ gorgeous. (i so love my job)

carrie, james, hope & lil’ james-thank you for inviting me into your home and letting me get a little glimpse of your life!

i loved the next shot because lil’ james found a rollie-pollie and he was completely enamored with it. i love watching kids experience things like that. i mean, rollie-pollies! you gotta love ‘em!   

seriously, is it no wonder their children are adorable? i told you! gorgeous!

did a lil’ mini session for my dear sweet friend ranae. she never purchased school photos of her youngest daughters so she asked me to meet her up at the church and fire off a couple shots of each of them. short and sweet.  they are so gorgeous and sweet.

we have some friends that live outside of the neighborhood (i know this is very hard to beleive but i promise it’s true) and they find it so amusing that we do so much with our neighbors. at one point last summer sylvia just started coming straight over to our house when she got home from work since she knew the rest of her family would be here and dinner would be waiting for her. we are so lucky to have some amazing neighbors surrounding us. here are a few of my many favorites from syl & rob’s family session.

this is my good friend ginger, whose last name happens to be fish, and this is her lovely lil’ adorable family. natalie (stunning red head) was in my class the first year i worked up at the school. i can’t believe how big she is now. so grown up. they are such a fun family.

another session from way back in december. debra called me and wanted me to do a session at her parents house with all of her siblings while they were in town for the holidays. i had so much fun breaking down the individual families and doing some little group mini sessions with them.  they were so much fun and i was happy i took a little break from my december hiatus to hang out with them a bit.

yea, i’m a couple months behind….what’s your point? i am vowing to get things caught up around here and post some sessions. blogging is going back to the top of the priority list. i refuse to suck any longer.

did a mini xmas session with my good friends cyndi and serena. we were down at the menger hotel which is just gorgeous at xmas time. i wish i would’ve had more time to shoot some surrounding shots but we had 6 kids under the age of 6 there so we whipped these puppies out quick.