Arrrrrg!!! A Pirate's Life For Me!

          It has been busy, busy, busy the passed few weeks! I have been working, editing, shooting, scheduling, calling, emailing, texting, filing, researching, learning, and somehow managing to squeeze in some time to sleep, eat, and spend time with the family! But... I love to be busy. I love learning... but I'm finding that I'm learning things about myself I didn't even know the more I do photographs. This week, I learned I don't give myself enough credit. Now, I kind of already knew this... but I thought I gave myself a lot of credit. This week, I learned I don't give myself ENOUGH! So, I will be working on this! I am confident in my work, but I am very critical of myself... I know I have room to grow - I always will! The minute you get complacent is the minute you stop growing. But I haven't given myself enough credit for how much I have improved over the course of a year and a half... as a photographer and as a person. It's interesting how much you can learn about yourself when you're looking for it, and even more interesting how much you can learn about yourself when you're NOT looking for it! I may need to do a whole separate post just on that... and I might save that one for a later date :)

          I have been holding this post for a week before posting - just in time for Xander's birthday! I met Xander's mommy before he was born... I met her when I was starting to consider the idea of starting to take photos on a regular basis... I, of course, had this thought many years before... and I let someone convince me it would be a waste of my time and that I wouldn't be happy doing it. But, that story is also for another post! (just take this tidbit for now: Don't let someone who isn't YOU talk you out of your dreams!)

          I seriously cannot believe he is turning FOUR! F-O-U-R!!! How?! I swear, it seems like just last month I was taking his 3-year birthday pictures... so how in the WORLD is he already turning four?! But, alas... he is! Now, I must say, he was just a champ this year. Last year after about three shots, he yelled, "DONE!" and buddy, he meant it! We still managed to get some good shots, and his reward was a cupcake at the end - which he enjoyed, and those turned out to be my favorite shots of the day! In the course of a year though, he has turned into a little model! He enjoyed doing the silly faces, and funny poses in between smiling pretty. He did such a great job!! We encountered a snake on the path, which yes... I screamed the loudest. I'm not ashamed. I am NOT ashamed!!! ok... maybe a little bit...

          I am so grateful to be asked to do photos, and so blessed that I have people who believe in me and what I do! I love to hear the nice words, and I just love it when a client is beyond thrilled with their photos! To be able to be involved in their moments in life, and to document them... it's an absolute honor.

     

 The outside studio...

 Kisses for mommy!

 Arrrrrggg!

 Yo ho!

 Beautiful Mommy!!!

Thanks for checking out Xander's 4th Birthday Session! Arrrgg!

The Big Yellow Chair

          First off, I must say THANK YOU to everyone for their support over the last year. We have grown in leaps and bounds and we have met some really amazing people along the way! We are so grateful, and it's just humbling to have the honor to have met each person, as well as the amount of support we have received!! I could not have seen my dream become a reality without each and every person, whether it be by having a session, or just spreading the word, sharing an image, or commenting on a photograph! Photography is not something I do... It's who I am.

          I like to run a contest every now and again, and the first contest of 2012 exceeded my expectations three fold!!! I was AMAZED by the amount of contestants, and then the fight to the top to win a free session with us! I had completely underestimated just how well this contest was going to go, and I think it took a little while for the shock to wear off! But when the final minutes finally passed, we had but one winner - and it was a close one! 

Our Contest Winner! Miss Ayda!

         Little Miss Ayda not only won, but she won with this image above that I had taken last year when she was 7 months old! (That was kind of like a double win for me!) Ayda's mom has used the same image in numerous beauty pageant competitions since our shoot last year, and has won - to date - every competition for Most Photogenic with this image. So this makes that an award winning photograph... and I'm an award winning photographer by default, right? :) Only kidding. Ayda is just beautiful in her own right, and I only had the privilege to photograph her. She's the real winner. I'm just happy for her (and mom and dad!) that I was able to capture that time for her (and them!) and I was thrilled to be able to do so again this year, along with her big brother Davian! 

        I was completely pumped about this session... the night before, I received a message with a picture of this big, old yellow chair. And I was INSTANTLY in love with it! I could have literally been picked up off the ground after seeing it in person... It was just, for a lack of better words, AWESOME! And the images - ahhhh! I could have died! It just really made each one of them POP! I'm still just head over heels for this chair... I could go on and on about how much I love this old thing... but for your sake, I won't. Instead, I'll quiet my fingers, and let you enjoy the sneak peek images from Ayda's contest winning session!!!!

 

 

Isn't big brother just handsome?!

 

Ballerina in training!

         So there you have it folks! I hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed shooting them!