Meet the V Family!  They are wonderful people with incredible values and their home is warm and filled with love.  The children are excitedly waiting for their new little sister to join them.  If she looks anything like her two older sisters or her Mommy, she will be absolutely beautiful.  Because we took these shortly before Mom was due, we opted for something fun like everyone piled in Mom and Dad’s bed.  The kids were great and the older girls posed for me by the windows so I could get the soft natural light on their sweet faces.  I think I’m in love with the shot of their feet.  I just love their toes!

I think I could just stare at his face all day!  His Mom just came to pick up her goodies and I got teary eyed peeking at him snoozing in his car seat.  Really, they grow so fast!  I know it sounds trite, but newborns have that special newborn look for such a short period of time.

This knitted owl hat has been my most popular hat for newborn boys.

This pose has been very popular with parents.  He looks so peaceful and relaxed.

This navy wrap is new and I love how it looks against the caramel colored  mongolian fur fabric.

This pose of the baby in a basket on the faux wooden floor has also been very popular.  Everyone loves this fake barnwood floor.  It has the same soft surface as a giant mousepad.

Mom had a favorite pair of cowboy boots and wanted this image of her son with her cowboy boots.  We made a lovely canvas of this image.

Again, I could just stare at his sweet face ALL DAY LONG!

This wonderful family generously bid on a portrait package I donated to our kid’s elementary school’s charity fundraising auction.  Proceeds were used to buy new technology for our classrooms such as smartboards.  The auction was a smashing success and I was delighted to have the chance to meet and photograph this wonderful family.  The boys were fabulous … fun, energetic and full of personality yet perfectly behaved.   Mom delayed having the portraits taken until they could all be happy as they lost their cherished dog this year.  I’m glad she waited as the leaves were perfect for their session.  I especially loved how her teal dress stood out from the color of the leaves.   Mom did a great job choosing what to wear for their family portraits.   These were taken in Overland Park, Kansas with a Nikon D700 and 70-200mm lens.

This first image is going to be cropped as is and hung on their wall.  I love this crop.  It’ a fun and modern way to showcase your family portrait.

I was so glad that Mom and Dad chose a photo of the two of them.  How many couples never get their portrait taken and then regret it?

I love this shot of the boys fooling around.  These brothers are very close and you could really tell that during the session.

He is so handsome and favors Dad.

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He  is also incredibly handsome and looks a lot more like his Mom.

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I think they look so perfect sitting on the bridge on the walking trail near The Blue Valley Recreation complex.

This is one of my favorites from the session and I was delighted that they ordered it.  It’s too fun!  Thanks for a great photo session!

Meet the “D” Family.  We frolicked in the Fall leaves with the goal of getting a mixture of posed and more lifestyle shots.  The little guy was absolutely funny.  He wanted nothing to do with photos and had a blast dragging my prop chair all around.   We tried and tried to get him to sit still and look toward me, but he had other things on his mind.  He was so darn cute that you just had to laugh at him.   These are just a few of the adorable shots we got of this wonderful family.

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I love how this captured his spirit.

I love how I caught him as he was dragging the chair.  I thought this just really captured his personality!

And I love his sweet grin!

His older sister patiently waited while we worked hard to get great shots of her little brother.

He just melts your heart.

Meet Baby J.  Look at his adorable face and his super sweet hair!   He looks so peaceful.  I think he’s dreaming about his great parents and what a lucky boy he is!  This first image is a classic shot that everyone loves.

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I love this shot.  I just love how it shows off his body and I love how sweet his hands look on his face.

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This is another classic pose that all parents enjoy.

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I just adore his face.  I actually really enjoy editing the photos of my newborns.  I find myself smiling at them on my monitor.

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This was one of my favorites from his session.  He looks so peaceful all snuggled up in the receiving blanket.

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The “T” Family travelled over 2 1/2 hours for a photo session for the second time in 4 weeks.  They are such troopers!  The first time was for their little girl’s newborn session, which we had in my home studio just a few weeks prior to this session.   See the session HERE. They have a dog they wanted in their family portraits so we had fun trying to get eye contact with both the dog and their baby girl!  I love this first shot of the dog watching over the baby.

Isn’t she adorable!

I love this one with the sun behind them.

This was the image they chose for the front of their holiday cards.

Katie is a senior at Blue Valley West.  We had a blast taking her senior portraits and went all over  the city.  Katie glows in front of the camera and her fun personality shines through.  We started at the Liberty Memorial to get a shot with the cityscape behind her.  I LOVE this!  We ordered her wallets of these first two shots on metallic paper and they really pop.

Then we found this cool area with old semi containers stacked into a piece of art.

Then we ventured to Loose Park.  I think Katie looks so gorgeous in these.

Our last stop was the Kaufmann Gardens, where we found both some pretty fall and summer color!

This was the family’s session favorite and they ordered a big wall print.  Thanks for a great session Katie!

Oh my goodness!  How could anyone not fall crazy in love with this handsome little boy?  He was absolutely a joy, as were his wonderful parents.  He is very blessed because he has such a fabulous family, from his parents to his grandparents!  

Look at his sweet, sweet face!

Doesn’t he have the cutest hair!

This was a personal favorite of mine from the session.  I love the backdrop paired with the trunk.

Everyone’s favorite pose.  He was so cooperative that we were able to photograph him in this pose with and without a hat!

I am in LOVE with this image of his Mommy and him.  Can’t you just see how much she loves her little boy?

I don’t normally blog about my family, but my husband and I just returned from a long weekend in Estes Park, Colorado and I had to share the photos of the gorgeous Aspen in Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park.  Estes is the place our family goes to every summer for a vacation filled with hiking and the complete peace that comes with being in such a gorgeous place.  Jerry and I have spent countless hours hiking on trails and off trails in breathtaking terrain and it is a very special place for us.   This post has lots of photos, but they are all so gorgeous that I had trouble narrowing them down.  I took them with a Nikon D7000 that I was trying out for the first time.  I like the camera, but still need to put it through a few more tests before I decide if I should keep it.  I bought it recently after taking my Pro camera to the pumpkin patch and after watching the farm dust envelop my camera, I thought, hmmm, I probably shouldn’t be lugging my expensive camera everywhere.

The first is a group of Aspen right off of Trail Ridge Road as you turn to head up to Bear Lake.

Don’t you  just want to head down this road?  It leads to the Fern Lake trailhead.

These are the ferns at Fern Lake!  LOVE it!

Look at the aspen sprinkled in the side of the mountain at Storm Pass.  I took this on the drive up to Bear Lake.  It was very overcast.

The view of Thatchtop on the way down from Bear Lake, Estes Park’s top tourist attraction.

On the way back from Bear Lake, the sun peeked through the clouds and we stopped at Storm Pass again because I knew I wanted this exact shot.  I love the star burst.

It doesn’t get much better than these next two shots.  I could see this as a framed poster!

I have been wanting to learn how to use my flash off my camera to creatively add lighting to photos, so we hiked up to Nymph Lake and I brought my flash along.  We met another couple from Arlington, Texas and shared our views on God and life as we hiked up the trail and they were kind enough to take this photo of us.  Paul held the flash off to the side and Julie took the photo.  I am so excited to have a photo of Jerry and me together!

I’m over the top with joy that we also got this shot at the overlook above Nymph Lake.  That’s Long’s Peak in the background.  It’s the tallest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Jerry has hiked it a bajillion times, but I hiked it with him several years ago.  We started on the trailhead at 2:30 am and reached the summit at 7:30.  It was a special time for us.  The view from up there was unreal.  Sort of like being in an airplane.

Paul and Julie again did a phenomenal job as photography assistants.

The last day we were in the mountains, we were blessed with snow.  We headed out to take photos.  This is the same bank of trees off of Trail Ridge Road.

Gorgeous!

It’s Elk mating season in Estes Park, so no trip to Estes would be complete without a photo of the Elk.  My favorite Elk sighting was the one that slowly closed the street in front of us while we drove out of town on our last day!

Twin Sisters.

I love the blue skies in Colorado!

We drove back to Storm Pass to see how differently it looked with the snow.  That’s Hallet’s Peak in the background.

It’s just heavenly.

This senior loves the outdoors, so we planned his session to capture the outdoors in some places he loved, like his awesome backyard!  We also drove down the road a few miles and went to a wonderful field.  This first is my favorite from his session.  I think we were talking about his girlfriend, so he really smiled naturally.

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I think this shot of him looks awesome and shows off his arms that are buff from hours of swim practice.

I love how his letter jacket really stands out against the colors of the field.

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