Ninety
Vern had the honor of celebrating his ninetieth birthday last year! Although I know it wasn’t on the top of his list, I had the honor of photographing Vern!
With some help from his daughter and grandson, we brought Vern to the studio and positioned him just right. Vern’s preference would have been for a serious photo, which I did get a few of, but what the rest of us wanted were some smiling, happy, laugh line photos. With the assistance of bunny ears on me, weird noises from his grandson and some booty shaking from his daughter, Vern couldn’t hold back the smiles or the laughs!
Dad the Model
Usually, it’s the Dad that is not thrilled to be dragged to the family portrait session. The Dad is the one I normally spend most my time picking on, trying to get those big genuine smiles out of them.
Not this Dad! He was all about it! He actually was sad every time I told him he wasn’t included in a grouping, and he was busy thinking of additional combinations that I could photograph.
It made for a very fun family session! I was able to act like a goober, and even according to Dad, cackled like a witch a few times, but it all resulted in some fabulous smiles and some fabulous family lovin’!
Downpour!
This session has an interesting story!
It started out as a beautiful day…blue skies, big white fluffy clouds, a slight breeze. It was in the middle of October and we had been rain free for at least a couple of weeks. There was a warning for severe storms in the area, but when you looked outside it was just perfect. Where were these storms going to come from?
As their session crept closer, I started to hear thunder. I looked at the radar and there was rain north of us, but it looked to be clear for us for awhile. The skies were blue and the sun was shining.
They arrived, stating that they had driven through some rain, so we quickly got down to business. We finished one family pose and I felt a rain drop. I looked up and it looked a bit grey, but the sun was still shining. Before we could even think about what to do, the skies opened up and dumped on us!
We hunkered down under a tree, trying to stay dry. If we had made a run for the house, we knew we would be drenched. We hoped it was just going to be a quick shower and be done. We weren’t so lucky. It just started raining harder and harder. At this point, we were all dripping wet, so running for the house wasn’t really going to change anything.
We headed for the house and took shelter on the porch. Just in time! The next thing we know, hail is falling from the sky.
I was optimistic that we could find a way to get a few more images out of this session. We took towels and dried everyone off…including big, furry Kuma! I threw the sweaters in the dryer and we waited for the rain to stop.
It did, and out we went. Wet grass, intermittent clouds and sun and even a few lingering sprinkles, but we worked through it, and in the end, it all paid off!
A Little Wedding Fun!
I’ll start this post off by saying, no, I still don’t photograph weddings. Although, I love spending time with brides and grooms, the whole wedding day is not for me.
Melissa really wanted me to photograph her and her new hubby, Jeff, for their wedding. The solution we came up with was a fun, relaxing, in-studio and outdoor session on a Saturday night a few weeks after their wedding.
The evening started off with the dressing of the bride…that’s always a fun and entertaining process! Could they make wedding stuff with a few less hooks and buttons?!? Not to mention, Melissa’s four inch high heels that I buckled her into! While, I photographed Melissa, Jeff worked on getting himself into a snazzy, dazzy tuxedo. Then the bride and groom got to do some snuggling, whispering, kissing and just being lovey dovey!
It was a relaxed and fun time…no time constraints, no ceremony or reception worries to deal with…just bride and groom fun!
I got to pick on them both. I nicknamed Melissa Miss Fidgety Fidgeter. She would not stop messing with her veil, or her flowers, or her dress, or even her new husband! Whereas, Jeff was the more stoic, calm one of the two. I was forced to resort to talking about embarrassing things to get awesome smiles out of him!
It was definitely my kind of wedding session!
Family Time
As children grow and change, we’re always quick to photograph them, but one thing we frequently miss out on is documenting the growing and changing family. Part of the reason is because, as adults, we just don’t see the need, or are picky about ourselves, or don’t want the stress…there are just so many excuses. When really, all those excuses need to be thrown out the window and we just need to do it.
How fun is it to look back at old family portraits of your own?!? To see your parents hairdos and their clothes, and what they thought was “stylish!” I know some of my family’s old portraits make me giggle! Seriously, what was with the clothes in the 80s!
For Manon’s family, this is definitely one thing they have missed doing over the years. This fall, they made time for me to photograph their family. The best part was that they didn’t get hung up in the details. They didn’t have any preconceived thoughts or opinions, they just went into it with open minds. Which meant we got to have fun! We laughed, we groaned, we made crinkle noses and we picked on Daddy…but for the most part we had fun, and we captured an awesome family relationship!
Squeezing It In
Isaac & Julia have moved to Colorado, but before they left town, we had to squeeze in a portrait session. We needed to capture Julia’s nine month stage, Isaac turned six this summer, and it’s been awhile since we’ve done the two of them together, let alone we’ve never done the new family of four!
Of course, when the plan is to get as much captured as possible, things never go smoothly. Miss Julia had spent the previous week with an ear infection, and had refused to take any nap the day before. It took quite some work to convince her that one of us did not need to be holding her at all times, and she could let go and be on her own.
Mister Isaac is a mover and a shaker. From the first moment he could move, he’s never slowed down. So, you can only imagine how sitting still and waiting for little sister to cooperate can be quite frustrating. Especially when you’re a six year old, who gets to go home and have a water gun fight with your Daddy!
Squeezing It All In
It’s been a while since the R Family has had portraits created, so we took the opportunity to do a little bit of everything! Some family, some sibling love, even a little parental loving!
Then, I got to do my favorite, which was spending a little one on one time with each kiddo, capturing their personalities and their individualism!
It was a lengthy session, with a lot of smiling, laughing and joking, but I never once heard anyone complain. They were all awesome models…working the serious, to the smiley, to the crinkle nose, to the eyebrow moves!
Family Fun
When attempting to take family portraits with a very active two year old, the best plan is to remain flexible, hold on to your patience and go with the flow!
Miss Hannah is a very active two year old! She definitely likes to be on the move, so lots of changes and going with the flow was definitely necessary!
We sat. We stood. We tickled. We hugged. We laughed. We pouted. We stomped off. We smiled. We cheesed. We played. And we laughed!
Shy Baby
Little Miss Madge wasn’t so sure about her photo session. At the beginning, she hid behind Mommy and Daddy and shook. Every once in awhile, she’d peek her head around from behind them to catch a glimpse of me. But she’d quickly hide again.
Slowly, over time, I got closer and closer. Her little ears would perk up, questioning me, but never running away.
We started out with some photos of Mommy, Daddy & Madge. Miss Madge was a rock star, responding to sounds and certain words!
When it came time for solo Madge, she needed some coaxing, but with some encouragement from Mommy and some entertainment from Daddy, she turned on the charm! She even serenaded me with some howling and barking.
Always Entertaining
When you get more than one kid into a small space, all dressed up in their dresses and their button down shirts and then want to get them to snuggle in close for family and sibling photos, it’s always going to be an entertaining experience! Every time it’s different. No family and no combination of kids is the same.
For this session, two year old Pierce was keeping me on my toes! First, he only wanted to cling to Mommy and refused to be held by anyone else. Then, he announced that he was done. He just kept trying to throw us curve balls and we just kept sending them back! No matter what he tried, we still got through it…all of it…family, siblings and Pierce alone!
On the other hand, I had older siblings, Drake and Malia, who were such great big helpers and almost too well behaved…yes, I just said that out loud! We had to say funny things and play silly games to get big smiles out of them. But, it worked, I even captured Drake’s gappy smile!
