Two Adorable Boys

On Saturday I had the pleasure of taking family pictures for the W family, who also happen to be neighbors of mine. They have the most adorable little boys ages 3 and 5. Of course, there are always challenges when taking pictures of ones so little and this day proved a greater challenge than normal. We had meltdown central in my house as I was leaving. I was so frazzled in trying to get out of my house to make the session on time, that I forgot my candy and my squeaky toy I planned to use to get the boys to look at me. I ran by the store and got the candy, but I had to make due without the toy. I had many pictures of the boys looking in all different directions, but I still was able to get some good ones. Of course, when you are working with subjects this adorable, it isn't hard!

Meet the "W" family boys - they could be on a magazine cover!






My intention was to get a shot of the boys looking at me with mom and dad in the background. The best one turned out to be a fluke. They just couldn't help but look at what mom and dad were doing in the background. I thought this turned out adorable.



I love it when dad gets into the photo session and will be spontaneous with the kids. This picture is so precious. You can just see the "no kissing, please" written all over his face. How like a little boy is that!



Mom wanted feet pictures...a girl after my own heart. I LOVE taking pictures of little feet. I will take the dirt out for their printed picture, but I just love seeing it on there. Little boys and dirt just go together, even when they are all dressed up!



I just love this family. Mom wanted pictures of the boys as they really are at the end of the session. We pulled out some ice cream and just took some shots of them eating with all of the mess a 3 year old makes when he eats! This picture was spontaneous. What a great way to end the day!

A really cool place!

We recently had to travel to San Antonio for a family event. On our way home, we got really hungry around San Marcos. I was born in San Marcos and raised in Austin, but I don't remember any places to eat in San Marcos (and if I did, it probably wouldn't be there anymore). I hate to eat in chain resteraunts when I am in another town because by doing so, you miss the culture and flavor of the place you are visiting. As I am always grumpy when I am hungry, I gave my husband the task of finding a place to eat. WELL...he pulls up at this "hole in the wall" looking dump and I have to say I was hoppin' mad at his choice. But, I did give him the task to find a place to eat, so I bit my tongue...really, really hard...and followed him inside. I am so glad I did! This place was really cool, and very Central Texas. The glassed-in porch area had neat items from a day gone by the kids could play on. Right inside the door they sold homemade fudge and had a wonderful eclectic shopping area that was part boutique and part Texas chic. I think the entire area had been formed from three old buildings moved to the location and attached together. The wood and floors were too old and too mismatched to be one of those new places made to look old. The food was amazing - again, part Texas chic (hamburgers and the best fries I have ever put in my mouth) and part refined (with chicken salad stuffed avacados as one example)! It is called "Centerpoint Station" and is at the outlet mall exit in San Marcos on the opposite side of the freeway from the outlets.

Needless to say, I had to have some pictures. I think this is one of the cutest children I have ever photographed...but I might be biased. There might have been another cute child in the photos but only one seemed to want to cooperate that day! If you are ever in San Marcos, be sure to stop by...but be prepared to stay awhile. If we hadn't been on a time crunch to get home, I could easily have parked there for a few hours!

This was an old version of the current electric jeeps kids ride around on these days. This one ran on foot power but the kids thought it was really cool. Be sure to note the "new" smile he has adopted since the loss of the first tooth on the bottom!

When was the last time you saw one of these mechanical horses? Now we have Barney and Dora sitting in big cheap plastic cars for the kids to play on in stores. The horse allows for much more imagination!

The entire place was filled with old signs - all for sale. I feel a photography road trip coming on. I only got away with these pictures because of the kids. I wanted to spend hours recording the signs and antique items with my camera. Sigh...next time....

Beautiful Bride

So much for my resolution to post my recent photo shoots! I have the greatest intentions but I don't seem to have the time to add my logo and post them. I resolve (once again) to do better. I was afforded the opportunity to participate in a bridal portrait session with a couple of wonderful photographers this weekend. I have never worked with a bride so I jumped at the opportunity to learn how to do this type of session. Needless to say, it was much different from working with children. She actually stayed in the pose we put her in and SMILED the entire time. On the other hand, I found it was a little slow compared with working with families and children. I have decided that while I will work with any bride who asks, I much prefer working with kids. Crazy...I know!


I was pleased with the results of this photo shoot. She is a beautiful bride and I offer my best wishes for her wedding in next week!

Spring Photos

It seems I have been so busy with all of the end of school activities, that I haven't posted in awhile. It hasn't helped that it rained in Dallas almost the entire month of May resulting in many postponed sessions. I have photos from several sessions I need to add, but I wanted to start with the one I did this weekend. This family is precious. I got to know them as the dad coached my oldest son's baseball team. I have to say he is an amazing coach and seems to know how to find the balance between coaching a winning team (undefeated in two seasons!) and building up the kids into not only better players, but better on the inside as well.

What a great family and very relaxed and easy to work with!

More Fun!

I was honored today to shoot some headshots for an amazing business woman. She has started at least two business that I am aware of and needed headshots for various promotions. Some people are just amazingly photogenic. She is one of them and well over half of my shots are almost perfect. These are a sneak peak and none are really edited. I just had to put them out on the blog because I was thrilled with the results!

The red tree was just sitting there waiting to be an amazing background to a black dress! We got plenty of "calm hair" pictures, but the artist in me loves the way the wind was slightly picking up her hair in this picture.

Who would ever guess this creek is in the middle of a shopping center next to the freeway? It is so serene for photos.

This park is one of my new favorite places to take pictures. I just love North Texas. The natural Texas landscape is really wonderful.

Who wants to work inside when you can work outside in the majesty and beauty of God's creation!

I know she can't use this shot for her professional bios, but I think this is my favorite. It is romantic and etherial and simply beautiful.

What a wonderful Easter weekend we had as a family! Yesterday started cold and rainy and ended up being a glorious day full of sunshine. We capped off the day by eating dinner outside on the patio feeling the warm breeze and looking at the beautiful trees surrounding the creek which are finally green!

On Friday, I was afforded the opportunity to take family pictures for a wonderful family with 4 precious and adorable little boys ages 2-8. Mom and dad have their hands full for sure, but they were all well behaved, sweet boys. They were certainly rambunctious, but when mom said for them to stand still for the pictures...they did it. However...with four little boys, there are going to be some great out take moments. Here are my favorites....

Mom got down on the ground to show the boys how we wanted them to pile up on top of each other for a 4 boy stack. Instead, everyone jumped on mom. As a mom of boys myself, I get that. You just have to be a good sport when you are raising boys!



We never got the shot of the 4 boys stacked on top of each other, because the 2 year old decided he didn't want to be on top. As he was coming off, he grabbed his 4 year old brother by the neck and the next thing we knew, a fist fight had erupted. I personally thought it was funny, but the boys were unhappy with each other for a little bit after that.



Between shots, grandma decided to race the boys.



This shot goes to show that no matter how hard you try, a 2 year old cannot be corralled. I did this one in black and white because I think it tells the story better.




One last wrestle with dad before the day was through. I had promised that if they would just hang on until the end, they could each tackle me at the end of the shoot. I guess they decided to practice with dad!




I love this shot! We were lining the boys up along the fence and the two oldest had to hug each other. It just goes to show that fist fights, competition, name calling, and all...brothers do still love each other.

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to participate in a special photo session with several seniors in high school who wanted pictures in their prom dresses. I posted several of the photos taken to my website, but there were many that I didn't have room for. These are some of my other favorites that I wanted to post but couldn't. I love the edgy feel of downtown. Old buildings make for great backdrops. I would love to do a family at this location some day!













One last thought....I must say that prom dresses have changed quite a bit since I was in high school. I think Laura Ashley and Jessica McClintock were the designers of the day in the 80's!

Aimee