I had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful family recently. Their Mom’s birthday is this month and they kids wanted to have family portraits done. Originally we were going to shoot outside but the mosquitoes were swarming so we headed indoors. The family were all so lovely and it was a delight to photograph them - they were all smiles and you could really see how much they cared for each other. Below are a few of my favorite shots…

Earlier this week, I was invited by the fabulous Katie and Adam to come over and spend time hanging out with them for Ella’s first birthday. Just look at that cutie! How could I resist? I’ve actually wanted to get Ella in front of my lens since this past spring when I first met her - so there was no way I was passing the chance up!

She was happy and bubbly when I first arrived at her house - I always say that people are most comfortable being photographed in their favorite places. However, the light & I weren’t getting along there very well, so I suggested going out to the park. She went into serious Ella mode - but I promise she was all smiles before this!

Last Friday I got to finally meet Mary, also known as Ella’s Happy Buela. Mary & I have exchanged emails for months now, ever since she started listening to the Pointy Sticks podcast. We never got to meet up though until now - and I am so glad we got to meet! She was finishing up Ella’s new birthday dress that she made, and she brought it up to Twisted Yarns so she could ask questions about it. It was such a joy having her join us in the Friday knitting circle! And Ella’s dress was so cute! She wore the dress for part of her birthday, and we got photos of her in it too.

I hope to get to spend more time with Ella in the future - she has such a great spirit and joy!

In Houston? Pick up a copy of the July issue of BarStool magazine and you’ll see my photographs in it! I photographed the bartender for the Bartender of the Month feature, and then did a separate shoot at Leon’s Lounge on McGowen in Midtown. It was such an incredible rush to see my photographs in print, and while I did a speed posting on Flickr, I can’t believe I didn’t share them in the blog too!

August’s issue will have more photographs by me, and photographs that Elaine took also - amazing stuff, I’m just bursting at the seams waiting to share!

(Cross posted, in case you’re curious, in my wedding photography blog and my personal blog.)

Oh goodness, the last slideshow was so much fun, I had to do another one! This is the slideshow from Cooper’s newborn portrait session from a few months ago. He was such a sweet, sweet newborn, and it was such an honor to have an opportunity to photograph Julia’s first grandchild and Kandis’s son. Kandis was so great about giving me a ton of time with him, even though she had not been feeling well and running a fever.

Another perk of the in-home session? Mom can relax and unwind and watch while I spend time with the baby! She doesn’t even have to leave the house!

Click here to view the show larger!

On Sunday, June 10th, right after returning from the Elevate and OneLight workshops in Orlando, I had the fortune of being able to visit Alexis and her family for an in-home portrait session. Alexis is an adorable 14 month old, and she was so beautiful it was hard to stop taking her picture! Matter of fact, the last few in the slideshow are from when she was having a post-shoot snack on the kitchen floor - my camera was still handy, so I had to take just a few more!

One of the most fabulous things about taking photographs in the client’s home or at a favorite location is the opportunity to include things that are very special to them. Alexis has a frog toy and a dress made of matching fabric by the same designer. Her room is so cute, decorated in coordinating fabrics. When I spoke with her mother, it was one of the first things that she requested - capturing the dress with the frog in the room. We got two out of three, as Alexis was not going to cooperate with us and sweetly hold the frog!

Another perk of on-location photography? Alexis is not a big fan of strangers. Matter of fact, they have tried before to take portraits at a studio, and I think they only got one or two shots out of the experience. Instead, I was able to come in, spend time with her, talking to her, letting her play while I chatted with her mom, easing her into things before I pulled out the big camera. Our session was well under 2 hours long, and we left with almost 100 images after editing! (Ok, I could have cut out even more, but how can I possibly resist that sweet face!)

I look forward to hopefully visiting Alexis again in the future!

If you’re interested in booking a portrait session, please use the contact link above or call. Sessions are not limited to Houston; contact us to discuss details!

Just checking in from Dallas! I just published the Alley family portraits, which we took in honor of the parent’s 50th anniversary. 50 years! Such a fun family - it was great working with them. That is one of the great things about the internet - clients no longer have to meet with the photographer to review proofs, or send them around from one household to another to select what they want prints of (there were 5 families total - the parents, their 4 children, and their families); now everyone can review and order them online! It really is a great system.

Today I’ll be photographing the wedding of Jim & Leia. I just adore the website they created for the big event, and we used their logo on the event cards for today! It has been dubbed the “Blogger Wedding of the Year ™” and it should be wonderful! You can’t go wrong with cupcakes and a chocolate fountain. Now if only it would stop raining…

I’m on the public computer at the Bradford Suites here in Dallas, so no photos for the moment. I’ll post some on Sunday night once we get home!

This week is going to be all about editing photos for me, so hang on - it is going to be a busy time around here! First up, the Mother’s Day weekend session! The Alleys have been married for 50 years, and since everyone was gathering to celebrate, we set up a portrait session for that Saturday afternoon. We met in Hermann Park at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and found a nice quiet spot to set up. We captured all sorts of family combinations while we were there - just the parents, the parents with the grandchildren, the parents with the children, the children & their families, the grandchildren together, just the older granddaughters - you name it, we did it! When Donna contacted me to find out if it would be a session fee for each family, I told her no because that just wouldn’t make sense. A session fee is for 1-2 hours of my time, and since it was all one big family, why not make the most of it? I don’t see any reason to limit a session based on the number of people involved!

Here are a few favorites of mine from the day - the parents and the children, and one of the big group shots with all 20 people in it - and no one is blinking!

I am just wrapping up the latest senior session and uploading it to our proofing system at Pictage, and I had the hardest time converting any of these photos to black & white - Kenneth has the best deep blue eyes! He was in town visiting for a family event, and he asked his mom (Hi Robin!) to contact me so we could set up a senior session for him. He originally wasn’t going to do pictures for his graduation announcements, but changed his mind she said after looking through some of our other work. What an honor! He was so much fun to work with, and we had a really good time. I loved working with him!