I promised more and here they are.  I loved shooting with Lisa,  she is gorgeous all the time, but pregnant - she's got that "glow" that just can't be faked.  She looks amazing!  

I really really hope my schedule will allow for me to go see Miss Z, in the hospital for some portraits when she arrives.  

Photographers are either the BEST or worst at modeling.  Luckily, Lisa rocks my socks off!  

Seriously fierce stuff. 

My favorite... 

Check out what I've been up to so far today....

I loved running around Laveen (holla!) with Lisa.  She's such a dear sweet photographer friend of mine, I was more than happy to shoot some maternity shots for her.  More coming later this week!

I haven't gotten to formally introduce Jessica to my blog readers.  She's my newest intern and is kicking some serious butt when it comes to learning photography.  Here she is in action last Sunday.  She looks so professional!

Anyway, aside from shooting weddings, she comes over once a week to learn the other 80% of what I do - computer work.  A few weeks ago she's working away and I told her she had a shoot that starts in 30 minutes.  She needed to prep and pack the bag and get ready.  Our next door neighbor JUST had this adorable baby girl, Ariana, and agreed to let us photograph her at only 9 days old.  I let Jessica take the lead and only took maybe 5 shots at the very end.  She did fantastic! Here's what she has to say...

I shot the neighbors new born baby the other day.  She is just adorable.  She was so even tempered and awake! She finally started to get a little tired by the time I was almost done shooting and I got the most precious sleeping shots.

They had the cutest gifts from people that were so excited that she was having another girl.  Ariana has two big sisters Celeste and Jaylene.  

Yawning babies are so adorable.

I was so surprised with how much hair she had; it was so thick!  I think she's already a model in the making -  she was just so photogenic.

Here are some little baby feet.  Seriously who can resist little baby parts?  

These are some of my favorites

She was so much fun to shoot and she didn't mind me being so close to her face with my strange contraption.  She was a trooper and as you can see it didn't bother her one bit.  She was made to be in front of the camera.  Thanks to Amanda for letting me have the opportunity to photograph her adorable daughter.

I love kids, and our chuch, The Bridge has tons of them.  Our Pastor Jeff jokes that you should not drink the water if you aren't looking to get pregnant.  I'm not sure what the count is now, but in the first year of our church over 20 babies were born.  The moms group kept asking about pictures so we decided to do a group shoot! All of these cuties descended on my house on two separate days.  Chaotic is an understatement! It was a lot of fun getting to play with all these kids and get to know them.  They were great and all so photogenic.

Here's everybody!  

This kids were so fun, I am really glad I go the chance to interact with them and take some really great pictures. I do have to say that Bailey might just be the BEST at getting attention.  I'd put her on the floor and the kids would kind of look over the bed at the dog and I'd grab a good shot.  There was a point outside where I was shooting with one hand and holding Bailey while focusing with the other.  It looked silly, but the images are super cute.  

My little nephew Matthew is just the cutest thing ever!   I was so excited to spend time with him and Micah and Karen last week to do his one year portraits.

You remember Micah's portraits from about a month ago. And you probably remember a post about Matthew around Christmas.  

I have had tons of requests for more explaination about how I go about shooting.  In no way do I think this is the only or best way.  It's just what I do and I generally like the results.

Now  I do have the advantage of knowing a bit about his personality.  He's pretty easy going - very mellow kind of dude.  He will get attention when he needs it but for the most part, he's really laid back and likes to laugh. He's growing at an alarming rate and in just the past month since I saw him last got a bunch of hair on his head!  He's scooting around the house and pulling himself up here and there and right on the verge of walking.  This is a major advantage for a photographer!  This will be one of the last times he will sit still for me without being strapped into sometime.  I took advantage.  Everything next year will be blurry because he will be running around.

We went to a nice park where the backlight was awesome and brought some blankets. Micah was off to the side hitting golf balls (seriously! and left handed too!) so it was pretty easy for Karen to split her attention between the three of us (not.)

We started out on the ground and got some easy smiles.

Then a game of peek-a-boo got him really animated.

He's not a huge tummy time fan due to the tube, but I wanted to mix it up anyway.  It lasted .2 seconds.  So the lesson here, sometimes as a photographer, you have to get over the image you have in your head.

Then we stuck him right in the grass on a  hill. Matthew is really liking feeling textures under his feet, so even though the grass makes him itchy and red, he was behaving really well, but a little wiggly.

He's getting his balance on the hill. We were so ready to catch him. You might be thinking, if it's that steep why put him on the hill?  Because of the slope, i get a built in non messy backdrop.  No traffic, lightpoles, buildings or other people to get in my way.  

Micah was having fun entertaining Matthew when he wasn't posing for me - he remembers the camera well! Check out the reaction on Matthew's face from watching his brother.

I just love how his personality comes out. You just have to wait for it and know your camera well enough to be able to catch it.  It really is just two P's: practice and patience.  I highly recommend practicing on a dog.  I have a zillion shots of Bailey from when I practice to catch the moment just right. Kids work too, but dogs put up with you longer when you are learning.  

And then if there is something to eat that they shouldn't... like grass. They. will. eat. it.

We tried some standing up on a landscaping wall and he started jumping around and dancing a little bit.  

That scared us a little so instead we sat him near the edge of the wall, because that's better.  

I love little baby parts.  So cute.  In this one, he's really half blinking kind of ready for a sneeze... but if you crop it creatively - it's a cool shot that still shows his personality in his body language and smile.

Cheering!  He likes clapping his hands.

But he is on the verge of walking - so more standing had to be done. He's getting a little anxious after the wardrobe change.  

And just like that something changes.

When you see the cute pout start up, this is not the time to put down your camera... otherwise you miss totally cute faces like this!

But I'm not an idiot, I don't really want him to start crying, so Karen is standing by ready to make it better.

But then guess what?   It will go in his mouth, it's just what they do.

And my absolute favorite last!  The trick here is that Micah fake sneezes for Matthew.  For real!  Micah fake sneezes and Matthew laughs hard every time.  When you do a shoot ask the Mom.  I bet there's something weird they do that gets a reaction out of the child.  Parents are hesitant to tell you about them outright because often they are embarassing. But in this case it's just random.  Someone sneezing = Smiles for Matthew.  

Oh I just love him and want to eat him to pieces.  Thanks so much for letting me hang out!