A little Halloween fun

Need something fun to do with the kids Saturday? Bring them over to Annmarie Garden for their annual Halloween in the Garden! For more information go here: http://www.annmariegarden.org/Events/Halloween/index.htm Get them all dressed up for a super fun day of trick-or-treating and other spooky activities. For the second year, I will be there passing out treats as well. Current clients who stop by and say hi will receive an extra special treat. Moms and Dads, be sure to say hi please! Last year I was so busy passing out candy that I almost didn't recognize one of my cutest little models in her costume! I definitely don't want to do that again!

I didn't want to post without a picture, so take a looksie at the gorgeous sunset I caught at the end of one of my last sessions. We always get the most beautiful Autumn sunsets.

Who could resist this face??

I thought I should balance out all the talk in my last post with some super cuteness!!

I just had to share this little guy! I was smiling the whole time I was proofing his session. They just don't come any cuter or happier than this!

Lots of news

I have to apologize for taking so long to make any holiday announcements. If you haven’t heard, I’m expecting again and the last two months I was very sick and got really behind with work. I have to give extra special thanks to all my clients during that time who have been so patient and understanding. All paid orders have been placed (just waiting for a bunch of huge boxes to be delivered to me) and I am almost completely caught up now. Only two more sessions that still need to be proofed and posted and I will be ahead of the game again. Now for the news…

The holiday portrait season seems to be in full swing! The month of October is fully booked, and I have a limited number of sessions still available in November. If you would like portraits done in time for the holidays, please contact me soon.

Once I have finished the last of the studio sessions on my calendar, I will no longer be offering studio sessions in my home, and will be 100% outdoors/on-location for an undetermined length of time. With our family growing again we need to take this time to finally finish the lower level and use it for living space. I have portable studio equipment, so we can always set up in your home if you have a newborn, really young children, or if you would like a session and are concerned about the weather. Contact me and we can discuss our options. Remember, autumn is a fabulous time for outdoor sessions!! :)

I have received lots of inquiries about my holiday mini sessions. Normally I announce these much earlier, but as I said, I’ve been a little behind. :) I decided to do something a little differently this year. Instead of doing one or two full days of mini sessions, I will be offering one or two per day on various dates throughout the month of November. Contact me if you would like a complete listing of mini session dates and times. (Full sessions are available as well). Those booking a holiday mini session will have their choice of the following collections (remember, there is no additional session fee):

Sugar Plums~$175
Session
1~8x10
2~5x7s
25 holiday cards

Candycanes~$250
session
1~8x10
4~5x7s
2 sets of eight wallets
50 holiday cards

Gingerbread~$350
Session
3~8x10s
6~5x7s
2 sets of eight wallets
50 holiday cards
Mini brag album

Details:
~Mini sessions will last 15-20 minutes
~3-5 proofs presented in an online gallery
~One outfit only
~One grouping (just family or just individual shots of one child)
~If you want individual photographs of more than one child, please book more than one session.
~Up to five people (each additional person add $25)


Last, but not least, I would like to present to you a new pricing structure featuring exclusively digital collections which will be available for a limited time for all sessions beginning in November. (Regular print and print packages will still be available as well). I have been brainstorming for weeks now on how I can simplify things so that I can go to bed at a reasonable hour every night. Since I have been getting more and more requests for digital negatives, I thought this might be the perfect solution. There will be three options. The best part-the session fee is included in each collection price! There are no additional costs, other than tax of course. Each collection comes with a CD containing your digital negatives and one printed 5x7 proof of each image on your CD in a portrait box. Images are artist’s choice, so in other words you get all of the images that would normally be in your ordering gallery. How easy is this? We hold your session, I proof your images, burn a CD, box up your proofs and everything is shipped right to your door! I’ll even include special instructions with your order to ensure you get beautiful, high quality prints of your session images. Email me if you would like to receive a more detailed information sheet with everything you need to know about these sessions including restrictions and recommendations. So, without further to-do, here are your new digital session options:

The Mini Digital~$500
20-30 minute session for up to four people
10 printed 5x7s (one of each proof)
10 digital negatives on CD

The Standard Digital~$700
1-2 hour session for up to five people
20 printed 5x7s (one of each proof)
20 digital negatives on CD

The Deluxe Digital~ $1100
1-3 hour session for up to five people
40 printed 5x7s (one of each proof) in a portrait box or album (your choice)
40 digital negatives on CD

EXTRAS which may be added to the collections above:
~each additional person $25
~birth announcement or holiday card design (file included) $50
~collage/storyboard design and file $75
~of course you may still add prints, cards or canvases from our a la carte price list if you would like

Phew! I think that’s about it. My hands are tired from all that typing. :) I hope you all have had a wonderful summer! Best wishes for a wonderful autumn!

Simply Stunning

I don't have to ooh and ahh over how gorgeous this senior was. I'm sure your vision is just fine, so I'll just let you look for yourself. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this session and was so happy to finally get to meet this senior! ;) I'm working on getting your gallery up now, so I'll have it ready for you soon! Thanks for being so patient!

One Year Later

Remember this beautiful baby? http://shootin-thebreeze.blogspot.com/2007/08/in-middle-of-senior-madness-precious.html Well I had the pleasure of photographing her again and she has grown into the cutest one year old!! She also brought along her new baby brother. I jokingly told their parents they could have saved some time and money by passing off some of her newborn portraits as his. It's scary how much their new guy resembled their daughter as a newborn. :) So, here the new big sister. Isn't she just the cutest???

And here is her new baby brother. Gotta love that hair!

Thanks for coming to visit me again guys! Your babies are so gorgeous and so good, you really make my job easy!

Two ways to help save lives

So the Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk is quickly approaching and I haven't yet met my fundraising goal to be allowed to walk. Sooo, I am doing two things. First, I am doing another day of mini sessions with the proceeds being donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and secondly, I am offering a raffle of sorts.

There are less details involved with the raffle, so I will start there. If the mini session date doesn't work for you, and you would still like to help, I thought I would raffle off a full session and collection of gift prints. For every $10 donated to my walk fund, your name will be entered once in the raffle. My personal fundraising page can be found here: http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/WashingtonDCEvent?JServSessionIdr011=ob4ff1g451.app320b&px=1798431&pg=personal&fr_id=1192 If, for some reason this link does not work for you, another link can be found listed under my favorite links to the right. All donations are tax deductible and will do amazing things to advance research for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. You have through September 10th to participate in the raffle. I will put all the entries in a bowl on the 11th and select one winner. If you donate online I will get an email notifying me of your donation. If you choose to print out the donation form and mail it in, please send me an email so that you will not be left out of the raffle.

Now, on to the mini sessions. Here are the details:

Saturday, September 13th

15 minute sessions beginning at 9am

One grouping of up to 5 people (if you want individual shots of more than one child, you will need to book one session for each child)

one outfit only, no changes please

session fee is included in the collection price

price of the collection must be paid at the time of booking to reserve your session

3-5 proofs presented in an online ordering gallery

The Collections:

$50
session
1~5x7

$100
session
1~8x10
2~5x7s
1 set of eight wallets

$200
session
1~8x10
4~5x7s
2 sets of eight wallets
AND
one set of 25 photocards (no, it's not too early to do your holiday cards!)
OR
a $50 print credit to purchase other prints of your choice

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email or give me a call!

My sweet new niece

It's actually her fault my husband and I were sick last week. We came down with food poisoning after going up to meet her for the very first time. Luckily for her, she's too darn cute to blame. :) I must say we are totally in love, as are her Daddy, Mommy and big brother!
Big smooches little girl!! Thank you for being so good for your crazy auntie with the camera!

A beautiful evening at the beach

Just when I think I've seen all of the most gorgeous beaches in Calvert County I get invited to do a session at another one. Loved this beach! Loved this family! They braved the "bedtime hour" to get a session in during our perfect summer evening light. The kiddos did amazingly well and mom and dad did everything right. It is so important to let your kids just be themselves and do their own thing during a session and to not force them to pose and be perfect. That's the key to getting images that you will love. And I do hope they love these...

I also want to thank everyone for being so patient with me this past week. I was sick a little over a week ago and it took quite a while for me to bounce back. I should be all caught up by this weekend. Yay!! :)

Saying goodbye to a hero

As most locals know, on August 1st United States Army Sgt. Ryan Baumann, of Great Mills, died in Afghanistan from injuries suffered after his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. My husband heard last week that people were being asked to line the route that would take Sgt. Baumann to Arlington this morning. Let me just say that it was one of the most moving scenes I have ever witnessed. I took the kids and went to the St. Mary's/Charles County line only to find a beautiful flag hanging over the road from the ladders of two firetrucks, dozens of other firetrucks and emergency vehicles from all over the county lining the road, Firefighters and Police Officers and Soldiers and Marines and Sailors and Airmen, all in uniform, and a community that came together on a simply beautiful morning to say thank you and goodbye to a man who so bravely gave his life in the service of our country.


I wanted to share a couple of photos here tonight to ask everyone to please keep Sgt. Baumann's loved ones in your thoughts and prayers in the coming days. And also, as you kiss your kids goodnight and settle yourself into bed, please remember all of the men and women in uniform who are in harm's way keeping watch tonight. The thanks that we owe them is beyond words...

Congratulations to Starr & Thomas

Before I get into all kinds of trouble, no, I do not normally do weddings. Occassionally if my schedule allows, I will take on a small, intimate, outdoor wedding. Even then it is usually only one or two a year. I bow down to wedding photograhers. Weddings are soooo much work! I'll chase a two year old around for a couple of hours any day!!! :)

Anyway, I have taken a long time to finish these up, so I thought I would give Starr & Thomas a little peek while their photos are being printed and their album assembled. I hope you guys had a wonderful honeymoon! I'll be in touch soon!

And my favorite...I think:

One last session in Maryland

So I get a call from one of my favorite clients looking for a family session at the beach. Of course I jump at the chance. Then she gives me the news. They have put their house up for sale and will be moving soon. :( So sad for me, but happy for them as they are obviously excited about the new adventure. So no pressure here or anything. They just want some special photos to remember their time here in Maryland. ;) Luckily for me they are some of the easiest people in the world to photograph. They are so great, so much fun and just completely gorgeous. My biggest problem with them is narrowing down the number of proofs I have to show them to a reasonable number.

Anyway, here is a little sneak peek for them. We waited what seemed like forever for the sunset this night. It was so pretty though. A little Southern Maryland sunset with the Solomon's bridge there in the background.

Their gorgeous little girl. I am convinced that this child can not take a bad picture.

Their little prince. Not sure if you can see the sand all over his face, but he was really "getting in to" this whole beach photo session thing. :)

And finally...I can't take credit for this idea. I've done variations during senior sessions and engagement sessions on the beach, but never thought to do it with a family. Can I just say that I LOVE IT!!

I'll have the rest of these up for you guys soon!!

Summer Fun

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!! We almost put the kids to bed last night assuming that the fireworks had been cancelled due to the storm. We heard a couple of fireworks go off in the distance, so we jumped in the car with the kids and raced over to Solomons. I wish I had some photos to share of the show, but in our rush to get out the door I left my camera. :( Oh well! Maybe next year!

I still have a couple of clients still patiently waiting to see their photos that I took before I left for vacation. If you are waiting, I am here to let you know that I am almost caught up and they will be ready for you shortly! Here are a couple from a session I am currently working on posting. I had to share this gorgeous little princess...

holding Daddy's hand...awww...

and one of her brother and the crab he found on the beach.

He was definitely more interested in all the beach critters than he was in having his photo taken. :) Hey, who wouldn't be?!?!

I'm off to get a little more work in before naptime is over. I'll have tons of stuff to share in the coming days, including another mini session announcement. Don't miss it!

A session for me!

I am working on a special project, and I was fortunate enough to find a willing, beautiful, pregnant woman who was up for anything I suggested. I think I need to do sessions for me more often. It took me a few minutes to catch my groove since it was a bit overwhelming having all of this freedom. :) Once I found it, it was so much fun! I think from now on, when I have a crazy idea that I would like to try, I'll make a post here looking for a model. I realized after this session that I've gotten too caught up lately in the business of photography and have neglected to feed my love of photography. Thanks so much to this mama-to-be for being so great and for never once looking at me like I was nuts as we hiked through the knee-high weeds with grasshoppers hopping in every direction!! I happen to think it was oh-so worth it! Hope you do too after you see these...

She had such a perfect belly!! It's hard to believe she is just days from her due date!

And my favorite...

A special thanks also to Jen for helping me set this up!! :)

Big Boy!

So I asked this guy how old he was now, since he just had a birthday, and he showed me:

That was the first time I have ever seen "two" done that way! :) Quite original, don't ya think?? And as if I hadn't laughed enough, he danced for me and then gave me this pose:

Toooo cute! And one more just because it is one of my favorites. Nothing says little boy like bruised knees and toy cars...

My Shane

I think we all have at least one person in our lives that makes us feel our age. (a.k.a OLD :) ) This is my person. I was 12ish when he was born, and as our parents are very good friends, my brother and I spent a lot of time with him and his big sis. My mom even babysat for him for a time. He was my living baby doll. I got to dress him up, carry him around and just loved him to bits. Well, gulp, he's graduating. Being the typical senior guy, he waited until the last possible second to get dragged in by his mom to get his senior portraits done. His one little problem was that I knew I could do absolutely anything I wanted with him and he couldn't tell me no. ;) I intended to drag him out in the snow this past winter, but much to my dismay, we really never had a snowfall stick long enough to arrange it. Soooo, I put him in the river. Ha Ha! Cough cough! It was cold. It was raining. It was nasty. And, yes, I took the poor guy (tux and all) and put him in the Patuxent River. I don't expect him to be referring me to any of his friends. :)

Anyway, enough babbling from me.

Here is my Shane:

I have better shots of him in the river, but thought I'd share this one showing the rain and misery. :)

Congratulations Shane!! Smooch!