1-20, Cast your vote!

Happy New Year!  Happy New Wall Art!

I need your help, and I need you to enlist the help of your family and friends, as well.  I'd like to add to my collection of studio samples, and I simply have too many options to choose from.  (What a problem, I know, too many beautiful faces and happy sessions to select just one!)  I'm going to let you all decide for me.  Below are images from my favorite 2016 sessions-- each client is numbered chronologically as their sessions took place throughout the year.  I have chosen two options per client-- an A and B.  This is how this will work:  scroll through the following images, choose your favorite, and type the number AND letter of your selection (just to be sure, the photo identity is above each image).  If you are a client, by all means, vote for yourself (but only once, let's be fair guys)!  I will share this blog post on Facebook, but only votes placed in the comments section of the BLOG POST will be counted-- votes left as comments on Facebook will be nice commentary but not included as part of the contest.   One more time:  blog post comments count, Facebook comments don't.  At midnight, on Tuesday, January 31, the contest will end.  I will tally the votes from the blog post comments and declare a winner.  I have chosen a prize that I myself would love-- well, a choice of two, actually.  To me,  winter is hot drinks and cozy movies, therefore the client receiving the most votes will have a choice between a $50 Starbucks gift card or a $50 AMC Movie Theater gift card.  Pretty awesome, right?!  Wow-- and all you have to do is leave a number and letter in the comments section and get your family and friends to do the same.  If only other things in life could be so easy, right?!  I'll leave you to the task at hand.  Don't forget to share, I'm sure your family and friends would love to see you declared the winner, right?!  

One of my favorite sessions this year was a newborn one.  I am excluding the images from this session from the contest because I already have this beautiful sample up on display.   What wall art will be complementing it?!  I'm thinking canvas, yes, canvas.  All of these collections are awesome contenders.  What's your vote?

1A

1B

2A

2B

3A

3B

4A

4B

5A

5B

6A

6B

7A

7B

8A

8B

9A

9B

10A

10B

11A

11B

12-4, Gorgeous Gals

There's no doubt about it, these girls are gorgeous.  They were all smiles from the moment they stepped out of the car.   It was so fun to work with sisters who are older and so close in age.  I never had a sister growing up, I can only imagine the fun (and, I'm sure, the drama) that accompanies two teenage girls finding their footing in life.  The love, the teasing and the giddiness couldn't help but make me smile and laugh as well.  And, I do believe we found the perfect barn setting for these Nashville transplants (thank you, mom, for that suggestion!).  Thank you girls for your cooperation and light-hearted spirits.  You guys are awesome!

I think these collections might bring a few tears to the parents in a couple of years....

11-18, "I was thinking snow...."

So my client-to-be said, "I was thinking snow and the lake."  I thought, 'Yeah, that does sound like you guys.  Great idea!'  Little did I know that Colorado's highly unpredictable weather would become even more so as the month of November passed.  We can almost be certain that we'll have snow here the week after Halloween.  SURELY, we'd have snow by mid-November.  Nothing.  Nada.  Not only was it not snowing, but we were also breaking heat records!  Crazy!  No, snow, no rain and unusually wonderful fall weather.  I was really torn between wanting to get their Christmas photos done for them timely and well, getting out there and purely enjoying the fantastic weather we were having!  Alas, the trend broke.  It was 80 on Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday afternoon it was snowing.  Nobody thought it would stick-- even the forecasters (because they always get it right, right?!) said that it wouldn't even really stick on the grass.  Oh, how wrong they were.  The temperatures plummeted into the 20s and sure enough, it did stick to the ground.  Yay for my client and her snow pictures!  Oh wait-- somebody has to take those 'snow pictures'.  Oh no, wait!  That someone is me!  And remembering my last snow session and my wet pants, I broke loose from all professional attire and donned snow pants.  Yes, snow pants!  Ok, no, there wasn't 3' of snow, but you must realize the crazy positions I get into during a session.  Better safe than wet pants at 21 degrees!   My clients were brave-- they took off their jackets and everything.  Wow-- that's devotion to getting that great photo.  Despite the wicked cold temps, it was a great session.  The puppies were even cooperative-- but I think they were actually just frozen into position.  Thanks, guys, for your devotion to making this session happen.  Hopefully you've started to regain feeling in your fingertips by now.....

And, of course, no portrait session would be complete without some wall art suggestions!

11-25, Extended Love

This session had been months in the making.  "I might get everyone here for Thanksgiving!  Could we engage your photographic services?!"...."Absolutely!" I eagerly replied.  I love this family.  I had the privilege of photographing them two Thanksgivings ago, and this year other members of the family would be joining them.  We both anticipated the session with mutual excitement.  Holiday sessions just bring out the 'shiny' in everyone and I really enjoy them.  But then, the bottom dropped out of my world and I learned on Thanksgiving day that my last remaining grandparent had passed away.  Our session was scheduled for the following afternoon.  This sweet family insisted that maybe we should cancel the session.  My response?  "Oh heck no!"  You see?  I do this for the love of capturing these families.  I do this to create a moment in time for them that they can always keep no matter what unknown circumstances may present themselves in the future.   I do this to step out of my world and into theirs, even if only for a brief period of time.   I needed this session as much, if not more, than they did.   I thought of the final family self-portrait I made with my family and grandma over the summer and how much I cherish that final image and time with her.  There was no way I was going to take this opportunity away from this family.  As the family pulled up in groups to our location, Mimi and Grandpa corralled the kids into the back of the truck-- a confined 'holding area' for kids, so to speak, so I could get set up without interruption.  As I turned around to grab my gear, I looked up and saw the sweet, smiling faces of these boys.  I knew in a moment that I had made the right decision.  I knew that from up above, my grandma was smiling down on this scene with joy for the eternal love she has for children and families.   I enjoyed the session immensely and was so thankful for the brief reprieve of grief that it provided.  I was so thankful to be given the opportunity to provide these memories for this family.  I am thankful for this family.  Thank you for allowing me to do this for you and for me!

11-7, Wall Art

As you may have noticed, I have become a little obsessed with wall art lately.  Since I became aware of an amazing program that allows me to take sample photos of a client's room, create mock-up collections, shoot their session, then slide their actual session photos into the mock-up collections, I can't help but think that this is the *it* that I have been searching for.  It's my missing link in my photographic world of who, what, when, where and why.  THIS is why!  Photos of your precious family are sacred.  Life is short and in the drop of a dime everything can change.  You may say I am propelled by fear-- the fear of change-- but it's a force greater than that.  Whether it's the simple fact that your young children will grow, your parents will age, or the generation beyond will not always be here with us, this force merges with the reality that we have the power now to freeze these moments in time-- if only in our hearts, memories, and yes, our walls.  Our son may be a teenager now, but that doesn't erase the fact that at one time he was a little, blonde-haired boy who wandered circles in the sand in a different time and place.  Our 'baby' may be a full-fledged American girl now, but when we first 'met' her, she was only a vision on paper of a little girl in a far away land waiting for our love.  Why, oh why, would I want to bury these precious memories in a book or on a hard drive somewhere?  No, not me.  I want to see these memories come to life every day as I'm getting dinner on the table, sitting in front of the fire or heading out the door to play chauffeur.  Maybe today won't be an easy day, maybe I won't understand why my son won't do his math homework.  But you know what?  That's just today.  If I look on the wall and look at that little boy roaming the beach, I realize that it will all be ok because I remember how much adversity we have faced since then.  Maybe today will be a fantastic day.  Maybe when I meet my little girl at the school bus stop it may just seem like an ordinary event. But, when I come home and look at her photo on the wall I am reminded of all there is to celebrate in this life and how very lucky we are.  Yes, I am sentimental-- it's who I am.  Are you sentimental, too?  If so, let's take it up a notch and let me show you what I can do for you.  I promise, you won't be sorry.  I know this client, in particular, "LOVED" her wall art collection.  I must say, I love it, too!

The mock-up created to showcase a possible wall art collection.

The actual wall art collection hung in the client's home.

Think about it.  Are there aspects of your life, right now, that you wish you could freeze for posterity?

10-31, Self-portrait

As a photographer, I can think of no endeavor more humbling than a self-portrait.  You feel silly enough smiling for your camera on a tripod (over and over and over trying to achieve proper focus and a non-ridiculous pose while thinking, 'now I know this pose looks good when other people do it....').  Then comes the post-processing.  It's one thing to photoshop the wrinkles off of someone else's face, and entirely another to have to do it to your own.  'Where did those lines on my forehead come from? When did I get my mother's hands? What's up with my eyes?!'  I get it-- who cares how the lighting looks, good God look at my smile.  Ugh!  But, I go through this process every year.  I feel it  is necessary on several levels.  How can I tell people how to pose if I can't achieve those poses myself?  I'm comfortable behind the camera, and it's enlightening to feel what others must feel in front of the camera.  Oh, and I guess it's always good to let social media see that I, too, age, just like everyone else.  Time to update that profile picture!  

Hope you like this one, because you'll be seeing a lot of it!