Twin Cities Newborn Photographer - Motherly Love

I love mom + baby sessions!  This was no exception.  So lovely.



Have you watched Mirah's Birth Story yet?

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Merry Christmas!

Twin Cities Family Photographer - How NOT to Dress for a Family Photo

This is a recent photo of my mom, sisters and I.

Cute right?
Well, mostly.  :-)

If this was not an impromptu photograph we could have improved it a lot by our wardrobe choices!  Notice my bold-patterned shirt?  Well, this shirt is a pretty good example of what you should never wear for a family photo!

I encourage families to stay away from "matchy-matchy" outfits - everyone wearing shirts and bottoms of the same color is almost never a good idea for a family session.  Especially not black and jean! I know the same-color-shirts-with-jeans look sounds like a nice uncomplicated way to get a decent portrait, but it can also be disastrous.  Even if you don't mind it at the time, you may cringe at the sight of it years down the road!

My own family has a large, black-shirt-and-jean family picture, taken by a professional years ago.  Great picture overall - LOVE that we got the whole family together for it and I have great memories from the day.  But if you look at it for very long you'll begin to notice the children's "floating heads".  The children are of course being held, or standing in front of an adult who is wearing the exact same color shirt as they are - thus creating the illusion that they are nothing more than floating heads.  Funny illusion, but not so great for a family portrait.

When you are preparing for a photo session, first be sure to put each person in colors that compliment their skin tone.  This is possibly the most important step to creating a portrait the whole family will love.  The second, and more complicated step, is to choose colors that compliment each other and do not clash.  And thirdly - bonus points for choosing clothing you can layer, accessorize, or has a nice texture to it; this can add a lot of personality and depth to the finished portrait.

A good rule of thumb for those group holiday photos: Dress in neutrals (beige, ivory, taupe, black, gray, and white) which compliment your skin tone.  These colors will blend easiest and best for impromptu photos, and most people have a neutral colored shirt on hand.  The colors may sound a little boring, but you will find there are so many different shades within the neutral palette (pinks, greens and purples, even!) that can actually create very deep and rich color combinations.  Just be sure not narrow the colors down to black and white - you'll like the photo far more if you let everyone choose their own neutral combo.

Happy Styling!

Questions?  Leave me a comment below.

 

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Fall Flair

Have you noticed that it's BEAUTIFUL outside?!  Despite slight feelings of dread (regarding Minnesota's freakishly long winters), fall is my favorite time of the year.  And I am having a blast capturing the beauty fall holds for all of us.



 

You may notice this family from last years session.  I'm so happy to do this for them again. :-)

Would you like to get your holiday cards taken care of?  If you are interested in having me photograph your family portrait this year, please contact me ASAP.  Dates are filling up fast and Christmas will be here before you know it!

 

 

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Shula's One Year Old!

One year ago, this little sweetheart was born 2 months early. You may have read all about it here. Three months later I had the pleasure of taking this photo of her after she returned from the NICU. And now, she's one year old!



As you can see, Shula is such a joy to her parents and those around her.  We are so thankful to have her with us!

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Familial Love

Almost every family has them - the child or parent who does not want to be photographed.

But lucky me - this was not one of those families!

This session was such a pleasure.  I love it when clients get into the process and start coming up with their own ideas. They had such enthusiasm about the session, and you can tell from the photos how much fun they were having.  Sometimes the best part of a session is simply watching families play.  It's such a joy to see. :-)

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Irrational Fears?

With the help of a magic marker, Debbie decided to re-make her doll-house dolls.

These dolls (Dahls?) are affectionately named: Mommy, Daddy, Debbie and Baby Byron.

Lately I don’t know if these dolls or Debbie scares me more!

It's pretty close, but I think the Dahl-dolls are just a tad freakier.

Twin Cities Family Photographer - A Dream Family Session for Lianna

This weekend I was delighted to finally deliver on the "Dream Photo Session", promised to last year's contest winner, Lianna.  Lianna chose to extend her prize to her parents and siblings - resulting in a fun family get-together and some beautiful family portraits!

Though it sounds difficult to take a family photo of 10 adults and 3 kids, it really wasn't.  I truly couldn't have asked for better lighting, setting OR subjects.

35 years of marriage, and such a beautiful, loving family to show for it.  Congrats, you guys! :-)

Thanks again for entering the contest, Lianna!  It was such a pleasure to meet with you and your family.  May God bless!

Twin Cities Mother Photographer - Blessings of Motherhood

Being a mother is the most incredible job in the world.  Yes, photography is cool and all, but where would I be without my inspiration?  My kids are my joy and inspiration in so many ways.



Sure, they tend to make life a little more complicated.  I've lost sleep - lots of sleep! - since they got here.  My clothes seem to never fit.  I can never vacuum enough, tidy, wash, or scrub enough - like magic my work seems to undo itself within minutes.  It now takes at least an hour to simply get out the door to go anywhere - and usually longer than that.  "Free-time" - what's that?  Not to mention all the training and teaching that must be done!  They rely on me completely, and its my job to be there for them.

But it's more than a job or a responsibility.  It is a joy and a blessing.  Sometimes it's easy to loose sight of this when scrubbing makeup out of the carpet, or when suffering through a sleepless night with a fussing baby - but really, besides meeting and marrying my hubby, they are the best thing that has ever happened to me.  God has shown me such love through these little ones, and I pray every day that He will help me show them love in return - in a way that they will feel right down to their little souls.

I am very blessed to have a Mother who did this for me.  I always thought she was a great mom, but it is only now that I have begun to comprehend the extent of what she has done for me and the rest of my 6 siblings.  Now I realize what a brat I probably was! lol  But she was always there for me.  Always ready to listen.  And though in no way perfect - always loving.

Mom, I love you.  Thank you for always loving me.  You've taught me the most important part of how to be a good mom.  With God's help, your grandkids will be the better for it. :-)

Twin Cities Birth Photographer - Why I Hired a Birth Photographer

After reading my last post you are probably wondering why I would hire a birth photographer at all.  Seeing as I'm not fond of my own pregnant pictures - why in the world  would I want images from the actual birth??!

Because of moments like this.

At the birth of my first child, I did not know any better. Someone did take a few photos - but the light was very dim/tricky (common at births!), and this person did not know how to use my camera very well. Because of this, of the few images taken I do not have a single image from the day that was not blurry. Totally my fault. I had not prepared. But moreover, I was not prepared for how much I would care about those images after the birth. Before the birth I had seen other people's birth videos and thought to myself "why in the world would you ever want to remember that?!".   Birth was scary enough to me at this point - I had no interest in preserving those moments forever, because I had no reason to think that I would or could ever appreciate them!

Thankfully somebody else decided to care - realizing that one day, I would care too.
Now I cherish the few blurry image from that birth!  And now I realize how important it is to have a birth photographer.

But why are these birth images so important to you?

1. My birth images empower me to be a better, stronger person. There are few times in my life when I've been given strong and constant support and affirmation, towards achieving a goal.  And so far, I've only experienced a couple times when I've achieved something unarguably incredible (here is a hint -giving birth!).  I may not have looked my best at the time, but that's really not the point.  It's about what I was able to achieve, with the help of God and support of others.  These images remind me "If I can do that, I can do anything"!


2. My birth images help me to never forget the "firsts". I forget things so easily (my husband can attest to this!).  It actually scares me sometimes, how easily I forget things.  I think this is part of the reason why I became so interested in photography in the first place - because it became so important to me, to remember. To always remember the people most important to me, and the times we've shared together.  So of course, after I determined I actually wanted to remember the births of my children ( ;-) ), capturing images from those moments became paramount.  I can hardly express how happy I am that 5 years from now I'll be able to look at these birth images, and be reminded what those "first moments" looked like.  I'll remember how thrilled my little Debbie looked, the first time she saw her baby brother!  How proud my husband looked the first time he saw his son (awww!!); and how my sweet baby looked, the moment I met him for the very first time.  These "firsts" are captured moments I'd be sad to forget - and so I thank God for cameras and birth photographers.

These are also some of the reasons related to why I became interested in birth photography as a profession.  But I'll leave the details on that for a future post. :-)

So why did you hire a professional birth photographer?




1. I couldn't take them, myself! Obviously.  But I also knew that unless I specifically asked assigned someone to exclusively take photos, I would have a very difficult time finding anyone else with the "free time" to take pictures.  Afterall, my husband would be paying full attention to me (and I wanted him in the photos!), and my doula and the midwives would have their hands full as well.  I didn't want a repeat of the first birth, where I only got a few blurry photos...so I knew professional was needed.


2. I wanted good pictures of my brand-new baby. Come to find out - new babies are exhausting.  So exhausting in fact, that I barely have any pictures of my first baby before she was three weeks old (just fyi, camera phones don't [yet] make for quality documentation), and by then she looked so different from when she was first born!  By hiring a birth photographer I was assured that I would have quality images of my baby as a newborn.  This was important to me, so I knew I needed a birth photographer.  This turned out to be a wise decision, as my hardy little boy has grown out of his "newborn look"  very quickly.  By hiring a professional birth photographer I was able to get some beautiful images of my brand-new baby, and I am so happy to have them!

Now I know I have yet to tell the tale of how I came to choose the fabulous Erica Laurice as my birth photographer...but I'll have to leave you in some suspense.  Babies to tend to, and all that!  But go ahead and view more images from the birth on her blog...and stay tuned for my next post.

Twin Cities Pregnancy & Birth Photographer - Yoga Winners!

Welcome to 2011!

And now to reveal the 3 winners of my Blooma Yoga contest.  Thanks to each of you for leaving such encouraging comments on my Why Birth Photography? page. I love hearing from my readers!

This contest entitles 3 winners to a whole month of unlimited Blooma Yoga classes.

And the winners are...

Amanda Oman

Natalie Kirby

&

AnnDee Bashyal

Thanks again for entering!  I'm so excited to share this prize with you, and I hope each of you enjoy it to the fullest.

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Highlights from my 2010 Christmas

It was so wonderful to be able to spend Christmas with my family this year!  Here are just a few of my favorite images, amongst the hundreds I took over the weekend.  I have such great (and good lookin!) people in my family.  I am so blessed.  Just looking at these gives me warm fuzzies. :-)

Only 4 more days until New Years - which means you have only 3 more days to enter my contest!

Don't miss out - three people will win a month of Blooma Yoga. Take a moment to enter and your chances of winning are really very good!

Twin Cities Family Photographer - From Our Family to Yours

...Be sure to sign up for the Christmas Giveaway!

Twin Cities Birth Story Photographer - Little Wonder pt 2

A follow up to this Little Wonder.



The more births I photograph, the more I love what I do. This is where I belong, this is what I'm supposed to be doing... It's such a fantastic feeling.

Things have been super busy for me over the holidays, so this blog has fallen to the wayside as I simply edit, edit, edit. However, I think things are starting to slow down and I'm very excited to start sharing the various projects and sessions I've been working on. I also have a very exciting, super duper CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY coming up this weekend...so stay tuned for that! :-)

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Minneapolis Fall Family Fun

Remember this beautiful birth? It's been about 6 months since then, and time for fall family photos!

Its always such a pleasure to photograph this family, but the beautiful fall foliage makes it doubly fun. :-)

Twin Cities Maternity and Family Photographer - Happy Expectations

Twin Cities Family Photographer - A Session of Adorable Red-Heads & Their Parents

I guess you could say I have a photographic affinity for red-heads. I've had a few people point this out, as they look through my portfolio. I suppose they are drawn to me for some reason, just as I am drawn to photograph them.

I don't often get such adorable subjects as I did with this session, however! Such cute kids. And the shy fiesty-ness of the little girl made the session all the more challenging - and rewarding! Her expressions were just perfect.



Do you need new family photos?? Enter the Contest!

Twin Cities NICU Photographer - Baby Shula

I was so excited when this mama chose me as her birth photographer! She seemed like a person I would get along with so well, and I was really looking forward to meeting with her.

So two months before her due date, I called her up to set a date for her maternity session. But something sounded a little "off" in her voice when she answered. I was immediately worried.

"Didn't you hear from {the midwife}?" she asked, "...The baby was born last night."

My jaw dropped. This poor mama! She went on to tell me her story, and I was so relieved to hear that mama and the baby were doing well, despite Shula's much-too-early introduction to the world. It would be a month before I would be able to take any photos of baby Shula, and even then she was such a little thing. But such a strong little fighter (and so much hair!).

Our photo session at the NICU was quite precious. Though a traumatic experience for all of them, this new little soul is such a blessing to their lives. I watched with such pleasure as mom and dad beamed with joy, over their tiny little girl. They can hardly wait to bring her home! And when they do, I'll be there to help them document an exciting triumph in their family's life.

Twin Cities Baby & Family Photographer - A Baby Peek ... Continued

You've already seen some of these photos before, but now you can view the rest of baby Lilyana's photo session through the slideshow below.



Complimentary online slideshows are included with every photo session, from now until October. Such a great way to share your photos with family and friends!

Twin Cities Family Photographer - Cousin Love!

With extended family in town for the holiday, we decided to have a little photo shoot for all the cousins.

All *12* of them!

I'm sure that one day they will look back on these photos with fondness, and many warm fuzzies.  But yesterday, these kids could care less. In fact, for some this session was pure torture!  But they really tried, and for a few lovely moments they made it work...well, mostly.  :-)

Do you need family photos?  Enter the contest!