The "everything" session!

This shoot was a whirlwind for sure, but SO FUN! Yes, if you recognize the teal bike rack in the picture above, you're not imagining things. I had two shoots at the same beach location within three weeks of each other. It's such a great place for kids to play and it works as an awesome, diverse location ... but I didn't suggest the location for either client -- they each picked it and I so admire their choice.

This shoot was a bigger one, with five adults and two little energetic boys. The sisters, Karly and Tasya, wanted a family session with pictures of everyone. We did some toddler portraits, some romantic couple shots, some full group pictures ... this session had it all! I could not even begin to choose which ones to share with you on this blog, so here's a random smorgasbord of some of my favorites (only some ... I could share more pictures of those boys to take up a few more full posts)!

Some of my favorites are of the boys with just their parents, one at a time. I love daddy pictures and like I said in my previous post, I also adore mommy pictures. It's so fun to see how children interact differently with each of their parents.

Okay, you probably won't believe me when I say that the color in those eyes is natural. The lighting in this particular shot did WONDERS for those REMARKABLE blue eyes. I only enhanced them an itsy-bitsy, teensy-tiny bit (like less than +4 in saturation). I didn't whiten the whites or sharpen the irises. I really did very, very little editing in a several of the pictures of just the boys. They just had perfect, beautiful features!


This little guy wouldn't smile for me much, but he definitely had a gorgeous, intense stare that I loved to capture.


I LOVE this one.

This is Karly and her boyfriend Jason. She's the one who contacted me for pictures and was the main mastermind behind the location choice.


Awww, little boys and their dinosaurs. I love dinosaurs!





I have a ton of these Mommy/Son pictures ... those boys were so into their playtime (just as they should be, little explorers that they are) that sometimes it took all four remaining adults jumping around behind me to get them to look in the general direction of the camera. :)

Oh, how this one makes my heart sing! I love it when the guys are willing to be so sweet to their wives on camera!


Just how beautiful are these two?? Wow!


Sisters, sisters ...

One of many group shots ...

Love it!


Check out that stare! Totally mesmerizing.


Again, you know me. I'm a sucker for thick eyelashes and these boys definitely had beautiful lashes.




This couple was adorable -- I so love doing couples' sessions and at times, found myself wishing I had them all to myself to really focus on getting more fun, romantic pics of the two of them.


I love this one. I have another version where they're both looking out into the distance and in a lot of cases, I think the staring off into oblivion is sort of cheesy ... but Karly and Jason made it WORK. Work it. :)

I'm a sucker for giving kids ice cream at the end of sessions. This is probably the fourth time I've done this and it works SO WELL to get some truly adorable pictures. Ice cream is the solution for really anything, in my opinion. :)

Karly and Tasya, thank you for being so patient with me! Truly, there were so many gorgeous images from your session that I just couldn't bear not editing so many of them. These are only a small preview of what's on your CD and I can't wait for you to see them. It was great to meet all of you ... Tasya, your boys are honestly SO handsome. Their eyes are unbelievable -- their intensity is a photographer's dream! I loved so many of their pictures. Please do let me know which images you all choose for your Christmas cards and thanks again for spending this pretty afternoon with me at the beach! Tell the men thanks for their patience and support that day -- all three of them were so helpful. :)

"W" family

I'm slowly trying to catch up on my blogging and on all of my editing. I have so many wonderful sessions and beautiful families to share with you. I had a blast with this particular family, the "W" family. They met me on the beach and little Alexis was such a curious girl. It was glaringly obvious that she adored her parents and they admired her right back.

It was refreshing to see how much they interacted with her, whether they were pointing out all the different flowers growing in the brush or pointing at the barnacles growing out toward the water. They ran in the sand, took their shoes off and just had a fun family outing. I was privileged to capture some of their adventure together!



I love mommy/daughter pictures. :)



I also love when the parents are up for some sweet romantic pictures!







One of my favorite parts of this picture is the little dandelion in daddy's pocket. That came from his sweet Alexis and he kept it there the rest of the day.





Be still my heart...



Alexis loved the playground and definitely used up some good energy there. :)









We ended the session with what else? Ice cream! That tasty snack was the only thing that slowed Alexis down that day and I love the pensive looks on her face as she savored her sweet treat. Also, check out her glittery shoes and that AWESOME skirt Mom brought for her to wear!

LOVE THIS!



She was SUCH a fun girl to meet -- she cracked me up the whole session. She wasn't just all play though. I was continually impressed with her thirst for knowledge and all the grown-up questions she'd ask her parents about things she'd discover along the beach. Her daddy was like a "walking encylcopedia" (according to her mom) so Alexis had lots of tidbits and fun facts to share with me along our walk.

Her favorite? The swings! Her mom said every day after school her daddy takes her to play for a bit on the swings. She wanted pictures there for sure.

Thank you, "W" family, for letting me spend the morning with you! Thank you also for your patience in getting these pictures! It was a blast seeing you more at the Tust/Johnson wedding, too. :) You're such an adorable family ... clearly so full of love and happiness. I'm grateful to have gotten to take some pictures for you!

Sweet, sweet Kailaya

Well, let's just say I had a hard time picking pictures to post from this session because nearly EVERY picture of little Kailaya was perfectly adorable. She was such a JOY to photograph -- she had so much personality and she did such a great job of looking right at me at the perfect moments, with the perfect expressions on her face. We had a lot of fun on this shoot!

We started out at Kailaya's house, in her parents' bedroom. Her mom, Misty, said Kailaya loves to play on her parents' bed.

Right from the get-go, Kai warmed up to my camera and smiled for me.





Then we moved over to Kai's bedroom, where we pulled out some of her favorite books. These pictures have special meaning to me, as my own daughter spends so much of her day flipping through her books, too. Emma is actually one year younger than Kai and it was so fun for me to see what I might have in store for me next summer with a 2-and-a-half-year-old.







Then we walked a short jaunt to a small park near Kailaya's house. I love this picture. She seems like a celebrity, like she's waving to fans from the red carpet.





I will always take pictures like this. I love toddlers' eyelashes. They're always so thick and beautiful. And something about taking a picture where the child is looking down like this is just so peaceful.



Then, we swung on over to the ice cream shop for a little treat.

Seriously, is she just not a natural? We didn't even tell her to pose this way!

Sometime during this session, I was telling Kai about the "bug" in my camera (my shutter). Several times she looked so intently into my lens, searching for the little snap that meant the bug moved. I asked her what color the "bug" was and she said it was red. :)

Kai got "pink" ice cream (strawberry) with gummy bears. YUM!







She shared some of her mom's ice cream cone too.



After ice cream, we ventured out to a bigger park, where Kailaya really ran around played. I love this next picture.



Of course we pulled out the bubbles. Bubbles are a must with toddlers (if they like them) and make for some fun pictures!

Thank you, Misty and Kailaya, for sharing the afternoon with me and for being patient with me as I took forever to get these images up. As soon as things wind down from summer, I know Emma will LOVE to come play with Kai sometime!

I have three other posts I'm working on and hope to share by the end of the week (if not sooner). In the meantime, if you want to see what the McMahan family has been up to the past couple of weeks, don't forget you can visit http://mandymcmahan.blogspot.com!