Birth photography -- sneak peek #1

Unbelievable. That is the word that keeps coming to mind when I remember what it was like to shoot my first birth. It also is the same word that I use when I describe what it was like to shoot a second birth just a week and a day after the first one. I have a feeling every experience will be just as remarkable, just as beautiful, just as unforgettable.

I had the privilege of photographing the birth of my sweet neighbor's fifth child last month. And then, I had the honor of shooting my new friend from church's c-section birth shortly afterward. I am still going through all of the images from both experiences (thank you for being so patient, April & Erin!) and I LOVE editing these. I also LOVE that both of these amazing women welcomed me into the room with them to capture one of the biggest days of their lives. I love how brave and unbelievably strong both women are and I will never forget the opportunities they gave me to be included in their "birth days."



For first peeks, here are the pictures of the birth of Cole Z., the third son (fifth child!) of my awesome neighbors, April & Dan. The photo above of is April and her best friend Mandy, who has been present at all five of the Z kids' births! What a lucky gal! Below is April and Dan holding their own baby pictures. April has made it a tradition to bring in baby pictures at each of her births -- ones of her and her hubby but also of her other kiddos when they were newborns. She said she loved to compare what each sweet babe looked like when they were first born.

I cannot express how patient, how strong-willed and how beautifully transparent April was throughout the whole process. She was a week overdue and her labor was long and slow ... up unti the very last hour and a half, when things just went super fast!


Walking the halls with Mandy.



Baby Cole, born Sept. 16, 2009. April brought that child into the world naturally -- without any epidural at all. It was her first completely natural birth in all of her five.





Apparently all of the Z. kids had that same little quivering lip.





The proud daddy and his new son.


Thank you so much April, for EVERYTHING you are to so many people. To your family, your friends, your neighbors ... you are an inspiration to me in so many ways and I am blessed to be your friend.

Stay tuned for more pictures from Cole's birth as well as pictures from the c-section birth of little Penelope!

First wedding!

This past weekend was one I'll never forget. I was so privileged to be chosen to shoot the wedding of a sweet and beautiful couple, Dawn & Adam. I am so honored to share some of their pictures here and will have lots more to share in the coming weeks, as well as details about how I got connected with this awesome couple and what their big day was like. For now, here is a small preview of what's to come.

It was an amazing experience in so many ways, but what made it even more memorable was that I had help from my amazing second shooter, my best friend Christy. She was so supportive, encouraging and energetic and I couldn't have done this first wedding without her. We made an awesome team and because we've been BFFs for going on 16 years, we were completely in tune with each other, which made communication between us throughout the day flow like clockwork. It was just a perfect afternoon. Exhausting, but truly remarkable. We learned so many lessons, were challenged in many ways and just blessed all-around to get to experience this together. Christy got some BEAUTIFUL pictures and I will share hers on this blog along with mine (the last two images in this preview are hers). Check out her other work on her photography blog: http://christinacolephotography.blogspot.com/. Thank you for flying out here from Nashville, Christy, and I can't wait to shoot more weddings with you!

Stay tuned for SEVERAL more posts in the coming weeks. Engagement shoots, family portraits, births, bridal/baby showers and the wedding!

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!

Sweet preview

This is Kailaya. And I can't wait for you to see more of her!

Baby Katelyn

This beautiful family is the Raymond family. Little Katelyn was only 2.5 weeks old when I got to take pictures of her and her parents Christin and Dan.
Christin and Dan had great suggestions for things we could do for Katelyn's pictures. These with Dan, Katelyn and Dan's military helmet are some of my all-time favorite pictures. Also, this one below was their idea, too.

The Raymonds had this little picnic basket that we fit Katelyn into. I still need to collect some good baskets, bowls, soft pillows, hats and blankets to use on my newborn shoots. I also saw this adorable little doll cradle at Ikea that would be SO CUTE to pose sleeping newborns in.



Katelyn was awake for the majority of our session, which lasted three hours! She took teeny little cat naps but was such a trooper for so long. We were hoping she'd stay sleepy so we could pose her a bit more but this alert little one was much like my own sweet explorer -- she wanted to see everything we were doing. Look how alert and focused her eyes are at only 2.5 weeks old!



Oh, how I miss snuggling a newborn!

Oops, how'd this one sneak in here? :) I just adore these! We took these in Katelyn's room. The green on her walls was so pretty and worked wonderfully as a background in these.



Aww. Think she feels safe right there? :)

Pure bliss.





















Christin and Dan had tattoos on their ring fingers under their wedding rings. There's a D on Christin's hand and a C on Dan's hand. Isn't that a fun idea? I love this one, of the two of them basically holding hands as they cradle their firstborn.

Staring up at her daddy...

In Katelyn's nursery.

Christin and Dan, thank you for welcoming me into your home and introducing me to your sweet daughter. I loved all the ideas you had for your pictures and it was truly an honor to take Katelyn's first pictures!