The ‘S’ family may look familiar to some because this was our second shoot. I originally took photos for the ‘S’ family Christmas card  a little over a year or so ago, when their little munchkin had just turned one.

Well now little miss munchkin is 2, and they wanted to get some more family photos. Our first session was bitterly cold and snowy. The second session was just a bit nicer – an absolutely gorgeous fall evening! The only “little” problem to this otherwise perfect session was that we met at a local park with a playground and, as expected, little miss munchkin had absolutely NO patience for us adults and was way more interested in the “play” portion of the evening. And, hey, I don’t blame her one tiny bit!

Luckily, with a fast camera and a faster shutter speed, I was still able to get some nice shots. I personally love these types of shoots. It is challenging, but capturing those perfect moments between a family and seeing those unique personalities are worth ALL the work.   And these genuine toddler smiles and giggles?  Absolutely priceless!!!!

Thank you all so much!  It was really fun working with you all again!

My project 365 – a photo a day for a year – is such a wonderful way for me to “try new things” in photography.  Since I started this project, for the second time, on January 1st, I have taken a LOT of photos of my kids. Actually, pretty much all my photos have been of my kids.   Of course, being winter and being stuck inside for most days, there isn’t much else to photograph other than the cat and a bunch of snow in my backyard.   

To keep from just uploading the same type of photo every day, I have been playing around, trying to be more creative in my composition, lighting and post processing.  Trying to keep things different and just more FUN!

Last night as I took my daily photos of the girls, I tried playing with lots of negative space.  And then I converted the photo to BW.   And I now I absolutely love this photo!  I think it would look so cute blown up BIG and hung in the girls room.  I love how it captures their goofy personalities!

I have said this before and I will say it again, I would HIGHLY recommend project 365 to anyone who wants to learn photography. You will be amazed at how much you will learn and improve over the year.

I met the “D” family on a very cold Sunday morning at a local park.  It snowed quite a bit the day before and the temps were in the teens, but the scene was oh-so- beautiful!

The ‘D’ family wanted photos of their little one and his two older cousins.  They were such a nice family and, for being so cold that morning, I was amazed at how sweet and accomodating the kids were! 

The only problem that morning was my camera started acting goofy!  It seemed to “freeze up” (no pun intended!).  I think it was the cold though, since it has been fine since then.  But I felt SO bad making the kids wait while my camera ”caught up” and was ready for the next shot!

So – on to the photos!

Thank you all so much!!!!

I did get out for a run in the snow – which actually was incredible!  It took quite a bit of motivation to drag myself out from in front of the fire and into the cold, snowy outdoors, but once I was out there, listening to some cool new tunes on my Ipod, I felt pretty damn alright!

And I did get a few photos of the snowy scene.

Quite pretty, but I am quickly getting the urge for some warm sun and spring flowers!  Or better yet – HOT sun and icy drinks by the pool!!

During our first attempt at a family photo, we started out with a husband who wasn’t too happy about shoveling the deck.  We also had one 8 year old who claimed she was ”freezing” before we even set foot outside.  

I was pleasantly surprised at how good our photo turned out, considering all the crying, complaining and just plain ole goofing around that was going on during that 5 minute session.

I thought I would share some of the outtake photos.

First we have an overly dramatic 8 year old crying a few crocodile tears.  I am not sure what Kallie is doing.

Then we have some happier moments, but the photographer (me) didn’t do such a good job in making sure we were all actually IN the photo.

And then we have the hubby, who is just, well,  a dork.

Luckily, after all this, we did get one (and ONLY one) good photo.

I can’t wait to see what next month will be like!

Tara started a project in January where she plans on taking a photo of her family every month for a year.  She will post the photo on her blog, write a bit about what is going on in their lives and use all 12 photos to create a year end book.

I thought this sounded like an incredible project.  You see, last September, I told my husband that I wanted to get a photo of all of our family some beautiful fall evening.  I take a million photos, but I am rarely in the photos and I never get a photo of the entire crew. 

Well, it is February, and that family photo has yet to happen.  Until today.

When I read about Tara’s project I thought – This is the just the project I need to finally get that family photo.  But, not only that, I will get twelve family photos!

So here we all are!  The whole crew, freezing out on our snow covered back deck that I made my not-so-happy hubby shovel.  And, this is also a very honest photo.  My husband in his athetic pants, my 3 kids with hair that hasn’t been combed since Friday.  A typical Sunday at the Smith’s!  Oh, and as you can see, this photo was actually taken by Christina!  The kids weren’t too happy about the whole thing, until they realized they could take turns trying out the remote!

On the bottom of our family photo we have the youngest, 4 year old Kallie, or Kallie-Wallie as we call her.   She is the pickiest eater ever and either eats chicken nuggets or a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.  I am hoping she will eventually grow out of this.    She loves to play with her Noah’s Ark animals or her Nintendo DS.  She loves her big sister Christina most of all, and except for the occasional squabble, they are the best of friends. 

Then we have Christina, or Tina Wina as we call her.   Christina is 8 and too smart for her own good sometimes.  She does incredibly well at school.  She is finishing up her first year on our local Y’s swim team this week.   With a dad who not only was a swimmer, but has also been a swim coach for about 22 years, she was pretty much born with fins.  Next week is her last swim meet of the season.  She has some great coaches and has made some great friends.  It was a very good swim season.

Eric, aka the hubby, is in the middle of his swim season.  It has been a harder year for him.  After many years of coaching very successful teams, he is now facing a few years of “rebuilding” his team.  It is sometimes hard being on the very bottom after years on top, but he still loves coaching and I doubt he will ever quit.

Caroline, aka “baby sister”, is our special needs sweetie.  She is tube fed, non-mobile and non-verbal.  But, you can tell just by looking at her in the photo, that she is nothing like the “vegetable” those specialists predicted she would be.  She rolls around, she talks her own language, she knows much more than many people think.  Caroline is scheduled for some out-patient surgery at the end of the month.  I am a bit nervous about this, and just hope she will see some benefit after all the trauma they put her through.

And then there’s me, Irene.  It has been slower in January and Feburary with my photography.  But since my husband and my daughter have been so busy with swimming, I really don’t mind.  I have been working on my website, my blog, my pricing and I have been booking some new weddings for this year.  January and February are the months where I always get a bit stir crazy.  My husband is gone a lot, I am stuck home a lot, it is cold, snowy and the days are short.  And I always get the itch for a day away…ALONE.  Today was that day.  I set out for our local outlet mall and happily found quite a few amazing bargains!

So that’s us!  This 7th day of February 2010.  It was fun having our first family photo session.  Hopefully next time it will be a bit warmer so my kids won’t complain too much.  And next time maybe I will position my tripod a bit higher so I am not looking down and emphasizing my double chin!  Yuck!!!

But all three happily trounced through the park allowing me to capture some of my favorite pictures to date.  The love and the sweetness in this family is so apparent, I was so happy to be chosen to capture it! 

 The smiles, laughs and kisses were so genuine and so sweet!  And those are always my absolute favorite types of photos!

Thank you all so much!!!