Tuesday and Thursday were 2 more fine young families from my church. Both had active little ones,  but the combined power of diversion, pretzels, tickling and fruit snacks combined for us to get some great shots both times:

I know. Her head is a bit too cropped. Sigh. So cute otherwise

I love how the little one ended up between them.

Fall family photo shoots are a blast. The weather is nice, the trees are beautiful, and the kids are just so fun. This shoot was a lovely time at Savage Mill with a darling young family. The little boy wanted to hold my hand as we walked from site to site, and really, that is a serious job perk for me. Here are a few that show the mood of the day. The little girl was actually really good-natured the whole time, but at one point, for some reason she shot me this scathing look and I snapped away. She's still adorable, even with that look on her face.






What I learned from this shoot:

• Going with an open heart makes photography a pleasure. I have been wanting to get to know this family from my congregation for a while now, and they already feel like friends, so I went with love in my heart, if that makes any sense at all. I realized that I can have that same attitude about all clients. If I treat them as friends, I will better connect with them and get better photos. I know this sounds so basic, and it's not like I'm not friendly to all my clients, since most of them are personal friends at this point, ha ha, I just seemed to notice the process of connecting this time. 
• Going with my gut is also important. While I can and should continually add to my knowledge and try new ideas for posing, etc., I cannot be swayed by the work of other photographers or try to copy them. If I have confidence in what my eye is telling me, then my style will continue to develop and solidify. 

Monday, while visiting my friend near West Point, NY, we went on post and took a few photos of her in her glorious expectant state. The place where is located the United States Military Academy is one of the loveliest spots I've ever visited. On the whole earth. Seriously.  I loved taking Erin's photos here.








We also had some fun with post-processing.

Today I did a Senior session in the morning for my friend Julie, then a newborn shoot in the afternoon for my new friends the McKellars. Both went well, considering it was a grey day with intermittent rain. The rain held off for Julie, but I had to shoot in ambient light with little help from the window for the baby. Here are a couple of favorites:

For this one, I ended up using my Canon 430 flash on a bracket, fitted with a Lightsphere, and pointed at the low ceiling. The shadows are there, but are angled so they're hidden.

We had such fun over the weekend with my nephews. At one point, I got out my camera and L wanted to hold his tiny brother J just so I could take some shots. Here is some of what we came up with. Not perfect by any means, but they will be a fun memory for me.