A few weeks ago I photographed Mazie on her first birthday.  She is the daughter of one of my dearest friends, Kelly, so it was an extra special photo shoot for me.  Kelly called me up that morning telling me she was tempted to take Mazie to Wal-Mart to get her picture taken because she looked so cute.  Well, I would never let that happen (no offense to those of you who take your children there…I think it’s great for “in-between” photos, but not for landmarks such as a first birthday!) so I told her come right over and we would do a quick shoot.  I was even still in my jammies!  That was a first for me…most days you can find me working at the computer in my jammies ’til the last possible moment, but I have never photographed in them.  Mazie holds a pretty special spot in my heart as I have gotten to grow close to her over the first year of her life.  She always greats me (and everyone else!) with a HUGE smile.  That smile is getting cuter by the day with all the front teeth that are slowly appearing.  One of these days real soon she will be walking and leaving us all in her dust as she goes to break hearts!  I love you Mazie Grace!

By the end of the session she had the flower destroyed and she obviously thought it was pretty tasty in the process!

Don’t let that look fool you!

My sister, Mindy, has a small business on Etsy making childrens clothes called Frog Legs and Ponytails.   I envy my sister and the amounts of creativity that she has.  She is constantly coming up with great new ideas.  Sometimes she has too many going at once, but she definitely has a creative streak in her that I often wish I had one tenth of.  For this new project she asked me to take some photos of a few of her designs.  What better models than my nieces!  It’s been awhile since I have photographed these two.  You would think that being nieces of a photographer that they would be better at getting their photo taken, but it requires quite a bit of work on my part and whoever is helping me!  We managed to get some beautiful shots of the girls and even a few of them with their momma.  Some of these take my breath away when I see how beautiful these little girls have become.

The second half of this post will come within the next few days or weeks.  I don’t want to reveal her project until she does!  Until then I hope you all enjoy these portraits.

We call this “stink eye”.  Not sure how it got started, but I will look at this when I am having a bad day and need to laugh!

Dear Kyla,

I can’t hardly believe that today is your 5th birthday!  It sure doesn’t seem like that long ago that I got a call from your Grandma and Grandpa telling me you were born.  I was away at college working on a crummy digital photography project and the news sure brightened my day.  You were the first of the four rugrats in our family to be born and you had so many people excited to finally meet you.  I remember the first night I rocked you to sleep when I came to visit you.  I stood in the play room rocking you back and forth in my arms,  I sang you songs (sorry if that has scarred you for life) and you were so precious that I couldn’t stop crying.  People say that you cannot prepare for what your heart feels when you have your own kids, but I am pretty sure I have a good idea.  You, your brother and cousins have filled my heart with so much joy.  You never cease to crack me up with your silly ways, sweet spirit and matter of fact maturity…you are difinately five going on seventeen!  I love you so much Kyla Peak and I miss you every day!  I’m sorry that I can’t be there this year to celebrate with you.  I hope you like your new princess bike.  Take lots of pictures for me and save me a piece of cake!

Much Love,

Aunt Nikki

Since I didn’t have this blog until recently, I decided to dig up a bunch of old photos of Kyla to show how she has grown.  I got a little weepy today when I realized how big she has gotten.  Like many photographers I am really bad at printing out my own personal photos, so a lot of these I haven’t looked at for years.  I must get better at this!  I hope you all enjoy these as much as I do.

As you can tell this was her first birthday party.  The first shot cracks me up…”cake, give me my caaaaake!”.

This is my favorite photo I have ever taken.  It captures such an innocence.  One look at this photo and her eyes melt my heart.

She’s so beautiful (and such a little poser).

I have SO many pictures of Kyla and I.  I tried to pick a few of my favorites.  Love you girl!

Hannah was my first senior shoot this Spring.  Princeton High School requires that you have your pictures in by Thanksgiving, so it’s a rare treat for me when I get the opportunity to shoot a senior session in the Winter or Spring.  Since Hannah is home schooled there were no deadlines!  We started with a few indoor shots and then headed to the train station for a few more.  We lucked out and got a beautiful, sunny day.   Actually, Hannah’s sister, Sarah, is in the engagement post below and we shot on the same day.  We battled with the same winds as Sarah and Joshua’s shoot, but it worked out just fine.  Hannah you are beautiful!  I wish you all the best in your future.

I think Hannah’s soft smile is so beautiful.

Hannah plays volleyball in a church league.  She’s tall…I wouldn’t want to face her at the net!

Something about the muted tones here I just adore.

Sometimes the bright sun works on my side!  This is one of my favorites.

What can I say except that I love my job!  I have had an amazing run of photo shoots lately.  It seems that my clients keep getting cooler and cooler by the minute.  I hadn’t met Sarah and Josh until the day of the shoot since they don’t live in the area anymore (Sarah’s mom came in to book me for their wedding).  When I finally got to meet them and I saw how stankin’ cute they are I was SO excited to photograph them.   Sarah and Joshua’s love for one another just radiated from their smiles, laughter and gentle touch.  They were so comfortable with each other and they had so much fun with it.  We had a VERY windy, sunny day to work with so we had some obstacles, but I think they all turned out great.  I tried to keep my favorites down to a minimum, but I still am posting quite a few.  If I had my way I’d post the whole gallery because I love them all!  Sarah and Joshua, you guys rock and I can’t wait for your wedding day.  Thanks for a great day!

I think this one might be my favorite.

This series was so much fun to shoot.  We were waiting for the sun to go back under the clouds because it was so bright.  Think you can tell how most of them turned out from the top right image.

Did you notice they both have engagement rings?  Such a sweet idea.  I think this should become a tradition.

They were goof balls.  Love it when my clients work it for the camera.

Yummy.  Chocolate. Sepia on a dark image.  Does it get any better?

Love the first shot where Joshua is showing off his choice of bling for his future bride.

I knew as soon as I photographed Mark and Tracy with his daughter Brooke last summer that I was going to LOVE this couple.  They are so laid back and a riot to be around.  After their family photo shoot  last year, Mark took me flying in this go-cart looking contraption with a parachute attached (it has slipped my mind what the technical name is).   It was probably one of the coolest things I have had the chance to do, especially since it was a total surprise!  They have given me an open invitation to go flying again and I intend on taking them up on it as soon as it gets warm.  Tracy picked up her proofs last week and she brought me a present!  I was so touched that she thought of me while out shopping!

On February 14, Valentines Day, Mark and Tracy tied the knot.  It was a day full of love, laughter and tons of fun.  I have never done a wedding where the whole bridal party was so easy going!  One of the groomsmen decided it was his day’s mission to give the photographer a healthy dose of crap…it will go down in my all time most memorable days.  Thanks for the laughs!

The reception was held at Hunter’s Ridge Golf Course in Princeton.  Behind the club house is this old suspension bridge.  I’m so glad we took advantage of a few free minutes before the reception began because I love the shots we got.  I have shot at this bridge many times and it never loses it charm!

I love when the first kiss is a big one!

Mark pulled a fast one on his bride!  Outside of the church was a car decorated with the traditional shoe polish and tin cans waiting to take the bridal party away, but as soon as they walked out it pulled away and made room for this beautiful limo.  Good one Mark!

Finally I had to show you what a cut up Mark was.  Any and every opportunity to be a goof ball was taken.  This is only a small sampling of his goofy faces and poses.  His freakishly long tongue also made several appearances!