{Almost Rained Out...two beautiful munchkins}

Oh you guys have been so patient waiting this long for your sneak peeks {I know, I'm not done yet.  There are others waiting and I'm pouring through each session keeping the 'zipfizz' going so I can get more done.  Off Topic: Have your tried 'Zipfizz'?  It's pretty neat stuff - just put it in your water bottle watch it fizz and sip on a yummy energy drink.  Prob not the best for you but I rationalize drinking it by reading the label again and again noting the huge amount of vitamins in each tiny pink tube. ;-) I digress... }

We almost got rained out during this session - yes, it was raining just as we were about to get started.  So we hung out in our cars for about 15 minutes hoping that the rain would stop... it didn't stop but it lightened up enough to step out to my favorite lush green field in this area.  I was so excited to have a session with Makenzi and Kennedi - I photographed these two when they were much smaller so I was giddy.  Jeff & I were in the same child birth class as Michelle & Cliff (the two girls' parents) and we've been close friends ever since.  I can't believe how much this age group grows in just a years time!   I wish I could just take them all home with me to SC so I don't have to miss seeing them grow and we can have play dates whenever we wanted!  I'm realizing that those days are numbered as these kids get older - the idea of a 'playdate' will be no longer after a certain age :(  Why can't we keep them small? 

Here's  a little snipet from our session!  I did a bunch of different post processing on these, some vintage washed ones with texture, faded wash post processing and my classic color.  

The next one I processed to get a sun bleached look to the image.  This is one of my favorite home-brewed actions.

Normal Kara color...

Vintage play and my own texturing (psst... to make your own just take a picture of something like a blank canvas, a crumpled piece of paper, the side walk, etc all on macro on your camera.  It's super easy and fun!)

Vintage play and other textures applied to the one below....

{Nuxiemade - Designer Spotlight}

Remember Nuximade?  I featured this amazing hat designer several months ago and I am again thrilled to feature more of Nux's amazing work.  She's also in the process of designing other styles and colors so stay tuned. 

I always bring these hats to sessions and my clients fall in love with them asking me for the link and information on the hats.  Some clients even show up to our session with the hats since they've seen them featured and used on my blog with so many clients.  Love that!

My children love the hats and Brielle has gotten a little possessive of them.  I use them primarily for my sessions but if the kids want to wear one I let them - why not?  Well, when Briella sees pictures of my clients in 'her' hats, she says 'Hey, why are they wearing my hat?  They didn't ask?  Was I sharing - no one told me'  - I have to remind her that the hats are for my clients to wear and she gets to wear them when I'm not photographing.  She's got that just turned three attitude and drama.  I'm nervous for her teen years.   Tyler on the other hand will see pictures of clients in the hats and say 'Oh cool they wore our hats, looks good mom'.  And then he'll point out his favorite image.   So funny how the two are so different - could be the age or it could be the difference in gender - who knows? 

{Scotch Broom?}

I'm very behind on my sneak peeks and I apologize for those of you who have been patiently waiting.  I'll be posting more from my Seattle sessions hopefully this week. :)  I'm home again in SC and it is hot - heat index of 110 - wow!  And air conditioner in my car is out again!  This is the 3rd time in less than a year :(.  Maybe it's time for a new car... we'll see {shrug}.  It's good to be home but boy do I miss Seattle and living in a big city.  Don't get me wrong, I love it here too, I just think I'm more of a city girl, even though I crave small town living at times.  I'm fickle I guess... ;-)

Dominick and Drake (the two dashing boys below) were telling me about all kinds of plants as we passed them - they sounded like little botanists discussing each.  Anyway, they pointed out with concern that  Scotch Broom was a plant/weed  that their daddy was allergic too.  But they assured me that he had medicine that made his eyes 'not be red anymore'.  So that stuck in my head - who knew two little boys (5 & 3) could know so much!  Anyway, I got a kick out of their personalities and interaction with each other.  These boys are my dear friend Clarity & Jeff's and we've known each other since the birth of our oldest boys.  I photographed Dominick since he was a little tiny guy - so it was fun to see him again and get some one-on-one time him and his brother Drake.

Here's just a little peak at our session.

 

{In search of 'Habitat' - no better way than in a tutu. Who knew?}

I'm still here in Seattle and loving being in a 'big city' again - so much to inspire me here.  It's been a blast and a whirlwind of appointments (3 in one day yesterday - crazy, I know, and now my body is feeling it by getting some sort of bug.  Ugg :(  )  But it's been worth every minute and I wish I could stay longer to photograph those of you who were on the wait-list or who's sessions got rained out.  I will be back and I'm excited to meet more of you and your children.  I fly to South Carolina on Thursday morning so I will spending my last two days here with family, trying to get well before flying home and organizing everything to fit into the luggage I came here with - it's lika huge puzzle, every piece has to be placed in the right spot for it to be a success.  ;-)

This was a fun session because it was with my adorable niece and nephew!  We met them at a beach near my sisters house.  This location was amazing but I couldn't take any of my other clients since it was an hour from Seattle - so I just soaked it in during this special session.  The beach had some cool old (but well maintained and preserved) historical buildings, old bunkers, huge gnarled tree roots that dipped into the saltwater below and other cool things that I freaked out and got excited over.   My nephew just turned five and he has such an imagination which makes things fun.  On this adventure he was in search of 'beach habitat' and his little sister followed in his very serious mission.   Love that girls can do 'boy' things (like throw rocks, dig in the sand, and squirm over seaweed) while looking so pretty in all girly-girl threads.  That's just what Mikayla did in a fluffy little tutu.  I couldn't resist her gorgeous sun-kissed ringlets - soooo adorable.   As we step out on to the beach she took my hand, pulled it in close to her, and said in her quiet little voice, 'can you follow me?  I'll take you somewhere' - melted my heart.  I don't get to see these two very much since we moved across the country so this was a real treat for me - complete one on one time.  I loved every minute of it!!

I had fun playing with the images below.  I used different texture and other fun techniques to get a different mood/feel to some of them. So fun :)

{Green Grass, Slimy Slugs and Two Boys}

The other day, I photographed two young boys who were so much fun.  {I know, I say every session is so much fun, but it's true - I love photographing children, I have a blast and usually the kids do too ;-) }   Big brother Daniel, was followed by little Evan who was just a happy go lucky little guy.  His all boy voice echoed across the field as he excitedly told us what he had found.  Ladybugs and slugs - wow, what more could a boy want!  Daniel was entertaining me with some of the silly expressions -shown below (he's bound to be an actor someday)  while Evan continued on his mission in search of more wildlife (aka insects).  These two boys really have a close bond, they didn't argue or poke at each at all throughout our session, and their mother re-affirmed that they really are the best of friends.   So cool to see that kind of relationship between brothers. 

Here's just a tiny peak at our session. :) 

Evan playing PEEK-A-BOO!  ;-)

{Sparkling Brown Eyes...and 'the Reflection'}

Little Cosette.....what a cutie-patootie.  She just turned two and showed me with her two little fingers just after arriving at our location.  And what a little trooper Cosi was, we went on a bit of a hike during this session and Cosi hung in there.    I should always mention that there's a possibility of a good work-out during my shoots since we either walk a distance or carry heavy props from venue to venue {it's really not that bad  ;-) I promise.} Anyway, it was a gorgeous day and we stopped to listen to the birds along the way.   Here's a quick peek at our session.  Note: I'm editing these quickly on my laptop so bare with me till I get back to SC where I do my real editing. 

I was reminded again after opening my images to edit, that I should never wear red, orange or any other bright colors {look at the close-up of Cosi's eye}.  Isn't that crazy?!  I had to edit my shirt color out of every image so it wasn't distracting (or look like 'red-eye').  I know better since this isn't a first - thankfully it's an easy edit.  ;-)

{Dimples + Melt-Your-Heart Smiles= Rex and Julia }

Yes, these two siblings are absolutely adorable!  They have the cutest little dimples and bright sparkles in their eyes - it's clear they are brother and sister.   And I have to say, Rex is one of the best big brothers I have seen - he was so good with Julia when she was having a little 'reflective moment' (aka girl drama over not being able to ride on her Dora toy - we girls can relate) ;-)   Rex tried to distract her and offer her comfort until she finally calmed down - it was really sweet to see. 

Anyway, the weather was gorgeous this past weekend in Seattle and these kids were ready to show me around.  Rex started by showing me his football and his cool dinasour boots.  And Julia, who's not quite two yet, fell in love with my petticoats & tutu's as well as several of my hats (a photographers dream....)   I promised I would try to blog while I was here so I've done what editing I can on my laptop so I could share a few of the images from this session.  :)  Thanks for stopping by-- more Seattle sessions will be posted soon so stay tuned. :)

{Sessions in 'Starbucks Land'...sigh... can't wait!}

Okay, so Seattle isn't 'Starbucks Land' but it is where Starbucks was born and is head-quartered.  It's a place where you can find a Starbucks on every street corner and then some...oh I miss that...was I spoiled? ;-)  I'm so excited for my trip and all the sessions I have lined up... it's going to be a whirlwind 2 weeks and I can't wait!  I've got some tiny-tots, some tweens and some teens to photograph and I'm loving that variety. 

Anyway, I'm frantically trying to wrap things up here - hence the neglected blog (I hate that...).  And in doing so, I'm getting things prepared for my sessions here at home when I return so for those of you waiting for your client information packet - they are in the mail!  Had to show proof with pics!  ;-) 

And being that I will be flying - my kids accompanying me- I couldn't resist photographing my sons beloved plane (I think this one is a bi-plane, but non-the-less it's a plane).  The kids can't wait - they get to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa while I'm working.  Lucky kids ;-)  Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some Seattle Urban photographs of my little munchkins while I'm away (fingers crossed).   Anyway, I played with the processing on these images slightly changing the feel of each - so fun (and dorky I know).  Oh I'll have my laptop with me in Sea-town and I'm going to try to post some entries to my blog so it's not neglected again. ;-)

{More from 'Earthgroovz' - Designer Spotlight Series}

Kerry, the designer and owner of Earthgroovz, sent me 3 more fun dresses to photograph!  Oh... I love them all and my daughter was Little Miss Giddy putting them on (especially the one with the apple & pear pattern) - she kept saying  'oooh these are so so pretty mommy... aren't they so so pretty?'.  Thankfully she has a fondness for fun clothes just like her mommy ;-).  I love how these dresses  tie at the shoulders so you can choose to tie them higher or a bit lower.  And I found the coolest melon green wall to photograph one of the dresses in front of.  I'm a sucker for colorful walls, although you won't know it looking inside my house (every wall is creamy white - an off-white that looks like it has a touch of yellow in it).  Anyway,  here are some pictures of Briella in some of the dresses Earthgroovz offers.  Oh and I couldn't resist adding the one of her curling her tongue - isn't that supposed to be an autosomal dominant trait or gene or something?  Anyway, she got some giggles out of that one. 

Note:  Kerry will be back from vacation on the 12th so hold tight that's only a few days aways.  After the 12th take a peek at Earthgroovz  to see all of her fabulous handmade items!

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{Whispers, Giggles & Quietly Emanating Echoes}

This week I had a photo session with 5 fun and happy kids! The kids stayed energized the whole session which took 3 hours!! With snacks in between, clothing changes and location changes we did it! Phillip and Izzy' (the two dark haired children) had their cousins (the 3 light haired kids - I know, stating the obvious - I do that) in town from Washington DC. The kids played so well with one another and you could tell that these cousins are close and miss each other being 7 hours away. The youngest in the group is 5 months old, then a busy and silly 2 year old and three 5 year olds!

Being with these 5 made me think of visits with my cousins when I was their age. I didn't have cousins that lived close by, but every summer we got to see many of them. I have 15+ cousins so summer visits were so exciting for my brother, sister and I. Anyway, photographing these five brought me right back to my younger years and remembering all the fun times I had with my own cousins. Here's a little peek at our session. I couldn't resist going 'vintage' on a few of these. They just had that vibe and I went with it :)