If you follow my Facebook page, you may have had the chance to see a few of these. If not, I hope you enjoy this massive smorgasbord of photo goodness. I know I loved making every one of them.

Now all my Tri-cities, Wash. area clients will have a place to come for client consultations and ordering sessions, and for my national and regional clients my one-on-one photography mentoring sessions. This new studio space also has a beautiful and spacious shooting area (squeal!!!!) with both natural light and studio strobe options. That means you now have another choice for newborn, baby, child, and maternity portrait sessions.

Of course I’ll still be doing on-location shoots. After all it’s just too gorgeous here in Washington State not to use what God gave us. But now there’s another option if you want to do indoor sessions, or dramatic studio lighting, but you don’t want me to take over your home (or you clean it, hehehe) for your portrait session.

The biggest change with this new location will be with my newborn sessions. On-location newborn session are still offered; however in-studio newborn sessions will have a reduced session fee. Plus, you’ll have full access to all of my props and backdrops (after all, my car can only fit so much).

I can’t wait to share this new studio space with you!!!!

And because I can’t do a blog post without a photo, here’s a handsome little fellow from a recent newborn session:

By the way, I nabbed that red rocker straight out of the son’s room as soon as I saw it. Not only did it photograph beautifully, but it belonged to his grandfather which makes it ten times more meaningful than anything I could ever bring. And speaking of grandpa, a big shot out to him, too. He was the one who picked out, all by himself, the outfit his granddaughter is wearing in the yellow basket. I’m thinking a certain little cutie pie already has her granddaddy wrapped around her little finger.

My how quickly a year goes. Especially when it’s your very first one! Little Miss B turned 1-year-old, and the time seemed to fly by as swiftly as her little legs now carry her. What do you suppose she has in store for us in the coming year? I for one can not wait to find out.

The farmhouse is nestled in the hills near Pendleton, Ore. After a lovely drive down there, I arrived to find a beautiful old red barn and the grandfather saddling up a horse under the awning of a wooden grain elevator.  Oh my! This was going to be good.

The place was amazing, and frankly these images are only the tip of the iceberg. I could have gone on and on; however, a two-year-old only has the patience for so many photos. But hey, at least that leaves me with plenty of places to photograph in the future.

It was such a pleasure, too, photographing the grandparents. From the top of his Stetson down to his silver rodeo belt buckle, and starched Wranglers, the grandfather was a true cowboy through and through. And his wife was such a lady. They met in College in California. He was there for the rodeo team, and she was a young debutante. It looks like he was pretty good at roping because the rest, as they say, is history. It was such an honor documenting three generations on their family farm.

Be sure to check out the rest of the entries at I Heart Faces.

You may wonder then, is it difficult to come up with something new year after year for the same family? Well, yes and no. Yes, it can be a challenge to make every session unique and capture a child’s changing personality. Yes, it can be hard living up to the images you’ve knocked out of the park for them at past sessions. But on the other hand, and I think more importantly, it gives you a freedom you don’t always have with brand new clients. You know what a returning client likes. You know their kids already, so you don’t have to introduce yourself and make friends in the first 20 minutes of the session. But even more importantly, it gives you the freedom to just be yourself and capture the art as it develops naturally.

For example, this session had all the components of a dream photo shoot. The location was amazing at the family’s working cattle ranch, the clothes were to die for, and the two girls couldn’t be more adorable and precocious. The rub, well, little Miss Marlee was exercising her budding independence, and that day she didn’t want a thing to do with pictures or her big sister, thank you very much. No matter how we tried to get them together in a photo she was out of there in less time than you can say “cheese”.

Now some moms would be getting pretty stressed out by this point, so I turned to their mom, Kim, who has become a dear friend over the years, to let her know it would be alright, and not to worry. Kim, cool as a cucumber, then gave me one of my most cherished compliments to date. “Sandy,” she said. “I’m not the least bit worried. No matter what the scenario you always come back with beautiful photos. I can’t wait to see what you get this time.”

Well my goodness. What an honor to have someone place such faith in you. Yet what she really did was help me see something that I should have already realized. When things get the hardest is when my inner artist comes out the strongest. Some of my most difficult subjects have produced my absolute favorite images. And it’s not because I had to work so hard to achieve them. In fact, it’s the opposite.

There reaches the point where you cannot do a thing about it. Children are beautiful in not just their innocence and honesty but in their resistance to direction. You cannot force a child to do something they don’t want to. Not only will there be screaming involved, but the resulting pictures are not going to be something your clients will want to hang over their mantelpiece.

Instead you just have to let it go. Take a deep breath, turn off the thinking part of your brain, and let your inner artist come out. Take chances you might not have before. Why not, it’s not like the traditional photos are much of an option at this point anyway. Just capture what is happening in front of you from pure instinct. Shoot from the heart and not the head. You may be surprised what happens when you do. This session, well, it turned out to be one of my favorites from the whole year. And yes, the profile picture of the two of them running across the pasture went up big on their mantelpiece.

I Heart Faces

Weekly Challenge: Let Them Be Little

We had a lot of fun with all the locations and outfits we used for this child portrait session. Check out my take on a urban look in the first pic below! I couldn’t have dreamed up better lighting if I’d planned it weeks in advance. I love the storybook feel to the woods images too. I don’t think Miss “E” wanted to take off her pettiskirt. She was having such a good time twirling!

The last location produced one of my favorite images. I adore the image of Miss “E” in black and white on the chair. Who needs pictures with everyone smiling in them all the time. I love her soulful, serious gaze. I can’t help it, there’s just something about the quiet ones that draws me to them.

Enjoy!