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.

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.

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.

This session was photographed at the family’s lodge on their working cattle ranch near Moses Lake, Wash. I loved incorporating all of their dramatic decorating  and antique pieces into Finn’s newborn pictures. The clock reminds me of how they’re only this little for such a little while. They’re probably lucky the rocking chair wouldn’t fit in my car because I absolutely swooned over it.

I had hoped to also photograph some images outside to show more of the ranch. The views and rugged terrain are just breathtaking there. Unfortunately gale force winds decided to welcome the new baby too. It was so windy we could hardly close the heavy wooden doors to the lodge. No worries, though, just think of all the fun I’ll have using the old barn, corrals, and basalt rock in his pictures as he grows up!

Enter Conner. Six inches of new snow. No problem. Slippery roads and heavy fog. No problem. Snowed over photo locations. Well, you get the point. This guy wasn’t taking no for an answer. The result: awesome pictures.  Anyone can get their senior portraits done when the weather is a balmy 85 degrees. But it takes an adventurous soul, and lets face it, a little bit of healthy procrastination, to get pictures as cool as the weather in December.

Let’s start off this mad dash with the adorable newborn boy Pearce. This handsome fellow and his family were, as always, such a joy to work with. I love doing newborn sessions in the warmer months because I often get to take these little guys outside and try something different. Isn’t the shot in the grass divine? You can’t see it, but I’m doing the happy photographer dance over it. On second thought, it’s probably best you can’t see that, lol.

Enjoy!