I got a card in the mail today. The front of it said, “If you ever need to talk, you can call me.” On the inside, it read, “There’ll be screaming in the background, I’ll have to hide in the closet to hear you … it’ll be awesome.” I laughed out loud in my car — ahem … awesome swagger wagon (i.e., minivan). My dear friend Erin moved to Maryland last month for the next two years. Maryland … as in completely across the country. Erin and I became friends first at a random Gymboree class, then through church, then through MOPS and photography (where she gave me the AWESOME opportunity to witness the c-section birth of her daughter!). We’ve had many a conversation about organizing our homes (how many purses and picture frames does a girl really need these days?), potty training a toddler, nursing and other painful adventures in breastfeeding, finding a rhythm after becoming a mother to multiple children … and the other general mom-to-mom heart-to-heart stuff. Erin became a friend almost instantly — and she has been there consistently, encouraging me and making me laugh. Before she and her family of four (plus dogs) took off on their adventure across the country, we did one more little photo session with her two adorable kiddos, Finnegan & Penelope (the sweet souls who give personality to the two GORGEOUS faces below).
What resulted from this session are some of my most favorite images EVER. I cannot believe how many usable, beautiful pictures we were able to get that day. Penelope was not feeling well (as we discovered about three-quarters into the shoot when she had a little spit-up accident all down Erin’s arm), so her normal infectious grin was replaced with the quiet expression you see below. She’s still beautiful, isn’t she? And to think I got to be the very first person ever to capture her precious mug on camera the first few days of her life.
I am in love with the images from this session. I couldn’t even narrow down which images to post and which to save for Erin’s surprise after she gets her disc of pictures. I wanted to share them all. So I ended up choosing a ton to post here (but don’t worry, Erin … there are still many more for you to be surprised with when you get your disc in the mail very soon!). I’m going to cease the talking (typing?) now on this post and just leave you with the rest of these pictures of Finnegan and Penelope. We love and miss you here in Washington, Erin!
Sneak peek for the “W” family! I had so much fun on this shoot — this family laughed together practically the whole time. It was so endearing! More soon…
Here’s a sneak peek of a few Haleigh pictures for the “H” family. Haleigh’s Mom and I have been trying to get together to do pictures for a year now — and we were rained out once this year already too. I’m glad I finally got to meet the three of you! Haleigh was so fun to hang out with at the park. More from this session coming soon.
This is pretty much my favorite picture right now. It’s my desktop. I can’t stop staring at how beautiful our little girl is. And look at that attitude. She is definitely in the midst of the confidently-opinionated, uniquely-spirited TWOs (not terrible, our little munchkin could never be described with that word). My lovely little lady. My Nemma-Noo.
He’s mine. All mine. Well, and half my hubby’s. And part his sister’s. And part his grandparents’. But he’s mostly mine. Because I said so.
I just can’t get enough of him. My handsome Kasey is the best snuggler I’ve ever known and I definitely can’t get enough of that! Trying to soak it all up now because I know someday some other (wholesome, respectful, responsible, Jesus-loving) girl will snatch him up and want to make him her husband. Then SHE’LL get the best snuggles in the world whenever she wants. Yeah, I’m already thinking about that. So I snuggle him now pretty much all day long and try to memorize his sweetness. My sweet, sweet little boy. I love you, Bud.
Remember Baby Miles? He’s the firstborn to our good friends Bonnie and Owen. Here are more pictures from the shoot I did at his house just one week after Miles was born (four weeks early!). He was such a good baby during our session, so sleepy and snuggly. Because he was a preemie, we had to be very careful about keeping him warm and propped up properly. Miles did awesome with all of our poking and moving him around into different positions. Even though she and Owen opted to be surprised and didn’t find out the gender of their baby until his birthday, Bonnie knew from the beginning that she was having a little boy. Here are a few of the images I got when I visited them the first time (I came back a week or two later and did some pictures with Miles and his grandparents!).
Bonnie and Owen had a long nine months waiting for this little dude — Bonnie was on strict bedrest the entire last half of her pregnancy. Some weeks she was at Swedish Hospital, other weeks she was allowed to stay at home on the couch. Both Bonnie and Owen were so upbeat and excited and positive about Miles and were ready to do anything to keep their little one safe and growing strong. Bonnie has totally slipped into motherhood so easily. She is going to be such a fun mom to Miles!
Bonnie really wanted to capture Miles’ little kissy face. She’s said that he pursed his lips like this a lot in the first few weeks!
Okay, just had to slip this one in here. I have been so touched at how enthralled Owen is with babies. He is SUCH a sweet, caring dad! I had to bring Kasey with me during this session and before I even finished walking in their door, Owen was unstrapping Kasey out of his car seat. I literally hadn’t even put the car seat on the ground and Owen was trying to get at my boy. He just wanted to hold him and see how much bigger Kasey was than his Miles. According to Bonnie, Owen has been this enthusiastic about having children from the beginning of their marriage. I’ve never seen another one of my friends’ husbands be so eager to hold my son … it was very endearing. I peeked out of Miles’ nursery for a second and this is the scene I saw. Owen stood there just watching Kasey for several minutes. So sweet! I had to take a picture. I am so excited to watch BOTH Bonnie and Owen grow into parenthood. Love you guys!
Talk about one beautiful pregnant momma … this is Charlyn. And I can’t wait to share more from this maternity and family session. Charlyn’s gorgeous, inside and out. She’s got her first son in that cute belly of hers, who’s due to join the family currently consisting of hubby Doug and 2-year-old daughter Addelyn this August. More from this session coming soon.
Normally when I edit a client’s pictures, I go once through the entire line-up of images on my memory card without pause. I look at each one closely but don’t open up any to edit right away. Then I go through them a second time and choose the ones I want to edit for a blog post (my top favorites) and the ones I want to edit to put on the clients’ discs. I take anywhere from 150-400 images on a typical shoot and I’m not shy about sharing that a handful of them are tossed. The ones I toss right from the start are only tossed because they’re FOR SURE not images the client would want to own, due to normal human error on my part or just because the shot didn’t work (subjects were blinking, sitting awkwardly, car drives by in the background, etc.).
My clients have always thanked me for the large number of edited images they receive from me. I know so many photographers who only promise 20-some images from a typical shoot. At this point, the reason my editing time usually takes longer than I want it to is because I want to give my clients as MANY pictures as I can. I can’t imagine skimming by certain images only because I’ve already reached my quota for how many pictures I’ve promised for a particular price. Sometimes this kills me because it does take me a long time in post-production and I’m usually up late at night editing (since my 2-year-old and 4-month-old don’t really like me to spend hours on my laptop during the day). I’m still relatively new to this business and maybe my thinking about this is naive. I have to be honest and admit that at some point, my process may change. I may realize that to keep up, I just can’t offer so many images to each client. The quality, creativity and passion I put into each photography session will never change. But right now my work/life balance is a little … um, UN-balanced. Even so, I’m grateful and proud of the variety I try to offer to each client.
These images here are ones I originally passed over in my first go-around. These are from my session with little Baby Zoe (part I and part II). I didn’t discover these and choose to edit them until well after all the other Baby Zoe images were done and ready to be burned onto a disc for Zoe’s parents. I’m so glad I choose to go back to my original files one last time before I burn a disc for a client. If I hadn’t gone back through all my Zoe pictures last weekend before I considered this job complete, I would have missed these. They would have stayed on my business hard drive and probably never been seen by anyone but me.
It almost makes me gasp audibly to think that these pictures very nearly didn’t make “the final cut.” These images have become some of my very favorites from this session. This happens to me nearly every session. I edit my top favorites, several others I like and then consider myself done. I’m ready to burn the disc for the client and then I decide to take one last look at the file folder of pictures. And I find precious moments like these that I just can’t bear not giving to the client. Yes, this means that I take a little extra time in finishing up a project. Maybe that means I’m one of those people who make “perfect the enemy of the good” or whatever the phrase is.
But I just think it’s one of the things that makes me unique. I do not take this job lightly. I do not strive to get a million clients on the calendar every month. I truly care about each and every person who steps in front of my camera — who trusts me to capture their life in pictures for them. An engagement, a newborn, a baby’s first birthday, a new home, just an normal day … when someone inquires about photography, they’re doing it because they love their life and they don’t want to forget the most precious moments. Preserving memories beautifully and accurately is a huge responsibility to a photographer and I am grateful for every client I have who gives me this opportunity to step into their lives for a few hours.
So thank you to my clients, all of you, who have waited patiently for me to finish editing your images. I am learning how to balance my work with my home life as a mom, a wife, a keeper of the home. I will always do my best to give you quality work, images that reflect your life as it is right now. I’m honored to be serving you all in this very special way. Thank you for trusting me, for encouraging me and for inspiring me.
The photo challenge theme over at Iheartfaces this week is Play. With a toddler, I have hundreds of photos I could use for this challenge. But because I have a toddler AND an almost-4-month-old, I don’t have time to go through all my archives and pull out all my favorite laughing baby pictures that to me, say “Play!” So here’s one from earlier this year, from a beautiful February day. I seriously couldn’t narrow down my choices and took ALL DAY to decide between like 10 fun pictures of my girl. I settled on this one because, well, I just needed to decide. And I love it. I love the flower in her hand, Daddy’s hands reaching up toward her, the look on her face, her horizontal position in the air … and I just love her. So go check out Iheartfaces for other fun, “play” entries. Some of my favorite photogs are the judges this week! I LOVE Blue Lily’s work! The color in their photos is AMAZING. Check them out, too.
Erin, despite the days and days of rain the past week, the clouds today, the spit-up, the dog doo, the almost-running-out-into-traffic … we got some. And there’s plenty more where this came from. I love how they turned out and can’t wait to show you more. Thank you for tonight — it is yet another wonderful memory of you and your kids that I get to store away in my mind until you come back here two years from now. More coming soon, friend.
by Mandy McMahan
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