My Maternity Photos – Oliver

As a photographer, I’m used to always being behind the camera.  Most of the photos of Grayson and me are selfies taken with my iPhone.  So I was extremely happy that one of my friends was willing to take some maternity pictures for me to document my pregnancy with our second son, Oliver.  We used my camera so I could easily take the memory card home and edit the pictures myself.  Grayson cooperated for some of the photos, but he was more interested in walking through the crunchy leaves.  Still, I’m glad I have a few photos of him and me together while I’m pregnant with his little brother.  He still has no clue what’s going on, and the only interest he has in my large belly is poking my belly button.  Haha!

Unfortunately, Steve was not able to be in these photos because he has been working incredibly long hours getting our second retail store ready to open, but I’m hoping he’ll be able to take an hour or so off soon, so we can take a family photo for our Christmas cards.

The sun was just perfect, and the water on Old Hickory Lake was so calm it looked like glass.  I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful setting.

A Gift for Dad

With Christmas coming up, sometimes it can be hard to think of the perfect gift to give the dad in your life.  Whether it be the father of your children, or your own father, this gift would work for either.  I took these pictures and framed them for Steve last Father’s Day and he loved them!  I also did a version that said “Papa” for my dad, and I only had to swap out 2 letters!  Super easy and super sentimental!  Dad is sure to love it!

Grayson’s 15 Month Photos

It has been quite a while since I’ve taken any pictures of my son, Grayson, with my good DSLR camera instead of just my iPhone, so I decided that since he had just turned 15 months a week before, I’d take some photos of him at the park.

He started walking only a few short weeks ago, so he got to show off his new skill to some of the joggers on the path!  Of course he smiled his shy smile at every single person who passed by, as he always does.

It can be pretty hard to get good pictures of a fast moving baby, so I found this awesome stump for him to sit on.

After a few minutes he had had enough sitting and wanted to walk around again.

And since I don’t have many pictures of Grayson and me together, I attempted a selfie of us with my super heavy camera.  Let me tell you, that is no easy task!  And when I saw the result, I couldn’t help but laugh at Grayson’s fish face.

And in case any of you thought my photos always come out of my camera with perfect lighting, coloring, and blemish free, here is an example of why photographers charge what they do. The picture on the left is straight out of my camera, and the picture on the right is after 45 minutes of editing. I always spend this amount of time on each and every photo I provide for my clients. Just remember that even though it may seem like a lot of money just for pictures, you don’t know just how much time the photographer is spending on editing your photos. It’s not just the hour or two they spend with you during the session, it’s countless hours in front of the computer making sure each and every photo is perfect.